Fourth Sermon for Christmas Eve: On the Spiritual Riches Which Christ Brought on Earth. Length of Days is in (his) Right Hand and in (his) Left Hand Riches and Glory.’’—prov. Iii. 16

The custom of our Order, my brethren, does not require that there should be a sermon to-day. But considering that on to-morrow we shall be occupied so long in the celebration of Masses that the time left over will be too short for a discourse of the usual length, I have thought it advisable to prepare your hearts now for so great a solemnity ; especially because this mystery is so unfathomably profound, so absolutely incomprehensible, that like a never-failing fountain, it can be exhausted by no prodigality, but the more it communicates, the more it has to give. I know well, my dear children, how great is the tribulation you are enduring for the love of Christ, and I pray God that your consolation in Him may be equally abundant. As for earthly comforts, I have neither the wish nor the right to offer you anything of that sort. Such consolation is vile, and can serve no useful purpose ; and what is more to be feared, it is often a hindrance to true and salutary consolation. And so, in order that we may possess this desirable consolation and repudiate the false, He Who is the everlasting crown and delight of the angels has become Himself the salvation and consolation of the miserable ; He, Who as a mighty and noble Monarch fills His subjects with happiness in His kingdom beyond the stars, greatly rejoices us poor exiles in the place of our banishment by appearing amongst us as little and lowly; He Who is the “Glory of God in the highest” is made “on earth Peace to men of good will.” For He is given as a Little One to them who are themselves little, so that being made great by Him, they may receive Him as great, and that whom He justifies now in His littleness, He may afterwards in His Majesty and magnificence exalt and glorify. Hence, no doubt, the Vessel of Election “hath uttered the good word” which he received from the fulness of this Little One—for although little, He is nevertheless full, “ full of gracè and truth,” since “in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporally ’’—hence it is, I say, that St. Paul “ hath uttered the good word” which you have frequently heard during these days: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice.” That is, he bids you to rejoice firstly on account of the grace which is given you, and to rejoice secondly on account of the glory which is promised, because both the gift and the hope are alike full of gladness: he bids you to rejoice over the largess which you have received from the Left Hand and to rejoice over the reward which you expect from the Right. For the Spouse in the Canticle says, speaking of the Bridegroom, “ His Left Hand is under my head, and His Right shall embrace me.” With His Left Hand He supports us,but with His Right He draws us to Himself ; with His Left He cures and pardons, but with the Right He caresses and glorifies ; His Left Hand holds merit, but in His Right is contained the reward ; in His “ Right Hand are delights even to the end,” but in His Left are found health | and healing.

But observe the loving-kindness, observe the wisdom of this Divine Physician of our souls. Consider carefully how novel are the remedies He brings. Notice that His medicines are not only precious but also beautiful, not alone most useful for restoring to us our health, but at the same time pleasing to the eye and sweet to the palate. Look at His first remedy, the first gift which He bears in His Left Hand. You shall find it to be His virginal conception. Reflect, I pray you, on the nature of this. How strange it is, how admirable, how amiable, how delightful! For what can be more beautiful than “a chaste generation” ? What more glorious than a pure and holy conception, free from all stain, from all shame, from all corruption? But because the grandeur of this unique conception, admirable as it is, would not, nevertheless, have been likely to interest me so much if its attractions were not reinforced by the ‘hope of salvation and the consideration of my own utility, therefore was it (the conception) not only made magnificent in its outward show, but also rendered precious in its inward virtue, thus verifying what is written in the Proverbs, “ In (His) Left Hand are riches and glory,” that is to say, the riches of salvation and the glory of novelty. For “ who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed ” but He alone Whose conception alone was free from the influence of carnal concupiscence? We, my brethren, have all of us been defiled and infected in our very root and origin: our conception has been sullied. But there isOne Who can take away our shame, He, namely, upon Whom alone this shame has never fallen.

