Orations

A virginal festival today calls our tongue, brothers, to praise; and the present feast becomes a source of benefit to those who have gathered, and most fittingly. For it has purity as its subject; and what is celebrated is the boast of womankind and the glory of the female sex, because of her who in due time was mother and virgin. Lovely and wonderful is this assembly. For see, land and sea bring gifts to the Virgin: the one calmly spreading out its back for the ships, the other sending on unhindered the footsteps of those who walk. Let nature leap for joy, and let the race of men exult, because women too are honoured; let humanity dance, because virgins too are glorified. For “where sin abounded, grace overflowed all the more.” For the holy Theotokos, the Virgin Mary, has called us together here now: the spotless treasure of virginity; the spiritual paradise of the second Adam; the workshop of the union of the natures; the festival of the saving exchange; the bridal chamber in which the Word wedded the flesh; the living bush of our nature, which the fire of the divine birth-pangs did not burn up; the truly light cloud, which carried him who sits upon the cherubim, together with a body; the purest fleece of the rain from heaven, from which the shepherd clothed himself with the sheep. Mary, the handmaid and mother, the virgin and heaven, the only bridge of God to men; the awesome loom of the economy, on which the tunic of the union was woven in an unspeakable way: its weaver the Holy Spirit; its spinner the power that overshadowed from on high; its wool the ancient fleece of Adam; its weft the spotless flesh of the Virgin; its shuttle the immeasurable grace of him who wore it; its craftsman the Word, who leapt in through hearing. Who has seen, who has heard, that God dwelt without limit in a womb, and that him whom heaven did not contain a belly did not find too narrow?

But God was born of a woman, not bare God, and man, not mere man; and he who was born showed the old door of sin to be a gate of salvation. For where the serpent poured out its venom through disobedience, there the Word entered through obedience and formed a living temple. Whence Cain, the first of sin, came forth, thence Christ, the Redeemer of the race, sprang up without seed. The lover of mankind was not ashamed of birth from a woman, for it was life that he was transacting; he was not defiled by dwelling in a womb which he himself had created without outrage. For if the mother had not remained a virgin, the one born would be a mere man, and the birth no wonder; but if she remained a virgin even after the birth, how is he not also God, and the mystery inexpressible? He was born inexpressibly who also entered unhindered when the doors were shut; seeing the conjunction of his natures, Thomas cried out, saying: “My Lord and my God!”

Do not be ashamed of the birth-pangs, man; for they became for us the occasion of salvation. For if he had not been born of a woman, he would not have died; and if he had not died, he would not “through his death have destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” It is no outrage for an architect to stay in what he himself has built; the clay does not defile the potter when he renews the vessel he formed; so neither does coming forth from a virginal womb defile the undefiled God. For he who was not polluted in forming her was not defiled in coming forth through her. O womb, in which the bond of our freedom was drawn up! O belly, in which the weapon against the devil was forged! O field, in which the farmer of nature made the ear of grain spring up without seed! O temple, in which God became a priest, not by changing his nature, but by putting on, out of compassion, him who is “according to the order of Melchizedek”! “The Word became flesh,” even if the Jews disbelieve. God truly wore the form of man, even if the Greeks mock the wonder. For this reason Paul cried out: “to Jews a stumbling block, and to Greeks foolishness.” For they did not know the power of the mystery, since the wonder is beyond reason; “for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” For if the Word had not dwelt in a womb, the flesh would not have sat on the holy throne. If it is an outrage for God to come into a womb which he formed, then so is serving men; and if it is an outrage for God to serve men, then he would not, “though rich, have become poor” for our sake.

Being impassible by nature, he became subject to many sufferings out of compassion. Christ did not become God by progress; God forbid! But being God, he became man out of compassion, as we believe. We do not preach a man deified, but confess God made flesh. He enrolled his own handmaid as his mother, he who is without mother by his being and on earth without father by the economy; for otherwise how is the same one, according to Paul, without mother and without father? If he is a mere man, he is not without mother, for he has a mother; if he is bare God, he is not without father, for he has a Father. But as it is, the same one is without mother as Creator, and without father as man.

Respect, man, at least the name of the archangel; for the one who brought Mary the good news was called Gabriel. And what does Gabriel mean? Learn by hearing: God and man. For since the one whom he announced is God and man, the name anticipated the wonder, to vouch for the economy. Learn first the economy and the cause of his coming, and then glorify the power of him who was made flesh, since human nature owed much because of sins and was at a loss to pay the debt. For through Adam we all signed a bond to sin; the devil held us as slaves; he carried around our bills of sale, using our much-suffering body as his paper; the wicked forger of the passions stood there, brandishing our debt and demanding the penalty from us. One of two things, then, had to happen: either death, the penalty of the condemnation, had to be brought upon all, since all had sinned; or a price had to be given in exchange which would be every right to plead for release from the debt. Now a man could not save, for he was subject to the debt of sin; an angel was not strong enough to buy back humanity, for he lacked such a ransom; so it remained that the sinless God should die for those who had sinned. For this was the only release from the evil left.

What then? He who brought every nature from non-being into being, and lacks nothing to provide, found the surest life for the condemned and the most fitting release from death. And he becomes man from a Virgin, as he himself knows, for no word can explain the wonder; and he dies by what he became, and he redeems by what he was, as Paul says: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses.” O the greatness of the deeds! He obtained immortality for others, for he himself was immortal. For no other such has been, or was, or ever will be in the economy, except only the God and man born of the Virgin, having a worth not only equal in the balance to the multitude of the condemned, but outweighing every sentence. In being Son, he keeps his exact likeness to the Father; in being Creator, he has power that needs nothing; in being merciful, he has displayed a compassion that cannot be surpassed; in being High Priest, he brings what is trustworthy for intercession; and in these no one could ever find anyone equal or similar in anything. See his love for mankind. Condemned willingly, he undid the death that was due to those who crucified him, and turned the lawlessness of his killers into the salvation of the lawless. It was not for a mere man, then, to save; for he himself needed the one who saves, according to Paul, who says: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and so on. Since, then, sin brought the one liable to it to the devil, and the devil sent him on to death, our affairs advanced in the greatest danger, and there was no way to release us from death; the physicians who were sent made accusation. What then? When the prophets saw that the wound was greater than human skill, they cried out for the Physician from heaven. One said: “Bow the heavens and come down.” Another: “Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed.” Another: “Stir up your power and come to save us.” Another: “Will God really dwell with men?” Another: “Let your mercies quickly come to meet us, Lord, for we have become very poor.”

Another: “Woe is me, for the godly man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men.” Another: “O God, attend to my help; make haste to help me.” Another: “Yet a very little while, and he who is coming will come and will not delay.” Another: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, who hopes in you.” Another: “God will come openly, our God, and will not keep silence.” So he who is King by nature did not overlook human nature tyrannized for long; the merciful God did not leave it liable to the devil to the end; but he who is always present came, and paid his own blood as a ransom for us, and gave to death in exchange for the race the flesh he wore from the Virgin, and bought the world back from the curse of the law, destroying death by death. And Paul cries: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.”

He who bought us, then, is not a mere man, O Jew, for the whole nature of men had been enslaved to sin; nor yet God bare of humanity, for he had a body, O Manichee. For if he had not put on me, he would not have saved me; but in the womb of the Virgin he who had pronounced the sentence put on the condemned. And there the awesome exchange took place: for giving spirit, he received flesh. The same one is with the Virgin and from the Virgin: overshadowing her as God, and made flesh from her as man. If Christ is one and God the Word another, the holy Trinity is no longer a Trinity but, by your account, heretic, a quaternity. Do not tear the tunic of the economy, woven from above; do not become a disciple of Arius. For he impiously cuts the being; do not you divide the conjunction, lest you be divided from God. Who appeared, tell me, to those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death? A man? And how could he, himself living in darkness, as Paul says: “who delivered us from the dominion of darkness”? For we were once darkness, as it is written, “but now light in the Lord.” Who, then, appeared to us? David teaches you, saying: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Who is this? Say it plainly, David. “Cry aloud with strength, and do not spare; lift up your voice like a trumpet”; say who this is. “The Lord,” he says, “the God of powers”; “God is Lord, and has appeared to us.” “For the Word became flesh.” The natures came together, and the union remained without confusion.

He came to save, but he also had to suffer; how, then, could both happen? A mere man was not strong enough to save; bare God could not suffer. What then? Being God, Emmanuel himself became man; and by what he was he saved, and by what he became he suffered. Therefore, when the church saw that the synagogue had crowned him with thorns, lamenting its daring, she said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, go forth and see the crown with which his mother crowned him.” For he himself both wore the crown of thorns and undid the sentence of thorns, the same one being in the bosom of the Father and in the womb of the Virgin; the same in the arms of his mother and on the wings of the winds; the same was worshipped above by angels and reclined below with tax collectors; the seraphim did not look upon him, and Pilate questioned him; the slave struck him, and creation shuddered; the same was fastened to the cross, and the throne of his glory was not left empty; he was shut in a tomb, and he stretched out the heaven like a skin; he was counted among the dead, and he despoiled Hades; here he was slandered as a deceiver, and there he was glorified as holy.

O the mystery! I see the miracles, and I proclaim the Godhead; I see the sufferings, and I do not deny the humanity. But Emmanuel opened the gates of nature as man, yet did not break the bars of virginity as God; he came forth from the womb as he entered through hearing; he was born as he was conceived. He entered without passion; he went out inexpressibly, according to the prophet Ezekiel, who says: “The Lord brought me back,” he says, “by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And the Lord said to me: Son of man, this gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall pass through it, but only the Lord, the God of Israel; he shall enter and go out, and the gate shall be shut.” See a clear proof of the holy Theotokos Mary. Let every contradiction, then, be dissolved, and let us be enlightened by the knowledge of the Scriptures, so that we may also attain the kingdom of heaven in Christ, to whom be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

Fair is the lyre of the Psalms; inspired is the harp of the Spirit; delightful and awesome is the song of prophecy; always saving is psalmody, lulling the passions to sleep with its melody. For what a sickle is to thorns, a psalm becomes to grief. For a psalm, when sung, cuts out despondency; it uproots griefs; it sponges away passions; it lulls laments to sleep; it operates on cares; it comforts those in pain; it pricks sinners to compunction; it wakes them to piety; it makes deserts into cities; it makes cities self-controlled; it builds up monasteries; it commends virginity; it teaches meekness; it makes love law; it calls love of the poor blessed; it anoints for endurance; it lifts up to the heavens; it crowds the church; it sanctifies the priest; it puts demons to flight; it prophesies the future; it proclaims mysteries in advance; it lays down the Trinity as law, saying: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.” It proclaimed the Son as sharing the throne; it did not brand the consubstantial one as a servant. For this reason just now the blessed David, singing the praise of the untiring nature, the almighty being, the unconquerable will, the grace that does not delay, the Creator who acts on his own authority, the Son who is free, God free from subjection, the Master who takes no orders, cried out: “How magnified are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have made them all.” Let Arius and Eunomius, Macedonius and Nestorius be put to shame, the devil's four-horse chariot, the crags of the heresies, the reefs of blasphemy, the shipwrecks of souls, the hidden rocks of impiety, the wicked weighers of the Trinity; let them hear David saying: “How magnified are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have made them all.” David magnifies the works, and the blasphemers belittle the Creator. For all the deeds of Christ the Master are wonderful and paradoxical; for they are the marvels of God the Word, outstripping the speed of the tongue and displaying the strength of him who created.

The Master made all things in wisdom. He brought angels out of non-being; he nodded, and creation did not delay; he commanded, and light rose out of darkness; he made the heaven firm like a vault; he drew up the earth, dissolved in the deep; he adorned the sun like a bridegroom; he shaped the moon in varied forms for our need; he forged peoples of stars out of light; and he granted harmony to the warring elements [fire, water]: the earth gushes out rivers, and the air lifts weights aloft, and his art has blended their opposition into friendship. Let me speak the mystery. Being God, he was seen on earth, and through a Virgin he came to dwell where he was already present; and the birth did not diminish him, nor did the birth-pangs alter his uncreated nature; but a created form shaped the Creator, and the world contained the uncontainable when he was made flesh. Having become man without sin, by a tree he freed our nature from sin; by a tomb he put death to death; by insult he cultivated glory; in a river he sketched the mystery of the font. And that Christ was God the sea, the winds, and the demons bore witness just now: the sea's surge was calmed, the violence of the winds was lulled to sleep, and the demons were scourged invisibly. And the elements bore witness to the power of him who was present, that they feared him of whom the prophet cried out in the Psalms: “The waters saw you, O God, and were afraid.”

Truly the Master made all things in wisdom. For to a creation that was mute he granted a tongue, I mean man; and as a womb for the first-formed man he made the dust from untilled earth. For just as in a womb seed is sown, a body is formed, the clay is shaped, the flesh is given a soul, the living being is completed, the one made in the image leaps, the rational creature is born, and the forming remains without witness and the birth inexplicable; so also with the first-formed Adam: instead of a womb, the divine hands; instead of seed, the earthly dust; instead of months, the timelessness of the Maker; instead of birth-pangs, the impassibility of the Fashioner; instead of birth, the divine breathing; instead of milk, the spring of paradise; instead of food, the table that needed no toil; instead of a form, the image of the archetype; instead of rank, immortality by grace; instead of subjects, the animals formed with him. And a birth by formation took place, but labour did not outrage the birth. Let the children of the Jews be put to shame, who mock the virginal birth, who say: “If a virgin gave birth, she did not remain a virgin.” Wretched and miserable man, Adam was brought into the world, and labour did not outrage his forming; God was born according to the flesh, and did his birth suffer corruption? For this reason the Master Christ is also the second Adam according to the flesh, since the earlier Adam was a type of the Master Christ. The clay sketched the potter. And that he was a type, hear the blessed Paul saying: “Death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a type of the one to come.” And hear how Adam was a type of the Master Christ according to the flesh. The servant is the beginning of nature; the Master is the beginning of a life that has no end. Divine hands formed that one; this one, as he knows, made himself flesh. That one was made according to the image; this one is the uncreated image. That one received a soul by breathing; this one was seen in the form of a slave. Paradise was that one's house; heaven is this one's throne. That one was the tongue of creation; this one is the head of the church. That one stretched out his hand to a tree and harvested death; this one spread out his hands on the cross and embraced the world, and cries in the Gospels: “When I am lifted up, I will draw all to myself.” That one had a wife who plotted against him; this one had a Virgin as his bridal chamber. While Adam slept his side was taken, and the woman was built, and Adam lacked nothing; when the Master Christ was crucified and buried according to the flesh, the church was bought by his blood, and suffering did not touch his Godhead.

But it is asked why the side was taken and the woman built up while Adam was not awake but asleep. Ought he not rather to have been awake, so as to witness the forming, be amazed at the skill, and glorify the wisdom of the Maker: how from clay came sinews and flesh, the fitting of bones and the fineness of hair? But God did not allow this, for two reasons. First, so that he would not feel pain when the side was taken, and, having felt pain, hate the woman, and the one of his own kind become hostile to him. Second, what is greater and more divine: God knew that man is a contentious creature, and that he was formed with free will; so that he would not begin to pry even into the birth of God, he casts sleep upon him, bridling his daring, as if saying to him: If you were not allowed to see the forming of one of your own kind, do not dare to pry into the unspeakable power of God and his incomprehensible birth. You cannot understand how a man is born; can you investigate the economy of God?

