Sermones Duo Hactenius Inediti

Sermons of Saint Fulgentius, Hitherto Unpublished. Sermon One. On the Circumcision of the Lord. The mystery of the divine Incarnation, the excellent sacrament of our reconciliation, is by us celebrated and venerated with a yearly recurrence, so that the commemoration of so great a benefit may show what has been bestowed upon us unworthy ones, and may remind us of what we owe to such great glory. Therefore, brothers, the more we have heard that the Lord Jesus Christ was mercifully humbled for us, the more let us acknowledge him as ineffably glorious. For in this, the Only-begotten God clearly shows his insuperable love for us, in that for us he assumed the humility of true flesh and of a true death, not compelled by necessity, but taking pity out of his goodness. For what good had we done, brothers, that so great a benefit should be granted to us? What were our good merits, that the Only-begotten God should deign to become man, that the Most High should be humbled, that the undecaying bread of angels should be suckled at a woman's breasts, that the King of the ages should be subjected to insults for our sake, that eternal life should most patiently deign to die?

Attend, therefore, O man, to the condescension of such great kindness, so that you may humbly render the action of thanks. Know, however, that you render not honor but contumely to divine grace, if you begin to doubt the magnitude of such a great benefit. Rather, let us believe without any hesitation that all those things which we have heard concerning the humility and humanity of the Lord Savior are true. And therefore let us give thanks all the more, brothers, who, when we deserved punishment, received grace: by which grace it came about that while death is justly owed to the lost, life was freely given to the unworthy. For the humility of the most high Savior brought no detriment to Him, but conferred great increase upon us; it did not cast down the exalted, but raised up the fallen. For in order that the Son of God might fully accomplish the business of our redemption, He not only deigned that the creator of all flesh be naturally born from the flesh of the Virgin according to the truth of flesh, and that God the maker of man become a true man from man; but also that He be wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a very narrow manger, be circumcised on the eighth day, and be carried to His temple in human hands. O most merciful kindness of God! O exalted humility of the most high God! He who as an infant was nursed by His mother, who as the immense one created His mother for Himself. He who as a little child was carried by His parents to His temple, who as the great God was besought by holy men in that same temple.

And the same one who had come to be immolated without sin for our impieties commanded that a sacrifice be offered for himself. Consider, therefore, O man, what you owe to the one who is both exalted and humbled for you: exalted as your Creator, humbled as your Redeemer. Nevertheless, dearest ones, the integrity of the Christian faith has always been accustomed to hold this: that if we read or hear something done by Christ according to the canonical narrative of the Evangelists, we first believe without hesitation that the history is true, and then in the historical truth we also seek spiritual understanding. For when the divine text of history is believed to be true, the Manichaean is confounded in his severity: for while he does not believe in the truth of flesh in Christ the Son of God, he strives to impose the charge of falsehood upon the holy Scriptures, both old and new. For the wretch execrates the deifying history of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament he denies to himself the medicine. For he does not wish to believe that human flesh was fashioned by God, nor that circumcision of the flesh was commanded by God to our holy fathers, nor that a sacrifice of the flesh of animals was offered to the living and true God in ancient times, nor that the Sabbath was observed by God's command and will, nor that the Lord's temple was built at God's bidding. Thus, because he does not discern the quality of the times in the holy Scriptures, he scorns and despises the most salutary truth of the Lord's incarnation.

Wherefore, so that the Manichaean may be conquered and converted by the most evident reasoning—would that he were conquered!—let us, from today’s Gospel reading, defend the truth of the Old Testament, so that from this we may most manifestly prove that the God of the Old and New Testaments is one. Behold, as the holy Gospel narrates, we have learned that Christ the Son of God was truly circumcised, and that for Christ the Son of God a sacrifice of flesh was offered, according to the custom of the divine institution then in force. For both the circumcision of the flesh and the rule of fleshly sacrifices are known to have been instituted in the Old Testament. Why, therefore, most beloved, do you not believe most justly in the Old Testament—that man was fashioned by the hands of God—when in the New Testament, so that man might not perish eternally, the Only-begotten God Himself became a true man for us? Why is it not believed that God also commanded circumcision to be performed for the sake of signifying something at the appropriate time, when the Son of God caused it to be celebrated in His own body? Why, moreover, would our God not have commanded the Jewish people in past times to offer typical sacrifices of flesh, when the Only-begotten God Himself, born temporally from the Jews, deigned to be immolated in the flesh for our sins? Let the Manichaean, therefore, attend to the most manifest and most harmonious truth of both Testaments, and, once converted, let him cast aside his own vanity.

