Homily II — Today the living ark comes to rest
Today the holy and only Virgin is brought to the sanctuary of heaven, beyond this world: she who so loved virginity that it transformed her, as a most pure fire would. For every virgin loses her virginity in giving birth; but she remains a virgin before giving birth, in giving birth, and after the birth. Today the holy and living ark of the living God, who carried her own Maker in her womb, comes to rest in the temple of the Lord not made by hands; and David, her forefather and the forefather of God, leaps for joy (2 Samuel 6:14–16), and angels dance with him, archangels applaud, powers give glory, principalities rejoice together, authorities are glad, dominions exult, thrones keep festival, the Cherubim sing hymns and the Seraphim give praise. For they are glorified not least by offering glory to the Mother of glory. Today the most holy dove, the pure and innocent soul consecrated to the divine Spirit, flying out from the ark, I mean the body that received God and was the beginning of life, has found rest for her feet (Genesis 8:9). She has set out for the world known to the mind, and has made her dwelling in the spotless land of the inheritance above. Today the Eden of the new Adam receives the paradise endowed with reason, in which the sentence of condemnation has been undone, in which the tree of life has been planted, in which our nakedness has been clothed. For we are no longer naked and unclothed, without the splendour of the divine image and robbed of the Spirit's abundant grace; no longer shall we lament our old nakedness and say: 'I have taken off my tunic; how shall I put it on?' (Song of Songs 5:3). For in this paradise the serpent found no way in, the serpent whose false offer of godhead we craved (Genesis 3:5), and so were likened to the senseless beasts (Psalm 49:12). For the only-begotten Son of God himself, being God and of one being with the Father, formed himself into a man from this Virgin, this pure soil. And I, a man, have been made divine; I, a mortal, have been made immortal; and I have put off the garments of skin (Genesis 3:21). For I have stripped off corruption, and I am clothed in the robe of the Godhead. Today the Virgin, undefiled, who had no part in earthly passions but was nourished on heavenly thoughts, has not gone away into the earth; having become in truth a living heaven, she takes up her home in the heavenly tabernacles. For who would miss the truth in calling her heaven, unless perhaps someone, knowing well, should say that she is raised even above the heavens by a surpassing that admits no comparison? For the Maker and Sustainer of the heavens, the Craftsman of every work of creation within the world and beyond it, visible and invisible, he for whom nothing in all creation is a place (if indeed a place is defined as what contains the things in it), in her was fashioned by himself, without seed, into an infant; and he showed her to be a spacious storehouse of his Godhead, which fills all things and alone is uncircumscribed. He was wholly gathered into her without suffering, and remained wholly outside, being his own place, which nothing can contain. Today the treasure of life, the abyss of grace (I do not know how to say it with bold and fearless lips) is covered by a death that bears life; and she who conceived the destroyer of death approaches it without fear, if indeed we must call her all-holy and life-giving departure a death. For how could she who poured out true life for all fall under the power of death? But she yields to the law laid down by her own Son, and as daughter of the old Adam she undergoes the liability that came down from her father, since even her Son, who is Life itself, did not refuse it; but because she is Mother of the living God, she is fittingly carried over to him. For if God says, 'Lest the first-formed man stretch out his hand and take of the tree of life and taste it, and live forever' (Genesis 3:22), how shall she who received Life itself, without beginning and without end, bound by no limit of beginning or of end, not live for the age that has no end?
