I. Although, beloved, the divine utterances always impel us to rejoice in the Lord, yet today, without a doubt, we are called even more strongly to spiritual rejoicing, for the Mystery of the Nativity of the Lord has shone even more brightly for us. Therefore, turning again to that inexplicable worship of Divine mercy, when the Creator of men was vouchsafed to become man, we find ourselves in the nature of Him Whom we worship in ourselves. For God is the Son of God, the Only-begotten of the Eternal and Unbegotten Father, always remaining in the image of God (Phil. 2:6), and not differing from the Father in immutability and timelessness, without diminishing His greatness, He took the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7); in His Own He exalted us, and did not lower Himself in us. Therefore, both natures, while remaining unchanged in their properties, came together in such a union that everything belonging to God was not separated from human nature, and everything belonging to man was not separated from divinity.

II. As we celebrate, beloved, the birthday of the Lord the Saviour, let us fully comprehend the meaning of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and believe that at no time has there been a lack of the power of the Word for the soul and body that has been received, and that never before has there been an incarnate and animated temple of the Body of Christ (John 2:21) that could be appropriated by some pretender who has appeared. But it was through Him and in Him that the beginning of the new man was laid, so that in one Son of God and man there would be divinity without the Mother and human nature without the Father. For by the Holy Spirit, the fertilized virginity at the same time laid the foundation for both the corrected offspring of his race and the Creator of his ancestors. Therefore, one and the same Lord, according to the Evangelist, demanded of the Jews that they, following the will of the Scriptures, learn from His Son, Christ, and when they answered that the One who is coming will appear from the seed of David, He said: "How then does David, by inspiration, call Him Lord, when he says: The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool' (Matt. 22:43-44)? But the Jews could not answer the question posed, for they did not understand that in Christ alone both the descendants of David and the Divine nature were preached.

III. But the greatness of the Son of God, equal to the Father, as it did not fear to bow down when it clothed itself in servile humility, did not need to increase; and the merciful act performed for the restoration of man [by which the creation created in the image of God was snatched from the clutches of a terrible despot] could only be accomplished by the power of God. When the demonic devil rebelled against the first man, the latter was in his power, not without his own consent. Therefore, voluntary sin and sinister design had to be destroyed in such a way that the model of justice would not become an obstacle to the gift of mercy. After the general fall of the human race, under the cover of the Divine plan, there remained only one remedy that could help those who found themselves in the embrace of vice, namely, that the sons of Adam were to be born innocent and alien to the original cooperation, and He could help the rest both by example and by beneficence. But since the generation that came into being in a natural way was incapable of this, its offspring could not be born without the seed of the defiled principle, as the Scripture says: "Who shall be born clean of the unclean? Not one (Job 14:4). Therefore the Lord of David became the son of David, and from the fruit of the promised escape came descendants without sin, and a double nature came together in the Person. And by such conception and birth is born our Lord Jesus Christ, that both true Divinity in miraculous deeds and true humanity in the endurance of the passions are inherent in Him.

IV. The catholic faith, beloved, rejects the errors of the abusive heretics, who, deceived by the emptiness of worldly wisdom, have deviated from the truths of the Gospel, and, not wishing to understand the incarnation of the Word, have made for themselves the cause of blindness from a fountain of light. For among the faithful, who are seized with false thoughts, who seek to deny the Holy Spirit, we consider to be completely astray only those who do not confess in Christ the truth of the two natures in one Person. Some ascribe only humanity to the Lord, others only Divinity. Others [recognize] in Him the true Godhead, but at the same time they say that there was only a likeness of the flesh. Others, however, confessing that He had taken on true flesh, but did not have the nature of God the Father, and attributing to His divinity dependence on human nature, have invented for themselves a greater and lesser God, although in true Divinity there can be no gradations, for everything that is lower than God is no longer God. Others, however, believing that there is no distance between the Father and the Son (since they are unable to conceive of the unity of the Divinity except as the identity of persons), have declared Him to be the Father, Whom is also the Son, so that birth and growth, suffering and death, burial and Resurrection refer also to Him Who fills both man and the Word in all things. Some decided that the Lord Jesus Christ had a body alien to ours and consisting of parts higher and more subtle. Others have suggested that there was no human soul in the flesh of Christ, but that the place allotted to it was filled by the very divinity of the Word. Moreover, their ignorance reaches such a point that, while acknowledging the existence of the soul in the Lord, they assert that it is devoid of reason, because for all manifestations of reason, Divinity alone is sufficient for Him. Finally, they presumptuously claim that a certain part of the Word has become flesh. Thus, in the manifold variability of only one dogma, not only the nature of soul and body is destroyed, but also the essence of the Word Himself.

