married woman the creator of marriage, a virgin the chief of virgins; Mary who
32 SAINT A UGUSTINE - SERMONS
God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1); but on the subject of the Word became flesh; see if perhaps we can say by what means he dwelt among us (Jn 1:14); see if perhaps there is something sayable at the point where he willed to be visible. That, after all, is the reason why we are celebrating this day on which he saw fit to be bom of the virgin, a begetting of his which he certainly had men tell the tale of; as for that eternity in which as God he was bom of God, his begetting, who shall tell the tale of? (Is 53:8). There the day is not one to be annually and solemnly celebrated; after all, it doesn't pass and return with the yearly round, but abides without any sunset, because it didn't begin with a sunrise.
So that one and only Word of God, that life, that light of men (Jn 1:4), is indeed the eternal day; while this day, on which he was joined together to human flesh and became like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber (Ps 19:5), is now today and tomorrow will become yesterday. Nevertheless this day brings to our notice the eternal day bom of the virgin, because the eternal day bom of the virgin has consecrated this day.
What praises, then, should we be singing to God's love, what thanks should we be expressing! I mean, he loved us so much that for our sake he came to be in time, though all times were made through him; and he was prepared to be younger in age than many of his servants in the world, though he is older in eternity than all the world. He loved us so much that he became man though he had made man; that he was created from a mother whom he had created, carried in arms he had fashioned, sucked breasts which he himself filled; that he lay squalling in a manger wordless in infancy, though he is the Word without whom human eloquence would be at a loss for words.
The only thing which could lift you up was divine humility
3. Observe, O man, what God became for you; acknowledge the teaching of such incalculable humility, even coming from a teacher not yet able to speak. You, once upon a time in paradise, were so fluent that you gave names to every living, animate, creature;5 yet for your sake your Creator was lying there, a speechless infant, and didn't even call his mother by her name. You there, in the broad acres of groves of fruit trees, lost yourself by neglecting obedience; he out of obedience came as a mortal to a cramped and crowded lodging house, in order by dying to look for you who were dead. You, though you were a man, wished to be God,6 and so got lost; he, though he was God, wished to be a man' and so find what had been lost. Human pride pressed down on you so heavily, that the only thing which could lift you up was divine humility.
The virgin holy Church
4. So let us celebrate with joy the day on which Mary bore the Savior, a married woman the creator of marriage, a virgin the chief of virgins; Mary who both had been given to a husband, and was a mother not by her husband;7 a