in this homily, which argue that it was written after the age of Nestorius; as is that expression in number 4: Διὰ τὸ χρηματίσαι τοῦτον Θεὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπον, μίαν ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ὑπόστασιν, καὶ διὰ μιᾶς ταύτης ἄμφω ταῦτα καὶ ὄντα καὶ γνωριζόμενον. And that he is one God and man, one hypostasis from both, and through that one both are and are known. Which, although it is truly the opinion of Athanasius, I would scarcely concede that Athanasius explained it in these words. They indicate also a time later than Nestorius, those things which are said in number 16, namely that the blessed Virgin is called Theotokos everywhere throughout the world. This term, although it was not unknown to Athanasius, was not in his age spread everywhere throughout the world. If you consider the style, you must confess it to be most alien to the Athanasian; for with Athanasius, as Photius testifies, there always shines forth a lack of superfluity, and he delights in force rather than in a wealth of words. This writer, however, although he presents some appearance of elegance, often multiplies words to the point of excess: which I think no one will deny. Moreover, such a forest of terms that are in no way familiar to Athanasius occurs here on every side, that even from this alone a judgment can be rendered: such as, and many other things, of which you may see the force and meaning in the Onomasticon.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER ATHANASIUS, SERMON ON THE MEETING OF OUR LORD, AND GOD, AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.
A May the evangelical trumpet sound B forth; and may the mystical bridal-attendant Luke lead us, who stand before this virginal bridal chamber with a pure mind, by his discourse to the understanding of the good things that exist within it. For it is not proper, while he himself is presiding over the occasion, to introduce some other discourse from outside, which brings with it neither any dignity, but rather no small measure of disgrace. For just as when the sun is shining clearly, the brightness of a lamp is vain and useless; so where Luke, or any other of the evangelists sounds forth, any idle discourse is troublesome and useless. Let him, therefore, speak, that he may lead us to the knowledge of the festival. And may he show it to us who love the feast more clearly than the trumpets show the battle-lines to those who are eager for war. He will speak, and he will show it most plainly, if we offer an attentive ear. And indeed, we must take heed, and guard with all care, lest, having foolishly made the advocate an accuser and the preacher a judge, we repent in the end, albeit in a useless and unfruitful way.
2. "They brought" the parents the child Jesus, "to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord." Who is the discourse that could attain to the things that are being said? What mind could encompass the meditation of this miracle? What ear will be able to contain the majesty of the narrative? O terrible things to hear! The ancient
A is recent; the timeless is under time; the uncircumscribed is in a limitation; the eternal is an infant; and what is most grand, the Son of God is made and believed to be the Son of man. What is this novelty, what is this strange thing? What is this profound condescension of the Word toward us? "The parents brought up the child." What are you saying, O most excellent and most wise of the holy evangelists? What are you saying, O expositor and teacher of the heavenly manifestation? What are you saying, O mystical scribe of the thoughts of the Spirit? Are you discoursing about God, and do you mention a local transit? Do you wish to manifest the Son of God, born of a Virgin, to the ends of the earth, and do you bring forward carnal parents into the midst? Is there anywhere on earth a parent of God? Does God have parents? Is God an infant? Is God carried by parents? What is this discourse, what is this mystery? "The parents brought up the child." With what hands, then, or with what arms are they carrying him? The Cherubim tremble, the Seraphim turn away, the angels shudder, the archangels are struck with amazement, and all the powers B of the heavens cover their faces in fear; and do you introduce mortal, material beings, who carry him, who move him, and who lead him about? What is this wonder? What is this matter? What is this ineffable thing? "The parents brought up the child"—for these are the things you said when you were narrating to us the birth; for this purpose you introduced the angels, declaring and announcing the birth and the place where he was to the shepherds; and that heavenly multitude, crying aloud with these words: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace," and the mother who observed all things with care and compared them with the seals of her virginity? Assuredly, he says, do not look only at the miracle, but look also to the economy. For God, in his own nature, is not thus nurtured as an infant, nor is he circumscribed by maternal arms, but he assumed mortal nature, or rather he truly became man, though without sin. How and in what manner? I cannot say, he says; for this is inenarrable and entirely unutterable, not to me only, but also to the mother herself; and not to her only—for she also received a human nature, even if she was gifted with grace surpassing the human condition—but also C to the immaterial nature, which is the first after the first. And if that immaterial nature, which served the mystery, was entirely ignorant of the mystery, how do you demand that this be learned from me, a man who does not even know the things that occur at his own feet? How did he become man? Tell me about yourself first, how you became man, and then you shall investigate concerning the divine incarnation; or rather, not even then; for if your generation were known, the divine one would not immediately be the same; otherwise it would be that of a man, and not of God.
