Orations

Contents

Orations 1-3 and 5-19 of PG 65 (Greek text only).

Reading pages: 1.1–1.10 · 2.1–3.3 · 5.1–6.10 · 6.11–6.17 · 7.1–9.4 · 10.1–14.3 · 15.1–17.7 · 18.1–19.5

1. 1.1Proclus opens a feast of the Virgin by hailing Mary, the Theotokos, as the bush, the cloud, the fleece, and the loom on which the Word wove the tunic of his union with our flesh.
2. 1.2The Word, born of a woman as God and man, turned the door of sin into the gate of salvation; the Virgin's lasting virginity shows that the child is God.
3. 1.3Birth from a woman was no defilement to God but the occasion of salvation: the Virgin's womb was the workshop where the bond of our freedom was drawn up and the weapon against the devil forged.
4. 1.4Christ is not a man deified but God made man: as Creator he has no mother, as man no father, so that Hebrews' “without father, without mother” fits him alone.
5. 1.5Gabriel's name points to God and man; humanity, bound to the devil by the bond of sin, could be redeemed neither by a man nor by an angel, but only by the sinless God dying for sinners.
6. 1.6Only the God-man, whose worth outweighs all the condemned, could redeem humanity; the prophets, seeing the wound beyond human skill, cried out for the Physician from heaven.
7. 1.7The prophets' cries for help were answered when God came and paid his own blood and the flesh taken from the Virgin as a ransom, redeeming the world from the curse of the law.
8. 1.8The Redeemer is neither a mere man, against the Jews, nor God without a body, against the Manichees; to divide Christ into two would make the Trinity a quaternity, and the Psalms name the one who appeared as God and Lord.
9. 1.9As God Christ saved and as man he suffered: the same one, crowned with thorns by the synagogue, was in the Father's bosom and the Virgin's womb, judged by Pilate and adored by seraphim.
10. 1.10Christ was born as he was conceived, leaving the Virgin's virginity intact, as Ezekiel's shut gate foretold; the sermon ends with a doxology.
11. 2.1Proclus praises the healing power of psalmody and David's witness to the Trinity, and turns Psalm 104's “How magnified are your works” against Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, and Nestorius.
12. 2.2The Creator who made all things in wisdom was seen on earth through the Virgin; he freed us by the cross, conquered death by the tomb, foreshadowed baptism in the Jordan, and showed himself God by calming the sea and the demons.
13. 2.3Adam's formation from virgin earth, without labour or corruption, answers Jewish mockery of the virgin birth; Adam was a type of Christ, the second Adam, from whose death the church was bought as Eve was taken from Adam's side.
14. 2.4Adam slept while Eve was formed so that he would not suffer pain and hate her, and so that humanity would learn not to pry into the incomprehensible birth of God.
15. 2.5Answering an imagined Jewish objector who denies that God was ever seen or born of a woman, Proclus cites Deuteronomy and introduces Zechariah's vision of the golden lampstand as a prophecy of the incarnation.
16. 2.6Proclus interprets Zechariah's vision: the day is the incarnation, the angel Gabriel, the sleep the time of the law, the golden lampstand the ever-virgin Mary (who is God's temple, not God), and the lamp the incarnate Word.
17. 2.7The seven lamps are seven laws (natural law, creation, the command in Eden, Noah's covenant, circumcision, the written law, and grace), the seven pourers the seven gifts of the Spirit, and the two olive trees the two Testaments.
18. 2.8The prophet asks about what he has seen because the vision was an image of a hidden mystery; the angel answers like an evangelist, “This is the Word of the Lord.”
19. 2.9God showed the incarnation in the figures of Zechariah's vision to silence Jewish objections, and Isaiah too calls the Saviour a lamp; the sermon ends with a doxology.
20. 3.1Proclus praises the joy that feasts bring to toilsome human life and calls a feast the fruit of the resurrection.
21. 3.2Pagan and Jewish feasts bring shame or sin, but the Christian festivals (Nativity, Epiphany, Pascha, Ascension, Pentecost) are springs of salvation.
22. 3.3The wonder of the Nativity, celebrated the day before, is the unconfused union of Godhead and manhood in one Son, born of the Virgin without change, who is God from the Father and man from us.
23. 5.1Like the stars, the saints shine over the whole world though their bodies lie in tombs: Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, the three youths, and Ezekiel all still speak, and death became for the righteous a door to boldness before God.
24. 5.2Of all the saints honoured in Scripture none equals Mary the Theotokos, who carried the incarnate Word whom all creation, angels, and elements approach only with fear.
