On the Holy Lights (Oration 39)

ORATION XXXIX. On the Holy Lights.

^A I. Once again my Jesus, and once again a mystery; a mystery not deceptive, nor unseemly, nor of Gentile error and drunkenness (for thus do I call their "venerable" mysteries, and so, I suppose, does every man of sound mind), but a mystery sublime and divine, and the cause of supernal splendor. For the holy day of the Lights, at which we have arrived, and which we have been deemed worthy to celebrate today, takes its beginning from the baptism of my Christ: of Christ, I say, who is the true light, which lightens every man coming into the world; for it works my purification, and aids that light which we received from Him from above at the beginning, but which we had obscured and darkened by sin.

^B II. Therefore, listen to the divine voice—which resounds most powerfully in me, who am a mystic and guide to such things, and I pray that it may also in you—"I am the light of the world." And therefore: "Come to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed," being marked by the true light. It is a time of regeneration; let us be born again. It is a time of restoration; let us take back the first Adam. Let us not remain what we are, but let us become what we were. "The light shines in the darkness"—in this life, that is, and in the flesh—"and the darkness does not overcome it." I speak of the opposing power, which, in its impudence, while rushing fiercely against the visible Adam, runs into God and is defeated; so that we, having cast off the darkness, may draw near to the light, and then ourselves become perfect light, offspring of the perfect light. Do you see the grace of this day? Do you see the power and facility of this mystery? Have you not been raised from earth to the heights? Have you not been clearly set in heaven, lifted up as you have been by our word and contemplation? And you shall be set there yet more firmly, when the Word shall grant a prosperous course to our discourse.

^C III. Is there any such purification that is legal and shadowy, which brings benefit through temporary sprinklings, and cleanses the defiled by the ashes of a heifer? Do the Gentiles celebrate anything of the sort? To me, all their ceremonies and mysteries are mere nonsense and a dark invention of demons,

^A bolstered by the passage of time and stolen by myth. For what they worship as true, they veil as mythical—though if it were true, one ought not to call it myth, but rather show that it is free from the stain of all turpitude and indecency. But if it is false, one should not admire it, nor so impudently hold the most opposite opinions about the same matter, just like those who play in a crowd of children, or—more truly—like men who are demented, not those who engage in discourse with wise men and worshippers of the Word, even if they reject this artful and filthy enticement of words.

^B IV. These are not the births and thefts of Jove, that tyrant of the Cretans—though the Gentiles may be displeased at this—nor are they the sounds and clappings of the Curetes, nor their armed dances, which cloak the cry of the wailing God so that he might escape his child-hating father. For it was a terrible thing that a child should whimper—the one who had been swallowed like a stone! Nor are they the self-castrations of the Phrygians, nor the flutes, nor the Corybantes, nor all the things that people in their madness perform concerning Rhea, sacrificing to the mother of the gods and becoming initiated themselves, as is becoming for the mother of such things. Nor is a certain maiden snatched away here among us, with Demeter wandering about, and bringing in certain Celei, and Triptolemuses, and dragons, doing these things and suffering others. For I am ashamed to bring the nighttime rite into the light, and to make indecency a mystery. Eleusis knows these things, and the initiates of those rites which are silenced and are truly worthy of silence.

^C Nor are these our mysteries of Bacchus, nor the thigh giving birth to an incomplete fetus, just as the head had previously given birth to another; nor the androgynous god, nor the chorus of drunkards, nor the effeminate and dissolute army, nor the madness of the Thebans worshipping this, nor the thunderbolt of Semele being worshipped. Nor are there the harlot-mysteries of Venus, which, as they themselves say, are shamefully both procreated and honoured. Nor are there certain Phalli and Ithyphalli, shameful both in their forms and in their deeds; nor the slaughters of strangers by the Tauri, nor the blood—[the] ^D [sacrifice] of the Laconian youths.

^A For the same people who honored softness also stood in awe of boldness, being flayed by whips, and this—the only shameful act—by one another.

