From the same work.
How can there be two principles, one good and the other evil? For good and evil are opposites; they mutually destroy one another and cannot exist together. Therefore, either one or the other must exist in a portion of the universe, and be circumscribed by it; or they must touch and mutually corrupt each other; or some medium must intercede between them, and thus there would already be three principles. Furthermore, they would either exist in peace, which evil cannot do, or they would be at war, which goodness rejects. For if the former were at peace, it would not be good. Wherefore there are not two principles, especially ones that are contrary and most hostile to each other, but one, and this is good. For evil is not a principle, but a privation and loss of good.
From the same work.
If there are two gods, one good and the other evil, they will have different principles. For the binary number cannot be a principle, since it itself starts from unity, the principle. But if they are not principles, they will not be gods at all. Since, therefore, unity is the principle of all things, God is indeed the one author of things and the creator of all.
From the same work.
If good exists by itself, evil does not exist. If evil exists by itself, good does not exist. For this is the reason and condition of opposites that lack a middle ground. Such are health and sickness, life and death. Therefore, God is not evil. A
From the same work.
God is good in essence and has goodness by nature; evil will obtain the privation of goodness as its state. But how can God, who is only what He is, lack anything, fail, and not be?
From the same work.
If there were two, or three, or more gods, since one thing would be influenced and moved in one way and another in a different way, the world would have perished long ago. But now, since all things are always moved and disposed by a certain and stable reason, this firm and perpetual harmony, order, moderation, D and preservation of all things proclaim that there is one and the same cause, one author, by whom all things were created, are governed, and are preserved.
From the same work.
If this lower world is evil and wicked, then you are surely evil and wicked, since you are a part of it. But if you are base and evil by nature, truth is not in you. For truth is plainly good. Good is alien to evil. Now, those who lack truth have a doctrine that is false and rests upon no solid foundation.
From the same work.
The God of the Old Testament, they say, does not have that providence and knowledge which embraces all things. For He asks Adam, "Where," He says, "are you?" And Cain, "Where," He says, "is your brother?" And Abraham, "Where," He says, "is Sarah your wife?" And many other things in the same manner. To them we answer that inquiries of this kind do not proceed from ignorance, but rather from knowledge. For if He had not known that both Adam and Cain had sinned, He would not have questioned them immediately. B But that He knew, is clear from what follows. For He addresses Adam before he confessed that he had eaten: "Who told you that you were naked, unless you have eaten from the tree from which I alone commanded you not to eat?" Cain, indeed, who was also trying to hide, He confronts with these words: "The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me." These are not the words of one who is ignorant, but of one who clearly and plainly knows, who by that form of questioning wishes to persuade those who have sinned to repent, when they realize that they have been detected. The words, "Where is Sarah your wife?" also declare that He is not ignorant that Abraham has a wife, and that she is called Sarah. But he who knows these things was certainly not unaware of where Sarah was. For when Sarah was standing behind the door, and had laughed, hearing secretly that she would be a mother, He did not [merely] say, "Why did Sarah laugh?" but He also provided the cause for the laughter, saying to Himself: "Shall I truly bear a child?" For these things belong to One who knows the heart and the mind. He asked, however, "Where is Sarah your wife?" with the intention that Abraham, knowing that He knew beforehand and possessed all knowledge, might be more devoted to Him as the superior, and might place his faith in all that would be said thereafter. And also that which was said concerning Sodom and Gomorrah: "I will go down and see whether they have in fact completed what their cry indicates, or not, that I may know," what else does it signify than that God spoke in this way so as to instruct us that we should never rush headlong into inflicting punishments for the reason that we foresee the flagrant crimes of some, but that we should wait until the deed itself is complete? For if He had not known, how could He have said: "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has come to me"? The earth, He says, cries out even before the deed. And the deeds themselves call out and cry aloud. There are many such interrogations not only in the Old, but also in the
New Testament, which all contain a mystery, and act in some other way. For it is proper to God to know all things; and he who does not have all things known, is not God.
From the same.
