From Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949 A. D. -- 1022 A. D.), abbot of Saint Mamas Monastery in Constantinople.
Jesus our Lord and God, who has never fallen into sin, was smitten so that those sinners who imitate Him should not only receive the forgiveness of the sins they have committed, but also become partakers of His divinity (II Pet. 1:4) because of their obedience. He who does not accept this in humility of heart because he is ashamed to imitate the Master's sufferings, of Him will Christ also be ashamed in the presence of the angels (Mk. 8:38) and of His Father who is in heaven (Matt. 10:33). This is what I mean to say - He was God, but He became man for the sake of us men. He was slapped, spit upon, crucified, as though He who is impassible in His Godhead were teaching and telling each one of us for whom He suffered: `O man, if you wish to become a god and obtain eternal life and to be with Me, that which your ancestor failed to obtain because he wished for it in an evil way, then abase yourself even as I abased Myself for your sake. Cast aside the boastful pride of the devilish mind; accept being beaten, spat upon, buffeted, and endure those things until death and be not ashamed of it.'
-- Saint Symeon the New Theologian, The Discourses: XXVII sect. 9, Paulist Press
pg. 291
Second Reading from the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours for the Baptism of the Lord
From a sermon by Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, bishop
The Baptism of Christ
Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptized; let us also go down with him, and rise with him.
John is baptizing when Jesus draws near. Perhaps he comes to sanctify his baptizer; certainly he comes to bury sinful humanity in the waters. He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in readiness for us; he who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new creation through the Spirit and water.
The Baptist protests; Jesus insists. Then John says: I ought to be baptized by you. He is the lamp in the presence of the sun, the voice in the presence of the Word, the friend in the presence of the Bridegroom, the greatest of all born of woman in the presence of the firstborn of all creation, the one who leapt in his mother's womb in the presence of him who was adored in the womb, the forerunner and future forerunner in the presence of him who has already come and is to come again. I ought to be baptized by you; we should also add: and for you, for John is to be baptized in blood, washed clean like Peter, not only by the washing of his feet.
Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him. The heavens like Paradise with its flaming sword, closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open. The Spirit comes to him as to an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead. A voice bears witness to him from heaven, his place of origin. The Spirit descends in bodily form like the dove that so long ago announced the ending of the flood and so gives honor to the body that is one with God.
Today let us do honor to Christ's baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed. Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of men, for whom his every word and every revelation exist. He wants you to become a living force for all mankind, lights shining in the world. You are to be radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory of him who is the light of heaven. You are to enjoy more and more the pure and dazzling light of the Trinity, as now you have received--though not in its fullness--a ray of its splendor, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
Responsory
Today the heavens opened and he waters of the sea became sweet
and fragrant;
the earth rejoiced, the mountains and hills exulted,
--because Christ was baptized by John in the Jordan.
What has happened that the sea has been put to flight,
and the Jordan has turned back upon itself?
--Because Christ was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Te Deum
You are God: we praise you;
You are the Lord: we acclaim you;
You are the eternal Father:
All creation worships you.
To you all angels, all the powers of heaven,
Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
The glorious company of apostles praise you.
The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.
The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.
Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you:
Father, of majesty unbounded,
your true and only Son, worthy of all worship,
and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.
You, Christ, are the king of glory,
the eternal Son of the Father.
When you became man to set us free
you did not spurn the Virgin's womb.
You overcame the sting of death,
and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
You are seated at God's right hand in glory.
We believe that you will come, and be our judge.
Come then, Lord, and help your people,
bought with the price of your own blood,
and bring us with your saints
to glory everlasting.
V. Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance.
R. Govern and uphold them now and always.
V. Day by day we bless you.
R. We praise your name for ever.
V. Keep us today, Lord, from all sin.
R. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
V. Lord, show us your love and mercy;
R. for we put our trust in you.
V. In you, Lord, is our hope:
R. and we shall never hope in vain.
Prayer
Almighty, eternal God,
when the Spirit descended upon Jesus
at his baptism in the Jordan,
you revealed him as your own beloved Son.
Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit,
faithful to our calling.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Alternative Prayer
Father in heaven,
you revealed Christ as your Son
by the voice that spoke over the waters of the Jordan.
