Gregory of Nyssa, On Nativity

Of our holy father Gregory of Nyssa, a reading spoken concerning the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein he makes mention of Rachel and of those holy infants whom the impious Herod slew. "Blow with new trumpets upon your heads," says the chief singer David, "on this glorious day of our feast." But the commands of divinely inspired teaching are not without law for the hearers. Now then, since this glorious day of our feast has arrived, let us also fulfill this divine law and become trumpeters of this great, radiant, and most holy feast. But since that lawful trumpet, as the apostle commands, is a word—for he says: so that the voice of the proclamation may not be obscure, but by means of manifest voices for the understanding of the hearers—let us come, brothers, and let us also blow and utter some divinely resplendent and audible voice, not dishonorable nor inferior to those trumpets of horn. And because the law also, which prefigured the truth in the form of shadows, established the feast of Tabernacles with the sound of trumpets.

And on this feast of the true Tabernacle there is a mystery, for herein the human tabernacle is raised up, because of him who for our sake put on humanity on this day. Our tabernacles, destroyed by death, are set up again by him who from the beginning built our dwelling. Let us then also sing that psalmody and cry out with the high-voiced David: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. How does he come, or from where? — He who fills all things and holds all things visible and invisible. This is his incarnation. And how does he come? For he did not come by some ship or chariot, but entered into human life through the incorruptibility of virginity. This is the Lord God and he has appeared to us. Whence let us prepare this feast of joy in the time of flowers until the horns of the altar.

And we are not without understanding, brothers, of the mystery of these words, that every created thing is a tabernacle and a dwelling-place of God and his sanctuary, who himself created all things and orders and governs them. But since sin entered, the face of those seized by wickedness was divided; and the voice of joy ceased, and the unity of the feast of the joining together of the construction of men was cut off, for the incorporeal natures of heaven no longer celebrated the feast with him. Therefore the wonders of the prophets and apostles came, which the Law designates as a type of the unicorn. For their construction is prepared from that true unicorn, who with the power of the Holy Spirit proclaimed the word of truth loudly, so that those ears, divided by sin, might be opened, and the unified celebration of the feast might be accomplished through blossoming and tabernacling, adorned with earthly and heavenly things joined together, which encompass that invisible heavenly altar, which are the powers and forces, those radiant celebrants of the Trinity.

For the horn of that invisible sanctuary, poured forth and elevated, the orders of the incorporeal natures are made manifest, as we say: the principalities and powers and thrones and dominions and the other assemblies of them, which on this feast of the Tabernacle, which now has been erected, have become partakers with the human race, and through the Resurrection have been completely renewed and revived, as the interpretation of this word indicates. Whence we have come to this spiritual assembly, and we have raised up and awakened our souls to sing forth with divinely radiant praise for Christ the King, and we have set forth David as our chief hymnodist, and with him we have uttered that sweet and desirable voice which we have now uttered. And again we begin to sing the same and say: This is the day which the Lord has made. Come, let us rejoice and be glad in this, through which the darkness begins to diminish and the length of the night is driven away by the increase of light.

And this is not accomplished by some boldness or by its own completed order, brothers, but rather this is granted to human life by the divine providence of this feast. For through this visible thing, the creatures reveal to those who see with the spirit some hidden mystery. And as if by a voice, they proclaim and teach those capable of hearing. And what is the power of this deed, that on the day of the king's coming the day lengthens and the night shortens? For, as I think, the creatures make us hear such words as these: "O man, who sees this, through these visible things understand the power and the mystery of the invisible ones." See how the night increased and spread out, and was about to cross its own boundaries, but it halted and was repelled and turned back on its own path. From this understand that the evil night of sin, however much it was invigorated and raised its head of wickedness by the acquisition of all evils, was cut off from further advance, and from now on, by its shortening, it shows you its complete dissipation, and by this present light it is persecuted and utterly destroyed.

Behold the brilliance of the sun and the expanse of light, higher and more excellent than its former course and motion, wherein it previously proceeded, and comprehend the coming of that true light, which by its evangelical radiance illuminated the whole world. And do not suppose that the Lord did not come from the beginning, but that in these latter times he granted to human life the manifestation of his divinity; this very deed became the cause of such a dispensation; for, since he intended to uproot the wickedness of men, his manifestation among men was fittingly delayed, so that all that wickedness, whose roots had been planted and sown by the enemy, might come to full growth; and then, according to the word of the Gospel, he might send the sword and cut off its roots.

