II. Why we celebrate Christmas.
Again the darkness is past; again Light
is made; again
III. The Meaning of Christmas.
Of these
on a future occasion; for the present the Festival is the Theophany or
Birthday, for it is called both, two titles being given to the one thing. For
God was manifested to man by birth. On the one hand Being, and eternally Being,
of the Eternal Being, above cause and word, for there was no word before The
Word; and on the other hand for our sakes also Becoming, that He Who gives us
our being might also give us our Well-being, or rather might restore us by His
Incarnation, when we had by wickedness fallen from well-being. The name
Theophany is given to it in reference to the Manifestation, and that of
Birthday in respect of His Birth.
IV. Let us Celebrate Christmas In A Godly Manner.
This
is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming
of God to Man, that we might go forth (Eph. 4:22,24), or rather (for this is
the more proper expression) that we might go back to God - that putting off the
old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live
in Christ (I Cor. 15:22), being born with Christ and crucified with Him and
buried with Him and rising with Him (Col. 2:11). For I must undergo the
beautiful conversion, and as the painful succeeded the more blissful, so the
more blissful must come out of the painful. For where sin abounded Grace did
much more abound (Rom. 5:20); and if a taste condemned us, how much more does
the Passion of Christ justify us? Therefore let us keep the Feast, not after
the manner of a heathen festival, but after a godly sort; not after the way of
the world, but in a fashion above the world; not as our own, but as belonging
to Him Who is ours, or rather as our Master’s; not as of weakness, but as of
healing; not as of creation, but of re-creation.
V. Let Us Not Celebrate Christmas In A Pagan
Manner.
And how shall this be? Let us not adorn our porches, nor
arrange dances, nor decorate the streets; let us not feast the eye, nor enchant
the ear with music, nor stimulate the nostrils with perfume, nor prostitute the
taste, nor indulge the touch, those roads that are so prone to evil and
entrances for sin; let us not be effeminate in clothing soft and flowing, whose
beauty consists in its uselessness, nor with the glittering of gems or the
sheen of gold (Rom. 13:13), or the tricks of color, belying the beauty of
nature, and invented to obscure the image of God; Not in rioting and
drunkenness, with which are mingled, I know well, in fornication and
wantonness, since the lessons which evil teachers give are evil; or rather the
harvests of worthless seeds are worthless. Let us not set up high beds of
luxury, making shrines for the belly of what belongs to debauchery. Let us not
toast with fragrant wines, the specialties of cooks, the great expense of
perfumes. Let not sea and land bring us as a gift their precious refuse, for it
is thus that I have learnt to estimate luxury; and let us not strive to outdo
each other in intemperance (for to my mind every superfluity is intemperance,
and all which is beyond absolute need),-and this while others are hungry and in
want, who are made of the same clay and in the same manner.
VI. What is The Difference Between Pagan And
Christian Celebrations.
Let us leave all these to the Pagan Greeks
and to the pomp and festivals of the Pagan Greeks, who call by the name of gods
beings who rejoice in the stench of sacrifices, and who consistently worship
with their belly; evil inventors and worshippers of evil demons. But we, the
Object of whose adoration is the Word, if we must in some way have luxury, let
us seek it in word, and in the Divine Law, and in histories; especially such as
are the origin of this Feast; that our luxury may be akin to and not far
removed from Him Who has called us together. Or do you desire (for to-day I am
your entertainer) that I should set before you, my good Guests, the story of
these things as abundantly and as nobly as I can, that you may know how a
foreigner can feed the natives of the land, and villager people of the town,
and one who cares not for luxury those who delight in it, and one who is poor
and homeless those who are eminent for wealth?
We will begin from this point; and let me
ask of you who delight in such matters to cleanse you mind and your ears and
your thoughts, since our discourse is to be of God and divine; that when you
depart, you may have had the enjoyment of delights that really do not fade
away. And this same discourse shall be at once both very full and very concise,
that you may neither be displeased at its deficiencies, nor find it unpleasant
through excessiveness.
