Homilia in occursum domini

A discourse of our father among the saints Athanasius on the meeting of the Lord, God, and our Savior Jesus Christ. Let the evangelical trumpet resound the themes of this present sacred festival; and let Luke, the mystical bridal attendant, lead us, who stand with sincere mind in this virginal bridal chamber, by his word to the understanding of the beauties contained therein. For it is not fitting, when he presides over the events of this day, that any other discourse be introduced from outside, which would bring no grace and would instead impart no little ugliness to it. For just as, when the sun shines clearly, the lighting of a lamp is vain and useless, so where Luke, or any other of the evangelists, sounds forth, every discourse is idle, tedious, and profitless. Let him then declare the marks of the feast, and let him show it to us, who love festivals, more clearly than trumpets show battle lines to those who love war. He will certainly speak and show very distinctly, if we lend a willing ear. And so we must pay attention and guard with all care, lest, by foolishly making the advocate our accuser and the celebrant our judge, we repent at the last, though vainly and uselessly. "The parents brought the child Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord." What discourse could attain to what is said? What mind could encompass the wonder? What ear could contain the grandeur of the narrative? Oh, the fearful tidings! The pre-eternal one is recent; the timeless one is under time; the uncontained one is in a container; the eternal one is an infant.

The greatest thing: the Son of God becomes and is believed to be the Son of man. What is this strange, what is this paradoxical thing? What is this great condescension of the Word toward us? The parents brought up the child. What do you say, O most excellent and wisest of the holy evangelists? What do you say, O interpreter and teacher of the heavenly revelation? What do you say, O mystical writer of the thoughts of the Spirit? You speak about God, and you mention a local movement? You wish to make clear to the ends of the earth that the Son of God was born of a Virgin, and you bring forward fleshly parents? And is there at all a parent of God on earth? Or does God have parents? Or does God become an infant? Or is God carried by parents? What is the meaning, what is the mystery? The parents brought up the child. With what hands, then, and with what arms do they carry him? The cherubim tremble, the seraphim turn away, angels shudder, archangels are struck with awe, and all the powers of the heavens cover their faces in fear; and you introduce mortal beings of flesh carrying him, and moving him, and leading him about. What is the wonder? What is the thing? What is the ineffable? The parents brought up the child; for you said these things, narrating to us the events concerning the birth; for this reason you also introduced the angels to the shepherds, both indicating and announcing the birth and the place where he was, and that heavenly multitude crying out loudly and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace," and the mother preserving everything with care, and comparing it with the seals of virginity?

Yes, he says, and look not only at the wonder, but also at the economy. For God is not, as it were, nakedly made an infant and circumscribed by a mother's arms, but having taken up the mortal nature, rather, without sin, truly having become man. How and in what manner? I cannot say, he says; for this is ineffable and completely inexplicable, not only to me, but also to the mother herself; and not only to her—for she too partook of human nature, even if she was deemed worthy of grace beyond man—but also to the incorporeal nature itself, and to the first after the first. If even the incorporeal nature, and that which served the mystery, was completely ignorant of the mystery, how do you seek to learn this from me, a man who sometimes does not even know what is at his feet? How did he become man? First tell yourself how you became man, and then investigate the divine incarnation; but not even then, for just because your own birth is known, that of God is not also known; for then that too would be of a man, and not of God. Therefore, the "how" must not be examined; for as much as you are lower than God, so much more ineffable than your own birth, and even more so, is the birth of God. "The parents brought up the child Jesus to Jerusalem." What then were they about to do? Were they perhaps to take over the kingdom of Israel? Or to forge weapons, or raise an army, or gain some other lowly and temporary advantage for the child? No, he says; but "to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord." What are you saying, man?

