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In conceptionem venerabilis praecursoris (homilia 16)

Of Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, a discourse on the conception of the honorable Forerunner.

1 All the leapings of the God-bearing prophets are great and most glorious of all things; for with God they move their feet and work their hands from the spirit; the immaterial Word and Son, both Christ and God, is brought forth on their tongue, that Word who composed the beauties of heaven, and forged the lightning of the solar chariots, appointed monthly horns for the moon, yoked and unyoked the harmony of the stars, having devised a proper course for each, and having commanded for them all a common and single path, He did not leave the clouds to fly unbridled, but as the season calls, and the fruit of the fields seeks, and the farmer demands and desires and prays, and all those below send embassies to the one above.

2 He himself said to the sea: “Leap and rage; and let the waves crest but be broken within you.” Let it be frightening, therefore, so that the seafarer may not acquire forgetfulness of the creator; but let it not sink the merchant, so that the element may not become a loss to the heir. He himself apportions to the dry land the flowers, the plants, the fruits, the shoots, and honored each country with the exceptional goods that spring up, and showed the whole earth as one body divided in many places into many members. He himself apportions the flutes to the prophets and divides the pipes and forges the trumpets, works the cymbals and joins the drums, distributes the lots and allots the gifts of grace.

3 And John the Baptist has been allotted a double and more glorious portion, since being young he forced the times, he ran past the limits of nature, and the belly did not have the strength to contain the child, the womb was not able to enclose the prophet. He had no utterance, and he filled the whole earth with glorious words. The tongue had no flute, and the melody reached the inhabited world. The trumpet of the mouth was without a mouthpiece, and the sound of the doctrines took hold of heaven, and the infant, having such confidence in the potter, strengthened the clay. The time had not come, nor had the birth arrived, the pains were not present, the months were not fulfilled, and the infant without a tongue spoke to the child, and used his leapings instead of some flutes, and he kicked the womb like a drum, and running around the belly he struck it like a cymbal, and found for himself a lyre pure, broad, well-toned, with strings of the belly, and commanded his mother to say to Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

4 “Blessed are you among women,” because you have loosed the bonds, you have freed nature, you have relaxed the birth-pangs of Eve, you have set Adam above necessities. “Blessed are you among women;” for because of you the barren woman is a mother, and the infant speaks clearly, and the child utters more than orators, and he who is not yet a lisper has been shown to be an evangelist. “And blessed is the fruit of your womb.” I am a voice and thunder, a bridesman and a lamp, a mediator and a herald, a prophet and an apostle, a trumpeter of the gift of life, a leveler of a road having no stumbling block, a baptist seen in the flesh, a forerunner of a king whose step is everywhere, whose throne is borne by all the elements. All are his bodyguards,

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In conceptionem venerabilis praecursoris (homilia 16)

Ησυχίου, πρεσβυτέρου Ἱεροσολύμων, λόγος εἰς τὴν σύλληψιν τοῦ τιμίου Προδρόμου.

1 Πάντα μεγάλα καὶ πάντων ἐνδοξότατα τῶν θεοφόρων προ φητῶν ὑπάρχει

τὰ σκιρτήματα· σὺν τῷ θεῷ γὰρ κινοῦσι τοὺς πόδας καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἐνεργοῦντες ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος· ἄϋλος αὐτοῖς ὁ Λόγος καὶ υἱός, Χριστός τε καὶ θεός, ἐν τῇ γλώσσῃ προσφέρεται, Λόγος ἐκεῖνος ὅστις τὰ κάλλη τοῦ οὐρανοῦ συνέ θηκεν, καὶ τῶν ἡλιακῶν ὀχημάτων τὴν ἀστραπὴν ἐχάλκευσεν, ἔταξε μηνιαῖα τῇ σελήνῃ τὰ κέρατα, ἔζευξε τὴν ἁρμονίαν τῶν ἄστρων καὶ διέζευξεν, δρόμον ἴδιον τεχνασάμενος ἑκάστῳ, κοινὴν πᾶσιν ὁδὸν καὶ μίαν ἐντειλάμενος αὐτοῖς, οὐκ ἀφῆκε τὰς νεφέλας ἀχαλινώτους πέτασθαι, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ καιρὸς καλεῖ, καὶ τῶν ἀγρῶν ὁ καρπὸς ἐπιζητεῖ, καὶ ὁ γεωργὸς ἀπαιτεῖ καὶ ποθεῖ καὶ προσ εύχεται, καὶ πάντες οἱ κάτω πρὸς τὸν ἄνω πρεσβεύονται.

