Talk 18—On the Manifestation of God in the Flesh

He, of whom the Prophet and God-seer Moses wrote much in the Old Testament, of whom many other Prophets foretold, has at last come—He came to earth as the Reconciler of sinful humanity with the righteous God. After the long waiting for a Redeemer, at last joyful voices were heard on earth: “We have found the Messiah”266; “We have found Jesus, whom Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets”267. “The people living in darkness have seen a great light, and on those sitting in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned”268. “In many different ways and many different forms God spoke in the past to our fathers through the prophets, but in these final days He has spoken to us through His Son”269, who, though He was God, became man for us, and yet remained God. The Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, has shone upon the earth.

From where, then, and how did our Sun of Righteousness shine upon the earth? From the city of Bethlehem, from the Most Holy Virgin Mary.

We have said before that God, in advance, in various ways prepared people for the reception, for the meeting of the radiant Sun of Righteousness—Christ the Lord—through prophecies about Him and through various types. And according to these prophecies it was known to those who paid attention, long before the Nativity of Christ, that Christ would be born in the city of Bethlehem, among the Hebrew people, in the tribe of Judah, from a pure Virgin of royal descent; and it was also known that before the birth of the Messiah—Christ—His forerunner would be born. Now, when the time came for the Son of God to appear on earth in our humble human form, all came to pass exactly as had been foretold by the Prophets. And so a certain priest of the Hebrews by name Zechariah, whose wife Elizabeth, having reached old age, had no children because of barrenness, is visited by the Angel of the Lord in the Temple—at the time when he, according to the custom of the priesthood, was performing incense there. Let us hear what message the Angel brought from heaven, what will of the Lord he announced to the priest. He brought joyful tidings to the holy elder, tidings of the birth of a son from Elizabeth, and announced his name in advance: “You will name him John,” he says. What next? “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; he will go on before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah”270. Do you hear, brothers, about whom the words concern? About the Forerunner of the Lord, about His birth. And if God sends the Forerunner of Christ into the world, then clearly Christ Himself will soon come as well; if the morning star of the Sun appears: then clearly the Sun itself will soon rise. So it was. Five months after the conception of the Forerunner, the Archangel Gabriel flew down from the heavenly heights to Nazareth, where the Most Holy Virgin Mary dwelt, betrothed to the righteous Joseph for the keeping of Her virginity, and who was brought up in the Temple in the Holy of Holies, and entering to Her, said: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with You; blessed are You among women.” Behold the Angel’s Annunciation of the conception and birth of the Savior! The Most Holy Virgin, seeing the Angel, was confused because of His words and wondered what this greeting could mean. The Angel continues the Annunciation: “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you will name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” The Most Holy Virgin says to the Angel: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” The Angel answers Her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You; therefore the Child to be born will be holy, He will be called Son of God.” The All-Pure Virgin said: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” “Behold I am, the humble servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to Your word. Let the Holy Spirit come upon me and the power of the Most High overshadow me for the conception in my womb of the Pre-Eternal Son of God. I believe that it will come to pass, the word of the Lord will be fulfilled. Even now my soul feels the coming of the All-Holy, life-giving Spirit of God and this overshadowing of the power of the Most High; already my soul magnifies the Lord, so closely joined to me—and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, that He has regard for the humility of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed, will magnify, will glorify me throughout all the earth, in all times, to the end of the age; and all this greatness has been wrought in me by the mighty God. Holy is His name. And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation, in all times.” Meanwhile the morning star of the Sun of Righteousness soon after the Angel’s Annunciation to the Virgin Mary rose: the Forerunner—the all-holy fruit of the barren mother271—was born. He was named John, according to the word of the Angel. The time of the great miracles of the Lord came. All who heard of the miraculous conception and birth of John the Forerunner, thought deeply and said: “What then will this child become?” And his father, Zechariah, chastened before this by God for his disbelief of the Angel’s message with muteness for nine months and several days, received the loosing of his tongue, was now filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesying about his son, said: “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins.” The great child grew and became strong in spirit, and lived in the desert until the day of His manifestation to the people of Israel as the forerunner of the Lord272.