3. Therefore, "how" must by no means be investigated, since you are
lower than God, and by that much is the generation of God more ineffable than yours, and even more so. A "His parents brought the child Jesus to Jerusalem." What were they to do? Were they perhaps to take for themselves the kingdom of Israel? Or to forge weapons, or to mobilize an army, or to acquire anything else of the low and temporal things for the child? No, he says; but "to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord." What do you say, O man? Is there a God for him who is truly God? Or another Lord for him who is properly Lord? It is so, he says, and do not fear: for this is not by nature, but by grace and the highest economy. For just as God is called Father of those who are not sons by nature—"For I said," he says, "you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High"—so also for him who is Son by nature (for the Son is consubstantial with the Father), he is called God by grace and economy. B "For I ascend," he says, "to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God." For which reason "the Son is not ashamed to call us brethren; for he says: I will declare your name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing your praises." "As it is written in the law of the Lord." O the economy! O the inscrutable clemency and goodness of the Word toward us! The Lawgiver under the law; the Giver of the Mosaic precepts does not refuse to be subject to the precepts themselves. He who freed man from the curse of the law does not hesitate, as man, to serve the law.
4. "As it is written in the law of the Lord." Who is the one who wrote it? Who, I say? The Lord. Is this not one and the same as he who is glorified with the Father and the Spirit? Yes, he says; but this pertains to the economy, and so that he might not be thought by the Christ-fighters to be an adversary—that is, opposed to God. C "For do not think," he says, "that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets; I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill." And what is strange if he who accepted birth, and a manger, and swaddling clothes, and circumcision after eight days, and to be presented before the Lord according to the law, goes up to Jerusalem? For he is so far from being hidden by these things, that he even reveals himself to Stephen, being stoned by the Jews, as standing at the right hand of the Father, although he has a permanent and unshakable throne at his right hand. D "For he said," he says, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." But that was above and divinely, while this was below and economically for the sake of the assumption, and for his being manifested as God and man, one hypostasis from both; and through this one both are known to be and are recognized; so that by the communion of the natures and the properties belonging to them, he might prepare for us our salvation by an easiest and most concise method.
5. "That every male opening the womb shall be holy to the"
Lord" A . What then, is every firstborn holy? It remains, therefore, that Ishmael, and Esau, and before them Cain, and many other men hated by God and accursed, because they were the first to open the womb, should be called holy to the Lord. And for what reason is it said concerning Ishmael, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son"? Or concerning Esau, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated"? And for what reason, if Cain were holy to the Lord, was a sevenfold vengeance required from him for the murder of his brother? If every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, what more has Christ than Reuben? What more has He than Amnon? For they also, having been brought forth at the first birth, seem to have opened the womb. But take care not to leap too fervently B around the Scriptures, and do not run too far from the mark. For he does not say, as you suggest, "Every firstborn shall be called holy to the Lord"—for otherwise holiness would extend even to the brute nature—but, "Every male opening the womb." That is to say: when the birth happens without mating; when not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but the conception of the One being born comes from the Holy Spirit; when, with no one knocking from without, the infant itself opens from within; when, with the seals and bars of virginity being kept C unshaken within, the fetus has leaped forth without—thus, "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." For in those instances, infants did not open the wombs, but the intercourse of a man with a woman. For it says: "Adam knew Eve his wife, who conceived and D bore Cain." But here it is not so; rather, the very thing born opened the gates of the womb, needing no carnal agreement from without. For, it says, "Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." You may also understand the expression of the Virgin more comprehensively, by taking it as implied from without, so that it may be understood consequently: "Every male opening the womb of a Virgin shall be called holy to the Lord." This is a thing which happened only in the case of Christ, since it was common to no other person. For He alone, being born in the flesh, opened the Virgin's womb, and again kept it a virgin, as it was before the birth.