May all who share in the sonship of Christ
follow in his path of service to man,
and reflect the glory of his kingdom
even to the ends of the earth,
for he is Lord for ever and ever.
Let us praise the Lord.
--And give him thanks.
From Theodotus of Ancyra (+ before 446 A.D.), bishop of Ancyra (modern Ankara) and one of Nestorius' most tenacious and fierce opponents. He was the quasi-official theologian of the Council of Ephesus.
The fruit of your womb is not autumnal; rather, it is a shoot of immortality. It is not a harvest that came as a gift of nature but a flower sprung from a divine seed. For you gave birth to the Beginning who has no beginning, a child who is before all ages, the Virgin's Son, the Eternal who is nurtured in your womb, to him who is older than his mother yet is nursed by her, to him who nourishes all creatures and who clothes himself in human form, to the Splendor of God who presents himself as a pauper, to the King who will have no successor. Therefore I salute you, O Virgin full of grace, Mother among virgins and Virgin among mothers, archetype of both mothers and virgins, but superior to both.
--Homily 6, 12; Patrologia orientalis 19, 331. Quoted in Mary and the Fathers of the Church, Luigi Gambero, page 261.
Mary's prayer from a Christmas hymn by Saint Romanos the Melodist (+ ca. 560 A.D., celebrated in the East on 1 October):
Tell me, my Child, how were you planted in me, and how were you formed in me? I see you, O my womb, and I am stunned. My bosom is full of milk, and I am not married. I see you wound about with swaddling clothes and perceive that the seal of my virginity is still intact, for it was you that kept it intact, when you deigned to be born, my little Child, God before all ages! High King, what do you have in common with our sorrows? Creator of heaven, why do you come among the inhabitants of earth? Were you taken with desire for a cave? Are you in love with a manger?
--On Christmas 1, 2-3: P. Maas and C. A. Trypanis, Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica Geniuna (Oxford, 1963); Cantica Dubia (Berlin, 1970)
The Gospel
And he came to her and said, "Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women" (Luke 1:26-28). It is now the sixth month since Zechariah was punished for his unbelief by being deprived of his speech and Elizabeth conceived her unexpected offspring. For six months, John the Baptist has been dwelling in the prison of the womb; the Forerunner has appeared in the recesses of sterility; the lamp is shining in the dark places of the womb.
The Son of God sends his messenger
At this time, then, the angel Gabriel was sent by the Sun of justice. Go --- he told him --- to the city of Nazareth, in Galilee, to the Virgin Mary, espoused to Joseph the builder, for I, the Builder of all creation, will espouse myself to this Virgin, for the salvation of men. Make known to her my serene coming into her, lest the Virgin, out of ignorance, be troubled in receiving me. Inform her of my love for men, for whose sake I wish to be born of her as man and to come into the world. First make known to her the plan of salvation, so that, when she sees her womb suddenly grow large, she will not be distressed.
Bring your journey to a swift conclusion. You will find me in the place to which I am now sending you. Even though I remain here, I precede you there. I will betake myself to her before you and after you; you bring her the announcement of my coming, while I, invisibly present, will confirm your words with deeds. For by her virginal womb, I plan to renew the human race; by my condescension, I want to reestablish the image I molded; I want to restore the ancient image, reshaping it. I formed the first man from a virgin earth, but the devil, making himself master, plundered him as an enemy and threw him to the earth, thus mocking my fallen image. Now I want to remold a new Adam for myself from the virgin earth, so that nature might prepare a beautiful defense and receive the just crown against him who conquered her. Then will the enemy be properly shamed.
Contemplative parenthesis: the homilist expresses awe and wonder
O incomparable ocean of condescension! O infinite summit of divine love for man! The King did not send many angels or more than one foreteller; the Creator did not set into motion the hosts of the incorporeal powers; no, he sent but a single angel to be the herald of his coming, so that, through the announcement given by him alone, the Mother, who was about to receive the King, might be reassured beforehand,
A commentary on the scene of the Annunciation, interspersed with praise
And so the angel arrived at the Virgin Mary's home and, having entered, said to her: Rejoice, full of grace! He greeted her, his fellow servant, as if she were a great lady, as if she had already become the Lord's Mother. Rejoice, full of grace! Your foremother, Eve, having broken the law, was condemned to bear children in pain; to you, instead, is addressed the invitation to rejoice. Eve bore Cain, thus giving birth to envy and murder; you, instead, will conceive a Son who will give life and immortality to all.