And is there another who is truly God of God, or Lord of the Lord in the proper sense? Yes, he says, and do not fear; for this is not according to nature, but by grace and the highest economy. For just as God is called Father of those who are not sons in the proper sense—"For I said," he says, "you are gods, and all sons of the Most High"—so also of the Son in the proper sense, according to nature (for the Son is consubstantial with the Father), he is called God by grace and economy: "For I ascend," he says, "to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God." For what reason? "The Son is not ashamed to call us brothers; for I will proclaim," he says, "your name to my brothers, and I will hymn you in the midst of the Church." As it is written in the law of the Lord. O the economy! O the inscrutable economy and goodness of the Word toward us! The lawgiver is under the law; the giver of the Mosaic commandments does not refuse to submit to those who are commanded. The one who freed man from the curse of the law, as a man, does not delay to serve the law. "As it is written in the law of the Lord." Who wrote it, who? The Lord. Is not this one and the same, who is glorified with the Father and the Spirit? Yes, he says; but this is of the economy, and so that he might not be considered an enemy of God by the Christ-fighters. "For do not think," he says, "that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill." And what is strange if he who accepted birth and a manger and swaddling clothes and circumcision on the eighth day, and to stand before the Lord according to the law, goes up to Jerusalem?

He who is so far from being concealed by these things, that he also reveals himself to Stephen, while being stoned by the Jews, standing on the right of the Father, although he has a permanent and unshakable seat on the right of him. "For the Lord said," it is said, "to my Lord, 'Sit on my right, until I place your enemies as a footstool under your feet.'" But that is above and divinely, while this is below and economically, on account of the assumption, and on account of his being both God and man, one hypostasis from both; and through this one, both of these, both being and being known; so that by the communion of the natures and their proper properties, he might procure for us salvation that is easy and most direct. "For every male that opens a womb shall be called holy to the Lord." What then, is every firstborn holy? It is time for you, then, to call Ishmael, and Esau, and before them Cain, and many other god-hating and accursed men, holy to the Lord, because they were the first to open a womb. And for what reason is it said about Ishmael, that "Cast out the maidservant and her son"; but about

Esau, that "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau"? And for what reason, if Cain was holy to the Lord, were the seven avengers for his murder dissolved? If every male that opens a womb will be called holy to the Lord, what more does Christ have than Reuben? And what is the excess of this one compared to Amnon? For these too might seem, by being born first, to have somehow opened a womb. But see, do not rush hotly at the Scriptures, and do not run far from the mark. For I did not say this, he says, that every firstborn will be called holy to the Lord; for if so, holiness would also pass over to the irrational nature; but that every male that opens a womb—that is, when the birth proceeds without marriage; when the conception of the one born occurs not from blood, nor from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of a man, but from the Holy Spirit; when, with no one striking from outside, the infant itself opens from within; when, with the seals and locks of virginity kept unshaken within, the one born leaps forth outside—thus "every male that opens a womb will be called holy to the Lord." For there, the infants did not open the wombs, but the union of the man with the woman: "For Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain," it says. But here it is not so, but the one born itself opened the gates of the womb, needing not a single fleshly concord from outside.

Before they came together," it says, "she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit." You may also take the voice of the Virgin more comprehensively, with the following understood externally, so that the result is this: "Every male that opens a virgin womb will be called holy to the Lord." This has been accomplished only in the case of Christ, with no other of all having shared in this matter. For only He opened a virgin womb by being born in flesh, and again kept it virgin, as before the birth. "And to offer sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." What then? Did He also offer sacrifices according to the law? And how does Paul say, "Such a high priest was fitting for us, who does not have a daily need, like the high priests, first to offer sacrifices for his own sins, then for those of the people. For He did this once for all by offering Himself," that is, by sacrificing through the cross? But if He too goes up to sacrifice, first He will be found to confirm and establish those very things which He Himself came to change for the better; and then He too will be one of the many, serving the curse of the law. And why does Paul say, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law"? Or are these things not for the infant? No, the evangelist would say, and indeed boldly, but for the Mother who bore the infant. And this is clear from what was said above.

