Sermo in nativitatem Christi

Of Our Father among the Saints, Athanasius, on the Nativity of Christ. I behold a strange mystery: the sun of righteousness has entered the Virgin without circumscription, in place of the sun. And do not ask how; for where God wills, the order of nature is overcome. For he willed, he was able, he descended, he saved. All things concur: God, who is and was before, today becomes what he was not; for being God, he becomes man, not having ceased to be God. For he did not become man by an abandonment of divinity, nor again did he become God from men by progression; but being Word, he became man without passion, his nature remaining unchanged. And having traveled a strange and untrodden path, he came forth from an untilled womb, neither leaving his angels bereft of his oversight, nor, by his incarnation among us, departing from his own divinity. But kings came to worship the heavenly king, who was born ineffably from the Father, and today is born from the Virgin for my sake; but then he was born according to nature, today for the sake of his own nature. For having been born from the Father before the ages, as the one who begot him knows, today he was born from the Virgin beyond nature, as the grace of the Spirit understands. The Ancient of Days has become a child; he who sits on a high throne is placed in a manger; the intangible and incorporeal is swaddled by human hands; he who breaks the bonds of sin is entangled in swaddling clothes; and because he wills this. What then did the Virgin bear? The Master of nature. For even if you are silent, nature cries out. For the Virgin Mary bore him, as the one who was born wished to be born.

For it was not from nature that he turned aside, but as Master of nature he introduced a strange mode of generation. Nevertheless, even having become man, he is not born as a man. For if he had come from ordinary marriage, just as I do, he would be considered a falsehood by the many. Now for this reason he who is born is born from a Virgin, and he both preserves the mother and keeps her virginity unbroken, so that the strange mode of conception may become for me a cause of great faith. Hence, whether a Greek or a Jew asks me whether Christ became man according to nature or contrary to his own nature, I will call as witness of the word the unsullied seal of virginity; for thus God overcomes the order of nature. And if you wish, ask the blessed Luke the Evangelist, and he will answer you concerning his incarnate economy. For beginning, he speaks thus: "Now in the sixth month of Elizabeth's conception, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, and the name of the virgin was Mary. And the angel, entering to her, said: 'Hail, graced one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.' And she, seeing him, was disturbed at his word, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her: 'Do not fear, Mary; for you have found grace from God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and you will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father.'

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom. Mary said to the angel, "How will this be for me, since I do not know a man?" And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." ... And he is displeased. He entered without flesh, he was carried for a nine-month period in the womb of the Virgin. He entered as he wished, he was carried as he saw fit. He came forth as he willed. He entered without flesh, he became man, the divinity being united with the economy. And we do not speak of two sons, but we understand one and the same, the Word of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. He became man and was, being in nature. He became what he was not, and remained what he was. For "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He became flesh, not laying aside what he was. "And he dwelt among us." The phrase "He dwelt among us" means he lived with us, according to the holy Jeremiah, or rather his servant Baruch: "This God of ours will not be considered another beside him, who devised every path of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. After these things he appeared on earth and lived among men." Listen, then, to the voice of the Gospel as well; for the angel's voice spoken to the holy Virgin brings us a great significance.

Behold," he says, "you will conceive in the womb, and you will bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, 'God with us.'" Before being conceived in the womb, the child was called God, the God with us. Therefore, the words of the prophet agree with the phrase, "he dwelt among men," and "he tabernacled among us." So before the conception, the child is called God. How then is the holy Virgin Mary not the Theotokos? Since the name itself has no interpretation of a man at all, the child born is God, who did not dissolve the Virgin's natural virginity; but having been born from the Theotokos in this way, he is both God and man: God by nature, and man by his own good will. And having become man, he is also God, the two natures being united. But perhaps the opponent will say: If the Virgin is Theotokos, you are giving a beginning to God the Word from the Virgin. I do not say that he took a beginning from the holy Virgin; far from it! For he existed before the ages; for he himself made the ages, he himself is the creator of all creation, as the Evangelist says: "All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be that has come to be." This one, through whom all things came to be, was in the womb for a period of nine months, and was not alienated from the paternal bosom. While in the womb of the Virgin, he was glorified and worshipped by the host of the higher powers. While in the womb of the Virgin, he filled heaven and earth, he who bears heaven and earth not by force, but by his will. This one was carried in the womb as a man, but worked as God.

