On the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh

The Babe that I carry carries me, says Mary, and He has lowered His wings, and taken and placed me between His pinions, and mounted into the air; and a promise has been given me that height and depth shall be my Son's.

I have seen Gabriel that called him Lord, and the high priest the aged servant, that carried Him and bare Him. I have seen the Magi when they bowed down, and Herod when he was troubled because the King had come.

Satan also who strangled the little ones that Moses might perish, murdered the little ones that the Living One might die. To Egypt He fled, Who came to Judea that He might labour and wander there: he sought to catch the man that would catch himself.

In her virginity Eve put on the leaves of shame: Your Mother put on in her Virginity the garment of Glory that suffices for all. She gave the little vest of the Body to Him that covers all.

Blessed is she in whose heart and mind You were! A King's palace she was by You, O Son of the King, and a Holy of Holies by You, O High Priest! She had not the trouble nor vexation of a family, or a husband!

Eve, again, was a nest and a den for the accursed serpent, that entered in and dwelt in her. His evil counsel became bread to her that she might become dust. You are our Bread, and You are also [of] our race and our garment of glory.

He that has sanctity, if he be in danger, lo! Here is his Guardian! He that has iniquity, lo! Here is his Pardoner! He that has a devil, here is the Pursuer thereof! They that have pains, lo! Here is the Binder up of their breaches.

He that has a child, let him come and become a brother to my Well-beloved! He that has a daughter or a young woman of his race, let her come and become the bride of my Glorious One! He that has a servant, let him set him free, that he may come and serve his Lord.

The son of free men that bears Your yoke, my Son, shall have one reward; and the slave that bears the burden of the yoke of two masters, of Him above and of Him below, there are two blessings for him, and two rewards of the two burdens.

The free woman, my Son, is Your handmaid: also if she who is in bondage serve You, in You she is free: in You she shall be comforted, because she is freed; hidden apples in her bosom are stored up, if she love You!

O chaste woman, long for my Well-beloved, that He may dwell in you; and you also that are impure that He may sanctify you! You Churches also, that the Son of the Creator Who came to renew all creatures, may adorn you!

He received the foolish who worshipped and served all the stars; He renewed the earth which was worn out through Adam, who sinned and waxed old. The new formation was the creature of its Renewer, and the all-sufficient One repaired the bodies along with their wills.

Come you blind, and without money receive lights! Come you lame, and receive your feet! You deaf and dumb, receive your voice! Come you also whose hand is cut off; the maimed also shall receive his hands.

It is the Son of the Creator Whose treasure-houses are filled with all manner of helps. Let him that is without eyeballs come to Him that makes clay and changes it, that makes flesh, that enlightens eyes.

By the small portion of clay He shows that it was with His hand that Adam was formed: the soul of the dead also bears Him witness, that by Him it was that the breath of man was breathed in; by the last witnesses He was accredited to be the Son of Him Who is the First.

Gather together and come, O you lepers, and receive purification without labour. For He will not wash you as Elisha, who baptized seven times in the river: neither will He trouble you as the priests did with their sprinklings. Foreigners and also strangers have betaken themselves to the Great Physician.

The rank of strangers has no place with the King's Son; the Lord makes not Himself strange to His servants, [or conceal] that He is Lord of all. For if the Just makes the body leprous, and You purify it; then, the Former of the body hates the body; but You love it.

And if it be not Your forming, being Just, You would not have healed it; and if it were not Your creature, when in health, You would not have afflicted it. The punishments that You have cast upon it, and the pains which You have healed, proclaim that You are the Creator's Son.