When, for it says, the days of her purification were completed, they brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord;" this concerning the infant; "and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons;" this concerning the Virgin and her betrothed. But if these things are also concerning the infant, it is nothing strange. For he who did not disdain to be circumcised according to the law, how would he have refused the sacrifices according to the law? He was so far from delaying and postponing these things that he did not even refuse to be baptized with the baptism of John, although the Baptist had need of being baptized by him. But nevertheless he descended so far to us, and was so moved by his own love for humanity, that he not only accepted the things according to the law, but also the cross and death, in order to draw us up to himself, lying below in the fall of transgression. "And behold, it says, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and

pious, accepting the consolation of Israel." Who could bring a more worthy praise to the man than these very brief words? "And behold, there was a man;" a man in appearance, and more than a man in what is understood; a man in substance, but in worth far surpassing the midst of men; in nature a man, but in virtue an angel. A man possessing as a sensible dwelling the lower Jerusalem, but as a noetic dwelling the upper Jerusalem, the metropolis, "whose craftsman and creator is God;" a man consorting with men in the flesh, but dwelling with angels in the spirit; rather, even Simeon is superior to the angels, since he was deemed worthy to see what is invisible to them, and not only to see, but also, which was greater and more extraordinary than this, to embrace. "And this man was righteous;" for he rendered to each according to its worth: to reason, the ability both to conceive and to reason about divine things, to captivate every thought into the obedience of Christ, not to set creation against the Creator, as the foolish do, to suppose that nothing is outside divine providence, to conceive of the Creator analogously through creatures; to the spirited part, severity against the serpent, harshness against sin, pitilessness and fierceness against the impious. Elijah against the fifty commanders of Ahab, Phinehas against the abomination of the Midianite, Peter and Paul, the one against Ananias and Sapphira, the other against Elymas and Alexander, and many others, most justly made use of. To the desiring part, the constant meditation on the law of the Lord;

to consider the ordinances of the Lord more desirable than gold and much precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb; to say with David, "How beloved are your encampments, Lord of the powers; my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord." Thus was Simeon righteous, lacking in no form of virtue, since we know that righteousness encompasses all the other virtues, as many as are subordinate to these generic ones. And how was he "pious"? Fearing before the face of the Lord and his commandments; for he had read and very carefully considered the verse, "Upon whom shall I look but upon the meek and quiet one who trembles at my words?" "Accepting the consolation of Israel." What consolation? That which Abraham, having seen in the form of an angel, worshiped in a manner befitting God. What consolation? That concerning which Jacob foretold, saying, "A ruler will not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until the one for whom it is reserved comes, and he himself is the expectation of the nations." But what consolation? That very one concerning which Balaam, though standing outside the ecclesiastical court, prophesied, saying, "A star will rise from Jacob, and a man will arise from Israel." That very one concerning which Moses says, "The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me." This consolation, having been instructed by the Holy Spirit, Simeon was accepting. What then? Did he, always accepting this, somehow fail in his hopes or miss his expectation? By no means; but he both saw and embraced. O the virtue of the man!

Oh, the surpassing reverence and purity! "Into which," according to the blessed Paul [i.e., Peter], "angels desire to peep," into these things Symeon was able not only to peep, but also to enter purely, and to handle them, and to be initiated without admixture. "And he came in the Spirit into the temple." Oh, the wonder! He did not even use his own feet for the service of the mystery; but the Holy Spirit becomes a chariot for him, and like some winged and air-traveling other Ambakoum, leads him into the temple, and sets him before the sanctuary; surely saying and addressing him something like this: Come, go, old friend, that you may clearly behold the outcomes of the wonders long ago declared to you, and know of what things you were treasured as a mystic, what glory you have obtained beyond others. Come, take up the outcomes of noble virtue; and what formerly the God-seer, covered sensibly by the rock at Sinai, but intellectually by the unbreakable faith concerning God, barely saw as through some aperture, of dim, I think, contemplation and knowledge, in the form of the hinder parts—these things now learn clearly, and pass henceforth from the death in the body to the life in the spirit; and transfer the law in the letter, which you served well and piously, to the law in grace. For you have already labored enough with the types and shadows; you must now be renewed in truth, so that the ends of the legal observances may become for you the beginning of the teachings of grace.