6. "And to give a sacrifice, according to what is said in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." What then? Did He also offer sacrifices according to the law? And how does Paul say, "For such an high priest became us, who has no need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's. For this he did once, when he offered up himself," that is, by sacrificing through the cross? If, however, he also
A ascends to sacrifice himself, first of all he is found to be confirming those things, and to be giving authority to those things which he himself came to change for the better. Then, he himself also will be one of the many who were subject to the curse of the Law. By what reason, therefore, does Paul say: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law"? Were these things not said for the child? No, the evangelist will ingenuously say, but for the mother who bore the child. And this is clear from the things said above. For "when," he says, "the days of her purification were completed, they brought the child to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the Law of the Lord": this is concerning the child; "and to give a sacrifice, according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons": this is concerning the Virgin and her spouse. But if these things are spoken also about the child, there is nothing strange. For how should he who did not disdain to be circumcised according to the Law, refuse the sacrifices according to the Law? B He is so far from delaying or putting these off, that he did not even refuse to be baptized with the baptism of John; although the Baptist himself had need to be baptized by him. Yet, nevertheless, he so far accommodated himself to us, and was moved by such clemency toward us, that he sustained not only the legal requirements, but also the cross and death, in order that he might draw us—who were lying low in the ruin of transgression—up to himself.
7. "And behold," he says, "there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Symeon; and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel." Who could bring a more worthy praise to the man than these few words contain? "And behold, there was a man": he was seen as a man, and was understood to be above man. In substance a man, but in dignity he surpassed men by a great interval; in nature C a man, but in virtue an angel. A man whose sensible dwelling was that lower Jerusalem; but whose spiritual dwelling was the upper Jerusalem, that Metropolis "whose builder and maker is God." A man who, while he lived in the flesh with men, yet lived in spirit with the angels—nay, Symeon was even superior to the angels, since he was deemed worthy to see him who is invisible even to them; and not only to see, but—which is more excellent and marvelous—to receive him in his arms. "And that man was just": for he rendered to everyone what was according to merit. To reason, that it might both reflect upon and consider divine things: that it might bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ: that it might not, after the manner of the foolish, set the creature up against the Creator: that it might not assume that anything is outside the divine providence: D that it might, by a certain proportion through created things, consider the Creator. And to anger, that it might turn the austerity against the serpent, and the severity against
A sin: the pitiless and harsh disposition towards the impious. This Elias used most justly against the captains of fifty of Achab, and Phinees against the Madianitic crime; as did Peter and Paul, the former against Ananias and Sapphira, the latter against Elymas and Alexander, and many others. But for desire, that it might meditate perpetually on the law of the Lord, that it might esteem the justifications of the Lord as desirable above gold and much precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb: that he might say with David: "How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts; my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord." Thus was the righteous Symeon, lacking in no kind of virtue; if indeed we consider justice to encompass all the other virtues, which follow upon these generic ones. "God-fearing," moreover, in what manner? In that he feared the face of the Lord and His commandments; for he had read, and with great attention, that which is written: "Upon whom shall I look, but upon him who is meek and quiet, and who trembleth at my words?"
8. "Waiting for the consolation of Israel." What consolation? That which Abraham, seeing in the form of an angel, worshipped in a manner befitting God. What consolation? That of which Jacob foretold: "A prince shall not fail," he says, "from Juda, nor a leader from his thighs, until He comes for whom it is reserved, and He is the expectation of the nations." But what consolation, I ask? That very one concerning which Balaam, even though he stood outside the ecclesiastical courtyard, prophesied with these words: "There shall arise," he says, "a star out of Jacob, and a man shall rise out of Israel." That very one C of which Moyses says, that "The Lord our God shall raise up for you a Prophet from your brothers, like me." This consolation, having received an oracle from the Holy Spirit, Symeon was awaiting. What then? Was he, in waiting for this, disappointed of his hopes, or did he fail in his expectation? By no means; not at all; but he both saw and received Him in his arms. O the virtue of the man! O the exceeding piety and purity! In those things which, according to the blessed Paul [in the Epistle of Peter], "the angels desire to look into," in these very things Symeon was able not only to look, but to enter purely, to handle them, and to be purely initiated into them.
