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On the forerunner of the Lord

On the Forerunner.

59.489 The most flourishing meadows, adorned with golden-haired flowers, decorated with fragrant trees, stirred by sweet-voiced birds, both charm the hearing of men and warm their sight. For as the sun shines its golden rays all around, the refracted gleams flash back fiery splendors. There the twitterings of chattering birds, with pipe-like cries, send forth a clear melody; there the zephyrs of sweet-sounding winds, vying in the circular flights of the birds, shaking the valleys of the cliffs, sing in unison in the image of a lyre; so that the shepherds and herdsmen dwelling in huts, having the lyrical melodies of the musical birds as their pipe-tunes, chirping imitations on many-toned reeds, gently lead their lambs through every delightful place and every pasture.

But there a prize-bearing spring gushes forth streams, while here the honey-dripping teaching of the wisdom of God shines; there the clear songs of musical birds, here the melodies of holy psalms; there the wilderness-loving turtledove, flitting among the trees, with mournful songs signals the fair-hued spring, here John, nourished on locusts and honey, with his desert preachings, or rather spiritual ones, having moved the Churches, trumpets the heavenly spring that has appeared to the world. For in those days, it says, John the Baptist appears, 59.490 preaching in the wilderness, and saying: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In those days. In the demonstrations of Jesus who is God, in the sojourns of the heavenly king, in the shinings forth of the eternal light, In those days John the Baptist appears, preaching in the wilderness. Not in the inhabited world; because the state of mankind was a wilderness, not yet inhabited by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And what did he preach? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. O repentance, that in tears themselves reaps life, and in the bridal veil is adorned with the bridal light! O repentance, accuser of the devil, advocate for those who turn back! And John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins. Let us look around, beloved, at the clothing of John; perhaps his garment may become for us an enigma of salvation. It holds the image of the peoples turning back from the gentiles.

He had, it says, his garment of camel's hair. Scripture often compares the devil to a camel, because of its great bulk, its crookedness, and its vengeful anger. He who saw the watchtower in Isaiah says: I saw a rider on a donkey, and a rider on a camel. He calls Christ the rider on a donkey, since He entered 59.491 into Jerusalem seated on a donkey; the rider on a camel, the antichrist who in the last days comes upon the world through the working of the devil. And John had his garment of camel's hair. For already by the preaching of piety, having turned to himself the gentiles who covered him like hair, and having stripped that one bare, and having made the Church dense, weaving the body of the Church with the unity of faith, he fashioned for himself a mantle of salvation. And he had a leathern girdle about his loins. Scripture mentions the loins and the leathern girdle, so that it might signify that the generative passion of chastity is deadened by the girdle placed around from the outside, made of dead skin. For that of the one hidden within

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In praecursorem domini

Εἰς τὸν Πρόδρομον.

59.489 Οἱ ἀνθηρότατοι λειμῶνες ἄνθεσι χρυσοκόμοις πεποικιλμένοι, δένδρεσι καλλιπνόοις κοσμούμενοι, ὄρνεσι καλλιφώνοις κλονούμενοι, καὶ τὴν ἀκοὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων θέλγουσι, καὶ τὴν ὅρασιν θάλπουσι. Τοῦ γὰρ ἡλίου τὰς χρυσᾶς αὐγὰς κυκλοτερῶς περιστίλβοντος, ἀνακλώμεναι αἱ αἶγλαι πυραυγεῖς ἀνταστράπτουσι λαμπηδόνας. Ἐκεῖ τραυλαὶ λάλων ὀρνίθων, συριγγώδεσι κλαγγαῖς λιγυρὸν ἀποπέμπουσι μέλος· ἐκεῖ ἀνέμων εὐήχων ζέφυροι ἐν ταῖς κυκλότησι τῶν ὀρνέων ἐριζούσαις, τῶν κρημνῶν κοιλάδας σαλεύοντες, ἐν εἰκόνι κιθάρας ὁμοφώνως ᾄδουσιν· ὡς καὶ τοὺς ἐν ταῖς καλύβαις οἰκοῦντας ποιμένας τε καὶ βουνόμους, ἔναυλα ἔχοντας τὰ τῶν μουσικῶν ὀρνίθων λυρικὰ μελῳδήματα, δόναξι πολυφθόγγοις ἀντίμιμα κελαδοῦντας, κατὰ παντὸς τερπνοῦ τόπου καὶ πάσης βοτάνης τὰς ἄρνας πραέως φέρειν.

Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖ μὲν πηγὴ ἀθλοφόρα νάματα βρύει, ἐνταῦθα δὲ μελίστακτον σοφίας Θεοῦ δίδαγμα λάμπει· ἐκεῖ μουσικῶν ὀρνίθων λιγυρίσματα, ἐνταῦθα ψαλμῶν ἁγίων μελῳδήματα· ἐκεῖ τρυγὼν ἡ φιλέρημος δενδροβατοῦσα, γοεροῖς μέλεσι τὸ καλλίχροον ἔαρ σημαίνει, ἐνταῦθα ὁ ἐν ἀκρίσι καὶ μέλιτι τραφεὶς Ἰωάννης, τοῖς ἐρημικοῖς κηρύγμασι, μᾶλλον δὲ πνευματικοῖς, τὰς Ἐκκλησίας κινήσας, τὸ οὐράνιον ἔαρ ἐπιφανὲν τῷ κόσμῳ σαλπίζει. Ἐν γὰρ ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, φησὶ, παραγίνεται Ἰωάννης ὁ Βαπτιστὴς 59.490 κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, καὶ λέγων· Μετανοεῖτε· ἤγγικε γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. Ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις. Ἐν ταῖς Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀποδείξεσιν, ἐν ταῖς τοῦ οὐρανίου βασιλέως ἀποδημίαις, ἐν ταῖς τοῦ ἀϊδίου φωτὸς ἀναλάμψεσιν, Ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις παραγίνεται Ἰωάννης ὁ Βαπτιστὴς κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ. Οὐχὶ ἐν τῇ οἰκουμένῃ· ὅτι ἔρημος ἦν ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατάστασις, μήπω οἰκουμένη ὑπὸ Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου Πνεύματος. Τί δὲ ἐκήρυσσε; Μετανοεῖτε· ἤγγικε γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. Ὢ μετάνοια ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς δάκρυσι τὴν ζωὴν θερίζουσα, καὶ ἐν τῷ νυμφικῷ πέπλῳ τὸ νυμφικὸν φέγγος στολιζομένη! ὢ μετάνοια, διαβόλου κατήγορε, ἐπιστρεφόντων συνήγορε! Εἶχε δὲ ὁ Ἰωάννης τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου, καὶ ζώνην δερματικὴν περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ. Περιβλεψώμεθα, ἀγαπητοὶ, τὸ ἔνδυμα Ἰωάννου· ἴσως τὸ ἐκείνου ἔνδυμα αἴνιγμα ἡμῖν σωτηρίας γένηται. Ἐκεῖνο ἔχει τὴν εἰκόνα τῶν ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐπιστρεφόντων λαῶν.

Εἶχε, φησὶ, τὸ ἔνδυμα ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου. Καμήλῳ πολλάκις παρεικάζει ἡ Γραφὴ τὸν διάβολον, διὰ τὸ πολύογκον καὶ πολύστρεβλον καὶ βαρυμήνιον. Ὁ τὴν σκοπιὰν θεωρήσας ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ λέγει· Εἶδον ἀναβάτην ὄνου, καὶ ἀναβάτην καμήλου. Ἀναβάτην ὄνου λέγει τὸν Χριστὸν, ἐπειδήπερ ὄνῳ καθεσθεὶς εἰσῆλθεν 59.491 εἰς Ἰεροσόλυμα· ἀναβάτην καμήλου, τὸν ἐπ' ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν κατ' ἐνέργειαν τοῦ διαβόλου ἐπιφοιτῶντα τῷ κόσμῳ ἀντίχριστον. Εἶχε δὲ τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου ὁ Ἰωάννης. Ἤδη γὰρ τῷ κηρύγματι τῆς εὐσεβείας τοὺς δίκην τριχῶν καλύπτοντας ἐθνικοὺς πρὸς ἑαυτὸν καταστρέψας, κἀκεῖνον γυμνώσας, καὶ τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν πυκνώσας, τῇ ἑνότητι τῆς πίστεως τὸ σῶμα τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ἐξυφάνας, ἑαυτῷ περιβόλαιον σωτηρίας ἐξειργάσατο. Εἶχε δὲ ζώνην δερματικὴν περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ. Ὀσφύος μνημονεύει καὶ ζώνης δερματικῆς ἡ Γραφὴ, ἵνα τὸ γεννητικὸν πάθος τῆς ἁγνείας διὰ τῆς ἔξωθεν ἐκ νεκροῦ δέρματος περικειμένης ζώνης νενεκρωμένον εἶναι σημαίνῃ. Ἐκείνη γὰρ τῆς ἔνδοθεν κρυπτομένης