Oratio in diem natalem Christi

Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, On the Nativity of the Saviour. "Blow the trumpet at the new moon," says David, "on the notable day of our feast." The ordinances of divinely inspired teaching are certainly law for those who hear. Therefore, since the notable day of our feast is present, let us also fulfill the law, becoming trumpeters of the sacred month. The legal trumpet, as the apostle bids us understand, is the word. For he says the sound of the trumpet must not be indistinct, but articulated in its notes for the clarity of the hearers. So let us also sound forth, brothers, a clear and far-reaching sound, in no way less honorable than the horn trumpet. For the law, prefiguring the truth in the types of shadow, legislated the sound of trumpets at the Feast of Tabernacles. And the present subject of the feast is the mystery of the true Tabernacles. For in this feast the human tabernacle is tented by the one who for our sake put on man. In this feast our tabernacles, collapsed by death, are again assembled by the one who originally built our dwelling. Let us also say, joining in the dance with the great-voiced David in his psalmody, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." How does he come? Not as by a ship or a vehicle, but crossing over to human life through virginal incorruption. Thus our God, thus the Lord, has appeared to us to establish this feast in the garlands that reach to the horns of the altar.

We are certainly not unaware, brothers, of the mystery in what has been said: that the whole creation is some palace of the master of creation. But when sin entered, the mouths of those overcome by evil were stopped, the voice of rejoicing was silenced, and the harmony of those celebrating was broken, because the human creation was not joining in the feast with the supracosmic nature. For this reason came the trumpets of the prophets and apostles, which the law calls horn-trumpets because their construction is from the true unicorn, which, according to the power of the Spirit, sounded the intense word of truth, so that the hearing of those blocked by sin might be opened, and a single harmonious feast might come about, with the lower creation, through the covering of the tabernacle, sounding together with the projecting and prominent powers around the upper altar. For the horns of the intelligible altar are the projecting and prominent powers of the intellectual nature: principalities, authorities, thrones, and dominions, to which the human nature is joined in the fellowship of the feast through the tabernacle of the resurrection, being covered by the renewal of bodies.

For "to be covered" is equivalent to "to be adorned" or "to be enveloped," as those who know these things interpret. Come then, having roused our souls to the spiritual dance, let us set David as the leader, guide, and chorus-leader of our choral assembly, and let us utter with him that sweet utterance which we have already sung, and let us take it up again: that this day, which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it—in which the darkness begins to diminish and the measures of night are pressed toward eclipse by the increasing ray. This is not some random or spontaneous arrangement concerning the feast, that the divine life now appears to human life. But a mystery is narrated through visible things to those more discerning, as creation almost utters a voice and teaches one who can hear what it intends: that in the presence of the master, the day increases and the night is shortened. For I seem to hear creation recounting something like this: "Seeing these things, O man, understand what is hidden from you but revealed through visible things. Do you see the night having advanced to its utmost length, halting in its forward motion and turning back? Understand that the evil night of sin, having increased as far as possible and having reached the utmost magnitude of wickedness through every device of evils, has today been cut off from further expansion, and its consequences are being driven toward eclipse and annihilation. Do you see the ray of light more enduring and the sun higher than usual?

Understand the presence of the true light, which illuminates the whole inhabited world with the rays of the Gospel. Perhaps also the reason why the Lord did not appear from the beginning but granted the manifestation of his divinity to human life at the end of time might reasonably be suspected to be this: that he who was to mingle with human life for the overthrow of evil necessarily waited for all the evil rooted by the enemy to sprout forth completely, and then, as the Gospel says, applied the axe to the root. For physicians who attend to their craft, while the fever still consumes the body from within and is gradually kindled by the causes of disease, yield to the illness, until the malady reaches its peak, bringing no assistance from foods to the sufferer. But when the evil becomes stationary, then they apply their art, once the whole disease has been revealed. So too he who heals those whose soul is diseased waited for the sickness from evil, by which human nature was overpowered, to be entirely uncovered, so that none of the hidden things might remain untreated, since the physician treats only what is manifest. For this reason, neither in the times of Noah, when all flesh was destroyed in iniquity, did he bring healing through his own manifestation, because the shoot of Sodomitic evil had not yet sprung up; nor at the time of the destruction of Sodom did the Lord appear, because many of the remaining evils were still hidden in human nature. For where is the God-fighting Pharaoh?

