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having fallen to the lowest earthly state, He wisely and justly works out our salvation. For He did not wish to grant us freedom by authority alone, nor to arm mercy alone against him who had enslaved human nature, so that he might not call that mercy unjust, but He devises a way both full of love for humanity and adorned with justice. For having united the defeated nature to Himself, He brings it into the struggles, and prepares it to recall the defeat, and to overcome the one who long ago wickedly conquered, and to destroy the tyranny of the one who had bitterly enslaved it, and to regain its former freedom. For this reason the Lord Christ is born of a woman like us, but the birth had something more, virginity. For a virgin was she who both conceived and gave birth to the Lord Christ. And when you hear "Christ," understand the only-begotten Son, the Word, begotten of the Father before the ages, clothed in human nature, and do not consider the proclaimed economy to be a debasement of God; for nothing can defile the undefiled nature. For if the sun, being a body, for it is visible 83.749 and subject to dissolution, as it passes through dead bodies, and foul-smelling mud, and many other things that emit a bad odor, nothing is able to defile it, much more can none of these things defile the Maker of the sun, and the Creator of all things, the incorporeal, the invisible, the unchangeable, the one who is always the same. And that these things are so, let us understand it thus. We both say and believe His nature to be unlimited. For I have heard the one who says: "Do not I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?" And: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." And: "Who has measured the water in the hollow of his hand, and the heaven with a span, and the whole earth in a handful?" And as many such things as are testified." And the blessed David cried out: "In his hand are the ends of the earth." And the divine Paul: "For in him we live, and move, and have our being." If, then, we live, and move, and have our being in him, according to the voice of the Apostle, there is no part of creation deprived of God. But in creation some things are holy, and some profane, and some are full of fragrance, and some of foul odor; and of people, some are adorned with piety, while others wallow in unholy deeds; but He who fills all things, "takes pleasure in those who fear him, but hates all workers of iniquity, and will destroy all who speak falsehood, and the Lord abhors the man of blood and deceit, and the evil man will not dwell with him." Nothing, therefore, harms the undefiled one. For if those who practice the art of medicine, in treating wounds, do not take on those wounds, but rather work out health for the sick and derive no harm from it, much more did God, the master craftsman, having a nature that is impassible, and beyond change, and not admitting of alteration, draw absolutely no defilement from our healing. Let us marvel, then, that He entrusted our healing not to angels, but that He Himself undertook the healing of humanity. Thus, therefore, having been born, the Lord Christ draws from his mother's breast just as we do, but is placed in a manger, the table of irrational animals, both accusing the irrationality of humans and revealing his own love for humanity, that, being a provider as God, He also becomes food in His humanity for humans, who had been sick with great irrationality. But now that human nature has cast off its irrationality and taken up its rationality again, the mystical table receives it, becoming a type of that manger, and teaching men that, "When man was in honor, he did not understand, but was compared to the foolish beasts, and was made like them." Manger that divine 83.752 and spiritual