I have, therefore, the riches of salvation, I have the most pure conception of Christ, wherewith I may redeem the impurity of my own. But continue, O Lord Jesus, continue to add new marvels to the old, and to work ever fresh wonders, because the prodigies already wrought have lost, through familiarity, their power to impress us. Miracles undoubtedly,and great miracles, are the rising and the setting of the sun, the fertility of the earth, the succession of the seasons, etc., but they are so constantly before our eyes that they attract no attention.* Therefore, O Lord, renew Thy signs and change Thy prodigies. ‘‘ Behold,” He says, “ I make all things new.” Who speaks thus? It is the Lamb “ That sitteth on the throne,” the Lamb of God, all sweetness, all delight, all unction. I say “all unction,” for this is the meaning of the name He bears, Christ being the Greek for “anointed.” What indeed can there be of harshness or austerity in Him Who even in His nativity, inflicted on His Mother neither pain nor loss? O truly unprecedented marvels! A Child is conceived without shame and brought forth without sorrow! The curse pronounced upon Eve, is for our Virgin changed into a blessing ! For neither pain nor sorrow attended Mary’s childbirth. The malediction, I say, has become a benediction, so that now, O happy Mother, as was predicted of thee by Gabriel, “ Blessed art thou among women.” O happy Virgin, happy in that, alone of all women, thou hast escaped the curse and obtained the blessing ; in that thou alone has been delivered from the universal malediction, and freed from the sorrows of motherhood! Nor should it surprise us, my brethren, that He at His birth caused His Mother no sorrow, Who came, according to the prediction of the Prophet Isaias, to take away the sorrows of the whole world, because, in truth, “ He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” There are two things especially which our human fragility is afraid of, and these are suffering and disgrace. Christ came to deliver us from them both and therefore took them both upon Himself when—to pass over His other afflictions and humiliations—He was condemned to die by the impious, and to die a death of shame. Hence, in order to give us an assurance of His purpose to save us from suffering and ignominy, He began by making His own Mother immune from both, for she conceived without confusion and brought forth without pain. But the riches of salvation are made still more abounding, the glory increases, fresh wonders are witnessed, new miracles are wrought. Not only is the Child conceived without shame and brought forth without sorrow, but the Mother, too, has preserved her virginity intact. O prodigy unheard of! A Virgin brings forth and after parturition remains a virgin inviolate ; combining maternal fecundity with virginal integrity, “In whom The mother’s joy enhanced the virgin’s bloom.” *

Now I can expect with confidence the glory of incorruption promised to my own flesh by Christ when I behold Him preserving incorruption in the flesh of His Mother. For it will not be hard to Him Who caused His Mother to bring forth without prejudice to her virginity, to cause “this corruptible body ”? to “ put on incorruption’’ in a glorious resurrection. But the Left Hand holds riches still more abundant and glories still more sublime. Mary is made a mother without losing her virginity and her Child is conceived and born free from every stain of sin. The Mother is preserved from the curse pronounced upon Eve; the Child is immune from that universal condition whereof holy Job has declared, “ No one is free from stain, not even the infant who has lived one day upon the earth.” Yet behold here an Infant without spot or stain, Who is alone true amongst men, yea, Who is Truth Itself. Behold “the Lamb without blemish,” ‘‘ behold the Lamb of God, behold Him Who taketh away the sin of the world.” For who is better able to destroy our sins than He on Whom sin has never fallen? He Who has never, as I know, been defiled Himself, has doubtless the power to cleanse me from my stains. Let that Hand which alone is clean wipe away the mud which * “ Quae ventre beato

Gaudio matris habens cum virginitatis honore.” Sedulius, Carm. Pasch. ii. 37-38.

covers my eyes. Let Him “cast the mote out of (my) eye ? Who has no beam in His own. I should rather have said, let Him remove the beam from my eye Whose own eye is dimmed by no smallest speck of dust.*

Certainly, we have now seen the riches of salvation and life: “ we have seen His glory, the glory as it were of the Only-Begotten of the Father.” Of what Father, do you inquire? Listen to the Angel: “And He shall becalled the Son of the Most High.” There is no need to explain who the Most High is. But to leave no room for even an unreasonable doubt, the heavenly envoy continues, speaking to the Virgin, “and therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall becalled the Son of God.” Oh, how truly is He called the Holy! Lord, “ Thou wilt not give Thy Holy One to see corruption,’’ for He has not permitted His Mother “ to see corruption.” Miracles are multiplied, riches more abound, treasures are revealed. She who brings forth is a virgin and a mother, He Who is brought forth is God and man. But shall that which is holy be given to dogs? Shall pearls be cast before swine? Surely no. Therefore let our treasure be hidden in the field, let our money be placed in the coffer. Let the virginal conception be concealed under the mantle of the Mother’s espousals ; let the painless child-birth beveiled behind the Infant’s cries and sufferings. Let the legal purification hide the Mother’s integrity, and the common circumcision the innocence of the Child. Conceal, O Virgin, conceal, I pray thee, the brightness of this new Sun. Place the

