NOTICE REGARDING THE FOLLOWING ORATION
A I. Among the orations of Gregory, the one which is numbered in the forty-first position by the Parisian editors claims for itself the first place; although in almost all other manuscripts it is placed before the other orations. For there are more than forty royal manuscripts in which the Oration on Easter and the delay is the first in order. It also holds the first place in the English and imperial ones, as is known even from published catalogs. Indeed, the very words of the oration demonstrate sufficiently that it is the first of all. “Resurrection day, and the beginning of the right hand.” “[The] day of resurrection, he says, and a propitious beginning.” “The beginning, I say, of [my] discourses and of the initiation into the pastoral office.” “The beginning of my words, and the beginning of teaching and of presiding.” Thus, after the ancient scholiast, says Nicetas. “From here indeed,” he says according to Lambecius, “this most divine Father began his discourses.” That is: “For hence that most divine Father took the beginning of his discourses.”
II. Basilius the same asserts in a notable scholion, which is exhibited in a commentary: indeed, another unedited scholiast, who in Colbert manuscript 3063, regarding the second oration on Easter, comments on these words: “O Word of God,” etc., as follows: “You have therefore now this oration of ours, not indeed as the first-fruits, neither as the first, as that [which begins thus]: ‘Resurrection day.’” In short, both the ancients and the moderns have come to that opinion. Nor do I delay on the fact that Leunclavius in his dedicatory epistle says: “By reason of time, if we believe Elias of Crete and Nicetas Serron, the oration which is second in the Parisian Greek-Latin edition ought to be the first.” For we have just seen that the mind of Nicetas is far otherwise. But we shall refute the opinion of Elias elsewhere, which in the meantime is sufficiently exploded by the beginning of each oration, and by the end of this one: where the Theologian says: “Now you have the discourses, for which you were so greatly longing;” discourses hitherto denied, for which they were the more eager the longer they were deferred. This interpretation, indeed, is not ours, but that of Gregory himself, as the entire third, or alternatively second, oration proves, and as the admonition regarding it will demonstrate.
III. This, therefore, was the first of all the orations written and spoken in the year of Christ 362, on the day before the Kalends of April, on which day, according to Bucherius, the feast of Easter fell in this year. But on what occasion or for what reasons, the admonition regarding the Great Apologetic will explain more conveniently below. That oration is indeed brief, but certainly, taking the nature of things into account, most ample; even if at first glance it may seem casually flowing and disjointed. In it he unites the mysteries of the rising Christ with a defense of his own delay, and both of these with moral precepts; he so mingles individual points with one another, that it could almost be called entirely a panegyrical, entirely a moral, and entirely an apologetical oration. In it he accuses and defends himself, humbles and exalts himself, obeys and commands, courts benevolence and reproves. Finally, while he desires to be a good shepherd, he shows himself to be the very man whom he desired to be, both dying eagerly with Christ and at the same time rising again, a new man, whom as a shepherd the sheep ought to follow and hear. Moreover, how ingenious is the mention made of duties, how fitting for the feast, for moral precepts, for the praises of the Father, for commending himself, as magnificently as modestly and necessarily, to a vicar-shepherd under a new father! And this is the first of Gregory’s, and, if we believe Basil, an extemporaneous oration.
THE ORATIONS OF OUR HOLY FATHER GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE
ORATION I. On the Holy Pascha and on the Tardy Arrival.
I A. It is the day of Resurrection, and the beginning is propitious; let us be radiant in the festival, and let us embrace one another. Let us say, "Brothers," even to those who hate us; and not merely to those who have done or suffered anything for the sake of love B. Let us forgive all things for the sake of the Resurrection; let us grant pardon to one another, both I, who have been subjected to this noble tyranny—for this I now add—and you, who have tyrannized well, if you find any fault with me for my tardy arrival; for perhaps this is better and more precious to God than the haste of others. For it is good to withdraw oneself for a little while to God, as Moses did of old, and Jeremiah later, and then to run forward readily when He calls, as Aaron and Isaiah did, provided both are done with a pious spirit: the one through awareness of his own weakness C, the other through awareness of the power of Him who calls.
II. The mystery has anointed me; for the sake of the mystery I withdrew for a little while, as much as was necessary to examine myself; and with the mystery I now enter in, taking as a helper for my fear and weakness this admirable day, so that He who rose from the dead this day may also renew me by the
Spirit, and, having clothed me in the new man, may grant A to the new creation, to those who are born according to God, a good Creator and Teacher in Christ, who is willingly dying and rising again with them.
III. Yesterday the lamb was being slaughtered, and the doorposts were being anointed, and Egypt was mourning for her firstborn, and the destroyer was passing us by, and the seal was fearful and venerable, and we were protected by the precious blood. B Today we have fled Egypt entirely, and that bitter master Pharaoh, and the harsh taskmasters, and we have been freed from the clay and the brick-making; and there is no one to prevent us from celebrating to the Lord our God this passage-feast—and to celebrate it, not in the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, bringing with us nothing of the Egyptian and godless leaven.
IV. Yesterday I was being crucified with Christ, today I am being glorified with Him; yesterday I was dying with Him, today I am being made alive with Him; yesterday I was being buried with Him, today I am rising with Him. But let us offer gifts C to Him who suffered and rose again for us. Perhaps you think I mean gold, or silver, or textiles, or clear and precious stones, matter that flows from the earth and remains below, of which the wicked and the slaves of the things below and of the prince of this world usually possess the greater share. Nay, rather, let us offer ourselves, the possession most precious to God and most peculiarly His own; let us return to the Image that which is according to the image; let us recognize our own worth; let us honor our Archetype; let us understand the power D of the mystery, and for what purpose Christ died.