Having heard these things with his spiritual ear from the Spirit, this divine elder was filled entirely with joy and gladness; and as if inspired by awe, he responded to the one speaking with him somewhat in this way: "Have those things come, O Paraclete, which I was appointed to behold? Have those things come at all, which I was promised by you to see? Then give your hand to old age, O Paraclete, give. Grant me your grace, grant it. For my body is already weary and too weak to walk. Carry me yourself, O all-working and untiring nature, carry me, the weak, the old man, and lead me quickly to those things. For if I wish to use my own feet for walking, I will certainly be delayed on the way, and those things will pass by, and I will not see them. And woe to me in my sorrow, if I become a stranger to these things, of which I received impressions from afar!" No sooner had the elder formed these things in his mind than he stood at the gates of the temple faster than speech. "For he came in the Spirit, it says, in the temple." For such is the power of the Spirit, that the will is deed, and the events accompany the will. "And when the parents brought the child Jesus in, to do according to the custom of the law concerning him, he himself received him into his arms." Did you see a meeting strange and beyond human? Did you see a meeting occurring not from some chance or signal, but from spiritual energy and grace? And, O the wonder!

Neither did one anticipate the other by even a little, but together Christ and Symeon—the one borne in his mother's arms, the other borne by the Spirit—stood at the threshold of the temple. Now Symeon, lifting his gaze from his former stooping toward the ground—for until then he had been bent down, bowed by old age—braced himself a little on his feet, cast aside his staff, and, stretching out his hands, attempted to take the God-man infant from his mother's embrace. She held back for a moment, for she did not yet clearly know the elder's arrival at the temple in the Spirit; but then, when she saw the divine child leaping about in her arms and striving to spring forth into the elder's hands, she quickly recognized the power of the mystery, and, as the old man reached out his hands, she gave the child to him. "Take him," she cried, "venerable man, for he is hastening now more to you than to me, his mother; take him, for he longs for you more than for Joseph; take him, for he counts his affection for me, his mother, as second to his friendship with you, as it seems; take him, and, as you wish, enjoy the one you desire." So spoke the Theotokos, and she placed her son in the old man's hands. He, inclining his face toward him as quickly as he could, and pressing his eyes upon the child's lips, addressed him with words something like these: "What is this great love for humanity and condescension toward us, O Master? What is this abundant wealth of your compassion? What has moved your goodness to visit us lowly ones? Or rather, how is it that you come to us, O philanthropic and good-loving Master?

Did I set the cherubim and seraphim in motion, or bring the entire array of the heavenly host? Did I come as some earthquake, or as a great and mighty wind dissolving mountains and shattering rocks, or as a fire easily terrifying and consuming those who encounter it, or as the sound of a light breeze—by which you revealed yourself to the Thesbite? No, he says, O most wise old man; I appear to you as none of these. For mortal and material nature cannot contain such things; but I am one who bears flesh, like you—an infant, as you see, and in bodily age still a babe and uninitiated; an infant still bound in swaddling clothes, still grasping with both hands at his mother’s breasts; an infant uttering something indistinct and broken because of the flesh from Mary; an infant held in your arms, yet looking toward his mother and her breast. And now this is so; but a little later, when about thirty years have passed, I will receive the baptism of John, and be betrayed, and be led as a victim to Caiaphas, and be spat upon, and be struck, and be scourged; finally I will be crucified, and be pierced with a lance, and be shut in a tomb as one dead, and be called an impostor, and I will undergo everything that belongs to human nature, apart from sin, just as you do. And do not be amazed, nor let your mind be confounded and astonished; for this is the mystery hidden from the ages and from the generations; this is the great plan and foreknowledge of the Father, of which I, as an angel, have proclaimed to the divinely inspired.

This is compassion for you, and the unwillingness to see my image dreadfully enslaved by demons; the inability to bear seeing the king of creation wickedly serving creation; the inability to endure watching the apostate and arrogant one insolently exulting over my fragile creation. These things caused me to depart unfailingly from the paternal bosom, and made me undertake the journey through flesh like you; these things caused me to be born and to be an infant, to stand in the sacred place, and to be laid in your arms. For it was not possible otherwise for the tyrant to be bound and his vessels to be seized, unless I, without sin, partake of humanity in a manner similar to you; it was not possible otherwise for Adam to be freed from the manifold nets of Hades, to recover his original state, and to become entirely God, unless I become man and partake of the same essence and nature as him. Therefore, having learned the reasons for my incarnation, go; and appear cheerfully to Adam, who dwells gloomily in Hades; and carry to Eve the joyful tidings of gladness instead of the pangs of sorrow: "Redemption has come," say, "the deliverer has come; absolution has come; the liberator has come. Weep no more, human nature; for he who will help you is coming, he is coming and will not delay." Then, when that Abrahamic elder heard these divine words with his spiritual ear, as if forgetting his old age, he quickly sprang up, filled entirely with eagerness, and with a very loud voice said: "Be strong, unbound hands, be strong.

