was not preached in Hippo Regius. It deals with the mystery of the incarnation in theological lan¬
26 SAINT AUGUSTINE - SERMONS man, how is it that God sent his Son, made of a woman (Gal 4:4)? This word, by the way, according to Hebrew usage, does not deny the honor of virginity, but simply indicates the sex of femininity.7 Who, after all, was sent by the Father, but the only-begotten Son of God?
Bom of the Father without any time-measured day, bom of his mother on this day; this day, I mean, which he created, on which he chose to be created, just as he was made of a mother whom he made. Because this very day, from which the daytime from now on receives an increase of light, represents the work of Christ, by whom our inner self is being renewed from day to day (2 Cor 4:16). It was indeed proper for the creator, when created in time, to have that day as his birthday which marked creation as bound by time.8
NOTES
1. Some date the sermon more precisely to 411 or 412. Again there is no reason to suppose it was not preached in Hippo Regius. It deals with the mystery of the incarnation in theological lan¬ guage that looks forward to the Council of Chalcedon in 451. This possibly favors the later date. On the other hand, the christological mystery was already a matter of controversy between the rival schools of Antioch and Alexandria at the turn of the century, and Augustine as a well-informed bishop and theologian would have known all about it by 400.
2. The connection of 25 December, the winter solstice in those centuries, when the days begin once more to lengthen, with a pagan festival in honor of the Unconquered Sun, Sol Invictus, was still very fresh in people's minds.
3. He here voices the orthodox objection to the Nestorian position that Mary was not the mother of God, Theotokos or God-bearer, but the mother simply of the man Jesus, the son of man.
4. See Phil 2:7.
5. See Jn 14:28; 10:30. 6. Paul is referring to himself.
7. A point Augustine invariably makes when he quotes this text. Clearly, at least in the Latin Africa of that time, to be a mulier meant not to be a virgo. Perhaps, like Spanish mujer and Italian moglie, it was coming more and more also to mean "wfre."
8. A rather labored conceit, whose antitheses look a little better in Latin. It adds nothing to the suitability of Christmas falling on or just after the winter solstice—in the northern hemisphere of course, and temperate climes. In the tropics and the southern hemisphere one has to think of other proprieties for Christmas falling in mid-summer, or the middle of the wet—or dry—season, as the case may be. And because of this more Catholic or universal experience of Christianity in different regions of the globe, one has to differ from Augustine's assumption that God chose that particular day on which to be bom; instead to rest happily with the knowledge that the Church came to choose it as the day on which to celebrate his birth. It is not a matter of divine revelation, not a dogmatic fact.