Held 1517.
Matth. 2, 1-12.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the land of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, the wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying: Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was afraid, and all Jerusalem with him; and he gathered together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, and inquired of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem, in the land of Judaea. For thus it is written by the prophet: And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art by no means the least of the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come to me the duke that shall be lord over my people Israel. Then Herod called the wise men secretly, and learned diligently of them when the star appeared, and directed them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye find him, tell me again, that I also may come and worship him. When they had heard the king, they went. And, behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they were greatly rejoiced, and went into the house, and found the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him, and opened their treasures, and gave him gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And God commanded them in a dream that they should not turn again to Herod. And they went again by another way into their own land.
They brought him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The holy fathers have interpreted these gifts in various ways. St. Hilarius with St. Jerome understand that under the gold a king, under the incense God, under the myrrh a mortal man was indicated and worshipped. Therefore, St. Jerome leads the Juventus when he speaks:
Aurum, thus, myrrham regique hominique Deoque Donarunt.
It testifies these gifts three,
The child be God, man and king.
St. Jerome, speaking of Matthew, says: "That the wise men in their gifts confessed Christ, and that in gold as a king, in frankincense as a god, in myrrh as a mortal man; and that in their adoration the knowledge of the
*) Löscher 1, 780; Erl. A. oxx. var. arZ. 1, 191 "iH.
D. Red.
The whole mystery is completed, namely in man, of death, in God, of resurrection, in the king, of judgment.
2 Another understanding is taken from the opposite, namely: by the gold the power of the king is shown, by the incense one should consider the high priest and by the myrrh the burial of the Lord. St. Hilarius, however, proves this only by the incense. Another understanding, which is the same as the first, is found in St. Gregory's Homilies, where he says: "The wise also praise the one whom they worship with mysterious gifts: in gold they praise him as a king, in incense as God, in myrrh as a mortal man; for the gold belongs to a king, but incense was ordained for the sacrifice of God, but with myrrh the bodies of the dead were anointed. But the same one (who, according to his habit, moralizes more than allegorizes) follows another, saying: "That in the gold is wisdom, in the incense prayer, in the myrrh the killing of the flesh.
But for this time let us see the first and the old mind; for it is necessary that we also perfect these mysteries. But we must not bring gold, consecration, and myrrh, but the sacrifice of a threefold confession, that is, that we confess that Christ is a king, a god, and a man. For as St. Gregory says, there are some who believe that he is a man, but do not consider him a king; likewise there are others who consider him a king, but not God. For the Jews confess that he died and was a man, but they hold him neither for a king nor for God. So also heretics are found, some of whom hold him for God but not for a king, some for a king but not for God, and confess him. But the Christians alone confess him as King, God and man, who suffered and died.
4 This confession is also made in two ways: first, with the mouth alone, without heart and without action; as the apostle says in Titus 1:16: "They say that they know God, but in action they deny Him," and rather want to be kings, gods and men unto themselves; secondly, it is made with emotion and in the work of the whole life. To confess Christ as God in this way means to give back to him all the goods received from him and to draw them to him; not to seek honor and glory, nor to let oneself be made an idol of vanity by them; but to hope for all good things from him and to trust in no creature. This living confession and faith, I say, is the most pleasing incense by which we offer ourselves and all that is ours to God. For the sacrifice pleasing to God is a devout, grateful and quiet heart. But this is very great, and it takes a long way to reach this sacrifice of the wise; but if the spirit is there, it will be accomplished quickly and easily.
5. but to confess Christ as a king and to sacrifice gold is to sacrifice and present oneself as a fool and a mere sacrifice, according to his deposited wisdom and the dictates of sound reason, or, as they say, good intention, and to prove oneself as one who is willing to be ruled. And these are children
of obedience, and let themselves be ruled by those who gladly accept the king, take their senses captive to the obedience of Christ, and in no matter trust in themselves; indeed, who are calm whether evil comes or good. On the contrary, those who are stiff-necked and cannot be changed, who always insist on their mind, resist the king, are a king and leader to themselves, follow only their own counsel, and trust God in no way to overburden themselves to him. Therefore there arises among them unrest, impatience, anger, dissension, grumbling, blasphemy, and all this for the sake of God and godliness [namely, as they imagine it]. Which rage is also to be found today especially among those who especially call Christ with their mouth and conceal Him in their work; who say, "We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15), that is, ourselves and our grace. It is therefore clear that the incense signifies faith and the gold hope, because faith believes that everything is and will be from God, but hope expects exactly what faith has believed.
6) Thirdly, love follows, since one confesses that Christ is a man and has suffered, and since one expresses his suffering and death with a living confession, that as he died, so also man himself wants to die. Here love is as strong as death. Thus one finds not only incense, that is, faith, in which one believes that good and evil have come from God, are still coming and will come; one also finds not only gold, that is, hope, in which one endures and hopes for all good and also for evil: but one also finds myrrh, that is, love, which also desires with joy that which hope holds. So faith takes us ourselves and all that is ours and lays it on God with praise and thanksgiving; hope gives us other things, bravely enduring everything in patience and meekness; love also takes us from God and all that we are, making us a noiseless nothing for which we were created, and this
with joy and desire. For this is the pure and exquisite myrrh, to consider oneself as nothing at all, just as one was before one was; and to desire neither God nor anything apart from God, but only to be brought willingly to its beginning, that is, to nothing, according to God's good pleasure. For just as we were nothing and desired nothing before we were created, except in the knowledge of God alone, so we must return to the same state of knowing nothing, desiring nothing, being nothing. This is the short way, the way of the cross, by which one reaches life in the shortest way, to which life one never comes by works, but rather deviates from it.