Where is the invincible wickedness of the Egyptians? Not even then was it opportune for the corrector of all things to mingle with life, I mean in the case of the Egyptian evils. But the lawlessness of the Israelites also had to be revealed; the kingdom of the Assyrians and the pride of Nebuchadnezzar, still smoldering in life, had to become manifest; the bloodshed against the holy ones, like some evil and thorny shoot of the devil's wicked root, had to spring up; the madness of the Jews against the saints of God had to be revealed, those who killed the prophets and stoned the envoys and finally perpetrated the abomination concerning Zechariah between the temple and the altar. Add to the catalogue of evil shoots also the child-murder of Herod. Since, then, the whole power of wickedness was given forth from the evil root and grew in manifold ways in the choices of those known to wickedness in each generation, having run wild like a forest, then, as Paul says to the Athenians, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God arrives in the last days, when there was no one understanding and seeking God, when all together turned aside and were corrupted, when everything was locked into sin, when lawlessness abounded, when the darkness of wickedness increased to its utmost measure—then grace appeared, then the ray of the true light rose, then the sun of justice shone upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, then it shattered the many heads of the dragon, having stepped upon it with its foot through human flesh and crushed and trampled it into the ground. And let no one, looking at the present things in life

Let him think that the word is falsely spoken, according to which we said in the last times that the Lord shone upon life. For the objector will perhaps say that he who waited for the times until the manifestation of evil, in order to uproot it root and branch after it had grown, would naturally have destroyed it entirely, so that no remnant of it was left in life. But now murders, thefts, adulteries, and all the most wicked deeds are dared. Let him who looks at this resolve the doubt by some familiar example. For just as in the case of the destruction of reptiles it is possible to see that the tail behind is not immediately dead together with the head, but the head has died, while the tail is still animated by its own fury and has not been deprived of vital motion—so also the destroyer of the serpent, when the beast had become great, having been increased by each successive generation of men, destroyed the head, that is, the power inventive of evils, which had many heads in itself, and made no account of the tail behind, having left the motion in the dead beast as an occasion for exercise for those who come after. What then is the crushed head? The one that brought death by evil counsel, that injected the death-dealing venom into man through the bite. Therefore he who dissolved the power of death crushed the power in the head of the serpent, as the prophet says. But the remaining tail of the beast, sown together with human life, as long as the human is in motions according to wickedness, always roughens life with the scale of sin. In power it is already dead, the head having been rendered useless.

But when the time has passed and the things in motion come to a standstill at the expected consummation of this life, then the tail and the last part of the enemy is destroyed—this is death—and thus the complete annihilation of evil will take place, all being recalled to life through the resurrection, the righteous being immediately transferred to the higher lot, and those entangled in sins being purified by the fire of Gehenna. But let us return to the present joy, which the angels announce to the shepherds, which the heavens proclaim to the magi, which the spirit of prophecy proclaims through many and various means, so that even the magi become heralds of the grace. For the one who makes the sun rise over the just and the unjust, who rains upon the wicked and the good, brought the ray of knowledge and the dew of the spirit even into alien mouths, so that the truth might be more firmly established among us by the testimony of opponents. You hear the soothsayer Balaam, under a greater inspiration, divining to the foreigners that a star will rise from Jacob; you see the magi, who trace their descent from him, watching according to the prediction of their ancestor for the rising of the new star, which alone, contrary to the nature of the other stars, partakes both of motion and of rest, taking up each of these as needed. For of the other stars, some are once fixed in the sphere of the fixed stars and have received immovable rest, while others never cease from motion; but this one both moves, leading the magi, and stands still, indicating the place.

You hear Isaiah crying out, "A child has been born to us, a son has been given to us." Learn from the prophet himself how the child was born, how the son was given. Was it according to the law of nature? No, says the prophet, the master of nature does not serve the laws of nature. "But how was the child born? Tell me." "Behold," he says, "the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, 'God with us.'" O the wonder! The virgin becomes a mother and remains a virgin. Do you see the innovation of nature? In other women, as long as she is a virgin, she is not a mother. But when she becomes a mother, she no longer has her virginity. Here, however, the two names have come together at the same time. For the same woman is both mother and virgin. And neither did virginity prevent the birth, nor did the birth destroy virginity. For it was fitting that he who came into human life for the incorruptibility of the whole should begin from the incorruptibility that served his birth. For human custom knows to call the unwedded "incorrupt." It seems to me that the great Moses had foreseen this in the theophany that occurred to him through the light, when the fire was kindled in the bush and the bush was not consumed. For he says, "Having crossed over, I will see this great vision." I do not think he indicates a local movement by the crossing, but the passing of time in its course. For what was then prefigured in the flame and the bush, when the intervening time had passed, was clearly revealed in the mystery concerning the virgin.

