Now earthly wisdom is no longer able to dispel the darkness in the hearts of those who have been called (Romans 1:21), for the dust of earthly wisdom (whose days are numbered) cannot lift itself higher than the height of God's mercy (Psalm 1:4). At the end of the ages (1 Corinthians 10:11) it was fulfilled that which was eternally designed before all time (Titus 1:2), and today, when the time of signs full of secret meaning has ended, the law and prophecies have become the truth, and Abraham is the father of all nations (Gen. 17:4). In his seed the world was blessed (Gen. 22:18), so that this applies not only to the Israelites, who were begotten by flesh and blood, but also to all adopted children, who will become heirs of the prepared by the sons of faith (Romans 9:6). And let us not be led astray by the misinterpretations contained in absurd questions, and let not human wisdom refute the result of God's work. But we, together with Abraham, have believed God (Romans 4:3) and are not shaken by unbelief, but we know most certainly: what the Lord has promised, He is able to fulfill (Romans 4:20-21).

III. So, beloved, the Saviour is not born of the seed of the flesh, but of the Holy Spirit, so that He was not touched by the curse of original sin. The greatness of the sacrifice offered by its radiance impels us to the reverence that is due. And therefore, as the blessed Apostle teaches: we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit from God, that we might know the things which have been given to us from God (1 Corinthians 2:12), Who is piously revered only if only that which He Himself asks is offered to Him. In the treasury of the Lord's abundance, what could we find so befitting the honor of this celebration, except the peace which the angels were unanimously the first to proclaim in the Nativity of the Lord? After all, this world gave birth to the sons of God (Matthew 5:9), and, moreover, is the source of love and the parent of unity (Ephesians 4:3), the rest of the blessed (Psalm 4:9) and the dwelling place of eternity. His most grace-filled manifestation is that he united with God those whom he separated from the world. That is why the Apostle urges us to such peace, saying: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God" (Romans 5:1). This brief statement contains the essence of almost all the commandments, for where there is true reconciliation, there can be no lack of power. What, beloved, does it mean to have peace with God, except to desire what He has ordained and not to desire what He has forbidden? But how can one become a partaker of the Divine world who does not want that which God requires to love? The sons of God do not have such an inclination, and it is not at all such wisdom that the adopted ones are filled with. Let the chosen and royal generation (1 Peter 2:9) correspond to the significance of its regeneration, love the beloved of the Father, and in no way contradict its Creator, lest the Lord say again: "I have brought up and exalted sons, and they rebelled against Me." The ox knoweth his master, and the ass of his master's manger; but Israel does not know Me, My people do not understand (Isaiah 1:2-3).

Great, beloved, is the mystery of this sacrifice, and this gift surpasses all other gifts, for God declares man to be a son, and man calls God Father. By naming it in this way, we feel and know the One Who elevates love to an unattainable height. For if it happens that in the fleshly offspring and the earthly branch, the vices of an unworthy life darken even those born of glorious parents, and the glory of the ancestors is a reproach for unworthy offspring, then what will be the fate of those who, having loved the world, did not fear to renounce the race of Christ?! If it is praiseworthy for people that the glory of the fathers should be reflected in the descendants, then how much more glorious is it for those born in God to shine in the image of their Creator and to manifest in themselves the One Who begat them, as the Lord says: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).

We know from the words of the Apostle John that the whole world lies in evil (1 John 5:19), and when the devil and his servants plot against each other, the world is so tormented by innumerable temptations that a person who aspires to the heights is either oppressed by failures or led into temptation by successes. But the Greater One is He who is with us than He who is against us (1 John 4:4), and if we have peace with God and always say with all our heart to the Father, "Thy will be done," we will not be able to prevail in any battle with us, or harm us in a clash. Scourging ourselves in our confessions and not allowing the soul to conspire with carnal lusts, we stir up against us the enmity of the father of sin and strengthen an indestructible peace with God, being debtors of His mercy, so that we not only vow obedience to our King, but also receive [in return] support. For if there is anything He wills, it is us, and what He rejects, then we too, then He Himself fights all the battles for us and helps us to fulfill our desires (Phil. 2:13), so that we may become co-workers with His works (1 Corinthians 3:9), and with the exultation of faith we may prophetically say: "The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life: whom shall I fear? (Psalm 26:1).

V. Therefore those who were born, neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13), show to the Father the unanimity of reconciled sons, and in Him who was born before all creation (Romans 8:29; Col. 1:15; Galatians 6:15), Who came not to do His own will, but Him who sent (John 6:38), all those who are adopted come together, for the merciful Father has received heirs who are not torn apart by contradictions or differences, but those who think one thing, and love one thing (Phil. 2:2). Those who are regenerated in one way must have a similar soul. And the Nativity of the Lord is the birth of peace, as the Apostle says: "For He is our peace, Who made one out of both" (Ephesians 2:14). Both Jews and Gentiles, through Him, both have access to the Father, in one Spirit (Ephesians 2:18). [Jesus], before the day of the passion, chosen by voluntary decision, instructed His disciples, saying: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you" (John 14:27). And without hiding the essence of His world under a general name, He added: "Not as the world giveth I give unto you" (John 14:27). He says that the world loves its own (John 15:19) and many are mired in shameful love for it. These souls became related through vice, and similar desires gave rise to the same actions. And even if they do not want to return to an ugly and shameful [state] and exclude from the contract of their love inadmissible articles, but at the same time remain either Jews, or heretics, or pagans, it is still not from love for God, but from love for the world. He (the world that is coming from above and brings sorrow), to whom the ecclesiastical spiritual [people] are directed, does not want us to unite in any way with those who love this world, but, on the contrary, that, on the contrary, we should resist all misfortunes and soar from ruinous pleasures to true joys, as the Lord says: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart also be" (Matt. 6:21). If you love that which is below, then you descend down, and if you revere the Things above, then you also attain the highest, therefore we (who desire one thing, who think of one thing, and who are of one accord in faith, whether in hope or in love) are led by the Spirit of the world. And all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God (Romans 8:14), Who reigns with the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Homily VII on the Nativity of Christ