9. "And he came in the Spirit into the temple." D O miracle! He did not even use his own feet for the ministry of the sacrament. The Holy Spirit becomes his chariot, and as it were provides him with wings; and like another Habacuc, a runner through the air, He brings him into the temple and sets him in the holy place, plainly addressing the man with these words: Come, beloved old man, whither the rewards due to you...
A of the oracles of old you may clearly perceive, and may know of what mysteries you have been made a steward, and what glory you have obtained beyond others. Come, take up the rewards of your noble virtue; and those things which the seer of God formerly beheld, sensibly indeed by the rock on Mount Sinai, but spiritually protected by his unshakable faith in God, and scarcely (as though through some aperture) seeing them by, I suppose, a dim contemplation and knowledge, in the manner of the back parts—these you may now behold clearly, and then pass over from death in the body to life in the Spirit; and the law which is in the letter, to which you have ministered with such great and God-loving devotion, exchange for that which is in grace. For you have labored sufficiently in types and shadows; it is time for you to become younger in the truth, so that the ends of the legal observances B may be a beginning for you toward the instruction of grace.
10. This divine old man, having heard this from the Spirit, was filled with all joy and gladness; and as if he had become inspired by wonder, he answered the one conversing with him in this way: "Has that come, O Paraclete, which I was told I would see? Has that which I was promised by you that I would behold truly arrived? Reach out a hand to my old age, Paraclete, reach it out, I pray. Lend me your grace, lend it, I beseech you. For my body has grown weary, and it is too weak to walk. Carry me yourself, O Artificer of all nature, unwearied One, carry me, the weak and old man, and bring me quickly to those things. For if I attempt to go on my own feet, I shall surely delay on the way, and they will depart meanwhile, and I shall not be able to see them. And woe is me, how sad it would be if I were deprived of those things whose manifestations I received long ago." Scarcely had the old man conceived these things in his mind when, swifter than word, he stands at the gates of the temple: "For he came," it says, "in the Spirit into the temple" (Luc. II, 27). Such is the power of the Spirit, whose will is deed, and for whom the very things themselves accompany the thought.
11. "And as they brought the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, he also received him into his arms." Did you see a meeting strange and beyond man? Did you see a meeting that occurred not by some chance or appointment, but by spiritual operation and grace? And, O the wonder! Neither did the one anticipate the other by even a little, but D together Christ and Symeon—the one carried in maternal arms, the other carried in the Spirit—arrived at the threshold of the temple. Symeon, therefore, lifting up his body from its curvature—for he was bowed and bent downward because of old age—casting aside his staff, supported himself for a brief moment on his feet, and stretching out his hands, attempted to take the God-man infant from the maternal arms; and she held back for a little,
A for she did not yet know clearly the arrival of the elder in the Spirit into the temple. Then, as she saw the divine infant leaping in her arms and struggling to jump toward his hands, she quickly recognized the power of the mystery, and handed him over to the old man reaching out. "Receive," she cried, "most venerable man, him who hastens to leap to you more than to me who gave birth! Receive him who seeks you more than Joseph! Receive him who seems to subordinate his affection toward me, his Mother, to his friendship for you! Receive, and enjoy the object of your desire according to your will." The Theotokos said these things, and placed her Son into the elder's hands. He, having bent his face toward the child as quickly as possible, and having fixed his eyes upon his lips, addressed him B with words such as these:
12. "What is this great kindness and condescension toward us, O Lord? What are these riches of your compassion? What moved your goodness to visit us who are so base? In what manner do you come to us, O Lord, friend of mankind and lover of goodness? Have you moved the cherubim and seraphim? Do you bring with you the whole array of the heavenly host? Is it a certain commotion, or a great and strong wind, overturning mountains and shattering rocks; or fire, easily terrorizing and consuming those who approach; or the voice of a gentle breeze, by which you formerly revealed yourself to the Thesbite?" "By none of these," he says, "O most wise elder, do I appear to you. For mortal and material nature cannot grasp these things; but I bear flesh, and am like you: an infant, C as you see, and in bodily stature still a little boy and imperfect; an infant still wrapped in swaddling clothes, still grasping both maternal breasts with my hands; an infant, uttering something obscure and broken because of the flesh which I took from Mary; an infant whom you embrace in your arms, while I look back toward my mother and the breast. And these things are present now. But a little later, when I shall have reached my thirtieth year, I shall be baptized with the baptism of John, and I shall be handed over, and bound, and led to Caiaphas, and I shall be spat upon, and beaten with fists, and scourged; finally, I shall be crucified, and pierced with a lance, and laid in a tomb as if dead, and called a deceiver, and D I shall take upon myself whatever is characteristic of human nature, just like you, apart from sin. And do not marvel, nor be astonished in your mind, nor dismayed; for this is the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from generations. This is the great counsel of the Father, and his great foreknowledge, of which I have been preached by the prophets inspired by God; this is the great...