^B V. Now, where will you place the dismemberment of Pelops, which feasted hungry gods, and that bitter and inhuman hospitality? Or where will you place the terrible and dark phantoms of Hecate, and the underground pastimes and divinations of Trophonius, or the ravings of the Dodonian oak, or the sophistries of the Delphic tripod, or the prophetic draught of the Castalian spring? This alone they could not prophesy: their own silence. Nor the art of the Magi in sacrificing, and the foreknowledge gained from the cutting open of victims; nor the astronomy and genethlialogy of the Chaldeans, which links our affairs to the movement of the stars, though they themselves are unable to know what they are or what they shall be; nor these Orgies of the Thracians, from whom, as the story goes, the very act of religion took its name; nor the rites and mysteries of Orpheus, whom the Greeks so admired for his wisdom that they even invented a lyre for him, which dragged everything along with the striking of its chords; nor the righteous punishment of Mithras, ^C directed against those who submit themselves to initiation into such things; nor the dismemberments of Osiris, another calamity worshipped by the Egyptians; nor the misfortunes of Isis, and the goats more venerable than the Mendesians themselves, and the manger of Apis—that is, of the calf—which abuses the folly of the Memphites for its own luxury. Nor all those honors with which they disgrace the Nile—that father of crops, I say, and measurer of prosperity by the cubit, as they themselves hymn him, and the giver of grain.

VI. For I pass over the honors paid to snakes and vermin, and the competitive zeal for obscenity, for each of which there is a particular rite and festival, and a common practice of ^D religion.

^A Since it was absolutely necessary for them to be impious and to fall away from the glory of God, and to be brought down to idols, and to the works of art and the handiwork of men, those who possess any sense could wish nothing else upon them than that they should venerate such things and honor them in such a way, that they might receive the due recompense of their error, as Paul says, in the very things they worship; for they are not honoring those beings as much as they are, through them, bringing dishonor and infamy upon themselves. They are detestable for their error, but even more detestable for the baseness of the things which they honor and worship, such that they show themselves to be more stupid than the very things they serve, and excel them in madness and folly as much as they are surpassed by them in baseness.

VII. But let the pagan children and the demons, by whom they are goaded into this madness, play at these things, they who divert the honor due to God to themselves, and divide others in various ways into shameful ideas and fantasies. For since they cast us out from the tree of life, having taken the fruit of the tree of knowledge untimely and inappropriately, they attacked us as already weaker, having snatched away our guiding mind and opened the door to the passions. ^B For they could not bear—being by nature envious and man-hating, or rather, having become so through their own wickedness—to see earthly beings enjoy heavenly blessings, while they themselves had fallen from heaven to earth, nor could they bear such a transition of glory and of our original natures. For this reason, the persecution against God’s handiwork was kindled; for this reason, the image of God was covered in shame and disgrace. And just as we refused to obey the commandment, so we were handed over to the license of error; and just as we were led astray, so, in turn, we were covered in shame and ignominy by the very things to which we rendered worship and veneration. For it is not only a grave and unworthy thing that, having been created for good works, for the praise and glory of the Creator, and as far as possible for the imitation of God, we have become the seat and stronghold of every kind of vice, which miserably feed upon and consume the inward man; ^C but it is also grave that we have set up gods as patrons of our vices, so that sin might not only be without blame, but might even be considered divine, taking refuge in such a defense through the things that are worshipped as gods.

VIII. But just as it has been granted to us, having fled from superstitious error, to stand with the truth, and to serve the living and true God, and to rise above the creature, having passed over all things that are subject to time and to the primary motion; so too let us see, ^D and let us philosophize concerning God and things divine. And let us philosophize, beginning from where it is better to begin.

^A

But now, from whence Solomon gave us the law: The beginning of wisdom, he says, acquire wisdom; what is this he calls the beginning of wisdom? Fear. For we must not begin from contemplation and end in fear (for unchecked contemplation might perhaps cast us headlong); but being schooled by fear, and being purged, and, if I may so say, being attenuated, we are to be raised on high. For where there is fear, there also is the keeping of the commandments: but where there is the keeping of the commandments, there is the purging of the flesh, which acts as a cloud to the soul, and does not allow it to see clearly the divine ray; but where there is purging, there is illumination; and illumination is the fulfillment of desire ^B for those who are longing for the greatest things, or rather for the Greatest, and for One who transcends all magnitude.

