Editorial Introduction: As the church around the world celebrates the Nativity of our Lord, the World Reformed Fellowship is pleased to share this Christmas sermon by Augustine of Hippo. Preached in the early fifth century, this homily reflects on the mystery of the Incarnation with theological depth and pastoral clarity.

Augustine directs our attention not to sentiment or speculation, but to the redemptive purpose of Christ’s coming: that the eternal Son of God, who was with the Father before all ages, entered time for our sake, so that those bound to sin and mortality might be brought into the light of God’s eternal day. This sermon stands as a powerful witness to the church’s historic confession of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, born for our salvation.

 

Sermon 190: On the Nativity of the Lord

By Saint Augustine of Hippo

 

1. The Day Chosen by the Eternal Son

Our Lord Jesus, who was with the Father before He was born of His Mother, chose not only the Virgin of whom He was born, but also the day on which His birth took place. Men subject to error very often choose days: one for planting, another for building, another for making a journey, and still another for contracting marriage. When a man so chooses, he is motivated by the hope that successful issue may come from his undertaking. No one, however, can choose the day of his birth.

But Christ the Lord was able both to create and to select the day of His birth. Nor did He make His choice as they do who foolishly determine the fates of men by the arrangement of the stars. He who was born was not rendered blessed by being born on a particular day, but He made that day blessed on which He deigned to be born.

The day of His nativity holds the mystery of His light, for the Apostle says:

“The night is far advanced; the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly as in the day.”[1]

Let us recognize the day and let us be as the day, for we were in darkness when we lived unfaithfully. Since that infidelity which had covered the whole world with the darkness of night had to be lessened by an increase of faith, therefore, on the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, night began to suffer diminution and day began to increase.

And so, my brethren, let us hold this day as sacred, not as unbelievers do because of the material sun, but because of Him who made the sun. For He who was the Word became flesh so that for our sake He might live under the light of the sun. He was incarnate beneath the sun, but in majesty He was above the entire universe in which He had placed the sun.

Even in the flesh He is above the sun which is worshiped as a god by those who, blinded in mind, do not see the true Sun of Justice.

 

2. The Two Nativities of Christ

Let us, O Christians, celebrate this feast, not of the divine nativity of the Lord, but of His human nativity, when He became one of us, so that through the visible we might pass to the invisible. For we of the Catholic faith ought to hold that there are two births of the Lord: the one divine, and the other human; the one timeless, and the other in time.

Both nativities are marvelous: the one without a mother, and the other without a father. If the one is incomprehensible, the other is inexplicable.

Who could understand this strange and extraordinary happening, unique in the history of the world, that the unbelievable became believable and was entrusted to the whole world: that a virgin would conceive and bear a Son, while remaining a virgin?

What human reason does not grasp, faith lays hold of; and where human reason fails, faith succeeds. For who would say that the Word of God, by whom all things were made, could not have taken flesh without a mother, just as He made the first man without father and mother?

Since He had created both sexes, male and female, He wished to honor in His birth both sexes which He had come to save. You know well that the first man fell because the serpent, not daring to address the man, used the help of a woman to accomplish man’s ruin. Through the weaker sex he gained the stronger and, worming his way in through the one, triumphed over both.

Therefore, lest we despair at our death through woman, Eve, and believe ourselves irreparably condemned, the Lord, when He came to seek what was lost, honored both sexes because both had been ruined. The nativity of the Lord encouraged both to hope for salvation.

The glory of the male sex is in the humanity of Christ; the glory of womanhood is in the Mother of Christ. The grace of Jesus Christ has overcome the wile of the serpent.

 

3. The Word Made Flesh, the Day Born of the Day

Therefore, let both sexes be reborn in Him who was born today, and let both celebrate this feast on which the Lord Christ—far from beginning to exist, since He had always existed with His Father—brought forth into the light of day the human nature He received from His Mother, granting her fertility without depriving her of integrity.

He is conceived and born. He is an infant. Who is this infant whom we so call because He cannot speak? He is both a speechless child and the Word. In His humanity He is silent; through His angels He teaches.

The Leader and Shepherd of shepherds is announced to shepherds, and the food of the faithful lies in the manger of dumb beasts. For the Prophet had foretold:

“The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.”[2]

For this reason He sat upon the colt of an ass when He entered Jerusalem amid the praises of the multitude.[3] Let us understand; let us draw near to the manger; let us eat of this food. Let us bear the Lord, our Guide and Leader, so that under His direction we may come to the heavenly Jerusalem.

The birth of Christ from His Mother is subject to human weakness, but from His Father He has unlimited majesty. In these fleeting days of ours He lives for a brief span, but He is the Eternal Day born of the Eternal Day.

 

4. The Eternal Day and Our Salvation

Rightly, then, are we stirred by the voice of the Psalmist as by the sound of a heavenly trumpet when we hear:

“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless His name.”[4]

Let us recognize and proclaim the Day born of the Day who became incarnate on this day. The Day is the Son born of the Father—the Eternal Day, God of God, Light of Light. He is our salvation, of whom the Psalmist says elsewhere:

“May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make His face shine upon us… that Your way may be known on earth, Your saving power among all nations.”[5]

The phrase “on earth” he expands to “among all nations,” and what he calls “Your way” he repeats as “Your salvation.” We recall that the Lord Himself said:

“I am the way.”[6]

Only recently, when the Gospel was read, we heard that the blessed old man Simeon received a divine promise that he would not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. Taking the infant Christ in his arms and recognizing the mighty little One, he said:

“Now you dismiss your servant, O Lord, according to your word, in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation.”[7]

Gladly, then, let us announce His salvation—this Day born of the Eternal Day. Let us declare His glory among the nations and His wonders among all peoples.[8]

He lies in a manger, yet He holds the world in His hand.

He is nourished at the breast, yet He feeds the angels.

He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, yet He clothes us with immortality.

He is suckled, yet He is adored.

He finds no room in the inn, yet He makes a temple for Himself in the hearts of believers.

 

Strength took on weakness so that weakness might become strong. Therefore, let us marvel rather than despise His human birth. From it let us learn the humility such loftiness assumed for our sake, and let us kindle our love, that we may come to His eternal day.

 

 

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Attribution Note

This sermon is reproduced from an early English translation of Augustine’s Sermon 190 and is believed to be in the public domain.

 

 

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References

[1] Romans 13:12–13

 

[2] Isaiah 1:3

 

[3] Matthew 21:5; Zechariah 9:9

 

[4] Psalm 96:1–2

 

[5] Psalm 67:1–2

 

[6] John 14:6

 

[7] Luke 2:29–30

 

[8] Psalm 96:3