A compassion, and the refusal to see my image miserably enslaved by demons; the refusal to bear seeing the King of creation badly serving the creation; the refusal to endure watching the apostate and proud one insolently rising up against my handiwork. These things moved me inseparably from the paternal bosom, and caused me to make the journey in the flesh toward you; these things caused me to be born and to become an infant, to stand in the temple, and to be reclined in your arms. For it was not possible for the tyrant to be bound in any other way, and for his vessels to be plundered, unless I participated in humanity, in a manner similar to you, sin excepted; it was not possible for Adam to be lifted from the many-folded snares of Hades, and to regain his first state, and for this one to become entirely God, unless I became man B and participated in his same substance and nature.
13. Therefore, having been taught the causes of my incarnation, depart; and for Adam, who is languishing in Hades with sadness, appear with cheerfulness and joy; and in place of the pains of childbirth, convey to Eve the glad tidings of joy. The redemption has come, he says, the Redeemer has come, the remission has come, the Liberator has come. No longer lament, O human nature; for he who shall help you will come, he will come and will not delay. Having heard these divine voices with the spiritual ear, that old man of Abraham’s line, as if forgetting his old age, immediately sprang up, and being filled C with alacrity, he said with a very loud voice: "Strengthened be, O hands that have been let down, be strengthened; O knees that have been loosened, be straightened; O shins that have been broken, be invigorated," so that, having successfully completed the journey into Hades, you may become messengers of such great goods to our ancestors. Then, as quickly as he could, he turned to the divine Infant: "Now you dismiss," he said, "your servant, O Master, according to your word in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for the revelation of the gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel." O the fervor! O the burning spirit! Since, O Master, you have decided these D things, and have been moved by your own love for mankind to show mercy to your handiwork, and I have not been disappointed in my hopes, and the oracle of the divine Spirit has remained uncorrupted; dismiss me quickly; dismiss me, I beg; do not detain me for long, O Master; let me not delay in carrying these joyful tidings to our first ancestors; let not the infants prevent me, O Master, they who for your sake suffered the slaughter by Herod. They are infants, and are swift and agile; but I am an old man, and slow, and difficult to move; and I fear lest, having run ahead of me more quickly, they might become the messengers of such great and brilliant goods to the ancestors of our race. Thus, then, that man who was truly divine, and the eminent herald of the coming of Christ, having given thanks—for this is what it means to bless God—was, after his prayer, dismissed. For the Savior, I think, invisibly moved his mind, and clearly granted his request, and as his own cul-
cultivator, one who had labored heavily under the Law and the shadow, but who was becoming youthful through the divine dogmas of grace, he accepted him.
14. Joseph and his Mother, he says, were marveling at those things which were being said about him. They were marveling, I believe, not yet having received full certainty regarding his divinity, even though the miracles attending his birth were sufficient—those, I mean, relating to the Magi and the shepherds, and furthermore the various visions of angels, and what surpasses all miracles, the preservation and persistence of her virginity, for the sake of certain faith and universal agreement. Yet, as they contemplated the magnitude of the miracle while reining in their thoughts with their own piety—reckoning it, as it truly is, a great thing that God should become incarnate—they were still wavering and doubting in their minds. Therefore, since the old man had delivered to them as if by small elements the things regarding the child’s divinity, he thereafter addresses them, blessing them and calling them blessed for being ministers of that economy; and he also foretold the matters regarding the cross most excellently and most perfectly.