Knees that are paralyzed, be straightened; shins that are broken, be strengthened, so that, having accomplished the journey to Hades straight and true, you may become messengers of such great blessings to the forefathers. Then, as the infant turned with speed to the divine, it said: "Now you release your servant, Master, according to your word in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared before the face of all peoples: light for the revelation of the nations, and glory for your people Israel." O the fervor! O the heat! Since, it says, these things seemed good to you, O Master, and you have been moved by your own love of humanity to pity your own creation, I have not been deceived in my hopes, and the oracle of the divine Spirit has remained unaltered; release me quickly; release me, I beseech you. Do not detain me long, Master; do not let me delay in carrying these joyful tidings to the founders of the race; do not let the infants who suffered death at the hands of Herod for your sake outstrip me, Master. They are young and swift and nimble; I am old and slow and sluggish; and I fear lest, running ahead of me more quickly, they become messengers of such great and splendid blessings to the ancestors of the race. Thus indeed the divine man, the clear herald of Christ's presence, having given thanks—for this is what blessing God signifies—and having prayed, was released. For the Savior, I think, invisibly touched his mind, and hearkened to his prayer in every respect, and received him as his own worshiper, who was wearied greatly by the law and the shadow, but was young in the divine teachings of grace.

Now Joseph and his mother, "were marveling," it says, "at what was being said about him." They marveled, I think, because they had not yet received full assurance of his divinity, although the miracles at his birth were sufficient—those, I mean, concerning the Magi and the shepherds, as well as the varied attendance of the angels, and the miracle beyond all miracles, the preservation and integrity of her virginity, for his complete assurance and consent. But nevertheless, looking at the magnitude of the miracle and having their reasoning restrained by their own reverence (for they supposed it to be a great and truly real thing that God had become flesh), they still had a mind that was unsettled and doubting. Hence, after the old man had briefly laid the foundation of the theology concerning the infant, he then turns the reins of his words to them, blessing them and calling them blessed for their service in the economy, and also foretelling the things concerning the cross, which are excellent and most perfect. "For Simeon blessed them," it says, "and said to Mary his mother: 'Behold, this one lies for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a disputed sign.'" For Simon will dispute and doubt concerning this and the doctrine about him against Marcion, and Arius against Sabellius, and Eutyches against Nestorius, and both against the Church—some ascribing to him only divinity, others only the flesh.

Some introducing him as created and alien to the Father's substance, others as a certain insubstantial Logos, empty of essence, and differing in no way from the one poured forth in utterance; some positing his presence through flesh as a phantasm, others insisting that he did not assume flesh at all; or that he assumed it, but that it was soulless and inactive, or that it had a soul, but that this was mindless and irrational; and, in a word, different ones in different ways will cast doubt and contradict, each concluding about him according to his own opinion. "For concerning this heresy," the Jews say to Paul, "it is known to us that it is everywhere contradicted." It is contradicted, but it is not overthrown; it is warred against, but it is not conquered; it is shot at, but it is not wounded; it is besieged, but it is not enslaved; greatest of all, it falls, but it is not shattered; rather, it even overturns. For this is the exceptional quality of our pure faith, and beyond every wonder: that not only does it remain unshaken and unmoved, although violently beset on all sides by the conspiracies and tempests of the heresies; but also that through its opponents it wisely accomplishes the opposite, raising up brilliant trophies against those who lie in wait. Such, then, he says, O blessed Virgin, is the one you brought forth from your womb: easily shattering and disturbing those who have torn themselves away from the truth; but raising up and presenting to the Father all who attach themselves to him and keep his ordinances. Not, however, because you had such a Son, and