Rejoice, therefore, and dance for joy; rejoice, and tread upon the serpent's head. Rejoice, full of grace. For the curse has come to an end; corruption is taken away; sadness has passed; happiness is flowering; the blessed event foretold by the prophets of old has come to pass. You are the one to whom the Holy Spirit referred, speaking through the mouth of Isaiah: "Behold the Virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son" (Isaiah 7:14). You are that virgin. Rejoice, therefore, O full of grace. You are pleasing to the Demiurge; you are pleasing to the Maker; you are pleasing to the Creator; you are pleasing to him who delights in the beauty of souls. You have found a Spouse who will protect your virginity instead of corrupting it; you have found a Spouse who wants to become your Son because of his great love for men.
The Lord is with you! He who is everywhere is in you; he is with you, and he comes from you, the Lord in heaven, the Most High in the abyss, the Creator of all, Creator above the cherubim, Charioteer above the seraphim, Son in the womb of the Father, Only-begotten in your womb, the Lord --- he knows how --- entirely everywhere and entirely in you.
Blessed are you among women! For among all virgins, you have been chosen in advance; you have been made worthy to provide a dwelling for such a Lord; the Uncontainable willed that you should contain him; you house him who fills all things; you have become the most pure workshop of the divine economy; you have appeared as the worthy chariot for our King's entrance into life; you have been proclaimed the treasure, the spiritual pearl. Blessed are you among women!
Mary questions the angel about how the birth will come about
The all-holy Virgin, hearing these words and contemplating the angel's form and voice, asked herself what manner of greeting this might be. Where might this discourse lead? What do these words mean for me? It was the angel who greeted me first. Who am I? What dignity have I achieved? I, full of grace? But how and why? The Lord is with me? But is the Lord not with anyone who fears his name? I am blessed among women? On what basis and why and how? What gift does this foretell for me? What miracle do these words speak of?
The angel, seeing her so troubled, said to her: Do not fear, Mary. I did not greet you in order to make you afraid. I speak to you sweetly, to make you exult. So do not harbor distress in your soul, because you carry the peace of the universe within you. Do not fear, Mary, for you have found favor with God. You have been made the most beautiful part of creation, more luminous than the heavens, more resplendent than the sun, higher than the angels. You were not lifted up into heaven, and yet, remaining on earth, you have drawn down into yourself the heavenly Lord and King of all.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and give him the name Jesus. He will be great. For great he is, by reason of his divinity, and great will he be in his humanity as well. He will be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. For the Lord swore the truth to David and will not violate his oath. But what truth did he swear? I will place on your throne, he said, the fruit of your loins. That oath is fulfilled in this moment. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. No one will be higher than this King, and no other woman will be more blessed that you who will bear him.
And Mary said to the angel: But how will this happen, since I do not know man? Joseph is espoused to me, not yet my husband; for these are the nuptial agreements, valid until the marriage bonds. How, then, will I be able to bear a fruit without a cultivator? Am I, perhaps, the first woman in whom the course of nature will be altered? Will the law of conception, perhaps, change for the first time in me? Will a new method of procreation take place in me alone? Will the ancient law of birth be rewritten in my case alone? O angel, clarify your enigmatic speech for me; explain to me the meaning of your words; interpret for me the force of your beautiful announcement; guide me to this unusual birth, so that I may gradually come to know the mystery to which I am going to give birth; so that I may apprehend how impossible things will become possible, and impracticable things be done, how inadmissible things may be admitted; so that I may hear how grace will improve nature, or how nature will be at the service of grace.
And answering her, the angel said to her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you. You have understood who is the Artisan, do not be curious as to how; you have understood who is the Sculptor, do not ask questions about the work. You have heard that the Holy Spirit is involved; leave the fulfillment of the work to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. I have been ordered to say to you only this: You will conceive a Son. As to how you will conceive, he who is to be born from you will explain it clearly. I have brought you the announcement as a servant; the Lord himself will accomplish the work, and he knows how it will happen. I am the minister of the royal dispositions, not an interpreter of the divine will. I dare not teach you what I have not learned, nor dare I interpret what I have not been told, nor dare I make public the reality of the mystery. I am not capable of explaining the glad tidings.
