Sermones S. Leoni Magno attributi (Appendix ad primam partem operum S. Leonis Magni), I-XX

extending the works of piety beyond the bounds of his own lifetime, so that devout posterity also might enjoy in him the benefits of his institutions, both by dwelling in what he founded and by doing what he taught.

CHAP. IV. — All things therefore, dearly beloved, which you see with your eyes, which you remember with your mind, take up for the advancement of your edification, and let each one of you so use the dwelling prepared by the forefathers that he remembers that the temple of God has been founded in himself. Let him lay beneath his structure nothing crooked, nothing weak; but, fitting together with living and chosen stones, let him grow through an indissoluble joining into the unity of the Lord's body: with the help of the corner stone Himself, our God and Lord Jesus Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON XX.

On the Transfiguration of the Lord.

CHAP. I. — Today, dearest brethren, we solemnly keep the day of Him, namely, Who, governing all things with the Father, made every day; the Word, I say, Who in the beginning said: Let there be light, and light was made (Gen. 1:3). His flesh was today glorified on the mountain, as the Gospel text relates. On the mountain, before two prophets and three disciples, the Lord was transfigured; namely, that He might give us the hope of His Divinity, He willed to show them His face white beyond snow. But if anyone wishes to know who these prophets were, let him run to the most sublime voices of the evangelists. But if to anyone Luke seems to disagree with the two former, because he asserts that this brightness of the Lord was shown not after six days but after eight days (Luke 9:28), let him run to the trope of the grammarians. For there is among them a trope which is called syllepsis, where many are comprised for one and one for many, and the whole is taken for the part and the part for the whole; and let him know that Luke, none the less, described by a trope the day when it was promised, and comprised in his Gospel that day when it was fulfilled. That is to say, when the Lord had promised this, it was evening; and when He was transfigured, morning none the less was appearing. But Matthew and Mark, passing over the days of the promise and of the transfiguration, preferred to hand down to perpetual remembrance only the six whole days between.

CHAP. II. — Nevertheless, if someone should ask why He willed to be transfigured before two prophets and three disciples, let him recall that bright first saying of the Lord Himself; He Himself says to the Jews: In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true (John 8:17). But that He might show Himself to be the one Who said

to Moses: I am Who am, and this you shall say to the children of Israel: He Who is has sent me to you (Exod. 3:14): and Who had sent the same Moses to Pharaoh for the deliverance of the children of Israel, and had given him the law on Mount Sinai, and had carried the prophet Elijah in a fiery chariot up into the heaven of the air, He had brought these witnesses by divine power to behold, with the disciples, the transfiguration of His brightness; recalling, that is, one of them from the threshold of death, the other from his translation to paradise. For no one could know the tomb of Moses except Him Who gave the command and brought him to Himself; and no one had learned whither Elijah had been translated except Him Who had called him to Himself. For this is the Only-begotten of the Father, Who for the redemption of the human race willed to be made the first-born of a mother. For in this transfiguration of today He willed to bring together the concord of both Testaments. For that He might show Himself to be Lord of the law and prophet, He willed to bring these to the testimony of the evangelists. In this transfiguration, indeed, it pleased Him to show to the steward of the Father the steward of the Son, namely Peter to Moses, and He willed to show the chaste man of old to the chaste man of the new, Elijah to John. Two suns the disciples beheld today on the mountain: one, which was gazed upon by them all in the firmament, and the other, which, shining more splendidly than that, was beheld by the prophets and the disciples, the face of Jesus. But this Sun, which was glowing on the mountain, was by His own power illuminating that one which is in the firmament. For this is the Sun of justice, burning and shining; for by burning He kindles the faithful in Himself, by shining He enlightens all. For of this Sun John says: He was the true light which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9).

