Augustine, Sermones 195-209 (Classis II, de Tempore)

(Eph. 2:11–22), so that in the One we may love unity; and for gathering in the branches which, though grafted in even from the wild olive, were broken off through pride and have become heretics, since God is able to graft them in again (Rom. 11:17–24), let us have untiring charity.

Sermon 201. On the Epiphany of the Lord, 3.

Chapter One. — 1. The manifestation of Christ made to the Gentiles. The star the tongue of heaven. A very few days ago we celebrated the Birthday of the Lord; on today's date we celebrate, with a solemnity no less due, the manifestation by which He began to be manifested to the Gentiles. On that day the Jewish shepherds saw Him born; today the Magi, coming from the East, worshipped Him. For there had been born that corner-stone, the peace of the two walls coming from the circumcision and the foreskin, from no small difference; that they might be joined in Him Who has become our peace and has made both one (Eph. 2:11–22). This was prefigured in the shepherds of the Jews and in the Magi of the Gentiles. From there began what was to bear fruit and grow in the whole world. Let us therefore hold these two days, of the Nativity and of the Manifestation of our Lord, most dear with spiritual joy. The Jewish shepherds were led to Him by an angel announcing, the Gentile Magi by a star pointing the way. This star confounded the vain calculations and divinations of the astrologers, since it showed to the worshippers of stars that the Creator of heaven and earth was rather to be worshipped. For He Himself, being born, made known a new star, Who, being slain, darkened the ancient sun. By that light the faith of the Gentiles was begun; by that darkness the faithlessness of the Jews was accused. What was that star, which neither ever appeared among the heavenly bodies before, nor afterwards remained to be pointed out? What was it, but a magnificent tongue of heaven, to tell the glory of God, to proclaim with an unwonted brightness the unwonted childbearing of a virgin, and to be succeeded, when it no longer appeared, by the Gospel throughout the whole world? What, finally, did the Magi say when they came? Where is He Who is born King of the Jews? What is this? Had not so many kings of the Jews been born before? Why did they so greatly desire to know and to worship the king of a foreign nation? For we have seen, they say, His star in the East, and have come to worship Him (Matt. 2:2). Would they have sought this with such devotion, longed for it with such affection of piety, unless they recognized Him as King of the Jews Who is also King of the ages?

Chapter II. — 2. In Pilate and the Magi are signified the Gentiles to be gathered from the East and the West. Hence Pilate too was certainly breathed upon by some breeze of truth when, at His passion, he wrote the title King of the Jews, which the Jews, themselves in error, tried to correct. To them he answered, What I have written, I have written (John 19:19–22); because it had been foretold in the Psalm, Do not corrupt the inscription of the title (Ps. 56:1). Let us therefore take note of this great and wonderful mystery. The Magi were of

the Gentiles, and Pilate himself too was of the Gentiles: they saw the star in the heaven, he wrote the title upon the wood; yet both were either seeking or acknowledging not the king of the Gentiles, but of the Jews. But the Jews themselves neither followed the star nor assented to the title. Already, therefore, there was being foreshadowed what the Lord Himself said afterwards: Many will come from the East and the West, and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness (Matt. 8:11–12). For the Magi had come from the East, Pilate from the West. Hence they bore witness to the King of the Jews as rising, that is, as being born; and he to Him as setting, that is, as dying: so that they might recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, from whom the Jews drew their origin, in the kingdom of heaven; not descended from them through the flesh, but grafted into them through faith: so that the wild olive of which the Apostle speaks, which was to be grafted into the olive, was already being shown in advance (Rom. 11:24). For this reason indeed it was not the king of the Gentiles, but of the Jews, who was either sought or acknowledged by these same Gentiles; because the wild olive was coming to the olive, not the olive to the wild olive. Yet the branches that were to be broken off, that is, the unbelieving Jews, both answered the Magi when they inquired where Christ was to be born, In Bethlehem of Judah (Matt. 2:5); and, when Pilate reproached them that they wished their king to be crucified, they raged most obstinately. And so the Magi worshipped, while the Jews pointed out the place of Christ's birth; because in the Scripture which the Jews received we recognize Christ. Pilate, who was of the Gentiles, washed his hands, while the Jews were demanding the death of Christ (ibid. 27:24); because in the blood which the Jews shed we wash away our sins. But concerning the testimony of Pilate through the title, in which he wrote that Christ is the King of the Jews, there is another occasion for discussion: the one at which it is the season of the Passion.

Chapter III. — 3. The Jews as guardians of the Scriptures for the salvation of the Gentiles. But now, as regards the manifestation of the born Christ, concerning the day of which manifestation, which is called by the Greek word Epiphany, on which He began to be manifested to the Gentiles when the Magi worshipped Him, let us say the few things that remain. For it is a delight to consider again and again how, when the Magi asked where Christ was to be born, the Jews answered: In Bethlehem of Judah; and yet they themselves did not come to Him, but, when they had gone away, the same star led the Magi to the place in which the infant was; so that it might be shown that it could also have pointed out the city, but had withdrawn itself for a while to this end, that the Jews might be questioned. And the Jews were questioned to this end, that it might be shown that they carry the divine testimonies not for their own salvation and recognition, but for those of the Gentiles. For on this account that nation was driven from its kingdom and scattered throughout the lands, so that they might be compelled everywhere to become witnesses of that faith of which they are enemies. For having lost the temple, the sacrifice, the priesthood, and the kingdom itself, they keep their name and race in a few ancient sacraments; lest, mingled with the nations without distinction, they should perish and lose the testimony of the truth: just as Cain received a sign, so that no one should kill him, he who out of envy and pride killed his righteous brother (Gen. 4:1–15). This, indeed, to be understood not unfittingly in the fifty-eighth psalm also

