Felix the prophet David, first announcing to the world by hymns Christ in the flesh upon the instrument. I. O you who abide before the ages and are ever born, even as the Father ever is!—for how could you be said to be, unless the Father is that which the Father is?—O God twice begotten for us, O Christ! whether you are born unbegotten from God, or whether the virgin who bore a child brought you forth to the world both bodily and God: Believing, the people entreats you, that gentle you may hear the resounding voices of hymns, which every age sings in concert to you, O holy Shepherd of your flock. While the faithful flock entreats you that you may remain merciful to them, the people of your name prays to the unbegotten God in you, that the one may abide in the other. Beyond what the human mind can grasp, the Son abides in the Father; and again, he in whose keeping the Father is, worthy is the Son who was begotten into God.
Happy is he who by faith, fully believing, could inwardly attain such great things: that from the incorporeal God the perfect one was begotten forth as God's own. We speak of a great matter, and of the true God: that the Begetter brought forth whatever is within himself, the whole splendour of eternal glory, into the only-begotten God. Hence the one deservedly good would will that very thing which is God to be begotten, apart from envy of himself, into another—transforming himself, as he is, into a living image. In these things the true power of God lies open: that when he has given all things, yet he lacks not those very things which he has given, having all that are his own even when he has given them. Dear offspring of God, to whom belongs all the connate splendour of the Father! Nothing needed to be given to the Begotten, but at once was begotten whatever was of God.
Light shone from Light, and true God subsisted from true God, the only-begotten having no other origin than the unbegotten Father. This is the wondrous work of God: that the eternal, incorruptible God, who lacks an origin because he is everlasting power—that which is God—should out of himself, calmly, beget into God those in whom is good. And thus in the only-begotten God this very thing which was begotten lacks an origin. O happy oneness of the two! And though the one be mingled in the other, thus two make one, since what is in the one is in the two. Yet the Begotten obeys the Father and remains, awe-struck, ready at his every nod; and it is not hard to know what he wills should follow him, in whose keeping is the Father. How great is the Begotten in good things!
For, established at the beginning of all things and founding the ages first, he brought forth the eternal times into motion. God, prior to all things—for through him all things were made—when as yet there was nothing, founded the world in bodily state. But the letter does not allow us, through which we sing of you as the begotten God, to tell your deeds and that you were born in flesh, you who were already God. You we sing in all ways as Lord, King of the heavens and of heavenly glory, as one through whom all things were founded! * * * * * * * * * * II. On the resurrection of Christ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * You deceived cruel Death, O Word made flesh, and you rush wholly, as the living one, into the body of God. You rejoice; you behold him hanging on the wood of the cross, and you claim for yourself the limbs fixed with nails.
This you take on before the pomp of so great a battle: spittings, scourgings, blows, the emptiness of the reed. Death went in triumph, its death consumed—your death, O Death, unknowing to be conquered in the realm of the underworld. The gleaming pool of pallid Styx grows cold, and stiffening Phlegethon knows not to seethe. Light, risen upon the vast night, shines for those below; the savage guard of deep Tartarus trembles too. Death, you feel yourself destroyed by your own law, when you see that you have submitted God to yourself. That body which you hold is not perishable, and corruption has no right in it. Every weakness of our flesh overcomes you; the nature of the flesh is born together with God. Through this flesh I shall ascend, touched together with mine, into the high heavens, rising again in a glorious body.
With what great hopes have I, faithful, believed in Christ, who, born in himself, takes me up through the flesh! I am reborn—O beginnings of a joyful life!—and I live, a Christian, by new laws. This eternal gift of God he grants to the saints: that hereafter they may live in a body conformed to his own. Let the terror of your death at last recede, O Death; the patriarch takes me up joyful into his bosom. I shall live, placed hereafter among the heavenly things, sure that the flesh of God is seated at the right hand. O Christ, having returned victor into your own heavens, be mindful of my flesh, in which you were born. Rising again in this body, joyful I shall sing eternal hymns with the choirs of angels. Once Satan envied me in death: may he behold me reigning with you throughout all ages. III. On the temptations of Christ.