I. The true partaker and pious worshipper of today's celebration, beloved, is he who does not think unseemly of the Incarnation of the Lord, and unworthy of divinity, for it is equally dangerous to deny the truth of our nature, as it is to deny the equality of his fatherly glory. Therefore, when we strive to comprehend the Mystery of the Nativity of Christ (whose birth we owe to the Virgin Mother), let the darkness of earthly speculations dissolve before the enlightened eyes of faith and the fog of worldly wisdom dissipate (Ephesians 1:18), for just as the Divine authority to which we entrust ourselves, so is the teaching that we follow.

As we listen with our inner ears to the fulfillment of the law, to the testimony of the prophets, to the trumpet of the Gospel, [we must always remember that] what the blessed John, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed, is true for us: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made... (John 1:1-3).

Thus, in both natures there is one and the same Son of God, who accepts ours and does not lose His own; in man he renews man, and in himself he preserves his inviolability. For the divinity, which for Him is common to the Father, did not allow any damage to omnipotence and did not cloud the image of God in the image of a servant (Phil. 2:6-7), for the supreme and eternal Being, who bowed down for the salvation of the human race, drawing us to His glory, did not destroy the Divine. And when the Only-begotten of God acknowledges Himself to be less than the Father (John 14:28), of Whose equality He previously spoke (John 10:30), then by this He reveals in Himself the truth of both natures. Difference points to human nature, and equality reveals the Divine.

The bodily birth added nothing to the greatness of the Son, nor did it take anything away from Him, for the immutable essence can neither diminish nor increase. And the fact that the Word became flesh does not mean at all that the nature of God was turned into flesh, but that the flesh was received by the Word into the unity of the Person. In the seed of the flesh the whole man was received, and when this flesh was impregnated by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Ever-Virgin, the Son was so inseparably united to the Father that, being born timeless from the essence of the Father, at the same time was born temporal from the womb of the Virgin. And if He who was almighty in His was not in our humiliated [standing], we would not be able to be freed from the fetters of eternal death.

Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ, being born a true man and not ceasing to be the true God, laid in Himself the beginning of a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and in the image of His coming into the world He gave the human race a spiritual basis, so that, removing participation in the carnal race, the coming into being of those who are regenerated would take place without the seed of transgression, for it is said of them: Who are neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God they were born (John 1:13). What reason is able to comprehend this Sacrament, what language can explain such mercy? Injustice turns into honesty and decrepitude into novelty; strangers are joined, strangers inherit. The wicked begat the righteous, the miserly the wise, the incontinent the chaste, the earthly the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:49).

What is behind such transformations, if not the right hand of the Most High (Psalm 76:11)? After all, the Son of God came to upset the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) and thus contained Himself in us and us in Himself, so that the descent of God into man turned into the ascent of man to the Divine.

III. With the help, beloved, of God's mercy (all the generosity of which we are unable to comprehend), Christians should be very careful not to fall into the captivity of the devil's wiles again, and fall once more into the traps of which we have already been warned (2 Peter 2:20). For, having become like an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), the ancient enemy did not cease to set a snare of deception everywhere and threaten that he would shake our faith in any way. He found out in whom it is possible to arouse the heat of passion, in whom it is possible to inspire the temptation of gluttony, who to push to the acquisition of luxury, and in whom to saturate with the bile of envy. He knows whom to confuse with sorrow, whom to confuse with joy, whom to strike with fear, and whom to seduce with admiration. He destroys the norms of social life, cools cares, upsets affairs, and there he looks for a pretext to cause harm, wherever he notices that someone should be more entangled. He rules over many of those whom, having bewitched by his charms, he has subdued unquestioningly, and uses their abilities and lips to seduce the rest. They promise [seduced by the devil] the healing of diseases, the prediction of the future, the propitiation of demons, and the expulsion of ghosts. They are also those who try to explain every phenomenon in our life by the influence of the stars, and attribute everything that is either in the Divine or in our power to inexorable fate. Finally, in order to do the most harm, they solemnly assure that this fate can be changed if prayers are offered to the hostile stars. But the impious plan is destroyed by its very essence, for if the prophecy may not come, then there is no need to fear fate, and if it does come in any case, then there is no need to pray to the stars.

Such fabrications also give rise to such impiety that the most foolish worship the sun rising in the rays of the morning dawn from an elevated place, and some Christians have already considered themselves so religious that before going to the church of the blessed Apostle Peter, which is dedicated to the only Living and True God, they ascend the steps leading to the upper landing, and turn to the rising sun, worship him and, bowing their necks, give praise to the shining disk.