V. There are many other monstrous inventions, the enumeration of which should not tire your attention. But having [set forth] the essence of the various errors which are connected by kinship with heresies, I call upon your vigilance to resolutely reject them. Of these, one, having arisen once through the fault of Nestorius, was deservedly cursed, and the other, later condemned by a proper curse, appeared thanks to the zealot Eutyches. For Nestorius dared to call the blessed Virgin Mary the mother of man, implying that in the conception and birth [of Christ] there was no union of the Word and the flesh, for the Son of God did not Himself become the son of man, but united Himself with the already created man only through benevolence. Likewise, this is by no means able to bear the ears of the people of the Church, who are so imbued with the truth of the Gospel that they know most certainly: there can be no hope of salvation for the human race, except if He is the Son of the Virgin, Who is also the Creator of the Mother.

Eutyches, an ignorant zealot for sacrilege, while nevertheless acknowledging in Christ the union of the two natures, [asserted] that in union of the two [natures] only one is preserved, while the other, either through exhaustion or through separation, necessarily disappears. All this is so hostile to the true faith that it is impossible to accept it without losing the name of a Christian. For if the incarnation of the Word consists in the union of the divine and human natures, and when the double is united, then the Divinity alone was born from the womb of the Virgin, and it alone was nourished and grew bodily under a mystified form, so that, deprived of all bodily manifestations, the Divinity alone died, and the Divinity alone was buried. If we follow such reasoning, then there is no longer any place for the expected resurrection, and Christ is not at all the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18), for if there was no One Who could become a sacrifice, then there was no One Who was to be resurrected.

VI. Let your hearts, beloved, be free from the pernicious imaginations of the devil's admonitions, and knowing that the eternal divinity of the Son was created without any addition to the Father (1 John 1:2), prudently grasp what has been said about the nature of Adam: "Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3:19), whereas of it it is said in Christ: "Sit at my right hand" (Psalm 109:1). Following the nature in which Christ is equal to the Father, the Only-begotten was never lower than the height of the Parent, and the glory [shared] with the Father is not temporary with Him Who is in the very right hand of the Father, of whom it is said in Exodus: "Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorified in power" (Exodus 15:6); And also by Isaiah: [Lord!] who believed what we heard, and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? (Isaiah 53:1).

The human nature assumed by the Son of God is so rooted in the Person of Christ that [the Son of Man] could not be conceived without divinity, without divinity to be born, without divinity to grow. One and the same was both in miracles and in humiliations; crucified, dead and buried in human weakness, having risen in Divine power on the third day, ascended to Heaven, sat down at the right hand of God the Father, and, being in the nature of man, received from the Father that which, abiding in the nature of Divinity, He Himself had given.

VII. Meditating, beloved, with a pious heart on the foregoing, always remember the apostolic exhortation, as it warns all men, saying: Take heed, brethren, lest any man lead you astray with philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ; for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye have fullness in Him (Col. 2:8-10). He does not say: spiritually, but: bodily, so that we may comprehend the true essence of the flesh where there is a bodily temple of the fullness of Divinity. It also unfailingly abounds in the whole Church, which, having been established by the Head, is the body of Christ, living and reigning with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Homily IX on the Nativity of Christ

I. And so, beloved, the [glorification] of the greatness of the divine works undoubtedly surpasses all the gift of human eloquence, but it is precisely that which makes it difficult to explain, calling us not to remain silent, that comes to our aid, for in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we have to deal not only with the divine essence, but also with human nature, as is confirmed by the prophet: ... Who can explain His generation? (Isaiah 53:8). No word is able to explain the descent of both essences in one Person – only faith can do this. Therefore, the efforts of the one who glorifies are always not enough, and there is always a reason for glorification. Let us rejoice, then, precisely because we are not able to fully glorify this sacrament of mercy, and when we are unable to explain the height of our salvation, we consider that which is superior to us to be good. For no one comes nearer to the comprehension of the truth than one who, even though he is very successful in divine works, understands that he always lacks that which he strives for. And the one who decided that he had already achieved the goal to which he had previously striven, both did not get what he wanted, and did not turn out to be persistent enough in the search.

