Even Years: St. Ephrem, Commentary on the Diatessaron
(tr. Lefort from Armenian, SC 121, 325-328. Syriac not extant)
Il dit encore: Cete heure-là, personne ne la connaît, ni
les anges, ni le Fils, pour empêcher toute question sur le moment de son
avènement. Ce nest pas votre affaire de connaître les jours et les temps.
Il nous a caché cela pour que nous veillions, et que chacun dentre nous puisse
penser que cet avènement se produira pendant sa vie. Si le temps de sa venue
avait été révélé, vain serait son avènement, et les nations et les siècles dans
lesquels il se produira ne lauraient pas désiré. Il a bien dit quil vient,
mais il na pas précisé à quel moment, et ainsi toutes les générations et tous
les siècles ont soif de lui.
Bien quil ait fait connaître les signes de son avènement,
on ne voit pas leur terme, car, dans un changement constant, ils sont venus et
sont passés, et ils durent toujours. Son ultime avènement est en effet
semblable au premier. Les justes et les prophètes le désiraient, parce quils
pensaient quil paraîtrait en leur temps; de même chacun des fidèles daujourdhui
désire le recevoir en son propre temps, et cela dautant plus quil na pas dit
clairement le jour de son apparition, afin surtout que personne ne pense quil
est soumis à un commandement et à une heure, lui qui domine les nombres et les
temps. Ce quil a établi lui-même, comment cela lui serait-il caché, alors quil
a décrit les signes de son avènement? Mais pourtant il est écrit quil connaît
ces choses; pourquoi prendre une affirmation et omettre lautre?... Il a mis en
relief ces signes pour que, dès le premier jour, tous les peuples et les
siècles pensent que lavènement du Christ se ferait en leur temps.
Veillez, car, lorsque le corps sommeille, cest la nature
qui nous domine, et notre activité est alors dirigée non par notre volonté,
mais par limpulsion de la nature. Et lorsque règne sur lâme une lourde
torpeur de faiblesse et de tristesse, cest lennemi qui la domine et la mène
contre son propre gré. La force domine la nature, et lennemi domine lâme.
Cest pourquoi Notre-Seigneur a parlé de la vigilance de lâme
et de celle du corps, afin que le corps ne sombre pas dans un lourd sommeil ni
lâme dans l'engourdissement; ainsi le dit lÉcriture: Que la justice vous
réveille; et Je me suis levé et je suis avec toi; et Ne
faiblissez pas. Cest pourquoi nous ne faiblissons pas dans le ministère
qui nous est confié.
Odd Years: St. Odilo of Cluny, Sermon 10 on the birth of John the Baptist (PL 142, 1019-1020)
| Ad repellendas igitur et effugandas densissimas ac tetras mortis et ignorantiae tenebras, quas tenebrarum auctor mundo infuderat, venturum erat lumen illuminans omnem mundum. Idcirco consequens erat ut illud ineffabile et aeternum temporalium et rationabilium numerositas praecederet lucernarum. Patres dico religionis antiquae, quorum virtutibus, exemplis et dictis fideles populi illuminati et docti, discussa perpetuae caecitatis caligine, eum illud superveniret, si non ex toto, vel ex parte possent agnoscere.
| The light that was to enlighten the whole world was about to shine upon it, driving away the thick, loathsome gloom of death and ignorance in which the author of darkness had enveloped it. And since that light was eternal and incomprehensible, it was preceded by a number of shorter-lived luminaries whose rays were more readily intelligible to men. I refer to our fathers of the Old Testament through whose virtue, teaching, and example the Lord's faithful people were enlightened and instructed and the shadows of their age-old blindness dispersed, so that, if not entirely, at least in part, they would be able to recognise the light when it shone upon them.
| | Fuerunt itaque, ut diximus, lucernae, non a se, nec aliunde, sed ab illo supremo lumine illuminante, cultores videlicet coelestium praeceptorum, alii ante legem, alii sub lege, alii vero judicum, regum et prophetarum temporibus, Dominicae nativitatis, passionis, resurrectionis et ascensionis mysteria praeconantes. Post quos, Domini Praecursor, Joannes effulsit, qui omnium patriarcharum praeconia et vaticinia prophetarum luce perspicua deduxit ad publicum.