How is it that you say the legislator of the Old Testament is just, but of the New Testament good, and therefore contend that one is different from the other? For if what is just is good, the just man will be altogether good. For the just and the good are not contraries; but to the just, the unjust is repugnant, and to the good, evil is an adversary. Furthermore, if evil is unjust, good is certainly just, and the good man is altogether just. Since, however, there are innumerable testimonies by which the God of the Old Testament is declared to be good, I will bring forward one only in the middle: Let Israel say, he says, for He is good (Ps. cxvii, 1); and the two verses which follow thereafter. One, likewise, whereby the God of the New Testament is shown to be just. And judgment, A he says, is my just [due]. But that the God of the Old and New Testament is one and the same, Jeremiah foretold, saying, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will establish a New Testament for you, not like that Testament which I established with your fathers, on the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt. Because they did not remain in my Testament. And I neglected them (Jer. xxxi, 31, 32). And Christ is the author of both the Old and the New Testament. I have not come, He says, to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. v, 7). That is, that I might complete and perfect it, because of the imperfection of the Hebrews, with a greater philosophy congruent to men. For that was a pedagogue, which trained them for the reception of the Gospel. But this is the Teacher Himself, who teaches more perfect things. And that indeed informed bodies, but this instructs souls. The Old therefore is a handmaid of the New; for it leads to the New, and shows the way and prepares it.
VII.
From the discourse of the pontiff Gregory of Nyssa against Ablabius.
Since we confess both the Father to be God, and the Son to be God, and the Holy Spirit to be God, why do we not say three gods, but one God? First, that we may answer those things which are ready at hand, lest we introduce a multiple crowd of gods falsely invented by the Greeks. Next, if anything more elegant and more recondite is to be said, it is because this name, God, signifies an action: for it is derived from the verb *theein*, which means to run about; or from the verb *theasthai*, which means to see all things; or from the verb *aithein*, which means to burn up and destroy wickedness. Therefore, just as each person has such a perfect action, so he obtains the name that signifies that action, so that he both is and is called God. Again, just as there is one and unchangeable action in the three, so also there is one divinity and one God in three persons. But you will say, since Peter and Paul and John are three persons, they are also called three men. I reply, first, that we use the word "man" loosely here, when we call them three men: since "man" and "humanity" signify a certain universal, which might embrace the particulars. B Next, I add this, that this name explains the nature of a thing; but in the Trinity, which is not created, there is no name found which might declare its nature. But why, when we call the individual persons God, do we not also call each of them Divinity? Because, although "man" and "humanity" are spoken equally of all, yet they are not spoken equally of the individuals: for Socrates can be called a man, but humanity cannot: so also with God and Divinity. For God signifies the agent; but Divinity the action. But there is no action in the three persons; rather, each of them is an agent. We say, however, the divinity of the Father, and the divinity of the Son, and the divinity of the Holy Spirit, just as the humanity of Socrates, and his essence, and his nature, and whatever else is common to persons.
DUBIA.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER GREGORY, A DISCOURSE ON THE BIRTH OF CHRIST AND ON THE INFANTS IN BETHLEHEM SLAIN BY HEROD.
A "Blow the trumpet in the New Moon," says David, "on the notable day of your solemnity." The institutes of heavenly doctrine are altogether like a law to those who hear them. Wherefore, since the notable day of our solemnity is at hand, let us also observe the law, and become the trumpeters of this sacred celebration. The legal trumpet, as the Apostle declares, is discourse. For he says that the sound of the trumpet must not be uncertain, but distinct in its notes, so that the things which are spoken may be clear. Let us, therefore, brothers, also utter some clear sound that may be heard no less than if it were emitted by a trumpet of horn. Since the law, too, depicting the truth beforehand in the types of shadow, commanded that there should be sounding with trumpets in the celebration of the tabernacles. And the present subject of the feast B is the mystery of the true tabernacling. For in this is tabernacled the human dwelling for Him who for our sake put on humanity; in this, the dwellings of ours which had fallen by death are built up again by Him who from the beginning had constructed the edifice. Let us also say the words of the Psalm, dancing with the loud-voiced David: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." How does He come? Not by any ship or chariot, but through virginal incorruption He passed over into human life. This is our God, this Lord has shone upon us, so that He might constitute this solemn day amidst the thickets up to the horns of the altar. But we are by no means ignorant, brothers, of the mystery contained in these things that have been said: for we know that every creature is, as it were, a certain palace of the Lord of creation. But, because when sin had entered, the mouths of those who had been conquered by malice were stopped, the voice of exultation C was silenced,
and the harmony of those celebrating was torn asunder, because human nature was not celebrating together with the supercelestial nature, for this reason there came the trumpets of the prophets and apostles, which the Law calls horns, because they were fashioned from the true Unicorn. A Since they were inflated by the Holy Spirit, they sounded forth a continuous note of truth, so that when the ears of those who had been stopped up by sin were opened, there might be one harmonious festival, through the dense gathering of the tabernacle of the lower creation, accompanying the powers which are eminent and projected around the altar on high. For the horns of the conceptual altar are the powers of the intellectual nature that are projected and eminent: Principalities and Authorities, and Thrones, and Lordships; to which human nature is joined in the communion of the festival through the tabernacle of the resurrection, being thickened by the renewal of the bodies. For to be thickened is the same as to be adorned or covered, as those who understand these things interpret it. Come, therefore, let us arouse our souls to the spiritual dance, and let us put forward David as the leader, guide, and choirmaster of our chorus; and let us in advance sing praises, B and let us say with him that sweet voice which we sang earlier.