not being carried about in the womb of the Virgin, but holding together and governing all things as God according to the calling of the name, "God with us," the one born from the Virgin. But if you say that the one born is a mere child and not God, listen to the great herald Isaiah crying out and speaking to the ungrateful synagogue, or rather exodus, of the Jews: that "A child was born, a son, and was given to us; whose beginning is upon his shoulder, and his name is called Angel of Great Counsel, wonderful, counselor, mighty God, ruler, prince of peace, father of the coming age. Amen." When by nature did a child become a mighty God, a ruler, like this child, called "God with us"? But if the child born from the Virgin is mighty God, ruler, and prince of peace, and father of the coming age, how is the Virgin not Theotokos, but Theodochos, if she both conceived and bore, and the one born is God? And again I say to him, he entered as he wished, he was carried in the womb as he willed, the one born came forth as he desired. Why do you investigate his will? Why do you scrutinize his good pleasure? Why do you trace his intention? Listen to Paul, or rather be condemned by him: "For his will, who

resists?” Indeed, O man, who are you to investigate and trace out his birth, when the prophet says, “Who can recount his generation?” The prophet declines to recount his generation, and do you meddle and pry into his nature? The evangelist Luke, recounting his birth below, speaks thus: “Shepherds were in the same country, bivouacking in the fields and keeping watch over their flock; and behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for I announce to you a great joy, which will be for all the people: that a Savior has been born to you today, who is Christ the Lord in the city of David.’” The angel calls him Christ and Lord, announcing to the shepherds the one born of the Virgin. If, then, the one born is Lord, how is the Virgin not the Lord-bearer? And I say that the holy Virgin is both Christ-bearer and Lord-bearer and Savior-bearer and God-bearer, according to the voice of the angel who announced to the shepherds and to the Virgin. If angels proclaim him Savior, Christ, Lord, and God, why do we reject their testimony? He entered the Virgin without flesh, was carried in the womb bodily, as he willed. He came forth through the maternal nature in the economy, but not that after being born the Word God was united to the economy. He came forth unchanged in nature, becoming what he was not, while remaining what he was. Not altered in essence, he emptied himself, that is, as he wished; not emptied by another, he took the form of a servant.

not emptied of his divinity, according to the blessed Paul who says: “He who, existing in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” He emptied himself, becoming what he was not; and again I say it, remaining what he was, for this Word was God; becoming as a child, he is glorified as a son. He entered without a body, he put on a body as he willed, and the mortal was swallowed up by life. Therefore call the Virgin Theotokos, and do not say Theodochos; rather say both Theodochos and Theotokos. If she is Theodochos and Theotokos, did not the Word of God take flesh from her? But there the Evangelist compels me, crying out with a loud voice: “The Word became flesh.” And in the other Evangelist it says thus: “Jesus asked his disciples, saying: ‘What do men say I am, the Son of man?’ The apostles answered and said: ‘Some say Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ Jesus said: ‘But what do you say I am?’ Peter answered and said: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” And he did not say: “You are the one who became Son of God by grace,” but, “You are the Christ,” with a clear voice, “the Son of the living God.” And Mark the Evangelist again uses the same expression, speaking in harmony with the blessed Peter.

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And in the Gospel according to Matthew, concerning the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus, seeing the earthquake and the signs that occurred, were greatly afraid, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God.” And the angel to the shepherds: “Behold, I announce to you great joy, which will be for all the people, that today a Savior has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.” If, then, the one born is Lord, the Virgin is the Mother of the Lord; and where the Lord is, there also is God; the Lord is not separated from God, nor God from the Lord, as it says in the Old Testament: “And the Lord rained fire from the Lord,” and again: “You shall love the Lord your God,” and again: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord,” and again the Psalmist: “Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer,” and again the same: “God is Lord, and he has appeared to us,” and again the same: “Lord God of hosts, who

