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.

But we grieve and grieve much for the ignorance born partly of vice, and partly of pagan superstition, for though they may all revere the Creator of the wonderful light more than the created light itself, yet we ought to avoid even the very hint of this rite. For when he who has forsaken idolatry comes to us, how can he renounce the ancient superstition (which is present in him on a par with the acceptable [views]), seeing that it is characteristic of both the pagan and the Christian?

Therefore, let reprehensible conduct be excluded from the daily routine of the faithful, and let the rites of those who worship created things not affect the honor that befits God alone. For the Divine Scripture says: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matt. 4:10). And blessed Job, a man without reproach, as the Lord says, and shunning evil (Job 1:8), said: "Looking at the sun, how it shines, and at the moon, how it walks majestically, have I been deceived in the mystery of my heart, and have my lips kissed my hand? It would also be a crime to be tried; because I would then deny the Most High God? (Job 31:26-28). What is the sun, and what is the moon, if not the manifestation of the visible creation and the tangible light, the one more radiant and the other less radiant? There is a distinction between day and night time, which is why the Creator made a distinction between the luminaries, but before it became so, there was a day without the usual sun and a night without a moon.

They were created for the benefit of man, so that a rational being would not be confused either in the recognition of the months, or in the cycle of years, or in the calculation of time. For the sun sets the order of different lengths of hours [ [1]], the various constellations in the morning sky, as well as the years, and the moon directs the change of months. For on the fourth day, as we read... God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven [to illuminate the earth, and] to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and times, and days, and years; and let them be lamps in the firmament of heaven, to shine on the earth (Gen. 1:14-15).

V. Take heart, O man, and know the dignity of your nature. Remember that you were created in the image of God, which, although it was corrupted in Adam, was then restored in Christ. And use it as you should use tangible things, and as you make use of the earth, the sea, the sky, the air, the fountains of water, and fire. And all that is beautiful and wonderful in them, attribute to the glory of the Creator. And do not be a slave to that light, which is also enjoyed by birds and reptiles, wild animals and livestock, flies and worms. Touch the bodily light with the organs of sight, but at the same time, with every movement of the mind, comprehend that true Light Which enlightens every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9) and of Whom the prophet says: "Whoever has turned his gaze to Him have been enlightened, and their faces shall not be ashamed" (Psalm 33:6). If we are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us (1 Corinthians 3:16), then what every faithful person keeps in his heart is much greater than what attracts our attention in heaven.

But, beloved, we do not proclaim and advise you this at all, so that you may be arrogant about the things created by God, or that you may say something contrary to your faith about what the good God has done good (Gen. 1:18), but in order that you may make reasonable and moderate use of all the beauty of created things and all the splendor of this world, as the Apostle says: ... for the visible is temporary, but the invisible is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). Thus, being born for the present, and regenerated for the future, we must devote ourselves not to temporary, but to eternal good. And in order to better discern our hope, we recognize in the very Mystery of the Nativity of the Lord that which Divine mercy has given to our nature. So let us hearken to the Apostle, who says: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:3-4) — with Him Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Homily VIII on the Nativity of the Lord