And let us take it up again: *This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it.* In which the darkness begins to diminish, and the measures of the night are thrust toward eclipse by the increasing of the ray. This disposition regarding the festival, brothers, has not come to pass by chance or automatically—that the divine life should now shine upon human life—but the creation, to those who are more discerning, narrates a certain mystery through the things that are seen, as if it were almost emitting a voice and teaching the one able to hear what is intended in the day being increased and the night being shortened in the presence of the Master. C For I seem to myself to hear the creation going through such things as these: "Watching these things, O man, understand what is hidden from you being revealed through what is visible. Do you see the night having reached its maximum length, and standing still from its forward course, and returning in the opposite direction? Understand that the dark night of sin, insofar as it was possible for it to grow, and having reached the maximum magnitude of wickedness through every device of evils, has been cut off today from spreading further, and from this point is driven toward eclipse and disappearance. Do you see the ray of light more enduring, and the sun higher than is usual? Understand the presence of the true light, which illuminates the whole world with the rays of the Gospel." D As to the fact that the Lord did not appear at the beginning, but at the very end of time, granted his manifestation to human life, perhaps one might reasonably suspect this cause: that he who was about to mingle with human life for the destruction of wickedness, necessarily waited for all the sin sown and propagated by the enemy to sprout, and then at last, as is read in the Gospel, he applied the axe to the root. For those who possess the faculty of healing, while a fever still burns the body and from its causes is gradually intensifying the illness...
A they do not bring any assistance to the invalid through food until the disease has reached its peak, B lest by treating only what is visible, something hidden should remain uncured. So also the physician of sick souls awaited the disease of wickedness, by which human nature was suffering and subdued, to be fully uncovered, so that nothing hidden might remain unhealed, with the physician healing only what was manifest. For this reason, neither at the time of Noah, when all flesh had been corrupted in iniquity, did He offer healing through His own manifestation, because the shoot of Sodomitish wickedness had not yet sprouted, nor did the Lord come at the time of the destruction of Sodom. For many of the remaining evils were still hidden in human nature. For where was the godless Pharaoh? Where was the indomitable wickedness of the Egyptians?
It was not yet, therefore, the time for the restorer of the universe—at the time, I say, of the Egyptian evils—to mingle with this life; but it was necessary that the iniquity of the Israelites be made manifest. It was necessary that the kingdom of the Assyrians, and the pride of Nebuchadnezzar, which were still lurking in life, be brought to light. It was necessary that the slaughter of the pious, like some wicked and thorny plant, should spring from the evil root of the devil. It was necessary that the madness of the Jews against the holy ones of God be revealed: of those who slew the prophets and stoned those who were sent to them, and who finally, when Zechariah was slain between the temple and the altar 18, committed a sin that was manifest. Add to the tally of these wicked growths the slaughter of the infants committed by Herod. C When, therefore, the full force of wickedness had displayed itself, and had grown in manifold ways in the souls of those who in every age had been distinguished for crime, then, as Paul says to the Athenians, God, having overlooked the times of ignorance, arrived in the last days, when there was none who understood or sought after God; when all had turned aside and together had become useless; when all were shut up under sin 21; when iniquity abounded; when the darkness of vices had reached its ultimate term. Then appeared grace, then the ray of the true light shone forth. Then the sun of righteousness rose for those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death 22; then, having put on human flesh, He crushed the many heads of the serpent with His foot, and striking them to the earth, He trampled upon them.
