Opusculum IIII Sive Sermo In Circumcisione Domini

FOURTH OPUSCULUM, OR A SERMON ON THE CIRCUMCISION OF THE LORD. The mystery of the divine Incarnation and the eminent sacrament of our remembrance is celebrated and honored by us with an annual recurrence, so that it may display the commemoration of so great a benefit which was bestowed upon us unworthy ones, and remind us of what we owe to such great glory. Therefore, brothers, to the extent that we have heard the Lord Jesus Christ mercifully humbled for us, let us so much the more acknowledge him as ineffably glorious, in whom indeed the only-begotten of God clearly showed his unconquerable love for us, in which he, moved not by necessity but by compassionate goodness, assumed for us the humility of true flesh and true death. 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 of God should deign to become man, that the Most High should be sacrificed, that the inexhaustible bread of angels should be suckled at womanly breasts, that the king of the ages should be afflicted with insults, 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 thanks. Know, however, that you are rendering not honor but insult to divine grace if you begin to doubt the magnitude of so great a benefit; rather, let us believe without any hesitation that all those things which we have heard concerning the humility and humanity of the Lord and 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 was owed to the lost, life was freely given to the unworthy. For the humility of the most high Savior brought no loss to him, but conferred great increase upon us; it did not cast down the exalted, but raised up the lowly. So that the Son of God, full of grace, might accomplish the work of our redemption, the Creator of all flesh not only deigned to be born naturally from the flesh of a Virgin according to the truth of flesh, and God, the maker of man, to become a true man from a man, but also to be wrapped in swaddling clothes in a very narrow manger, and to be carried in human arms. O the glorious kindness of the most merciful God, O the exalted humility of the most high God! He, an infant, was nursed by a mother, while he, the immense one, had created that mother for himself; he, a little child, was carried by his parents into his own temple, while he, the great God, was invoked by holy men in that same temple; and he commanded that a sacrifice be offered for himself, while he, without sin, had come to be immolated for our impieties. Consider, therefore, O man, what you owe to your exalted Creator, to your humiliated Redeemer. Nevertheless, dearest ones, the integrity of the Christian faith has always been accustomed to hold this: that if we read or hear anything done by Christ according to the canonical narrative of the Evangelists, we first believe without doubt that the history is true, and then in the historical truth we also seek a spiritual understanding.

For when the text of divine history is believed to be true, Manichaeus is confounded in his severity, who, while he does not believe in the truth of the flesh in Christ the Son of God, strives to impose the charge of falsehood upon the holy scriptures, both old and new. For when the wretch execrates the deifying history of the Old Testament, in the New Testament he denies to himself any medicine whatsoever. For he does not wish to believe that human flesh was fashioned by God, nor that circumcision of the flesh was commanded by our God to the 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; and thus, while 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. Therefore, so that Manichaeus may be overcome by the most evident reasoning, and, once overcome, may he be converted, let us defend the truth of the Old Testament from today’s Gospel reading, so that from this we may most manifestly prove the one God of both the Old and the New. Behold, from the holy evangelist’s account we have learned that Christ the Son of God was born a true man, that Christ the Son of God was truly circumcised, that a sacrifice of flesh was offered for Christ the Son of God according to the custom of divine institution at that time; whether the circumcision of the flesh or the rule of fleshly sacrifices is recognized as having been instituted in the Old Testament.

Why, then, dearest brethren, should it not be most justly believed in the Old Testament that man was fashioned by the hands of God, when in the New Testament, lest man himself perish forever, the only-begotten Son of God was made a true man for us? Why should it not be believed that God commanded the circumcision of the flesh to be performed at a fitting time for the sake of signifying something, when the Son of God caused it to be celebrated in His own body? Why, moreover, should not our God in past time have commanded the Jewish people to offer typical sacrifices of flesh, when God the only-begotten Himself, born temporally from among the Jews, deigned to immolate Himself according to the flesh for our sins? Let the Manichaean, therefore, attend to the most manifest and most harmonious truth of both Testaments, and, converted, let him cast aside his own vanity. Let him see in the Old Testament the signification of things to come, in the New the revelation of things past; and Christ, the God of both Testaments, in the Old Testament promising what He was about to exhibit, in the New exhibiting what He had promised—neither false in His promise nor deceitful in His gift, but everywhere good, everywhere just, everywhere holy, everywhere powerful, everywhere merciful. In the Old Testament, the most powerful Creator of flesh and of the human soul; in the New, the most merciful Taker-up of that same flesh and soul; and, as it were, first the Maker of flesh and soul, afterwards the Saviour of flesh and soul.

