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In sancta lumina

ORATION 17.

On the Holy Lights. A. Again my Jesus, and again a mystery; a mystery not deceptive, nor disorderly, nor of Hellenic error and drunkenness (for so I call their solemnities, and so, I think, does every right-minded person), but a mystery lofty and divine, and one that brings us to the brightness above. For the holy day of the Lights, to which we have come, and which we have been deemed worthy to celebrate today, has for its origin the Baptism of my Christ, the true Light that enlightens every man coming into the world; and it works my purification, and helps that light which we received from above at the beginning, but which we darkened and confused by sin.

B. Therefore, hear the voice of God, which resounds very mightily for me, the initiate and initiator of such things, and may it be so for you: I am the Light of the world. And for this reason, Come to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed, being marked with the true Light. It is a time of rebirth; let us be born from above. It is a time of re-creation; let us put on the first Adam again. Let us not remain what we are, but let us become what we were. The Light shines in the darkness, that is, in this life and in the flesh; and it is pursued by the darkness, but not overtaken—I mean, by the adverse power, which shamelessly springs upon the visible Adam, but encounters God and is defeated; so that we, having put away the darkness, may draw near to the Light, and then become a perfect light, the offspring of the perfect Light. Do you see the grace of the day? Do you see the power of the mystery? Are you not lifted up from the earth? Are you not clearly placed on high, exalted by our voice and spiritual leading? And you will be placed yet higher, when the Word prospers our word.

C. Is this some legal and shadowy purification, profiting by temporary sprinklings, and cleansing the defiled with the ashes of a heifer? Do the Greeks initiate into anything like this? To me all their rites and mysteries are nonsense, a dark invention of demons, 36.337 and a fiction of a miserable mind, aided by time and disguised by myth. For what they worship as true, they cover up as mythical; whereas, if it is true, it should not be called a myth, but shown to be not shameful; but if it is false, it should not be admired, nor should they hold such headstrong and contradictory opinions about the same matter; as if playing games like youths in the marketplace, or truly wretched men, and not discoursing with men who have sense and are worshippers of the Word; even though they spit out this artful and filthy sophistry.

D. These are not the births and thefts of Zeus, the tyrant of the Cretans, even if the Greeks are displeased; nor the sounds and rattles and armed dances of the Curetes, concealing the cry of a weeping god, to escape the notice of his child-hating father; for it was a dreadful thing for him who was swallowed like a stone to be whimpering like a child; nor the mutilations of the Phrygians, and flutes, and Corybantes, and all the madness people enact concerning Rhea, performing for the mother of the gods, and being initiated, such things as are fitting for the mother of such beings; nor for us is some maiden abducted, and Demeter wandering, and introducing certain Celeuses, and Triptolemuses, and serpents, and doing some things, and suffering others. For I am ashamed to give to the day the rite of night, and to make indecency a mystery. Eleusis knows these things, and the initiates of the things that are kept silent, and are truly worthy of silence. Nor is Dionysus

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In sancta lumina

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΙΖʹ.

Εἰς τὰ ἅγια Φῶτα. Αʹ. Πάλιν Ἰησοῦς ὁ ἐμὸς, καὶ πάλιν μυστήριον μυστήριον οὐκ ἀπατηλὸν, οὐδ' ἄκοσμον, οὐδὲ τῆς Ἑλ ληνικῆς πλάνης, καὶ μέθης (οὕτω γὰρ ἐγὼ καλῶ τὰ ἐκείνων σεμνὰ, οἶμαι δὲ, καὶ τῶν εὐφρονούντων ἕκα στος), ἀλλὰ μυστήριον ὑψηλόν τε καὶ θεῖον, καὶ τῆς ἄνω λαμπρότητος πρόξενον. Ἡ γὰρ ἁγία τῶν Φώτων ἡμέρα, εἰς ἣν ἀφίγμεθα, καὶ ἣν ἑορτάζειν ἠξιώμεθα σήμερον, ἀρχὴν μὲν τὸ τοῦ ἐμοῦ Χριστοῦ βάπτισμα λαμβάνει, τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ φωτὸς, τοῦ φωτίζοντος πάν τα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον· ἐνεργεῖ δὲ τὴν ἐμὴν κάθαρσιν, καὶ βοηθεῖ τῷ φωτὶ, ὃ παρ' αὐ τοῦ λαβόντες ἄνωθεν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, ἐκ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐζοφώσαμέν τε καὶ συνεχέαμεν.