But lest anyone, looking at the evils that are now in this life, should suspect that we are speaking falsely when we assert that the Lord shone upon us in the last times D — for someone will perhaps object: "He who awaited the times in which wickedness might be revealed, so that He might pluck it up by the roots having been grown and heaped up, ought to have so removed and abolished it entirely that no remnants of it remained in this life; whereas now, murders and thefts and adulteries and all the rest of the outrages and crimes are rampant"—the person who, looking at these things, objects in this way...
let him solve the question by an illustrious and commonly known example. A Just as we see that when snakes are killed, the remaining parts do not immediately die along with the head, but even when the head itself has perished, they still retain life and are not deprived of vital motion; so it is with the destruction of the dragon. For since the beast was truly enormous, having grown throughout the individual generations of men—that multiplied head of his, that is, the power that is the inventor of evils, which contains many heads within itself—was taken away, yet the stretch of the remaining parts was neglected, so that by the motion remaining in the dead beast it might leave an occasion for practice for those who followed. What, then, is the crushed head? It is that which brought death through evil counsel, B which injected the deadly venom into man through its bite. Therefore, He who overturned the empire of death crushed the power that was in the head of the serpent, as the Prophet says; but the remaining part of the beast, which is dispersed throughout the human race, which—so long as men are driven by the motions of vices—irritates life with the scale of sin and renders it harsh, is indeed dead in power, the head having been rendered useless. Yet when time shall have passed and the things that are moved shall have come to a standstill, and the release from this life which we expect shall have arrived, then both the tail and the extreme part of the enemy—namely death itself—shall be destroyed; and thus there shall be a complete disappearance of evil, when all have been recalled to life through the resurrection: those who have been just shall be moved at once to the habitation above, C and those bound by sins shall be delivered to the fire of Gehenna.
But let us return to the present joy, which the angels announce to the shepherds, which the heavens declare to the Magi, and which the spirit of prophecy proclaims in many and various ways, so that even the Magi might become heralds of grace. For He who makes His sun to rise upon the just and the unjust, and who rains upon the wicked and the good, sent the ray of knowledge and the dew of the Spirit even into alien mouths, so that the truth might be confirmed to us all the more by the testimony of adversaries. You hear the diviner Balaam, inspired by a better influence, D prophesying thus to the foreigners: *A star shall rise out of Jacob* (Num. XXIV, 17). You see the Magi, who trace their lineage from him, observing the new rising of the star according to the prediction of their forefather—a star which, contrary to the nature of the other stars, partook of both motion and station, shifting to the need of each. For of the other stars, some are once and for all fixed in the firmament and have obtained a motionless station, while others never cease from their motion; but this one both moves, leading the Magi, and stands still, pointing out the place. You hear Isaiah crying out: *A child is born to us, and a son is given to us* (Isa. IX, 6). Learn from the same prophet how the child was born, how the son was given. Is it according to the law of nature? By no means, he says, for by laws...
says the prophet. The Lord of nature is not a slave to the laws of nature. But how was the child born? He says: Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us (Isa. VII, 14). O the miracle! The virgin becomes a mother, and remains a virgin. You see the innovation of nature. Among other women, as long as one is a virgin, she is not a mother. But if she becomes a mother, she does not possess virginity. Here, however, both names meet in the same person. For she is the same, both mother and virgin; nor did virginity prevent the birth, nor did the birth dissolve the virginity. For it was fitting that He who was entering into human life in order to preserve humanity whole and incorrupt should begin B His origin from an incorruptness serving His birth. For human custom calls her who is without experience of marriage "incorrupt." This, I think, that great Moses had foreseen through that light in which God appeared to him, who, when the bush was burning, and yet was not consumed, said: I will go over and see this great vision (Exod. III, 3), not, as I suppose, declaring a local movement by the "going over," but the passage of time. For what was then signified by the flame and the bush, as time progressed and intervened, was clearly opened up in the mystery of the Virgin. For just as there is the bush, and it kindles a fire and is not consumed, so here is the Virgin, who brings forth the Light and is not corrupted. And do not be ashamed by the analogy if the Virgin's body, which gave birth to God, is understood by C the bush. For all flesh, on account of the reception of sin, and for that very reason that it is flesh, is sin; and sin in Scripture is called a thorn (II Reg. XXIII, 6; Matth. XIII, 22). And lest we wander too far from our subject, perhaps it will not be untimely if we bring forward, as a witness to the incorrupt mother, him who was slain between the temple and the altar. This priest was Zacharias, not a priest only, but also a prophet (Luc. I, 3 sqq.). The power of his prophecy is declared in the book of the Gospel, when divine grace, paving the way for men so that the birth from the Virgin might not be thought incredible, trained the assent of the faithful with lesser miracles, so that a barren woman and a man already worn by age should conceive a son. This was the preamble to the miraculous birth. For just as Elizabeth, who D had reached old age in barrenness, does not become a mother through the power of nature, but a son is born to her by divine counsel, so that which seems incredible in the virgin birth, if it is referred to God, becomes credible. Since, therefore, he who is born of the barren woman precedes the One who comes from the virgin—he who, at the voice of her who carried the Lord, leaped in his mother's womb before he came into the light—as soon as the forerunner of the Word was born, the silence of Zacharias was loosed
A A silence is broken. And whatever Zacharias the prophet expounded, referred to the future. He, therefore, being guided by the prophetic spirit to the knowledge of hidden things, and having understood the mystery of virginity in an incorrupt birth, did not remove the unwed mother from the place in the holy temple assigned by the Law to virgins, teaching the Jews that the Creator of all things and King of all creation has human nature subject to Himself along with all else, guiding it to what seemed good by His own will, not being governed by it Himself; so that it was in His power—being in His own might—to fashion a new birth, which would not deprive the mother who had brought Him forth of her virginity. For this reason, he did not remove her from the choir of virgins in the temple; and this location was the space between the temple and the altar. When, therefore, the Jews heard that the King of all creation had proceeded into human life by divine order, fearing that they might be made subject to the King, they slew the priest who was officiating at the altar itself, who testified these things concerning the birth. B But we have wandered far from the matter at hand, for it behoves us to return in our discourse to the Bethlehem that is in the Gospel. For if we are truly shepherds, and are watching over our own flocks, the voice of the angels surely pertains to us, announcing this great joy. Therefore, let us look up to the heavenly host, let us behold the dancing of the angels, let us hear their divine hymn. What is the sound of those celebrating? *Glory to God in the highest*, they cry. Why does the voice of the angels give glory to the Godhead seen in the highest? Because, they say, *and on earth peace*. The angels have become overjoyed at what is being manifested: *On earth peace*. The earth, which was previously cursed, which was fertile in thorns and thistles, the place of war, the desert of the condemned, has received peace. O, the wonder! *Truth has sprung from the earth, and justice has looked down from heaven*. Such fruit of its own has the earth of men given. And these things happen for the sake of His good pleasure in men. God is commingled with human nature, that He may raise up the human to the divine height. Having heard these things, let us pass on to Bethlehem, let us behold the new spectacle, how the Virgin rejoices in her childbearing, how she who has not known marriage gives suck to the infant. C But first let us hear what has been handed down in memory concerning her, and from whence she came.
I have therefore heard a certain apocryphal history, providing such accounts concerning her. The father of the Virgin was a certain man of distinction in the life of strict observance of the Law, and renowned for the most noble qualities, but he had grown old in life childless, because his wife was not suited for childbearing. Now there was a certain honor among mothers according to the Law, of which those women who had borne no children were deprived. Therefore, she also, imitating the narratives concerning the mother of Samuel, and having entered into the Holy of Holies, became a suppliant to God, that she might not fall outside the blessing of the Law, having sinned nothing against the Law D and...
A becoming a mother, and dedicating to God that which was being born. Being strengthened by a divine nod, she received the grace she requested. And when the child was born, she named her Mary, so that through the appellation the God-given nature of the grace might be signified. And when the maiden had already grown, so as no longer to need nursing, she made haste to return her to God, and to fulfill the vow, and to bring her to the Temple. The priests, for a time, reared the child in the Holy of Holies after the likeness of Samuel; but when she had grown, they took counsel as to what they might do with that sacred body, so as not to sin against God. For to yoke her to the law of nature and to enslave her through marriage to one being led to her appeared most absurd. For it was deemed outright sacrilege for a human to become the master of a gift consecrated to God, since by the laws a husband was ordered to have dominion B over his wife. But for a woman to reside within the Temple among the priests and to be seen in the Holy of Holies, was neither lawful, nor did the modesty and honor of the situation allow it. As they were deliberating on these things, counsel came from God to give her to a man in the name of betrothal, and for this man to be such as would be suitable for the protection of her virginity. Joseph was therefore found, such as the account sought, from the same tribe and family as the Virgin, and the maiden was betrothed to him according to the counsel of the priests. The union, however, went no further than betrothal. Then Gabriel was sent to the Virgin, to reveal to her the mystery of the divine will. He used these most auspicious words: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." This utterance is the opposite of that first word which came to the woman. For she was condemned to pains in childbirth because of sin. But now, in this one, sorrow is expelled through joy; in the former, the pains of childbirth led the way; here, however, joy midwifes the birth. "Fear not," he says. Since the expectation of childbirth brings fear to every woman, the promise of a sweet birth casts out fear. "You shall conceive in your womb," he says, "and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; for he himself shall save his people from their sins." What, then, of Mary? Hear the voice of the chaste Virgin. The angel announces the birth; yet she clings to her virginity, judging incorruption to be preferred before the angelic manifestation, nor does she lack faith in the angel, nor does she depart from her purpose. "Interaction with a man is forbidden to me," she says. "How shall this be to me, since I do not know a man?" This voice of Mary is proof of the things historically reported in obscure accounts. For had she been taken by Joseph for the sake of children, how could she have been startled when the angel announced the birth, as if hearing of a strange and novel thing, provided she herself had also bound herself to the law of nature, expecting at some time to become a mother? But because it was necessary to keep the flesh consecrated to God—like some holy offering—an untouched and intact gift, therefore, she says, even if you are an angel, even if you come from heaven, even if you [present that which...]
reveal that it surpasses human nature, yet it is forbidden for me to know man. How shall I be a mother without a man? For I know Joseph as a betrothed spouse, but I do not know him as a man. What, then, does the herald Gabriel say to these things? For whom does he prepare the bridal chamber by pure and undefiled wedlock? “The Holy Spirit,” he says, “shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you.” O blessed is that womb, which, by reason of the excellence of its purity, drew into itself the goods of the soul! For among all others, a pure soul would scarcely receive the presence of the Holy Spirit; but in this case, the flesh itself becomes a vessel of the Spirit. “And the power of the Most High shall overshadow you.” What does this secret word signify? That Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, as the Apostle 37 says. Therefore, the power of the Most High God, which is Christ, is formed in the virgin through the coming of the Holy Spirit. For just as the shadow A of bodies is shaped according to the form of the objects that precede it, so the character and the distinguishing marks of the divinity of the Son will be made manifest in the power of the One being born, as an image and seal and shadow and radiance of the prototype, through the wonder-working of His acts. B
Verily, the Gospel exhorts us to return in our discourse to Bethlehem, and to see the mysteries that are in the cave. What is this? A child wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger; and the Virgin, after childbirth, an incorrupt mother, embraces her offspring. Let us utter, we who are shepherds, the voice of the Prophet: “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God 38.” Did these things, then, which we have heard in regard to Christ, happen by chance and accident, and are they recorded without deeper meaning, or is there some rationale beneath the history? What does the Lord’s dwelling in a cave signify, or His reclining in a manger? Or His entering into C life at the time of the tax registration? Is it not clear that just as He rescues us from the curse of the Law, having Himself become a curse for our sake 39, and transfers our wounds onto Himself, so that by His wound we might be healed 40, so also does He become a taxpayer, that He might deliver us from the most burdensome tax which death exacts from man? But regarding the cave which you see, in which the Lord is born, consider the darkened life of men, submerged beneath the earth, in which He is born who shows Himself to those who were sitting in darkness and in the D shadow of death 41. He is wrapped in swaddling clothes and bound with bands, He who undergoes [the taking on of] the chains and bonds of our sins. The manger, indeed, is the dwelling of brute beasts, in which the Word is born, that “the ox may know its owner, and the ass its master’s crib 42.” By the ox, understand him who is subject to the yoke of the Law; by the ass, which is an animal born for carrying burdens, him who is laden with the crime of idol worship. Now, the common food and life of animals devoid of reason is hay, for, says the Prophet, “He makes hay grow for the cattle 43.” But the rational animal is fed with bread. For this reason, therefore, in the manger, which is