And just as skilled physicians do likewise: while the burning within the body is still hidden and, from the head, rises ever higher and higher, they refrain from treating that illness until the affliction has fully risen, and they give no assistance to the sick one by way of any nourishment. But when, from the crisis, that evil has subsided, then they show their skill, once that illness has brought forth all its foulness. Likewise, the healer of those souls sick with evil waited and sought out that illness which had come from sin, which had seized the nature of men, so that it might bring everything to light and leave nothing hidden, incurably. For this reason, not even in the time of Noah, when every fleshly being was corrupted by sin, did he reveal his healing through his own incarnation, for the thorn of the Sodomites’ wickedness had not yet sprouted.

Nor did the Lord appear at the time of the destruction of the Sodomites. For this reason: the multitude of those evil remnants was deeply hidden within human nature. For where was the God-fighting Pharaoh, and where was that unseemly wickedness of the Egyptians? And because it was not yet the time for the Savior to appear among such as those who were to be cast out, but it was necessary that the lawlessness of the Israelites be revealed, and the impiety of the Assyrians, and the arrogance of Nebuchadnezzar, and the slaughter of the saints—all of which, like some evil and wicked shoot and thorny growth, sprang up from that diabolical root. And it was necessary that the hidden mind of the Jews, hating the saints, be brought forth—those who stoned the prophets sent to them and crushed them with stones. And finally, in the midst of the temple and the sanctuary, they killed Zechariah.

Then that Herod, that filth of the destruction of the worms, added to these evil remnants. For since the power of all evil had emptied itself from those evil roots, and had sprouted forth individually and separately in the will, generation by generation, upon the evil of those renowned and celebrated ones, then, as the Apostle says concerning the Athenians, God disregarded the vessels of their ignorance. And He came at the end of times, when there was no one mindful, nor any seeker of God, when all had turned away and become useless at once; when all had been gathered under sin; when sin had overflowed, and the flood of lawlessness had risen to the head of the wicked. Then the grace of God appeared; then the radiance of that true light arose; then the sun of righteousness appeared to those sitting in the darkness and shadows of death; then it crushed the many heads of the whales, when it passed through the midst of these human fleshly forms, and by its movement upon the earth crushed, subdued, and made them invisible. And let no one now look upon these present evils, which are seen in our life, and think this word which we speak to be a lie, that the Lord shone forth in the latter days.

And if some disputant should say: "Since the time awaited the manifestation of evil times, so that when they sprouted forth, they might be uprooted entirely from the root, it was necessary that the uprooting of all things be accomplished, so that no remnant of wickedness whatsoever might remain. But now, behold, murderers and adulterers and fornicators, and all evils whatsoever have been accomplished in the life of men." But whoever sees this, it is fitting that he explain this inquiry by some familiar parable. For just as when certain reptiles are killed, the particular part of the tail does not die immediately with them, but the head is killed, while the tail still writhes from its own venom and agitation. Likewise, that slayer of the serpent, when the beast was enraged and sprouted forth and grew great together with each individual race of men, then crushed its head—that is, that power of his which gathered evils, with which he had many heads of wickedness with him. But concerning his tail, he showed no care at all, but deemed it fitting to leave the movement of that dead tail as a cause of struggle and teaching for subsequent generations. And that crushed head is the death which came upon us through that evil design of the enemy, whose bite has bestowed upon us the deadly venom.

Now then, he who dissolved the strength of death, having settled upon the head of the serpent, crushed that power, as the prophet says; but its tail and its end he left within the life of men, so that the diligence of the ascetics and the arrogance and disorder of the reprobate might be revealed, for it no longer rules over anyone with authority, since its head is crushed and its power dead. But when the end of times arrives, then that movement of that diabolical tail also ceases, which is this earthly death of the flesh, and thus a complete dissolution and destruction of evil shall come about. And by the Resurrection, the righteous shall attain eternal life, while the sinners shall be punished in that fire of Gehenna. But let us return again to this present joy, which the angels announce to the shepherds, which the heavens proclaim to the Magi, which the Holy Spirit through the prophets preaches in many forms and in various ways, until it also brought forth the Magi as heralds of this joy. For that which shines forth the sun upon sinners and the righteous, and rains upon the good and the evil, shed the light of knowledge even upon the faces of those foreigners, so that by the testimony of the adversaries it might confirm the truth among us.

