[Sermones "Dormi secure" de tempore]

at the temple of Jerusalem.
Luke 2:40 The boy, however, was growing and strengthening according to his human nature, full of wisdom, and the grace of God was with him according to his divine nature. And thus the Gospel is clear. Returning to the theme. There were those admiring, etc. From these words, it is to be noted that four things are to be admired by all the world: namely, the incarnation of Christ, the conversion of sinners, the change of the world, and the glorification of the elect.

¶ The first thing that all admire is the incarnation of Christ. Whence: Who does not admire that such a powerful God, who created all things by His word, willed to become man for our sake, and so to humble Himself that He would bear a cross or wood, as is clear in the Gospel of John? Likewise, who does not admire that He who ordered all things by His wisdom willed for our sake to be reputed as a fool, as is clear regarding Herod who despised Him and clothed Him in a white garment as if He were a fool?

¶ Likewise, who does not admire that He who, by the clemency of the brightness of His face, illuminated the heavens—for heaven does not need the sun nor the moon, but is illuminated by the face of the Holy Trinity—that He willed His face to be veiled for our sake and spat upon?

¶ That is so wonderful that even the angels admire it. Whence the lower angels, seeing the incarnation of Christ and His ascension, admiring, said: Who is this that comes from Edom with stained garments, etc., that is, from the world? And the other, higher ones answered: He is beautiful in the stole of His clarity. Likewise, this is wonderful, that men admire that so many Jews, Gentiles, and evil Christians cannot think of this, nor grasp in their intellect, because they do not wish to believe. Yet these ought to think of what is said

John in his Gospel: No word shall be impossible with God. For if God created the whole world, the heaven, and the sea, and all things that are in them by only one word, as is clear in Genesis, where He said: Let it be, and all things were made. Therefore, it is possible to believe that all things came to be, that a virgin conceived, and a virgin gave birth, and a virgin remained. Likewise, this is wonderful, that demons admire the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whence the demons saw Him hungry, thirsty, and feeling cold, sleeping, saddened, weary, and all these things are manifest through the Gospel. Christ was tired from the journey and was sitting upon a spring. When, however, they saw these things, they believed Him to be a man, but when they saw Him perform miracles that a true man cannot perform, namely to raise the dead, to walk upon the waters with dry feet, to sin in nothing, to drive out demons from men with a single word, to cleanse lepers, they believed Him to be Christ, but they did not know for certain whether He was God or man until the Passion. Then they saw it manifestly when He breathed forth His spirit on the cross, and descended into the limbus the place where the souls of the just await salvation, and liberated those holy fathers.

¶ Therefore, the incarnation of Christ is the first miracle that angels, men, and demons admire.

¶ The second miracle is the conversion of a sinner. Whence Bernard says: It is a miracle that all men admire, namely that God created the world from nothing, but it is more miraculous that God, who calls back a most vile sinner who offended God in many mortal sins, and wishes to receive him back into his former grace, than to create a new world.

¶ This is proven by three reasons.

¶ The first reason is this. God created