But I see that you are pressed for room, and it would be better to put the sermon to rest here; but if you are violent, and the kingdom belongs to the violent, I will add to what has been said. Probably one of the Jews is present here, and the fox of Judaea is hiding in Christ's vineyard, and after the congregation is dismissed he will stand outside, mock the sermon, and say such things as these: Why, Christians, do you make these innovations and boast about things that cannot be proved? Was God ever seen on earth? Never at any other time, except only in the days of Moses. But not even then was he seen, Jew; and Moses himself is a witness of this, speaking thus: “Take heed to yourself, and lay up in your heart all the words that your eyes have seen; and teach them to your sons and your sons' sons; remember the day of the Lord your God, the day of the assembly, when the Lord spoke to me, saying: Gather the people to me, and let them hear my words, and they will teach them to their sons. And you came near and stood under Mount Sinai; and the mountain was burning with fire up to heaven; and you heard the voice of the Lord your God from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, and you saw no form.” Why, then, do you boast of having seen what you did not see? What, then, he says, do you put to me: that a woman could give birth to God? To this I say to you: I do not tell you that a woman could give birth to God, but that God, made flesh, could be born of a woman; for all things are possible to him. Yet if you disbelieve my words, Jew, respect the books of the prophets; stoop down into them and see the whole mystery spoken of God; see the whole wonder of the virgin sketched in shadow. For the prophet says: “In that day, says the Lord almighty” (first I read the prophecy, and then I give the interpretation): “In that day, says the Lord almighty, a man shall invite his neighbour under his vine and under his fig tree. And the angel who talked with me,” he says, “turned me and roused me, as a man is roused from his sleep, and said to me: What do you see? And I said: I have looked, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, and the lamp-bowl above it, and seven lamps, and seven pourers, and two olive trees above it. And I asked the angel and said: What are these, Lord? And he said to me: Do you not know what these are? And I said: No, Lord. And the angel who talked with me answered and said: This is the Word of the Lord.” O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! We have read the prophecy; let us bring in the interpretation.

“In that day, says the Lord almighty.” In what day, prophet? The day of the incarnation, when a Virgin imitated heaven; when rays leapt out of a womb; when the sun made flesh came forth from a womb; when the light took shape in human form; when the birth of the one born was not a beginning but a rising. “And the angel who talked with me,” he says, “turned me and roused me, as when a man is roused from his sleep.” Who is the angel? The one who brought Mary the good news. What is the sleep? The time of the law. For as in sleep the eyelid covers the pupil, so under the law the veil covered the heart. “And he said to me: What do you see? And I said: I have looked, and behold, a lampstand all of gold.” What, then, is the lampstand? Holy Mary. Why a lampstand? Because she carried the immaterial light, God made flesh. And why all of gold? Because she remained a virgin even after giving birth. For he says: “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall pass through it, for the Lord, the God of Israel, alone shall pass through it; and it shall be shut, for the prince shall both go out and shut the doors behind him.” And that the womb is called a gate, Job is witness, saying: “Why did it not shut the gates of my womb?” And as the lampstand is not itself the cause of the light but the bearer of the light, so the Virgin is not herself God but the temple of God. “And the lamp-bowl,” he says, “above it.” What is the lamp-bowl? God the Word made flesh, the light of the world, who says: “I am the light of the world.” And as in the lamp-bowl the material receives the flame, so in the mystery God took the form of a slave. And as the lamp-bowl sheds its brightness from above, so the Master came to dwell on earth from heaven. For this reason the prophet too cried: “Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the Dayspring from on high has visited us.”

“And the lamp-bowl,” he says, “above it, and seven lamps.” What are these seven lamps? The particular laws. How is this clear? David says: “Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” And Solomon: “For the commandment of the law is a lamp and a light.” Here, then, he means the seven laws. And hear that there were seven laws. The first law is the natural one, of which Paul says: “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves.” The second law is that given through sight; for the one whom the law proclaims as Creator, sight confirms through the creatures. “For from the greatness and beauty of created things their Maker is seen by analogy.” The third law is the commandment about the tree; and the apostle Paul cries: “So the law is holy, and the commandment holy and righteous and good.” The fourth law is that given to Noah, in the cloud. The fifth law is that given to Abraham, the law of circumcision. The sixth is the law of the letter. The seventh is the law of grace; and hear again Paul saying that grace has a law: “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” And Isaiah says: “Out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Here, then, he calls the seven laws seven lamps. For since Christ came to fulfil all the laws, according to the blessed Paul, who says: “Christ is the fulfilment of the law for righteousness,” for this reason he called the seven laws seven lamps. And what are the seven pourers? The seven gifts of the Spirit. How is this clear? Isaiah says: “A rod will come forth from the root of Jesse, [and a flower from the root] will come up, and the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and piety; the spirit of the fear of God will fill him.” “And two pourers, and two olive trees above it.” What are the two olive trees? The two Testaments. And why did he call them olive trees? Because as the olive has evergreen leaves, so the two Testaments have unceasing testimonies about Christ.

“And I asked the angel and said: What are these? And the angel said: Do you not know what these are? And I said: No, Lord.” What are you saying, prophet? You say, “I saw a lampstand, and a lamp-bowl, and lamps, and pourers.” How then do you ask about what you saw? Yes, he says, for I was looking at an image and searching out a wonder. For as those who sail on the sea see the open water but do not see the pearl hidden below, so the prophet saw an image and searched out a mystery. Therefore he says: “And I asked the angel and said: What are these?” What, then, does the angel do? He does not say that he saw a lampstand, a lamp-bowl, lamps, and pourers; but, leaving the riddle aside, he proclaims the wonder and says: “This is the Word of the Lord.” And the angel becomes an evangelist; for leaving aside the sight, he proclaims the wonder and says: “This is the Word of the Lord.” What are you saying, angel? You showed vessels, and you announce the Word? Yes; for the sight is a riddle, and the grace a mystery. For since the Master and Lord was going to be born of a Virgin according to the flesh, to take shape as a man, and to be made flesh as he willed, and the

Jews were going to mock the wonder and say, “How could the Word of God, the Word in the beginning, the Word with God, be born in the form of a man and be made flesh from his own creature?”, he therefore, wishing to stop the mouths of the Jews, showed the prophet the lampstand instead of the Virgin; the pourers instead of the gifts; the olive trees instead of the Testaments; the lamp-bowl instead of the Saviour. And that the prophets call the Master Christ, the Word made flesh, the God who did not change, a lamp, hear Isaiah saying: “Let my soul rejoice in the Lord; for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness; he has put a turban on me like a bridegroom, and adorned me with ornaments like a bride; and as the earth makes its flower grow, and as a garden its seeds, so the Lord will make righteousness and rejoicing spring up before all the nations. For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until my righteousness goes forth as light, and my salvation burns like a lamp.” To him be glory and might and honour, with the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of [ages].

Many and various festivals brighten human life, turning the sorrow of a toilsome existence into pleasure by the cycle of feasts. For just as those who have come down from the open sea after a storm rejoice in harbours as in the arms of life, so after many difficulties in his affairs a man keeping a feast rejoices in the festival as the mother of freedom from care. For a feast is forgetfulness of grief, sleep for cares, cultivator of joy, bringer of brightness, a time for prayer, a harvest for the poor, adornment of churches, a festival of cities for the birthday of Jesus, shipwreck of enmity, dawn of friendship, heaven on earth. And why say much? A feast is the fruit of the resurrection, according to the prophet who says: “Keep your feasts, Judah; for he who breathes into your face has come up from the earth.”

But, as I said, the festivals are many; yet the gains of the feasts are not equal. For some were legislated by God, others were brought in by the devil. Therefore some threaten loss to souls, some minister surfeit to the belly, and others procure the salvation of human nature. The Greeks keep feasts; but having shamefully made gods of the passions, they wipe off on themselves from them the mire of shame. The Jews too keep feasts; but they carry the belly about as a god, making their feasts occasions of sin after surfeit. Keeping a feast in the desert, they worshipped the golden image; they fasted for lawsuits and fights; keeping a feast in Jerusalem, they joined in fixing a cross against the Master. O Jewish feasts, whose brightness is deceit and whose luxury is murder! But the festivals of Christians are divine and paradoxical, and truly springs and treasuries of salvation. For our first festival proclaims God's coming to dwell among men. The one after it depicts the sanctification of the waters and the womb of baptism. The third announces the plunging of death, the trophy of the cross, the gift of the resurrection, and freedom for the fathers. The fourth cries aloud the ascent of our firstfruits into the heavens and the session at the right hand. The fifth trumpets the descent of the Holy Spirit and showers of countless gifts. “These are the feasts that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in them.”

For what is there in them that is not wonderful and paradoxical? What in the feast we celebrated yesterday was not full of awe and glory? For what was the wonder of yesterday's feast? But I beg you, listen with indulgence, for a tongue of clay is trying to carry across the mysteries of God. What, then, was the wonder of yesterday's feast? An inexplicable mystery of Godhead and manhood; a childbirth without labour; an incarnation that gave form, without passion, to the formless one; a paradoxical birth; a beginning and not a beginning of the one born, for the manhood had a beginning, but the Godhead remained without beginning; a form taking on a form, and the Trinity did not increase to a quaternity; a coming together of two natures, and the birth of one Son; an unconfused union of Word and flesh; and the one born yesterday according to the flesh is God in what is from the Father and man in what is from me. O awesome and paradoxical mystery! Who ever saw a king wear the dress of a condemned man? Or when did an eye contain the whole sun? And when was flesh united to God in being without change, if not yesterday? When the holy Virgin lent her womb, the Word leapt in through hearing, the Holy Spirit formed the living temple, the Most High emptied himself into the form of a slave, and the womb of a Virgin carried the mystery of the divine economy. O womb wider than heaven! O birth, cargo of salvation! O belly, bridal chamber of the clay and its Fashioner! O childbirth, ransom for the sin of the world! O mystery whose manner I cannot explain! O birth, which brought to the whole people, as gift and good news, not a beginning of God's existence, not a change of nature, not a lessening of power, not a separation from the Father who begot without beginning, but a union of God and flesh in being, a blessing of birth, God's coming to dwell, a wonder hidden in God from eternity, an undivided mystery of natures, release from the curse, the overturning of the sentence, the existence without beginning of the one and only Son, his birth from a Virgin according to the flesh, and the worship of him by all creation. To him be glory and might to the ages of ages. Amen.

All the festivals of the martyrs are wonderful, imitating the brilliance of the stars in their commemoration. For just as the stars are fixed in heaven in their positions and are known by their distance from one another, and shine on the whole circle of the earth, and the same star is seen among the Indians and is not hidden from the Scythians, flashes on the land and lights up the sea and steers those who sail, and though because of their number we do not know the names of them all, yet because of their beauty we marvel at their brilliance; so also each of the saints. For even if their remains are enclosed in tombs, all that is under heaven has not confined their power. And that what has been said is true, you may learn from the facts themselves. Palestine has the remains of Abraham, and his tent rivals paradise; for the God who pronounced sentence on Adam there was entertained as a guest here by the patriarch. One tomb embraces the bones of Joseph, and the ends of the world are amazed at his battle against the Egyptian woman. Not even the grave of Moses is found, and after death he proclaims the one who split the Red Sea by a rod. Where Isaiah is buried we do not know, and the whole church cries out through his prophecy: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son.” Daniel was buried in Babylon, and through the whole earth he has cried: “Behold, one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven.” The youths with Ananias also fell asleep in Babylon, and through them the whole world cries every day: “Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.” Ezekiel was buried among the Persians, and with the cherubim he has cried: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.” So the devil gained nothing by killing Adam in paradise; for through death God opened to the righteous a door of boldness.

But while all the commemorations of the saints are wonderful, none is so glorious as the present festival. Abel is named for his sacrifice; Enoch is remembered for pleasing God; Melchizedek is proclaimed as an image of God; Abraham is praised for his faith; Isaac is commended as a type; Jacob is called blessed for his wrestling; Joseph is honoured for his self-control; Job is called blessed for his endurance. Moses is acclaimed as lawgiver; Joshua son of Nun is remembered as a general; Samson is called blessed as a companion of God; Elijah is attested as a zealot; Isaiah is recorded as a theologian; Daniel is proclaimed as wise; Ezekiel is admired as a beholder of unspeakable things; David is spoken of as father of the mystery according to the flesh; Solomon is admired as wise. But none is such as Mary the Theotokos. For what all of them saw in riddles, she carried in her womb made flesh; and nothing hindered the unspeakable economy of God the Word. Bulk? But that is a material condition, and the Word is foreign to bulk and passion. The size of so small a space? But the Godhead is not circumscribed. Defilement? But he who was not polluted in fashioning her was not defiled when he was made flesh in her and born of her; rather, his love for mankind brings more glory to the King. Birth? But birth did not diminish his being without beginning. Becoming man? But the divine nature underwent no change. Having a mother according to the flesh? But he did not lose being without mother according to the Godhead. A manger? But he did not leave the Father's bosom empty. A cave? But the Trinity never left the throne empty. Nothing in life, then, is like Mary the Theotokos. Go round creation, man, in your thought, and see whether anything is equal to or greater than the holy Virgin and Theotokos. Travel the earth; look around the sea; search the air; explore the heavens with your mind; consider all the invisible powers; and see whether there is another such wonder in all creation. For “the heavens declare the glory of God”; angels serve with fear; archangels worship with trembling; the cherubim shudder, unable to bear him; the seraphim, flying around, do not come near, but cry out in trembling: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts; heaven and earth are full of his praise.” The lake could not bear his voice; the clouds became the vehicle of the resurrection in trembling; the sun shuddered, unable to bear the outrage; Hades vomited out the dead in fear; the gatekeepers of Hades cowered when they saw him; the mountain smoked when it received his tread; the bush, unable to bear the vision, was set ablaze; the Jordan shuddered and turned back; the sea, fearing the rod, was split, tamed by the figure of the Master; Aaron's rod blossomed against nature because of the image; the fire in Babylon respected the number of the Trinity. Count, then, the paradoxes, and marvel at the Virgin's victory: that him whom all creation hymned with fear and trembling she alone, inexplicably, received in her bridal chamber.

Because of her all women are blessed. No longer is the female under a curse; for the sex has one by whom it will surpass even angels in glory. Eve has been healed; the Egyptian woman has been silenced; Delilah has been buried; Jezebel has been forgotten; Herodias too is no longer remembered; and now the roll of women is admired. Sarah is acclaimed as the field of peoples; Rebekah is honoured as the clever agent of blessings; Leah too is admired as mother of the ancestor according to the flesh; Deborah is praised as one who led an army beyond nature; Elizabeth too is called blessed, as one who carried the leaping of the Forerunner in her womb and was disposed toward grace; and Mary is venerated, because she became mother and handmaid and cloud and bridal chamber and ark of the Master. Mother, for she bore him who willed to be born. Handmaid, for I confess her nature and proclaim the grace. Cloud, for she conceived by the Holy Spirit the one whom she bore without passion. Bridal chamber, for God the Word dwelt in her as in a bridal chamber. Ark, not carrying the law but bearing the Lawgiver in her womb. Therefore let us say to her: “Blessed are you among women,” you alone who healed the grief of Eve; you alone who wiped away the tears of the one who groaned; you alone who carried the ransom of the world; you alone who were entrusted with the treasure of the pearl; you alone who grew great with child without pleasure and gave birth without passion; you alone who bore Emmanuel as he himself willed. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb”: the fruit, not the seed; the flower, not passion; the radiance, not a creature; the one who shares the throne, not the slave; the sun, not the sand; the one who is worshipped, not a creature; the ransom, not the debtor. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

In place of all, the prophet is enough for your praise, crying: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb.” He spoke the wonder and kept silent about the manner. “And shall bear a son”: he proclaimed the childbirth and did not corrupt her condition. “And they shall call his name Emmanuel”: he spoke the mystery and thundered the name; “which is translated, God with us.” He proclaimed the one born as God and shut the mouths of the Jews. God with us, and error has been quenched; God with us, and circumcision has been abolished; God with us, and the demons are put to flight; God with us, and the devil has been abolished; God with us, and the font gives birth and does not grow weary; God with us, and kings are pious; God with us, and the churches are crowded; God with us, and death has become sleep; God with us, and the dead, leaping at their freedom, cry: “Not an angel, not an envoy, but God himself came and saved us.” To him be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

The constant expectation of profits steals away the toil of merchants, and a burning desire for money makes them bold against the wild waves. Since, then, we too are about to launch today from the harbour mouths of our eagerness the small and cheap boat of our teaching, [let us run] on the fair and untroubled voyage of the Virgin's story. Come, then, let us venture more truly upon the depth of the Master's spiritual benefit, rubbing off the sluggishness of bodily weakness; let us cast off the ropes of the affairs of this life and hoist the sails of our festal duties, so that, carried thus by the gentle breeze of the Spirit, we may find ourselves reaching the gold-bearing city of Havilah. And what is Havilah, and the land, and the gold? Is it not the holy Virgin, and her pure and spotless soul? And what is the carbuncle? Is it not the Lord, who says: “I came to cast fire on the earth”? And what is the green stone? Is it not the pallor of the voluntary death of his body, which by the burning nature of such a leek made bitter the death that swallowed him? I ask, then, those who wish to share this voyage with us not to neglect the customary rowing; for so the voyage of teaching will gain a fair passage, and brotherly alliance will show its goodwill. Yet from the very preface I want to remind you, brothers, that it is not without danger to embark on the virgin sea, especially for those unused to such a voyage and strangers to it. For though many have dared such an open sea, few have come safely through it without storm into the waveless and fair harbour of the will of God.

