ORATION ON THE THEOPHANY By Saint Gregory Nanzianzen ( 1 )
From Nicene &
Post-Nicene Fathers,
Second Series,
Oration 38
Volume 7, Page 345
Before reading this article, I would like to give an introduction to help you understand the full message of St.
Gregory Nanzianzen.
1- St. Gregory is one of the saints
lived in the period of the golden era of the Fathers of the Church, during the
Fourth and Fifth century, where great teachers of the church lived, such as St.
Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, and St.
Athanasius (of Alexandria). Some scientist considered this oration as the
best of all St. Gregory's oration.
2- This oration was taken from one of the famous sources of the Fathers'
writings in English, the Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers. This series
was historically arranged around year 325, when the famous ecumenical council
of Nicea took place. It has the following series:
a- Nicene and Ante-Nicene Fathers (Writings from the Apostolic Age until the
Council of Nicea). It has eight volumes.
b- Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series. It includes the writings of
both St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom.
c- Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series. It includes the other
writings that were written after the council of Nicea.
3- I did not change the words of the oration, simply to let you get used to
read this old translation. It will be hard to understand first, but very
soon you will comprehensive it and enjoy it.
4- If you are not a person who enjoys reading from a screen, you may print it.
The oration is divided into small sections. So, you don't need to finish
reading it in one time, but you may read one section or more every day until
you finish it.
5- Please pay attention to the words. They are not just beautiful
description, they have deep spiritual meaning. I will give you one example from
his oration, "Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for
this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God - that putting
off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we
might live in Christ, being born with Christ and crucified with Him and buried
with Him and rising with Him." Have you noticed here how he invited
us to born with Christ, crucified with Him and rise from the dead with Him.
6- The following introduction gives you a history of celebration of the
Epiphany in the early church. You will find it also in the same volume.
INTRODUCTION
THE Title of this Oration has given rise to a doubt whether it was preached on
Dec. 25, 380, or on Jan. 6, 381. The word Theophania is well known as a name
for the Epiphany; which, however, according to Schaff, was originally a
celebration both of the Nativity and the Baptism of our Lord. The two
words seem both to have been used in the simplest sense of the Manifestation of
God, and certainly were applied to Christmas Day. Thus Suidas, "The
Epiphany is the Incarnation of the Savior;" and Epiphanius (Haer., 53),
"The Day of the Epiphany is the day on which Christ was born according to
the flesh." But S. Jerome applies the word to the Baptism of Christ;
"The day of the Epiphany is still venerable; not, as some think, on
account of His Birth in the flesh; for then He was hidden, not manifested; but
it agrees with the time at which it was said, This is My beloved Son (In Ezech.
I.). There is also a Sermon, attributed to S. Chrysostom, "On the Baptism
of Christ," in which it is expressly denied that the name Theophany
applies to Christmas. The Oration itself, however, contains evidence to show
that the Festival of our Lord's Birth was kept at the earlier date; for in c.
16 the Preacher says, "A little later you shall see Jesus submitting to be
purified in the river Jordan for my purification." And another piece of
evidence occurs in the oration In Sancta Lumina, c. 14, "At His Birth we
duly kept festival, both I the leader of the hefeast,andyou. Now we are come to
another action of Christ and another Mystery."
ORATION 38 ON THE
THEOPHANY, OR BIRTHDAY OF CHRIST.
I. CHRIST IS BORN, glorify ye Him. Christ from heaven, go ye out to meet Him.
Christ on earth; be ye exalted. Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth; and
that I may join both in one word, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be
glad, for Him Who is of heaven and then of earth. Christ in the flesh, rejoice
with trembling and with joy; with trembling because of your sins, with joy
because of your hope. Christ of a Virgin; O ye Matrons live as Virgins, that ye
may be Mothers of Christ. Who doth not worship Him That is from the beginning?
Who doth not glorify Him That is the Last?
II. Again the darkness is past; again Light is made; again Egypt is punished
with darkness; again Israel is enlightened by a pillar. The people that sat in
the darkness of ignorance, let it see the Great Light of full knowledge. Old
things are passed away, behold all things are become new.The letter gives way,
the Spirit comes to the front. The shadows flee away, the Truth comes in upon
them. Melchisedec is concluded. He that was without Mother becomes without
Father (without Mother of His former state, without Father of His second). The
laws of nature are upset; the world above must be filled. Christ commands it,
let us not set ourselves against Him. O clap your hands together all ye people,
because unto us a Child is born, and a Son given unto us, Whose Government is
upon His shoulder (for with the Cross it is raised up), and His Name is called
The Angel of the Great Counsel of the Father. Let John cry, Prepare ye the way
of the Lord: I too will cry the power of this Day. He Who is not carnal is
Incarnate; the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, and today, and forever. Let the Jews be offended, let the Greeks
deride; let heretics talk till their tongues ache. Then shall they
believe, when they see Him ascending up into heaven; and if not then, yet when
they see Him coming out of heaven and sitting as Judge.