Like you?” And Paul in the Epistle to Titus writes thus: “The grace of God, the saving grace, has appeared to all men, teaching us: that, having denied impiety and worldly desires, we may live temperately, justly, and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” This is the one born of the holy Virgin, who is Christ the Lord. This Christ and Lord, blessed Paul proclaims as great God, saying: “Of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Again, in the Epistle to the Romans he writes: “For I myself prayed to be anathema from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to flesh, who are Israelites, whose adoption, glory, covenant, legislation, worship, and promises; whose fathers, and from whom Christ according to flesh, who is God over all.” And again the same Paul: “Every fornicator, covetous man, drunkard, unclean person, and idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of the Lord and God.” So it is demonstrated that the Lord is God, and God is the Lord. But if you do not yield even to these, let the demons in the country of the Gergesenes convince you, crying out: “Ha, what have we to do with you, Son of God? Have you come here before the time to torment us?” Let the demons convince you. If you disregard the testimony of Peter, and turn away from the voice of the Gospel, at least respect the Gospel according to Mark.

Fear the angel who said, “Savior and Christ and Lord,” the one born of the Virgin. Do you disbelieve these things? Restrain the impulse of your blasphemy, and acknowledge the voice of the angel spoken in the Gospel: Emmanuel, that is, “God with us.” Before the conception he is called God; and when he was conceived economically, not according to nature, in the womb of the Virgin, do you deny that he is God? But if you confess that he is God in the womb of the Virgin, which indeed he is, and that God the Word himself is united with the incarnate economy, why do you shrink from calling the Virgin Theotokos? If she is not Theotokos, neither is she a Virgin after childbirth. But I say: while being in the conception of the virginal womb, he sat in the bosom of the Father, not being circumscribed. For the divine nature is simple and uncompounded, not circumscribed. The nature is immutable, and the substance is unalterable. And this one, who is in the bosom of the Father, the Virgin has now borne according to the economy. As he willed, he entered; as he approved, he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin; as he purposed, he came forth, being born. Why do you meddle with his birth? Either fear him as God, or revere him as master, or venerate him as creator and maker, or tremble before him as Lord, or shudder before him as judge. The demons who drove away the swine and drowned the herd in a deep death will put you to shame. Those, recognizing the master, say: “What have we to do with you, Son of God? You have come before the time to torment us.” They flee the danger and the threat of torture, and you draw down upon yourself the judgment of torture.

They recognized the Lord and judge of the whole world born of Mary, and seeing him before the judgment they trembled; and do you, having this judgment before your eyes, despise it and not be struck with awe? And again I say these things, and saying them I will not cease, whitening for you the pure subject of the word, so that you may hold the faith unshaken in secure knowledge and keep the confession, the foundation of faith, firm. Again we will proceed to the matter at hand, displaying the straight and unswerving path of faith. For speaking is not irksome to me, but safe for you. This God entered through the hearing of the Virgin as he willed, was conceived as he deemed good, came forth born as he wished; he entered incorporeal as he willed; he, the uncontainable, was conceived in a containable vessel, in the womb of the Virgin by economy, as he deemed good. He came forth born God and man, as he wished. He became what he was not, while being what he was of unchangeable substance. For the Word was God, and the Word was with God; indeed, the Apostle says, “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.” This Son God sent forth born of a woman, the one born from the immaculate nature, the one proceeding from the ineffable substance, the one not alienated from the paternal bosom, the one not separated from the royal throne, but enthroned and seated together with the Father in a proper manner, not by grace, but in divine nature and paternal substance. For how is he separated, tell me, when he says, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me”; and again:

My Father who abides in me, does he himself perform the works?" He who was born of the holy Virgin, this one before conception the angel called Emmanuel, that is, "God with us," whom the prophet Isaiah spoke of, this child who came forth from the Virgin, mighty God, ruler, prince of peace, father of the coming age. What child born naturally became mighty God, ruler? What child born drew a star announcing the sought-after infant, rather the Master, the narrow lodging? What child summoned magi from the east to worship him? What child born naturally was ever offered gifts by magi? And let us see the gifts, whether they were offered as to a weak man, and not to God, king and man: gold as to a king, frankincense as to God, and myrrh as to a man for burial. Gold as to a king: "God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the son of the king." This utterance David spoke. After this the angel in the salutation to Mary: "And the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." For to him belongs the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.