Infant in the manger, wrap Him in the swaddling clothes. These swaddling clothes are themselves also a part of our riches. The Saviour’s swaddling clothes are to us more precious than any purple. The manger wherein He reposes is in our eyes more glorious than the gilded seats of monarchs. Rich beyond all riches and treasures is the poverty of Christ. For what can be richer, what can be found more precious than Christian humility, wherewith the kingdom of heaven may be purchased and the grace of God acquired? - Hence it is written, ‘‘ Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and the Apostle St. James tells us that “ God resisteth the proud and giveth His grace to the humble.’”’ But here in the nativity we have the virtue of humility commended to us by the example of God Himself. For it was in humility that “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men and in habit found as a man.”

Do you wish, my brethren, to find riches still more precious, and a glory more excellent still ? Then consider the charity of Christ as revealed in His passion. As He declares Himself, ‘‘ Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Here indeed are our riches and our glory, the Precious Blood by Which we have been redeemed, and the cross of the Lord wherein we glory with St. Paul, saying like him, “ God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It was the same Apostle who said, “ I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” This is the Left Hand of God, namely, “‘ Jesus Christ and the Same crucified.” The Right Hand is Jesus

Christ and the Same glorified. “ Jesus Christ,” says the great Apostle, “and Him crucified.” Perhaps, my brethren, we ourselves are this cross on which Christ is affirmed to be crucified. For the very figure of our body represents the cross, as will more evidently appear if you extend your arms. In one of the psalms Christ says of Himself, “ I am fixed in the slime of the deep.” Now it is manifest that we are slime, because from the slime of the earth we were fashioned. Originally, as you know, we were the slime of paradise, but now we are the slime of the deep. “I am fixed,” says the Saviour, “ I have not passed over, I have not gone back. I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world.” For He is Emmanuel, that is to say, “God with us.” He abides with us on earth, but by His Left Hand. Thus of old, when Thamar was about to be delivered of twins, Zara first put forth a single hand, which the midwife tied with a scarlet thread to symbolise the mystery of the Lord’s passion.*

Therefore we hold the Left Hand already. But it is still necessary for us to cry with Job, “‘ To the work of Thy Hands reach out Thy Right Hand,” because “in Thy Right Hand are delights even to the end.” O Lord, extend Thy Right Hand “and it is enough for us.” “ Glory and wealth,” sings the Psalmist, “ shall be in his house,” that is, in the house of him who fears the Lord. But what, O Lord, shall be in Thine own house? Thanksgiving, surely, and the voice of praise. For so the Royal Prophet says, “ Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord ; they shall praise Thee for ever and ever.” And according to the

Apostle, “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it ascended (ascendit) into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love Him.” These things, my brethren, are the “ light inaccessible,” and the “ peace that surpasseth all understanding,” and the fountain whose waters love to descend and never rise above their source. For “eye hath not seen” the “light inaccessible,” “ nor ear heard’”’ that peace incomprehensible. “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace!” But although “their sound hath gone forth into all the earth,” yet how great is that “ peace which surpasseth all understanding’’ the preachers themselves are unable to comprehend, not to speak of conveying it to the minds of their hearers. For attend to the words of St. Paul: “ Brethren,” he says, “I do not count myself to have apprehended.” And he tells us in another place that “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” But faith is not sight, nor is the promise of peace the bestowal thereof. True, even now there is “ peace on earth to men of good will.” Yet what is that peace compared to the fulness and excellence of the peace which awaits us in heaven? Hence the Lord says, speaking to His apostles, “ Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you,” which may be paraphrased thus: “ You are not as yet capable of receiving My peace which surpasseth all understanding, and is a peace above peace. Therefore I give you now in promise the kingdom of peace, and leave you in the meanwhile the way of peace.”