For divine indeed and bright, and belonging to the supreme and blessed order of the bodiless powers, is the spotless garment of virginity; since the King of all also consented to put on this most seemly robe. “For the Lord,” it says, “has reigned; he has put on seemliness.” And not only did he put on the untouched tunic of priestly purity, but he also clothed himself in the honourable robe of royal dignity. In these the two orders are shown: of those who lead and those who are led, of true virginity and of pious chastity. For he was both king and priest “according to the order of Melchizedek.” In the same way Aaron also in former times was clothed in purple and fine linen: for the fine linen is a sign of the blameless and pure life of priests, and the purple, dyed red with the sweat of soldiers, a token of the toilsome and virtuous conduct of kings; so that by the garment of each the piety and courage of mind belonging to each rank might be shown. So also the Lord, having come to be in both, as priest propitiated the Father for all, and as king routed the devil, who was arming himself against all.

Truly the fair words of virginity are a honeycomb, having their sweetness from true faith and possessing their pleasantness from exact practice. She is the spiritual paradise of God, in which is “every tree beautiful to see,” that is, spiritual contemplation, “and good for food,” spiritual teaching; and the tree of life is planted there, the saving economy of God; and with them is also “the tree of knowing what is known of good and evil”: virginal beauty, exercising natural desire in the field of free choice. She is the land of the true promise, flowing with spiritual and pure milk and gushing with spiritual and incorruptible honey: “For I will bring you,” he says, “into a land flowing with milk and honey”; so that those who are led and live in this world may cultivate chastity, and those who lead and are dedicated to God may hold to purity. For twofold is the character of the church: “clothed in golden fringes, many-coloured,” and bearing “all the glory of her beauty within,” as it is written; in the affairs of life bringing forth, according to Solomon, like a fig tree, the unripe figs of modesty, and in priestly things, according to the same Solomon, putting forth like a vine the blossoming clusters of goodness. “For our vines,” he says, “are in blossom, and the fig tree has put forth its unripe figs.” It was according to this order, I think, that the apostles after the resurrection offered the Master a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb: signifying by the fish the rational fish caught by the hook of faith from the salty sea of evils, according to the Lord's word to Peter, “From now on you will be catching men”; and by the honeycomb those who from the virtuous flowers of righteousness store up in the innermost chamber of the heart the profitable and pleasant fruit of piety, which kings and common people alike take for the health of the soul. So “he shall eat butter and honey”: the child born of the holy Virgin eats from the conversion of the two orders, for the sake of those who are infants in wickedness after the mystical birth of the font.

Partaking of this food, John was counted worthy to touch the undefiled head of the Lord; enjoying this nourishment, he became one of the angelic order. For “his food was locusts and wild honey”: the very height of blameless life and the purest form of spotless purity. And the evangelist rightly called such nourishment wild; for the form of virginity is hard to hunt, and this plant has settled far from the land of this world, and perhaps few have been able to learn its quality. But let the prophet's eating of wild honey be understood in another way too. First, because he kept the eye of the mind clean from the easily fanned fumes of fleshly appetites; for according to medical teaching, unsmoked honey is not to be applied to a clouded eye. And after this, because, not yet having believed in the Lord, nor having put the neck of his soul under the yoke of the gospel, he followed with pleasure an estranged and daring life, nourished by the sweet mind of the legal pregnancy. For he did not come to the Jordan by his own judgement, but at God's command. “For I too,” he says, “did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: He on whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove and coming upon him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” For this reason it can be said [that his food was wild honey]: for the honey of purity is wild. “For Christ is the fulfilment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”; and “without faith it is impossible to please God”; and “He who does not believe in the Son will not see eternal life.”

All, then, who have kept the lamp of purity unquenched have bound on the unfading crown of incorruption; all who have acquired the priceless tunic of chastity will be received into the mystical bridal chamber of righteousness. All who have come nearer the angelic rank will enjoy the Master's blessedness more truly. Therefore all who have tasted the Master's sweetness have taken hold of the summit of the gospel. All who abstain from the luxury of wine and strong drink will rejoice in the new fruit of the life-bearing planting. All who have kept the bodily grape incorrupt have gathered the spiritual fruit of blessing in abundance. “As the grape,” he says, “is found in the cluster, and they will say, Do not destroy it, for it is a blessing of the Lord.” He means the blessed John the evangelist, who alone was kept spotless in body and spirit in the apostolic cluster until he became a raisin, that is, until extreme old age. This is the first and choice gift of God; this the illuminating oil of the mind; this the pure incense of fragrance; this the precious ointment of the heart; this the approved spice of the soul; this the most passionless flower of the fragrant body. Through this gift Abel, though dead, still speaks; for those whose lamp of virginity is not quenched, the fame of their purity remains immortal. Through this gift Melchizedek remains a priest for ever. Through this gift Isaac becomes a type of the Master's passion. Through this gift Moses is appointed god to Pharaoh. Through this gift Joseph receives the reins of second place in royal dignity. Through this gift Elijah walks the upper air on bodily feet. Through this gift Jeremiah is entrusted with uprooting and overthrowing kingdoms. Through this gift Daniel shuts the mouths of savage beasts. Through this gift the three youths are kept unharmed in the fearful furnace. Through this gift the two sons of Zebedee are called sons of thunder. Through this gift John is made faithful and friend of the heavenly Bridegroom. And to speak briefly: through this gift she who descends from the human race and is derived from the earthly lump becomes the mother of the Master of the angels. “She was found with child of the Holy Spirit.” Since, then, the sermon in its course has reached the second veil, where the footprint of a strange road is shown, the path of an unseen journey is made new, the gateway of the second tent is opened, things inaccessible appear, the face of what is not seen shines out, and the mercy seat shaded by the cherubim is revealed: “For Christ,” it says, “having come as high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, entered once for all into the Holy Place.” After the apostolic testimony, do some still dare to say, like the fools, “He is not God,” who was born and came forth from the greater and more perfect tent? And how was he a common man like us, the stone cut without hands from the virginal mountain? Whoever tramples him, that is, counts him among those formed from earth, is handed over to unpardonable punishments: “For how much worse punishment,” Paul says, “will he deserve who has trampled on the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant common?” Let us take courage, if you will, toward the sanctified place of the second tent, having loosed the dead sandal of our fettered way of life. For neither does the priest enter the inner sanctuary unless he separates himself from every absurdity of thought, nor can Moses see the great vision of the Master's economy unless he passes beyond all human affairs. For so the thorny nature of men learned to share in the illuminating, not the burning, nature of the Godhead. For the bush that then kept company with the fire bore a symbol of the Virgin who conceived without seed the true light, the sun of righteousness rising from this spotless bridal chamber to warm the waters of the nations, as it is written; to dissolve by the warmth of goodness the frost of the devil's harshness; to drive out by the brightness of the Godhead the night of ignorance; to light up with illuminating rays the creation made by him; so that no one any longer stumbles on the virginal day of grace, walking in the light of orthodoxy according to the firm faith marked out by its boundaries, in the twelve-acre field of the apostles, as it is said: “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble.”

For there are many who not only, as David says, set their mouth against heaven, but also bring their tongue down upon the earth and attack the purity of the Virgin at close quarters. So that we too may not fall, like pleasure-loving and earthy men, when we hear the evangelist say, “Before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit,” and “he did not know her until she had borne her firstborn son,” and so suppose from this that after the divine birth the Virgin ceased from her purity and Joseph held to marital union, I beg the spiritual to receive spiritual things spiritually, and not to be carried down to the passion of the flesh, ignorant of the depth of Scripture. For if we believe, according to the new creation in Christ, that there is no male and female, and that the counterfeit coin of bodily sin does not pass current in the spiritual commonwealth, let us no longer pry into the earthly footprint of the old man, nor again long for the fruit of the fig tree withered from the roots by the Master's word. For we cannot wear two tunics at once; it is not possible to put on a tunic of skin over the garment of incorruption. “For what fellowship,” he says, “has light with darkness?” Let us not drag the knowledge of the gospel down to bodily intercourse; let us not take the mystical interpretation as marital union. Why do we seek a natural sequence in an economy that is beyond nature?

Let us learn what Joseph's ignorance means. He did not recognize the mystery being accomplished in the Virgin, or of what wonder he was the servant. He did not know that the Christ who was prophesied was being born of the woman betrothed to him. He did not know that the Prophet spoken of by Moses was coming forth from a girl who knew no marriage. He did not remember that she who was formed of the good clay could become a temple of God. He did not know that by the spotless hands of the Master the second Adam was again being formed out of the virginal paradise. He did not know that the ruler of the dry land was being created without sowing. He did not know that the land of Israel would one day give the life-giving fruit [“And our land,” it says, “will give its fruit”]. The Virgin's womb swelled, and Joseph's heart was wounded; he saw the swelling of her belly and utterly despaired of the mystery of her purity; he saw her with child and fell into the greatest storm; he noticed her laden and suspected her corrupted. His lack of knowledge was not a suspicion of intercourse but an intensifying of unbelief; the matter called for accusation, not for patience. He heard the angel saying, “Do not fear to take your wife,” and yet he prolongs his brooding over the doubt. I do not believe in the conception, he says, unless I see the birth; unless I behold the infant, I will not drive away the cloud of ignorance; unless I see the firstborn son, I will not unload this most absurd thought; unless I see the spiritual sun risen, I am not persuaded that the spiritual moon remains in the rank of virginity. What then? Shall I embrace this thought and not proceed to separation? I will proceed; for so I may both escape the reproach of men and she may escape the punishment of the law. Let us hear with what words, disbelieving the divine word, he began to speak to her.

“Go far from the Jewish kinship, since you have taken on the uncleanness of the Gentiles.” Then the holy Virgin gave a gentle answer to the heavy rebuke, saying: “Do you think me defiled because you see me with child?” To this Joseph: “It is not for a modest woman to think thoughts alien to piety.” The holy one says: “Judging me guilty of fornication, do you give me no room for a defence?” And Joseph: “Do you persist in denying it, though you have become pregnant?” And the holy one: “Seek faithfully the truthfulness of the prophetic prediction, and you will learn clearly from it the newness of the Lord's conception.” And Joseph: “Have you broken our pious marriage? You will come, as you do not expect, to the strict reckoning.” And the holy one: “Do you wish, then, on suspicion, to condemn one not outraged by intercourse?” And Joseph: “Perhaps I am among those who live well; how then can I hand you over to those who judge such things?” And the holy one: “The Lord will judge this sin for me, he who, as he knows, has come into my womb.” And Joseph: “Does the inconsolable abuse grieve you? Then show the purity that no one has plotted against.” And the holy one said: “Wait for the customary time of the unborn child, and you will see the sanctified offspring of the Lord.” And Joseph: “Do you think to deceive the good sense of my grey hairs with inflated words?” And the holy one: “The words seem strange to you, [I know,] until you see the paradoxical deeds.” And Joseph: “I do not wish to be divorced from you, because of our Jewish kinship; and again I cannot transgress the strictness of the law.” And the holy one: “Be persuaded that the root of Jesse has, of itself, put forth the unfading flower of life.” And Joseph: “I will cast away the rising of my absurd thoughts when I see the birth of the Master of all.” And the holy one: “I love you without passion as my betrothed, because of the law; but I do not wish you to stumble rashly against the Saviour because of the birth.” And Joseph: “Fearing this very thing, I am staying for now without separating from you.” And the holy one: “Remember also the promised coming of the Lord, and turn away from the unbelief that has come upon you from the Evil One.” And Joseph: “Afraid of the surpassing beauty of your body, I readily accepted a suspicion unworthy of the matter.” And the holy one: “Lend, then, the approved coin of patience, so that you may gain the eternal lodging of the kingdom.” And Joseph: “I am counting from now the well-numbered fulfilment of the time, so that I may behold the indescribable incarnation of the Master.” And the holy one: “O Joseph, then we shall be called blessed by all, when we are called parents of the Creator of all.”

Then at last Joseph was fully assured who the Virgin was, when he was also taught by the angel who the one born was. For he says: “Rise, take the child and his mother.” He no longer says, “your wife.” “Let him who is able to receive it receive it.” Then he laid aside the cowardice of his soul, when he beheld the choir of angels; then he called the womb blessed, when he observed the star; then he laid aside the thoughts of fleshly marriage, when he received the treasures of the Magi from the east; then he called himself wretched, when Simeon held the infant and glorified him as God; and she whom he had earlier turned from as incontinent he afterwards received as pure; she whom he had reviled as disgraced he praised in hymns as blameless; she whom he had driven away as profane he entreated as spotless; she whom he had pushed away as shameless he cherished as dear to God; she whom he had publicly called a maenad he besought as a holy lamb. So Joseph, until the Virgin bore the Lord, did not know the mystery of the economy; until she put forth the fruit of salvation, he doubted the incorruptible tree of purity; until the sheaf of joy came to maturity, the suspicion of corruption did not wither. Such ignorance is no accusation against the righteous man; nor is he open to condemnation because out of ignorance he brought blame on the divine conception. For to whom God bears witness of righteousness, who can attribute folly? For the mystery was so incomprehensible to the human mind, and the mystical birth so paradoxical, that the holy Virgin herself, while carrying God the Word, hesitated at the archangel's word: she rejoiced inwardly in him who was being made flesh from her, and outwardly answered back him who was speaking with her; she embraced the treasure of life, and pondered the greeting of the voice.

“How will this be,” she says, “since I do not know a man? I do not understand the plain sense of the word; how shall I know what in the matter is worthy of God?” And the archangel to her: “Do you then demand that the angelic orders publish unspeakable words?” And the holy one to the angel: “Is there harm in asking, if what concerns the conception is made known?” And the angel: “You see Gabriel bringing the good news, and do you hesitate over Emmanuel, whom he announces?” And the Virgin: “Is it, then, within a woman's nature to give birth to the Master of creation?” And the archangel: “Having an earthly mind, how can you learn the heavenly counsel?” And the holy one: “Shall I then accept your word without doubt and not inquire into the birth at all? And can he be contained in a womb who cannot be separated from the Father?” And the archangel: “You will be taught the mystery, as far as is possible, when you hold the Lord in your hand.” And the holy one: “Have you seen a field put forth a sheaf without first receiving seed?” And the archangel: “You have received a joy beyond nature; no longer think of corruption according to nature.” And the holy one: “I have never borne the yoke of a man; how can I become the mother of a child?” And the archangel: “Do you look for the coming together of marriage, where there is the descent of the Master's power?” And the holy one: “I wanted to obtain full assurance, so that I might escape all distress.” And the archangel: “I came to announce to you what has been decreed by the Creator of all; not to explain to you what is hidden from all.” And the holy one: “You are a faithful angel of God; and do you not know exactly what is possible for God?” And the archangel: “Do you wish to learn what is above you? Believe in him who willed to become like you.” And the holy one: “Perhaps it is not possible to announce to me the form of the uncircumscribed one; then at least show me the footprint of the one longed for.” And the archangel: “Know that if you receive what is said to you spiritually, you will see how you are found blessed in what is mystically accomplished.” And the holy one: “And shall I believe that the only-begotten Son of God becomes my kinsman, that he who shares the Father's throne shares the body of a woman?” And the archangel: “… .” And the holy one: “I greatly marvel how the radiance of the Father becomes the offspring of a woman.” And the archangel: “Wishing to escape the notice of the enemy, he who shares the throne of the Father's hypostasis becomes conformed to the rank of a slave.” And the holy one: “I wanted to learn how majestic authority becomes like poverty in suffering.” And the archangel: “Does he cast off the diadem of immortal power by putting on the garment of mortal nature? Does he lay aside his royal sovereignty by coming in earthly lowliness? Does he lessen the dignity of the Godhead by taking the image of humanity? Does the condescension of compassion become an alteration of his being? Is he separated from the most high Father if he is carried by you, his mother? Does he leave the cherubic throne if he occupies a place in the world? Does he fall from his majesty if he lies down in a manger? Is he not without beginning if he becomes new? Is he not hymned by angels as sovereign if he is seen by men as lowly? Does he not sit above if he lives below? Does he not provide for all if he walks with all? Does he not help all if a corner guards him? Is he not God if he comes forth from a womb? Is he not without need if he takes food? Is he not Lord of every breath if he takes on human form?