VII. First, On God: A) His Incomprehensible Being.
God
always was, and always is, and always will be. Or rather, God always Is. For
Was and Will be are fragments of our time, and of changeable nature, but He is
Eternal Being. And this is the Name that He gives to Himself when giving the
Oracle to Moses on the Mount. For in Himself He sums up and contains all Being,
having neither beginning in the past nor end in the future; like some great Sea
of Being, limitless and unbounded, transcending all conception of time and
nature, only contemplated by the mind, and that very dimly and scantily, not by
His Essence, but by what is about Him (His energies); one image being got from
one source and another from another, and combined into some sort of presentation
of the truth, which escapes us before we have caught it, and takes to flight
before we have conceived it, blazing forth upon our mind, even when that is
cleansed, as the lightning flash which will not stay its course, does upon our
sight... in order as I conceive by that pare of it which we can comprehend to
draw us to itself (for that which is altogether incomprehensible is outside the
bounds of hope, and not within the compass of endeavor), and by that pare of It
which we cannot comprehend to move our wonder, and as an object of wonder to
become more an object of desire, and being desired to purify, and by purifying
to make us like God (John 10:15); so that when we have thus become like
Himself, God may, to use a bold expression, hold converse with us as Gods,
being united to us, and that perhaps to the same extent as He already knows
those who are known to Him. The Divine Nature then is boundless and hard to
understand; and all that we can comprehend of Him is His boundlessness; even
though one may conceive that because He is of a simple nature He is therefore
either wholly incomprehensible, or perfectly comprehensible; For let us further
enquire what is implied by "is of a simple nature;" For it is quite
certain that this simplicity is not itself its nature, just as composition is
not by itself the essence of compound beings.
VIII. B) God’s Beginninglessness, Eternity
and Trinity.
And when
Infinity is considered from two points of view, beginning and end (for that
which is beyond these and not limited by them is Infinity), when the mind looks
to the depth above, not having where to stand, and leans upon phenomena to form
an idea of God, it calls the Infinite and Unapproachable which it finds there
by the name of Beginningless. And when it looks into the depths below, and at
the future, it calls Him Undying and Imperishable. And when it draws a
conclusion from the whole, it calls Him Eternal (αἰώνιος).
For Eternity (αἰών) is neither time nor part of time; for
it cannot be measured. But what time, measured by the course of the sun, is to
us, that Eternity is to the Everlasting, namely, a sort of time-like movement
and interval co-extensive with their existence. This, however, is all I must
now say about God; for the present is not a suitable time, as my present
subject is not the doctrine of God, but that of the Incarnation. But when I say
God, I mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For Godhead is neither diffused
beyond these, so as to bring in a multitude of gods; nor yet is it bounded by a
smaller compass than these, so as to condemn us for a poverty-stricken
conception of Deity; either Judaizing to save the unity (μοναρχία), or falling into heathenism by the
multitude of our gods. For the evil on either side is the same, though found in
contrary directions. This then is the Holy of Holies (i.e. the Holy Trinity),
which is hidden even from the Seraphim, and is glorified with a thrice repeated
Holy, meeting in one ascription of the Title Lord and God, as one of our
predecessors (St. Athanasius?) has most beautifully and loftily pointed out.
IX. Second, The Creation, A) Of The Angels.
But since this movement of self-contemplation
alone could not satisfy Goodness, but Good must be poured out and go forth
beyond Itself to multiply the objects of Its beneficence, for this was
essential to the highest Goodness, He first conceived the Heavenly and Angelic
Powers. And this conception was a work fulfilled by His Word, and perfected by
His Spirit. And so the secondary Splendors came into being, as the Ministers of
the Primary Splendor; whether we are to conceive of them as intelligent
Spirits, or as Fire of an immaterial and incorruptible kind, or as some other
nature approaching this as near as may be. I should like to say that they were
incapable of movement in the direction of evil, and susceptible only of the
movement of good, as being about God, and illumined with the first rays from
God-for earthly beings have but the second illumination; but I am obliged to
stop short of saying that, and to conceive and speak of them only as difficult
to move because of him, who for his splendor was called Lucifer, but became and
is called Darkness through his pride; and the apostate hosts who are subject to
him, creators of evil by their revolt against good and our instigators.
