The Star Above All Stars

The virginity of Mary escaped the notice of the ruler of this age, and so did her giving birth, and so did the death of the Lord — three mysteries that cry aloud, carried out in the silence of God. [a]

How, then, was he revealed to the ages? A star shone in the sky, above all the stars. Its light was beyond telling, and its strangeness startled everyone. All the other stars, with the sun and the moon, made a chorus around that star, and its own light outran them all. There was a commotion over where this new thing had come from, so unlike anything beside it.

From then on all magic was coming undone, and every bond of wickedness was vanishing. Ignorance was being pulled down; the old kingdom was being destroyed; God was appearing in human form to bring the newness of unending life. And what had been made ready with God took its beginning. From then on everything was thrown into motion, because the undoing of death was being planned.

If Jesus Christ counts me worthy, through your prayer, and if it is his will, then in the second short book I intend to write to you I will explain further the plan I have begun to set out — the plan that has in view the new man, Jesus Christ: faith in him and love for him, his suffering and his resurrection. [h]

I will do this above all if the Lord shows me that you are coming together in common, all of you, man by man, by name, in grace, in one faith and in Jesus Christ — who by his human descent came from David’s line, the Son of Man and Son of God — so that you obey the overseer and the council of elders with your minds undistracted, breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote against dying, so that we do not die but live in Jesus Christ always.

My life for yours, and for the lives of those you sent to Smyrna for the honor of God. I am writing to you from there, giving thanks to the Lord, loving Polycarp as I love you. Remember me, as Jesus Christ also remembers you. [l]

Pray for the church in Syria. I am being led away from there to Rome in chains, the least of the believers there — and even so I was counted worthy to be found for the honor of God. Farewell, in God the Father and in Jesus Christ, our common hope.