Hear the word of Balaam the seer, who by the power from on high foretold through those alien prophets and said: A star shall shine forth from Jacob. See, then, that the Magi, who were of that lineage, ever awaited that star, the star of their father’s teaching, and its new shining forth, and they constantly yearned. And as soon as they saw it, they immediately followed it, whose nature was alien from those other stars, for it alone both moved and stood still. And it fulfilled both of these at its own time, for those other stars, once born and set in the firmament of heaven, those which were commanded to move, move forever, and those which stand, are forever stationary. But this one both moves and leads the Magi forward, and also stands still and announces the place of the newborn King.

Hear also Isaiah, who cries out with a loud and divinely radiant voice: "A child has been born to us, and a son has been given to us." And from that same prophet learn how this child was born, and how the son was given to us. Was it according to the laws of nature? "Not at all," says the prophet, "for the master of the laws of nature is not enslaved by nature." Tell us then, tell us how this child was born! And he says: "Behold, the virgin conceived and bore a son, and his name is called Emmanuel," which is interpreted: "God with us." O wonder! A virgin becomes a mother and remains a virgin! Do you see this renewal of natures? For other women, as long as they are virgins, they are not mothers, and when they become mothers, they no longer have virginity. But here both of these come together at once, and the same one is both mother and virgin. Neither did virginity hinder the birth, nor did birth destroy virginity, for it was fitting that the one who came to make human nature incorruptible should have the beginning of incorruption from the one who served as the instrument of his birth, since the unwedded virgin is named incorruptible among men.

And Moses also foretold this same thing, as I believe, through that divine light which appeared to him when the fire blazed up from the burning bush, yet the bush was not consumed by it, for he says: "I will go and see this great vision." And as I say, he did not call it a departure in terms of going from one place to another, but rather a passing through the intervening times, for then that which was depicted through the fire and the bush, by the passing through those intervening times, was clearly fulfilled in that mystery of the Virgin, for just as there the bush was set ablaze and yet was not consumed, so here the Virgin gives birth to that incorporeal light and remains undefiled. But do not be ashamed of this parable, if that bush prefigures the virginal and pure body of the Mother of God.

For every fleshly being, by that cause of sin which entered the world, was itself, for this reason, because it is fleshly, accounted as sin. And sin in the Scriptures is called a thorn. And this parable does no harm to the mystery of the divine service, for truly the Lord came down for this reason, that this earth of ours, which produces thorns, might by his coming become a treasure of blessing. And while we have not yet departed from the face of this present subject, let us also set forth this word: that Zacharias, whom we mentioned above, who was slain between the temple and the altar, who was the high priest and prophet, whose prophecy is proclaimed in writing by the Gospel. And the bringing forward of such a high man as a witness for the incorruptible birth of the incorruptible mother of Christ the King and for her remaining a virgin is not unfitting, nor unseemly, but lofty and brilliant.

For when divine grace paved the way for men, so that they might not disbelieve the birth from a virgin, by means of lesser wonders it rendered credible the reception of the greater among the unbelieving, and granted childbearing to the aged and to those whose time had passed, and made this wonder a forerunner of the virgin’s birth. For just as Elizabeth became a mother not by the power of nature—she whose days had been overtaken by old age—but that birth of hers was attributed to the will of God, so too the disbelief in virgin birth is made credible by attributing it to divine power. For since the birth from the aged preceded that birth from the virgin, while still in the mother’s womb the voice of the Word was changed, and before it had come to light, from the very womb it proclaimed its Lord and, by that incomplete utterance, heralded the joy of the whole world. And as soon as he was born, he instantly, by the spirit of prophecy, loosed the silence of Zacharias, and whatever he uttered was all prophecy of things to come.

This Zacharias, then, forewarned by the grace of prophecy and having attained to the knowledge of hidden things, was not ignorant of the mystery of the virgin birth and of her incorruptible parturition, which was revealed to him clearly by the Holy Spirit. For this reason he did not separate from the law the mother, the unwedded one, from that place in the temple appointed for virgins and from standing with the virgins, and he taught and instructed the Jews that the creator of all beings and the lord of all creatures, even human nature, serves and obeys him, and that as he wills, so he ordains it, and that his all-powerful will is not constrained by it. For this reason it is not impossible for him to introduce a new birth, and that his mother, from whom he was incarnated, should remain a virgin even after the birth. And for this reason he did not separate that holy virgin from the assembly of virgins in the temple, but that place was between the temple and the sanctuary.