X. B) The Creation Of The Visible, Material World.
Thus, then, and for these reasons, He gave being to the world of
thought, as far as I can reason upon these matters, and estimate great things
in my own poor language. Then, when His first creation was in good order, He
conceives a second world, material and visible; and this is a system and
compound of earth and sky, and all that is in the midst of them-an admirable
creation indeed, when we look at the fair form of every part, but yet more
worthy of admiration when we consider the harmony and the unity of the whole,
and how each part fits in with every other, in fair order, and all with the
whole, tending to the perfect completion of the world as a Unit. This was to
show that He could call into being, not only a Nature akin to Himself, but also
one altogether alien to Himself. For akin to Deity are those natures which are
intelligent, and only to be comprehended by mind; but all of which sense can
take cognizance are utterly alien to It; and of these the furthest removed are
all those which are entirely destitute of soul and of power of motion. But
perhaps some one of those who are too festive and impetuous may say, “What has
all this to do with us?” Lead your horse to the goal; Talk to us about the
Festival and the reasons for our being here to-day. Yes, this is what I am
about to do, although I have begun at a somewhat previous point, being
compelled to do so by love, and by the needs of my argument.
XI. C) The Creation Of Humanity.
Mind, then, and sense, thus distinguished
from each other, had remained within their own boundaries, and bore in
themselves the magnificence of the Creator-Word, silent praisers (Ps. 19:1,3)
and thrilling heralds of His mighty work. Not yet was there any mingling of
both, nor any mixtures of these opposites, tokens of a greater Wisdom and
Generosity in the creation of natures; nor as yet were the whole riches of
Goodness made known. Now the Creator-Word, determining to exhibit this, and to
produce a single living being out of both -the visible and the invisible
creations, I mean fashions Man; and taking a body from already existing matter,
and placing in it a Breath taken from Himself (Gen. 2:7) which the Word knew to
be an intelligent soul and the Image of God, as a sort of second world. He
placed him, great in littleness (microcosm) on the earth; a new Angel, a
mingled worshipper, fully initiated into the visible creation, but only
partially into the intelligent; King of all upon earth, but subject to the King
above; earthly and heavenly; temporal and yet immortal; visible and yet
intellectual; half-way between greatness and lowliness; in one person combining
spirit and flesh; spirit, because of the favor bestowed on him; flesh, because
of the height to which he had been raised; the one that he might continue to
live and praise his Benefactor, the other that he might suffer, and by
suffering be put in remembrance, and corrected if he became proud of his
greatness. A living creature trained here, and then moved elsewhere; and, to
complete the mystery, deified by its inclination to God. For to this, I think,
tends that Light of Truth which we here possess but in measure, that we should
both see and experience the Splendor of God, which is worthy of Him Who made
us, and will remake us again after a loftier fashion.
XII. D) Humanity’s Place in
This
being He placed in Paradise, whatever the Paradise may have been, having
honored him with the gift of Free Will (in order that God might belong to him
as the result of his choice, no less than to Him who had implanted the seeds of
it), to till the immortal plants, by which is meant perhaps the Divine
Conceptions, both the simpler and the more perfect; naked in his simplicity and
in-artificial life, and without any covering or screen; for it was fitting that
he who was from the beginning should be such. Also He gave him a Law, as a
material for his Free Will to act upon. This Law was a Commandment as to what
fruit he might partake of, and which one he might not touch. This latter was
the Tree of Knowledge; not, however, because it was evil from the beginning
when planted; nor was it forbidden because God grudged it to us ... Let not the
enemies of God wag their tongues in that direction, or imitate the Serpent ...
But it would have been good if partaken of at the proper time, for the tree
was, according to my theory, Contemplation, upon which it is only safe for
those who have reached maturity of habit to enter; but which is not good for
those who are still somewhat simple and greedy in their habit; just as solid
food is not good for those who are yet tender, and have need of milk (Heb. 5:12).
But when through the Devil’s malice and the woman’s caprice, to which she
succumbed as the more tender, and which she brought to bear upon the man, as
she was the more apt to persuade, alas for my weakness! (for that of my first
father was mine), he forgot the Commandment which had been given to him (Gen.
3:5); he yielded to the forbidden fruit; and for his sin he was banished, at
once from the Tree of Life, and from Paradise, and from God; and put on the
coats of skins ... that is, perhaps, the coarser flesh, both mortal and
contradictory. This was the first thing that he learnt - his own shame (Rom.
