Homily I — The figures that foretold her
For you are the royal throne beside which angels stood, seeing their own Master and Creator seated upon it. You have become a spiritual Eden, holier and more divine than the Eden of old. For in that one dwelt the earthly Adam, but in you the Lord from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47). The ark foreshadowed you, keeping safe the seed of a second world (Genesis 7:1-3); for you gave birth to Christ, the salvation of the world, who drowned sin and stilled its waves. The bush sketched you in advance (Exodus 3:2); the tablets written by God engraved you beforehand (Exodus 31:18); the ark of the law told your story ahead of time; the golden jar and the lampstand, the table, and the rod of Aaron that budded plainly prefigured you (Hebrews 9:2-4). For from you came the flame of the Godhead, the Father's Definition and Word, the sweetest heavenly manna, the nameless Name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9), the eternal and unapproachable Light (1 Timothy 6:16), the heavenly Bread of life (John 6:48), the fruit no one had tilled: from you he sprang up in the body.
Did not the furnace foretell you, showing a fire that at once bedewed and blazed (Daniel 3:49-50), a figure of the divine fire that dwelt in you? And the tent of Abraham points to you most clearly. For to God the Word, who pitched his tent in your womb (John 1:14), human nature brought the loaf baked in the ashes (Genesis 18:6): its own firstfruits, taken from your pure blood, baked, as it were, and made into bread by the divine fire, subsisting in his divine person, and coming into the true existence of a body given life by a rational and intelligent soul.
Jacob's ladder, too, almost escaped me. What then? Is it not plain to everyone that it was drawn beforehand of you and is known as your figure? Jacob saw heaven joined to earth by the two ends of the ladder, and angels coming down and going up on it (Genesis 28:12), and the One who is truly strong and unconquerable wrestling with him in figure (Genesis 32:24). In the same way you too stood between, and became the ladder of God's coming down to us. He took up our weak lump, wove it into himself and united it to himself, and made man a mind that sees God; and so you brought together what had been parted. That is why angels came down to him, serving him as God and Master, while men, taking up the angelic way of life, are caught up to heaven.
Greek
Σὺ γὰρ εἶ ὁ βασιλικὸς θρόνος, ᾧ παρεστήκεισαν ἄγγελοι τὸν ἑαυτῶν ὁρῶντες δεσπότην, καὶ δημιουργὸν ἐποχούμενον. Σὺ Ἐδὲμ νοητὴ κεχρημάτικας τῆς πάλαι ἱερωτέρα καὶ θειοτέρα. Ἐν ἐκείνῃ μὲν γὰρ Ἀδὰμ χοϊκὸς ηὐλίζετο, ἐν σοὶ δὲ Κύριος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ. Σὲ κιβωτὸς προεικόνισε δευτέρου κόσμου σπέρμα φυλάττουσα· σὺ γὰρ τὴν τοῦ κόσμου σωτηρίαν τὸν Χριστὸν ἀπεκύησας, τὸν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν μὲν κατακλύσαντα, τὰ δὲ ταύτης κατευνάσαντα κύματα. Σὲ βάτος προέγραψε, πλάκες θεόγραφοι προεχάραξαν, νόμου ἡ κιβωτὸς προϊστόρησε, στάμνος χρυσῆ καὶ λυχνία, καὶ τράπεζα, καὶ ῥάβδος Ἀαρὼν ἡ βλαστήσασα, ἐμφανῶς προετύπωσαν. Ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ ἡ φλὸξ τῆς θεότητος, ὁ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὅρος καὶ Λόγος, τὸ γλυκύτατον καὶ οὐράνιον μάννα, τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ἀνώνυμον τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα, τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀΐδιον καὶ ἀπρόσιτον, ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς ὁ οὐράνιος, ὁ ἀγεώργητος καρπὸς, σωματικῶς ἐκ σοῦ ἀνεβλάστησεν. Οὐ σὲ προεμήνυσε κάμινος, πῦρ δροσίζον ἅμα καὶ φλογίζον δεικνύουσα, καὶ τοῦ θείου πυρὸς ἀντίτυπον τοῦ ἐν σοὶ κατοικήσαντος; Ἡ δὲ σκηνὴ Ἀβραὰμ σὲ προδηλοῖ προφανέστατα. Τῷ γὰρ Θεῷ Λόγῳ ἐν τῇ γαστρί σου σκηνώσαντι ἀνθρωπεία φύσις τὸν ἐγκρυφίαν ἄρτον, τὴν ἑαυτῆς ἀπαρχὴν ἐκ τῶν σῶν ἁγνῶν αἱμάτων προσήγαγεν, ὀπτωμένην πως καὶ ἀρτοποιουμένην ὑπὸ τοῦ θείου πυρὸς, ἐν τῇ θείᾳ αὐτοῦ ὑποστάσει ὑφισταμένην, καὶ εἰς ἀληθῆ ὕπαρξιν ἐρχομένην σώματος ἐψυχωμένου ψυχῇ λογικῇ τε καὶ νοερᾷ. Μικροῦ με καὶ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ ἡ κλίμαξ διέφυγε. Τί γάρ; οὐ παντὶ δῆλον, ὅτι σοῦ προεγράφη καὶ τύπος γνωρίζεται; ὃν τρόπον ἐκεῖνος τεθέαται διὰ τῶν ἄκρων τῆς κλίμακος οὐρανὸν τῇ γῇ συναπτόμενον, καὶ διὰ ταύτης ἀγγέλους κατιόντας καὶ ἀνιόντας, καὶ τὸν ὄντως ἰσχυρὸν, καὶ ἀήττητον, τυπικῶς αὐτῷ προσπαλαίοντα, οὕτως καὶ σὺ μεσιτεύσασα, καὶ κλίμαξ γεγονυῖα τῆς πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ καταβάσεως, τοῦ τὸ ἀσθενὲς ἡμῶν ἀναλαβόντος φύραμα, καὶ ἑαυτῷ συμπλέξαντος καὶ ἑνώσαντος, καὶ νοῦν ὁρῶντα Θεὸν δεδρακότος τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τὰ διεστῶτα συνήγαγες. Ὅθεν ἄγγελοι μὲν πρὸς αὐτὸν κατῆεσαν, ὡς Θεῷ καὶ Δεσπότῃ λειτουργήσαντες, ἄνθρωποι δὲ ἀγγελικῇ πολιτείᾳ χρησάμενοι, πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἀναρπάζονται.