THE WORKS OF OUR HOLY FATHER AMPHILOCHIUS, BISHOP OF ICONIUM. ORATIONS AND HOMILIES.
ORATION I. On the Nativity of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
A 1. This spiritual and splendid meadow, variegated with the beauty of heavenly flowers and fragrant with apostolic and incorrupt odors, appears to me to bear the image of the divine paradise. For just as that sensible and pristine chorus, 1 a place void of every evil breath, is adorned with incorruptible trees, immortal fruits, and countless other most magnificent ornaments: so too this most divine and sacrosanct assembly of the Ecclesia shines more illustriously with spiritual and B secret sacraments, of which the feast day of the nativity of Christ, our true God, which we celebrate today, is the solid foundation, the immovable base, the salutary beginning, and the altogether august peak. On account of this, both the old things have been prophesied in type, and the new have been preached openly throughout the whole world; by this the heavens have been opened and the earth has been raised to divine heights; by this paradise has been granted back to men and the power of death has been abolished; by this the force of corruption has been trampled underfoot and the pernicious cult of the devil has been abolished; by this human vices have been mortified and the manner of a life of angelic dominion has been restored; 2 by this the error of demons has been put to flight and the wisdom of God and His most chaste arrival have been announced. "For not an angel," he says, "nor a messenger, but the Lord Himself will come and save them." O the immense riches of the auspicious tidings! O the inenarrable knowledge of the all-wise mysteries! O the unfailing treasure of divine and ineffable gifts! O the countless grace of the providential benevolence! "For," he says, "the Lord Himself will come and save us." In what manner, O divine prophet, dost thou proclaim that the Lord will come to us? C For thou wilt speak in this part concerning the presence of the sovereign power,
A assuming the person of those ancient men who celebrated this most laudable festival for me, yet who attained neither the experience of the new and most pure birth from the immaculate Virgin, nor saw the rejoicings of the holy angels, nor heard the divine voices which they, auspiciously acclaiming the newborn Savior, joyfully announced to the shepherds. Nor did they understand the gifts of the Magi and their divine adoration. Having assumed the person of these men, B I would ask you concerning the manner of His presence. For the oracle struck them with good reason, and it lacked little that they were deranged in their minds by the sheer magnitude of their fear. For they could not conceive that the immortal God would come to the most earthly of men; that the untouchable would come to the sensible; the invisible to the visible. For how, indeed, did they imagine that God would come, and how would He be seen? For some thought, as He had appeared to Abraham before through angels, or again as He appeared to Moses through fire in the bush, or as He was seen by Isaiah through the seraphim, or by Ezekiel through the cherubim. For thus, all had testified to having seen God in one of these ways. Which, then, of these ways is worthy for the vision of God? It is clear that not one is.
II. And from where do we most reliably confirm this? From the other voice of the prophet saying: *After these things He appeared on earth and conversed with men.* C Those things, indeed, were proofs of a vision and not of a life lived in common; these are the heraldings of a life lived in common and not of a vision. How, then, does he say: *The Lord Himself shall come and save us?* Thou wouldst tell us, O blessed one: How is He figured, into whom no figure falls? How is He who is immovable moved from heavenly thrones and transferred to earth? To these things that divine man would meet them, saying: "Because you heard of the manner of the presence through other oracles, why do you here seek out an oracle with superfluous curiosity? Does that saying escape you, that *the virgin shall have in her womb and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,* which is translated, *God with us?* D Or have you not heard what is written, that *a child is born to us, a son is given to us, upon whose shoulder is the government, and his name is called the messenger of the great counsel, wonderful, counselor, God the mighty, the potentate, the prince of peace, the father of the future age?* From these words you have known the manner of the presence. For an incorrupt virgin shall corporeally conceive the incorrupt lamp. For it is necessary that the most august Word of God should incline Himself down to our flesh; so that
He may renew, through the Incarnation, those who were created by Him in incorporeal divinity but had grown old through sin, and make them incorruptible through the likeness to the corruption.
III. Homily on the Prophet's words and the Nativity
III. Having said these things through the Prophet to them, we also shall ask: O Child more ancient than heaven! O thrice-blessed Son, who comes bearing His own principality, and not seeking to receive it from another! For it is natural to the Word to rule over all things as Son, and it is not something added, as to a creature. For the principality, he says, is upon His shoulder. O great-named Offspring! For He is called the Messenger of Great Counsel, and the mighty God. O omnipotent power! For He is the Wonderful Counselor, and the Prince of Peace. How then shall we celebrate today’s festival? How shall we declare blessed the most mystical gathering at present? For who shall investigate the immortal riches of this day? With what great-sounding and most lofty words shall we proclaim this all-hymned and triumphant sacrament of incorruptibility? B O day worthy of countless hymns, in which the star from Jacob rose for us, and the heavenly man who appeared from Israel, and the mighty God visited us, and the Sun of righteousness overshadowed us, and the treasury of divine virtues was opened, and the plant of eternal life sprouted for men, and the Dawn from on high shone forth, and the Lord of heavenly, earthly, and infernal things, for the sake of the redemption of the world, came into the corruptible world from a virginal womb! For there is born to us today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, who is the light of the Gentiles, and the salvation of the house of Israel. O the miracle! He who is not circumscribed by the heavens was lodged in a manger as a little child; and He who with a short word established all things was warmed in the arms of a woman; and He who granted existence to all supercelestial powers was suckled at the unpolluted breasts of the holy Virgin. For it came to pass, He says, as the Gospel testifies, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn C.
IV. What is this new and marvelous mystery? What is the omnipotent and mortality-making benevolence of divine Providence? What is the terrible and most wise strategy against the devil? The world has been liberated through
the Virgin, which through a virgin had formerly fallen under sin. By a virginal birth, so many and such great multitudes of invisible demons have been cast headlong into hell. The Master has become conformable to his servants, that the servants might again become conformable to God. O Bethlehem, city sanctified and made a common inheritance for men! O manger, O manger, fellow-participant with the Cherubim and held in the same honor as the Seraphim! For He who eternally rides upon those divine thrones now, in thee, once again dwells corporally. O Mary, O Mary, who hast possessed the Creator of all as thy firstborn! O humanity, which hast corporally embodied the Word of God, and by this part has been preferred over the heavenly and intellectual powers! For Christ did not deign to put on the form of the archangels, nor indeed the immutable images of the Principalities, and Powers, and Authorities, B but rather thee, who hadst fallen into change and hadst been compared to the irrational beasts. For those who are healthy have no need of a physician; but she who was held by frequent disease has met with such and so great a physician that, the disease having been put to flight, she is fortunate in a salvation greater than her former health. But where now is that hostile and unthundereous one; that avenging and most polluted dragon, he who promised that he would exalt his own throne to the heights?
V. Therefore, brethren, partakers of the blessed heavenly calling, C called to the adoption of God and to brotherhood, we ought to give thanks to him who has called us, and to show ourselves worthy of him who provides us with brotherhood and who has received us into adoption. Let us, therefore, willingly and with love serve him, being ready for the accomplishment of every righteousness; adorned with purity, pursuing poverty, persevering in the words of God, dedicated to holy prayers and sacred hymns to God; transforming ourselves from this present age, forgetting earthly and mortal desires, overcoming evil with good, rendering to no one evil for evil; not considering ourselves to dwell on the earth, but to live as citizens in heaven; to associate with angels, to stand by the throne of the heavenly kingdom. These are the teachings of the holy apostles; in these Christ has established for us a blessed and eternal covenant. Let the world marvel at your virtue; let the Jews be confounded