the dwelling-place of irrational animals, the Bread that has descended from heaven is set forth, A so that those creatures that are removed from reason may be nourished by the food of reason, and thus be adorned with reason. The Lord of both therefore mediates at the manger between the ox and the ass, so that, breaking down the middle wall of the partition, He might create in Himself the two into one new man, relieving the one of the heavy yoke of the Law, and freeing the other from the burden of idolatry. But let us look up to the wonderful spectacles of the heavens. For behold, not only do the prophets and angels announce this joy to us, but the heavens themselves, by their own wonders, proclaim the glory of the Gospel. From Judah, as the Apostle says, the Christ has risen; but the Jew is not illuminated by Him who has risen. The Magi are strangers to the testament of the promise and aliens from the blessing of the Fathers; yet they outstrip the Israelite people in knowledge, acknowledging the heavenly luminary and not being ignorant of the King in the cave. The former bring gifts, the latter plot treachery. The former worship, the latter persecute. The former rejoice in the discovery of Him whom they were seeking, the latter are alarmed by the news of His birth. For, it says, when the Magi saw the star over the place B where the Child was, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. But Herod, hearing the report, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. The former offer incense as to God, and honor with gold His kingly dignity. By a certain prophetic grace, they prefigure through the myrrh the dispensation of His death; but the others resolve that all the infants gathered in one place be carried off by slaughter. This seems to me not only to convict them of cruelty, but even of the highest madness. For what is the meaning of this slaughter of children? And for what purpose has such an abomination been dared by the murderers? Because, they say, a new and startling portent of the heavens announced to the Magi the indication of the King. What then? Do you have faith in the sign that has appeared as being true, or do you imagine that which is bruited about to be in vain? If He is such a one as can make the heavens serve Him, He is surely above your hand. But if He is in your power, so that He might either live or die, you fear Him in vain. For if He does that which makes Him subject to your authority, why are snares prepared for Him? Why is that fearful decree sent out? Why is the impious sentence passed, that the wretched infants be slaughtered? C What have they sinned? What cause of death and punishment have they provided against themselves? They have one crime alone: that they were born and brought into the light. And for this it was necessary that the city be filled with executioners, and that a multitude of mothers and a people of infants be gathered together, and that even the fathers and those joined by the kinship of birth be assembled for the cruel deed. Who can describe this calamity in speech? Who can set forth the bitterness for the eyes to see through narrative? That mixed lamentation, the mournful wailing of the children, D of the mothers, of the kin, of the fathers, at the threats
A of the executioners who cry out so piteously? Who could describe in words an executioner rushing at a child with a drawn sword, looking at him with a fierce and murderous countenance, and speaking such terrible things, while with one hand he drags the infant toward himself, and with the other brandishes the sword? And the mother, on the other side, pulling the child toward herself, and offering her own neck to the edge of the sword, that she might not see with her eyes her wretched infant child destroyed by the hands of the executioner? Who could recount the deeds of the fathers? The callings-back, the lamentations, the last embraces of their children; and many such things happening all at once? Who could deliver a tragedy of the diverse and manifold calamity, the double pains of those who had just given birth? The keen torches of nature? How the wretched infant would cling to the breast, and at the same time receive a fatal wound through its vitals? How the miserable mother would at once offer her nipples to the infant’s mouth, and receive its blood into her lap? And often, by the force of the hand, B the executioner would pierce both child and mother with a single stroke of the sword, and one stream of blood would flow, mingled from the mother’s wound and the fatal wound of the child. But since this also was added to Herod’s impious decree, that not only those just born should be condemned to death, but that if any child had entered its second year, it too should be snatched away (for it is written that he ordered those two years old and younger to be slain), the discourse foresees, as is likely, another affliction in these events. For often the intervening time had made the same woman a mother of two children. What sort of spectacle, then, was there again in such cases, with two executioners occupied about one mother; one dragging toward himself the child running near him, the other tearing the still suckling infant from the mother’s bosom? What, then, does the unhappy mother do, when nature is split in twain over her children, and with each child stirring C an equal fire within her maternal vitals, she knows not which of the executioners to follow first, when one drags the children to slaughter from this side, and the other from that? Should she run to the one just born, uttering confused and indistinct groans? But