But when those rebellious ones heard of the coming of the ruler of the born through the providence of human birth, they were afraid, lest the obedience of that good king be imposed upon them and they be subdued by him. For this reason, the one who testified concerning his mother was immediately, between the temple and the sanctuary, torn apart like beasts, and by that unjust murder they sacrificed the priest as an offering to God. But, as I think, we have strayed far from the present subject. From now on, it is fitting that we turn our word back to the annunciation to the shepherds by the angels, and to Bethlehem itself, for truly we are shepherds, and we keep watch and are vigilant over our flocks. And if this is so, then the voice of the angels, who announce to us this great joy, is indeed directed toward us.

Now let us open the eyes of the mind toward the vigilance of the heavens, and let us perceive the array of the angels and hear that divine song of theirs. And what is that sound of their festivity? — It is this: "Glory to God in the highest." And why does this angelic voice glorify the divinity dwelling in the highest? — For this reason, because peace was made upon the earth. The place formerly cursed and thorn-bearing, a place of strife and an exile for the condemned, now receives such peace that the angels cry out with a divinely radiant voice and glorify God. O wonder, for truth sprang up from the earth and produced such fruit. And this happened among men for the sake of virtue. God mingles with human nature, so that human lowliness might be raised up together with God.

Let us hear this and go as far as Bethlehem, and behold this new wonder: how joyful is virginity in childbirth, and how a husbandless mother nurses an infant with her milk! But first, let us hear from those ancient testimonies, who this is and whence she is. Let us listen, then, to the hidden and ancient testimonies which foretell concerning such a mystery, that the father of the all-holy virgin was distinguished in that city of the Law and renowned for his works of virtue, and he was called Joachim, from the tribe of David, and the name of his wife was Anna. And she was childless until old age, for her husband was barren. And there was a honor established by the Law for mothers of children, which was not given to the childless. Then the blessed Anna, like the first Anna, the mother of Samuel, went to the temple and prayed to God to grant her the fruit of childbearing and the lawful blessing, whose ordinances she had never transgressed, and she said: "If I become the mother of a child, I shall offer that child of mine to you, O Lord, whatever it may be." And thus she was strengthened by the divine testimony of the grace toward her which she had requested.

But from the time that child was born, they called her Mariam, so that even by her name the grace of that divinely bestowed offspring might shine forth. And when the fruit of the blessing was weaned, she fulfilled her vow, and brought him up to the temple and offered him to God. And the priests accepted him and deemed it fitting that, like Samuel, he should be raised in that temple. But when he grew up and came of age, the priests deliberated how to dispose of that holy virgin, so as to be obedient both to the judgment of the law and to the reproach of God; for they considered giving her in marriage according to the law and enslaving her to marriage to be as abominable as the theft of sacred vessels, if that virgin, who had been offered to God, should be given over to the authority of a man, since the authority of a husband over a man is given by God. And again, it was neither fitting nor proper to keep the virgin, now come of age, perpetually in the temple.

And while they were deliberating thus, a divinely inspired intention arose in their hearts, that they should give her to a man not by marriage but by betrothal—not to one prepared for marriage, but to an elder, an aged man, who had attained the fullness of virtue, so that he might be the guardian of her virginity. And then righteous Joseph was found, suitable for their intention, and such as they sought: of the same tribe and lineage as that from which the holy virgin came. And thus they gave the holy and immaculate virgin to him according to the custom of betrothal, so that he might guard and serve her with all reverence and piety, as to one consecrated to God and as a sacred vessel. And then the archangel Gabriel announced to the holy virgin, and the words of the annunciation were filled with blessing, that is: "Rejoice, O favored one, the Lord is with you.

And these words were before those earlier words which were spoken concerning the woman. For then sorrows preceded the birth, but here joy became the deliverer from sorrows. And then he added and said to her: "Do not be afraid," for from somewhere every woman is overcome by fear through the expectation of childbirth, but that height of the Gospel dispels that maternal fear. And again he said to her: "Conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Jesus." But what did Mary answer? — Hear the voice of that immaculate and holy virgin. The angel announces the birth, and she is desirous of virginity, and she considered her virginity more dishonorable than that angelic annunciation; and she is neither unbelieving toward the angel, nor does she consent to the destruction of her virginity, for she says: "And how shall this be for me, since I have no knowledge of the experience of a man?