is possible, where Christ speaks in the person of His body and says: My God has shown me among my enemies: do not slay them, lest at any time they forget Thy law (Ps. 58:12). For among these enemies of the Christian faith it is shown to the Gentiles how Christ was prophesied, lest perhaps, when they had seen the prophecies fulfilled with so great a manifestation, they should think that those same Scriptures had been fabricated by the Christians, when the things foretold of Christ, which are seen to have been fulfilled, were recited. The books, therefore, are brought out by the Jews, and so God shows us among our enemies; whom He has for this reason not slain, that is, has not utterly destroyed from the earth, lest they should forget His law: which, by reading it, and by observing certain things of it, although carnally, they have remembered for this purpose, that they may take judgement upon themselves and furnish testimony to us.

Sermon 202. On the Epiphany of the Lord, 4.

Chapter I. — 1. Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ. What festivity the solemnity of this present day, known throughout the whole world, brings us, or what it commemorates by its yearly repetition, the season admonishes us to speak of in a yearly sermon also. For Epiphany in Greek may be called manifestation in Latin. For on this day the Magi are related to have worshipped the Lord, warned, that is, by the appearing star, and led on by it going before them. For on the very day on which He was born, they saw the star in the East, and they recognized Whose birth it indicated. From that day, therefore, up to this day they came on their way, they terrified King Herod with the news, and, the Jews answering from the prophetic Scripture, they found the city of Bethlehem, where the Lord had been born. Then, the same star leading them, they came to the Lord Himself; they worshipped Him when He was pointed out; they offered gold, frankincense and myrrh; they returned by another way (Matt. 2:1–12). The Lord was indeed manifested on the very day of His nativity also to the shepherds, who were admonished by an angel; on which day He was also announced by the star to those others far off in the East; but it was on this day that He was worshipped by them. The whole Church of the Gentiles, therefore, has most devoutly taken up the celebration of this day: for what else were those Magi but the firstfruits of the Gentiles? The shepherds were Israelites, the Magi gentiles; the former near, the latter far off; yet both ran together to the cornerstone. « For coming, as the Apostle says, He preached peace to us who were far off, and peace to those who were near. For He is our peace, Who made both one, and founded the two in Himself into one new man, making peace, and changed both in one body to God, slaying the enmities in Himself » (Eph. 2:11–22).

Chapter II. — 2. The firstfruits of the Gentiles offered in the Magi. Rightly have the Donatist heretics never been willing to celebrate this day with us: for they neither love unity, nor are they in communion with the Eastern Church, where that star appeared. But we, the manifestation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by which He offered the firstfruits of the Gentiles,

let us celebrate in the unity of the Gentiles. For then the boy, before He knew how to call father or mother, as had been prophesied of Him, received the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria (Isa. 8:4): that is, before He uttered human words through human flesh, He received the strength of Damascus, namely that in which Damascus put its confidence. For that city, flourishing according to the world, had at one time put its confidence in riches. And among riches the primacy is accorded to gold, which the Magi humbly offered to Christ. The spoils of Samaria, moreover, were the very people who inhabited it. For Samaria stands for idolatry. For there the people of Israel, turned away from the Lord, were turned to the worship of idols. Christ, that is, being about to vanquish with the spiritual sword the kingdom of the devil throughout the whole world, as a boy wrested these first spoils from the dominion of idolatry, so that He might turn the Magi, converted to adore Him, away from the plague of that superstition, and, not yet speaking on this earth by tongue, might speak from heaven by a star; so that who He was, and whither, and for whose sake He had come, He might show not by the voice of flesh but by the power of the Word, which was made flesh. For this Word, which in the beginning was God with God, now also made flesh that He might dwell among us, had both come to us and remained with the Father; not deserting the angels above, and below gathering men to Himself through angels; and He shone with unchangeable truth upon the heavenly inhabitants according to the Word, and because of the cramped inn He lay in a manger. By Him a star was shown in heaven, and it showed Him on earth as One to be adored. And yet the infant so powerful, so great, as a little one fled into Egypt because of the enmity of Herod, His parents carrying Him: thus speaking not yet by word, but already by deeds to His members, and silently saying, If they persecute you in one city, flee into another (Matt. 10:23). For He bore mortal flesh, in which He prefigured us, in which He was also to die for us at the fitting time. Hence from those Magi He had received not only gold, as One to be honoured, and frankincense, as One to be adored, but also myrrh, as One to be buried. What sort of people, too, were to die for His name, how innocent, how humble, He showed in the little ones whom Herod killed. For their being two years old signified also that number of the precepts on which the whole Law and the Prophets hang (Matt. 22:37–40).

Chapter III. — 3. The Jews show Christ by their rites and Scriptures. Now whom does it not make attentive, what it means that, to the inquiry of the Magi where Christ was to be born, the Jews answered from Scripture, and yet did not themselves adore with them? Do we not see this even now, when from those very sacraments to which their hardness is subjected nothing other than Christ, in Whom they refuse to believe, is shown? Do they not also, when they kill the sheep and eat the Passover (Exod. 12:9), show Christ to the Gentiles, Whom they themselves do not adore with them? For what is that, that often concerning the prophetic testimonies by which Christ was foretold, and about which, when men are in doubt lest perhaps they were written up by Christians not as things yet to come but as things already done, we appeal to the books of the Jews, so that the minds of the doubting