A you know, in moving himself toward flesh, you preserved the essence of the Godhead unchangeable, immutable, and impassible. Hence, the Prophet, not doubting but marveling, not comparing but demonstrating its incomparability, said: *God, who shall be likened unto you?* For all things have been made by you and through you; and what is made is manifestly shown to be always inferior to the one who made it, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. Who, then, shall be likened unto you? The sun, by reason of its light? But I see it being extinguished each day; for it has received a rule to give way toward evening and be succeeded by the night. The moon, for its beauty? But it dies every year, and is born again, as it were. The stars, because they shine? But when the day has dawned, they deny their radiance. The sea, because of the measureless expanse of the deep? But it is cleft by a small piece of wood, and is whipped by an oar; for it has been commanded by you B to serve human needs. The earth, again, because of its stability? But when you will, it is shaken at a glance; for it brought you dust when you were forming man, when you infused the clay with the soul’s breath. Shall heaven, then, be likened unto you? How? Although, at your command, it presented a cloud for you as you ascended to the heights, just as it once did the star for the Magi in Bethlehem, which taught of your divine birth. Shall an angel, then, or an archangel be likened unto you? How, or in what manner? For they happen to be ministering spirits, serving your commands with fear. But having mentioned the angels, I am urged by the Word toward that angel, who was seated upon the stone of the life-bearing tomb. I know that he will not be indignant, being a minister of that One who persuaded Thomas to touch with reverence, C to examine with certainty, and to honor the great mystery in a manner befitting God. Tell me, therefore, O angel—for the holy Gospels write that in some places you were one, and in others you had a fellow-minister with you; yet one grace and one service constitute the matter—tell me, for whose sake did you leave the heavens to sit by the tomb, and, though you dwell with the powers above, do you appear below conversing with women? Did you leave the Cherubim and sit at the tomb? Did you cease from the fearful service above, and below, with joy, do you bring confirmation to Mary? Did you strike the soldiers watching with an earthquake, and with persuasion did you instruct the women as the apostles were taught? Peter came, yet you hid yourself as if incorporeal; John arrived, yet he too was ignorant of your presence. Both of them, indeed, beheld the symbols of the resurrection of the dead who was not stolen, but of God who had risen—they beheld the linen cloths; yet you appear to the women alone, and to these alone you entrust the command not to fear, even though the profit of the resurrection belonged to all. For did the Master raise only women from the dead, and not also men? Did the Word, having become flesh, come to save only Eve, and not also Adam? Why, then, do you put the feet before the head, and overturn the D order, appointing women to be apostles? Did Peter deny? But Peter's denial is profitable; for having wept bitterly, he taught how forgiveness is obtained. Did all the apostles abandon Him? But to John the Theologian and virgin, He entrusted His own mother according to the flesh. The doing of what is now seen was not permitted without cause, but [was done] to teach the Church from the Gentiles to seek out the command with a safer longing. "Yes," he says, "I anticipate Paul, and snatch away his voice beforehand: *For there is no respect of persons with God; there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.* Therefore, take the brief answer, O faithful one, to the things you seek and that you have desired to learn. I honor the woman on account of the One born of a woman, and I take care of the weakness of the nature on account of the One who proceeded from her, just as the One born himself so ordained. For I am a servant, and I follow the laws of the Master. The Creator chose a woman, as He willed; with her I also converse. He did not acquire a father on earth; for He has one in heaven. Just as, therefore, He is fatherless on earth, He is motherless in heaven. He took a mother from among men, for there was a need for the Creator of the race to come forth from a woman for our sake. Therefore, the One who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire, at the beginning of the mystery sent Gabriel not to Joseph, but to Mary, both pleading for nature as Master, and bridling the mouths of blasphemers as One who knows the future. Indeed, He desires to restore, through a woman, the one [mankind] who was deceived through a woman. Eve brought forth death; but this one, in turn, bore us Life through Mary. That one once spoke to the devil through a serpent; now angels speak to her. For Christ opposed the wood with wood, and gave you a taste in exchange for a taste, so that seeing Him willingly humbled for your sake, you might acknowledge the condescension of the One who made you according to His image, and might glorify the One who so willed it, saying, both for this and for all things: *God, who shall be likened unto you?* You grant, and you do not repent; you are wrathful, and you repent; you loose your own [decrees] in order to establish ours. You said to Adam: *In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread;* and again you loosed the verdict, having become the bread of life, and we eat without sweat. You said to him formerly: *Earth you are, and to earth you shall depart;* but now, having taken the one who is from the earth and is dissolving into the earth upon your shoulders, you have enthroned him in heaven, having manifested the future to your disciples through Mary: *I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.* You said to Eve: *In sorrows you shall bring forth children;* but being born of a woman, you opportunely obscured the long-standing curse. You said to the serpent: *He shall keep your head, and you shall keep his heel;* but you washed our feet in baptism, and he no longer approaches, fearing the Master's hand shining on the feet of the servants. O, how does He not leave the devil a place of flight, the One who is present above and below and everywhere by the dispensation of grace! This God of ours in heaven and on earth has done all that He willed. But what is this new and strange thing of the present feast, which is difficult to express both in tongue and in mind? For as He was suddenly teaching the disciples, and preparing them for the struggle, a cloud came upon the immaculate footsteps of Christ, like a handmaid; imitating the sea that once bore Him without wetting, it took up the Master fearlessly and untroubled, and plainly restored to the throne of greatness the One who once descended like rain upon the fleece. For the angels, Authorities, Powers, and Dominions were ignorant of the descent, but in celebrating the assumption in the flesh, they cried out: *The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory.* This is, according to Paul, the second Adam. But that one is born without a mother, while this one appears without a father according to the incarnation. This is the potter of the race, whence he took our lump, and in himself, as he willed, he renewed the decayed [part]; this is the one who released Eve from sorrows through Mary; for virginity served the Godhead, and the womb ministered to the birth to the Word made flesh; for it was the Holy Spirit who acted as midwife to the one who, without marriage, bore beyond nature. This is He who suffered as He was born, and rose as He was buried, and ascended into heaven, not as He had descended from there, and left behind as an eternal shame to the unbelieving Jews the burial clothes. This is He who is mourned by women as dead, and is revealed to the women as God; this is He who willingly became what we are, and made us what He is; this is God; again: *He shall so come, in the manner in which you beheld Him going into heaven.* For He was never absent from the throne, even if, having hidden from the Cherubim, He descended for my sake, so that, having shared in my things, He might easily grant to [my] nature, according to me, things that are above nature. This is the immortal dead, the uncontainable God, the co-eternal Son, and fellow-throned with the Father, concerning whom the Prophet explicitly said: *The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.* Let us, therefore, prepare ourselves, I pray, so that, enjoying the help of the Spirit, we may both pass the present life without sorrow, and attain the goods of the future, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father, is the glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.