IX. For this reason, a man must first purge himself, and then in this state draw near to the Purified; if we do not wish to suffer what Israel suffered, who could not bear the glory of the face of Moses, and for that reason stood in need of a veil; or that of Manoah, to suffer and to say: We have perished, woman, for we have seen God, when a phantasm of God appeared; or, like Peter, to send Jesus away from the boat, as unworthy of such a visitation. And when I speak of Peter, whom do I mean? Him who walked upon the waves. Or, like Paul, to be struck in his sight before being purified from his persecutions, by having conversed with Him whom he was persecuting, or rather by having been grazed by the small ^C radiance of that great light; or, finally, as that centurion, we ask for healing, yet, terrified by a laudable fear, we do not admit the Healer into our houses. Therefore, let each of us say, so long as he is not yet purified, but is still a centurion, holding power over many vices, and serving Caesar—that is, the prince of the world and of those who crawl upon the earth: I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof. But when he has looked upon Jesus, even though he be small in spiritual stature, like that Zacchaeus, and is raised up above the sycamore, having mortified his members which are upon the earth, and having surpassed the body of humility, then let him receive the Word, and let him hear: Today salvation has come to this house, and let him receive salvation, and let him bring forth more perfect fruits, scattering and pouring forth well that which he had greedily gained ^D from the tax office.

X. For the same Word is both terrible to the unworthy because of His nature, and accessible because of His philanthropy to those who have thus been prepared; those who, having driven away the unclean and material spirit from their souls, and having swept and adorned their own souls with knowledge, confess the unity of the Godhead because of the oneness and sameness and singularity of its essence.

^A And let them not leave them idle or inactive, so that they may not be seized again with greater preparation by the seven spirits of wickedness, as many as have been counted out for virtue—for what is more difficult to overcome is sought after with more eagerness and fervor—but let them add the cultivation of virtue to the flight from wickedness, admitting the whole Christ, or as much as possible, into the dwelling of their soul, so that the wicked power, finding nothing empty, may not fill the house again, and the last state become worse than the first, both because of the fierceness of the incursion and because of the greater security and impregnability of the fortress. But when, having guarded their own soul with all vigilance and having set up ascents in their heart 18, and having renewed for themselves their fallow fields, and having sown unto righteousness, as seems good to Solomon 16, and David, and Jeremiah 19, we have kindled for ourselves the light of knowledge; then let us speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden one, and let us shine forth to others. But meanwhile let us be purified 38 and initiated by the Word, so that we may benefit ourselves as much as possible, becoming godlike and receiving the coming Word; and not only that, but also holding fast to Him and showing Him forth to others.

11. On the Holy Illuminations

^B XI. ^C Since we have purified the theater with the Word, come, let us now philosophize somewhat about the feast, and let us celebrate together with souls that are lovers of the feast and lovers of God. And since the head of the feast is the memory of God, let us remember God. For I do not think the sound of those feasting from there, where the dwelling of all those who rejoice is 20, is anything other than this: God being hymned and glorified by those who have been deemed worthy of the citizenship there. But if my present discourse should touch upon some of the things already said, let no one be surprised. For I shall not only say the same things, but also about the same things, while my tongue, and mind, and understanding tremble whenever I discourse about God; and I pray that you too may have this same commendable and blessed emotion. When I say God, ^D be illuminated by one light and by three; by three, according to the properties, or hypostases, if one prefers to call them such, or persons (for we shall not fight about names, so long as the syllables lead to the same thought); but by one, according to the account of the essence, or rather, the Godhead. For it is divided indivisibly, if I may so speak, and united divisibly. For the Godhead is one in three, and the three are one; that is, those in whom the Godhead is, or, to speak more accurately, those which the Godhead is. But let us leave aside the excesses and the deficiencies

neither causing confusion by union nor, conversely, separation by division. Let both the contraction of Sabellius and the division of Arius be equally distant from us—evils diametrically opposed, and equal in their impiety. For what need is there either to contract God wrongly, or to divide Him into inequality? ^A