V. Let us become as Christ, since Christ also became as we are. Let us become gods for His sake, since He also became man for our sake. He assumed the worse that He might give the better; He became poor, that we might become rich by His poverty; He took the form of a servant, that we might receive the freedom.
A He descended, that we might be exalted; He was tempted, that we might conquer; He was dishonored, that He might glorify; He died, that He might save; He ascended, that He might draw to Himself those who were lying below in the fall of sin. Let one give all, let one offer all as fruits to Him who gave Himself as a ransom and exchange [(5)] for us; yet he will give nothing comparable to one who understands the mystery, and who has made everything for His sake, just as He was made everything for our sake.
C VI. And to you, as you see, this good shepherd, who laid down his soul for the sheep [(16)], offers a shepherd; for this he hopes, and has in his prayers, and asks of you who are under his care, and he delivers himself up to you twofold in exchange for one, and makes the staff of his old age a staff of the spirit; and to the inanimate temple he joins the animate one; to this, I say, B most glorious and heavenly temple, he joins another, whatever and however small it may be, yet most dear to him, completed by many toils and labors: and would that I were able to add that it is worthy of those labors! And he proposes all his own to you. O the magnitude of soul, or, to speak more truly, the fatherly love! The gray hair, the youth, the temple, the high priest, the giver of his inheritance, the heir, the sermons for which you were burning with desire; and indeed sermons not flowing rashly into the air, and extending no further than the ears of the hearers, but which the Spirit writes, and engraves upon tablets of stone, or rather of flesh, not inscribed lightly and on the surface, and which might easily be erased, C but deeply imprinted, not with ink, but with grace [(10)].
VII. And all these things this venerable Abraham offers to you, that patriarch, that dear and august head, that dwelling-place of all virtues, the rule of virtue, the perfection of the priesthood: he who today offers a voluntary sacrifice to the Lord, that only-begotten one from the promise [(19)]. But do you offer this to God and to us in place of a gift, so that you may be rightly pastured, being sheltered in a place of pasture, and reared beside the water of refreshing [(20)], knowing the shepherd well, and being known by him, and following him as he calls in the manner of a shepherd and freely through the door; but not following a stranger who enters another way [(21)], in the manner of robbers and schemers, the fold
deceitfully A nor listening to a strange voice that steals away and scatters from the truth into mountains, and deserts, and gullies, and places which the Lord does not visit, and which leads astray from the sound faith—that which is in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one Godhead and power, the voice which they have always heard B, and would that my sheep might hear it—but which with counterfeit and corrupted words carries off and tears away from the true and first Shepherd. From these, may it be the lot of us all, both pastors and flock, to feed afar from such sickly and deadly herbage, and may we both graze and provide pasture, and may we all be one in Christ Jesus now and in the rest of the life to come: to whom be glory and power unto the ages. Amen.
MONITUM IN ORATIONEM II
I. C “It seems,” says Basil, “that this oration was written after the previous one on Easter. For the former was delivered extemporaneously and briefly after the imposition of hands upon him for the priesthood, and after his flight. This one, however, was composed later, at leisure, more maturely and at greater length.” The best manuscript copies, such as the Royal 1809 and very many others, in which this oration occupies the place immediately after the first, agree with this.
II. Elias of Crete agrees in his argument for this oration, which Billius translates thus: “Afterwards (having written the first on Easter), he composed this great apologetic discourse at his leisure.” Elias confirms this again in the argument prefixed to the second invective against Julian, in these words: “For there too, he says, when the subject matter was most extensive, and could not be comprised in the oration entitled *On Easter and Delay*, he divided it into two orations; namely, into this one, which we have just mentioned, and into that apologetic discourse which is called ‘The Great One.’ And here again, when he had undertaken to mark the perversity of Julian with infamy, he divided the whole matter into two orations on account of the magnitude of his malignancy.” By this method, Elias asserts that Gregory followed the law of rhetoric handed down by Hermogenes, that a case should be divided on account of the magnitude of the accusation or defense. D Hence one may not incorrectly conclude that Gregory came from Pontus prepared for either oration, or rather, for the twin parts of his defense; but that one was divided from the other by design or necessity, as it is known to have been done in the orations *On the Lights* and *On Baptism*, and as Elias seems to affirm. We pursue this more fully for the reason that the most illustrious Tillemont separates these orations, or rather the two parts of one and the same oration, although they neither ought to be nor can be separated. Now, however, we must say on what occasion and for what causes this oration was delivered.
III. When Gregory had been created presbyter by a certain force and “tyranny,” as if struck by a gadfly and hit by an unexpected lightning bolt, he betook himself in flight to his friend Basil in Pontus. He describes this himself in an elegant poem. “For being ordained presbyter,” as it is read in the scholium of the most renowned Royal codex 1809, “he withdrew with a certain religious fear into Pontus, where not long before he had lived a solitary life. Then, returning from there, he published an apology;” he delivered this very oration, by which, when he had returned, he purged himself of his flight and of having refused the office of presbyter; or, to speak with the scholiast, “because he had not accepted the office of presbyter.” Therefore, Gregory withdrew into solitude, not to flee the dignity of the priesthood, which he had accepted though unwilling and reluctant; but also so that he might not be compelled toward the episcopacy; one of which reasons some scholiasts seem to indicate, while the other is a fiction of Billius. But having escaped by flight, he sought the solitude of Pontus, as if to avoid a burden [that would be fearful even to angelic shoulders—]