25. 5.3Through Mary the curse on women is lifted and the women of Scripture are honoured; she is mother, handmaid, cloud, bridal chamber, and ark of the Lord, blessed among women, and her fruit is God, not a creature.
26. 5.4Isaiah's prophecy of the virgin and Emmanuel says enough in praise of Mary; “God with us” has overthrown error, circumcision, demons, and death, so that the freed dead cry that God himself has saved them.
27. 6.1Proclus launches his sermon as a voyage toward Havilah, land of gold and precious stones, which he reads as the Virgin and Christ, and warns that the sea of the Virgin's mystery is perilous for the unpractised.
28. 6.2Virginity is an angelic garment that Christ himself put on; like Aaron's linen and purple, Christ's priesthood and kingship show the two orders of virginity and of chaste married life.
29. 6.3Virginity is a honeycomb and a paradise; the church has two orders, the married who keep chastity and those dedicated to God who keep purity, figured by the fig and the vine, the fish and the honeycomb, and Isaiah's “butter and honey.”
30. 6.4John the Baptist's food of locusts and wild honey stands for the height of a virgin life, hard to find in this world, and for the sweetness of the law that he lived by before he knew Christ.
31. 6.5Virginity is God's choice gift, which crowned the saints of Scripture and made Mary the mother of the Lord; the sermon passes to the inner tent of the incarnation, where the burning bush figures the Virgin who bore the true light.
32. 6.7Against those who infer from Matthew 1 that Mary and Joseph lived as husband and wife after Christ's birth, Proclus urges a spiritual reading that holds to her lasting virginity.
33. 6.8Joseph, not knowing the mystery, saw Mary with child, suspected her, and, though the angel spoke to him, resolved to separate from her until he should see the birth.
34. 6.9In an alphabetical dialogue Joseph accuses Mary and thinks of divorcing her, and she patiently answers with the prophecies, until he resolves to wait for the birth, and she foretells that they will be called blessed as parents of the Creator.
35. 6.10Joseph came to know the truth only through the angel, the star, the Magi, and Simeon, and then honoured Mary whom he had suspected; his ignorance was no fault, for even Mary questioned Gabriel.
36. 6.11In an alphabetical dialogue Mary questions Gabriel about how she can conceive, and the archangel answers that the eternal Son takes flesh from her without losing anything of his Godhead.
37. 6.12Gabriel, whose name Proclus takes as “man God,” urges Mary to believe, recalling Zechariah's punishment and Elizabeth's late conception, which he reads as a figure of synagogue and church, and teaches that mysteries are to be marvelled at, not investigated.
38. 6.13Mary, torn between joy and fear, is steadied by the Word himself, who tells her that unless he takes an earthly body from her, humanity cannot receive the Spirit, immortality, or the glory of the Master.
39. 6.14The Word continues: only by taking flesh, dying, and being laid in the tomb could he ratify the covenant that makes humanity his heirs; dwelling in Mary does not defile him, and she will be at once virgin and mother.
40. 6.15In an imagined speech the devil, alarmed at the Virgin's conception, plots against her, comparing her with Eve, and resolves to slander her before the Jews and to use Herod's sword against the child.
41. 6.17Proclus closes with a litany of Old Testament figures for the Virgin, the temple, altar, lampstand, ark, red heifer, shut gate, three measures of meal, fleece, olive, and paradise, ending with the angel's words in Luke 1:35.
42. 7.1At the feast of the Theophany Proclus contrasts Christ's baptism with his birth: then the earth rejoiced, the star and Magi announced him, and he lay in swaddling bands; now the waters are sanctified, the Father bears witness, and he loosens the chains of sin.
43. 7.2Christ, the sun of righteousness, is baptized in the Jordan; the Psalm's “Blessed is he who comes” fits him who always comes through his providence in creation, and his grace in baptism is offered to all.
44. 7.3Christ's baptism is a new flood that gives life, with Christ as the spiritual Noah whose ark is his body from Mary; he is baptized not for cleansing but to sanctify the waters and lead all to baptism.
45. 7.4As Jesus comes to the Jordan, John falls at his feet and protests that he, a sinner, cannot baptize the sinless Lord whom he had proclaimed from his mother's womb.
46. 7.5John protests that creation would rise against him for baptizing the sinless Lord; Proclus proclaims what Christ's appearing has brought, and the Father's voice and the Spirit as a dove identify the one baptized as the beloved Son.
47. 8.1Following Luke, Proclus describes the Transfiguration on the high mountain where Moses and Elijah, law and prophets, met Christ, and explains that Christ took only three disciples so that Judas, unworthy of the vision, would have no excuse.
48. 8.2Peter's offer to build three tents wrongly made the Master equal to his servants, who did nothing like Christ's works; earth is no place to stay, and the Transfiguration foreshows our own transformation and Christ's coming in glory.