Just as the bush there takes fire and burns not, so here the virgin gives birth to light and is not corrupted. If the bush prefigures the God-bearing body of the virgin, do not be ashamed of the riddle. For every flesh, because of the reception of sin, by that very fact that it is only flesh, is sin. And sin is called by Scripture under the name of the thorn. And if we are not carried far from our subject, perhaps it is not untimely to bring forward Zacharias, who was slain between the temple and the altar, as a witness to the incorrupt mother. This Zacharias was a priest, and not only a priest, but also endowed with the gift of prophecy. And the power of prophecy is proclaimed without restriction in the book of the Gospel. When divine grace, preparing the way for men, so that they might not consider the birth from a virgin incredible, exercises the assent of the unbelieving by lesser wonders, a child is born to the barren and aged woman. This becomes a prelude to the wonder of virginity. For just as Elizabeth becomes a mother not by the power of nature, having grown old in life without offspring, but the birth of the child is referred to the divine will, so also the unbelief of the virginal birth-pangs has its credibility in the reference to the divine. Since, then, the birth from the barren woman precedes that from virginity, and the one who, at the voice of the woman carrying the Lord in her womb, leaped before coming to light in the maternal womb, — as soon as the forerunner of the Word came into being, then the silence is loosed for Zacharias through the prophetic inspiration. And all that Zacharias utters was a prophecy of the future.

This one, then, who was led by the prophetic spirit to the knowledge of hidden things, having understood the mystery of virginity in the incorruptible birth, did not separate the unwed mother in the temple to the place allotted to virgins according to the law, teaching the Jews that the creator of beings and king of all creation has the human nature subject to him along with all things, leading it by his own will to what seems good to him, not himself being dominated by it, so that it is in his power to create a new birth which will not take away the virginity of the mother who has come to be. For this reason he did not separate her in the temple from the chorus of virgins. And this place was the space between the temple and the altar. Since, then, they heard that the king of creation had come forth economically into a human birth, fearing lest they become subject to the king, they lay hands on the one testifying about the birth, sacrificing the priest at the very altar. But we have wandered far from our subject; we must run back in word to the Bethlehem of the gospel. For if we are truly shepherds and keep watch over our own flocks, the voice of the angels announcing this great joy is certainly for us. Therefore, let us look up to the heavenly host, let us see the choral dance of the angels, let us hear their divine hymnody. What is the sound of those celebrating? Glory to God in the highest, they cry. Why does the voice of the angels glorify

the divinity contemplated in the highest; – for it says, and on earth peace. The angels rejoiced greatly at what was seen. On earth peace. The land formerly accursed, productive of thorns and thistles, the place of war, the place of exile for the condemned, this land has received peace. O the wonder! Truth has sprung up from the earth. The land of men has given such fruit as this, and these things happen for the sake of good will among men. God is mingled with human nature, so that the human might be raised up to the height of God. Having heard these things, let us go to Bethlehem, let us see the new spectacle, how the virgin rejoices in the birth, how the one inexperienced in marriage nurses the infant. But first, let us hear who she is and whence she comes, from those who recount the things concerning her. I have heard, then, from some secret history which sets forth such narratives concerning her. The father of the virgin was a notable man in the strict life according to the law, and well known for the finest qualities, but he grew old in life without children, because his wife was not suited for childbearing. There was a certain honor from the law for mothers, of which the childless did not partake. So she also imitates the narratives concerning the mother of Samuel. And entering into the holy of holies, she becomes a suppliant of God, that she might not fall away from the blessing of the laws, having done nothing wrong concerning the law, but that she might become a mother and dedicate the child to God. And when she was strengthened by divine will for the grace she asked for, – since the child was born, they named her Mariam, so that through the name the God-given grace might be signified.