“Cast off your doubt, then, and receive the greeting eagerly; lay aside womanly lowliness [and put on manly understanding]. Do you not know that because of the economy of the matter I received the title of my name from the beginning? For Gabriel means ‘man God’. For since the unchangeable God was going to appear to men in human form, he announced in advance his glorious coming by an angelic ministry, so that by unbelievers he might be thought a [mortal] man, but to believers be revealed as [immortal] God. In the same way my mission has already been disbelieved a second time in divine things. For not you alone disbelieved what I said, but also Zechariah. And you, since I know you are a child in the more mystical things, or rather, since I revere you as the Lord's mother, I do not dare to correct for your disbelief; but on him, as one who knew the law and did not receive the word, I brought the manner of rebuke and subjected him to the penalty of dumbness; I bound the man's organ of speech, and I opened his wife's workshop of barrenness. For surely it has come to your knowledge how Elizabeth in old age has herself been numbered among mothers. Do you not know what reality is preserved in both images? Do you not know that in you the church of the Gentiles is depicted, and in her the synagogue of the Jews? Has it escaped you that from you, the free woman, the beloved Isaac is born, and from her, the slave, a son is born to complete the law of slavery and to announce the birth of the Lord's coming? Go to her, so that you may know whose mother you are. For even if you persist in opposing my words, when you see John's leapings you will know how in a little while, rejoicing, you will be found called blessed to all the ends of the earth. The ascetic branch of the barren woman points to the fruit in you, the Virgin. The lamp lying under that wooden bushel will point out the sun rising in the golden lampstand. That pair of turtledoves of the desert will reveal the pair of innocent doves. Taught by him, a mother would address you, filled with joy, as mother of the Lord. That swallow announces the spring of souls. For the earthly angel will proclaim the heavenly God, man from the womb; the law, grace; the prophet, the Master; the slave, the Lord; the clay, the Fashioner; the silver, the gold; the soldier, the king; the mortal, the immortal; the one below, the one above; the sick man, the physician; the sheep, the shepherd; the temporary, the eternal; the one from non-being, the one who always is; the minister, the Creator; the creature, the Creator; the baptizer, the maker; the informer, the judge; the one born of a mother in time, the one begotten of the Father before the morning star. For when the workshop of nature had ceased its work, then the mystery beyond nature worked in Elizabeth; when old age cut off hope, then the infant grew; when expectation was despaired of, then the message was confirmed; when the womb was dead, then childbearing rose again; when the season was overripe, then the fruit came early; when hopes had passed, then the baby came forth; when the vine-branch had withered, then the cluster ripened; when the root was weak, then the branch blossomed. For God's power is swifter than his will. So did the fig tree of the law put forth its early fruit, as it is written, and does the vine of the gospel not put forth the insatiable cluster of salvation? Why then do you still doubt, and do not learn, like us angels, to receive God's words without pretence? When you hear about mysteries, you ought to marvel, not track them down; to supplicate, not argue; to be reverent, not contentious; to sing hymns, not to pry; to meditate, not to investigate; to seek what is needful, not to busy yourself with what is endless; to be taught what is profitable, not to meddle with what is incomprehensible.”

So the Virgin was walled in by the angel's word, yet she pondered the Master's birth; she was strengthened by Gabriel's assurance, yet she reflected on the conception of Emmanuel. Divided between joy and grief, she fell into unequal weighings of her thoughts, now led up to the height of the Godhead, now brought down to the lowliness of humanity. While the scale of her mind thus swung to either side, she is granted the exact inclination of God. For he who kept the purest workshop of virginity unharmed also made the central and evenly balanced judge of her heart steady; and tuning the slackened strings of the harp of her soul with the illuminating hands of the Holy Spirit, he sounded from it the melody of rebuke, saying: “Do you still doubt? Having the helmsman of all, are you storm-tossed more than all? Carrying the physician of souls, do you not cast off the sickness of your thoughts? Do you not know that from you I am made flesh below and by angels I am worshipped above? Do you not wish the lover of mankind to become man below for man's sake? Do you not wish the promises to your fathers to be fulfilled through your womb? Do you not wish the disobedience of a woman to be undone again through the obedience of a woman? Because virginity has been sealed, is the economy therefore doubted? Because the workshop of nature is undefiled, is the mystery of the birth therefore incredible? Because the field is unsown, is the joy therefore unacceptable? Does it seem incredible to you that the immortal God is contained in a mortal vessel? That he is united to a body and not altered in spirit? [That] he becomes flesh and is not changed like all flesh? That the Word proclaimed by angels and prophets is found coming forth from your inward parts as an infant? That the one without beginning begins? That the invisible is seen? That the rich becomes poor? That he who feeds is fed? That the Master of all has tax demanded of him along with all? That he who sits upon the cherubim has nowhere to lay his head? … If I do not take an earthly body, it is impossible for you also to receive the Holy Spirit. If I do not share in mortal nature, you do not become sharers of immortal power. If I do not bear the image of the man of dust, you cannot share in the form of the heavenly. If I do not enter the person of the slave, which is being abolished, it is impossible for you to reach the glorified stamp of the Master. If I do not set foot bodily on the earthly place, you will not be received mystically into the bosom of Abraham. Do you not wish to serve the birth of the immortal, so that the power of death may be undone? Do you not wish to receive in your womb him who takes away the sin of the world? Do you not wish to give me a virgin's breast, so that I may suck out the devil's poison? If I do not put on the temporal beginning of humanity, you will not be able to ascend to the ancient sovereignty of the Godhead.

“But if I do not sit in my mother's arms, you will not sit at the right hand of my Father. If I do not come to be in the sinful body, and through it lie as a dead man in the new tomb, neither can the covenant be ratified nor can you be shown heirs of the kingdom of heaven. For in this way I made all from Adam to this generation disinherited, since I, the testator, could not taste death [as not having put on your flesh]. I shall not, then, as you think, defile the royal sandal if I tread on the work made of dust. I shall not outrage my uncreated dignity if I dwell in the house created by me. For neither do muddy pools harm the rays of the sun, nor again do diseased wounds stain the hands of the physician. Learn that God comes forth from you, he does not begin from you. In you the Word takes his stand, yet he does not at all depart from the Father; and he is born, as what he was not, a child; and he is given, as what he is, a Son, as Scripture says. And he is embraced and not grasped; he is beheld and not seen; contained and not contained; born and not measured; he appears to all and is not revealed to all; and he becomes what he is not, man, and remains what he is, God. Shake off, then, the dust of fleshly thinking, and put on the garment of mystical knowledge; cast away the sluggishness of the soul, and take hold of eternal life. For so you will be able both to be kept a pure virgin and to become a faithful mother; not to be separated from the unmarried and yet to be counted with the married; to carry the prophesied Christ and to trample the opposing enemy; to praise in hymns the illuminating radiance of the one's coming, and to quench the tempting burning of the other's madness.”

For he was grieved not a little, especially from the time the Virgin received the good news. The world was in good cheer, and the devil in despondency. The King within his palace was signing grants of peace, and the tyrant outside was forging the weapons of war against our life. The Master was preparing the harbour of salvation, and the tempter was making ready the storm of ignorance. The Lord was ordering the day of the knowledge of God, and the deceiver was walling up the night of impiety. The Creator was living among his creatures, and the robber was taking counsel with the demons. “The kingdom of death is overthrown,” said the devil, “if a virgin womb gives birth. If an incorrupt nature conceives, the nature of demons is dead; if purity holds sway, licentiousness is put to flight; if passionlessness prevails, hostility will run away; if incorruption speaks boldly, sin will hide its face. Let us not lose our ancient pasture of desire; let us not accept the youthful novelty of virginity; let us not through sloth fall from our right to injustice; let not the trade of pleasure-loving be idle; let not the spark of pleasure be quenched; let not the stamp of greed be cast off; let not the workshop of wickedness be shut; let not the seal of pride be counterfeited; let not the wages of evil remain unpaid. Let us set against the neck of virginity the storm of voluptuousness; against the firmness of self-control, the sweetness of gluttony; against the brilliance of truth, the spark of falsehood; against the foundation of piety, the tyranny of impiety. A great disaster holds the tribe of demons; we lie under the heaviest punishment unless we put on the strongest armour. Let us learn the Virgin's paradoxical affair, and see the fearful and extraordinary wonder of him who is being made flesh from her: how a girl, a woman, is with child without having come near any man at all; how she has not laid aside her purity, and yet has traded in childbearing; how the bloom of her beauty was not harvested, and yet the field of fair offspring was cultivated; how the vine was not dug, and yet the cluster ripened; how the seal of virginity remains untouched, and he who is contained in her womb is inexplicable; how she both does not know a man's conception and worships the child she carries. Who has seen a branch older than its root, an embryo that created nature, an infant that created the creation that brings it forth? The one she is going to bear as man, to him she already bows as God; the one she must nurse as an infant, him she glorifies with reverence as Lord. What then? Shall we give up the plot because she has been granted great protection? Shall we withdraw from the hostility because she is covered by the alliance from above? Do I not know too that the strong man arms himself to no avail when the treasure is securely guarded? Is it in vain that the thief lies in wait when the master of the house does not sleep? But is our war again against a second [Eve]? Is our battle against an incorrupt woman? Are we again compelled to worship a second Adam? Are we again ordered to be ruled by one formed after us? Are we again commanded to bow to the royal image? But that woman of the man of dust was easily thrown down by her eyes; this one, received by the hands of the heavenly man, is strongly walled. That one desired to be filled with the tree; this one consented to think nothing of it. That one received the counsel with pleasure; this one quickly secured her hearing. That one embraced the inquiry; this one loathed even the account. That one, in love with eating from the tree, imagined becoming a god; this one, counted worthy of union with the Master, prepared herself for giving glory. That one, sharing in corruption, thought to seize the dignity above her; this one, having come within the divine joy, does not forget human weakness. How then shall we raise a storm against such a boat? If we find the helmsman in her asleep. How shall we tear the sheep? If we suspect the shepherd of negligence. How shall we plunder the city? If we suppose the king is careless. Will not the satanic troop shake the virginal wall? Shall we fail of our hopes if we do not neglect our labours? Shall we miss our expectation if we do not withdraw from the contest? But when we cannot plot against the workshop of virginity, nor trouble the field of her mind, nor look the embryo in her womb in the face, then we will strike the Virgin's incorrupt conception with the darts of slander. Let us slander the mystery [so as to drag it to the courtroom]. Let us revile her purity, so as to bring punishment upon her. Let us mock the mystical pregnancy, so as to bring it before Jewish severity. Let us use this race as advocates of our lie. Let us suggest devilish wickedness to the unforgiving, who examine even the small faults of others, who know nothing at all of the limits of compassion, who sharpen the sword of inhumanity before the truth, who sign the paper of sentence before the inquiry, who are eager to pass unjust judgement on those being judged. Let the spotless oyster be destroyed, so that the precious pearl in it may not come to maturity. And even if the spear of our wickedness does not wound the Virgin's conception, [yet] the sword of Herod's envy will strike the birth of the infant. For he will fight on our behalf against Christ, who fights against us.”

With what colours of praise, then, shall I paint the virginal image? With what words of commendation shall I brighten the spotless character of purity? She is the inner sanctuary of sinlessness; she is the sanctified temple of God; she is the golden altar of burnt offerings; she is the divine incense of the compounding; she is the holy oil of anointing; she is the alabaster jar of precious pure nard; she is the priestly ephod, declaring the counsel of God; she is the golden lampstand carrying the seven-wicked lamp; she is the ark gilded within and without, sanctified in body and spirit, in which lay the golden censer, and the golden jar holding the manna, and the rest [containing what has been spoken of before. She is the firstborn, unyoked and red heifer, whose ash, the Lord's body taken from her, cleanses those defiled by the pollution of sin. She is the gate facing east, shut for ever after the Master's entrance and exit. She is the new book of the New Covenant, through which the dominion of the demons was swiftly despoiled, and the captivity of men quickly taken back. She is the three measures of humanity, of Greeks, Romans, and Jews, in which the unspeakable wisdom of God hid the leaven of his own goodness. She is the field of the Father's blessing, in which lay the treasure of the Master's economy. She is the royal ship bringing in the wealth from Tarshish, bringing from the land of the nations the conversion of the nations to the King of the Jerusalem above. She is the fair bride of the Song, who took off the old tunic, washed the feet of the law, and with reverence received the incorruptible Bridegroom in her chamber. She is the tent of the faithful, which carried the living ark of the economy, and was directed by the cows that had calved, the two Testaments, onto the unerring road of salvation. She is the tent of witness, from which Jesus, true God, came forth after the nine months' time of the unborn child. She is the basket daubed with asphalt within and without, adorned with understanding and reverence, in which the spiritual Moses is saved from the spiritual Pharaoh; whose daughter, that is, the church of the nations, nursing him in virginal arms, is promised that he will give her the wage of eternal life. She is the fifth well of the truthful oath, in which the water of immortality gushed out through the Lord's coming in the flesh, at the completion of the fifth covenant. For the first was written in the time of Adam, the second in the time of Noah, the third in the time of Abraham, the fourth in the time of Moses, and the fifth in the time of the Lord; since he also went out five times to hire the pious as labourers for the vineyard of righteousness: at the first hour, the third, the sixth, the ninth, the eleventh. She is the spotless fleece laid on the threshing floor of the world, on which the saving rain coming down from heaven dried the whole earth of the immeasurable flood of evils; and again it dried the fleece of the receding moisture of passions, and filled the earth with an abundant gift of good things. She is the fruitful olive planted in the house of God, from which the Holy Spirit took the Lord's bodily twig and carried it to the storm-tossed nature of men, announcing the peace from above. She is the flourishing and incorruptible paradise, in which the tree of life was planted and supplies to all, without hindrance, the fruit of immortality. She is the heavenly sphere of the new creation, in which the ever-shining sun of righteousness drove away from every soul all the night of sins. She is the boast of virgins; the exultation of mothers; the support of the faithful; the diadem of the church; the stamp of orthodoxy; the seal of piety; the coin of truth; the garment of self-control; the robe of virtue; the stronghold of righteousness; the lodging of the holy Trinity, according to the gospel narrative: “The Holy Spirit,” it says, “will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy one born of you will be called Son of God.” To him be glory, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Christ appeared to the world, and adorning the disordered world he made it bright; he took up the sin of the world and threw down the enemy of the world; he sanctified the springs of waters and enlightened the souls of men; he wove wonders together with greater wonders. For today earth and sea have shared the Saviour's grace, and the whole world is filled with gladness; and today's feast shows a greater increase of wonders than the feast before it. For at the earlier feast, the Saviour's birthday, the earth rejoiced, carrying the Master of all in the manger; but at today's feast of the Theophany the sea is greatly gladdened; gladdened because through the Jordan it receives the blessings of sanctification. At the earlier feast he was shown as an infant, not yet grown, showing our imperfection; but at today's feast he is seen full-grown, hinting that he is the perfect one from the perfect. There the star that rose in the east announced the one born; here the Father who begot him bears witness from above to the one being baptized. There the Magi, travelling on foot from the east, offered gifts as to a king; here angels, coming from heaven, rendered fitting service as to God. There he was bound with bands of swaddling clothes; here he loosens the chains of sins. There the King put on the purple of the body; here the spring clothes itself with the river.