| Not from themselves, nor from any other man did these lesser luminaries derive their light, but from the Supreme Light itself. They were the ones who followed the path of God's commandments, some prior to the law, some under the law, some in the days of the judges, the kings, or the prophets but all heralding the mysteries of our Lord's birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension. And after them all came John, the Lord's forerunner, a beacon whose clear light led the people to the one whom the patriarchs had proclaimed and the prophets foretold.
| | Hic enim vir sanctus non solum justus, sed etiam ex parentibus justis exortus. Justus in praedicatione, justus in omni conversatione, justus in passione. Cujus nativitatem, justitiam et sanctitatem, et omnes sacratissimos actus Gabriel nuntiavit archangelus, stylus ad plenum descripsit evangelicus... Quantae sanctitatis, quantaeque coelestis gratiae Domini Praecursor ditatus est munere, humanae scientiae sermo non potest dicere. Et quia de eo humanae scientiae sermo dicere non valet, quod de eo et ad eum dictum est silere non debet.
| [For this holy man was not only just, but also born of just parents. He was just in his preaching, just in all his behavior, just in his martyrdom. The Archangel Gabriel announced his birth, his justice and holiness, and all his most sacred deeds, and the Evangelist wrote about it in full... The words of human knowledge cannot describe the extent of his holiness, and heavenly grace with with the Precursor of the Lord was endowed. Because the words of human knowledge are insuficient, what was said about him and to him must not be kept silent.
| | Quid praestatur homini tanto, cum de illo tantillus loquitur homo? Quid valet ad haec exiguitas hominis, quoniam de illo summa et ineffabilis loquitur Trinitas? Loquitur de eo Deus Pater in psalmo, loquitur idem in Evangelio. In psalmo: Paravi lucernam Christo meo. De quo sanctus evangelista: Ille erat lucerna ardens et lucens. In Evangelio: Super quem videris Spiritum descendentem et manentem, ipse est qui baptizat.
| What tribute is adequate for such a great man so great, when a small man talks about him? What is human littleness worth, when the supreme and ineffable Trinity speaks of him? God the Father speaks of him in the Psalm (132:18), which is repeated in the Gospel: "I have prepared a lantern for my Christ." In the Gospel we hear: "On whom you see the Spirit descending and resting, he is the one who baptizes."]
| | Quaedam vero testimonia, quae Spiritus sanctus per Isaiam et Jeremiam in Domini Salvatoris persona specialiter intonat, ad Praecursorem ejus coeleste magisterium et sensus catholicus convenienter pertinere denuntiat. Multo etiam apertius ei Spiritus sanctus testimonium perhibuit, quo repletus ad adventum genitricis Domini clausus adhuc matris utero, ut Evangelium loquitur, non natura praestante, sed gratia annuente, mirabiliter exsultavit. Ipse enim Dominus Christus, cui testimonium ille perhibuit, dicens: Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccatum mundi; tempore suae praedicationis, de illo dixit: Inter natos mulierum non surrexit major Joanne Baptista, et quem inter natos mulierum majorem fuisse dixit, levitatis vitio et voluptate deliciarum carere innotuit, prophetam et plusquam prophetam eum esse asseruit, et quem ipse potentia suae divinitatis tantarum virtutum et gratiarum privilegiis dedicavit, ut mortalium omnium merita excederet, Angelum a Deo vocatum, et ad praeparandum iter salutis ante se missum, prophetae Malachiae oraculo referente, perdocuit.
| There are certain testimonies proclaimed by the Holy Spirit through the mouths of Isaiah and Jeremiah which, though properly referring to the person of our Lord and Saviour, are also by the Church's divinely given authority and the consensus of the faithful fittingly applied to the forerunner. But even more clearly has the Holy Spirit borne witness to John. The Gospel tells us how John was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb and leapt for joy in the presence of the mother of his Lord, moved by no natural impulse but by the stirring of divine grace. Later John bore witness to Christ the Lord in the words: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! And Christ in his own preaching gave testimony to John, saying: Among the sons of women there has never arisen a greater than John the Baptist.
Calling him the greatest among those born of women, he drew attention to John's constancy and austere manner of life and declared him to be a prophet and more than a prophet. By his own divine power Christ endowed John with privileges and graces in excess of all others, describing him, through the lips of the prophet Malachi, as the messenger who was to go before him to prepare the path of his salvation.
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