Βʹ. Τοιγαροῦν ἀκούσατε θείας φωνῆς, ἐμοὶ μὲν καὶ λίαν σφοδρῶς ἐνηχούσης, τῷ μύστῃ καὶ μυστα γωγῷ τῶν τοιούτων, εἴη δὲ καὶ ὑμῖν· Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, Προσέλθετε πρὸς αὐτὸν, καὶ φωτίσθητε, καὶ τὰ πρόσωπα ὑμῶν οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῇ, τῷ ἀληθινῷ φωτὶ σημειούμενα. Καιρὸς ἀναγεννήσεως γεννηθῶμεν ἄνωθεν. Και ρὸς ἀναπλάσεως· τὸν πρῶτον Ἀδὰμ ἀναλάβω μεν. Μὴ μείνωμεν ὅπερ ἐσμὲν, ἀλλ' ὅπερ ἦμεν γε νώμεθα. Τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, τῷ βίῳ τούτῳ, καὶ τῷ σαρκίῳ καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς σκοτίας διώκε ται μὲν, οὐ καταλαμβάνεται δὲ, τῆς ἀντικειμένης λέγω δυνάμεως, τῷ φαινομένῳ μὲν Ἀδὰμ προσπη δώσης ἐξ ἀναιδείας, τῷ Θεῷ δὲ περιπιπτούσης καὶ ἡττωμένης ἵν' ἡμεῖς τὸ σκότος ἀποθέμενοι, τῷ φω τὶ πλησιάζωμεν, εἶτα καὶ φῶς γενώμεθα τέλειον, τελείου φωτὸς γεννήματα. Ὁρᾶτε τῆς ἡμέρας τὴν χάριν; ὁρᾶτε τοῦ μυστηρίου τὴν δύναμιν; οὐκ ἀπὸ γῆς ἤρθητε; οὐκ ἄνω τέθεισθε σαφῶς ὑψωθέντες ὑπὸ τῆς ἡμετέρας φωνῆς καὶ ἀναγωγῆς; Καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον τεθήσεσθε, ἐπειδὰν εὐοδώσῃ τὸν λόγον ὁ Λόγος.

Γʹ. Μή τις τοιαύτη κάθαρσις νομικὴ καὶ σκιώδης, προσκαίροις ῥαντίσμασιν ὠφελοῦσα, καὶ σποδῷ δαμά λεως ῥαντίζουσα τοὺς κεκοινωμένους; μή τι τοιοῦτο μυσταγωγοῦσιν Ἕλληνες; ὧν λῆρος ἐμοὶ πᾶσα τελε τὴ καὶ μυστήριον, δαιμόνων εὕρημα σκοτεινὸν, 36.337 καὶ διανοίας ἀνάπλασμα κακοδαίμονος, χρόνῳ βοη θούμενον, καὶ μύθῳ κλεπτόμενον. Ἃ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῆ προσκυνοῦσιν, ὡς μυθικὰ συγκαλύπτουσιν· δέον, εἰ μὲν ἀληθῆ, μὴ μύθους ὀνομάζεσθαι, ἀλλ' ὅτι μὴ αἰσχρὰ δείκνυσθαι· εἰ δὲ ψευδῆ, μὴ θαυμάζεσθαι, μηδ' οὕτως ἰταμῶς ἐναντιωτάτας ἔχειν δόξας περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πράγματος· ὥσπερ ἐν ἀγορᾷ μειρακίων παίζοντας, ἢ ἀνδρῶν κακοδαιμόνων ὡς ἀληθῶς, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀνδράσι διαλεγομένους νοῦν ἔχουσι, καὶ Λόγου προσκυνηταῖς· κἂν τὴν ἔντεχνον ταύτην, καὶ ῥυπα ρὰν πιθανότητα διαπτύωσιν.

∆ʹ. Οὐ ∆ιὸς ταῦτα γοναὶ καὶ κλοπαὶ, τοῦ Κρητῶν τυράννου, κἂν Ἕλληνες ἀπαρέσκωνται· οὐ δὲ Κουρήτων ἦχοι, καὶ κρότοι, καὶ ὀρχήσεις ἔν οπλοι, Θεοῦ κλαίοντος ἠχὴν συγκαλύπτουσαι, ἵνα πα τέρα λάθῃ μισότεκνον· δεινὸν γὰρ ἦν ὡς παιδίον κλαυθμυρίζεσθαι, τὸν ὡς λίθον καταποθέντα· οὐδὲ Φρυγῶν ἐκτομαὶ, καὶ αὐλοὶ, καὶ Κορύβαν τες, καὶ ὅσα περὶ τὴν Ῥέαν ἄνθρωποι μαίνον ται, τελοῦντες τῇ μητρὶ τῶν Θεῶν, καὶ τελούμενοι, ὅσα τῇ μητρὶ τῶν τοιούτων εἰκός· οὐδὲ κόρη τις ἡμῖν ἁρπάζεται, καὶ ∆ημήτηρ πλανᾶται, καὶ Κελεούς τινας ἐπεισάγει, καὶ Τριπτολέμους, καὶ δράκοντας, καὶ τὰ μὲν ποιεῖ, τὰ δὲ πάσχει. Αἰσχύνο μαι γὰρ ἡμέρᾳ δοῦναι τὴν νυκτὸς τελετὴν, καὶ ποιεῖν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην μυστήριον. Οἶδεν Ἐλευσὶς ταῦτα, καὶ οἱ τῶν σιωπωμένων, καὶ σιωπῆς ὄντως ἀξίων ἐπόπται. Οὐδὲ ∆ιόνυσος