Come, then, see paradoxical wonders: the sun of righteousness washing in the Jordan, fire baptized in water, and God sanctified by a man. Today all creation sings and cries: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Blessed is he who always comes, for he has not come now for the first time. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, who also comes providentially through his creatures: keeping the height of heaven from falling; skilfully driving the courses of the sun; marshalling the multitude of stars without confusion; tempering the air well for breathing; warming again the flanks of the earth well for bearing fruit; bridling the many-waved sea with the finest sand; pushing springs up invisibly from the depths; guiding the streams of rivers without straying. Seeing all these things, then, let us say: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Who is this? Say it plainly, blessed David: “God is Lord, and has appeared to us.” And not only does the prophet David say this, but Paul the apostle also bears witness with him and says: “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, training us”; not some, but all. For to all, Jews and Greeks, he grants salvation through baptism, setting baptism before them as a common benefit.

Come, see a strange flood, much better and greater than the one seen in Noah's time. There the water of the flood killed human nature; here the water of baptism, through the one baptized, made the dead alive. There Noah built an ark of wood that does not rot; here Christ, the spiritual Noah, prepared the ark of his body from the incorrupt Mary. There Noah smeared the ark outside with asphalt pitch; here Christ strengthened the ark of his body with the security of faith. There a dove carrying an olive twig announced the fragrance of the Master Christ; here the Holy Spirit, coming in the form of a dove, points out the merciful Lord. But the excess of the Lord's humility amazes me: that it was not enough for the perfect one from the perfect to be born an infant of a woman; it was not enough for him who shares the Father's throne to take the form of a slave; but he even comes to baptism as a sinner. But let not the common benefit become a stumbling block to those who hear. For Christ, the Master of all, is baptized, not needing cleansing, but arranging our benefit in two ways: so as both to give the waters sanctifying grace and to urge every man to be baptized.

“For Jesus comes,” it says, “from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.” What was being accomplished then, brothers? It is impossible to conceive; for what was seen was beyond human eyes. The mind trembles; the tongue flees from the mouth, not daring to tell what cannot be told. Therefore John, seeing the Master coming to him, his heart gripped by great anguish, falling down and bowing low and touching his feet, spoke in supplication: “Why do you, the Almighty, force me, the powerless, to do what is beyond my power? I cannot do these things. How shall I dare to baptize you? When is fire purified by grass? When does clay wash a spring? How shall I, the accountable, baptize the judge? How shall I baptize you, Master? I see no blemish in you. You did not fall under the curse of Adam; you did no sin. For though you came down, you did not transgress at all. What are you doing, Master, forcing me to do what is beyond my power? I never dared to do anything to provoke you. Like a slave who loves his master I recognized your coming in advance; while still in the womb, hiring my mother's tongue, I proclaimed you God of the world; I prepared all for your coming.”

“For tell me, Master, how will the sun bear it, seeing the Master of all insulted by a daring slave, and not at once burn me up with its fiery flashes, as it did the Sodomites? How will the earth endure it, seeing the one who sanctifies the angels baptized by a sinful man, and not immediately open its mouth and swallow me up, as it did Dathan and Abiram? How shall I baptize you, Master, who have had nothing to do with the defilements of birth? You came forth without seed as fruit from a womb that knew no labour. How then shall I, a filthy man, purify God, the sinless God? ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ You sent me as a baptizer, Master; I have not disobeyed your command. For urging all to baptism, I said: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.’ For the one who has come is not harsh; he has been born good, the Son of the good one; not showing goodness for a little while and then at once changing, but ‘his mercy is for ever.’ And since his mercy is immeasurable, the powers of heaven sang his praise, saying: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; God is Lord, and has appeared to us.’” The sun of righteousness has appeared and scattered the darkness of ignorance. The heavenly shepherd has appeared and driven the devil's wolves away from the good flock. The only-begotten Son of the Father has appeared and granted adoption to the faithful through baptism. The life of all has appeared and, putting death to death through death, as immortal he [gave life] to the dead. While these things were being done, the Father above, rejoicing at the Son's surpassing humility, suddenly parts the gates of heaven and sends forth like thunder a voice full of fatherly affection: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And so that the minds of the hearers might not wander between the baptizer and the one baptized, the Holy Spirit comes in the form of a dove, pointing out the one baptized and attested; for to him is the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.

Come, friends, today too let us lay hold without hesitation on the treasures of the Gospels, so that from them, as usual, we may draw riches that are shared out without stint and never spent. Come, let us again follow the all-wise Luke, who guides us well, so that we may see Christ going up a high mountain and taking Peter, James, and John as witnesses of his divine transfiguration. For taking Peter and those with him, it says, the Master went up a high mountain. A high mountain, on which Moses and Elijah talked with Christ; a high mountain, on which the law and the prophets conversed with grace; a high mountain, on which was Moses, who slaughtered the Passover lamb and sprinkled the doorposts of the Hebrews with its blood; a high mountain, on which was Elijah, who cut up the ox among them and consumed with fire the sacrifice drenched with water; a high mountain, on which was Moses, who opened and closed the masses of the Red Sea; a high mountain, on which was Elijah, who opened and closed the showers of the waters; a high mountain, so that Peter, John, and James might learn that he it is to whom every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth. For the Master took only three and went up the mountain: not taking all, not leaving all behind; not grudging the glory to the others; not judging them less worthy; not grieving the nine. For being just, he orders all things justly, counting all as one, and not separating from mutual love those whom he had united. But since Judas, who was going to become the traitor, was unworthy of the divine sight and of that fearful vision, for that reason he leaves the others behind too, so that he might afterwards shut off every excuse from that man, who would not have been left behind alone; and so that he might call in the three as witnesses of the transfiguration, sufficient according to the law, carrying the rest with them in their souls. For he himself says: “Holy Father, keep them, that they may be one, as we are one.” For Judas, seeing Andrew, Thomas, Philip, and the rest spending the time with him at the foot of the mountain, and not murmuring, not resentful, not reviling, but rejoicing, and counting the grace from above as shared by themselves and those absent, was left wholly without excuse, as one never passed over in the miracles. Yet he kept the money-box, and without cause grudged the price of the ointment to the woman who anointed the Lord, and boldly betrayed his teacher to his enemies.

And what does he say? “And he was transfigured before them, and Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him.” But Peter, always ardent in everything, having seen with the eyes of his mind those whom he had never seen, talking with him, not measuring the greatness of the wonder nor considering the paradox of the divine radiance, called the desert place good, and from a fisherman advanced to a tent-maker, saying to the Saviour: “Let us make three tents here, one for you, one for Elijah, and one for Moses,” “not knowing what he said.” The all-wise Luke rightly excuses him: “Not knowing,” he says, “what he said.” But, Peter, chief of the disciples and foremost of the apostles, why do you want to rush ahead with lowly notions, insulting divine things with human reasonings, and speak of raising three tents in the desert, defining the Master as of equal honour with the servants, eager to build one tent for Christ and the same for the two? Was Moses conceived of the Holy Spirit, as this one was? Did a virgin mother bear Elijah, as the all-holy Virgin Mary bore this one? Did an unborn child recognize Moses from the womb, as the Forerunner recognized this one? Did heaven announce Elijah's birth? Or did Magi worship the swaddling clothes of Moses? Did Moses and Elijah work so many miracles? Or drive legions of demons out of men? Or drive spirits out of human caves? Moses once was angry, and striking with his rod he crossed the sea; but your teacher Jesus walked on the sea and made the deep passable for you, Peter. Elijah by supplication multiplied the widow's flour and raised her son from the dead; but he who took you from among fishermen as a disciple fed thousands on a few loaves, and met Hades and despoiled it, and snatched up those who had slept there from the beginning. Do not say, then, Peter, “Let us make three tents here,” nor, “It is good for us to be here.” Nothing human, nothing lowly, nothing earthly, nothing grovelling: set your mind on things above, seek the things above, as Paul showed, not the things on earth. For how is it good for us to be here, where the serpent insulted and harmed the first-formed man and shut paradise; where we heard that we must eat bread in the sweat of our face; where we learned to groan and tremble on the earth because of Cain; where nothing is firm, where all things are shadows, where all things will pass away in a moment? How then is it good for us to be here? If Christ was going to leave us here, why did he bow the heavens and come down? If Christ was going to leave us here, why did he share in our blood and flesh? If Christ was going to leave us here, why did he come down with the fallen and raise up him who lay prostrate? If it is good for us to be on earth, you were called key-bearer of heaven in vain; for what further use are the keys of heaven to you? Since you long for this mountain, renounce the heavens henceforth; if you want to raise tents, give up being and being called the foundation of the church. For the Lord Christ was transfigured, not without purpose, but to show us the future transfiguration of our nature and his second coming, which will be on the clouds, in light, with angels. For he it is who covers himself with light as with a garment, being judge of the living and the dead; therefore he brought Moses and Elijah into the midst, presenting the tokens of the ancient visions.

And what does the great writer of the Gospels say? “While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice from the cloud saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” While Peter, he says, was still speaking, the Father answered from heaven: Why these words, Peter? Why do you hesitate? Why do you rush into superfluous things and say this place is good? Have you forgotten yourself? Do you grudge your race, not knowing what you say? Have you not yet been schooled? Have you not yet learned the sure knowledge of the Sonship? Were you not the one who said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”? Have you seen so many miracles, Bar-Jonah, and are you still Simon? He made you key-bearer of heaven, and have you not yet put off the garment of seafaring? See, for the third time you oppose the Saviour's plan, not knowing what you say. For he told you, “I must suffer,” and you say, “This shall never happen to you.” He said again, “You will all fall away,” and you say, “Though all fall away, I will not fall away.” And now do you want to raise a tent for Christ like that for Moses and Elijah? A tent for Christ, who stretched out the heaven together with me? A tent for him who founded the earth together with me? A tent for him who established the sea together with me and fixed the firmament? A tent for him who kindled the lights, set the upper air on fire, and created all things with me before the ages? A tent for him who is from me and from you? A tent for him who is in me and with you? A tent for the Adam without father? A tent for the God without mother? A tent for him who took a tent, the virginal womb that he chose? Since, then, you wish to raise three tents, not knowing what you say, I, using a bright cloud as a tent and covering those present, cry from the heights: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Not Moses and Elijah, but this one; not one and another, but this one, one and the same, “in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Moses I justified; but in this one I am well pleased. Elijah I took up; but this one I sent into the Virgin as into heaven, and from the Virgin into heaven itself. For “no one,” it says, “has gone up into heaven except he who came down from heaven.” In vain, then, did he come down to earth if he remains on earth for ever. In vain did he empty himself, taking the form of a slave, unless, remaining what he was, he became what you are. Unless he endured a cross like you for you and bought the world with his own blood, the economy is idle, and the ancient words of the prophets remain unconfirmed. But stop, Peter, and do not think the things of men, but the things of God. “For this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” For I have used this same voice about him twice: before you, on this mountain; and before John, at the river Jordan; so that the prophet of old might prove true when he cried, “Tabor and Hermon will rejoice in your name.” In what name? “This is my beloved Son.” For “he granted him the name that is above every name,” as Paul says. But you will surely say, beloved: What is “Tabor and Hermon will rejoice in your name”? Learn, then, with understanding. Tabor is the mountain where Christ willed to be transfigured and was attested as Son by the Father, as you have just heard. Hermon is a small mountain near the Jordan, from which Elijah was taken up; and near it, in the streams of the Jordan, Christ willed to be baptized and was attested as Son by the Father. On these two mountains the undefiled Father, confirming the Sonship, cries both then and now a second time: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” For he who hears him hears me too; and whoever is ashamed of him and of his words, I too will be ashamed of him in my glory and that of the holy angels. Listen to him: without pretence, without guile, without setting limits, without curiosity, seeking by faith, not measuring with the tongue; receiving by faith, not weighing the Word with words. For Paul the orator is enough here, bridling the curious and teaching all, crying without hesitation: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” To him be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

The present season, friends, calls for more zeal: more zeal, more readiness, more speed in going out to meet the heavenly King. For Paul too said this when he preached the good news: “The Lord is near; do not be anxious about anything.” And the Lord is found near, not by the speed of his feet, but by the supply of good things. Therefore it is fitting again for us to cry out Paul's words: “The night is far gone, the day has drawn near. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk becomingly as in the day.” Let us light the lamps of faith; let us increase the oil of love for the poor, like the five wise virgins; let us receive Christ without drowsiness; let us praise in hymns the palm of righteousness; let us embrace the ointment of Mary; let us hear the voice of the resurrection; let us send up words worthy of God; with the crowd let us cry what the crowd cried: “Hosanna in the highest; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.” And well does it say, “he who comes”; for he is always coming, and never absent. For “he is near to all who call upon him in truth.” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.” All the present things are symbols, symbols and signs, and tokens of the royal road. Among the citizens of this world, when they await the entry of a temporal king, they level the road, crown the gateways, transform the city, cleanse the royal courts on every side, and weave choirs of praise in their places; for by these the entry of a temporal king into a city is recognized. Let us too do things like these, or rather more glorious and more honourable. For as far as the dominion of the heavenly King surpasses, so far does the service of our commonwealth outshine.

The meek and gentle King is at the door: he who above rides upon the cherubim, below sits on the colt of an ass. Let us prepare the houses of our souls; let us tear down every cobweb of hatred of our brothers; let no dust of blasphemy be found in us; let us sprinkle the water of love abundantly; let us level every knot of enmity; let us crown the gateways of our lips with the flowers of piety; with the crowd let us cry what the crowd cried: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.” Who would not speak? Who would not marvel at these crowds, enemies of the Jews' leaders and friends of the Christians? They called the Lord King, though they saw nothing worthy of kingship with their bodily eyes. They did not see gold-inlaid chariots, nor pure-white mules, nor the rest of the display that temporal kings are accustomed to show in their processions: no weapons, no shields, no standards, no purple robes, no tall long-haired men riding alongside, no show of elephants, no senate going ahead; they saw nothing of this kind, but quite the opposite. They saw a cheap little ass, small, borrowed, unsaddled, of service; only eleven disciples following, for Judas was already busy with the betrayal. And seeing such poverty, the crowds, as though caught up into heaven, perceiving the things above and dancing with angels, borrowing the mouths of the seraphim, sent forth those voices that sound like theirs, saying: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.”

It stung the chief priests and Pharisees to hear from the crowds: “King of Israel.” They heard what they did not want to hear. They called him demon-possessed, and these proclaimed him King: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.” Who suggested this cry to the crowds? Who put this praise into their minds? Who entrusted them with the branches of palms? Who suddenly marshalled them all under one watchword? Who taught them to speak with one voice? The grace was from above; the revelation was of the Holy Spirit. Therefore they cried with boldness: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel”: soldiers of this world, heavenly angels; mortals, immortal; walking on earth and dancing in heaven: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.” They turned away from the Pharisees; they loathed the chief priests; they sang out words worthy of God; they gladdened creation; they sanctified the upper air; they stirred the dead in advance; they opened heaven; they planted paradise; they roused mortals to the same zeal. Hence some of the Greeks at that time, led by this godly cry to godly zeal and moved to conversion, came, as you have just heard, to one of the apostles, Philip by name, saying to him: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” See the preaching of the crowd, and how they moved the Greeks to conversion. At once they come to the Lord's disciples: “We wish to see Jesus.” The Gentiles did well to learn from Zacchaeus, making their ascent not in the sycamore but hastening up the road of the knowledge of God. “We wish to see Jesus”: not so much to behold his face as to carry his cross. Therefore Jesus, seeing their purpose, cried out openly to those present: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”; calling the conversion of the Greeks glory, which the children of the Jews had stripped off and the Gentiles had girded on. Therefore Jesus, reproaching the Jews, said through the prophet: “If I am a father, where is my glory? And if I am Lord, where is my fear?” For this reason he said about the Gentiles: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,” calling the cross glory. For from there the Lord's power was known, that he changed shame into glory, insult into honour, curse into blessing, gall into sweetness, vinegar into milk, the blow into freedom, death into life. “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,” calling the cross glory. For from that time the cross is glorified even now. For the cross itself still even now glorifies kings, brightens the priesthood, guards virginity, establishes the ascetic life, binds marriage fast, walls in widowhood, protects orphanhood, increases fair offspring, multiplies the church, enlightens the people, guards the desert, opens paradise, guides the robber, banishes enmity, quenches hatred, puts demons to flight, and drives away the devil.