You have attained such glory that you are known to be utterly beyond all earthborn nature, being someone untempted and impassible, and, as it were, uncapturable by afflictions; but "a sword will also pass through your own soul." Do not let the greatness of the wonder, it says, lift you up to the swelling of pride. For even if you gave birth beyond nature, you will have affliction equal to that of those who give birth according to nature—rather, much greater and surpassing, inasmuch as they, without wonders, endured afflictions concerning their children, while you, after such a multitude of marvels, after those vast fulfillments of prophetic utterances, after the celebrated preservation and guarding of your virginity—O wonder!—"a sword will also pass through your own soul." Of whom? "Of you yourself," it says, who were blessed with Gabriel as evangelist and announcer of the birth; "of you," who had the power of the Most High overshadowing you, and the Holy Spirit himself visiting and fluttering about you most manifestly; "of you yourself," whom magi, guided by a star through a star, worshipped, and shepherds together with angels blessed and hymned with the divine infant; "of you yourself," whom Jacob saw as a ladder reaching to the heavens, and Moses the God-seer as a fire-flaming bush, a lampstand, a jar, a tablet, and a table, and Aaron as a rod that sprouted without moisture; "of you yourself," O all-pure and all-immaculate one, whom David calls the ark of sanctification, Solomon a golden bed, a throne, and a valley of lilies—of virtues, I think, the divine ones—and a God-planted paradise.

And "a sword will also pass through your" soul—"your," the chosen one, chosen even before birth, the one predestined from the ages and from the generations; "your," whom the Father selected, and the Son inhabited, and the Holy Spirit divinely overshadowed; and all creation proclaims you Mother of God and Theotokos most properly and most truly. "And a sword will also pass through your soul." "Why," she says, "for me, most wondrous elder? Did I myself proclaim the Son of God? Did I myself prophesy about the temple? Or raise Lazarus? Or heal the paralytic? Or give sight to the man born blind? For what reason will the sword pass through my soul? Because I broke the Sabbath? Because I transgressed the law? Behold, for his sake I circumcised the Son, I reached Jerusalem, I am present at the temple, and I offer the young of turtledoves—a token of a small and very poor sacrifice—upon the divine table. What then is there, either small or great, that I have relaxed from the law, so that a sword should pass through my soul? Tell me quickly, lest we suspect you as one who has transgressed and grown old in much worldly life." "No," says that divine elder, full of prophetic grace, "it is because of none of these things; for you were outside and beyond all these; but 'so that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed.'" "You speak," she says, "in a riddle; you have not yet clearly revealed the cause of the passion. You must speak more plainly; for what is said is still somehow obscure and shadowy." "I," he says, "O possession, and treasure, and dwelling of Christ, will resolve for you the entire difficulty of what is sought.

But see that the passion does not overcome you and show you to be faint-hearted and unphilosophical—which it is more forbidden to say of you than to say of the sun that it is without light and without heat. You will see this one, whom you divinely brought forth, betrayed, and bound, spat upon and slapped, scourged and buffeted, struck with a reed, crowned with thorns, clothed in a cloak, falsely accused by the Pharisees, reviled by the Sadducees, judged by Pilate, mocked by the soldiers, kneeling before the cohort, you will see Barabbas preferred and chosen before him; finally, nailed to the cross, given vinegar mixed with gall, pierced with a lance, enclosed in a tomb, called a deceiver, bound with seals, guarded by watchmen. And in a word, you will behold every painful and dishonorable thing done to him to excess; because of these things, a sword will pass through your soul; because of these things you will weep and lament, and as a mother you will mourn over a Son who endures the death of malefactors; especially as you unroll within yourself those ineffable reflections: such as the annunciation of Gabriel, the seedless conception, the incorruptible birth, the inviolate virginity, the undefiled purity, the fact that she suffered nothing in childbirth of natural law and maternal sequence, because both before birth and after birth she was and remained a virgin in the same way, most truly. "So that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." For the zeal of Peter, once hotter than fire, will be revealed as lukewarm and somewhat cold through his denial;

