Note 842 — Chapter XI · THE BEGINNING OF WINTER

Augustine, in his sermons, uses a solar symbolism in two ways, besides drawing the parallel with St. John already quoted. Christ is lux e tenebris: ‘quoniam ipsa infidelitas quae totum mundum vice noctis obtexerat, minuenda fuerat fide crescente; ideo die Natalis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, et nox incipit perpeti detrimenta, et dies sumere augmenta’ (Sermo cxc. 1 in P. L. xxxviii. 1007). He is also sponsus procedens de thalamo suo (Sermo cxcii. 3; cxcv. 3, in P. L. xxxviii. 1013, 1018). Following this Caesarius or another calls Christmas the dies nuptialis Christi, on which ‘sponsae suae Ecclesiae adiunctus est’ (Serm. Pseudo-Aug. cxvi. 2, in P. L. xxxix. 1975). Cumont, i. 355, gives other examples of Le Soleil Symbole du Christ from an early date, and especially of the use of the phrase Sol Iustitiae from Malachi, iv. 2.