But what means the expression, “‘ neither hath it ascended into the heart of man ” ? The Apostle doubtless designs to teach us by these words that the peace of heaven resembles the stream of a fountain which knows not how to ascend. For you are not ignorant that it is the nature of flowing water to follow the slope of the valleys and to pour itself down from the mountain heights. Hence it is written, “ Thou sendest forth springs in the vales, between the midst of the hills the waters shall pass.” This is the reason, my brethren, why I am so often solicitous to remind your charity that “ God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.” For the waters of a fountain never rise above the level of their source.* But according to this rule it may appear to you that pride can be no obstacle to the currents of grace, especially because that first proud creature who, according to holy Job, “is king over all the children of pride,” is not represented to have said, “ I will be higher than the Most High,” but “ I will be like the Most High.” Nevertheless the Apostle does not lie when he affirms of Satan that he “is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped.” The human ear is horrified at such blasphemous language. But would to God the wicked thought and feeling it expresses were equally an object of horror to the human heart! For I say to you that not Lucifer alone but every other proud being as well, “ is lifted above all that is called God or worshipped.” And I will prove this. The Creator requires that His will shall be done, and the proud

I, Z creature wants his own will done. So far there is the appearance of equality. But observe now how great is the difference. For God wants His will to be done only in those things which reason approves, whereas the proud creature insists on having his way with or without reason. You perceive how he thus makes a mountain of himself up the steepness of which the waters of grace cannot flow. Hence the Saviour tells us, “ Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,* he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven.” The little Child He presents to us as our Model is none other than Himself, Who is the Well-Spring of life, in Whom dwells and from Whom proceeds the fulness of all graces. Therefore make ready the channels in which grace may flow, level down the heights of proud and earthly thoughts, conform yourselves to the Son of man, not to the first father of men, because the stream of grace ascendeth not into the heart of man, that is to say, into the uplifted heart of the carnal and earthly minded. Cleanse your eyes also, that you may be able to gaze upon that light of infinite purity, and incline your ears to obedience, that you may sometime attain to that everlasting repose and to that peace above all peace. The happiness of heaven is called light because of its purity, peace because of its tranquillity, a fountain because of its eternity and abundance. We may assign the fountain to the Father, from Whom the Son is born and the Holy Ghost proceeds ; the light to the Son, Who is in truth “ the Brightness of Eternal Light ” and “ the true Light Which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world ” ; and the peace to the Holy Ghost, Who is said to rest upon the humble and the quiet. But I must not be understood to imply that these attributes are so proper to the individual Persons as not to belong equally to all. For the Father also is Light since the Son is “ Light of Light ” ; and the Son also is Peace, because, as the Apostle tells us, He is “ our Peace Who hath made both one”; and the Holy Spirit also is a “ Fountain of water springing up unto life everlasting.”

But when shall we attain to this Light, to this Peace, to this Fountain? When, O Lord, wilt Thou “fill me with joy with Thy Countenance”? We rejoice in Thee now since Thou, “ the Orient from on high, hath visited us.” We rejoice also “ looking for the blessed hope ” of Thy second coming. But when shall we be given the fulness of joy, not in promise, but in fact? When shall we rejoice not in the hope but in the possession of that plenitude? “Let your modesty beknown to all men,” says the Apostle, “the Lord is nigh.” It is indeed only right that our modesty should become known, just as the modesty of the Lord our God has been made manifest to all. For what could be more incongruous than that men should behave with arrogance, though conscious of their own infirmity, and after beholding the Lord of Majesty living a modest life amongst them ? “Learn of Me,” He says, “ because I am meek and humble of heart, and thus your modesty also shall become known to all men.” But as regards the words which follow in the passage from St. Paul, namely, “The Lord is nigh,” it is necessary to understand them of the Right Hand. For with reference to the Left Hand the Lord Himself has said, “ Behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world.” ‘‘ The Lord is nigh,” my brethren. Therefore “ be nothing solicitous.” He is already at hand and will presently appear. Do not lose courage, do not grow weary. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found ; call upon Him while He is near.” “‘ The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart ”’ ; «the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.” And do you wish to know how near He is? Then listen to the Spouse in the Canticle where she sings of her Beloved; “ Behold He standeth behind our wall.” By this wall we are to understand our mortal body which intervenes as an obstacle during the present life, and hinders us from seeing Him Who standeth behind.* Therefore the Apostle desired to be dissolved and to bewith Christ, exclaiming in his wretchedness, ‘‘ Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” And the Psalmist gives expression to the same desire where he sings, “ Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise Thy name.”