or religious babyhood is not a state to remain in.
SERMON 225 251
2.1 think he means the gospel in the text he has just quoted: Christ was talking as a man, not an angel. But this hardly meets the possibility that before becoming man he had been an angel. So his implicit assumption in this reasoning may be that the name "Christ" says divinity. That is indeed his usual assumption; an incorrect one in fact.
3. He is here directly contradicting the Arian slogan about the Word, the Son: 'There was a time when he was not."
4. He is not making himself very clear; but he is working up, it seems, to naming the incarnation as the great work, equal in greatness to the creation, from which the Holy Spirit must not be sepa¬ rated, in which indeed he is supremely involved. The angels are introduced in the middle, to indicate how great a work the incarnation is.
5. Luke's account nowhere mentions Mary being astonished. Augustine reads it into her ques¬ tion.
6. A little burlesque irony at his own expense: not even he, the great, learned, famous bishop, speaking to these raw, newly baptized, largely illiterate Christians—not even he understands.
7. It's really rather odd that in offering this "proof text" of spiritual intoxication, he leaves out the first line of verse 8, which actually says in his version they will be intoxicated by/get drunk on the richness of your house.
8. A rhyming jingle in the Latin: ipse tibi lucet, et ad se te ducet. 9. Alluding to their present title of infantes—but very definitely telling them and us that spiritual or religious babyhood is not a state to remain in.
SERMON 226
ON EASTER DAY TO THE PEOPLE AND THE INFANTES
Date: 416-4171
The infantes are the day which the Lord has made, in which we are to rejoice
You have heard the Lord Christ proclaimed in such a way, that in the beginning he was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1: l).2 That, you see, is the Lord Christ, and if he had not humbled himself, but had decided always to remain like that, mankind would have perished. We recognize him as the Word of God with God, we recognize him as the only-begotten Son equal to the Father, we recognize him as light from light, day from day. He is the day who made the day; himself not made, but begotten by the day. So if he is day from day, not made but begotten, what is the day which the Lord has made? Why day in any case? Because it is light: And God called the light day. Let us look for the day which the Lord has made, and let us exult and be joyful in it (Ps 118:24).
In the original foundation of the world we read that darkness was upon the deep, and the Spirit of God was skimming over the water. And God said, Let light be made; and light was made. And God divided between the light and the darkness; and he called the light day, and the darkness he called night (Gn
1:2-5). There you have the day which the Lord has made. But that's not the one, is it, in which we should exult and be joyful? There's another day which the Lord has made, which we ought rather to acknowledge as the one in which to exult and be joyful; since the faithful who believe in Christ have been told, You are the light of the world (Mt 5:14). If light, then of course also day, because he called the light day.
Yesterday here too the Spirit of God was skimming over the water, and darkness was upon the deep, when these infantes were still carrying their sins. So when their sins were forgiven them through the Spirit of God,3 that's when God said, Let light be made; and light was made. There they are, the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and be joyful in it.4 Let me address this day in the words of the apostle: You there, day which the Lord has made, You were once darkness; but now light in the Lord. You were once, he says, darkness.