Let him see in the Old Testament the signification of future things, in the New the revelation of past things; and Christ, the God of both Testaments, in the Old Testament promising what he was about to present, in the New presenting what he had promised: neither a liar in the promise nor a deceiver in the gift; but everywhere good, everywhere just, everywhere holy, everywhere powerful, everywhere merciful: in the Old Testament the most powerful creator of flesh and soul, in the New the most merciful receiver of that same flesh and soul; and thus the savior first of flesh and then of soul. Let the Manichaean hear these things, compare, recognize, and believe, and believing, return to the Catholic Church, in which he may find the benefit of true salvation. Through these things, however, which the Lord performed while constituted in a body, he deigned not only to demonstrate the concord of both Testaments, but also wished to inform the morals of Christians in a salutary way: so that what we behold as having been done bodily for our salvation, we too may imitate spiritually. For Christ was born a little child on earth for this reason, that the Christian might learn humility. For this reason also he was subject to the parents of his flesh, that every Christian might always show honor to father and mother. Moreover, Christ was wrapped in cheap swaddling clothes so that the Christian might not take delight in costly garments.

Christ therefore wished to appear poor on earth, so that wealthy Christians might learn not to love earthly riches, but by giving alms to the poor, they could store up their riches in heaven. For this reason Christ, whose mind is not bounded by any breadth, was placed in a narrow manger, so that believers in him might have spiritual nourishment, and Christians might learn not to covet the houses or possessions of others. For what Christian, however ample his house or his own means may be, is not satisfied, when the narrowness of a small manger sufficed for Christ, the Son of God? Through the circumcision which the Son of God underwent in the flesh, he prefigured the spiritual circumcision of our hearts. This circumcision is enjoined upon us by the legal word, when Moses says: "Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be circumcised to your God" (Deut. 10:16). With this precept the blessed Apostle agrees, saying: "For he is not a Jew who is one in the open, nor is circumcision that which is manifest in the flesh; but he who is a Jew in secret, and circumcision of the heart in spirit, not in letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God" (Rom. 2:28-29). Therefore Christ had circumcision in the body, so that the Christian might have it spiritually in the heart. For this reason indeed he, who could have had no sin at all, laid aside the foreskin of the flesh, so that we might cast aside the desires of wickedness.

Christ therefore was carried in the hands to the temple, so that the Christian might ascend to heaven by good works. Christ wished a sacrifice to be offered for himself, so that the Christian might offer himself at the altar of the Lord. Above all, let him hasten to offer himself by living well. But if he delights in presenting a material sacrifice to the divine gaze, we recognize that a certain spiritual sacrifice is also indicated to us by the very kind of that sacrifice: a pair of turtledoves, he says, and two young pigeons (Luke 2:28). In this kind of bird, dearly beloved brothers, a great sacrament of the catholic faith is commended to you. For in the dove, charity is recognized; in the turtledove, chastity is found. For the turtledove keeps unblemished fidelity to one mate; the dove, however, does not abandon the unity of others dwelling together. Therefore, the catholic Christian truly emerges as a spiritual turtledove if he preserves the true faith of the Trinity with firm belief and rejects the sense of heretical depravity as the defilements of fornication. Then he will be a dove if he perseveres patiently to the end in catholic society and persists with unshaken firmness against temptations and scandals: so that neither heretical fornication corrupts the chastity of faith in the heart, nor bitter dissension abandons the unity of ecclesiastical chastity. For this is the legitimate Church, which keeps faith with one God as with a legitimate husband, and multiplies the congregation of children in charity.

In this turtle-dove and dove, most beloved brothers, remain steadfastly; guard it with all your vows, so that neither the Arian may violate it, nor the Donatist trample it, nor the Manichaean defile it. For they, like evil hawks, desire to scatter the unity of the dove and to violate the chastity of the turtle-dove. For the Manichaean does not believe in true flesh in Christ, the Arian diminishes the true divinity in him, and the Donatist likewise scatters the unity of the Catholic body. The Manichaean does not see the sacrament of the Redeemer, the Arian does not contemplate the greatness of the Savior, while the Donatist, like a ravenous wolf, has not hesitated to scatter the flock of the Good Shepherd. Therefore, if (perhaps these), as I have said, like evil hawks, pursuing those wretched and desirous of vanity, or ignorant of truth, eager to kill, they persecute the charity of the dove, they execrate the chastity of the turtle-dove, and if they can, they either devour with their mouth or tear with their claws. You, therefore, most holy brothers, guard the Catholic truth in faith, preserve the Catholic peace in charity.