Let the Manichaean hear this, compare, recognize, and believe, and, believing, return to the Catholic Church, in which he may find the benefit of true salvation. Through these things, moreover, which the Lord performed while established in a body, He deigned not only to demonstrate the harmony of both Testaments, but also wished to instruct the morals of Christians in a salutary manner, so that what we behold in Him as performed corporeally for our salvation, we also might 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 his father and mother. For this reason Christ was wrapped in cheap swaddling clothes, that the Christian might not take pride in costly garments; for this reason indeed Christ wished to appear poor on earth, that rich Christians might learn not to love earthly riches, but, by distributing alms to the poor, might be able to store up their riches in heaven. Through the circumcision, moreover, which the Son of God underwent in the flesh, He prefigured the circumcision of our hearts in the spirit, a circumcision which the legal word enjoins upon us, when Moses says: “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be circumcised for your Lord God.

This precept is in harmony with what the blessed Apostle Paul says: "For not he who is a Jew in the manifest, nor that which is a circumcision of the flesh in the manifest, but he who is a Jew in secret, and a circumcision of the heart in spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." 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 no sin at all laid aside the foreskin of the flesh, so that we might cast aside the desires of depravity. Christ, then, was carried in hands to the temple, so that the Christian might ascend to heaven by good works. Christ wished to offer a sacrifice for himself, so that the Christian might offer himself at the altar of the Lord; but above all, let him hasten to offer himself to God by living well, and take care to present himself as a pure sacrifice to the divine gaze; for in the sacrifice offered for Christ, we recognize that a certain spiritual sacrifice is indicated to us. "A pair of turtle doves," it says, "and two young pigeons." In this kind of bird, dearest brothers, a great sacrament of the Catholic faith is commended to us; for in the dove charity is recognized, and in the turtle dove chastity is found. For the turtle dove preserves inviolate fidelity to one mate, while the dove does not abandon the unity of those dwelling together. The Christian, therefore, then truly becomes a spiritual turtle dove if he preserves the true faith of the Trinity with firm belief, and repudiates the sense of heretical depravity as the defilements of fornication.

Then indeed will it be a dove if it remains steadfastly until the end in catholic society, and stands with immovable firmness against the scandals of temptation, so that neither heretical fornication corrupts the chastity of faith in the heart, nor bitter dissension dissipates the unity of ecclesiastical charity; for this is the catholic Church, which reserves faith for the one God as for a lawful husband, and multiplies the congregation of many in charity. In this turtle-dove and dove, most beloved brothers, remain diligently, preserve this charity for all of you, so that neither the Arian violates it, nor the Donatist tramples it, nor the Manichaean defiles it: for these, 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 the true flesh in Christ; the Arian diminishes the true divinity in him; the Donatist, however, 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 rapacious wolf, does not hesitate to scatter the good flock of the shepherd. Therefore, as I have said, like evil hawks, they pursue the charity of the dove, they execrate the chastity of the turtle-dove, and those whom they can they either devour with their beak or tear with their claws, that is, they either deprave with their words or torment with their persecutions.

Therefore, most beloved brothers, guard the catholic truth in faith, preserve the catholic peace in charity; for that person offers a sacrifice pleasing to God who has kept both fraternal charity and the true sacrament of the catholic faith, where one God, one Trinity is worshipped, and the Father is not greater than the Son, nor is the Son proclaimed lesser than the Father according to divinity, nor is the substance of the Holy Spirit distinguished 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 dominion of the Creator 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. Moreover, the Son 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 adhering, since the Son was not diminished by being born, nor was the Holy Spirit separated by proceeding, for that blessed Trinity remains in itself, because unity substantially abides there; and since nothing in the divinity of the Trinity is created, therefore nothing there is separated at all. Hold these things faithfully, most beloved brothers, and persevere in them continually. Let this be the thought in your heart, this the confession on your lips.

Hold fast to the faith which you have received in the name of the Trinity, preserve the unity of spirit in the bond of peace, so that you may always be able to be turtledoves and doves spiritually in the house of God.