49. 8.3The Father's voice from the cloud answers Peter: the one he would house in a tent is the Son who created all things with the Father and took the Virgin's womb as his tent, one and the same Son in whom the Father is well pleased.
50. 8.4The Father's voice, heard at the Jordan and on Tabor, fulfils the psalm “Tabor and Hermon will rejoice in your name”; Christ must not stay on the mountain, for he came down to suffer and redeem, and he is to be heard in faith.
51. 9.1For Palm Sunday Proclus calls the congregation to welcome Christ the King with lighted lamps, works of love, and the crowd's Hosanna, preparing for him as cities prepare for an earthly king's entry.
52. 9.2The meek King enters on a borrowed colt with no royal pomp, yet the crowds, as if taught by the seraphim, hail him as King of Israel; the congregation is to prepare their souls to receive him.
53. 9.3The crowds' cry, inspired by the Spirit, angered the chief priests and moved the Greeks to seek Jesus, whose coming Jesus called his glorification, meaning the cross, which now glorifies and guards every part of Christian life.
54. 9.4Proclus closes by calling his hearers to take palm branches, answer the chief priests' scorn, and hail the one who raised Lazarus as mighty God.
55. 10.1On the evening of the Last Supper Christ gave his flesh and blood, washed the disciples' feet, and went willingly to his passion; Proclus imagines his appeal to Judas, whose greed betrayed the apostleship and its gifts.
56. 10.2Love of money, the root of all evils, led Judas, who had grudged the ointment's value and stolen from the common purse, to sell the priceless Lord for thirty pieces of silver, as Zechariah foretold.
57. 10.3Christ warned Judas to bring him to repentance, but Judas chose disobedience and Satan entered him; Christ hastened willingly to his passion, being light and life, who suffered in the flesh and not in his Godhead.
58. 10.4Before approaching the mysteries, the congregation is to put away greed, hypocrisy, anger, and grudges, and to exchange the greeting of peace, so that Christ may find them pure like John, Paul, and Peter.
59. 11.1Celebrating Christ's death and descent into Hades, Proclus proclaims that the dead Christ, swallowed as a man, despoiled Hades as God, freed the captives from Adam onward, and opened paradise to the robber.
60. 11.2Death swallowed all the righteous of old, but in swallowing Christ it had to give back the world; the devil stirred up Judas, Peter, the servants, soldiers, Pilate, and the crowd, while Christ bore it to undo the curse.
61. 11.3All creation mourned at the crucifixion; the prophets ask Christ about his wounds, and he answers that he was wounded in the house of his beloved, the vine he brought from Egypt that bore thorns.
62. 11.4Proclus closes the Good Friday sermon with acclamations of the passion and its instruments, the cross, nails, thorns, gall, sponge, and reed, as the power and wisdom of God that abolished death.
63. 12.1At Easter the newly baptized shine like flowers and stars; Proclus praises the empress, a consecrated virgin who spent her wealth in piety and honours the tomb, the cross, and the font, and proclaims the reversal of Adam's fall.
64. 12.2Nature and the prophets refute the Jews' unbelief; the dead hail Christ's victory over the devil, and through his resurrection the true light, become man from the Virgin without change, confusion, or division, has given eternal life.
65. 13.1No word can match the wonder of Easter: never before had a cross redeemed nature, a tomb become a bridal chamber, or nature risen in three days; the birth shows Christ man, the tomb shows him God, the Lamb of God whose flesh is life and blood ransom.
66. 13.2In Christ all things are new: heaven, earth, sea, life, humanity cleansed by baptism, and worship, which now glorifies the three hypostases in one being.
67. 13.3Isaiah's “God will shine upon the earth” is fulfilled in the incarnation: God could not appear or face death and Hades without flesh, so he took human nature as a covering, like a sheep's form to lure the wolf.
68. 13.4Against a Jewish objector Proclus questions the sun, heaven, earth, temple, sea, and Hades, which mourned at Christ's death as they had not at the deaths of righteous men, and confess him God; the angels answer with the psalm, “He is the King of glory.”
69. 14.1At Easter heaven and earth celebrate together: angels receive the risen King, the saints proclaim him, the earth and sea are honoured by him, the newly baptized are reborn, and Adam is freed from the curse.
70. 14.2The Jewish Passover in Egypt foreshadowed the Christian Pascha: the lamb, the blood, the death of the firstborn, the Red Sea, the song of Moses, and the manna are fulfilled in Christ's sacrifice, baptism, the liturgy, and the bread from heaven.