1:22-31); and he hid himself from God. Yet here too he makes a gain, namely
death, and the cutting off of sin, in order that evil may not be immortal. Thus
his punishment is changed into a mercy; for it is in mercy, I am persuaded,
that God inflicts punishment.
XIII. Third, The Salvation of Humanity, A) The
Preparatory Stage.
And having been first chastened by many means
(because his sins were many, whose root of evil sprang up through divers causes
and at sundry tithes), by word, by law, by prophets, by benefits, by threats,
by plagues, by waters, by fires, by wars, by victories, by defeats, by signs in
heaven and signs in the air and in the earth and in the sea, by unexpected
changes of men, of cities, of nations (the object of which was the destruction
of wickedness), at last he needed a stronger remedy, for his diseases were
growing worse; mutual slaughters, adulteries, perjuries, unnatural crimes, and
that first and last of all evils, idolatry and the transfer of worship from the
Creator to the Creatures. As these required a greater aid, so also they
obtained a greater.
B)
God’s Incarnation As The Salvation of Humanity.
And that was that the Word of God Himself-Who
is before all worlds, the Invisible, the Incomprehensible, the Bodiless,
Beginning of Beginning (Ps.110:3), the Light of Light, the Source of Life and
Immortality, the Image of the Archetypal Beauty, the immovable Seal, the
unchangeable Image, the Father’s Definition and Word, came to His own Image,
and took on Him flesh for the sake of our flesh, and mingled Himself with an
intelligent soul for my soul’s sake, purifying like by like; and in all points
except sin was made man. Conceived by the Virgin (Luke 1:35), who first in body
and soul was purified by the Holy Spirit (for it was needful both that
Childbearing should be honored, and that Virginity should receive a higher
honor), He came forth then as God with that which He had assumed, One Person in
two Natures, Flesh and Spirit, of which the latter deified the former. O new
commingling; O strange conjunction; the Self-Existent comes into being, the
Uncreated is created, That which cannot be contained is contained, by the
intervention of an intelligent soul, mediating between the Deity and the
corporality of the flesh. And He Who gives riches, becomes poor, for He assumes
the poverty of my flesh, that I may assume the richness of His Godhead. He that
is full empties Himself, for He empties Himself of His glory for a short while,
that I may have a share in His Fullness. What are the riches of His Goodness?
What is this mystery that is around me? I had a share in the image; I did not
keep it; He partakes of my flesh that He may both save the image and make the
flesh immortal. He communicates a second Communion far more marvelous than the
first, inasmuch as then He imparted the better Nature, whereas now He Himself
partakes of the worse. This is more godlike than the former action; this is
loftier in the eyes of all men of understanding.
XIV. C) Objections Of Human Logic To The Divine
Incarnation.
To
this what have those revilers to say, those bitter reasoning thinkers about
Godhead, those detractors of all that is praiseworthy, those darkeners of
light, uncultured in respect of wisdom, for whom Christ died in vain, those
unthankful creatures, the work of the Evil One? Do you turn this benefit into a
reproach to God? Will you deem Him little on this account, that He humbled
Himself for you; because the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), He who lays down His
life for His sheep, came to seek for that which had strayed upon the mountains
and the hills, on which you were then sacrificing, and found the wanderer; and
having found it (Luke 15:4ff), took it upon His shoulders-on which He also took
the Wood of the Cross; and having taken it, brought it back to the higher life;
and having carried it back, numbered it amongst those who had never strayed.