Five months after the birth of John the Forerunner was born the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, but not in Nazareth, but in the city of Bethlehem, as had been foretold by the Prophet Micah: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel”273. Because of the extraordinary gathering of people in Bethlehem for the registration of their names by order of Caesar Augustus, there was no room in the house for the Most Holy Virgin and Her righteous betrothed, who had come from Nazareth also to register themselves; and the newborn Divine Child, after being wrapped in swaddling clothes, was placed in a manger.

So great is the humility of the Lord—for our salvation!

Brothers! Let us not be idle spectators of such a voluntary self-emptying of the King of Glory, clothed in light as with a garment, to whom heaven is a throne and earth a footstool. This self-emptying gives all of us a great, saving lesson of humility. It is not magnificent palaces, not wealth that fills with pride, not honors, not the glory of this world that should occupy us, immortal in spirit as we are creatures of God; no: meekness, humility before God and unquestioning devotion to His holy will should be the first desire of our heart and occupy our mind so that they are evident in all our actions. Pride destroyed us; humility should save us. Let us then bring as a gift meekness, humility, and an awareness of our spiritual poverty to Him who became poor for us, though He was rich, that we might be enriched by His poverty274.

But amid the extreme humility of the newborn God-child, His glory also shines forth. The Angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, who as was their custom were keeping watch in that night and guarding their flock, and said to them: “I bring you good news of great joy for all the people. For to you is born today in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” When the Angel said this, suddenly there appeared with him a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”275!

Do you hear, brothers! The Angels proclaim peace to the earth at the birth of the Lord Jesus. Is there peace in our souls? After all, the Savior brought us heavenly peace in abundance. Woe to us if there is no peace within us. This means we are not coming with faith and love to the Savior, who says: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens; and I will give you rest”276. This means we are people of little faith, passionate: malicious, proud, envious, lovers of the world, vain. Peace, brothers, I, the humble servant of Christ, proclaim to you! Come to the childhood-King of peace with hearts full of heartfelt faith and humility, and receive from Him peace for your souls with healing of your passions. After the Angels departed to heaven, the shepherds hurried to Bethlehem, found Joseph, Mary, and the Child lying in the manger, and they were the first to worship Him. On the eighth day after His birth, according to the custom of the Old Testament, the Lord was named Jesus, a name announced by the Angel before His conception in the womb; and on the fortieth day, when the Most Holy Virgin brought Him to the Temple of the Lord—to present Him before the Lord and to offer the sacrifice according to the Law of the Lord—the righteous elder Simeon, to whom it had been promised by the Spirit of God that he would not see death before he saw the Christ, was blessed to meet Him in the Temple, and taking Him in his arms, said: “Master, now You are dismissing Your servant in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation…” Thus shone forth from the Holy Virgin—the Mother—our Lord Jesus Christ, God of God, the Father, born before the ages, and man of the substance of His mother born in time, perfect God and perfect man.

O wonder of wonders! God, sustaining the whole universe by His word, became human so that He might raise humanity to its first blessedness. “Heaven and earth marveled at this, the Church sings, that God appeared to mankind in flesh”277. “All the angelic nature wondered at the great work of God’s becoming man, because the imperceptible God they saw become accessible to all as a man, living together with people”278. Brothers! Seeing God, strange in His becoming human, let us turn away from the vain world and set our minds on the heavens (on the Divine): because it is for this reason God came down to earth—to raise us to the heavens279.

But for what purpose such an extraordinary condescension of the Son of God to us? someone will ask. Why did the Son of God assume human nature? We answer: The Incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of people was absolutely necessary. To save a human being, it was necessary to satisfy God’s justice for human sin; but no single human, not for others but even for himself, is able to give a ransom, and the price of redemption of his soul280, and satisfaction of infinite divine justice, infinitely offended by the sin of human disobedience, had to be equally infinite. Besides, it was necessary to crush in a person the power of evil, which separated him from God and constantly pushed him further and further away; without this it was impossible to unite him again with God281, who abhors sin. But to destroy human sinfulness—for any human being whatsoever—was an impossible thing: because it is a deep corruption of human nature, innate to each person, and to destroy it would mean the same as to renew, to recreate humanity. Who could recreate humanity other than the Creator? And so through the Incarnation, the sufferings and death of the God-man Son of God, satisfaction was made to God’s justice for the sins of humans; and through His saving teaching, or commandments, through His life, through His life-giving body and blood, and through His other mysteries, human nature was renewed, recreated, and continues to be recreated. The Savior, as a sinless God and man, throughout His entire earthly life and in all His deeds, on our behalf offered perfect obedience to the will of God the Father, with complete denial of His own will; He endured all the sorrows, sufferings, and death itself—appointed by God’s justice—and by such a sacrifice, boundless in its worth, completely satisfied the Divine justice for all human sins; and just as Adam’s sin made all humans guilty before God, so the righteousness of the God-man, as the second, sinless Adam, makes them righteous before God through their faith in the God-man. “Just as Adam brought death to his descendants, even though they did not eat of the forbidden fruit, by the eating of the forbidden fruit, so Christ for those who believe in Him, even though they had no righteous deeds, became the cause of righteousness, which He gave to all of us through the cross282.”