Greek
Σήμερον ἡ ὁσία καὶ μόνη Παρθένος τῷ ὑπερκοσμίῳ καὶ οὐρανίῳ τεμένει προσάγεται, ἡ τοσοῦτον τὴν παρθενίαν ποθήσασα, ὡς ὑπ' αὐτῆς οἷά τινος καθαρωτάτου ποιωθῆναι πυρός. Παρθένος γὰρ ἅπασα τῷ τόκῳ τὴν παρθενίαν λυμαίνεται· αὕτη δὲ καὶ πρὸ τόκου, καὶ τίκτουσα μένει παρθένος, καὶ μετὰ γέννησιν. Σήμερον ἡ ἱερά τε καὶ ἔμψυχος κιβωτὸς τοῦ ζῶντος Θεοῦ, ἡ τὸν ἑαυτῆς τεχνίτην κυοφορήσασα, ἐν ναῷ Κυρίου ἀχειροτμήτῳ καταπαύεται, καὶ σκιρτᾷ Δαβὶδ ὁ ταύτης προπάτωρ καὶ Θεοπάτωρ, καὶ συγχορεύουσιν ἄγγελοι, καὶ κροτοῦσιν ἀρχάγγελοι, καὶ δυνάμεις δοξάζουσι, καὶ ἀρχαὶ συναγάλλονται, καὶ ἐξουσίαι εὐφραίνονται, καὶ κυριότητες χαίρουσιν, καὶ θρόνοι πανηγυρίζουσι, καὶ ἀνυμνεῖ τὰ Χερουβὶμ, καὶ δοξολογεῖ τὰ Σεραφίμ. Δοξάζονται γὰρ οὐχ ἥκιστα, τῇ Μητρὶ τῆς δόξης τὴν δόξαν προσνέμοντες. Σήμερον ἡ ἱερωτάτη περιστερὰ, ἡ ἀκεραία καὶ ἄκακος ψυχὴ, καὶ τῷ θείῳ καθιερωμένη Πνεύματι, ἐκπτᾶσα τῆς κιβωτοῦ, τοῦ θεοδόχου φημὶ, καὶ ζωαρχικοῦ σώματος, εὗρεν ἀνάπαυσιν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῆς, πρὸς τὸν νοητὸν κόσμον ἀπάρασα, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀσπίλῳ γῇ τῆς ἄνω κληρουχίας σκηνώσασα. Σήμερον ἡ Ἐδὲμ τοῦ νέου Ἀδὰμ τὸν λογικὸν παράδεισον ὑποδέχεται, ἐν ᾧ τὸ κατάκριμα λέλυται, ἐν ᾧ τὸ τῆς ζωῆς ξύλον πεφύτευται, ἐν ᾧ ἡ ἡμετέρα περιέσταλται γύμνωσις. Οὐκέτι γὰρ ἡμεῖς γυμνοὶ καὶ ἀνείμονες, καὶ τῆς θείας εἰκόνος μὴ φέροντες τὴν λαμπρότητα· καὶ τὴν ἄφθονον χάριν σεσυλημένοι τοῦ Πνεύματος, οὐκέτι τὴν παλαιὰν τραγῳδοῦντες γύμνωσιν λέξομεν· Ἐξεδυσάμην τὸν χιτῶνά μου, πῶς ἐνδύσομαι αὐτόν; ἐν τούτῳ γὰρ ὁ ὄφις οὐκ ἔσχε παρείσδυσιν, οὗ τῆς ψευδοῦς ὀρεχθέντες θεώσεως, τοῖς ἀνοήτοις συμπαρεβλήθημεν κτήνεσιν. Αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ μονογενὴς Υἱὸς, Θεὸς ὢν, καὶ τῷ Πατρὶ ὁμοούσιος, ἐκ ταύτης τῆς Παρθένου καὶ καθαρᾶς ἀρούρας ἑαυτὸν πεπλαστούργηκεν ἄνθρωπον. Καὶ τεθέωμαι μὲν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὁ θνητὸς ἠθανάτισμαι, καὶ τοὺς δερματίνους χιτῶνας ἐνδέδυμαι. Τὴν γὰρ φθορὰν ἀπημφίασμαι, περίκειμαι τῇ περιβολῇ τῆς θεότητος. Σήμερον ἡ Παρθένος ἡ ἄχραντος, καὶ γηΐνοις μὴ προσομιλήσασα πάθεσι, ἀλλ' οὐρανίοις ἐντραφεῖσα νοήμασιν, οὐκ εἰς γῆν ἀπελήλυθεν, ἀλλ' ἔμψυχος ὄντως οὐρανὸς χρηματίσασα, ταῖς οὐρανίαις σκηναῖς ἐνοικίζεται. Τίς γὰρ ταύτην οὐρανὸν καλῶν τἀληθοῦς ἁμαρτήσεται, εἰ μή πού τις φήσειε καλῶς ἐπιστάμενος, καὶ τῶν οὐρανῶν αὐτὴν ἀσυγκρίτοις ὑπεροχαῖς ὑπεραίρεσθαι. Ὁ γὰρ τῶν οὐρανῶν Δημιουργός τε καὶ Συνοχεὺς, καὶ παντὸς ἐγκοσμίου τε καὶ ὑπερκοσμίου, ὁρατοῦ τε καὶ ἀοράτου τεχνίτης δημιουργήματος, οὗ τόπος οὐδεὶς τῶν πάντων εἶναι· εἴπερ τὸ περιέχον τῶν ἐνόντων τόπος ὁρίζεται· ἐν ταύτῃ πρὸς ἑαυτοῦ ἀσπόρως βρέφος δεδημιούργηται, καὶ ταύτην ταμεῖον εὐρύχωρον δέδειχε τῆς τὰ πάντα πληρούσης αὐτοῦ καὶ μόνης ἀπεριγράφου θεότητος, ὅλος ἀπαθῶς ἐν αὐτῇ συστελλόμενος, καὶ μένων ὅλος ἐκτὸς, καὶ τόπον ἔχων ἑαυτοῦ ἀπερίληπτον. Σήμερον ὁ τῆς ζωῆς θησαυρὸς, ἡ τῆς χάριτος ἄβυσσος· οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως τολμηροῖς καὶ ἀτρόμοις φάναι τοῖς χείλεσι· θανάτῳ ζωηφόρῳ καλύπτεται, καὶ τούτῳ ἀδειμάντως πρόσεισιν ἡ τούτου καταλύτην κυήσασα, εἰ καὶ θάνατον προσαγορεῦσαι χρεὼν τὴν αὐτῆς πανίερον καὶ ζωτικὴν ἀποβίωσιν. Ἡ γὰρ τοῖς πᾶσι τὴν ὄντως ζωὴν ἀναβλύσασα, πῶς θανάτῳ γένοιτ' ἂν ὑποχείριος· ἀλλ' εἴκει τῷ τοῦ οἰκείου τόκου θεσμοθετήματι, καὶ ὡς θυγάτηρ μὲν τοῦ πάλαι Ἀδὰμ τὰς πατρικὰς εὐθύνας ὑπερέρχεται· ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ ταύτης Υἱὸς, ἡ αὐτοζωὴ ταύτας οὐκ ἀπηνήνατο· ὡς δὲ Θεοῦ ζῶντος μήτηρ ὑπάρξασα, πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀξίως μετακομίζεται. Εἰ γάρ φησιν ὁ Θεὸς, Μήποτε ἐκτείνας τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ὁ πρωτόπλαστος ἄνθρωπος, καὶ λαβὼν τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς, καὶ γευσάμενος, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ζήσεται, πῶς ἡ τὴν ζωὴν αὐτὴν δεξαμένη, τὴν ἄναρχόν τε καὶ ἄληκτον, τὴν μήτε ἀρχῆς, μήτε τέλους δουλεύουσαν πέρασιν, οὐκ εἰς αἰῶνα ζήσεται τὸν ἀπέραντον;