14. “For Simeon blessed them, he says, and said to Mary his mother: Behold, this one is set for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against.” For Simon will speak against Marcion, and Arius against Sabellius, and Eutyches against Nestorios, regarding him and the dogma concerning him; and both sides will speak against the Church: some attributing to him only divinity, others only flesh; some introducing him as created and alien to the Father’s substance, others as a certain Word empty of hypostasis and substance, and in no way differing from that which is poured forth through utterance; some suggesting his arrival through flesh was a phantasm; others contending that he had assumed no flesh at all, or had indeed assumed it, but inanimate and ineffectual, or possessing a soul, but that soul void of mind and reason; and, in short, others will doubt and contradict in other ways, each deciding the matters concerning him according to their own judgment. “For concerning this sect,” the Jews say to Paul, “it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.” It is spoken against, but it is not struck down; it is warred against, but it is not conquered; it is pelted with weapons, but it is not wounded; it is besieged, but it is not taken captive; and what is greatest of all, it falls, but is not crushed; rather, it even puts its enemies to flight. For this is the excellence of our pure faith, which surpasses every miracle: that not only does it remain unmoved and unshaken, even though it is fiercely besieged on all sides by the crowds and tempests of heretical factions, but also that out of contraries it wisely produces contraries,
raising up brilliant trophies against those who lie in wait.
16. Such, he says, is the one whom you brought forth from your womb: one who easily shatters and confounds those who have torn themselves away from the truth; who raises up and offers to the Father all who cling to him and keep his commandments. Yet, because you have had such a Son and have attained such glory that you are acknowledged to be above all earthly nature, do not think that you will be exempt from temptations and passions, nor that you will be free from tribulations. For, he says, "a sword shall pierce your own soul," lest the magnitude of the miracle should lift you up into the swelling of pride. For even if you have given birth above nature, you will still have a tribulation comparable to those who give birth according to nature; or rather, one much greater and more grievous, inasmuch as they endured the pains incurred for the sake of their children without miracles; but as for you, after such a multitude of wonders, after those countless fulfillments of the prophetic utterances, after the celebrated integrity and preservation of your B virginity—O the miracle!—"a sword shall pierce your own soul." Whose? "Your own," he says, you who were counted worthy of Gabriel as the messenger and herald of the birth; "yours," you who most clearly possessed the Power of the Most High overshadowing you, and the Holy Spirit himself, who came upon you and hovered around you; "yours," whom the Magi, guided by the star, adored, and whom the shepherds, with the angels, blessed and hymned together with the divine infant; "yours," C whom Jacob saw as a ladder reaching to the heavens; and whom Moses, who saw God, beheld as the unburnt bush, the lampstand, the jar, the tablet, and the table; and whom Aaron saw as the rod that budded without moisture; "yours," O all-undefiled and all-blameless one, whom David calls the ark of sanctification, and Solomon the golden bed, the throne, and the valley of lilies—of the divine virtues, I suppose, and a paradise planted by God. "And a sword shall pierce your own soul"—yours, the chosen one before birth, foreordained from the ages and from the generations; "yours," whom the Father chose, in whom the Son dwelt, and whom the Holy Spirit overshadowed in a manner worthy of God; D and all creation most properly and most truly proclaims you the Mother of God and Theotokos. "And a sword shall pierce your own soul."
17. Why, he says, most wonderful old man, do you say this to me? Did I myself proclaim myself the Son of God? Did I prophesy concerning the temple? Did I raise Lazarus? Did I heal the paralytic? Did I restore sight to the man blind from birth?
