Awake,
mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep, rise
up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again:
for your sake, God became man.
You
would have suffered eternal death, had he not been born in time.
Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had he not taken
on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. You would have suffered
everlasting unhappiness, had it not been for this mercy. You would
never have returned to life, had he not shared your death. You would
have been lost if he had not hastened ‘to your aid. You would have
perished, had he not come.
Let
us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and
redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the
great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity
into our own short day of time.
He
has become our justice, our sanctification, our redemption, so that,
as it is written: Let him who glories glory in the Lord.
--
Saint Augustine of Hippo from
a sermon
