The Nativity of Christ

On the nativity of the Lord, Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, for the birthdays of the great God and Savior of us, Jesus Christ.

This spiritual and bright meadow, variegated with the beauty of heavenly flowers and fragrant with apostolic and unblemished offerings, seems to me to have a type of the divine nearby. For just as that sensible and incorruptible place is brightened with beauty by incorruptible trees and immortal fruits and myriads of other superlative things, so also this most god-like assembly of the sacredly appropriate church is brightened with intelligible and unspeakable mysteries, of which the secret is to us unshakeable and well-founded, unblemished and salutary beginning and most venerable summit; it is today the feast of the birthdays of Christ, our true God, the holy ones, through which the old things have been prophetically typified and the new things have been proclaimed loudly throughout the whole inhabited world; through which heaven has been stretched out and the earth has been lifted to divine height; through which paradise has been given to men and the dominion of death has been abolished; through which the power of corruption has been trampled and the destructive awe of the devil has been stilled; through which human passions have been extinguished, the life of angelic lordship has been renewed, and the wandering of demons has been driven away, and the wisdom of God and the all-pervading presence are remembered. For he says, 'Not an angel, nor an elder, but the Lord himself will come and save them' 1 Thess 4:16. O unsearchable wealth of divine gospels! O unutterable knowledge of all-wise mysteries! O inexhaustible treasure of divine and unblemished gifts! O countless grace of providential philanthropy! For he says, 'The Lord himself will come and save us' Matt 24:30.

In what way will he come to us, O divine prophet, you who preach the Lord? For I shall speak boldly in this matter to you, having been emboldened by the character of the men of old, who did not celebrate this all-praised festival, nor having experienced the new and all-pervading offspring of the unblemished Virgin, nor having even seen the herald of the heavenly, I say, the most god-like star; nor having seen the movements of the holy angels, nor having heard the divine voices which, while unprofanely rejoicing about the Savior having been born, the priests and shepherds announced to the priests, nor having understood the gifts of the magi and the divine worship; having taken up the character of those, I ask you about the manner of the presence. For the saying struck them greatly, and they were preparing their minds to stand against the smallness of the awe of the multitude. For they did not have the capacity to conceive that the immortal God would come to men in a terrestrial way, and the intangible to the sensible, and the invisible to the visible. For how could they have thought that God would come, and how would he be seen? It seemed to some previously that he appeared to Abraham through angels, or again that he appeared to Moses through fire in the bush, or in whatever way he appeared to Isaiah through the seraphim, or to Ezekiel through the cherubim. For thus all have testified to having seen God in diverse ways. Which, then, of these ways is worthy of the vision of God? It is clear that not even one. From where...