The maiden, now grown, so that she no longer needed to cling to the breast, was to be given back to God and fulfill the promise, and to be brought to the temple. The priests, for a time, like Samuel, were to raise the child in the holy places, and when she had grown, they took counsel as to what they might do so as not to sin against God regarding that sacred body. For to subject her to the law of nature and enslave her through marriage to any man seemed among the most abominable things. It was considered outright sacrilege for a man to become master of a divine offering, since by law the husband is appointed to rule over his wife. But for a woman to dwell with the priests within the sanctuary and to be seen in the holy places was neither lawful nor did it possess dignity. While they were deliberating about these matters, counsel came from God: to give her to a man under the name of betrothal, but that this man should be such as to be suitable for the preservation of her virginity. Thus Joseph was found, such as the argument sought, from the same tribe and lineage as the virgin. And he betrothed the girl to himself on the advice of the priests. The union was only a betrothal. Then the virgin is initiated by Gabriel. The words of the initiation were a blessing. "Hail," he says, "O favored one, the Lord is with you." Contrary to the first word spoken to the woman, the word is now spoken to the virgin. That one was condemned to pains in childbirth because of sin, but in this one, pain is expelled through joy. In that one, the pains of childbirth began; here, joy brings forth the birth. "Do not fear," he says.

Since the expectation of labor brings fear to every woman, the promise of a sweet labor casts out the fear. "You will conceive in your womb," he says, "and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus." What then does Mary do? Hear the voice of a pure virgin. The angel announces the birth, and she clings to her virginity, judging incorruption more honorable than the angelic apparition, and she can neither disbelieve the angel nor depart from her decisions. "Intercourse with a man is forbidden to me," she says. "How will this be for me, since I do not know a man?" This voice of Mary is proof of what is recounted concerning her hidden life. For if she had been taken by Joseph in marriage, how would she have been astonished at the one foretelling the birth to her, when she would have been expecting to become a mother herself, entirely and in every way, according to the law of nature? But since the flesh consecrated to God, like some holy offering, had to be kept untouched, therefore, she says, "Even if you are an angel, even if you come from heaven, even if the apparition is superhuman, still, for me to know a man is impossible. How shall I be a mother without a man? For I know Joseph as a betrothed, but I do not know him as a husband." What then does the bridal attendant Gabriel do? What kind of bridal chamber does he prepare for this pure and undefiled marriage? "The Holy Spirit," he says, "will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." O blessed is that flesh, which, through an excess of purity, drew the goods of the soul to itself. For in the case of all others, a pure soul would scarcely receive the presence of the Holy Spirit. But here, the flesh becomes a receptacle of the Spirit. And also, "The power of the Most High will overshadow you.

What does this mean through ineffable words? "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God," says the apostle. So the power of the most high God, which is Christ, is formed in the virginity through the coming of the Holy Spirit. For just as the shadow of bodies is shaped according to the form of the objects that precede it, so the character and the marks of the Son's divinity will shine through in the power of the one being born, an image and seal and shadow and radiance of the prototype, shown through the wonder-working of the energies. But the angelic gospel urges us to run back in our discourse to Bethlehem and to behold the mysteries in the cave. What is this? A child wrapped in swaddling clothes and resting in a manger, and the virgin after childbirth, the undefiled mother, tends to her offspring. Let us shepherds speak the voice of the prophet, that just as we heard, so also we saw in the city of the Lord of the powers, in the city of our God. Did these things happen by chance, as a coincidence, in the case of Christ, and are they recorded, and is there no reason behind the history? What does the Lord intend by the lodging in a cave, the lying in a manger, the mixing with life at the time of the census of taxes? Or is it clear that, just as he removes us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse himself on our behalf and transferring our sores to himself, so that we might be healed by his sore, so also he becomes subject to tax, in order to free us from the evil tributes to which humanity was liable, being taxed by death?