XII. For to us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; and one Holy Spirit, in whom are all things. These particles—*from whom*, *through whom*, and *in whom*—do not divide the natures (for otherwise these propositions and the order of the names would never be immutable), but express the properties of one and the same inconfused nature. And this is evident from the fact that they are brought back together into one again, if one reads that passage from the same Apostle not negligently or carelessly: "From him, and through him, and to him are all things; to him be glory for ever. Amen." ^B The Father is the Father, and is without beginning; for He is not from anyone. The Son is the Son, and is not without beginning; for He is from the Father. But if you take beginning in terms of time, He is also without beginning; for He is the creator of times, not subject to time. The Holy Spirit is truly the Spirit, proceeding indeed from the Father, but not in the manner of a son, for it is not by generation, but by procession—if one must coin new terms for the sake of clarity. Nor does the Father cease to be unbegotten because He has begotten; nor does the Son cease to be begotten because He is from the Unbegotten. For how could He? Nor does the Spirit change into the Father or into the Son, because He has proceeded, and because He is God, even if it does not seem so to the godless; for the property is immovable. Or how could a property remain, if it were moved and changed? ^C But those who posit the Unbegotten and the Begotten as the natures of homonymous gods, would perhaps also argue that Adam and Seth (since the former was not from flesh, being fashioned by God, while the latter was born from Adam and Eve) are of different natures. Therefore, one God in three, and the three are one, as we have said.

XIII. Since these things are so, or rather, since this is so, and since it was not fitting that adoration should be defined and circumscribed only by the supernal spirits, but also that there should be some worshippers below, so that all things might be filled with the glory of God, since all things are God's; for this reason, man is created, adorned by the hand of God and with His image. ^D But that He should overlook man, once miserably separated from God the Creator by the envy of the devil and the bitter taste of sin, was foreign to God. What then happens? And what is the great mystery concerning us? Natures are renewed, and God becomes man; and He who has ascended to the heaven of heavens according to the risings of His own...

glory and splendor is glorified in the sunset of our lowliness and humility; and the Son of God deigns to be born and called also the son of man—not changing that which He was (for He is immutable), but assuming that which He was not (for He is a lover of mankind), so that the Incomprehensible might be comprehended, conversing with us through the veil of flesh. For our nature could not bear His pure divinity, being of a nature subject to birth and decay. Therefore, things that do not mix are mingled: God ^B is not mingled with birth alone, nor the Mind with the flesh, nor the Timeless with time, nor the Illimitable with measure; but there is birth from a virgin, and ignominy for Him who is higher than all honor, and passion for the Impassible, and immortality for the corruptible. For since that sophist—the author and artificer of vice—thought he was invincible, having beguiled us with the hope of divinity, he himself is beguiled by the veil of flesh, so that, while making an onslaught as if upon Adam, he might run into God, and thus the new Adam might save the old, and the condemnation of the flesh might be undone, death surely being put to death by the flesh, and ^C overpowered.

XIV. Now the Nativity of Christ has been celebrated with fitting solemnity, first by me as the leader and guide of the festival, and by you, and by all who are in the world and those who are above the world. We ran with the star, we worshipped with the Magi, we were bathed in light with the shepherds, we gave glory with the angels, we embraced Him with Simeon, and with Anna—that aged and chaste woman—we made confession. And grace be to Him who came unto His own as one who was alien, because He glorified the stranger and the foreigner. But now, another action of Christ and another mystery follows. I cannot contain my delight; I am seized by a divine fervor; I almost proclaim the good news, like John, though not as a precursor, but coming from the wilderness. Christ is illuminated; let us be illuminated with Him. Christ is baptized; let us go down with Him, that we may also ascend with Him. ^D Jesus is baptized; is that the only thing to be observed? Is it not also helpful to observe closely the other details? To wit: who it is, and by whom, and when? He is pure, and [is baptized] by John, and at the time when He was making the beginning of the working of signs. And why? So that we may learn, and what we may be taught: to be purified beforehand, and to be humble, and to preach in perfection, both of the spiritual and of the bodily age. This is said to those who treat baptism lightly, and are not making themselves ready beforehand, nor providing for the safety of their redemption,