CHAP. III. — But that His brightness might be made known to us more certainly than certain, after His countenance was transfigured into another appearance, and He was overshadowed with the apostles by a bright cloud, He was truly glorified by the Father: This is, He says, My dearest Son, hear Him (Luke 9:35). But the disciples, not bearing so great a voice, fell on their faces, and when Moses and Elijah withdrew, there remained the divine offspring alone, Who, raising them up, says, Do not fear, which is to say: Let those fear who do not believe, let those fear whom phantasms delude. You, who obey the Son of the Father and are present at His hidden secrets, for what reason are you fearful? Nevertheless the holy disciples, looking about, saw no one but Jesus alone; that it might be clearly shown that the voice which had been sent befitted not Moses, not Elijah, but the only-begotten Son alone. For concerning this vision a certain most eloquent poet marvels at and praises the merit of these three apostles, saying (Sedulius, bk III, v. 284 ff.):

O lofty merit of the three, to whom it fell to see / in the world those things which have not been believed by the world! / What of this, that both Elijah and Moses, bright in virtue, / unknown to their eyes, they saw by the light of the heart. / That our faith may be the greater, that He throughout the world is / the beginning and the end, He, that is, the Alpha and the ω: / Whom, in their midst, such prophets shone around, / the one still living, the other standing in the light of life: / and with a sound from the stars, saying, This is My Son, / the Father's voice showed by its word Christ the begotten.

For hence to Moses, entreating and saying, Show

me Thy glory, the Lord says: You will not be able to see My face; for man shall not see Me and live. Behold, He says, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon the rock; and when My glory shall pass by, I will set you in the cleft of the rock, and I will shield you with My right hand until I pass through, and I will take away My hand, and you shall see My hinder parts, but My face you will not be able to see (Exod. 33:18, 20 ff.). What, dearly beloved, is this? What is this? Has no one, then, ever seen the Lord? Did one of these, then, lie, who said: No one has ever seen God, except the Only-begotten, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John 1:18)? Is the almighty Father, then, Who cannot be contained and is measureless and invisible, believed to be bodily, or are bodily members ascribed to Him, so that He should be reported to have hinder parts? This is a great thing, this is a deep thing; and for such little ones it is not easy to search out a thing so deep. But it is for Him alone to open it, Who, when He wills, opens the mouth of brute animals to speak. O Holy Spirit, unlock for us this highest utterance of the Father. Attend more diligently, attend, dearly beloved, more carefully, and together with me make ready your mind for these things.

CHAP. IV. — When I have passed through, the Lord says, you shall see My hinder parts; My face you will not be able to see (Exod. 33:23). For the face of the Lord is the incomprehensible Godhead; but His hinder parts are to be believed to be the assumed humanity of the Son. Assuredly by the face, which is the first part of the body, the Divinity before all ages is intimated; but the hinder parts are the humanity of Christ, which came to us in the last times through the inviolate Mary. On this day, indeed, what He promised to His servant Moses the Father faithfully fulfilled through the Son. Of this solemnity of this day David indeed says: Thou hast put on confession and comeliness, clothed with light as with a garment (Ps. 103:1–2). Christ put on confession and comeliness when He was glorified by the glory of the Father's voice; He was clothed with light as with a garment when He showed to the disciples His countenance flashing with the splendour of the sun. At this solemnity also the prophet Habakkuk marvelled, when it was sung by him: O Lord, I have heard Thy report and was afraid; I have considered Thy works and trembled (Hab. 3:2). Did he tremble in wonder at the fabric of the world? No. But at what did he wonder and tremble? Hear what follows: In the midst, he says, of two living creatures Thou shalt be known. O dearest ones, what is: in the midst of two living creatures Thou shalt be known? What, unless either in the midst of the two testaments, or in the midst of Moses and Elijah conversing with Him today on the mountain. For He is the cornerstone, in which both walls deserved to be joined, namely the Old Testament and the New. The Old was signified by Moses and Elijah, by whom the law and the prophets are designated. But the New by Peter and James and John, by whom the holy and venerable Gospel is designated. Or else by Moses and Elijah that earlier Jewish people, by Peter, James and John the Gentile people was designated. And this is the people walking in darkness, which saw a great light; to the contemplation of which light may the Only-begotten of the Father lead us in that homeland in which the just shall shine like the sun, and God Himself shall be all in all, Who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, and is glorified as God through never-ending ages of ages. Amen.