The Shift from Paganism to Christ

She celebrates festivals, having both a bridegroom and a king in her midst, like a fruit-bearing olive tree in the house of God, shedding leaves and clustering. She celebrates festivals, like a spring orchard belonging to a paradise in which Christ is, the one truly making things flourish, not to judge, but to save the world. In whom Christ is the herb truly healing the sufferings of those who are sick; in whom is the vine, he who says, 'I am the true vine'; in whom is the olive tree, truly pitying those who hope in it; in whom the branch of the root of Jesse, the eternal one, has sprouted without human sowing or tilling; in whom is the eternal spring; in whom are not Physis, Gehenna, Tigris, or Euphrates, but Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who water the paradise of the Church of Christ.

Where all youth today, like a fruit-bearing olive tree holding its olives, ask Christ the merciful; being planted in the house of the Lord, blossoming in his courts in springtime, we celebrate a feast, seeing the legal winter having retreated. Celebrate, Church of Christ, not formally or bodily, but spiritually bestowing. Celebrate festivals, seeing the downfall of idols and having the resurrection of the churches. For with Paul I cry out to you with a holy and great voice: The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new; and indeed, paradoxical.

Therefore rejoice in the Lord, youth of Christ, rejoice; rejoice, Church of Christ, being delighted and made glad, daughter of God. For all glory is yours, as a daughter of the king Christ, both within and without; no longer widow-like, but blossoming as a woman; no longer called by the names of gods because of idolatry, but standing at the right hand and adorned through the knowledge of God; no longer stained by slavish blood, but being sealed by divine blood.

No longer revering Obad, but Emmanuel; no longer glorifying Troy, but the Trinity; no longer honoring Plato, but the Almighty God our God; no longer Hercules the averter of evil, but the Paraclete and Maker of all. You do not worship Aristotle the wise, but God who saved you unto the ends of the ages. Chronos has fallen, because God the Word has become flesh; not from a man through suffering, but appearing from Mary in a divine-human manner.

See the grace of the day; see the brightness of the feast. Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Zion; delight and exult, all the Church of God. Turn your eyes around, and see your children, once scattered among the nations, now gathered together. See the good report of the feast; see the harmony of the people; see every tongue into one glory; see every mouth as one mouth; see those who were once beasts becoming sheep in you; see the celebration of the nations, the imitation of the incorporeal angels, see the harmony, the choir of the incorporeal, see the ranks like the orders of angels.

I see the hymns as the hymns of angels; I see the children as newborn lambs, saying, 'Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes,' to Christ; with whom, having struck loudly with a bright and lion-like hand, shouted with a great voice, and simultaneously rushing forward and saying thanks: 'Behold, I and the children which the Lord has given me,' to the once barren and unknown woman; 'blessed is he who has come,' but indeed coming in the name of the Lord God and appearing to us. The one coming, who is nowhere departing; coming, who is nowhere being mastered; blessed is the one coming, and not being separated from the heavens; blessed is the one coming of his own accord, and again coming in a God-like manner; blessed is the one having come to me in a typical manner as if upon a cheek, like a cherub's cheek.