Merry Christmas

Homily i,8 - Held to the people in the Basilica of the Holy Virgin Mary - December 25, 590.

He came unto His own (John 1;11). In His own nature, He was begotten before time; in our nature He came into time. Because the Eternal One appeared as a temporal being, that into what He descended, was alien and strange to Him.
And because the prophet states: All flesh is as grass (Jes 40:6), the Son of Man changed our grass into wheat, as when He said of Himself: Unless the wheat of grain fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone (John 12:24).
That is why the Newborn is put into a manger, to strengthen all believers, seen as holy creatures, with the wheat of His body, so that they do not miss the taste of eternal knowledge.
What else does it mean that an angel, appeared to the watchful shepherds, the Lord's glory shining around them, that before anyone else, those deserved to see the Heaven-like, those who know how to lead the herd of the faithful."

Please click the link to the full latin text of this homily.