And let us too take the branches of the palms and go out to meet our Lord, saying to the chief priests: Are you not the ones who say, “This is the carpenter's son”? He is mighty God, strong. Run, hasten; with all cry out to him who raised Lazarus: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” To him be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

The festival of the sacred mysteries has come; the evening brighter than any day has shone. For what fearful and paradoxical thing did not happen on this evening? The Master dined with his servants; he opened to them the paradise of the mysteries; he gave the sinless flesh as food; he granted as drink a sponge for sins; in the form of a servant he washed the disciples' feet, sharpening them for their course; he gave the morsel, exposing the traitor; he kissed the unworthy one, calling back his grace from the profane man; he went to his passion, showing that he did not endure the passion by force. For who could have held him against his will, him who mastered the sea by a word, who bridled the winds by commands, who drew stinking corpses out of tombs, who was worshipped as Master even by demons, unless he himself, as lover of mankind, suffered willingly, not in what he was, but in what he became? Yet he was held and he endured it; for he did not come to judge the world but to save the world. And the kiss became the token of that daring. Therefore he says to the traitor as he approached: “Judas” (for you are full of venom), “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” He knocks with the name at the door of his conscience, wishing to wake the one stupefied by love of money, as if saying to him: Judas, I chose you for apostleship; how have you turned into a traitor? Judas, do you love money? You are richer than all kings. Demons do not respect kings, but they shudder at your tongue like runaway slaves. Diseases consume the rich, but even your shadows put sufferings to flight. For lovers of money gold is their treasure; but for you the heavenly inheritance has been prepared. If you love money, strip off your power over sufferings; for a soul does not hold both the mire of love of money and the ointment of love for mankind.

Nothing is worse, brothers, than love of money. It arms kinsfolk, it reaps nature, it drives men mad for tyranny, it undermines walls, it razes cities; it leapt into the choir of the apostles; it dared to set a price on the one beyond price. Love of money, then, is the cause of all evils. Therefore Christ, who is God, accusing in the prophets, said: “The sheep has raged against the shepherd.” Truly the root of evils is love of money. So the prophet Zechariah said, as in the person of the Lord: “And I will say to them” (that is, to the ungrateful of the people): “If it is good in your sight, weigh out my wages, or refuse.” And what could be the wages of the one beyond price? What the price of the one beyond all price? What the sale of the one beyond reason? “And they weighed out,” he says, “my wages, thirty pieces of silver.” O exact prediction! In what way did you rave into such insatiability, … Judas! For when that modest and God-loving woman poured the ointment at the supper, because of the love of money lurking within you, you said: “This ointment could have been sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” But John, the son of thunder, exposing your most wicked thought of love of money, says most plainly: “He said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the money-box he carried off what was put into it.” So the Lord Jesus Christ, foreknowing as God, and knowing him to be overcome by the wicked passion of love of money, wishing to conquer the excess of his insatiable heart, entrusted to him what men value. But he was not satisfied, though he enjoyed the gifts of the good Master and lacked none of the God-given graces; he exchanged the three hundred denarii for thirty pieces of silver. O the evil counsel of Judas! O the madness of Judas, that, having heard from Christ, the life-giving teacher, “What does a man profit if he gains the whole world and loses and forfeits his soul?”, he, delighted for a little while by thirty pieces of silver, handed Christ the giver of life over to the lawless and condemned his own soul to eternal punishment. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ said: “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed; it would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ said these things wishing to bring him to his senses, so that, recovering himself, he might turn away from that most wicked project of betrayal, come to repentance, and obtain salvation. But he, preferring disobedience to obedience, became the dwelling of the serpent, the author of evil. Therefore the Lord, seeing him persist in his reckless plan of betrayal, handed him over to the one who had suggested to him the passion of love of money. For when he was asked by the true disciples at the supper who it was that was planning the betrayal, he answered them: “He to whom I give the morsel when I have dipped it, he is the one who betrays me.” And “after he took the morsel,” it says, “Satan entered into him.” And the Lord said to him: “What you are doing, do quickly.” Do you see how the Saviour by nature hastened willingly to come to his passion for the salvation of the human race? Therefore the choice good things among men, which came about through him, are light and life. He was pleased to be called by these himself; for he is light, as God, and life, as immortal, even though he tasted suffering in the flesh, not in the Godhead.

Let us all, then, flee greed; let us vomit out hypocrisy together with love of money; let us greet one another from the heart, since we are about to approach the divine mysteries; let us cast away all anger; let us be clean of every grudge; so that when the Master enters our souls he may find no one full of hypocrisy like Judas, but all pure: like John, speaking of God with faith from the Father's bosom; like Paul, crucified to the world; like Peter, preaching with piety and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”; so that we may obtain the Master's blessing. For “blessed,” it says, “is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin, and in whose mouth there is no deceit.” For “on whom will I look,” he says through the prophet, “but on the meek and quiet one who trembles at my words?” And in the Gospels the Saviour said, teaching his own disciples: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; of which may we all be made worthy and come to enjoy it, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who willingly consented to be sold and handed over for us, so as to free us from slavery to the invisible enemy. To him be glory together with the Father and his holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Fearful are the mysteries of today's battle; awesome the trophies of the war beneath the earth; indescribable the sudden overthrow of the ancient tyrant; beyond all thought the victory of him who was made flesh for us, on our behalf. For he grappled with death as a dead man, but despoiled Hades as God, strong and mighty. For “the Lord is strong and mighty; the Lord is mighty in battle.” What word, then, could worthily serve the wonder? What tongue will tell and describe the fearful battle? For today the seal of the prophetic voices has been fulfilled. Today Hades unknowingly swallowed poison. Today death received a dead man who lives for ever. Today the bonds that the serpent forged in paradise were loosed. Today the slaves held from the ages were set free. Today the robber broke into paradise, guarded for five thousand five hundred years by the flaming sword. Today the light shines in the darkness and has emptied the whole treasury of death. Today a royal entrance into the prison was made new. Today he who was swallowed as a mere dead man and set it on fire as God the Word broke the bronze gates and shattered the iron bars. Today Christ the cornerstone shook the ancestral foundation of death, drew up Adam, saved Abel, and overthrew the whole building of Hades. Today even those who formerly lamented, whom death in its strength had swallowed, cry with a loud voice: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O Hades, is your sting?”

What do you say to this, Jew? Do you mock the cross? Scoff at the passion? Laugh at the death? Ridicule the tomb? But see the victory, and shudder at the passion of God the Word, who suffered willingly in the flesh, being impassible. Death swallowed all the righteous with authority, and none of the holy ones overcame death. Do you admire Abel? But death gulped him down. Do you tell me of Noah? But he too tumbled into corruption. Do you put Enoch before me? But he too escaped, and did not abolish the law of death. Do you boast to me of Abraham? But death dissolved him too. Do you remember Isaac? But he fell and did not rise. Do you put forward Jacob? But the patriarch is dust. Do you glory in Joseph? But his memory lies in bare, dry bones. Do you make a god of Moses? But you do not even find his tomb. Do you tell me of all the prophets? But think of their tombs, and do not boast in words. So many death took, and it gulped them all down; but it swallowed one, and against its will vomited out the whole world. For see today the devil's wickedness against him who was not liable to death. He armed servants for the arrest; he bought Judas for the betrayal; he tripped Peter into denial; he maddened the high priest's servant to strike; he drove the soldiers wild for mockery; he roused Pilate to questioning; he stirred the people to riot, wishing to learn who the Master was. But the long-suffering one stood, bearing the outrage, so as to undo the curse.

Therefore, as at the death of a king all the brightness of cities is banished, so today all creation renounced its own splendour. Heaven put on the black of darkness; the sun, like a slave who loves his master, fled, drawing in its rays; the stars disturbed their natural order; the temple tore itself in mourning; the earth, lamenting, did not beat its arms but split rocks; all the prophets came and asked the Master: “What are these wounds between your hands?” How did suffering dare to touch you? In the Godhead? But the Godhead cannot be taken. What suffers, then, suffered in the flesh. And how did those who crucified you not respect you, nor remember your kindness? What, then, did the Master say to them? “These are the wounds with which I was willingly wounded in the house of my beloved.” I brought a vine out of Egypt; I watered it with the passage through the sea; I dug around it with terrors; I pruned it with circumcision; I staked it with prophets; I fenced it with the law; “and I waited for it to make grapes, but it made thorns,” and not righteousness, but a cry. And, “I became like a man without help, free among the dead.”

O passion that cleanses the world! O death, the source of immortality, making life rise! O descent into Hades, a bridge to new life for those dead from the ages! O midday, recalling the evening sentence in paradise! O cross, physician of the tree! O nails, which nailed the world to the knowledge of God and pierced death! O thorns, the grapes of the Jewish vineyard! O gall, bringer of the honey of faith and accuser of the wickedness of the Jews! O sponge, which sponged away and wiped off the sin of the world! O reed, which enrolled the faithful as citizens in heaven and crushed the tyranny of the serpent, author of evil! O mystery, disbelieved by unbelievers and worshipped unceasingly by all the faithful! O sign, spoken against by unbelievers and glorified by the faithful! O mystery, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to us Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, as the apostle Paul says, for “the foolishness of God is wiser than men”; so as to abolish death, despoil Hades, and make alive the dead from the ages; by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might to the ages of ages. Amen.

Bright, then, are the flowers of the three-day passion; the lilies of the font are flashing; stars have risen from the waters. And fittingly: for the sun has appeared to those sitting in darkness in the lowest pit and in the shadow of death. Glorious is the captivity of the crucified one. See the trophies, and do not doubt the victory. Marvel at the magnanimity of the empress, who pours out spiritual blessings on all. For of old the Jews hurled stones at Stephen, wishing to bury the first champion and invincible orator of the crucified one; but the virgin who dedicated herself to Christ emptied out and spent her wealth for piety. She put her own flesh to death to the passions; she made a bridal chamber in her soul for the crucified one; she adorned the visible heaven on earth. She confesses the tomb as the treasury of salvation; she glories in the cross, through which the old bond was torn up; she embraces death, the ransom from the ancient barrier; she proclaims the resurrection, the great gift of the crucified one; she marvels at the font, which has borne so many and remained a virgin, through which lights have risen; she is amazed at the mystery in which the devil was paradoxically shipwrecked. These are the gifts of the crucified one; these the trophies of the tomb; these the achievements of the common Master. On that day Adam drank the poison in paradise; on this night Hades vomited up him whom it swallowed unknowing. Who has seen such things? Who has heard the like? A tomb has become the healing of paradise; a cross has undone the curse of a tree; creation shuddered at the one whom Judas sold.

What do you say, Jew? Two things expose your madness: the words of the prophets and the elements of nature. If you do not blush at the words, at least shudder at the trembling of nature. For see, the servants mourned, unable to bear the outrage to the Master. Heaven put on darkness; the sun ran away from the mystery; the earth trembled at the daring; the temple lamented the Christ-killers; Hades sent the dead ahead as envoys; the earth, trembling, cried without a voice to the Jews: “How long will you remain heavy-hearted and hard-hearted?” All the dead, marvelling at the passion, announce the good news, saying: “By his stripes we have all been healed,” we who sat in darkness and the shadow of death under tyranny; [but] “through the tender mercy” “he has shown strength with his arm”, he who for our sake became poor though he was rich, the Son of the living God, Christ Jesus our Lord, and “scattered the proud and exalted the humble,” striking down “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,” the serpent, author of evil, and the crooked dragon, as Isaiah, the most eminent of the prophets, foretold. Therefore the whole earth with gladness loudly praises the resurrection of our Master and Saviour Jesus Christ, for in it there has been release for those captive from the ages and recovery of sight for the blind. For “the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world,” having become man from the holy Virgin without change, without confusion, and without division, by the cross threw down our adversary, who envied the human race so as to deprive it of eternal good things, and wished through them to reproach God: “For they despised your commandments, and are dragged down by the pleasures of life.” So our Lord and God himself has granted us eternal life through his paradoxical and adorable resurrection from the dead on the third day. To him be glory and might, together with the undefiled Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Let the wonder of the saving festival overcome even fluency of words. Let the eloquence of every tongue be defeated, unable to proclaim worthily the kindness of the crucified one. For what like it has happened from eternity, such as we now see by faith? When did mind imagine, or heart conceive, or understanding form, or word recount, or eye behold, or ear receive such a thing as Christ, made flesh, has now given the world? Never did the sun see the devil exposed on a tree; never did a cross buy nature back from a curse; never was the ransom of the world sold for thirty pieces of silver; never did the suffering of a sinless one become a melting-pot of sin; never did life hang on a tree, triumphing over the tyrant in flesh without a father; never did a tomb receive the destroyer of death; never did heaven put on darkness at midday so as not to see the drama dared against God but touching the flesh; never did Hades shudder at the one it swallowed; never was the earth adorned with a life-receiving tomb, or rather not a tomb but a bridal chamber. For the one buried was not corrupted, but went down and was wedded. Never in three nights and days was nature delivered into resurrection. For he who in the Virgin's womb formed his own body for himself, as he knows, also in three days united again the separation of his soul from his own body and showed his own resurrection. There the time vouches for the birth, that he is man; here the tomb vouches for the might, that he is God. Never was a lamb that takes away the sins of the world laid on an altar, except when God took the form of a slave, and he who formed the dust put on, inexplicably, what he had formed; whose flesh is life, whose blood is ransom, whose Spirit is a seal, and whose divine nature is without beginning.

Well did the blessed Paul say: “The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” The heaven is new, which he who came down blessed by his ascent; the earth is new, which he who was born in the manger according to the flesh sanctified; the sea is new, which lifted up a footprint that flesh did not sow nor sin weigh down; life is new, which he freed from war and filled with calm; humanity is new, which he washed through water and smelted in the fire of the Spirit; worship is new: for no longer the smoke of sacrifice and circumcision, but faith shines, which glorifies and worships three hypostases in one being.

Announcing this good news, the prophet Isaiah said: “In that day God will shine in counsel with glory upon the earth.” In what day, prophet? The day, he says, on which God, as he knows, works all things beyond nature, being made flesh from a woman: a Virgin giving birth without a man, a mystery; the lover of mankind becoming man and not changing; death vomiting up the one it swallowed unknowing; a tomb, a treasury of life and resurrection; captivity, mother of freedom. And why say much? When God the Word, having become man, was crucified, the suffering was of the flesh, the might of the Godhead. But tell us, prophet, how will God shine on those on earth? Outside humanity? Without flesh? Far from it! Sight cannot bear the ray of the Godhead; the devil does not come forward to wrestle. For death shudders at the Creator, not daring to swallow an indestructible nature. Hades trembles at God bare of flesh; for him whom the cherubim do not look upon Hades too trembles at. But the divine nature needed a covering, not to cover it, but to hide our outrage: not the veil of Moses, for that was ignorance and mist; not an embroidered curtain, for that is the bloom of colours; not a gilded mercy seat, for that is the beauty of matter; not cherubim made by hands, for that is the wonder of art; but the form of a sheep was needed, to lure the man-eating wolf.

