The Church as a Spiritual Spring Meadow
Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, opens his homily on the newly baptized by comparing the church to a spring meadow filled with spiritual flowers and fragrance.
When the season of spring succeeds the gloom of winter, birds of every kind fly through the bright air and signal the sweetness of the season to human beings with honey-voiced songs. Then the sweet-singing swallows cut through the air with swift flight, dart past people's heads, and cast their own cry into human ears like a flower. Then one can see the air clear and calm, and people's faces bright, reshaped in imitation of the stillness. For the voices of birds delight the hearing, the clear air brightens the eye, the gleam of many-colored flowers sweetens the sight, and the mingled breath of the plants restores the sense of smell.
This is the delight that the earthly and perishable spring offers to human beings, beloved. But our divine and incorruptible spring, Christ, has thickly covered the meadow of the church with violets and roses and spiritual lilies, and he brightens our sight with faith and fills the reservoir of our heart with divine spices. For which of the faithful does not rejoice now? Who does not exult now, seeing the newly baptized shining in the image of lilies with the bright calyxes of their robes, and possessing the gold-gleaming faith in the middle of the heart?
Here you will find, beloved, if you gaze with the eyes of the heart, the heart of the faithful dyed purple like a deepest violet with the blood of Jesus. For the flame-leaved rose has blossomed incorruptibly from the virgin Mary. What meadow possesses such fragrance as our meadow, which perfumes the grace of the Spirit? Inhale the newly baptized, and you will find in them the immortal fragrance of the Spirit—I mean the myrrh of the heavenly anointing.
Here the palms of the fathers, crowned with the victory branches, bear sweeter fruits of love, fragrant as cypress. Here the beautiful-voiced birds of the psalmists sing the psalms to God in harmony on the lyre. Here virginity, like storax offering the pure incense of prayer to God, rejoices. Here self-control, sacrificing the cheerful branch of purity to God as Abraham offered Isaac, takes delight. Here the trunks of mercy, putting forth the fruitful branch of good deeds to the poor, delight the Lord and nourish the needy.
Let virginity sing and say: "Let my prayer be set before you as incense, Lord" (Psalm 141:2). Let the merciful say: "But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God" (Psalm 52:8 (LXX 51:10)). For the righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and will be multiplied like a cedar in Lebanon (Psalm 92:12-13 (LXX 91:13-14)).
Now the gloom of the devil's winter has fled, and the cheerful radiance of the heavenly meadow has shone forth. Now the mourning of the dead has run away, for the light of the resurrection has come. Let us all sing together the new song, for the new and blessed song befits the new way of life. Let us sing the new song, for behold, Adam has been renewed, the old sin has been destroyed, behold, all things have become new.
Greek