Let us not, therefore, be dismayed by our impotence, for we are encouraged by the voices of the Gospel and the prophets, who thus encourage and teach us that the Nativity of the Lord (by which the Word was made flesh) is honoured by us, not only when we remember the past, but also when we look upon the present. Our ears are filled with what the Angel of the Lord proclaimed to the shepherds who guard their flocks, and we are the head over the Lord's sheep because we keep in our hearts the divinely born words that are pronounced during today's celebration: "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people: for this day is born unto you in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11). The rejoicing of the innumerable number of angels only strengthens the significance of this prophecy, and from this becomes even more extraordinary the testimony of the one to whom the multitude of the heavenly host echoes, to the glory of God, by a single praise saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men! (Luke 2:14). So the glory of God begins with the infancy of Christ, Who was born of the Ever-Virgin. And the restoration of the human race can rightly be attributed to the glory of its Creator, for the Archangel Gabriel himself, sent by God to the blessed Mary, said: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; wherefore also the Holy One who is born shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). On earth, however, such peace is recognized that inspires people with good motives, and thanks to the Spirit by Whom Christ is born from the bosom of the Most-Pure Mother, a Christian is born anew from the womb of the Holy Church, for whom true peace consists in not falling away from the will of God and finding pleasure only in that which God has loved.

II. Now, beloved, when we celebrate the birthday of the Lord, which was selected from all the days of the preceding ages, all earthly events have already passed away (as was planned by the eternal Council), and all the humility of the Redeemer has been transformed into the glory of the father's greatness, so that at the name of Jesus every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth may bow, and every tongue may confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11). Nevertheless, we tirelessly worship this Nativity from the Most Holy Virgin, and we revere the indissoluble bond between the Word and the flesh in Him who reclines in the manger no less than in Him who sits on the throne of the Father's majesty. For the unshakable Divinity (however much it contained both splendor and power) was hidden from the eyes of man in the depths of the Newborn, so that through the extraordinary appearance of the true man the Born One would be known, Who for King David is both Lord and Son (Matt. 22:45). For David himself, being filled with the prophetic spirit, said: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand" (Psalm 109:1). By the same testimony, as the Gospel relates, the wickedness of the Jews was exposed. For when Jesus asked the Jews whose son they called Christ, they answered, David. Then the Lord convicts their blindness, saying: How then does David, by inspiration, call Him Lord, when He says, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand? (Matthew 22:43-44).

For yourselves, O Jews, you block the way to knowledge, and as long as you perceive in Him only the corporeal nature, you deprive yourselves of all the light of truth. For, expecting (according to fictitious notions) the coming of the son of David only in bodily posterity, you have established your hope in man and have overlooked God, the Son of God (Jeremiah 17:5), therefore what we recognize as miraculous cannot benefit you. After all, in response to the question: "Whose son is Christ?" we confess in apostolic words that... was born of the seed of David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3), and from the first page of the Gospel we learn by reading: The Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David (Matthew 1:1). But therefore we dissociate ourselves from your wickedness, because He Who was recognized as a man born of the line of David, we confess Him (since the Word was made flesh) to be God, co-eternal with God the Father. Therefore, O Israel, if you had followed the meaning of your name and had not missed the prophetic testimonies with a darkened heart, then Isaiah would have revealed the truth of the Gospel to you, and without being deaf, you would have heard him, saying by Divine inspiration: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which means, God is with us" (Matt. 1:23). And if I did not recognize Him in this capacity of the holy name, then at least from David's words I would understand for myself that it is not necessary to deny, contrary to the testimony of the New and Old Testaments, that Jesus Christ is the Son of David, since you do not recognize Him as the Lord of David.