^A so that it may remain sure and unharmed. For although grace provides this—that past offenses are forgiven (since it is grace), yet for this very reason we must be more cautious, lest we return to the same vomit. Let this also hold true for those who are insolently puffed up against the dispensers of the mystery, if they excel in any dignity. A third word is for those who rely on their youthful age and consider any time whatsoever to be suitable for teaching or for exercising the office of a bishop. Jesus is purified, ^B and do you despise purification? By John, and do you rise up against your own herald? While He is thirty years old; and do you, even before the appearance of beard, teach the elders, or believe yourself capable of teaching, possessing the claim to respect neither from your age nor, perhaps, from your character? Then Daniel is brought forward here, and this one, and that one, as youthful judges, and these examples are always on the tongue. For every wrongdoer is prompt and ready in their own defense. But what happens rarely is not considered the law of the Church: since neither does one swallow make a spring, nor one line make a geometer, nor finally does one voyage make a sailor. ^D

XV. But John is baptizing, and Jesus approaches; perhaps to sanctify also the one by whom He is baptized; but undoubtedly to bury the whole of the old Adam in the waters; and before these, and for the sake of these, sanctifying the Jordan; so that, just as He was spirit and flesh, so He might also initiate through Spirit ^C and water. The Baptist does not admit Him; Jesus contends. "I have need to be baptized by Thee," says the lamp to the Sun, the voice to the Word, the friend to the Bridegroom, the one who is greater than all the born of women to the Firstborn of all creation, he who had leaped for joy from the womb to Him who had been worshipped in the womb, the precursor and the one who would go before, to Him who had appeared and would appear. "I have need to be baptized by Thee"; add also, "and for Thee." For he knew that he would be baptized by martyrdom; or, like Peter, that he would not be purified only as to his feet. "And dost Thou come to me?" This also is prophetic. For he knew that just as Pilate would rage after Herod, so too would Christ follow him who had departed from life before Him. But what does Jesus say? "Permit it now." For this is done by a certain counsel and dispensation. For He knew that shortly after, He Himself would baptize the Baptist. Now, what does the winnowing-fan signify? Purification. What does the fire signify? The consumption of worthlessness, and the fervor of the Spirit. What does the axe signify? The excision of an incurable soul, even after the application of dung. What does the sword signify? The division of the divine Word, separating the better from the worse, and dividing the believer ^D from the unbeliever, and raising up the son, and the daughter, and the bride, against the father, and against the mother, and against the mother-in-law, the new and recent against the old and shadowy.

^A And what is the thong of the sandal, which thou, who baptizest Jesus, dost not unloose, thou foster-child of the wilderness and man of no food, thou new Elias, greater than a prophet, in that thou didst even see Him who was the subject of prophecy, thou who art set between the Old and the New Testament? What is this? Perhaps it is the reason for His coming and for His flesh, the uttermost point of which is not easily resolved, I do not say by those who are still gross and carnal, and babes in Christ, but not even by those who understand John in a spiritual sense.

XVI. But Jesus also ascends from the waters; for He brings up the world with Himself, and He sees the heavens ^B rent asunder, which Adam had shut against himself and his posterity, as he had also shut the paradise with the sword of flame. And the Spirit testifies to His divinity; for He hastens to His like. And the voice from heaven; for thence came He to whom the witness was borne. And as a dove; for He honors the body, since even this, by means of its deification, is God, seen in bodily form. And at the same time, it is an old habit for a dove to be the herald of the cessation of a flood. ^C But if you judge of divinity by bulk and weight, and for this reason think the Spirit small because He is seen in the form of a dove, O you who are petty in your judgment of the greatest things, it is time for you also to despise the kingdom of heaven because it is likened to a grain of mustard seed; and to prefer the adversary to the majesty of Jesus, because the one is called a great mountain, and leviathan, and king of those that are in the waters, while the other is called the Lamb, and the Pearl, and the Drop, and is addressed by such names as these.

