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Oratio in diem natalem Christi

OF GREGORY, BISHOP OF NYSSA, ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE SAVIOR

1128 "Blow the trumpet at the new moon," says David, "on the appointed day of our feast." The commands of the God-inspired teaching are certainly a law for those who hear. Therefore, since the appointed day of our feast is present, let us too fulfill the law, becoming trumpeters of the sacred festival. The trumpet of the law, as the apostle bids us to understand, is the word. For he says that the sound of the trumpet must not be indistinct, but clearly articulated in its notes for the clarity of those who hear. Therefore, let us also, brothers, sound a certain bright and far-reaching echo, in no way less honored than the horn. For even the law, prefiguring the truth in the types of the shadow, legislated the sound from the trumpets at the Feast of Tabernacles. And the present subject of the feast is the mystery of the true Feast of Tabernacles. For in this, the human tabernacle is pitched by the one who for our sake put on humanity. In this, our tabernacles that have fallen away through death are again joined together by the one who from the beginning built our dwelling place. Let us also say the words of the psalm, joining the chorus with the loud-voiced David, that "blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." How does he come? Not as through some ship or vehicle, but having crossed over into human life through virginal incorruption. Thus our God, thus the Lord has appeared to us to establish this feast among those who throng even to the horns of the altar.

Certainly, we are not ignorant, brothers, of the mystery in what has been said, that all of creation is in some way a palace of the Master of creation. But since, with the entrance of sin, the mouths of those held fast by evil were stopped up, 1129 and the voice of exultation was silenced, and the harmony of those celebrating was broken, since human creation was not celebrating together with the super-celestial nature, —for this reason came the trumpets of the prophets and apostles, which the law calls horns because their construction is from the true unicorn, which, according to the power of the spirit, sounded the intense word of truth, so that, the hearing of those blocked by sin having been opened, one harmonious feast might come to be through the thronging of the tabernacling of the creation below, echoing together with the powers that project and are set forth around the altar above. For the horns of the intelligible altar are the powers of the intelligible nature that are set forth and project: principalities and authorities and thrones and dominions, to which human nature is joined in the fellowship of the feast through the tabernacling according to the resurrection, being made dense by the renewal of their bodies.

For "to be thronged" is the same as "to be adorned" or "to be clothed," as those who know these things interpret. Come, then, having stirred up our souls for the spiritual dance, let us set David before us as leader and guide and head of our chorus, and let us say with him that sweet voice, which we sang as a hymn just now. And let us take it up again, that "this is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it," —the day in which the darkness begins to diminish and the measures of the night are pushed toward eclipse by the increasing of the light. It was not by some chance, brothers, that such an economy concerning the feast came about automatically, for the divine life to appear now to human life. But a certain mystery through the things that appear is related to the more discerning by the

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Oratio in diem natalem Christi

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥΝΥΣΣΗΣΕΙΣΤΟΓΕΝΕΘΛΙΟΝΤΟΥΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ

1128 Σαλπίσατε ἐν νεομηνίᾳ σάλπιγγί, φησιν ὁ ∆αβὶδ,ἐν εὐσήμῳ ἡμέρᾳ ἑορτῆς ἡμῶν. τὰ δὲ τῆς θεοπνεύστουδιδασκαλία+ς προστάγματα νόμος πάντως ἐστὶτοῖς ἀκούουσιν. οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὴ πάρεστιν ἡ εὔσημοςἡμέρα τῆς ἑορτῆς ἡμῶν, πληρώσωμεν καὶ ἡμεῖςτὸν νόμον σαλπιγκταὶ τῆς ἱερομηνίας γενόμενοι.ἡ δὲ νομικὴ σάλπιγξ, καθὼς κελεύει νοεῖν ὁ ἀπόστολος,ὁ λόγος ἐστί. φησὶ γὰρ μὴ ἄδηλον δεῖν γενέσθαι τὸντῆς σάλπιγγος ἦχον, ἀλλὰ διεσταλμένον τοῖς φθόγγοιςπρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀκουόντων σαφήνειαν. οὐκοῦν ἠχήσωμενκαὶ ἡμεῖς, ἀδελφοὶ, λαμπράν τινα ἠχὴν καὶἐξάκουστον οὐδὲν τῆς κερατίνης ἀτιμοτέραν.καὶ γὰρ καὶ ὁ νόμος ὁ ἐν τοῖς τῆς σκιᾶς τύποιςπροδιαζωγραφῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐν τῇ σκηνοπηγίᾳ τὸνἐκ τῶν σαλπίγγων ἦχον ἐνομοθέτησε. καὶ ἡ παροῦσα τῆς ἑορτῆς ὑπόθεσις τὸ τῆς ἀληθινῆς σκηνοπηγίας ἐστὶμυστήριον. ἐν ταύτῃ γὰρ σκηνοπηγεῖται τὸ ἀνθρώπινονσκήνωμα τῷ δι' ἡμᾶς ἐνδυσαμένῳ τὸν ἄνθρωπον.ἐν ταύτῃ τὰ διαπεπτωκότα ἡμῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ θανάτουσκηνώματα πάλιν συμπήγνυται ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τὸ οἰκητήριον ἡμῶν οἰκοδομήσαντος. εἴπωμεν καὶἡμεῖς τὸ τῆς ψαλμῳδίας τῷ μεγαλοφώνῳ ∆αβὶδσυγχορεύοντες, ὅτι εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐνὀνόματι κυρίου. πῶς ἐρχόμενος; οὐ καθάπερ διὰπλοίου τινὸς ἢ ὀχήματος, διὰ δὲ τῆς παρθενικῆςἀφθορίας ἐπὶ τὸν ἀνθρώπινον βίον διαπεράσας.οὕτως ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν, οὕτως ὁ κύριος ἐπέφανεν ἡμῖνεἰς τὸ συστήσασθαι τὴν ἑορτὴν ταύτην ἐν τοῖςπυκάζουσιν ἕως τῶν κεράτων τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου.