I proclaim the prodigy but am incapable of saying how it will happen; I do not investigate what is beyond all investigation; I do not teach unreachable goals; I do not involve myself in matters that are beyond me; I do not call to account grace, which is above all discussion; I do not discuss the unexplainable birth. Truly, this spiritual conception is above all understanding; the extraordinary gestation surpasses all discourse; the saving birth transcends every inquiry.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The Holy Spirit knows well what he is doing; the Son knows well how to prepare a spiritual dwelling for himself. For the Maker of nature does not submit himself to the laws of nature; he alone conceives the design; he alone, according to his intention, clothes himself in the form of a servant.
The Father is aware of the Incarnation of his only begotten Son because, where the Holy Spirit is, there also is the Son, and where the Son is, there the Father also is. The Trinity is inseparable and indivisible. For, as in the beginning the Father, when he formed man, induced the Son and the Holy Spirit to act as well, saying: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), so now, at the moment of the new creation, the Holy Trinity is present once again, in an ineffable way. The first creation was common tot he Trinity; the second creation is again common to it.
Therefore, the Holy Child to be born will be called Son of God. For he is truly a holy offspring, a shoot not grown from a seed, a most holy birth. He is the Son of God according to his divinity and your Son according to his humanity. He is consubstantial with the Father according to what is understood by faith and consubstantial with you according to his visible nature. He is heavenly and earthly, invisible and visible, impassible in his divinity and passible in his humanity. And, as he is a perfect God, Jesus is also perfect man. But just as he, having become man, remained the immutable God, so you, remaining a virgin, will become the incorrupt Mother. For virginity will not be opposed to birth, nor will birth oppose itself to virginity.
Do you want to know? Apprehend the truth of the prodigy that has happened in you from a visible sign. Do you wnat to contemplate a figure of the mystery surrounding your conception? Look upon Elizabeth, your neighbor and relative. For behold --- he says --- Elizabeth ytour cousin has conceived a son in her old age; this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for no word is impossible for God (Luke 1:36-37).
Elizabeth was freed from her hopeless sterility, so that her release from suffering was a proof of your untouched virginity. She, old and barren, conceived the forerunner of the King who will be born from you, so that you may believe that you carry the Savior in your womb. Go, observe Elizabeth, and, if you do not find her as I have said, then do not believe in my message.
What response, then, does holy Mary make to these words, the Virgin in body and spirit, pious, God-fearing, obedient, the honor of human nature, the gate of our life, the procurer of our salvation?
Receiving the angel's words with a good disposition, she answers him: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word (Luke 1:38). As a handmaid, I submit to the Lord's orders; as clay, I entrust myself to the hands of the Potter; let the Craftsman realize his design in me, according to his authoritative will; let him miraculously bring about the extraordinary pregnancy in me, in conformity with his love for men. Let is happen to me according to your word; let your words be fulfilled in me, and let what happens be made completely manifest and true.
And the angel left her, he who had descended from heaven, had instructed and prepared the Virgin. He had trained her, insofar as he was able. He also heard from her what was important for him to apprehend, and once more he went up whence he had come down, leaving there below him who had sent him. And the angel found him once more, there above in the heavens, adored by all the angelic band.
Now, Arius, what do you have to say about all this? Tell me, wretch, how was the Uncontainable contained within the Virgin's womb? How did she conceive as a virgin and remain a virgin, while at the same time becoming enriched by the birth of the Savior and by grace?
But you cannot answer. For if even the Mother of the mystery did not understand he mystery she bore, how could you comprehend it? If the archangel Gabriel, when questioned by the Mother of the Lord: How will this happen to me, since I do not know man? could not say more, but took refuge in the Holy Spirit, being unable to proffer anything more substantial, how will you be able to say what Gabriel was unable to interpret?
If no one can adequately explain the generation of Christ according to the flesh, which occurred in the last days, how dare you pry into that generation of Christ, which is heavenly, eternal, incorporeal, invisible, impassible, totally unspeakable and incomprehensible?