III Of these on a future occasion; for the present the Festival is the
Theophany or Birth-day, for it is called both, two titles being given to the
one thing. For God was manifested to man by birth. On the one hand Being, and
eternally Being, of the Eternal Being, above cause and word, for there was no
word before The Word; and on the other hand for our sakes also Becoming, that
He Who gives us our being might also give us our Well-being, or rather might
restore us by His Incarnation, when we had by wickedness fallen from
well-being. The name Theophany is given to it in reference to the
Manifestation, and that of Birthday in respect of His Birth.
IV. This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today,
the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the
more proper expression) that we might go back to God - that putting off the old
man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in
Christ, being born with Christ and crucified with Him and buried with Him and
rising with Him. For I must undergo the beautiful conversion, and as the painful
succeeded the more blissful, so must the more blissful come out of the painful.
For where sin abounded Grace did much more abound; and if a taste condemned us,
how much more doth the Passion of Christ justify us? Therefore let us keep the
Feast, not after the manner of a heathen festival, but after a godly sort; not
after the way of the world, but in a fashion above the world; not as our own
but as belonging to Him Who is ours, or rather as our Master's; not as of
weakness, but as of healing; not as of creation, but of re-creation.
V. And how shall this be? Let us not adorn our porches, nor arrange dances, nor
decorate the streets; let us not feast the eye, nor enchant the ear with music,
nor enervate the nostrils with perfume, nor prostitute the taste, nor indulge
the touch, those roads that are so prone to evil and entrances for sin; let us
not be effeminate in clothing soft and flowing, whose beauty consists in its
uselessness, nor with the glittering of gems orthe sheen of gold or the tricks
of color, belying the beauty of nature, and invented to do despite unto the
image of God; Not in rioting and drunkenness, with which are mingled, I know
well, chambering and wantonness, since the lessons which evil teachers give are
evil; or rather the harvests of worthless seeds are worthless. Let us not set
up high beds of leaves, making tabernacles for the belly of what belongs to
debauchery. Let us not appraise the bouquet of wines, the kickshaws of cooks,
the great expense of unguents. Let not sea and land bring us as a gift their
precious dung, for it is thus that I have learnt to estimate luxury; and let us
not strive to outdo each other in intemperance (for to my mind every
superfluity is intemperance, and all which is beyond absolute need), - and this
while others are hungry and in want, who are made of the same clay and in the
same manner.
VI. Let us leave all these to the Greeks and to the pomps and festivals of the
Greeks, who call by the name of gods beings who rejoice in the reek of
sacrifices, and who consistently worship with their belly; evil inventors and
worshippers of evil demons. But we, the Object of whose adoration is the Word,
if we must in some way have luxury, let us seek it in word, and in the Divine
Law, and in histories; especially such as are the origin of this Feast; that
our luxury may be akin to and not far removed from Him Who hath called us
together. Or do you desire (for today I am your entertainer) that I should set
before you, my good Guests, the story of these things as abundantly and as
nobly as I can, that ye may know how a foreigner can feed the natives of the
land, and a rustic the people of the town, and one who cares not for luxury
those who delight in it, and one who is poor and homeless those who are eminent
for wealth? We will begin from this point; and let me ask of you who delight in
such matters to cleanse you mind and your ears and your thoughts, since our
discourse is to be of God and Divine; that when you depart, you may have had
the enjoyment of delights that really fade not away. And this same discourse
shall be at once both very full and very concise, that you may neither be
displeased at its deficiencies, nor find it unpleasant through satiety.
VII. God always was, and always is, and always will be. Or rather, God always
Isaiah For Was and Will be are fragments of our time, and of changeable nature,
but He is Eternal Being. And this is the Name that He gives to Himself when
giving the Oracle to Moses in the Mount. For in Himself He sums up and contains
all Being, having neither beginning in the past nor end in the future; like
some great Sea of Being, limitless and unbounded, transcending all conception
of time and nature, only adumbrated by the mind, and that very dimly and
scantily... not by His Essentials, but by His Environment; one image being got
from one sourceand another from another, and combined into some sort of
presentation of the truth, which escapes us before we have caught it, and takes
to flight before we have conceived it, blazing forth upon our Master-part, even
when that is cleansed, as the lightning flash which will not stay its course,
does upon our sight... in order as I conceive by that part of it which we can
comprehend to draw us to itself (for that which is altogether incomprehensible
is outside the bounds of hope, and not within the compass of endeavor), and by
that part of It which we cannot comprehend to move our wonder, and as an object
of wonder to become more an object of desire, and being desired to purify, and
by purifying to make us like God; so that when we have thus become like
Himself, God may, to use a bold expression, hold converse with us as Gods,
being united to us, and that perhaps to the same extent as He already knows
those who are known to Him. The Divine Nature then is boundless and hard to
understand; and all that we can comprehend of Him is His boundlessness; even
though one may conceive that because He is of a simple nature He is therefore
either wholly incomprehensible, or perfectly comprehensible. For let us further
enquire what is implied by "is of a simple nature." For it is quite
certain that this simplicity is not itself its nature, just as composition is
not by itself the essence of compound beings.
