Maximus of Turin. Christmas Weekday before Epiphany

Altar of the Holy Name of Jesus,
with the IHS monogram
at the top, Lublin, Poland.

Christmas Weekday before Epiphany

TUESDAY

Year I

    

Optional: Memorial: The Most Holy Name of Jesus

Patristic Reading, Night Office, 

First Reading

Colossians 3:5-16

          Responsory See Gal 3:27-28

All of us who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

+ We are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Y. There are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female. + We are all . . . .

From a sermon by Saint Maximus of Turin
(Sermo 6, 1-3: CCL 23, 257-258)

The Christmas mystery

Brothers and sisters, our hearts still echo with the joy of the Lord's birth, and our continuing gladness creates in us a sense of heavenly festivity. For, though the joyous day itself has passed, the sanctification that joy brought is still with us. As the newborn Saviour grows with each day that passes since his birth, so our faith in him grows stronger. Time brings the Lord an increase in age, and us an increase in salvation. It is for his own sake that the Lord grows in age; it is for our sake, not his own that he grows in holiness - since the holiness of Christ is eternal and perfect. He is said to grow in holiness because he causes our faith to deepen. For though Christ after his birth is small in body, his sovereignty is nonetheless divine.

Still then does the joy of the Lord's feast thrill our being. It bids us cry out for very gladness and say what the angels said at Christ's birth: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will.

Note carefully what the angels said. They did not say "peace to men," that is, to all men without restriction, but peace to men of good will, so that we might understand Christ's peace to depend not on the simple fact of being human but on man's will; not human wickedness but Christian goodness. Peace is not bestowed on all, but on those who have been tested and found true. It is not given to be scattered abroad, but proposed as a good to be chosen. The peace of Christ, then, belongs to those who believe Christ to be the author of peace. It belongs to those who do not experience within themselves the conflict of sin. It is found in those w hose wills are not defiled by the blood offered to idols.

It is fitting that only an incorrupt will should possess the Saviour whom an immaculate virgin bore. Indeed, just as Mary carried him in her womb while remaining stainless, so our souls must be pure if they are to retain him. Mary was a type of our souls. As Christ looked for virginity in his mother, so he looks for integrity in our affections. A soul that is virginal with regard to sin conceives and bears the Saviour when it preaches him; it keeps him present when it observes his commandments. Faith retains him once he has been conceived in us; the confession of faith sends him forth once he is born; concern for him keeps him ours once he is grown.

Let us therefore rejoice at the feast of him whose birth the singing angels proclaim, and the simple shepherds seek out, and the pious magi adore! The grace-filled angels honour Christ as God, the innocent shepherds seek him as Lamb, and the adoring magi worship him as Priest. The veneration offered by the magi plainly shows Christ to be a priest; indeed, their gifts manifest the whole mystery of Christ. For they offered, as best they could, what they knew would be beautiful in Christ's eyes: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gold is for kingship, the myrrh for his resurrection, and the frankincense for his propitiatory sacrifice. Gold symbolizes power, myrrh incorruptibility. and frankincense priesthood.

Responsory

The true God, begotten of the Father, came down from heaven and entered the Virgin's womb, so that we could see him in visible form, clothed in the flesh and blood that came to us from our first parents. t And from that virgin womb he came forth, God and man, light and life, creator of the world.

V. The Lord came forth like a bridegroom emerging from his bridal chamber. t And from that ..

St. Maximus of Turin

Saint Maximus of Turin Virtually nothing is known about the life of St. Maximus, except that he was the bishop of Turin, in Northern Italy, and died sometime during the first two decades of the fifth century, AD, as the Roman armies were losing ground against the barbarian hordes.  Over 100 of Maximus' homilies survive.  The mostly short, moving sermons of this Early Church Father were so moving that they were copied and passed down through the Middle Ages as models for medieval homilists to follow.   Mystery of the Lord's Baptism | Saint Maximus of Turin | Epiphany ... www.crossroadsinitiative.com344 × 480Search by image This excerpt from a sermon by St. Maximus of Turin for the Feast of the Epiphany (Sermo 100, de sancta Epiphania 1, 3: CCL 23, 398-400) is used in the Roman ...