XVII. Since, then, this is the festival of baptism, and it behooves us ^D to suffer a little hardship for Him who for our sake was formed, and baptized, and crucified, come, let us discuss the difference between baptisms, that we may depart from here purified. Moses baptized, but it was in water; and before that, in the cloud and in the sea. But this was typical, as also seems good to Paul: the sea was a type of the water, the cloud of the Spirit, the manna of the Bread of Life, and the drink of the divine draught. John also baptized, no longer in the Jewish manner—for it was not in water only, but also unto repentance—but not yet altogether spiritually; for he does not add "in the Spirit." Jesus baptizes, but it is in the Spirit. This is perfection. And how is He not God, that I may take a little liberty, since from Him even you

are rendered a god, and He grants a baptism absolute in all respects? What, I may say with a little more boldness in passing, can be brought forward to show that He, by whom you are made a god, is not God? I know also a fourth kind of baptism, that by martyrdom and blood, ^A in which Christ Himself was also baptized, and this is much more august than the others, inasmuch as it is not defiled by subsequent stains. The baptism of tears holds the fifth place; but it is more laborious, as is he who washes his bed and couch every night with his tears, one to whom even the very scars of vice are loathsome, who walks about mourning and downcast, and who imitates the repentance of Manasseh, and the humility of the Ninevites ^B, to whom mercy was granted; who uses the words of the Publican in the temple, and who, unlike the insolent and proud Pharisee, abases himself and implores and begs for mercy; who, like the Canaanite woman, acts the part of the dog who is very hungry for crumbs, and so is justified.

XVIII. On the New Pharisee

arrogance. And do you not even accept him who bound himself in sin at Corinth? Yet Paul confirmed his love toward him, as soon as he saw that he had returned to a better fruit of life, and he brings forward this reason: ^A *Lest such a one be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow*, being burdened by the excess of the rebuke. And do you not allow young widows to marry, because of the slipperiness of their age? But Paul did not hesitate to do this, whose teacher you profess to be, as though you had reached the third heaven and another paradise, and had heard more secret words, and had encompassed a greater circle for the Gospel.

^B XIX. But, you say, these things are by no means after baptism. By what argument do you confirm this? Either prove that the matter is so, or, if you cannot, do not condemn. But if the matter is doubtful, let humanity and kindness prevail. But, you say, Novatus did not receive those who fell away in time of persecution. What of this? If indeed they were not led by repentance, he repelled them with good reason (for neither do I receive those who in no way, or not sufficiently, show contrition, nor bring a reformation of life equal to the crime committed; and when I do receive them, I assign to them the place suitable for them); but if they are consumed with tears, I will by no means imitate that severity. ^C And why should I hold the cruelty of Novatus as a law, who did not punish avarice—which is another sort of idolatry—while he condemned fornication so harshly and bitterly, as if he himself were stripped of flesh and body? What do you say? Are we moving you with these words? Come, stand with us, that is, on the side of men. Let us magnify the Lord together. Let no one of you dare to say, nor even if he is very confident in himself: "Do not touch me, for I am pure, and who is like me?" Grant us also a share in your brightness. But are we not able to persuade you? We will shed tears for you. ^D These, then, if they wish, let them follow our way, which is Christ’s; but if not, let them go their own way. Perhaps in the next age they will be baptized by fire, the last baptism, which is not only more severe and longer, but which consumes the heavy material like grass, and destroys the lightness of all vice.

XX. But let us honor the baptism of Christ today, and let us celebrate the feast worthily, not by indulging the belly, but by rejoicing spiritually. And how shall we indulge in delights? *Wash yourselves, be clean.* If you are red with sin, and are less stained with blood, be whitened as snow; but if you are scarlet and full-grown men of blood, even reach the whiteness of wool. But by all means be cleansed and be made clean. As