He offers a sacrifice pleasing to God who, with fraternal charity, has preserved the true sacrament of the Catholic faith. There, one God, one Trinity is worshipped; neither is the Father greater than the Son, nor is the Son proclaimed lesser than the Father according to divinity; nor is the substance of the Holy Spirit separated from them, who is naturally one God with the Father and the Son. For the power of the holy Trinity is one, because in three persons one natural substance remains; the power is one, because the majesty is one; the eternity is one, because the divinity is one; the dominion over creatures is one, because the condition of the creature is one. Whatever the Father created, He fashioned through the Son and confirmed in the Holy Spirit. The Son, however, was born from the begetter; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the one who remains. Yet the Son did not divide the Father by being born, nor did the Spirit diminish God by proceeding, because He does not increase by inheriting. Therefore, the Son is not diminished by being born, nor is the Spirit separated by proceeding. For that blessed Trinity remains, because substantial unity remains there; and since there is nothing created in the divinity of the Trinity, therefore there is nothing at all separated there.

Hold fast to these things, most beloved brothers, and persevere in them always. Let this be the thought in your heart and the confession on your lips. Hold the faith which you have received in the name of the Trinity. Preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, of the turtledove, and of the dove, so that you may always be spiritual in the house of God. May He Himself deign to grant this, who lives and reigns as God with the Father and the Son. SERMON II (as it is found in the manuscript, albeit with a doubtful title). On the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 1. If the festivity of this day is carefully considered by the faithful, they should undertake to celebrate it with that same devotion with which they have followed the solemnities of the Lord's Nativity, Circumcision, and Epiphany. For this solemnity belongs to the same one as those do, nor is this one lesser than those. This we will certainly show with clear proofs in this sermon. For the solemnity of this day, just as it is unknown to some Christians, so is it held in greater honor by many than the other solemnities of the year. Especially, however, in that place where the Catholic Church has obtained a primate in its Pastor, it is held in such reverence by them that on that day the entire crowd of the city, gathered together and gleaming with the immense lights of candles, concelebrates the solemnities of the Masses; and no one enters the public station who does not hold a light in his hand, as if, of course, they are about to offer the Lord in the temple, or rather even to receive Him, demonstrating outwardly by the religion of their offering the light of faith with which they inwardly shine.

Today, indeed, according to the Law and the Gospel, forty days after the Nativity of Christ, the same Lord is presented in the temple by His parents. Today He is received by the holy Simeon and offered to the Father together with sacred gifts. Today He is publicly proclaimed by the same Simeon and Anna to those awaiting the redemption of Israel. What a pious spectacle, by which only the pious are proven to be delighted! Here stands the Virgin and Mother, not of any man, but of God; here is received the little son of the Virgin, whose divinity the world cannot contain. Prophets come forth from this side and that, and each sex prophesies concerning the boy. An offering is made for the boy, not, however, one that cleanses sins, but one that adorns the sacraments. And because I desire to extol the proclamation of this day, it pleases me to run through the very Gospel reading in a conversational manner, in which I recognize these things are narrated: so that it may respond to what I say; or rather, so that the voice of my exhortation may respond to what it narrates.

Finally, Luke the Evangelist, pursuing the history of the truth concerning Christ’s incarnation more fully and methodically than the other evangelists, after the annunciation made to him by the angel, after the nativity declared by the voices of angels, after the circumcision on the eighth day in the home of his parents, follows these in order, saying: “And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord; as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’” (Luke 2:22-23). It is clear to all the faithful that the Redeemer’s mother contracted no stain from his nativity, on account of which she would be purified by abstaining from sacred places for those days. For she gave birth as a virgin without human concupiscence, without any corruption of the flesh, and remained a virgin without end; and by this, neither did the male born from her open her womb. But neither does the evangelist, weaving the narrative, close the impious from the sacrament of the divine incarnation, and he introduces the mother as observing the law. But it is no wonder if the mother observed the law which her Son had not come to dissolve, but to fulfill. For she knew by what order she had conceived, and who it was she had borne. But observing the common law, she awaited the day of purification, she concealed the majesty of her son. Hence it is that, finding him in the temple at twelve years of age, she calls him the son of Joseph, saying: “Son, what have you done to us thus?