Πάντως δὲ οὐκ ἀγνοοῦμεν, ἀδελφοὶ, τὸ ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοιςμυστήριον, ὅτι πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις ἔν τι τοῦ δεσπότου τῆςκτίσεώς ἐστιν ἀνάκτορον. ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τῆς ἁμαρτίαςἐπεισελθούσης ἐφράγη τῶν τῇ κακίᾳ κεκρατημένων1129 τὰ στόματα καὶ κατεσιγάσθη φωνὴ ἀγαλλιάσεωςκαὶ διεσπάσθη τῶν ἑορταζόντων ἡ συμφωνία τῆςἀνθρωπίνης κτίσεως οὐ συνεορταζούσης τῇ ὑπερκοσμίῳ φύσει, -διὰ τοῦτο ἦλθον αἱ τῶν προφητῶν καὶἀποστόλων σάλπιγγες, ἃς κερατίνας ὁ νόμος φησὶ διὰτὸ εἶναι αὐτῶν τὴν κατασκευὴν ἐκ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦμονοκέρωτος, αἱ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος δύναμινσύντονον τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας ἤχησαν λόγον, ἵνα τῆςἀκοῆς τῶν ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐμπεφραγμένων διανοιχθείσηςμία γένηται σύμφωνος ἑορτὴ διὰ τοῦ πυκασμοῦτῆς σκηνοπηγίας τῆς κάτω κτίσεως πρὸς τὰςἐξεχούσας καὶ προβεβλημένας περὶ τὸ ἄνω θυσιαστήριονδυνάμεις συνεπηχούσης. τὰ γὰρ κέρατα τοῦ νοητοῦθυσιαστηρίου αἱ προβεβλημέναι τε καὶ ἐξέχουσαιτῆς νοερᾶς φύσεως δυνάμεις εἰσὶν ἀρχαί τεκαὶ ἐξουσίαι καὶ θρόνοι καὶ κυριότητες, πρὸς ἃς τῇκοινωνίᾳ τῆς ἑορτῆς συνάπτεται διὰ τῆς κατὰ τὴνἀνάστασιν σκηνοπηγίας ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις τῇἀνακαινώσει τῶν σωμάτων πυκαζομένη.

Τὸ γὰρ πυκάζεσθαι ἴσον ἐστὶ τῷ κοσμεῖσθαι ἡ περιβάλλεσθαι,καθὼς ἑρμηνεύουσιν οἱ ταῦτα γινώσκοντες. ∆εῦτε τοίνυν πρὸς τὴν πνευματικὴν χορείαν τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶνδιεγείραντες ἔξαρχον καὶ καθηγεμόνα καὶ κορυφαῖοντῆς χοροστασίας ἡμῶν τὸν ∆αβὶδ προστησώμεθα καὶ εἴπωμενμετ' ἐκείνου τὴν γλυκεῖαν φωνὴν ἐκείνην, ἣν φθάσαντεςὑμνῳδήσαμεν. καὶ πάλιν αὐτὴν ἀναλάβωμεν, ὅτι αὕτη ἡ ἡμέρα, ἣν ἐποίησεν ὁ κύριος, ἀγαλλιασώμεθακαὶ εὐφρανθῶμεν ἐν αὐτῇ, -ἐν ᾗ μειοῦσθαι τὸ σκότοςἄρχεται καὶ τὰ τῆς νυκτὸς μέτρα τῷ πλεονάζοντιτῆς ἀκτῖνος συνωθεῖται πρὸς ἔκλειψιν. οὐ συντυχικήτις, ἀδελφοί, γέγονε κατὰ τὸ αὐτόματον ἡ τοιαύτηπερὶ τὴν ἑορτὴν οἰκονομία τὸ νῦν ἐπιφανῆναι τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ ζωῇ τὴν θείαν ζωήν. ἀλλά τι μυστήριονδιὰ τῶν φαινομένων τοῖς διορατικωτέροις διηγεῖταιἡ