De recens baptizatis Τοῦ μακαρίου Ἀμφιλοχίου ἐπισκόπου Ἰκονίου περὶ τῶν νεοφωτίστων καὶ εἰς τὴν ἀνάστασιν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ὁπόταν τὸ σκυθρωπὸν τοῦ χειμῶνος ὁ τοῦ ἔαρος καιρὸς διαδέξηται, ποικίλοι ὄρνεις ἀνὰ τὸν αἰθέρα πετόμενοι μελιφώνοις ᾠδαῖς τὸ ἡδὺ τοῦ καιροῦ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις σημαίνουσιν· τότε καὶ χελιδόνες ἡδύλαλοι ὀξείᾳ πτήσει τὸν ἀέρα τέμνουσαι καὶ τὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων κεφαλὰς παρατρέχουσαι δίκην ἄνθους τὴν οἰκείαν κλαγγὴν τοῖς ὠσὶν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐμβάλλουσιν. Τότε ἔστιν ἰδεῖν καθαρὸν τὸν ἀέρα καὶ νήνεμον καὶ τὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὄψεις φαιδρὰς εἰς μίμημα τῆς γαλήνης μεταρρυθμιζομένας· καὶ γὰρ ὀρνέων φθογγαὶ τέρπουσιν ἀκοὴν καὶ ἀὴρ καθαρὸς φαιδρύνει τὸ ὄμμα καὶ ποικίλων ἀνθῶν στιλβότης ἡδύνει τὴν ὅρασιν καὶ ἡ πολυμιγὴς πνοὴ τῶν βοτανῶν ἀνακτᾶται τὴν ὄσφρησιν. Καὶ ταύτην μὲν τὴν τερπνότητα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις παρέχει, ἀγαπητοί, τὸ ἐπίγειον καὶ ἐπίκηρον ἔαρ· τὸ δὲ θεῖον καὶ ἀκήρατον ἔαρ ἡμῶν Χριστὸς τὸν λειμῶνα τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἴων καὶ ῥόδων καὶ κρίνων πνευματικῶν πυκάσας τῇ πίστει φαιδρύνει τὴν ὅρασιν καὶ ἀρωμά των θείων τὴν δεξαμενὴν τῆς καρδίας ἡμῶν πληροῖ. Τίς γὰρ τῶν πιστῶν νῦν οὐκ εὐφραίνεται; Τίς δὲ νῦν οὐκ ἀγάλλεται, ὅτε ὁρᾷ τοὺς νεοφωτίστους ἐν εἰκόνι κρίνων λαμ προῖς τοῖς κάλυξιν τῶν πέπλων καταλάμποντας καὶ ἐν μέσῃ τῇ καρδίᾳ κεκτημένους τὴν χρυσαυγοῦσαν πίστιν; Ἐνταῦθα εὑρή σεις, ἀγαπητέ, ὀφθαλμοῖς καρδίας ἀτενίσας ἴου δίκην βαθυτάτου τὴν τῶν πιστῶν καρδίαν αἵματι Ἰησοῦ πορφυρίζουσαν· τὸ γὰρ φλογόφυλλον ῥόδον ἐκ τῆς παρθένου Μαρίας ἀφθόρως ἐξήνθη σεν. Ποῖος λειμὼν τοιαύτην εὐωδίαν κέκτηται οἵαν ὁ ἡμέτερος λειμὼν τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἀρωματίζουσαν χάριν; Ὄσφρησαι τὸν νεοφώτιστον καὶ εὑρήσεις ἐν αὐτῷ τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἀθάνατον εὐωδίαν, λέγω δὴ τὸ τοῦ οὐρανίου χρίσματος μύρον. Ὧδε τῶν πατέρων οἱ φοίνικες τοῖς βαΐοις τῆς νίκης κατεστεμμένοι γλυκυτέρους τοὺς καρποὺς τῆς ἀγάπης κυπρίζουσιν· ὧδε τὰ καλλί φθογγα ὄρνεα τῶν ψαλμῳδῶν ὁμοφώνως τῷ θεῷ τοὺς ψαλμοὺς λυρῳδοῦσιν· ὧδε ἡ παρθενία δίκην στύρακος καθαρὸν τὸ θυμία μα τῆς εὐχῆς τῷ θεῷ προσκομίζουσα χαίρει· ὧδε ἡ σωφροσύνη ἱλαρὸν τὸν κλάδον τῆς ἁγνείας ὡς Ἀβραὰμ τὸν Ἰσαὰκ τῷ θεῷ θυσιάζουσα τέρπεται· ὧδε τὰ τῶν ἐλεῶν στελέχη πολύκαρπον τὸν κλάδον τῆς εὐποιΐας τοῖς πένησι προβαλλόμενα τέρπουσι μὲν τὸν κύριον, τρέφουσι δὲ τὸν πτωχόν. Ἡ παρθενία ᾀδέτω λέγουσα· Κατευθυνθήτω ἡ προσευχή μου ὡς θυμίαμα ἐνώπιόν σου, κύριε. Ὁ ἐλεήμων λεγέτω· Ἐγὼ δὲ ὡσεὶ ἐλαία κατάκαρπος ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ θεοῦ· δίκαιος γὰρ ὡς φοῖνιξ ἀνθήσει, ὡσεὶ κέδρος ἡ ἐν τῷ Λιβάνῳ πληθυνθήσεται. Νῦν τὸ σκυθρωπὸν τοῦ διαβολικοῦ χειμῶνος πέφευγεν καὶ τὸ ἱλαρὸν τοῦ οὐρανίου λειμῶνος ἀνέλαμψεν· νῦν τὸ πένθος τῶν νεκρῶν ἐδραπετεύθη, τὸ γὰρ φέγγος τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐλήλυθεν. Ἄσωμεν πάντες ὁμοῦ τὸ ᾆσμα τὸ καινόν, πρέπει γὰρ τῇ καινῇ πολιτείᾳ τὸ καινὸν καὶ μακάριον ᾆσμα. Ἄσωμεν τὸ ᾆσμα τὸ καινόν, ἰδοὺ γὰρ Ἀδὰμ ἀνεκαινίσθη, ἡ γὰρ παλαιὰ ἁμαρτία ἠφάνισται, ἰδοὺ γέγονεν πάντα καινά.