807and dost thou know that I know thee? When I was hidden in my mother's womb, and not having yet found my exit because the time was not complete, I saw thee in the womb of the one who bore thee, whom thou wast bearing; and I recognized thee; and when I was unable to speak, I shouted through the mouth of my mother: "Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43). There I did not err, and now shall I not attain to knowledge? I ought to be baptized by thee, and dost thou come to me? The Lord answers, as thou hast just heard: "Suffer it for now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 3:15). Suffer it for now; thou knowest not what thou sayest; I know what I am doing. Thou seekest that the glory of my divinity should be revealed to thee; it is not yet the time for this; all things are good in their proper time. Thou speakest the truth, but faith is not held toward thee; for the nation of the Jews is indeed incredulous; didst thou not call them a generation of vipers? Why, then, dost thou wish me to be revealed to them? They do not accept thy testimony concerning me; they regard thee as suspect regarding the office of the Forerunner. Suffer it for now; they shall receive a greater testimony. Suffer it for now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. John replies: In what way, Master? Then the Lord: Just as I am circumcised that I might fulfill the law, so am I baptized that I might confirm grace. If I fulfill a part and leave a part, I leave the dispensation mangled. I must fulfill all, that hereafter Paul may write: "Christ is the fullness of the law unto righteousness for everyone who believes" (Rom. 10:4). Suffer it for now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Suffer, John, the nature of water to be sanctified; I must fulfill all. If I do not receive baptism from thee, a king will not deign to be baptized by a poor priest. Suffer it for now, suffer that the Father may cry out from on high: "This is my beloved Son," not that the Jews might call me a carpenter’s son, but the Son of the heavenly Father. Suffer it for now, do not oppose Adam; I am the second Adam, who wish to wash away the filth of his sins; if I am not baptized, how shall he be purified? Therefore, I, being thirty years old, am baptized, adopting his age, so that through that which pertained to him, that which is mine might be confirmed. Suffer it for now, that the word of the prophet might be fulfilled: "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters" (Ps. 28:5). And the spectacle was terrible. John trembling touched the head of the Master, and the angels looked on as the heavens were opened; and the Spirit of grace in the form of a dove flying to the head of the Master, was renewing the right hand of John. The multitude stood by, greatly doubting, and saying to one another: "Who is this?" From here, answering the crowd, the Father cried out to him who was asking, "Who is this?" and said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: listen to him." The Begetter testifies to his love for the Son by crying out, that thou mayest learn the Creator's affection for the world, who for such servants delivered up the Son, for the hateful the beloved, for sinners the sinless, for the inglorious the glorious. Therefore, let us celebrate with glory the Lord who has appeared, with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
NOTICE REGARDING THE HOMILY ON THE MEETING OF CHRIST
Anyone of refined taste will grant that this homily is unworthy of Chrysostom. For there are many things here, especially toward the end, that are inept and childish. Rightly, therefore, was it relegated among the Spurious in previous editions. The Latin interpretation is by Fronto Ducæus.ON THE MEETING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND ON THE THEOTOKOS, AND ON SIMEON. ORATION
Not only does our Lord Jesus Christ clothe himself in flesh, but he is even circumcised according to the prescription of the law, that he may remove every occasion for Jewish incredulity. For he comes to the law for the sake of the law, that through faith he might free the disciples from the law; and he assumes flesh, and is circumcised with the Jews. He enters into communion of flesh, he enters also into communion of circumcision; he confirmed the kinship, lest they deny Christ to have risen from the seed of David, whom they were expecting; he showed the token of kinship. For if, when he was circumcised, they said, "We do not know whence he is" (John 9:29), if he had not been circumcised according to the flesh, they would have had a specious occasion for denial. "After the eight days were completed, that the child might be circumcised" (Luke 2:21). "After the eight days were completed": for the law orders the circumcision to be done on the eighth day; and when the eighth day arrives, the physician proceeds into the midst, and takes up the iron, and practices his art, and the sabbath ceases on account of the circumcision. Let us therefore question the Jews: The sabbath is a rest; it is a day of perfect vacation; for what reason does the eighth expel the seventh? Why does the eighth surpass the seventh? But the Jews indeed do not know Jewish matters at all; but the Church of Christ knows Christ and the Jewish documents. For the child is circumcised on the eighth day, because the Lord's resurrection was to be the circumcision of the whole world on the eighth day. For why did Moses not command them to circumcise on the sixth day? Why not on the ninth or tenth? The eighth day is therefore illustrious and clear, the day on which the Lord rose. If anyone, therefore, does not believe in the resurrection, he is uncircumcised in heart, and through incredulity is alienated from God. But circumcision itself is the true knowledge and understanding of faith. Therefore, most beloved, circumcision is handed down to the faithful in place of holy baptism; but the holy baptism of Christ is a figure of the resurrection. Pass, therefore, from the flesh to the spirit, and from the corporeal to the mystical anagogy of the Spirit, and there thou shalt find carnal circumcision, but here spiritual, and the purgation of sins. The eighth, moreover, is the circumcision, the eighth also is the resurrection; but baptism is the figure of the resurrection. Therefore, a progress is made from small things to greater; from corporeal things to those which are more spiritual. Let the Jews, therefore, draw near, and make progress; for progress is to be made from carnal things, and one must not stick in them. And our Lord Jesus Christ, indeed, who "did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it" (Matt. 5:17), was circumcised with the Jews. The evangelist therefore says: "Those eight days were completed that he might be circumcised, and his name was called Jesus; which was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb" (Luke 2:21). For we indeed receive names after the infant is brought forth by childbirth; but the name Jesus was imposed before he was born; for he was before he was conceived.