Brothers! Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has already deigned to fulfill all the Father’s purpose for us, accomplishing our salvation through His teaching, His life, His death for us, and His resurrection—and has already ascended in His humanity to heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. But our salvation has not been accomplished unconditionally. To be among those who are saved, we must accept with all our heart the saving teaching of Jesus Christ and act according to it. “If you love Me, you will keep My word,” says the Lord (Jn 14:23). We must also each, as far as we are able, imitate His life, which is the model of our life. “Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will also be” (Jn 12:26).

Having ascended from us into heaven, the Lord is always with us through His Divine omnipresence (I am with you always); with us is His miraculous, sweet Name, His holy word, His life-giving cross and His saving mysteries.

Let us therefore invoke, as often as we can, with living faith the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, says the prophetic word (Joel 11:32); let us with faith and love use—for our sanctification and salvation—His saving mysteries, and turn to the invincible, incomprehensible Divine power of His precious and life-giving cross in all circumstances of our life. At all this let us not forget to diligently read and hear His word and to ask Him that He would dwell by faith in our hearts; when He dwells in us, then in us will be the gracious life, which foreshadows the future blissful life. Amen.

Canon of the Archangels, Song 6, verse 1

Wisdom of Solomon 11:23

Apok 4:11

Catechism of Filaret

Ps 103:29

Wisdom of Solomon 11:25–27

Job 28:24

Wisdom of Solomon 12:13

Theodore, Against Heresies, book 5, chapter 10

Canon of the Archangels, Song 5, verse 3

Mt 5:45

Mt 6:29,30

Rom 13:1

Rom 13:2

Lk 13:2-5

Mt 10:28

Jn 5:14

Book of Judges

Lk 16

We have called the mystery of redemption Providence on the basis of many of our Church books. Thus, for example: the mystery of redemption is called saving providence in the prayer to Jesus the Sweet (at the end of the Canon and Akathist); in the Akathist to the Most Holy Mother of God: likewise in other places of the Canon book and in various liturgical books. When counting years from the Nativity of Christ, it is also said in some books: in the year of saving providence such-and-such a year.

Ezek 33:11

Jer 2:19

Rom 2:9

Prayer of the Blessing of Water Before Baptism

Jn 3:8

Gen 3:15

Gen 22:18

Gen 26:4

Gen 28:14

Ex 3:2

Dan 3:24-100

Song 8

Ex 22

Lk 11:29,30

Hebr 9:12-15

Jn 3:14,15

Deuteronomy 18:15

Is 7:14

Mic 5:2

Mal 3:1,4,5

Zah 9:9

Is 53 verse and Ps 21

Dan 9

Jn 7:6

Jn 2:3,4

Jn 7:30,8:20

Jn 9:9,10

Jn 10:32

Is 53:1

Jn 12:37-41

Jn 25:25

Ps 117:22 verse Mt 21:42

Act 3:17,18

Ps 21:19 verse Jn 19:24

Ps 73:22 verse Jn 28 and 99

Jn 5:39

Mt 24:44

Jn 7:16,8,28,55,9,4,10,37,12,49,50

Jn 3:16

Mt 7:21

Jn 1:41

Jn 1:45

Mt 4:16

Hebr 1:1

Lk 1

Canon of the Forerunner, Song 7 of the Mother of God

Lk 1

Mic 5:2, Mt 2:6

2Cor 8:9

Lk 2

Mt 11:28

Song 9

Akathist to the Most Holy Mother of God, Kondakion 9

Akathist to Jesus the Sweet, Kondakion 8

Ps 48:8

Solom 11:25, Is 5:7

Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Homily 10, page 207, in Russian translation