forgiveness of sins, confirmation in that which is good, and eternal salvation hereafter.
Dear friends, the commemoration of our Lord’s Nativity is at hand. Therefore, cleanse the inward parts of your house[1] from sins in so far as you are able. Diligently and thankfully listen to God’s word;
give no heed to our carping critics who forbid you from attending the Bethlehem to listen to sermons.[2] Formerly, however, they used to draw you away on my account. Now they are without a reason, but assert that I have taken to flight, which I did of my own will in order to stablish the word and example of Christ. His “word”—because He said: If they will not receive your word in one city, flee into another, and going forth out of that city shake off the dust from your feet[3] as a testimony against them. And elsewhere He saith: When you are persecuted in one city, flee into another.[4] Again, when they drove Him from their midst and sought to slay Him, He several times fled; and especially when they wished to take Him, John, tenth chapter, writes how he escaped out of their hands and went again beyond the Jordan into that place where John was baptising first, and there he abode.[5] Also in chapter xiii.[6] the same John writes that while they were devising to put Him to death He walked no more openly among the Jews, but he went into a country near the desert unto a city that is called Ephrem, and there he abode with his disciples. The Jews also sought for him,[7] and they