71. 14.3The Passover rites were types, like a sculptor's clay model, to be set aside when Christ, the truth and the true Lamb, appeared; Proclus urges the Jews to leave the old leaven and keep the feast with the church.
72. 15.1John the Theologian alone spoke of the eternal birth of the Word; the five phrases of John 1:1–3, like David's five stones, defend the church against Greeks, Jews, Manichees, and heretics and confess the consubstantial Trinity.
73. 15.2The Son's eternal birth from the Father had no witness, for before it there was no time, angel, heaven, sun, moon, or earth, all of which the Son himself made.
74. 15.3Neither John's lake, trade, father, village, nor the law and prophets could have taught him to say “In the beginning was the Word”; faith gave him wings to rise above the angels to God's throne.
75. 15.4By faith John, a mere man, rose to see the Word begotten of the Father and the Trinity worshipped in unity, and spoke of God more boldly than the seraphim who veil their faces.
76. 15.5John's “The Word became flesh” reveals the paradoxes of the incarnation, from the virgin birth, manger, and flight into Egypt to the betrayal, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and descent into Hades.
77. 15.6The one John saw is the eternal Word, consubstantial Son, who came down without leaving the Father's throne, was born of the Virgin, and took a beginning as man; the sermon ends by calling down defeat on all enemies of the church.
78. 16.1At Pentecost the Spirit made fearful fishermen bold, as Peter's change shows; against those who deny the Spirit's Godhead, Proclus argues from the third hour, the fire, the sound from heaven, and Paul's use of Isaiah 6 that the Spirit is Lord and God.
79. 16.2The Spirit who appeared at Christ's baptism sat on the apostles as fire, punished Ananias, distributes gifts, overshadowed Mary, and in baptism burns away sins and enlightens the newly baptized.
80. 17.1Christ, the sun of righteousness born of the Virgin, has Stephen the first martyr rising with him as the visible sun has its stars; Proclus contrasts the two suns and praises the manger as heaven, throne, and altar.
81. 17.2Proclus bids the congregation honour Christ in the church, altar, and eucharistic bread as the Magi did at Bethlehem, and praises Stephen, whose name means “crown,” in a string of images, before leaving his praise to Scripture.
82. 17.3Taking Acts 6:8 as his text, Proclus praises the grace and power with which Stephen was filled, the two hands that wove his crown for faith and martyrdom.
83. 17.4Stephen, full of grace, served the poor and widows, worked wonders, preached the cross and resurrection, and debated with the Jews of the synagogues, who could not withstand his wisdom, for Christ steered his ship.
84. 17.5Stephen's dispute with the synagogues concerned the virgin birth of the incarnate God and the difference between the law, which condemns, and grace, which forgives.
85. 17.6Proclus attacks Stephen's accusers for defending Moses and the temple while plotting murder with false witnesses, and argues that the temple's destruction was Christ's sentence, which they brought on themselves by crucifying him.
86. 17.7Christ, usually seated at God's right hand, stood up at Stephen's death to award the prize to his athlete, and the stones thrown at Stephen became a ladder to heaven.
87. 18.1At the feast of Paul, Proclus celebrates the apostle's contests, from his conversion and blindness at Damascus, his labours, shipwrecks, and chains, to his burial in Rome, and calls his letters nets of salvation.
88. 18.2Nothing equals the grace of the apostles, who touched the incarnate Word and won the world from idols and error; to Paul, beset by rulers, Jews, and Greeks, Christ said, “My grace is sufficient for you.”
89. 18.3Proclus surveys Paul's missionary deeds from Rome to Jerusalem and his many dangers, none of which defeated him: the devil ran out of temptations before Paul ran out of crowns.
90. 18.4The sermon ends with acclamations of Paul's head, eyes, tongue, scars, hands, feet, letters, and labours, and his own words, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
91. 19.1At the feast of the apostle Andrew, Proclus contrasts ordinary fishing with the apostles' spiritual fishing, which goes on after their death with the gospel, the wonders, and the cross as its tools.
92. 19.2Proclus recounts the wonders of the Old Testament from Abel to Elisha, and declares that they passed like shadows before the sun of the gospel, for nothing equals the apostles.
93. 19.3The apostles served the incarnate Word and won the world from error, idols, and heresy; Christ called them the light of the world, whose day runs from the virgin birth and baptism to the cross, the tomb, and the resurrection.
94. 19.4Andrew, though called after Peter in birth, brought him to Christ, saying “We have found the Messiah”; Proclus has him urge Peter to leave the law and the old life for the Messiah whom the prophets saw.
95. 19.5The Messiah Andrew found is the one seen by the patriarchs and Moses, begotten without beginning; many were called anointed, but all died, while the one Christ is God by nature and man by compassion.