But at once a Jew leaps upon the words and mocks the prophet's grand speech, ever fighting against the Holy Spirit. And what does he say? I do not believe that God appeared on earth, or that the appearance of a man gave form to the formless one. But, Jew, though you disobey the law, reason away the prophets, spit on the Gospels, and overlook the apostles, let us ask the elements and see whom they confess as the Master who suffered in the flesh. And as is right, let us first ask the sun. Tell us, then, sun, why did you draw in your rays when the Master was crucified? Was the one crucified a mere man? Then you ought to have done this also when righteous Abel was killed. Let us ask heaven too. Tell us, heaven, why did you put on darkness at full midday, when the Jews pierced the Master's side? Because the one crucified was a mere man? Why did you not mourn too when righteous Naboth was stoned? Let us ask the earth too. Tell us, earth, why did you tremble when the enemies of God dared these things? Because the one crucified was a mere man? How then did you not tremble seeing Isaiah sawn by Manasseh with a wooden saw? But let us ask the temple too. Tell us, temple, why did you tear your curtain when Christ was crucified? Because the one crucified was a mere man? How then did you not tear it when the blood of Zechariah was poured out in your midst? All creation answers without a voice, saying: We proclaimed the Master by our mourning. We did not lament the suffering of a fellow-servant; we shuddered at the outrage to the Master. The heaven cries: He who became man and was crucified in the flesh was God; as God he bowed me and came down. The sun cries: He who was crucified in the flesh was my Master; for fearing the light of his Godhead I drew in my rays. The earth cries: He who was crucified in the flesh was the Creator bearing flesh; for though I embraced the flesh in the manger, I did not circumscribe the might of his Godhead. The sea cries too: He who was crucified in the flesh was not my fellow-servant; for the footprint of my fellow-servant Peter weighs down my back, but the feet of the Master sanctify my nature. The temple cries too: The God who of old was worshipped in me is the one now outraged in the flesh; therefore, unable to bear the daring, I tore my garment. Hades cries too: He who came down here was not a mere man; I know what I have suffered; for him whom I received as a captive I found to be almighty God. But do you disbelieve the elements? Let us ask the heavenly powers too. Tell us, angels, archangels, and all the powers of heaven: who is he who appeared on earth and was crucified in the flesh? And they will all answer, crying through the prophet David: “The Lord, the God of powers, he is the King of glory.” To him be glory and might to the ages of ages. Amen.

Bright is the festival of Pascha, and bright too is the present assembly. It contains mysteries both old and new. And the feast of the week, or rather its gladness, has such abundance that not only do men on earth exult, but the powers above also keep the feast and celebrate with us because of the risen Christ. For now the angels keep festival, and the armies of archangels, receiving the King of heaven, Christ our God, from earth into heaven as victor; the choirs of the saints keep festival too, proclaiming Christ who rose before the morning star; the earth keeps festival, washed with divine blood; the sea keeps festival, honoured by the footprints of Christ himself. Let every man keep festival too, born again through water and the Holy Spirit; let the first man Adam keep festival too, freed from the ancient curse.

Christ has filled us with such grace of gladness through his resurrection that we not only keep the feast but are granted salvation from suffering, immortality from death, healing from a wound, resurrection from a fall. And of old, beloved, the mystery of Pascha was celebrated mystically through the law in Egypt, and was shown symbolically by the slaughter of the lamb; but now through the Gospel we celebrate spiritually the feast of the resurrection, Pascha. There a lamb from the flock was sacrificed according to the law; here Christ himself, the Lamb of God, is offered. There a sheep from the fold; here, instead of a sheep, the good shepherd himself, who lays down his life for the sheep. There the sign of the sprinkled blood of a brute beast became a safeguard for the whole people; here the precious blood of Christ is poured out for the salvation of the world, so that we may receive forgiveness of sins. There it killed the firstborn of the Egyptians; here the many-born offspring of sins are cleansed through confession. There Pharaoh with his fearful army was drowned in the sea; here the spiritual Pharaoh with all his power is sunk through baptism. There the children of the Hebrews, after crossing the Red Sea, sang the hymn of victory to their benefactor, saying: “Let us sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously”; here those counted worthy of baptism sing the hymn of victory mystically, saying: “One is holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.” And the prophet cries out, saying: “The Lord has reigned; he has put on majesty.” The Hebrews, after crossing the Red Sea, ate the manna in the desert; but now those from the font eat the bread that came down from heaven. For his is the voice that says: “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

Well, then, did the blessed Paul cry: “These things happened to them as types, and were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.” The children of the Jews plainly erred, not knowing the truth; “for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” The wretched men did not understand that the typical oracles held only until the truth should appear. For a sculptor who wishes to set up a statue of the king in gold, or silver, or bronze first models the shape of the statue in clay; and until he completes the real statue in gold, or silver, or bronze, the clay model is carefully kept, because the craftsman needs it. But when he has completed the true statue, the clay model is broken up, as useless and good for nothing to the craftsman. So too the Jews: before the truth was made manifest to men, they rightly kept the types; but after our Lord Jesus Christ appeared, who said, “I am the light of the world, and the truth, and the life, and the resurrection,” they hold the types in vain, which they do not even keep. Let the God-fighting Jews stop, then, slaughtering the brute sheep for the redemption of the people; for the spiritual Lamb has been slain, the Son of God, who takes away the sin of the world and has redeemed us from the destroyer. Let them leave the old leaven and take the new lump of truth. Let them stop eating bitter herbs; for Christ drank the gall for us, so that he might mix for us in exchange sweet springs of healing from himself. Let them keep the feast with us, then, “not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”; so that after our departure from this life we may glorify the Lord of glory with one accord with the angels, saying: “The Lord has reigned; he has put on majesty.” To him be glory and honour and worship to the ages of ages. Amen.

The other evangelists set out the genealogy according to the flesh of our Lord and God Jesus Christ; but John, the choice one among the evangelists, the theologian's lyre, spoke of the beginningless existence of God the Word, and explained the eternal and unwitnessed birth of the Son from the Father, saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things came into being through him.” These five stones are enough for the church as a wall. For he said, “In the beginning was the Word”; he did not say, “In the beginning the Word came into being,” but, “In the beginning was the Word.” He showed the beginninglessness of the Son's hypostasis and his relation to the Father; and the foundation of our faith is the stronger. “And the Word was with God”: he showed the indivisibility of the being; and great is the evangelist's thunder against the Greeks. “And the Word was God”: he showed the exact likeness of the nature; and great is the blow against the Jews. “He was in the beginning with God”: he showed his co-eternity with the Father; and great is the fall of the Manichees. “All things came into being through him”: he showed his sovereign freedom in creation, and stopped the mouths of all heretics. For all things came into being through him. The heaven is his creation; the earth his work; the sea his handiwork; the air was brought forth; the light from non-being; the angels are slaves, the powers ministers; the cherubim a throne. The Father is God; the Son is Word and God; and the Holy Spirit too is God; and the number of hypostases did not blunt the nature, nor did the Trinity divide the being; but it is a consubstantial Trinity in power, in Godhead, in goodness, which has founded and kept our faith, walled the church, sanctified the world, abolished the devil, scourged and melted the demons, put Jewish circumcision to death, routed the error of the Greeks, and stopped the mouths of heretics.

The evangelist spoke of the eternal and unwitnessed birth of the Son from the Father, saying in the Gospels: “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” And again: “Behold, a voice from the heavens saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Unwitnessed, then, is the birth above, before all things, because he was begotten alone from the one alone. And no one knows how he begot except the Father, and how the Son was begotten except the Son. For there was no time, for he is the Creator of the ages. Angels were not present, for he is the one “who makes his angels spirits.” There was no heaven, for “by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm.” There was no sun, for he set the great light to give light by day. There was no moon nor stars, for he founded the moon and the stars. There was no earth, for he said: “Let the waters be gathered together, and let the dry land appear.” Wonderfully, then, did the evangelist make clear the beginningless existence of the Word and the eternal and unwitnessed birth of the Son.

Who taught you to say these things, blessed John? The lake of Gennesaret? But it does not teach doctrine. Fishing? But it does not speak of God. Zebedee? But he was an unlearned man. Your homeland? But it was mean. Your village? But its people were rustics, not citizens. The Jews? But they were transgressors of the law. The law? But it had a shadow. Moses? But he was weak of voice and slow of tongue. David? But he was “a worm and no man.” How then did you say, “In the beginning was the Word”? Who raised you to such a height? Who gave your mind such wings? For by faith you left the earth and went above the air; you passed beyond the upper air; you flew over the heights of heaven beyond the world; you leapt beyond the things above; you passed the archangels; you were made equal to the seraphim; you stood beside the Master's cherubic throne. You were given wings by faith; you thundered an incomprehensible birth; you proclaimed an incomprehensible existence; you spoke of the Word as without beginning; for you said: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Great is the grace, beloved. A man of three cubits went over into heaven in mind and thought, together with the Word. By faith he beheld him coming forth impassibly from the Father's bosom, God begotten from God. He saw the Holy Spirit worshipped with Father and Son; the Trinity glorified in unity, distinguished in three hypostases and united in nature. And the evangelist was found higher than the seraphim, for they cover their faces because of the lightning, but he by grace spoke of both the birth and the existence of God.

Then again, by his works, coming down from heaven to earth, he said: “The Word became flesh.” See a mystery of God, without change or alteration; see the Word made flesh on earth and not departing from the heavens; see the Virgin giving birth and her virginity not corrupted; see a womb wider than heaven; see a mother without labour and a birth without pain; see him born as man; see as an infant him who was perfect before the ages; see wrapped in swaddling clothes him who by command loosed the grave-clothes of Lazarus; see creation recognizing its Creator; see a cave, the mercy seat of the world; see the creature carrying the Creator; see fed him who feeds the woman who feeds him; see in a mother's bosom him who was not separated from the Father's bosom. See worshipped by Magi him who is praised by angels; see him flee into Egypt in the flesh who holds the earth in his hand; see baptized with water him who made the waters spring from the earth; see the teacher betrayed by a disciple; see bound him who did not loose his mother's virginity; see standing before Pilate him who fashioned Pilate from clay. See crowned with thorns him who crowned the earth with flowers; see crucified on earth him who is exalted in the heavens; see dead in a tomb him who raised the dead from the tomb; see risen him who foretold the resurrection; see gone down into Hades him who has gone up into the heavens. For Hades vomited up the one it swallowed unknowing.

And who, then, is the one he saw? Who? He who bowed the heavens and came down without a sound; who escaped the notice of the powers above; who did not leave the Father's throne empty when he was made flesh from the Virgin; without mother in heaven, God from God, and on earth from a mother, son of a Virgin; the lover of mankind who became man for men's sake; who sanctified the spotless womb by dwelling in it; who freed the flanks; who blessed the generations of nature; who sealed the virginal birth-pangs; who was not contained by the places of heaven and did not find a womb too narrow; who before the ages created the ages; who by a word completed the world with authority; the unspeakable Word of the Father; the Son consubstantial with the one who begot him; the one without beginning, who admits no beginning, and yet took a beginning of being. Paradoxical are the wonders, beloved: that the throne in heaven was not emptied, and the world on earth was saved. All these things are contained in the five sayings of the great thunder-voiced evangelist John. Therefore let the Greeks be put to death, the Jews be brought to nothing; let the Samaritans be put to shame, the Manichees scattered; let the heretics perish, and all the enemies of the blameless catholic and apostolic church; for the hope of all of them is for fall and destruction, but our hope is for resurrection and eternal life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory and honour and might to the ages of ages. Amen.

Today, beloved, the grace of the Holy Spirit came upon us; it began from this day, and, increasing, it is magnified up to this day. The grace of the Holy Spirit shone, and suddenly the mouths of the speechless became eloquent, the tongues of the uneducated were sharpened, and the hearts of the fishermen were changed to boldness. Therefore the grace that came today from heaven snatches my impoverished mind away from timidity. For so Peter, being timid before the coming of the Spirit, denied the Master before a servant girl; but after the descent of the Spirit he confessed with boldness before peoples and kings, crying: “We cannot but speak of what we have heard and seen.” Hence the Jews took the eloquence of the Holy Spirit for drunkenness, saying: “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter answered them, the hour too, confirming the proof, pointing to the Trinity. For since at the third hour the cross was planted, and at the third hour the Holy Spirit sat upon the apostles in the form of fire, it indicated that the Spirit is God. For “our God is a consuming fire.” And the coming of the Saviour was like rain on a fleece, since it was a symbol of the economy. But in the case of the Spirit, so that it might be shown that the Spirit is God, “there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent rushing wind.” And learn that the Spirit is God. For Isaiah says: “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and the seraphim stood around him. And he said to me: Who will go to this people, and whom shall I send to them? For the heart of this people has grown fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I heal them.” Do you wish to know, then, you who fight against the Spirit, that the Spirit sat on the throne high and lifted up? Hear Paul the apostle and be persuaded. He was sent to Nero at Rome; he found the crowds of Jews there; he taught them the word of salvation. Some believed, others disbelieved. Being in disagreement with one another, they were departing, when Paul said one word: “Well did the Holy Spirit speak about you through Isaiah the prophet: Hearing you will hear and not understand.” Do you see that the Holy Spirit is Lord and God? For where will you not find the Spirit glorified everywhere in the Trinity in the law? Hear the prophet saying: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their host.”

But under grace, when the Saviour came to his saving baptism, the Father bore witness to the Son from above, and the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove. This Spirit today sat in the form of fire on each of the apostles. Do you see that the apostles too are thrones? For “God,” it says, “sits on his holy throne.” This Spirit put Ananias to death when he lied. This Spirit distributes the gifts of good things, “dividing to each as he wills.” Filled with this Spirit, Paul the apostle blinded Elymas the magician. This Spirit Gabriel announced to Mary, saying: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” May he come upon us now too and bless us. For he mingles with the water, and smelts sins like fire, and makes the newly enlightened shine like light, and has mercy on us as God; for to him belong glory and might to the ages of ages. Amen.

The visible sun, rising over the earth, has Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades, or even the morning star itself, rising alongside it; but the sun of righteousness, shining out from a virgin's bosom, does not admit the choirs of the stars to join its light, but has made Stephen the first martyr rise together with its immortal rays. That sun, driving from the northern to the southern path, now shortens, now lengthens the measures of the day; but this one, having increased righteousness by his coming to us from heaven, has kept its light undefiled and undiminished. That one is the successor of night, this one the adversary of death; that one puts darkness to flight, this one overturns sin; that one shines for twelve hours, this one flashes for ever. That one travels through the stars, this one shines out through the apostles; that one goes round through seasons and times, this one is proclaimed through prophets and evangelists; that one weaves the hours by its course, this one magnifies the churches by his word. Painters depict that one mounted on a chariot; theologians announce this one resting in a manger: a manger that imitates heaven; a manger equal to the cherubim; a manger comparable to the unspeakable throne; a manger holding spiritual food; a manger that received the life of all; a manger carrying him who carries all things; a manger wider than all creation together (for him whom creation does not contain the manger contained by grace); a manger announced by a star running by day; a manger sketching out the altar beforehand in itself; a manger that made the cave a church.

Come, then, let us too imitate the pious Magi, and consider the church in place of Bethlehem; in place of the cave let us greet the priestly sanctuary; in place of the manger let us venerate the altar; in place of the infant let us embrace the bread blessed through the infant; and above all these let us glorify the King proclaimed today by Stephen. O strange King's paradoxical deeds! Yesterday he was born, and today Stephen was offered to him: Stephen, the martyr who bears his name; Stephen, the living crown; Stephen, the self-woven diadem; Stephen, the self-forged circlet; Stephen, the natural crowning of his own head; Stephen, the many-flowered shoot of faith; Stephen, the most fragrant rose of love; Stephen, the unfading flower of hope; Stephen, the most flourishing ear of grace; Stephen, the fruitful branch of the ever-living vine; Stephen, the honey-dripping cluster of immortality; Stephen, the sky-high shoot of the crucified one; Stephen, the fullness of every good work and word; Stephen, the unconquerable tower of confession; Stephen, the unshaken bulwark of endurance; Stephen, the cross-bearing soldier of self-control; Stephen, the undefeated soldier of piety; Stephen, the living general; Stephen, the bold orator against the Christ-killers. I have toiled, I have toiled weaving a crown for Stephen, and have not yet even touched the weaving. Let us leave it, then, to the divine Scripture to crown Stephen.

“For Stephen,” it says, “full of grace and power, was doing great signs and wonders among the people.” How shall I praise Stephen, whom grace wove with its own fingers? What shall I give Stephen, who crowns every head of the martyrs? What can I add to a crown woven by grace? With what word shall I adorn him who is brighter than every adornment? With what words shall I marvel at him who is crowned with countless wonders? “For Stephen,” it says, “full of grace and power, was doing great signs and wonders among the people.” Grace and power wove the crown for Stephen; on either hand they joined him for the good contest. The one fitted him for faith, the other for martyrdom. The one guided him to service, the other to the word. The one tuned him for boldness, the other for endurance. The one prepared him for wonders, the other for achievements. Grace and power, a planting of equal honour; grace and power, a shoot of the same age; grace and power, branches from one root; grace and power, a couple living together; grace and power, the double graft of faith; grace and power, a harmony in one sound; grace and power, the fair-lashed eyes of orthodoxy; grace and power, the twin breasts of the church; grace and power, the fellow-soldiers of Christ in one tent; grace and power, the sleepless guards of Stephen. “For Stephen,” it says, “full of grace and power.”