John and James and the rest through the flight which, abandoning him, all fled, as if forgetting all the greatest wonders. And again on the contrary, Pilate will be revealed coming to repentance through the washing of his hands; and his wife, as she believed, through the nocturnal vision; the centurion through the signs; Joseph and Nicodemus through the burial; Judas through the noose; the Jews through giving the silver to the guards. And in a word, there will be a battle and a conflict of reasonings and contrary deliberations: some reasoning about the things of divinity, others about the things of humanity. For they will marvel, it is said, seeing him suffering, and agonizing, and emitting clots of sweat; and also being afraid, and praying for the remission of the passion; and considering the resurrection of the dead and the restoration of sight to the blind; and the cleansing of lepers, and the expulsion of evil spirits; and the whole other multitude of signs accomplished by him; they will marvel, and will have their mind tossed here and there, seeing these things discordant with the former and incongruous; and again those who see the earthquake, and the night in daytime, and the tearing of the veil, and the splitting of rocks; and also the uncovering of the tombs and the raising of the dead will marvel; they will marvel and be astonished in heart, and will reach a depth of perplexity, seeing on the one hand the man hanging, and on the other hand God effecting and completing these things.

Thus will be revealed from many hearts the debates, some reasoning one way, others another. Yet this battle of thoughts, this discord, confusion, and opposition, will become the cause of concord, harmony, and the highest peace for the Church; for through both sides Christ will be proclaimed as he was, and the same one will be recognized as both God and man, acting and willing of his own accord, some things according to his divinity, others according to his humanity. These things, I think, that truly divine and Abrahamic elder would have said, if someone had questioned him about these matters. Then after him, Anna also stands by the text, walking with aged steps; for the mystery summoned her as well, fulfilling her with the grace of prophecy, so that she too might bear witness prophetically, as she recognized the Lord's salvation, and as he revealed his righteousness before the nations. But first let us learn from the Gospel who she is and whence she came, and on what occasions and when she stood by the temple; and then let us investigate what she said. For the evangelist says: "And there was Anna, a prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher; she had advanced in many days; having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about eighty-four years; she did not depart from the temple, serving with fasts and prayers night and day. And she, arriving at that very hour, gave thanks to the

Lord, and she spoke about him to all who were awaiting redemption in Jerusalem. What is the reason that the evangelist made such a precise account concerning this prophetess, so as even to mention her father and her tribe, which is found in the case of scarcely any other? The precise account of this would be known only to the God of the saints himself, and to those who have been taught to speak by the inspiration of his Spirit, according to the divine Apostle, mysteries. But she, shining with prophetic grace, inspired divinely given consolation in those awaiting redemption in Jerusalem, saying that the Redeemer of all has arrived, and the Savior of all has come and been manifested, wishing to redeem his own image and desiring to save the creature he formed. For this reason Christ is called Jesus, since Jesus is interpreted as Savior. While all these things were happening in deed and being spoken in word, the Mother of God, Mary, was astonished, and Joseph, who was present, marveled. Nevertheless, having fulfilled the decrees of the law—since Christ had come to fulfill all the requirements of the law and to give rest to its ordinances—they returned to Nazareth, where the one who bore the Savior to the world was greeted by the angel Gabriel, having conceived from a seedless conception, remaining a virgin after birth, and showing to all who beheld that the saving power of God was made known, and the light shone upon the nations, and that the righteousness and redemption of God appeared to all the ends of the earth.

and he clothed those who had received him with divine and eternal glory, which knows neither flux nor corruption. But we, most beloved, just as they did, let us meet Christ the God, bringing self-control, bearing chastity, offering innocence, displaying forgetfulness of wrongs, separating ourselves from distractions, and presenting ourselves pure to God, bearing gentleness of manners, and having affability and mutual love toward all. And in addition to all these things, let us bring compassion toward all, and ever pour forth mercy proceeding from a sympathetic soul; thus let us receive Christ approaching; thus let us enshrine Christ; thus let us embrace Christ in a manner befitting God, and let us respond with prophetic words, hymning his coming to us, and proclaiming with loud voices the compassion he has wrought for us, so that we may attain the kingdom of heaven and enjoy eternal goods, in Christ our God himself, with whom to the all-good Father and the all-holy Spirit belong glory, power, honor, adoration, and magnificence, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.