The cave in which the Lord is born understand as the dark and subterranean life of men, in which he appears who shines upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. He is bound with swaddling clothes who casts about himself the bonds of our sins. The manger is the dwelling place of irrational animals, in which the Word becomes, so that the ox may know its owner and the ass the manger of its lord—the ox yoked to the law, the ass the beast of burden, laden with the sin of idolatry. But the appropriate food of irrational animals is grass; for the prophet says, "He causes grass to grow for the cattle." The rational animal, however, is nourished by bread. For this reason, then, to the manger, which is the hearth of irrational beings, the bread that came down from heaven is added, so that even the irrational, partaking of rational food, may become rational. Therefore, the Lord of both mediates at the manger between the ox and the ass, so that, having dissolved the partition wall of the fence, he may create the two in himself into one new man, and, having removed the heavy yoke of the law from this one, and having unburdened that one of the load of idolatry. But let us look up to the heavenly wonders. For behold, not only prophets and angels announce this joy to us, but also the heavens through their own wonders proclaim the glory of the gospel. Christ rises for us from Judah, as the apostle says, but the Jew is not illuminated by the one who has risen. The Magi are strangers to the covenants of the promise and alien to the blessing of the fathers, but they surpass the Israelite people in knowledge and

off the darkness of the world by his own light. Those who recognized the heavenly light did not fail to know the king in the cave. Those bring gifts, these plot. Those worship, these persecute. Those, having found the one they sought, rejoice; these are troubled at the birth of the one announced. For when the Magi saw the star over the place where the child was, they rejoiced with very great joy. But Herod, hearing the report, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Some offer frankincense as to a god and honor the royal dignity with gold, and by the myrrh they signify the economy of the passion with a certain prophetic grace. But these condemn the whole company of the young to utter destruction. This seems to me to contain an accusation not only of their bitterness but also of their utter folly. For what do they intend by the slaughter of children, and for what purpose has such a pollution been dared by the murderers? Since, they say, some new sign among the heavenly wonders announced the revelation of the king to the Magi—what then? Do you believe the sign that announced it as true, or do you consider the report vain? For if he is such as to set the heavens in order with himself, he is certainly beyond your hand. But if it is in your power to make him live or die, you have feared such a one in vain. For one who acts so as to be subject to your authority—for what reason is he plotted against? Why is that dreadful command sent down, the evil decree against the infants, that the poor babes be put to death—what wrong have they done?—what cause of death and punishment have they given against themselves, having only one charge: that they were born and came into the light?

And for these reasons, was it necessary that the city be filled with executioners and that a crowd of mothers and infants be gathered, with their parents present and, as is natural, all who shared in the lineage assembling for the suffering? Who could describe in words the calamities? Who could bring before the eyes through narratives the passions—that mixed lament, the mournful symphony of children, mothers, fathers, and relatives crying out piteously against the threat of the executioners? How could one depict the executioner standing with a naked sword beside the infant, looking fiercely and murderously, uttering such things, and with one hand drawing the child toward himself while raising the sword with the other?—and the mother on the other side pulling the child toward herself and thrusting her own neck before the edge of the sword, so that she might not see with her eyes the wretched child being destroyed by the hands of the executioner? How could one recount the fathers' cries, their appeals, their groans, their final embraces of their children—and many such things happening at the same time? Who could dramatize the manifold and varied nature of the calamity—the double birth pangs of those who had just given birth, the sharp brands of nature—how the wretched infant clung to the breast and at the same time received the fatal blow through its vitals, how the poor mother both offered the nipple to the infant's mouth and received the blood of her child in her bosom?

Often, by the force of the hand, the executioner would drive the child through with a single stroke of the sword, piercing it together with its mother, and a single stream of blood would flow, mingled from the mother’s wound and the child’s fatal blow. And since this also is added to the abominable decree of Herod—that the death sentence was to be carried out not only against the newborn, but if any had advanced to a second year, that one too was to be snatched away (for it is written, “from two years old and under”)—the account sees in these events another likely calamity: that often the intervening time had made the same woman the mother of two children. What, then, was the spectacle again in such cases, with two executioners busying themselves about one mother, one dragging the older child toward himself, the other tearing the suckling from her bosom? What was the poor mother likely to suffer, as her nature was torn between two children, each equally kindling the fire in her maternal vitals—not knowing which or which of the wicked executioners to follow, one here, the other there?