she is held back by the other, already speaking, and with a stammering tongue calling out for its mother. What can she do? Whither shall she turn? To whose voice should she reply with her own? Whose moaning should she receive with her own cry? To whose death shall she listen, perhaps struck on both sides by the goads of nature? D But let us turn our hearing away from the lamentations for the children, and turn our mind toward things more joyful and more fitting for the feast, even if Rachel, according to the prophecy, bewails the slaughter of her children, crying out. For on a feast day, as the wise Solomon says, it is fitting to forget evils. And what day could be more glorious for us than this, in which the sun of justice, scattering the evil darkness of the devil, shines through our very nature upon the world; in which he who fell is raised up, he who was made an enemy is received into grace, and he who was cast out
A of life returns to life, he who served in slavery attains the dignity of the kingdom, he who was bound by the chains of death runs back set free to the land of the living? Now, according to the prophecy, the bronze gates of death are shattered; the iron bars are crushed, by which the human race was formerly held imprisoned in the custody of death. Now the gate of righteousness is opened, as David sang. Now the cry of those celebrating the festival is heard in unison across the whole world. Through man came death, and through man came salvation. The first fell into sin; the second raised up him who had fallen. By a woman, the woman was defended: the first gave an entrance to sin, the second served as the entrance for righteousness. The former followed the counsel of the serpent; the latter brought forth the destroyer of the serpent, and gave birth to the Author of light into the light. The former introduced sin through the tree; the latter introduced grace through the tree. By the tree, however, I understand the cross; the fruit of this tree is ever-green, and to those who taste it, it becomes immortal life.
Let no one, however, think that this thanksgiving applies only to the mystery of Pascha. For let him reflect that Pascha is the end of the dispensation. But how could there be an end if the beginning had not led the way? What is more fundamental than what is fundamental? Clearly, the birth [is more fundamental] than the economy concerning the passion. Therefore, even the blessings of Pascha are part of the hymns concerning the birth. B And if one should recount the benefits reported in the Gospels, and enumerate the miracles of healings, the abundance of food in want and hunger, the waking of the dead from their tombs, the sudden and unexpected production of wine, the expulsion of demons, the restoration of various infirmities to health, the leaping of the lame, the eyes smeared with mud, the divine teaching, the laws given, the mysterious signification of the parables: all these things are encompassed by the grace of this day. For this was the beginning of all the good things that followed. C
Therefore, let us exult and rejoice in it; let us disregard, as the Prophet urges, the reproach of men, and let us not be overcome by their contempt—those who mock the account of the dispensation, as if it were not becoming for the Lord to undergo the nature of a body and to dwell in human life through birth. For they are ignorant, as it seems, of the mystery of this matter, how the wisdom of God arranged the salvation for us. We were voluntarily sold into our sins, and like those who are sold for silver, we were enslaved to the enemy of our life. What, then, should you have wished from the Lord? Was it not that you might be delivered from your calamity? Why, then, do you curiously inquire into the manner? Do you prescribe to the benefactor D the method of conferring a benefit? It is just as if someone were angry with a well-deserving physician because he had healed him not in this way, but in that. But if, led by curiosity, you inquire into the reason of the divine counsel, this is enough for you
to learn, that the Divine is not just one of the things that are good, but whatever is thought to be good in concept—that it is: powerful, just, good, wise; all things whatsoever that have a name and notion of divine dignity. Consider then, whether all these things that have been mentioned have not converged in what has been done for us: the goodness, the wisdom, the power, the justice. As good, He loved the deserter; as wise, He devised a plan for the return of those who had been enslaved; as just, He did not use force against the one who had enslaved us and who had rightfully acquired us by purchase, but instead He gave Himself as a ransom for those who were held, so that, like a surety, transferring the debt to Himself, He might deliver the held one from those who held him. As powerful, He was not held by Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption; for it was not possible for the Author of life to be held by corruption.
But, you say, is it shameful B to enter into human birth and undergo the experience of the sufferings of the flesh? You are speaking of the greatness of the beneficence. Since there was no other way for humanity to be delivered from such great evils, the King of all passionlessness submitted to exchange His own glory for our life. And though purity descends into our filth, the filth does not attach itself to the purity, as the Gospel says: "The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." For the gloom vanishes at the presence of the ray; the sun is not darkened by the gloom. The mortal is swallowed up by life, as the Apostle writes; life is not consumed by death. That which was corrupted is preserved by the incorrupt. Corruption does not approach incorruption. For these reasons a common harmony of all creation arises, as all with one voice hymn the Lord of creation; as every tongue, of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth, cries out that C Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, blessed forever and ever. Amen.