By JOANNE SADLER BUTLER
St. Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, is widely known as the author of Confessions and The City of God. His sermons are less well known, but worthy also. As the fourth and fifth century Church limited the power to deliver sermons to bishops, devising and delivering sermons was an important part of his life.
It’s estimated he preached thousands of sermons in his career, but we are left with merely several hundred. Some of them focus on the Nativity and as they were written for ordinary people, they are highly accessible today. Their clarity, wittiness, and soundness encourage examination.
While Augustine had a famous conversion from paganism to the Catholic faith in AD 386, his clerical life is more obscure.
In AD 388, Aurelius Augustinus was in a low mood. His mother, St. Monica, had died just before as he and his son Adeodatus (also baptized by Ambrose) prepared to sail to his family’s estate in Africa. Sadly, Adeodatus also died that year. With no one to inherit his estate, Augustine converted it to a monastic club of sorts, composed mostly of his friends.
During this dark time, it seems Augustine had turned to informal preaching — at conferences, in town squares, or on church steps. His preaching style and his teachings made him famous in what today is coastal North Africa, encompassing Algeria and Tunisia. He was a native speaker of Latin, as was most of his audience.
His life changed dramatically about three years after he arrived in Africa. A gentleman from Hippo (about 60 miles from the estate) asked Augustine to visit him as he was in need of spiritual support. One Sunday, while Augustine was attending Mass in Hippo’s basilica, the bishop (Valerius) announced his intent to ordain a priest. Augustine’s fame in Hippo was so widely known that the laity literally pushed him to the edra, the bishop’s chair.
Valerius wisely ordained him on the spot. Leaving his little monastery behind, Augustine was elevated to the see of Hippo in 395 or in 396.
While there are differing theories about how Augustine physically preached, it’s clear that lecterns weren’t used and pulpits didn’t exist. Stenographers, however, were employed to take down the words. Further, it was vital for a preacher to hold the laity’s attention — in those days there were no pews, seats, or kneelers. Everyone stood during a sermon.
Having set the historical and physical stage, now we can examine Augustine’s Christmas sermons.
In sermon 186, Augustine exhorts the laity to rejoice in the mystery of the Nativity — how Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, lost none of his divinity by becoming a man. In St. John the Evangelist’s familiar words: “[T]he Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). But what does “flesh” mean? Augustine tells us it means becoming a human being. Christ donned His humanity while temporarily setting aside His divinity to become fully human.
However, at no time did Christ lose His identity with the Father. He was the Son of man and the Son of God.
Further, Augustine notes how Christ was “begotten” of the Father before time itself existed. In fact, Christ chose not only His mother, but His birthday! Thus, Christ created His mother and the day of Christmas.
At the end he discusses how the holy day of Christmas is coincident with the Winter Solstice, and how the light remains longer day by day afterward. He cites St. Paul who wrote, “Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day” (2 Cor. 4:16).
In sermon 187, Augustine lists the wonders wrought by the Nativity. Christ reveals His Father, while He creates His mother. He’s the Son of God begotten before all ages; begotten without a mother. He’s also the Son of Man born of a mother but without a father. He created the sun, then He was incarnated under that sun. He is the Word, but as the Holy Infant, He cannot speak words.
Christ’s divinity isn’t diminished by His humanity, nor is His humanity diminished by His divinity. He reminds his people of St. Matthew’s verse, wherein the angel tells St. Joseph that the virgin’s Son will be called “Emmanuel” — God with us (Matt. 1:23). Further, he cites St. Paul who wrote: “His state was divine, yet He did not cling to His equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are” (Phil. 2:6-7). That is, Christ looked like a man because that’s what He was in His humanity: an ordinary man.
Augustine then explains how Christ could say “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28) and “The Father and I are One” (John 10:30). This is a puzzle, as God and man are not the same.
By becoming human, Christ occupied human time, in the condition of the lowest of men (a slave). Thus, He could say “the Father is greater than I.”
But Christ was always the true God, who existed before earthly time, existed during His earthly time, and exists forever.
He was and is Emmanuel — God with us. Not “man with us” — that would be ordinary. “God with us” is extraordinary. He created Mary and is the son of Mary. He is the son of David and David’s Lord. He was Abraham’s descendant before Abraham existed in earthly time. He created the Heaven and Earth, and was born on Earth, under Heaven’s sky.
In sermon 188, Augustine describes the difference between God’s eternity and man’s idea of time. He states that in God’s eternity, there are no special days because there are no days. But when Christ was joined to the Virgin Mary’s flesh and entered into mankind, he entered into our time. And He did this intentionally. He did this for us.
Augustine continues with a discussion of Mary and how the Son could be born from this woman’s body without damaging her virginity. How? Because He, the Almighty God, chose her to be His mother, His entrance into human existence.
In sermon 189, Augustine marvels how Christ was begotten of the Father without a mother, and was born of a mother without a father. The bishop admonishes his hearers to consider their faith — do they appreciate how God has humbled Himself for their sake?
Next, he marvels at how, at the Nativity, He who became our Bread of Life was laid in a feeding trough, a manger (Luke 2:7). Then he quotes Isaiah, “The ox knows its owner and the ass its master’s crib,” with the implication that the ox and ass recognized God in the Holy Infant (Isaiah 1:3).
In sermon 190, he discusses how Christ made two important choices: Who would be His mother, and which day would be His birthday. Augustine reminds us how Christ would not have consulted astrologers or the stars to determine his Nativity Day.
He then speaks about how Christ did not need an earthly mother to become a human. He who created Adam from dust could have created a human body for Himself by Himself.
Further, through His Nativity, Christ honored both sexes. He honored men by coming as a man. He honored women by being born of a woman. The latter was a rebuttal to those who said Eve’s sin (in tempting Adam) made women unredeemable. Thus, the Nativity was a divine correction, as it gave both women and men the hope of redemption.
The sermon ends with Augustine’s musings contrasting the earthly and earthy life of the Holy Infant with His life as the Lord. The Infant is playing with a ball, while the Lord commands the sun. How Bethlehem had no room for the Infant, but how He lives now in the hearts of all believers.
In sermon 194, Augustine exhorts — dares — his hearers to follow the Psalmist to:
Rejoice in the Lord O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
Praise the Lord with the lyre,
Make melody to Him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to Him a new song,
Play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts (Psalm 33:1-3)
That’s right: loud shouts.
Then Augustine turns to St. John the Baptist — whose birth is celebrated at the Summer Solstice. Thus, the Baptist’s birthday is a summation of himself: “He (Christ) must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30). After the Summer Solstice, the days grow shorter — decreasing in light — as they proceed to late December. After the Winter Solstice (and the Nativity of Christ) the light increases.
Next, he discusses the future for believers. This was an important point, as early generations of Christians believed the Second Coming was coming soon — perhaps next week or next year? However, by Augustine’s time, people began to accept the idea that God’s schedule was not theirs. Here, Augustine reinforces that idea, with an exhortation to keep believing. He quotes from St. John’s first epistle:
My dear people, we are already the children of God
but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed;
all we know is, that when it is revealed
we shall be like Him
because we shall see Him as He really is (1 John 3:2).
Augustine’s sermon 141, while not a Christmas sermon, gives us a fine summation of how we are to live by the Son of God, the One who came to us as a man:
“Walk in the footsteps of this Man and you will come to God. Look for no other way to come to God but this one. For if He had not become a way, we should always go astray. No, I do not tell you to look for the Way! The Way itself comes to you; rise up and go.”
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