These words of Mary, then, bear witness to our own words, which we uttered from the hidden meaning of the Scripture. For if she had been given in marriage to Joseph, how would the manner of her birth appear strange? For that marriage would have made it evident that, without any doubt, according to the laws of nature, she too would become a mother. But since she was consecrated to God and her preservation was to be inviolate, for this reason she says clearly: "Even if you are an angel, and even if you have come from heaven, and even if you are beyond human nature, yet knowledge of a man from me is impossible. And how can I become a mother without a man, for I know Joseph as a betrothed, but not as a husband?" But what Gabriel said to that holy one, or what holy and pure dowry he prepared for her in place of marriage, listen. This is it: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will shield you.

Oh, blessed is that body, which, for the sake of the surpassing purity of that one, drew the good spirits of its own soul unto itself! For among all others, it is rarely that a purified soul receives the coming of the Holy Spirit; but here, the flesh of that one, the treasure of the soul, becomes holy. But this word, that "the power of the Most High may protect you"—what does it signify? For it is a matter for inquiry. The Apostle says, then, that "the power and wisdom of God is Christ." Now, the power of God, which is Christ, was manifested by the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin, just as the form of the flesh, like the image of the firstborn, is imprinted by the hand of the craftsman. And in like manner, the image and likeness of the man to be born was imprinted in that womb by the same Holy Spirit, and it became the image, seal, and radiance of that firstborn image, by the powers and miracles which it accomplished.

Now let us turn our word back again to Bethlehem, as the holy Gospel commands, that we may behold those mysteries accomplished in the cave. And what are these? This is the child, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger. And let us also raise up the voice of those shepherds, that prophetic voice, saying: "As we heard, so we have seen, we, in the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God." But do we dare, and as it were, having closed our eyes, do we thus reject these tidings of Christ's incarnation? Is there no power and mystery to be seen among these? Let it not be so; let it not be that this should be. And what is the power of the Lord's birth in a cave, or of his lying in a manger, and of his incarnation at the time of the census? This is it: that, just as for the sake of our deliverance from the curse of the law he became subject to the curse and took our wounds upon himself, so that by his wound we might be healed, so also he submitted to being enrolled by the tax-collectors and became liable to tribute, that he might free us from the tributes which were due from us unto death forever.

and by that cave wherein the Lord was born, understand this unenlightened and hidden life of men concealed in dens, into which he descended and appeared to those sitting in darkness and in the shadows of death, and raised them up into the light of divinity; and by those swaddling clothes wherewith he was wrapped, he loosed the bonds of our sins. And again, the manger of the beasts is a resting-place wherein the Word lodged, that the ox might know its own feeder and the ass the manger of its own Lord. By the ox understand the one yoked to the yoke of the law, and by the ass the burden-bearer—burdened and weighed down by the sin of idolatry. But the food prepared for beasts and quadrupeds is hay, as it is written: "He who brings forth hay for the beasts"; whereas the rational animal is nourished by bread. For this reason, in the manger of the beasts, that bread of immortality which came down from heaven lodged, so that when the beasts taste the flavor of the food of rational beings, they might become rational and be enlightened.

ed them from the darkness to the light. Now, standing between the ass and the ox, the Lord and master of both, in order to dissolve the wall of enmity and to unite both into one new man, and to free one from the heavy yoke of the law, and to remove the burden of idolatry from the other. Let us open our eyes and contemplate the wonders of heaven, for behold, not only the prophets and angels announce to us this great joy, but even the heavens, through their wonders, proclaim the glory of this joy. From the tribe of Judah Christ shone forth for us, as the Apostle says, but the Jew is not illuminated by his light. The foreigners—those separated from the laws of the promise and from the blessings of the fathers, the Magi—surpass the people of Israel, and they recognize even the luminaries of heaven, and they are not ignorant of the king born in a cave.