A For what reason shall the sword pass through my soul? Is it because I broke the Sabbath? Is it because I transgressed the law? Behold, for its sake I circumcised the Son, I hastened to Jerusalem, I am present in the temple, and I lay upon the divine table the young of the turtledoves, a sign of a small and impoverished sacrifice. What, therefore, is there, small or great, that I have transgressed of the law, such that a sword should pass through my soul? Tell me quickly, that I may not suspect you to be delirious and suffering from doting old age. By no means, says that divine elder, full of prophetic grace; it is for none of these reasons; for you were outside and above all those things; but "so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." "What you say," she says, "is like a riddle; you have not yet clearly revealed the cause of the affliction. You must speak more clearly: for what you are saying is still somewhat obscure and shadowed." Then he: "To you, O possession, estate, and dwelling of Christ, I will resolve all the difficulty of your questions. But take care, lest if grief overcomes you, it should show you to be faint-hearted and not sufficiently accustomed to virtue: which you must no more attribute to yourself than the lack of light and heat to the sun. You are to see him whom you brought forth in a divine manner being betrayed, bound, spat upon, and buffeted, scourged and struck with fists, beaten with a reed, crowned with thorns, wrapped in a cloak, assailed by the calumnies of the Pharisees, insulted by the Sadducees, judged by Pilate, mocked by the soldiers, and adored on bended knee by the cohort; you are to see Barabbas preferred and chosen before him; finally, him fixed to a cross, given vinegar mixed with gall to drink, pierced by a lance B, enclosed in a tomb, called a deceiver, bound with seals, and watched by guards. And, to speak briefly, you are to see every kind of grief and disgrace most atrociously inflicted upon him. Therefore a sword shall pass through your soul; for that reason you will lament and groan; and as a mother you will weep for your Son, whom wicked men will deliver to death; and most especially when you ponder those secret thoughts within yourself: namely, the auspicious announcement of Gabriel, the conception without seed, the birth without corruption, the inviolate virginity, the undefiled chastity, the absence of pain in birth—which follows the natural law of a mother—because you were truly a virgin both before birth and after birth, and so you remained most truly."
18. "So that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." For the fervent and most ardent zeal of Peter will indeed be revealed, having become lukewarm and cold through his denial; and that of John and James and the rest, through the flight by which they all fled, having abandoned him, as if unmindful of all those greatest miracles. And again, conversely, it will be revealed that Pilate is led to repentance through the washing of his hands: which C D
his wife A believed through a nighttime vision; the centurion through the signs; Joseph and Nicodemus through the care of his burial; Judas through the noose; the Jews through giving money to the guards. And, in a word, there will be a certain battle and sedition of conflicting thoughts and reasonings; some considering the things of the divinity, others the things of the humanity. “For they will marvel,” he says, seeing him suffering, B and agonizing, and sending forth drops of sweat, and also fearing and pleading against the passion. But when they ponder with themselves that the dead had risen, the blind had received their sight, the lepers had been cleansed, the evil spirits cast out, and the whole other multitude of signs performed by him, they will marvel, and will hold their minds oscillating hither and thither, seeing these things in no way consenting or congruent with the former. They will marvel also, who will see the earthquake, and the night occurring in the day, the veil rent, the rocks broken; and furthermore the opening of the tombs, and the resurrection of the dead. They will marvel and be astonished in their heart, and will arrive at a depth of perplexity, seeing a man hanging, but God performing and concluding these things. Thus the thoughts will be revealed from many hearts, as some will contemplate these things, and others those. But yet this battle C of thoughts, and this sedition, and this confusion, and contradiction, and opposition of things, will be the cause of the highest concord, agreement, and peace for the Church; for through both, that which Christ was will be proclaimed, and the same one will be recognized as both God and man, who himself as one, by his own free will, willed and did these things, some according to his divinity, others according to his humanity. These things, I suppose, that truly divine and Abrahamic old man would have said, if anyone had questioned him about these matters.
19. Then there stands with him also “Anna” D walking with aged steps; for the mystery called even her, about to fulfill the gift of prophecy; so that she too might prophetically testify, as the Lord made known his salvation, and as he revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. But first, let us inquire from the Gospel who and whence she was, and on what grounds and when she stood in the temple: and again, let us search out what she said. For the Evangelist says: “And there was Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was advanced in many days, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about eighty-four years; who did not depart from the temple, serving with fastings and prayers night and day. And she, coming up at that very hour, gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of him to all who were awaiting redemption in Jerusalem.” What is the word of the