Sermon on the Lord's Epiphany

By St. Faustus of Riez (c. 405 - c. 490)

Introduction

St. Faustus was born in Britain. Though originally pursuing a career as a lawyer, his mother persuaded him away from secular goals, and he instead entered the monastery of Lérins in France. There he was ordained a priest and became abbot in 432, after the previous abbot, Maximus, had become Bishop of Riez. After Maximus' death, Faustus followed his footsteps and became Bishop of Riez as well. While bishop, he continued to live ascetically and often visited his prior monastery. He became known as a strong opponent of Arianism; because of this, Euric, King of the Visigoths, banished him from his see and sent him into exile. After Euric's death in 484, Faustus returned to Riez and ended his life there.

Besides his struggle against Arianism, St. Faustus also opposed Pelagius. At the request of the Gaulish bishops who had met at synods in Arles and Lyons in 475, he wrote Two Books on the Grace of God and the Free Will of the Human Mind. Later, though, this work was considered Semipelagian and was condemned at the Second Synod of Orange in 529. St. Faustus is also known for Two Books on the Holy Spirit, often attributed to Paschasius of Rome. The work below is a sermon attributed to him.

Sermon on the Lord's Epiphany

1. The solemnity of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, beloved brethren, we have celebrated in faith, in which God was born of man; now, we venerate with observance that by which God was revealed in man; there He is hidden in infirmities, here He is revealed in virtues. For today the star led the Magi, coming from the East, to the place of the Savior’s birth, to show Christ to those seeking Him; He is adored in rags Who shines in the stars; majesty is adored wrapped in rags, that is, under the abjection of human corruption. The magnitude of divine mercy is revealed in the newness of the ministries. In this, that Ethiopians—that is, Gentiles—first approach Christ Jesus, the church of the Gentiles preceded the synagogue of the Jews, stripped of the blackness of sin, and clothed in the whiteness of faith. Therefore, this church seeks our salvation in a stable, that is, the first multitude of the faithless peoples grew meek, being received into the house of the church. For the Jews glory in the cult of the law, but the first legates of the Gentiles see Christ; since a healthy eye follows the light of Christ, but the Jews’ corrupted intuition is suffused with its own light, and a sick gaze, shown a greater light, is darkened.
2. Meanwhile, the blessed legation was led to the sacred cradle, irradiated by a ray from above. Admire, beloved brethren, that a far-off people first enjoys the public good, that an astounded embassy is included in the embrace of the birth-giver, that on the mother’s breast hides He Who grasps heaven and earth. By a simple office, the arcane is spiritually revealed, humanity is discerned, and divinity is adored. The Magi display gold, incense, and myrrh, offering more in ministries than in consciences. In the gift of gold, royal dignity, in the vapor of incense, divine majesty, in the appearance of myrrh, entombed humanity is displayed; and also the Trinity is spoken of by the number of oblations; the unity is attested by the one devotion.
3. And, for this, with vigilant intention of the heart, let us strive to look to heaven, if we desire to attain to Christ. The star of justice leads us along the paths of perfect life. Let us offer Him the gold of faith, piety’s aromatics, chastity’s holocausts. Let us have spiritual myrrh in ourselves, which, as it spices our souls, so it guards them unharmed from sin’s corruption. Let this commerce be between both, so that we can compare that one’s propriety to this one’s use; so that, as eternal life will be the prize of the this one’s life, so let us labor, so that that be that one’s prize. As the evangelist says, “The Magi, admonished in dreams that they not return to Herod, but return, by another way, to their own land,” this is also commanded us spiritually, that, by another way, that is, by another way of life, we return to the fatherland.
4. Perhaps someone says, how can this be? Who desires to know this, let him hear the prophet saying: “Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and follow after it.” For by this order one returns to the fatherland by another way. Since by pride we fell into the world, it behooves that by humility we return to paradise: through cupidity we came to the devil’s servitude, through mercy let us return to Christ the Lord: through lust and luxury we took on the devil’s hardest yoke, through charity and justice let us hasten to take on the light yoke of Christ; so that let us who, by the ways of infidelity and iniquity, fell from the angels’ society to unhappily serve the devil, by the way of goodness and faith, strive to return to the original fatherland. If, by this order, relinquishing death-dealing ways, we want to hold to the ways of life, translated from the left to the right, we can faithfully and felicitously imitate the itineraries of the Magi. Is he not seen to return to the fatherland by another way, who before was wont to take the things of others, and now begins to mercifully pay out his own? Through another way he walked, who was an adulterer, and is chaste; who was drunk, and is sober; who was wont to curse, and now blesses; who was envious, and is benign. If, by this order, God helping, we strive to change the paths of our ways of life into better ones, we can felicitously attain to eternal beatitude; aided by our Lord, Who lives and reigns through all the ages of ages. Amen.

Source: Angelo Mai, ed., Spicilegium Romanum, Tomus V (Romae: Typis Collegii Urbani, 1841), 98-100.


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