Behold, your father and I, grieving, were seeking you (ibid., 48). She whom, without any doubt, she knew she had conceived without Joseph’s lying with her, and had brought forth without violation of her virginity. But why does she conceal the mystery of that conception and nativity, she who knows him to be the immense God? Does she perhaps begrudge others, she who, carrying him to the temple, entrusted him to the hands of the holy elder? Far from it. But, filled with the spirit of prophecy, she would not reveal the redemption of the world to the impious. For she knew, even then, full of grace and inspired by the spirit of divinity, that if the princes of this age had known him, they would never have crucified him for our salvation. Therefore, offer, most blessed Virgin, as one observing the law, in the temple, him whom you have brought forth, so that it may be revealed not to all, but to a few, who it is that you have borne. Let him, for the time being, appear as a lowly stone, hewn from the mountain without hands, so that he may be rejected by the builders, until, striking with his feet, he grows into a great mountain and fills the whole orb of the earth.

How small, O how great is the one you have borne! Small in his humanity, great in his divinity; small in the kingdom of the Jews, great in the kingdom of the nations. Yet he is not considered small by all in the kingdom of the Jews. For you yourself, who gave birth to him, grew from that same people of Israel into a rod. For you rose up from the root of Jesse, and you blossomed. You put forth leaves as the rod of Aaron, and you bore a nut: and because you recognized his immeasurability above all, yet saw him as the very smallest born from you; without doubt, you trembled in adoration and adored in trembling the one whom you bore as an infant, God omnipotent: whom, nevertheless, because you acknowledged him as a son according to his humanity, you nursed, cherished, and nourished. Who, do you think, could reveal to us the feeling of your heart amidst such services, O most blessed Virgin? On the one hand, you saw the tiny infant born from you; on the other, you beheld the immense God; on the one hand, a creature; on the other, the creator; on the one hand, weak; on the other, most strong; on the one hand, needing to be fed; on the other, the one who feeds; on the one hand, not speaking; on the other, teaching angels. Who, I ask, could unlock for us the secrets of your breast, by what means you turned your thought to both; when, holding the one and same son of God and man in your hands, on the one hand you adored him as Lord, on the other you kissed him as a little one?

Who would not be astounded at such an ineffable miracle? Who would not become nearly speechless? A girl gives birth to her own creator and the creator of all, nourishes her own nourisher and the nourisher of all, carries to the temple her own ruler and the ruler of all. A wondrous spectacle, at which not only human but even angelic nature stands amazed! To this, dearest brothers, lift your eyes; to this, gather with an affection of piety. There, receive Christ humbled in the flesh for you, but adore him as God exalted in his divinity. Embrace the little one, but contemplate the immense one. Love the humbled one, and fear the exalted one. Now, beloved, if it is asked what was mystically signified in the fact that our Redeemer wished to be carried by his mother and relatives from his own city to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, we find that the glorious mother and virgin herself, and her relatives, bore the figure of that Church which believed among the Jews in the apostles. For when is the Church not a virgin? Whose members the Apostle addresses, saying: "I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). When is she not a mother? But because it is said by the Psalmist: "Mother Zion, says a man" (Ps. 86:5); and the Lord in the Gospel: "Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, that one is my brother, sister, and mother" (Matt. 12:50). When are the elect not relatives, who are called brothers and sisters?

Therefore, the mother and relatives of our Redeemer bring him from Nazareth to Jerusalem, to the temple of the Lord, because that primitive Church, among the first disciples, repulsed by the Jews, brought the dispensation of that same redemption to the knowledge of the Gentiles. For that Church is rightly called not only from the Gentiles, but also from the Jews, Jerusalem, that is, Vision of Peace, concerning which it is said through the Psalmist: Jerusalem, which is built as a city, whose participation is in itself (Ps. 121:3). It is also the temple, as is said through Paul to the faithful: The temple of the Lord is holy, which you are (1 Cor. 3:17). And through this, when the apostles and Judea, announcing Christ, come to the Gentiles, surely Jerusalem meets with Jerusalem, and temple encounters temple, since all these are one city, Jerusalem, and one temple. In this city, therefore, and in this temple, Christ, offered by the apostles, is received. Whence the Church itself speaks with the voice of the Psalmist, saying: We have received, O God, your mercy in the midst of your temple (Ps. 47:10). That is to say, in the midst of the Church, which is your temple.