They offer gifts, and these devise murder; they bow down, and these persecute; When they found the one they were seeking, they rejoiced, and these are terrified at his birth, for it is said: "When those Magi saw the star, they rejoiced with great joy," but when Herod heard their word, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. To him, as to God, they offered frankincense; and gold—as to a king; and myrrh—as to one who would suffer for us; for the grace of this prophecy was granted to them by the Holy Spirit. But these devised the slaughter of the infants, which was not only lawless and bitter, but also a proclamation and herald of their subsequent madness. And what was that slaughter of the infants? Or with what intention did those bloodthirsty ones dare to accomplish such a foul deed and to shed the blood of so many innocent ones? For the chroniclers say that it was because this new miracle, which appeared in the heavens, announced the birth of the king to the Magi.

And what is this: do you believe in this miracle as true, or do you consider this wonder vain and empty? For if this is something such that it compels even the heavens to fulfill its will, then surely it is beyond the power of your hands to lay hold of. But if his life and death are in your hands, then you fear this one in vain! Or you, O godless Herod—for I leave your other accomplices and turn my words to you—how great was your love of power! Or why did you issue that evil and cruel decree, that unjust sentence to slaughter the infants, who had done you no harm, nor was any cause worthy of torment and death found among them? Only one innocent fault was seen among them, namely this: they were born and came forth into the light.

And why did you fill the city with bloodthirsty murderers, and gather together the children and their parents, their own and their kin, an innumerable multitude, who for the sake of the common evil wept in common and bitterly lamented? But what word could express that trial, or what power of narration reveal that evil—the mingled lamentation and the grievous wailing of children and parents, of their own and their kin, who cried out piteously against the mercilessness of the murderers? How could one depict it, when the murderer, with a drawn sword, stood over the child and looked fiercely, and plotted like a slayer, and raged savagely, and approached, and with one hand seized that child to himself, while with the other he brandished the sword against him? But his mother, on one side, drew the child to herself, and on the other side, she thrust her own neck before the sword, so that she might not see that wretched child torn apart by the hands of the murderers.

And again, how can one recount the weeping and wailing of their fathers, and the final caressing of the children, and the beating of breasts, and the other forms of mourning, which it is impossible to describe. How can one make known that grievous and unendurable trial of those new mothers? One is the fire of nature for the service of the pangs of childbirth, and the other is the premature and untimely crushing of the infant, which, while still suckling at the breast, is destroyed by the sword. How that wretched mother's breast is thrust into the mouth of the infant, and her own blood is received into her own bosom; and many times, by the merciless blows of the murderer, the heart of the mother is shattered together with the infant, and a single stream of blood flows from both the infant and the parent. But since even this was revealed to that abominable and lawless Herod, that not only newborn infants were to be destroyed, but also those from two years of age and younger, as it is written, this discourse looks toward another bitter evil.

For in the midst of that completed time, the same mother becomes mother of two children, and from such a circumstance such an unavoidable evil appears, for two murderers seize that one mother, and one of them seizes that firstborn infant, and the other snatches the suckling from her bosom. What then did that pitiable mother do, or what was to be done, when nature was divided toward both of those children, and from both a common fire was kindled within her entrails, and she did not know to which of those evil murderers she should turn, who were dragging those infants hither and thither for slaughter. Or to which child she should incline: whether she heard the inarticulate and indistinct cry of the newborn and its pitiful wailing, or whether she heeded the lisping and childish speech of the other, which it uttered with a mother's cry and a flood of tears.

What then did she do? What then did she devise? Or to which one did she give a motherly and sweet answer? Or which one did she first lament, that one who, with both sides equally, was being inscribed by the stinging of nature, and was being illuminated by the fire of both mercies? But let us come now, and let us quiet our ears from the lamentation and wailing of the children, which are full of grief, and let us turn our mind to the joyful narrations and to the mysteries befitting this feast. For even if Rachel cries out and shouts loudly and laments the loss of her little ones, as the prophecy foretells, yet on this feast day, as the wise Solomon says, forgetfulness of evils is fitting and silence of the wicked. And what could be more radiant than this feast, through which that evil darkness of this life the sun of righteousness has dispersed, and through which that vanished beauty of nature has again been clothed by nature!

By this man, the fallen one was raised up together with his own offspring, and that unceasing battle was dissolved and changed into peace, and the one who had been cast out was again made his own, and the one fallen from life was turned back to life itself, and the one enslaved in captivity was raised to the honor of kingship, and the one bound with the fetters of death was loosed and turned back to that world of the living. Now, according to the voice of the prophets, the gates of the death of Hades were shattered, and those iron bolts were broken, by which the race of men was held captive in that prison of death. Now the gates of righteousness have been opened, according to the word of David. Now the voices of the feast-day cry out together: By a man came death, and by a man came life! The first fell by sin, but the second raised up from the fall.

And likewise, the woman was also freed through the man; the first one opened the gates of sin, while this one shattered the gates of sin by bringing in the world of righteousness. That one devised the counsel of the serpent, and this one raised up the slayer of the serpent. That one brought forth sin through the wood, while this one brought into the world a multitude of goods through the tree of life. The tree is the wood of the cross, and its fruit is ever ripe and unplucked, and for those who eat of it, life and incorruptibility are granted. And let no one think that such thanksgiving befits only the mystery of the Incarnation; but understand this also, that even if the Incarnation is the completion of the Economy, how could the completion have been accomplished if the beginning had not been made the guide of the completion?

Now then, which is the beginning of which? It is clear: the Nativity is the beginning of the Resurrection! Therefore I say that even the goods of the Resurrection are the riches of the treasures of the Nativity. And even if someone were to recount all those benefactions proclaimed by the Gospel, and to enumerate each of those miracles—that is, the effortless multiplication of the loaves, the return of the dead from the tombs, the unplanted appearance of the wine, the expulsion of demons, the transformation of incurable diseases into health, the visitation of the lepers, the eyes of clay, the teachings and the lawgivers, and the revelation of those high mysteries through parables—all these are the fruits of this present grace. And this became the chief of those subsequent goods. Therefore let us rejoice and exult in this, and let us not fear the reproach of men, nor be overcome by their contempt, as the divine Scripture instructs us, those who in their folly mock this mystery of Christ's incarnation and say: It was not fitting for the Lord to take on flesh and to enter into human nature through birth, and to come into this life in such a manner. Truly, the wisdom of God would not have lacked another form for the accomplishment of our salvation.

But what was desirable for you, that it might be done for the Lord? Is it not this, that you be saved from trials? Your desire is fulfilled and your wish is accomplished. And why do you still seek the form of your salvation, since you are already saved? Why do you prescribe to the benefactor and the law, and teach the rule of beneficence? And you do the same deed, as if someone were blaming a physician for beneficence, because he did not heal the sick man in the way that the latter wanted, but as was fitting and as the rule of the art required. Or why do you weary yourself in vain with the form of his providence, by the vanity of your thoughts? Do you not thank his goodness? For not only is God called by the name of a single good, or does he possess it, but whatever is conceived and uttered, he himself is all: mighty, just, good, wise, and everything else, whatever is a divinely beautiful understanding or name or deed.

Now you have experienced whether all this good was not accomplished at once by this mystery, which is his birth. For as a good one, he united these ungrateful and apostate ones to us; and as a wise one, he made effective the means of deliverance for these enslaved ones. And as a just one, he did not overpower the enslaver, but by the judgment of righteousness he redeemed us, for he gave himself as a ransom for many. And as a kind of good mediator, he with his own self cancelled our debts, and freed us from that by which we were enslaved by force. And as a strong one, he was not seized by hell, nor did his flesh see corruption. And because it was not possible for him to be seized by corruption, he who was the leader of life.

But this—that you say the assumption of flesh and the reception of human birth is grievous, and that the undergoing of the experience of human passions is painful and shameful—you turn into an enhancement of his benefactions by those words, for since it was otherwise impossible to free the race of men from evils, this king of all impassibility also took this upon himself for your sake, and exchanged his own glory for your salvation, deeming it worthless. And his purity touched our defilement, but our defilement could not approach his purity, as the Gospel testifies: "The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it." For by the manifestation of light, darkness is made invisible, not that the sun is darkened by the mist. And likewise, death is swallowed up by life, and not that life is destroyed by death, as the Apostle testifies; and the corruptible is made incorruptible by incorruptibility, but corruption cannot approach incorruptibility.

For this reason a general assembly is accomplished by all created beings, and all together with one voice offer doxology to the Lord God, the ruler of created beings, and all the tongues of heaven and earth and of the underworld cry out together, saying: The Lord Jesus Christ is for the glory of God the Father, and blessed is the Lord God unto eternity, amen.