On the other side, the infants are being dragged to the slaughter; she runs to the newborn, who utters an indistinct and inarticulate cry; but she hears the other, who is already speaking and calling to his mother with a lisping voice amid tears. What is she to suffer? What is she to become? To whose voice shall she respond? To whose lament shall she make her own lament? For which death shall she mourn, perhaps scourged on both sides by the goads of nature? But let us turn our hearing away from the dirges over the children and direct our mind to the more cheerful matters more fitting for the feast, even if Rachel, according to the prophecy, cries out loudly, lamenting the slaughter of her children. For on a feast day, as the wise Solomon says, forgetfulness of evils is fitting. And what could be more auspicious for us than this feast, in which the sun of righteousness, having dispersed the evil darkness of the devil, shines upon nature through our very nature itself; in which the fallen is raised up, the estranged is led to reconciliation, the outcast is brought back, that which has fallen away from life returns to life, that which has been enslaved by captivity is restored to the dignity of the kingdom, that which has been bound by the chains of death runs free to the land of the living? Now, according to the prophecy, the bronze gates of death are shattered, the iron bolts are broken, by which the human race was formerly confined in the prison of death. Now, as David says, the gate of righteousness is opened. Now, throughout the whole world, the sound of those celebrating is heard in unison—through a human, death; through a human, salvation.

The first fell into sin, the second raised up the one who had fallen. The woman has made defense on behalf of the woman. The first gave entrance to sin, but this one served the entrance of righteousness. That one drew in the counsel of the serpent; this one presented the destroyer of the serpent. That one brought in sin through the wood; this one brought in the good through the wood in exchange. For the cross was wood. And the fruit of this wood is ever-blooming and unfading life for those who taste it. And let no one suppose that such thanksgiving is fitting only for the mystery of Pascha. For let him consider that Pascha is the end of the economy. But how could the end have come to be, if the beginning had not led the way? Which is more foundational than which? The birth, clearly, of the economy concerning the Passion. Therefore, the good things of Pascha are also a part of the praises concerning the birth, even if one enumerates the benefactions of the events recorded in the Gospels, even if one recounts the miracles of healings, the food from destitute sources, the return of the dead from their tombs, the spontaneous cultivation of wine, the flight of demons, the transformation of various sufferings into health, the leaps of the lame, the eyes from clay, the divine teachings, the legislations, the initiation through parables into the higher mysteries. All these are the grace of the present day. For this day began the subsequent goods.

Therefore let us rejoice and be glad in her, not fearing the reproach of men nor being defeated by their disparagement, as the prophet exhorts, those who mock the word of the economy, as if it were unbecoming for the Lord to submit to the nature of a body and through birth to mingle himself with human life. For you surely are not ignorant of the mystery concerning this, how the wisdom of God arranged our salvation for us. We voluntarily sold ourselves to sins, and like slaves bought with money we were enslaved to the enemy of our life. What was most desirable for you to happen from the master? Was it not to be delivered from the calamity? Why do you scrutinize the manner? Why do you legislate to the benefactor the form of the benefaction, as if someone were to reject the physician and blame him for his good deed, because he did not effect the cure in this way but in another? But if you seek the word of the economy out of meddlesomeness, it is enough for you to learn this much, that the divine does not have only one of the goods, but is everything that is good in conception: powerful, just, good, wise, all the names and thoughts that belong to the godly signification. Consider then whether all the things said about what happened to us did not concur. Goodness, wisdom, justice, power. As good, he loved the apostate. As wise, he devised the plan for the return of those who had been enslaved.

As a just man does not coerce the one who enslaved him, the one who lawfully acquired him by purchase, but gives himself as an exchange for those held captive, so that, like a guarantor, transferring the debt to himself, he may free the detained one from those who hold him. As a powerful one, he was not held by Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. For it was not possible that the author of life be held by corruption. But is it shameful to come into human birth and undergo the experience of the affections of the flesh? You speak of the excess of the benefaction. For since otherwise it was not possible for the human race to be delivered from evils, the king of all impassibility endured exchanging his own glory for our life. And purity comes to be in our filth, but filth does not attach to purity, as the Gospel says, that the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. For the gloom is obliterated by the presence of the ray; the sun is not dimmed by the gloom. The mortal is swallowed up by life, as the Apostle says; life is not consumed by death. The corrupted is preserved together with the incorruptible, but corruption does not attach to incorruptibility. For these reasons, there is a common harmony of all creation, with all tongues, both heavenly and earthly and subterranean, sending up unanimous doxology to the master of creation, crying out, "Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father, blessed for ever and ever. Amen.