2 Αὐτὸς εἶπεν τῇ θαλάσσῃ· «Σκίρτα καὶ μαίνου· καὶ κορυφού σθω μὲν ἀλλ' ἐν σοὶ συντριβέσθω τὰ κύματα.» Φοβείτω τοίνυν, ἵνα μὴ λήθην ὁ πελαγοδρόμος τοῦ δημιουργοῦ κτήσηται· μὴ βολιζέτω δὲ τὸν ἔμπορον, ἵνα μὴ τὸ στοιχεῖον ἐπιζήμιον τῷ κληρονόμῳ γένηται. Αὐτὸς τῇ ξηρᾷ μερίζει τὰ ἄνθη, τὰ φυτά, τοὺς καρπούς, τὰ βλαστήματα, καὶ χώραν ἑκάστην τοῖς ἀνατέλ λουσιν ἐξαιρέτως ἀγαθοῖς ἐτίμησεν, καὶ τὴν γῆν ὅλην ἓν σῶμα μέλεσι πολλοῖς πολλαχοῦ μεριζόμενον ἔδειξεν. Αὐτὸς τοῖς προ φήταις μερίζει τοὺς αὐλοὺς καὶ διαιρεῖ τὰς σύριγγας καὶ χαλκεύει τὰς σάλπιγγας, ἐνεργεῖ τὰ κύμβαλα καὶ ἀρθροῖ τὰ τύμπανα, δια νέμει τοὺς κλήρους καὶ κληροῖ τὰ χαρίσματα.

3 Καὶ διπλῆν καὶ ἐνδοξοτέραν ὁ βαπτιστὴς Ἰωάννης τὴν χώραν κεκλήρωται, ἐπειδὴ νέος ὢν τοὺς καιροὺς ἐβιάζετο, παρέ τρεχε τὰ τῆς φύσεως ὅρια, καὶ κατέχειν ἡ γαστὴρ τὸ παιδίον οὐκ ἴσχυεν, ἡ μήτρα συγκλείειν τὸν προφήτην οὐκ ἠδύνατο. Οὐκ ἦν αὐτῷ φθέγμα, καὶ λόγων ἐνδόξων ὅλην τὴν γῆν ἐπλή ρωσεν. Αὐλὸν οὐκ εἶχεν ἡ γλῶττα, καὶ τὸ μέλος τὴν οἰκουμένην ἔφθασεν. Ἄστομος ἡ σάλπιγξ ὑπῆρχεν ἡ τοῦ στόματος, καὶ τῶν δογμάτων ὁ ἦχος τὸν οὐρανὸν κατέλαβεν, καὶ τοσοῦτον τῷ κεραμεῖ τεθαρρηκὸς τὸ βρέφος τὸν πηλὸν ἐνεδυνάμωσεν. Ὁ καιρὸς οὐκ ἦλθεν, οὐδὲ ὁ τόκος ἔφθασεν, αἱ ὠδῖνες οὐ παρῆσαν, οἱ μῆνες οὐ πεπλήρωνται, καὶ τὸ βρέφος ἄνευ τῆς γλώττης τῷ παιδὶ ἐλάλει, καὶ τοῖς σκιρτήμασι <ἀν>τὶ αὐλῶν τινῶν ἐκέχρητο, καὶ ἐ λάκτιζεν τὴν μήτραν ὥσπερ τύμπανον, καὶ τὴν γαστέρα περι τρέχων οἷα κύμβαλον ἔκρουεν, καὶ λύραν εὗρεν αὑτῷ καθαράν, πλατεῖαν, εὔτονον, κοιλιόχορδον, καὶ λέγειν τὴν μητέρα πρὸς τὴν Μαριὰμ ἐπέταττεν· «Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί, καὶ εὐλο γημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου.»

4 «Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί», ὅτι τοὺς δεσμοὺς ἔλυσας, τὴν φύσιν ἠλευθέρωσας, τῆς Εὔας τὰς ὠδῖνας ἐχαύνωσας, τὸν Ἀδὰμ τῶν ἀναγκῶν ἀνώτερον κατέστησας. «Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί»· διὰ σὲ γὰρ ἡ στεῖρα μήτηρ, καὶ τρανὰ τὸ βρέφος λαλεῖ, καὶ τὸ παιδίον ὑπὲρ ῥήτορας φθέγγεται, καὶ ὁ μήπω ψελλιστὴς εὐαγγε λιστὴς ἀναδέδεικται. «Καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου.» Ἐγὼ φωνὴ καὶ βροντή, νυμφαγωγὸς καὶ λύχνος, μεσίτης καὶ κῆρυξ, προφήτης καὶ ἀπόστολος, σαλπιστὴς τοῦ τῆς ζωῆς χαρίσματος, ὁμαλιστὴς ὁδοῦ μηδὲν ἐχούσης πρόσκομμα, βαπ τιστὴς πρὸς σαρκὸς θεωρούμενος, πρόδρομος βασιλέως οὗ τὸ βῆμα πανταχοῦ, ὁ θρόνος ὑπὸ πάντων τῶν στοιχείων βαστάζεται. ∆ορυφοροῦσι πάντες,