point, and see if we are capable of saying something fitting and suitable, not
SERMON 188
ON CHRISTMAS DAY
Date: uncertain1
Small wonder if we human beings cannot explain in words the Word through which all things were made
1. If we were really to make the effort to praise the Son of God just as he is with the Father, equal to him and coetemal; the one in whom all things were established in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible; the Word of God, and God, the life and light of the human race; then it's small wonder that no human thoughts, no words would be adequate. After all, how can our tongues have the capacity fittingly to praise one whom our hearts still lack the capacity to see, our hearts in which he put the eyes that he could be seen with if they were purged of their iniquity and healed of their infirmity, and blessed would be the pure of heart, because they shall see God?2 It's small wonder, I repeat, that we cannot fmd the words with which to speak the one Word, by which it was decreed that we should be, and that we should speak something about him.
These words, you see, that we think and utter are formulated by our minds; but our minds are formulated by that Word.3 Nor do we make words in the same sort of way as we ourselves were made through the Word; because neither did the Father beget the one and only Word in the same way as all things were made through the Word. God certainly begot God; but begetter and begotten are together one God. On the other hand, God made the world; the world passes away, God remains. And just as the things that were made did not, of course, make themselves; so also the one through whom they could all be made,4 was not made by anyone. Small wonder therefore, if we human beings, who are among all the things that were made, cannot explain in words the Word through which all things were made.
The eternal day
2. So for a few moments let us direct our ears and thoughts to this following point, and see if we are capable of saying something fitting and suitable, not exactly on the subject of In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with