The beauty of Christ
That “the Word was made flesh” is great beauty for those who understand. “Far be it from me to glory,” said one of the friends of the Bridegroom, “except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It’s not enough that you are not ashamed by the cross; you must glory in it. Why, then, is the Bridegroom said not to have any beauty or fairness? Because Christ was crucified, a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But why did he have beauty on the cross? Because the folly of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men. May the Bridegroom who is beauty wherever he is come to meet us who have come to believe.
Beautiful as God, as the Word who is with God; beautiful in the womb of the Virgin, where he did not lose his divinity but assumed our humanity; beautiful when born, a Word who could not speak, because while he was still unable to speak, while he was being held and suckled, the heavens spoke, the Angels sang his praises, a star guided the Magi, he was adored in the manger, he who is food for the meek.
Beautiful, then, in heaven, beautiful on earth, beautiful in the womb, beautiful in the arms of his parents, beautiful when he was performing miracles; beautiful when he was being scourged; beautiful in his invitation to life; beautiful in his scorn of death; beautiful in surrendering his life and in taking it up again; beautiful on the cross, beautiful in the tomb, beautiful in heaven.
Augustine, En. in Ps. 44, 3.
Fr. Komonchak:
Where are you pulling these excerpts from? I’d like to read more.
Thanks!
I give the source of each of these quotes. They’re taken from various sermons of St. Augustine–passages that struck me for various reasons while I was reading them, and which I then put into my computer. English translations of them all are availabel ;through the New City Press, but these have been my own translations.
How bout you collecting them into a book?
Are the Latin versions of the sermons widely available?
You can find the opera omnia of Augustine in Latin at: http://www.sant-agostino.it/latino/ Most of the sermons are found here under “Discorsi”, but I think those on the Psalms are listed separately.
Many libraries also have access to the Patrologia Latina in digital form, with a wonderful search engine.
I have downloaded all the sermons from Migne’s Patrologia Latina and made a (very long) WordPerfect file, which I then made also a Rich Text Format file that can be opened with Word. If anyone wants it, send me a request. Make sure your e-mail program can accept a 1400-page file!
David, If you go to san agostino.it, you will find the Latin versions