Whether according to the historical or the mystical understanding, the reason why Christ is brought by his parents to the holy city and the temple is made clear when it is added: “To offer a sacrifice, according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:24). For there had been a precept of the law that if a lamb were lacking to someone, and he had found one of these, that is, either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, he should offer them to God in the offering of his son; nor should anyone be prejudiced by the other who had offered whichever one of these. Finally, in this offering of birds, that offering was prefigured which was made for the salvation of the world in the evening of the day, namely, the passion of the Lord, through which we are reconciled to God. For concerning this sacrifice, it is said to the faithful through Paul: “Walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God, in the odor of sweetness” (Ephesians 5:2); and again: “Who loved me,” he says, “and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

But because all the elect are members of Christ—that is, turtledoves among turtledoves, and doves among doves—this offering of birds also signifies the mortification of the elect, to whom the same apostle says: "I beseech you by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies as a living, holy, and God-pleasing sacrifice" (Rom. 12:1). But no offering of mortification can be acceptable to God in those in whom there is not the chastity of true faith and the harmony of true chastity. Hence it is not without reason that the sacrifice which is said to have been mystically offered for the Lord is reported to have consisted of turtledoves and doves. For in the turtledove chastity is found, and in the dove unity is commended. The turtledove, indeed, keeps inviolate faith to one mate, while the dove does not abandon the unity of those dwelling together. Therefore, a Catholic Christian truly becomes a spiritual turtledove if he preserves the true faith of the Trinity with firm belief and rejects the sense of heretical depravity as the defilements of fornication. He will truly be a dove if he perseveres with long-suffering patience to the end in Catholic society and persists with immovable steadfastness against the scandals of temptation: so that neither heretical fornication corrupts the chastity of faith in his heart, nor bitter dissension destroys the unity of ecclesiastical chastity. For this is the Catholic Church, which preserves faith to one Lord as to a lawful husband and multiplies the congregation of many in faith.

It continues: "And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was just and God-fearing, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was in him; and he had received an answer from the Holy Spirit that he would not see death unless he saw the Christ of the Lord. And he came in the Spirit into the temple" (Luke 2:25, 26, 27). No less is ascribed to the sanctity of this particular man, who is said to have dwelt in Jerusalem, that is, in the vision of peace, and to have been just by the operation of faith, God-fearing by reverence, attentive to the consolation of Israel, filled with the Holy Spirit, and strengthened by His response concerning the mission of the incarnate Word. With how burning a desire did this man await, according to the promise of the Holy Spirit, to see the Redeemer in the flesh! What do we think was the persistence of his prayer, which merited to be confirmed by a divine response concerning the things he sought? What were the continuous words of his groans in holy preaching? For he did not cease in his asking until he received an answer concerning the things for which he was praying.

Indeed, in times past there were many kindled with a similar desire, as the Lord attests to his disciples, who says: "Many kings and prophets wished to see what you see, and did not see; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear" (Luke 10:24). But among them, this was granted only to those who appeared last in the fullness of time. Yet if with vigilant attention we consider the desire of the subsequent saints, for whom Christ is life and death is gain (Philippians 1:21), we find them burning with no less ardor to behold the divinity of the same Savior than he desired to see him in the flesh. Hence Paul says: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Much better" (Ibid., 23). Hence the Psalmist says in his own person: "My soul thirsts for the living God. When shall I come and appear before the face of God?" (Psalm 41:3). Who, then, can fail to see in this one Simeon many, and through the one, all the elect signified, who are now found to be just by faith and works, and fearful from future expectation, and astonished from the coming consolation? In them the Holy Spirit is also known to be present, because through the Apostle it is said: "The love of God is spread abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who is given to us" (Romans 5:5); and again it is said to the faithful: "Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God" (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Some receive a response from the Holy Spirit that they will not see death unless they first see the Christ of the Lord: because in this still corruptible life, with the grace of the same Holy Spirit revealing, with the opened eyes of faith, they behold him who promised that he would remain with them until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20), no longer a small child in flesh, but immense in divinity. They also say with the Apostle: "Even if we knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him" (2 Corinthians 5:16). These also dwell in Jerusalem, and in spirit they come into the temple into which Christ is brought. For they themselves are Jerusalem who dwell in Jerusalem: they themselves are both the temple and those who come into the temple, in whom and by whom Christ is received. Briefly, brothers, we have run through these matters, lest while we have striven to indicate what are the sacraments of this day and what holy and pure proclamation, we become tedious to anyone. It follows: "And when his parents brought the boy Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he himself took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: 'Now you dismiss your servant, Lord, according to your word, in peace'" (Luke 2:27, 28, 29). Who lives, etc.