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γησίαν ἐσχάτην ἐκπεπτωκότας, σοφῶς καὶ δικαίως τὴν ἡμετέραν πραγματεύεται σωτηρίαν. Οὐ γὰρ ἠθέλησεν ἐξουσίᾳ μόνῃ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἡμῖν χαρί σασθαι, οὐδὲ ἔλεον μόνον ὁπλίσαι κατὰ τοῦ ἐξανδρα ποδίσαντος τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὴν φύσιν, ἵνα μὴ ἄδικον ἐκεῖνος προσαγορεύῃ τὸν ἔλεον, ἀλλὰ μηχανᾶται πόρον καὶ φιλανθρωπίας γέμοντα, καὶ δικαιοσύνῃ κεκοσμημένον. Αὐτὴν γὰρ ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἡτ τηθεῖσαν φύσιν ἑνώσας, εἰς τοὺς ἀγῶνας εἰσάγει, καὶ παρασκευάζει τὴν ἧτταν ἀνακαλέσαι, καὶ τὸν κακῶς πάλαι νενικηκότα καταγωνίσασθαι, καὶ τοῦ πικρῶς δουλωσαμένου καταλῦσαι τὴν τυραννίδα, καὶ τὴν προτέραν ἐλευθερίαν ἀναλαβεῖν. Τούτου χάριν ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς, τίκτεται μὲν ἐκ γυναικὸς ὁμοίως ἡμῖν, εἶχε δέ τι πλέον ὁ τόκος, τὴν παρθε νίαν. Παρθένος γὰρ ἦν ἡ κυήσασά τε καὶ ὠδίνασα τὸν ∆εσπότην Χριστόν. Χριστὸν δὲ ὅταν ἀκούσῃς, νόει τὸν πρὸ αἰώνων ἐκ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα μονο γενῆ Υἱὸν Λόγον, ἀνθρωπείαν περικείμενον φύσιν, καὶ μὴ νομίσῃς εὐτέλειαν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν κηρυττο μένην οἰκονομίαν· οὐδὲν γὰρ μολύνειν δύναται τὴν ἀκήρατον φύσιν. Εἰ γὰρ τὸν ἥλιον, σῶμα ὄντα, ὁρατός 83.749 τε γάρ ἐστι, καὶ λύσιν ἐπιδέχεται, διὰ σωμάτων παριόντα νεκρῶν, καὶ ἰλύος δυσώδους, καὶ πολλῶν ἑτέρων δυσοσμίαν ἀφιέντων, οὐδὲν ἰσχύει μιᾶ ναι, πολλῷ μᾶλλον τοῦ ἡλίου τὸν Ποιητὴν, καὶ τὸν τῶν ἁπάντων ∆ημιουργὸν, τὸν ἀσώματον, τὸν ἀό ρατον, τὸν ἀναλλοίωτον, τὸν ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχοντα, οὐδὲν τῶν τοιούτων μολῦναι δύναται. Καὶ ὅτι ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει, νοήσωμεν οὑτωσί. Ἀπεριόριστον αὐτοῦ τὴν φύσιν εἶναι καὶ φαμὲν καὶ πιστεύομεν. Ἤκουσα γὰρ τοῦ λέγοντος· «Μὴ οὐχὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐγὼ πληρῶ, λέγει Κύριος;» Καί· «Ὁ οὐ ρανός μοι θρόνος, ἡ δὲ γῆ ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν μου.» Καί· «Τίς ἐμέτρησε τῇ χειρὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν σπιθαμῇ, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν δρακί;» Καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα μαρτυρεῖται.» Καὶ ὁ μακάριος ∆αβὶδ ἐβόα· «Ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ τὰ πέρατα τῆς γῆς.» Καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος· «Ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ ζῶμεν, καὶ κινούμεθα, καὶ ἐσμέν.» Εἰ τοίνυν ἐν αὐτῷ ζῶμεν, καὶ κινούμεθα, καὶ ἐσμὲν, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου φωνὴν, οὐδὲν ἔστι τῆς κτίσεως μό ριον ἐστερημένον Θεοῦ. Ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ κτίσει τὰ μὲν ἔστιν ἅγια, τὰ δὲ βέβηλα, καὶ τὰ μὲν εὐωδίας, τὰ δὲ δυσωδίας μεστά· καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, οἱ μὲν εὐσεβείᾳ κοσμοῦνται, οἱ δὲ ἀνοσιουργίᾳ ἐγκαλινδοῦνται· ὁ δὲ πάντα πληρῶν, «Εὐδοκεῖ μὲν ἐν τοῖς φοβουμένοις αὐτὸν, μισεῖ δὲ πάντας τοὺς ἐργαζομένους τὴν ἀνο μίαν, καὶ ἀπολεῖ πάντας τοὺς λαλοῦντας τὸ ψεῦδος, καὶ ἄνδρα αἱμάτων καὶ δόλιον βδελύσσεται Κύριος, καὶ οὐ παροικεῖ αὐτῷ πονηρευόμενος.» Οὐδὲν τοι γαροῦν τῷ ἀκηράτῳ λυμαίνεται. Εἰ γὰρ οἱ τὴν ἰατρι κὴν μετερχόμενοι τέχνην, οὐ μεταλαμβάνουσι τραυ μάτων τραύματα θεραπεύοντες, ἀλλ' ὑγίειαν μὲν πραγματεύονται τοῖς ἀῤῥωστοῦσι, βλάβην δὲ οὐδε μίαν ἐκεῖθεν πορίζονται, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὁ ἀριστο τέχνης Θεὸς ἀπαθῆ τὴν φύσιν ἔχων, καὶ τροπῆς ὑπερ τέραν, καὶ ἀλλοίωσιν οὐ δεχομένην, οὐδένα παν τελῶς ἐκ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἰατρείας εἵλκυσε μολυσμόν. Θαυμάσωμεν τοίνυν αὐτὸν οὐκ ἀγγέλοις τὴν ἡμετέ ραν ἐπιτρέψαντα θεραπείαν, ἀλλ' αὐτὸν τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀναδεξάμενον ἰατρείαν. Οὕτω τοιγαροῦν γεννηθεὶς ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς, ἕλκει μὲν μητρῴαν θηλὴν παραπλησίως ἡμῖν, τίθε ται δὲ ἐπὶ φάτνης τῆς τῶν ἀλόγων τραπέζης, καὶ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀλογίας κατηγορῶν, καὶ τὴν οἰ κείαν φιλανθρωπίαν παραδηλῶν, ὅτι τροφεὺς ὑπάρ χων ὡς Θεὸς, καὶ τροφὴ γίνεται κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπειον τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τῶν τὴν πολλὴν ἀλογίαν νενοση κότων. Ἀλλὰ νῦν τῆς ἀνθρωπείας φύσεως τὴν ἀλο γίαν ἀποβαλούσης, καὶ τὸ λογικὸν ἀναλαβούσης, ἡ μυστικὴ αὐτὴν ὑποδέχεται τράπεζα, τύπος ἐκείνης γινομένη τῆς φάτνης, καὶ διδάσκουσα τοὺς ἀνθρώ πους, ὡς «Ἡνίκα ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐν τιμῇ ἦν οὐ συν ῆκεν, ἀλλὰ παρασυνεβλήθη τοῖς κτήνεσι τοῖς ἀνοή τοις, καὶ ὡμοιώθη αὐτοῖς.» Φάτνη τὴν θείαν ἐκεί 83.752 νην καὶ πνευματικὴν