Nativity 24

The change and the son of his voice. To you, praise from every mouth. On this day of your birth, the infants were slain because of your birth, who gives life to all. For the king who was slain, the Lord of the lords of the kingdom, that persecutor, while he was adorned, the slain infants were given to him. The mysteries of the death of the heavenly ranks were received by the bent ones. The infants who approached the earthly ones: blessed is the king who brought in the change. All the kings of the house of David, the throne and the crown of the son of David, they brought and delivered to one another, like the guardians of the covenants. [The priests, the prophets, and the kings ceased] in one they were silent and became still, that the Lord of all things came and took from them everything. He cut off the sources of everything: blessed is he who was clothed in his limbs. The days were dark in Bethlehem, for the serpent destroyed its young. He went down to Egypt, he cast down the idols, he took the crowns. Egypt rejoiced in him, for she was [filled for the payment of her debts, for she had killed the sons of Joseph] in the son of Joseph she labored and repaid the debts of the sons of Joseph. Blessed is he who called him from Egypt. The scribes were reading every day that a star would shine from Jacob. A voice and a call to the people, to the nations of error and interpretation. To them the books, and to you the deeds; to them the branches, and to you their fruits. The books read in the writings; the magi see in the deeds. The burning of that reading: blessed is he who added to your books.

The star of light that went before the Magi was hidden and proclaimed; a crown was concealed and a body hidden. It became a son to two sides: a herald and also a watcher. He guarded his body and proclaimed his crown. Blessed is he who made wise his heralds. The tyrant looked at the Magi who asked, "Where is the king's son?" While his heart was bitter, he asked him who was joyful. With the flocks of fathers he sent to kill the lamb of God. The lamb went to Egypt to save the eyes from blindness, to free the eyes from blindness. Blessed is he who turned and enslaved the eyes. The Magi examined the tyrant, for they had escaped with your deeds. The star of light was hidden, and the paths were concealed. The murderers did not know, like the Magi. The bitter king sent to destroy the sweet fruit. The bitter ones ate him and became sweet; they placed praise for you, the giver of life. When the Magi received the command to go and seek him, it is written that they saw that star of light and rejoiced. It is known that when it was hidden, it was hidden; when it appeared, they rejoiced at its sight. The cry of the murderers was overturned; the Magi were raised up and called. He overturned one side and called to the other. Blessed is he who cried out on both sides. The defiled one who kills the children—how did he become silent before the child? The whole bitterness of him who thought that the Magi were working for him, while he prolonged the hunt for the idolater and his idolaters.

His hands came forth from everything; the offerings and the worshippers flew away from the altar towards the king's son, praise to the Knower of All. The pure Magi, while lying on their beds, considered that the hour was a showing, and the dream was like a vision. They saw the slayer and were terrified, for the whole sword was hidden and was striking. The watchful one taught the sleepers; blessed is he who deceived the simple. The simple who believed were made known by two comings of the Messiah. But the foolish scribes of the eclipse did not perceive even one coming. The peoples, however, lived by one, and the end is understood by the other. The people whose understanding is blind, one coming in his court, of the two that are hidden in his memory. Blessed is the king who came and will come. The Saviour shone for the blind, and they saw the seers for the others. The sun showed its rays, and they saw the bent ones in darkness. The radiance sent a vision and brought the seekers of light, that it might reveal the seekers of darkness: behold, in your midst is the light, and upon your eyes is a covering. Praise to you, O new sun. The prophets examined his birth, but they did not distinguish his sacrifice. He sent a sign to the Magi, and they came and showed his sacrifice. The Magi, however, who made known the sacrifice, did not distinguish which child. The star of light, shining, blessed, was interpreted through all of them. They fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which on the pure virgin he sang. They ceased the lyre of the psalms, which on his priesthood he sang.

The kithara of the Spirit fell silent, for concerning his kingdom the song ceased again. Beneath a great silence he confined the great Nativity which he established. The upper with the lower, blessed is he who was purified from within the silence; his voice was a hidden key, and he opened the mouth of the Magi who were silent in Judah. The heralds cried out a voice in creation, and the proclamation which they abolished—they overturned its error, and the distant ones came. They began to hear the likenesses, their voices from the memorials, while they cried out concerning the son of David, blessed is he who by his voice silenced their error. The people of the offerings overturned, and they did not approach the king's son. His messenger went forth towards the peoples and brought their error in their offerings. It was not, however, for all of them that he brought, for he was unable to suffice for them. A small cave in Bethlehem, which is the cave of the Church of the Holy One, expanded and took in her children, blessed is he who multiplied the treasury. The murderers reaped in Bethlehem the desired ears of grain which were in them; the desired seed would have perished, by which the living bread was concealed. The path of life fled, to come to the rock at the harvest. The cluster which fled, when it gave birth, gave itself in the press. The press, with its wine, the souls; praise to you, treasury of life. The serpents ascended to Paradise, which was full of fruit-bearing trees; they stripped the fruits from the branches, they ruined the vines and the shoot. The pure offerings approached the tablet, while not knowing him—woe to him and to them, blessedness to the womb of Bethlehem. Fruits in virgins for the holy one, blessed is he who receives the beginnings.

The scribes fell silent in confusion, and the Pharisees in error. The stones of the rock that had been hewn for the heart of the rock cried out and praised. They had praised before the rock, the forgetfulness that was the head. Stones were cast upon stone, and silent mouths cried out. The cries of stones in the hand of the stone: blessed is your birth that made the stones cry out. The star that is written in scripture: distant peoples saw it. The near people were astonished: either the people who teach and are rich, or the people who turned and learned, where and how they saw it. That vision which Balaam spoke of: that same one, concerning whom he spoke in detail. The visions that saw him: blessed is he who showed himself among the houses. Approach my request at your door, and my need at your treasury. Give me, my Lord, that without thought, like God to a human. If I increase like a good son, and if I add like a king's son. If I oppress like dust, like Adam the father of Adam, and like a good son also a son of a good man: praise to you, for you resemble your father. The people do not perceive that he who holds the scriptures reads his sins. Concerning his going out he cries out, and concerning his entering he is silent. Behold, the fool reads in his books the errors that were divided to him. While he boasts in his writings, his destruction is what he reads to him. And concerning his inheritance he testifies to him: blessed is he who came and showed himself to the solitary one. The pair of heralds proclaimed the tastes of the Only-Begotten. The star of light and John: one vision and another voice.

Also that herald was the Word, and the shining one. His sun [the voice] and the bright one proclaimed the lamb upon his light. Also the voice upon his wisdoms, blessed [in the proclamation] from his heralds. [Look at him] John, and the cry that this is [the Lamb] of God. He heard [the Lamb] and grew, and came to be the offering. John did not cease when he cried that this is he, that even the murderous soldiers and the slaughterer of the foundation might be, through his blood, forgiveness, blessed the redeemer of our sins. The star of light, shining, was not like John. For there is where it set and extended the way for the simple; and there is where it stood and hid the path from the wolves. It kept the Lamb from slaughter, that on his day he might come to the slaughter, that through him the flock might be healed, blessed the one who redeemed through him [his limbs].