Stephen was a censer of grace, breathing out the incense of holiness. He was a spring of grace, overflowing with ever-flowing streams of virtue. He was a Nile of grace, gushing with the current of piety. He was an athlete of grace, opposing every power of his antagonists. He was a soldier of grace, meeting every device of the opponents, the tumults of every kind, and the uprising; facing the arrows; persevering under persecutions; dancing amid wonders; pursuing sufferings; putting diseases to flight; driving out demons; serving the poor; comforting the sick; defending widows; protecting orphans; shielding the wronged; spreading the preaching; announcing the faith; speaking of the cross as of God; glorying in the nails; extolling the reed; magnifying the bonds; proclaiming the spear; praising the side pierced for the world; worshipping the death-slaying passion; putting forward the manger; exulting in the swaddling clothes; taking pride in the blow; not ashamed of Pilate's tribunal; not hiding the tomb; boasting of the resurrection; refuting Jews; shaming Pharisees; reproaching Sadducees; muzzling scribes; interpreting the law; searching the prophets; opening the Scriptures; uncovering Christ shining in them; trampling on those who crucified; rebuking the lawless; springing upon the impious; overcoming the unbelievers by faith; grappling over the preaching with the Jews who came from everywhere. “For some of those from the synagogue called that of the Freedmen, and of the Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen, and they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.” Many are the waves, but the helmsman is heavenly. Thick are the squalls, but the ship bears the cross. Storms follow one upon another, but the keel is bound fast from above. The waves cannot rise against heaven; an evil spirit cannot fight the Spirit from above; a boat steered by life cannot be broken up.

“But some of those from the synagogue called that of the Freedmen, and of the Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen; and they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.” And what was the dispute about? About him who was carried in the womb unspeakably; about him who was born beyond nature; about him who was nursed beyond reason. How the Virgin became a mother without intercourse; how after the birth she was found a virgin again; how nature gave way to the wonder; how in Mary's case it did not seek its own limits; how the uncontainable was contracted into an infant; how he was an embryo and yet formed the embryos everywhere; how he was born and yet gave birth to all; how he was nursed and yet supplied the springs of milk to all who nurse. How great is the difference between the law and grace: how the one condemns and the other forgives; the one punishes, the other saves; the one serves, the other rules; the one aggravates sin, the other abolishes sin; the one draws the sword, the other handles mercy; the one holds the rank of executioner, the other wields authority as a king; the one puts the noose around the condemned man, the other with a kindly right hand removes the token of death.

While Stephen was speaking so much about grace to the Jews, “the God-fighters,” it says, “came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.” Where there is seizing, there is a Jewish crowd running together; where there is disturbance, there is the Christ-hating people; where an unjust murder is planned, there is the council of the scribes. Why do you defile the seat of Moses, lawless man? Why do you pollute the throne that the law adorned? The law of Moses said: “You shall not murder; you shall not bear false witness.” Either keep the law, then, or leave the place. “And they set up false witnesses, who said: This man does not stop speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” So again “they put up men,” false men, “who said: We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” Now you admire Moses, slanderer? Now you honour as lawgiver the one you spat on while he lived? Now you burn hot as a zealot for the law? Now you are indignant on God's behalf? Now you avenge him as blasphemed? Were you not the first of all to cast stones at Moses? Did you not always prefer stones and wood and carved images to God? And now, so as to commit murder, you profess reverence? So as to shed innocent blood, you put on a show of piety? You who disturbed the truth both then and now; who then insulted boldly and now honour impiously; who have planned to buy blood wickedly; who always assemble a workshop of false witnesses. “For they set up false witnesses,” it says, “who said: This man does not stop speaking words against Moses and against God, and against this holy place and the law.” What words? “For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth destroys this place.” What then? If you kill Stephen, will the place not be destroyed? Rather it will be destroyed, because you have killed both master and servant; because you have sacrificed the sheep with the shepherd; because you have slaughtered the soldier along with the king. A city cannot stand where the king has been slaughtered. A temple is no longer honoured where the murder of the Master has been done. Was it Stephen who declared, “Behold, your house is left to you desolate”? Was it Stephen who said, “Not one stone will be left upon another in the temple”? O paradoxical wonder! O unreasonable affair! God pronounced sentence, and a man is judged. Christ condemned, and Stephen pays the penalty. The King spoke the truth, and the soldier is called to account. You, Jew, are the cause of such a sentence. You fixed the cross, and you overturned Jerusalem; you said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” Receive, then, the condemnation that you yourself defined.

“But Stephen,” it says, “being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” And yet how does Paul say that he is seated? “For he sat down,” he says, “at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty of God on high.” What, then, is the reason for his standing now? What eagerness made him rise from the Father's throne? He saw the athlete contending, and he rose to award him the victory. He saw the sailor travelling through the air, hastening upward, and he opened the heavens to him instead of a harbour. “Do not fear, Stephen,” he says. “No one will cheat you of the prize of your wrestling. Wishing to give you my right hand, I rose from the throne. Looking at me, the crucified, dare the struggle. I am the one you saw hanging on the tree in the flesh; by the nailing in it I will give you the prize. I am the president of the games; yet I too have become an athlete of martyrdom. On the cross, as in a wrestling school, I wrestled. In being arrested I broke the adversary, the devil. Do not fear those who stone you: against their will they are setting a ladder to heaven for you. Do not fear those who stone you: the stones will become steps to heaven for you. Do not fear the stones, for you carry within you the cornerstone,” Jesus Christ, God; to whom be glory and might to the ages of ages. Amen.

No one is sick while Paul is contending; for with his handkerchiefs even his memorials mow down diseases. No one, then, is sick while Paul is contending. A strong medicine for illnesses is the contest of the tentmaker. Therefore bright is Paul's festival; wonderful are the spectacles of the man of Tarsus. All things leap for joy while Paul, the boxer of piety, contends: the paradise in which he dwelt; the heaven to which he was caught up; the world he made wise; the deep he sanctified; the sun with which he ran his course; the basket he made illustrious; the creation he conquered; the church he made as wide as the sea; the prison he lit up; the tomb he adorned. All things see Paul's contests: the tentmaker's courses; the athlete's wrestlings; the boxer's marks; the soldier's trophies; the helmsman's cargo; the farmer's vineyard; the physician's medicine chest; the eagle's flight; the demons' fall; the devil's shame; the synagogues' desolation; the idols' overthrow; the might of the cross; the bridle of the voice; the catch of the lightning; the daring of his madness; the kindness of his calling; the orthodoxy of his answer; the surgery of his blindness; the birth-pangs of the font; the boldness of his preaching; his forgetting of the law; his study of the Word. For Paul, the undefeated soldier, conquered in war and thundered everywhere with authority. Creation shot arrows, and faith put on a breastplate. Tarsus bore him, but paradise snatched him up. Damascus gave him new birth, but the world called him blessed. Rome buried him, but heaven crowned him. The marks pricked his body, but every tongue praised his contest. At once the rays of feasts rise, and everything of Paul's is full of wonder. His letters are nets of salvation; his handkerchiefs sickles for sufferings; his tongue the flute of the crucified one; his fall the raising of the world; his blindness the sharp sight of faith; his basket the dragnet of the gospel; his wounds the healings of the world; his courses the bringers of prizes; his shipwreck the rudder of the church; his chains the bond of love; his blood a libation of love for mankind; his tomb the nobility of the Romans; his memory the boast of the orthodox.

Truly there is nothing in life like apostolic grace. The law too had many wonders; but when the sun rose, the lamp went to sleep. There is nothing in life like the apostles. They served the Word; they touched the formless one made flesh; they followed him walking who is present everywhere; they heard the voice of him who calls the things that are not as though they were; they netted the world with their tongue; they went round the ends of the earth like eagles; they uprooted error like tares; they burned the altars like thorns; they put the idols to death like wild beasts; they put the demons to flight like wolves; they gathered the church like shepherds; they heaped up the orthodox like ears of grain; they treated the heresies as refuse, like chaff; they withered Judaism like grass; they sawed up Hellenism like timber; they ploughed the world with the cross; they sowed the word like wheat; they lit up all things like morning stars. For this reason the Lord just now cries to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you.” O Paul, like the sun you lit up all things by your preaching; like the moon you drove away the darkness of ignorance; like an eagle you ran up to heaven; like a pearl you flashed in the deep. “My grace is sufficient for you.” See your victories, and proclaim my might. “My grace is sufficient for you.” Rulers raged; peoples rose up; kings condemned; cities were in uproar; Jews lay in wait; Greeks were furious; swords were sharpened; bonds were made ready; and Paul stood, the rock of afflictions, crying: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” O head, not with hair, but with victories, abounding!

Consider, I beg you, Paul's contests, and you will be numb at his crowns. He won the Romans by a letter; he netted the Corinthians through the cross; he turned the Galatians back by rebuke; he razed the Artemis of the Ephesians; he netted the Athenians through an altar; at Philippi he won the jailer; at Antioch he preached vehemently; at Iconium he was buried under a snowfall of stones; at Lystra he poured forth feet for the lame man; at Troas he brought Eutychus to life; on the island he triumphed over the viper; in Cyprus he blinded the magician; at Jerusalem he pleaded for the cross. Places ran out, but his course did not grow numb. Dangers poured in on him from every side as from springs. Dangers from rivers, and they did not sweep away his heap of virtues. Dangers from robbers, and they did not plunder the treasure of faith. Dangers from his own people; but the man of earth was bold as one of heaven. Dangers from Gentiles; but they did not storm the wall of the gospel. Dangers in the city; but they did not trip up the crowned victor of the world. Dangers in the desert; but the theatre of the Gospels watched the victory. Dangers at sea; but they did not sink the boat of endurance. Dangers among false brothers; but he won angels from among the Jews. Truly the devil ran out of temptations, and Paul did not run out of crowns.

Let us marvel, then, at all Paul's members. O head, citadel of the virtues! O eyes that saw the holy Trinity as in a mirror! O tongue, thunder of theology! O marks brighter than stars! O hands that fashioned members! O feet, the goal of the gospel course! O words, physicians of souls! O letters, dragnet of salvation! O breast, sea of cares! O sweat, watering the church! O man, pillar of faith! O treasure that enriched the world! O physician who operated on error! O dead man who never dies! O apostle, silent in the tomb and crying from heaven: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” To him be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Strong is the net of the apostolic fishing; wonderful the casting-net of Andrew's memory; unceasing the dragnet of the immortal dead. For the snares do not grow old with time, which not art but grace has woven. For though the fishermen have departed, the tools of the spiritual fishermen do not grow old with time, nor the dragnet in which they catch the world. Those who haul are not seen, and the nets are full. They did not acquire a rod, which time destroys; they did not let down a line, which age breaks; they did not forge a hook, which rust consumes; they did not put on bait, the trap for fish; they did not sit on a rock, which the waves shake; they did not go up into a boat, which a storm breaks up; they did not catch fish, the unreasoning creatures of nature. But just as the art is paradoxical, so the tools are paradoxical and newer. Instead of a rod they stretch out the preaching; instead of a line they let down the memory; instead of a hook they lower the power; instead of bait they put on the wonders; instead of a rock they fish from heaven; instead of a boat they have taken the altar; instead of fish they catch kings; instead of a dragnet they have spread out the gospel; instead of art they use grace; instead of the sea they pass through life; instead of nets they haul in with the cross. Who ever saw dead men fishing and living men being caught? O the power of the Crucified! O divine dignity! O apostolic beneficence! For there is nothing in life like apostolic grace.

Life has seen many wonderful and paradoxical things. It saw blood crying out after it was shed, and murder shouting without a tongue; nature split by envy; the earth defiled by daring; a fratricide sending his brother from the same mother to death, and the door of death opened by jealousy. It saw an ark become the womb of nature in its shipwreck. It saw an old man arming himself against his own flesh by faith. It saw one sacrificing a son not slain, and offering one not put to death. It saw a hut wider than heaven, and God contained under a tent. It saw a theft become the mother of blessings, and a wrestling of the Maker with his servant. It saw envy among brothers, and slavery bringing kingship. It saw dreams preparing a throne, and famine drawing the plotters. It saw fire bedewing a bush, and a rod the mother of wonders. It saw waves made solid, and the deep lit up. It saw roads improvised, and a pillar of cloud guiding the famous multitude of the people. It saw a rod blossom without earth, and heaven make manna into bread. It saw a lawgiver command the elements, and a letter gushing with curse. It saw a man bridle the sun with a word, and a barren woman conceive a prophet through prayer. It saw a handful of flour richer than deep cornfields, and a cruse of oil more abundant than springs. It saw a prophet taken up in an immaterial chariot, and the bones of the dead a medicine of life. Life saw these and many other wonderful things; but they passed like a shadow and green grass, and went to sleep like a lamp. For when the sun rose, the shadow ran past; for there is nothing like the apostles.

They served God the Word; they touched the formless one made flesh; they followed him walking who is everywhere; they reclined with the uncircumscribed one; they heard the voice of him who made all things by a word; they netted the world with their tongue; they went round all the ends of the earth with the word; they uprooted error like tares; they reaped the altars like thorns; they put the idols to death like wild beasts; they put the demons to flight like wolves; they gathered the church like a flock; they heaped up the orthodox like grain; they treated the heresies as refuse, like chaff; they withered Judaism like grass; they burned up Hellenism like timber; they ploughed nature with the cross; they sowed the word like wheat; they lit up all things like morning stars. Therefore the Master cried to them: “You are the light of the world.” You have as your sunrise the virginal birth; as your dawn the womb of baptism; as your brightness the grace of the Crucified; as your rays the paradoxical tongues; as your day the age to come; as your noon the hour of the cross; as your setting the dwelling of the tomb; as your evening temporary death; as your shining forth the resurrection of the dead. “You are the light of the world.” See the stars, and be amazed at their brightness.

Therefore today Andrew, having found the common Master like a treasure of light, cried to Peter his brother: “We have found,” he says, “the Messiah.” O excess of brotherly love! O reversal of order! Andrew sprang into life after Peter, and before Peter he made his catch for the Gospel. “We have found,” he says, “the Messiah.” The word comes from great joy; bright is the good news of the finding. We have found, he says, the treasure: flee, Peter, the poverty of circumcision; strip off the rags of the law; throw off the yoke of the letter; deny all these things as small, and the present things as dreams: Bethsaida as a mean place; the casting-net as a tool of poverty; the boat as a chamber of shipwreck; the trade as … ; the fish as merchandise for gluttony; the land as a sea of tumult; the race as branches of corruption; the world as a market for the belly; the temple as a den of robbers; Jerusalem as a graveyard of the prophets; the nation as raving against God; Caiaphas as father of a wicked council. We have found the Messiah, whom the prophets proclaimed beforehand, whom the law trumpeted beforehand. We have found the treasure of the law: flee, Peter, the famine of the letter. We have found the Messiah, whom the signs foreshadowed; whom Micaiah saw on the throne of glory; whom Isaiah beheld above the seraphim; whom Ezekiel saw above the cherubim; whom Daniel beheld on the clouds; whom Nebuchadnezzar saw in the furnace; whom

Abraham received in his hut; whom Jacob did not let go until he was blessed; whose back Moses saw on the rock. Him we have found, begotten without beginning and made manifest in the last times; the treasure whose wealth cannot be emptied, whose riches cannot be robbed, whose existence is without beginning, and whose finding is new. “We have found the Messiah,” which is translated Christ. Many have been christs, anointed ones, but all were slaves to death. Abraham was an anointed one, but he was dissolved in the tomb; Isaac was an anointed one, but his memory is in bones; Jacob was an anointed one, but he became death's by-work; Moses was an anointed one, but we do not even know where he was buried; David was an anointed one, but all are spoils. All were anointed, but captives of death. But one is the Christ, who is God by nature and man through compassion, who sealed the Virgin's womb by his birth and made the fishermen springs of healing. To him be might and kingship and glory and worship, with his undefiled, consubstantial, and co-equal Father and the all-holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages.