In natalitia domini

Of Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, on the nativity of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. This spiritual and radiant meadow, variegated with the beauty of celestial flowers and fragrant with the apostolic and immaculate exhalations, seems to me to bear the form of the divine paradise. For just as that perceptible and pure region is brightened with incorruptible trees and immortal fruits and countless other exceedingly splendid beauties, so too this most godlike assembly of the most sacred church is illuminated with intelligible and ineffable mysteries, whose unbreakable foundation for us, and unshaken base, and saving beginning, and all-venerable summit is the feast of the holy nativity of Christ, our true God, which is today. On account of this feast the ancient things were prophetically typified, and the new things have been proclaimed explicitly to the whole world; on account of it heaven has been opened and earth has been raised to a divine height; on account of it paradise has been restored to men and the power of death has been abolished; on account of it the force of corruption has been trampled and the destructive worship of the devil has ceased; on account of it human passions have been put to death, and the life of angelic dominion has been renewed; on account of it the error of demons has been driven out, and the wisdom of God and the all-pure presence have been revealed. For it is not an angel, it says, nor a messenger, but the Lord himself will come and save them. O the unspeakable wealth of the divine gospels! O the ineffable knowledge of the all-wise mysteries! O the indelible treasure of divine and ineffable gifts! O the innumerable grace of providential philanthropy! For it is he himself, it says, the Lord who will come and save us.

How will you announce the Lord’s coming to us, O divine prophet? For in this part I will speak boldly to you, having assumed the persona of the ancient men who did not celebrate this all-hymned festival, nor experienced the new and all-pure birth of the immaculate Virgin, nor beheld the heavenly herald—I mean the most godlike star—nor seen the leaps of the holy angels, nor heard the divine voices which, rejoicing, they proclaimed to the priestly shepherds as they praised the born Savior, nor understood the gifts of the Magi and the divine adoration. Having assumed their persona, I would ask you about the manner of the coming. For the saying quite naturally struck them with awe, and it almost caused them to lose their wits from the intensity of fear. For they could not conceive that the immortal God would come to the most earthly humans, the intangible to the perceptible, the invisible to the visible. How could they have thought that God would come, and how would he be seen? Some thought previously that he appeared to Abraham through angels, or again as he appeared to Moses through fire in the bush, or in the manner he appeared to Isaiah through the seraphim, or to Ezekiel through the cherubim. For all have testified to having seen God in these various ways. Which of these ways, then, is worthy for the contemplation of God? Clearly, not one. And from where do we most confirm this? From the other utterance of the prophet saying: ‘After this he appeared on earth and lived among men.’

For those were signs of vision, not of intercourse, while these are proclamations of intercourse, not of vision. How then does he say, “The Lord himself will come and save us”? Would you tell us, O blessed one, how the formless one takes form, how the motionless one moves from the heavenly thrones and is again transferred to earth? And this divine man would answer them, saying, “You have heard from other oracles the manner of the coming; why do you meddle excessively with this saying here? Or has it escaped you that it was said, ‘The virgin will conceive in her womb and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel,’ which is interpreted, ‘God with us’? Or have you not heard what is written, that ‘A child has been born to us, a son, and has been given to us, whose beginning is upon his shoulder, and his name is called the angel of great counsel, the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the ruler, the prince of peace, the father of the coming age’? From these words you have recognized the manner of the coming. For an incorruptible virgin will bodily bring forth the incorruptible lamp; for the all-venerable Word of God must descend even to flesh, so that he may renew through incarnation those created by him with incorporeal divinity, who have grown old through sin, and may render them incorruptible through likeness to corruption.” When the prophet has said these things to them, we too will say: O child older than heaven! O thrice-blessed son, who comes bearing his own beginning on his shoulders, and does not seek to obtain it from another!

It is innate to the Word to rule over all as a son, and not adventitious as a creation. For "the beginning," he says, "is upon his shoulder." O great-named offspring! For he is called, he says, "angel of great counsel" and "mighty god." O all-powerful authority! For he is a wondrous counselor and a ruler of peace. How then shall we glorify today's feast? How shall we bless this most mystical assembly at hand? For who will fathom the immortal wealth of this day? With what grand and most lofty words shall we proclaim this all-hymned and trophy-bearing mystery of incorruption? O day worthy of countless hymns, on which the star from Jacob rose for us, and the heavenly man who appeared from Israel, and the mighty god sojourned among us, and the sun of righteousness cast its shadow, and the treasury of divine virtues was opened, and the plant of eternal life sprouted for men, and the rising shone forth from the height, and the master of heavenly and earthly things came from virginal loins into a perishable world for the world's redemption. For today a savior was born to us, who is Christ the Lord, who is a light for the nations and salvation for the house of Israel. O wonder! He who is not circumscribed by the heavens lodged in a manger as a child, and he who established all things with a brief word was warmed in women's arms, and he who granted being to all supramundane powers was nursed from the undefiled breasts of the holy virgin.

It happened, he says, as the gospel witnesses, that while they were there the days for her to give birth were fulfilled, and she bore her firstborn son, and swaddled him, and laid him in the manger, because they had no place in the inn. What is this new and paradoxical mystagogy? What is this all-powerful and life-destroying benevolence of divine providence? What is this terrible and all-wise stratagem against the devil? The world has been freed through a virgin, the world which before through her had fallen under sin. Through a virginal birth such great and vast hosts of invisible demons have been cast into Tartarus. The master has become conformed to the slaves, so that the slaves might again become conformed to God. O Bethlehem, city sanctified and allotted to men! O manger, O manger, partaker with the cherubim and equal in honor to the seraphim! For he who eternally rides upon those thrones in a divine manner now dwells in you again in a bodily manner. O Mary, O Mary, the one who bore the Lord of all

having acquired a firstborn creator! O humanity, who have given bodily substance to the eternal word of God and have been honored in this respect above the heavenly and intellectual powers! For Christ did not deign to be formed according to the forms of the archangels, nor according to the immutable images of the principalities and powers and authorities, but according to you, who have been brought down to change and compared to the irrational animals. For the healthy have no need of a physician, but she who was seized by frequent illness has met with so great and such a physician, that she is fortunate in a health greater than the salvation that has fled from the disease. But where now is the hostile and thunderless one, the avenging and utterly polluted serpent, who promised to raise his own throne to the heights? Therefore, brothers, partakers of a blessed calling and of the heavenly, called to adoption by God and to brotherhood, we ought to give thanks to the one who called us and to present ourselves as worthy of the one who grants us brotherhood, and as sons worthy of the one who bestows sonship upon us and has received us into adoption.

Let us therefore willingly and out of love serve him, being ready for every accomplishment of righteousness, adorned with purity, pursuing poverty of possessions, persevering in the words of God, devoted to holy prayers and sacred hymns of God, transforming ourselves from this age, forgetting earthly and mortal desires, conquering evil with good, repaying no one evil for evil, not accounting ourselves to dwell on earth, but to live in heaven, to consort with angels, to stand before the throne of the heavenly kingdom. These are the teachings of the holy apostles; in these Christ established for us the blessed and eternal covenant. Let the world marvel at your virtue; let the Jews be ashamed when they behold the new and chosen people, with how great spiritual beauty it is adorned, with how great brilliance it illuminates the world. For this reason he left us mingled among the nations, that we might appear as luminaries in the world, that we might be a seed of salvation for the conversion of all who live with us and meet us, being observed. See that none of the gentiles blasphemes God because of you; rather, let him who called, sanctified, and saved us be praised through us. Let the violent and insolent man marvel at our gentleness and moderation; let the reviler, when praised in return, be put to shame; let him who is contentious about money and wishes to go to law find us untroubled about money, not thinking that we possess any earthly property, but holding fast to the heavenly.

Let him who through friendly invitation draws us toward worldly pleasures find us dignified, immovable, desiring chastity, not lured by pleasure, so that they may know how great is the power of the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, which has deadened the nature of the flesh. Let him who is ready for perjury find us not even tolerating swearing, but fearing to offer the name of God concerning lowly and earthly matters. For thus we shall all be teachers of those who encounter us in any matter whatsoever. And by living thus we shall truly become holy leaven, and through us the world will be leavened for salvation, and much fruit from us will be found preserved for the Lord, and God will be glorified in us according to the Lord who says: "In this the Father was glorified, that you might bear much fruit and become my disciples." And when the Lord is glorified by us, he will glorify us with eternal glory, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory unto the ages of ages.