VIII And when Infinity is considered from two points of view, beginning and end
(for that which is beyond these and not limited by them is Infinity), when the
mind looks to the depth above, not having where to stand, and leans upon
phenomena to form an idea of God, it calls the Infinite and Unapproachable
which it finds there by the name of Unoriginate. And when it looks into the
depths below, and at the future, it calls Him Undying and Imperishable. And
when it draws a conclusion from the whole it calls Him Eternal (ai]wniov). For
Eternity (ai[wn is neither time nor part of time; for it cannot be measured.
But what time, measured by the course of the sun, is to us, that Eternity is to
the Everlasting, namely, a sort of time-like movement and interval co-extensive
with their existence. This, however, is all I must now say about God; for the
present is not a suitable time, as my present subject is not the doctrine of
God, but that of the Incarnation. But when I say God, I mean Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. For Godhead is neither diffused beyond these, so as to bring in a
mob of gods; nor yet is it bounded by a smaller compass than these, so as to
condemn us for a poverty-stricken conception of Deity; either Judaizing to save
the Monarchia, or failing into heathenism by the multitude of our gods. For the
evil on either side is the same, though found in contrary directions. This then
is the Holy of Holies, which is hidden even from the Seraphim, and is glorified
with a thrice repeated Holy, meeting in one ascription of the Title Lord and
God, as one of our predecessors has most beautifully and loftily pointed out.
IX. But since this movement of self-contemplation alone could not satisfy
Goodness, but Good must be poured out and go forth beyond Itself to multiply
the objects of Its beneficence, for this was essential to the highest Goodness,
He first conceived the Heavenly and Angelic Powers. And this conception was a
work fulfilled by His Word, and perfected by His Spirit. And so the secondary
Splendors came into being, as the Ministers of the Primary Splendor; whether we
are to conceive of them as intelligent Spirits, or as Fire of an immaterial and
incorruptible kind, or as some other nature approaching this as near as may be.
I should like to say that they were incapable of movement in the direction of
evil, and susceptible only of the movement of good, as being about God, and
illumined with the first rays from God - for earthly beings have but the second
illumination; but I am obliged to stop short of saying that, and to conceive
and speak of them only as difficult to move because of him, who for his
splendor was called Lucifer, but became and is called Darkness through his
pride; and the apostate hosts who are subject to him, creators of evil by their
revolt against good and our inciters.
X. Thus, then, and for these reasons, He gave being to the world of thought, as
far as I can reason upon these matters, and estimate great things in my own
poor language. Then when His first creation was in good order, He conceives a
second world, material and visible; and this a system and compound of earth and
sky, and all that is in the midst of them - an admirable creation indeed, when
we look at the fair form of every part, but yet more worthy of admiration when
we consider the harmony and the unison of the whole, and how each part fits in with
every other, in fair order, and all with the whole, tending to the perfect
completion of the world as a Unit. This was to show that He could call into
being, not only a Nature akin to Himself, but also one altogether alien to
Himself. For akin to Deity are those natures which are intellectual, and only
to be comprehended by mind; but all of which sense can take cognizance are
utterly alien to It; and of these the furthest removed are all those which are
entirely destitute of soul and of power of motion. But perhaps some one of
those who are too festive and impetuous may say, what has all this to do with
us? Spur your horse to the goal. Talk to us about the Festival, and the reasons
for our being here today. Yes, this is what I am about to do, although I have
begun at a somewhat previous point, being compelled to do so by love, and by
the needs of my argument.
XI. Mind, then, and sense, thus distinguished from each other, had remained
within their own boundaries, and bore in themselves the magnificence of the
Creator-Word, silent praisers and thrilling heralds of His mighty work. Not yet
was there any mingling of both, nor any mixtures of these opposites, tokens of
a greater Wisdom and Generosity in the creation of natures; nor as yet were the
whole riches of Goodness made known. Now the Creator-Word, determining to
exhibit this, and to produce a single living being out of both - the visible
and the invisible creations, I mean - fashions Man; and taking a body from
already existing matter, and placing in it a Breath taken from Himself which
the Word knew to be an intelligent soul and the Image of God, as a sort of
second world. He placed him, great in littleness on the earth; a new Angel, a
mingled worshipper, fully initiated into the visible creation, but only
partially into the intellectual; King of all upon earth, but subject to the
King above; earthly and heavenly; temporal and yet immortal; visible and yet
intellectual;half-way between greatness and lowliness; in one person combining
spirit and flesh; spirit, because of the favor bestowed on him; flesh, because
of the height to which he had been raised; the one that he might continue to
live and praise his Benefactor, the other that he might suffer, and by
suffering be put in remembrance, and corrected if he became proud of his
greatness. A living creature trained here, and then moved elsewhere; and, to
complete the mystery, deified by its inclination to God. For to this, I think,
tends that Light of Truth which we here possess but in measure, that we should
both see and experience the Splendor of God, which is worthy of Him Who made
us, and will remake us again after a loftier fashion.