Of the glorious flesh of Adam and of the perishable body, let us sing again in the heavenly Adam the battles, through which of old Satan was first conquered in Adam. The deceitful enemy of the ages and the artificer of dread death, having now sown his viperous counsels throughout the whole world, judges that nothing of hope remains for human salvation. He rejoices in altars, rejoices in temples, rejoices in the gore of the victim; he rejoices in falsehoods, rejoices in defilements, rejoices in the blood of war; he rejoices that the Founder of heaven is unknown to the nations. Amid so great disasters, while he exults over our ruin, he hears glory announced to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of best will. The joyful company of angels, proclaiming these things, terrifies him;
it terrifies him, announcing to the shepherds that Christ is born on earth, and that hence there shall be great joy to peoples in despair. He wanders anxious into diverse quarters at such great matters; boldly he asks who this may be, worthy of such an announcement, beholding nothing beyond what is common—one sprung on earth. Yet he sees what John preaches in the deserts, plunging all in the waters of Jordan unto the repentance which the remission of confessed crimes should follow. Amid the throngs who in multitudes were being plunged, he receives a voice from heaven proclaiming: 'This is my Son; hear him! This is the beloved, in whom I am well pleased.' He sees a man, he sees a body, which had allured Adam; nothing beyond did the voice of honour bring from above; he knows the earthly origin to be subject to the law of death.
For the tempting he sets in motion many arts of ancient fraud; boldly he seeks the time which * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A HYMN CONCERNING CHRIST. Let the band of brethren speak a hymn, let the song resound a hymn; singing together to Christ the King, let us give the praise that is due. You are the Word from the heart of the Father, you the Way, you the Truth; you are called the rod of Jesse, we read of you as the Lion. The right hand of the Father, the mountain and the Lamb, you are the corner-stone, likewise the Bridegroom or the dove, the flame, the shepherd, the door. In the prophets you are found, born in our age; before the ages you were the maker of the first age. Maker of heaven, maker of earth, gatherer of the sea are you, and creator of all things which the Father bids to be born.
Received into the members of the Virgin at Gabriel's announcement, her womb grows with holy offspring, and we are admonished to believe a new thing never before seen: a virgin bringing forth a child. Then the Magi, following the star, first adore the little one, offering frankincense and gold, gifts worthy of a king. Soon it is announced to Herod; envying his power, he then bids the little ones be slain, and made a throng of martyrs. The infant is carried off to be hidden, whither the river Nile flows. He is brought back after Herod, to be nurtured at Nazareth. Many signs, small and grown, he wrought from heaven, which are hidden and which are read before many witnesses; preaching the heavenly kingdom, he proves his words by deeds. The feeble he makes to flourish, the blind he illumines with light, by words he cleanses the disease of leprosy, the dead he raises again.
[The wine that was lacking in the jars—he bids the water be changed at the wedding, the pure wine being retained to be offered when the cup is drunk to.] With five loaves and two fish he feeds five thousand, and gathers up the fragments of the meal in thrice four baskets; every reclining throng bore forth continual praise. He proved twelve men, through whom life is learned. Of these one is found, Judas, the betrayer of Christ; those sent from Annas are directed by the kiss of the betrayer. The innocent one is seized and held, and not resisting is led away; he is set forth, to be assailed by falsehoods, to be handed over to Pontius. The governor sifts the charges brought, finds no crime; but when the crowds of the Jews, for the safety of Caesar, said that Christ must be slain, the holy one is handed over to the crowds, is oppressed with impious words, endures spittings and scourges.
The innocent one is bidden to ascend the cross for the guilty; by the death of the flesh which he bore, he conquers the death of all. Then hanging, he calls with a great cry upon God the Father; death having followed, it loosens the tight bonds of Christ's limbs. The veils of the temple, rent, are spread open; night darkens the world; bodies long shut up are roused from their tombs. Blessed Joseph was present; the body, anointed with myrrh and bound in rough linen, he laid to rest with grief. Annas the chief bids soldiers guard the body, that he might see whether Christ would confirm what he had promised. An angel of God, arrayed in white raiment—by which brightness of splendour he surpassed the silken fleece—as they trembled, Removes the stone from the sepulchre; Christ rises whole; the lying Judaea sees this, and denies it, though it has seen.
The women are first admonished that the Saviour lives; them, sorrowful, he himself greets, and fills the sad ones with joy. And he announces to the apostles that he, raised from the dead by the Father's right hand, has returned on the third day. Soon he is seen by the blessed brethren whom he had proved; while they doubt that he had returned, he enters through closed doors. Teaching, he gives the precepts of the law, gives the divine Spirit, the perfect Spirit of God, the bond of the Trinity. He commands that throughout the whole world believers be baptized, calling upon the name of the Father, confessing the Son. By mystical faith he reveals those baptized with the Holy Spirit, baptized in the font, renewed, made sons of God. Before the light, O band of brethren, let us sing together the glory whereby we are taught that we shall be in an everlasting age.
[The cock's crow, the cock's clapping, feels the day at hand; we, singing and praying, believe the things to come. Let us sing together the immeasurable majesty unceasingly; before the light let us announce Christ the King to the age, Before the light chanting to Christ the King and Lord; and those who rightly believe in him shall reign with him. Glory to the unbegotten Father, glory to the only-begotten, together with the Holy Spirit, unto everlasting ages.]