Addition.
(7) It is evident that every one can offer these gifts to Christ, the poor no less than the rich; indeed, that these sacrifices can be offered far better, since some have no gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which are sensual, to offer; but faith they can offer, that is, the confidence of true things not seen. For to believe that Christ is King, God and man is to offer these three gifts.
(8) This teaching is easy to say and to hear, but it is not possible for man to do it, I will not say difficult. For in this very thing there is a difference between the teaching that is presented by men and the teaching of God that he presents by himself, namely, that the preacher can speak and drive the sound up to the ears, but he cannot go further; but God lets the sound go inwardly to the heart, and teaches, yes, he makes it be perceived immediately from within and without. Therefore, those who rely on their intellect and therefore think that everything is good, because they understand it and can speculate the truth very finely, and thus surely fall into ruin, and do not respect God, the inner teacher, are in the greatest danger. For they imagine that they love the truth, since they love nothing but the knowledge of the truth, and are secretly puffed up in it.
and please himself. Therefore God says Ps. 32, 8: "I will instruct thee and show thee the way which thou shalt walk"; as if he wanted to say: I, I will instruct, it is not enough that thou hast a man for a teacher; thou shalt not be satisfied even with that. The following may serve as an example and figure of this matter: Although God left Mosiah and Aaron to lead the people, He did not let them be leaders, but He Himself went before them; He Himself was the leader on the journey, in the pillar of cloud and fire; so that no man should rely on man or his own mastery, but on God's mastery, which He demonstrates through man. Therefore cease to act proudly, and say humbly, "Lord, make known to me the way in which I should walk; for I long for thee."
(9) But that it is impossible for men to offer these gifts without grace is sufficiently proved by experience; for many profess Christ to be a king, but when he begins to reign and to run his kingdom, we immediately draw back and deny him. For it is fitting for a king to rule, and for a subject to be ruled. But in this way the opposite happens: for if we undertake good counsel and God nevertheless prevents it, we immediately say that this was not done by Christ the King, but by the devil. But what is this but taking rather than giving Christ the gold and the crown? One can therefore see many like this, who say with adorned words: Lord Jesus, you shall be my king, I give everything to you, your counsel and will be done; and behold, only the wife may die, the son, or the property perish, then one immediately ceases to think of Christ as a king. Where then is your king? Is it not clear that you have confessed him to be a king only with your mouth, not with your heart, not with your life? In the same way they confess God as long as they have the name; for the rest, as soon as the name is taken away from them, it is seen that they have revered their name and appropriated it to themselves.
have, but not God, except only with the tongue. And yet we hear them say: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner". (Luc. 18, 13.) This is the most general word, but it is most rarely proven in the heart. For if you spoke this word with the right emotion, all your sins would immediately be forgiven. So the sins of the tax collector were forgiven in the same word. In the same way we pray, "Hallowed be thy name," and yet we do not want it to be hallowed, because we do not want our name to be stained and defiled. We sing, "O Lord our God, how glorious is thy name in all the earth" (Ps. 8:2), which cannot be done unless that which is written in Ps. 9:6 is first fulfilled: "Thou hast destroyed their name for ever." But according to name, or nature, we are evil, foolish, ungodly; why then do we qualify for the names of goodness, wisdom and holiness, which is God's alone? For just as St. Augustine used to put his thoughts thus: If the good is separated in thought (abstracto) from the creature, namely goodness, then nothing but God would remain: in the same way one would like to set one's thoughts on wisdom and justice. For we are a shadow, but God is the true thing and our neighbor. So also a certain gloss in the Decretals is inconsistent, namely, that he sins who calls himself a sinner; and if they call themselves righteous, they lie more than they tell the truth at the time when they confess themselves sinners. For "not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." (Ps. 115, 1.)
(10) Therefore, he who takes away all goods from himself and gives them to God alone (as it is in truth) offers incense to Christ and confesses Him as God. This is the sacrifice of the pleasant odor, of which it is said in the Old Testament, "The Lord smelled the pleasant odor. So at last they confess Christ with their mouths, but in fact they deny Him. They believe that he suffered and died, but they do not want to imitate him, nor do they want to make Christ's suffering their own. If this were so, death would be almost sweet. For nothing makes death bitter but that we do not yet rightly recognize and confess Christ as God and King, that we still cling to what is ours, which death forces us to leave, and is therefore most bitter. Blessed, therefore, is he who has practiced these things in life, so that when the hour comes he may willingly die and form the departed Christ in himself and be like him. But we should not hear some who are too bold and say, "I will gladly die if the Lord wills it," since they are not concerned about the humility toward God, the surrender and patience toward the king with which they should be prepared and prepared. Therefore, according to the fable of Aesop about an old man who, tired by age and work, was pressed by the burden of the wood and called for death, when he came and asked why he had called for him, he answered, "You shall lighten my load, for he did not want to die, but to work no longer.