Because He lit a candle-His own Flesh-and swept the house, cleansing the world
from sin; and sought the lost coin, the Royal Image that was covered up by
passions. And He calls together His Angel friends on the finding of the coin,
and makes them sharers in His joy (Luke 15:8,10), whom He had made to share
also the secret of the Incarnation? Because on the candle of the Forerunner
there follows the light that exceeds in brightness; and to the Voice the Word
succeeds; and to the Bridegroom’s friend the Bridegroom; to him that prepared
for the Lord a peculiar people, cleansing them by water in preparation for the
Spirit? Do you reproach God with all this? Do you on this account deem Him
lessened, because He girds Himself with a towel and washes His disciples’ feet,
and shows that humiliation is the best road to exaltation? Because for the soul
that was bent to the ground He humbles Himself, that He may raise up with
Himself the soul that was tottering to a fall under a weight of sin? Why do you
not also charge upon Him as a crime the fact that He eats with Publicans and at
Publicans’ tables (Luke 5:29), and that He makes disciples of Publicans, that
He too may gain somewhat ... and what? ... the salvation of sinners. If so, we
must blame the physician for stooping over sufferings, and enduring evil odors
that he may give health to the sick; or one who as the Law commands bent down
into a ditch to save a beast that had fallen into it (Cf. Luke 13:15, 14:5).
XV. D) The Logic Of The Divine Incarnation: An Answer to Heretical
Reasoning.
He was
sent, but as man, for He was of a twofold Nature; for He was wearied, and
hungered, and was thirsty, and was in agony, and shed tears, according to the
nature of a corporeal being. And if the expression be also used of Him as God,
the meaning is that the Father’s good pleasure is to be considered a Mission,
for to this He refers all that concerns Himself; both that He may honor the
Eternal Principle, and because He will not be taken to be an antagonistic God.
And whereas it is written both that He was betrayed, and also that He gave
Himself up (Liturgy of St. Mark) and that He was raised up by the Father, and
taken up into heaven; and on the other hand, that He raised Himself and went
up; the former statement of each pair refers to the good pleasure of the
Father, the latter to His own Power. Are you then to be allowed to dwell upon
all that humiliates Him, while passing over all that exalts Him, and to count
on your side the fact that He suffered, but to leave out of the account the
fact that it was of His own will? See what even now the Word has to suffer. By
one set He is honored as God, but is confused with the Father (Sabellian
heresy), by another He is dishonored as mere flesh (Arianism) and severed from
the Godhead. With which of them will He be most angry, or rather, which shall
He forgive, those who injuriously confound Him or those who divide Him? The
former ought to have distinguished Him, and the latter, to have united Him; the
one in number, the other in Godhead. Do you stumble at His flesh? So did the
Jews. Or, do you call Him a Samaritan, and ... I will not say the rest. Do you
disbelieve in His Godhead? This did not do even the demons, O you who are less
believing than demons and more stupid than Jews. Those did perceive that the
name of Son implies equality of rank; these did know that He who drove them out
was God, for they were convinced of it by their own experience. But you will
admit neither the equality nor the Godhead. It would have been better for you
to have been either a Jew or a demoniac (if I may utter an absurdity), than in un-circumcision
and in sound health to be so wicked and ungodly in your attitude of mind.
XVI. Fourth, The Saving Work of the God-man.
A
little later on you will see Jesus submitting to be purified in the River
Jordan for my Purification, or rather, sanctifying the waters by His
Purification (for indeed He had no need of purification Who takes away the sin
of the world) and the heavens split asunder, and witness borne to him by the
Spirit, Who is of one nature with Him (Mat. 3:13,17); you shall see Him tempted
and conquering and served by Angels (Mat. 4:1-11), and healing every sickness
(Mat. 4:23) and every disease, and giving life to the dead (that He would give
life to you who are dead because of your heresy), and driving out demons (Mat.
9:33), sometimes Himself, sometimes by his disciples; and feeding vast
multitudes with a few loaves (Mat. 9:14); and walking dry-shod upon seas (Mat.
9:25); and being betrayed and crucified, and crucifying with Himself my sin;
offered as a Lamb, and offering as a Priest; as a Man buried in the grave, and
as God rising again; and then ascending, and to come again in His own glory. O
what a multitude of high festivals there are in each of the mysteries of the
Christ; all of which have one completion, namely, my perfection and return to
the first condition of Adam.
XVII. Final Invitation To Celebrate Christmas.
Now
then I pray you to accept His Conception, and leap before Him; if not like John
from the womb (Luke 1:41), yet like David, because of the resting of the
XVIII. One thing connected with the Birth
of Christ I would have you hate ... the murder of the infants by Herod (Mat.
2:16). Or rather you must venerate this too, the Sacrifice of the same age as
Christ, slain before the Offering of the New Victim. If He flees into
Amen.