The Coming of the Lord in the Flesh

Whoever, then, has followed a course unworthy of a life of virtue, and knows in his conscience that he has lived an irregular and disorderly life, let him repent and turn to God with the enlightened eyes of the spirit. Let him abandon his past career of wickedness, content if he arrives at wisdom even in his declining years. We, however, have received no help from human instruction; on the contrary, whatever good qualities of character are well spoken of by people of understanding are entirely the gift of God. And I am able to raise no feeble shield against the deadly weapons of Satan’s armory: I mean the knowledge I have of the things that are pleasing to God. From these I will choose the ones that suit my present purpose, as I go on to sing the praises of the Father of all. [a]

But you, O Christ, Savior of humankind, be present to help me in my holy task! Direct the words that celebrate your virtues, and teach me to sound your praises worthily. And now let no one expect to hear the graces of elegant language. For I know well that the limp eloquence of those who speak to charm the ear, and who aim at applause rather than at sound argument, is distasteful to hearers of sound judgment.

Some ungodly and senseless people claim that Christ, whom we worship, was justly condemned to death, and that he who is the author of life to all was himself deprived of life. That such a claim should be made by those who have once dared to enter the paths of ungodliness, who have thrown off all fear and every thought of hiding their own depravity, is not surprising. But it is beyond the bounds of folly itself that they can, it seems, truly persuade themselves that the incorruptible God gave way to the violence of men, and not rather to that love alone which he bore for the human race. They fail to see that divine greatness of soul and forbearance is changed by no insult and moved from its own steadfastness by no abuse, but is always the same, breaking down and driving back, by the spirit of wisdom and greatness of soul, the savage fury of those who attack it.

The gracious kindness of God had resolved to abolish wrongdoing and to raise up order and justice. So he gathered a company of the wisest among men, and established that most noble and useful teaching which is designed to lead the good and blessed among humankind to imitate his own providential care. And what higher blessing can we speak of than this: that God should mark out the way of righteousness and make those who are counted worthy of his instruction like himself, so that goodness might reach every class of humankind, and everlasting happiness be the result? This is the glorious victory; this is the true power; this is the mighty work, worthy of its author: the restoring of all people to soundness of mind. And the glory of this triumph we joyfully give to you, Savior of all!

But you, vile and wretched blasphemy, whose glory is in lies and rumors and slander: your power lies in deceiving and in getting the better of the inexperience of youth, and of men who still keep the folly of youth. These you lure away from the service of the true God, and you set up false idols for them to worship and to pray to. And so the reward of their folly awaits your deluded victims, for they slander Christ, the author of every blessing, who is God and the Son of God. Is not the worship of the best and wisest of the nations of this world rightly directed to that God who, while possessing boundless power, remains unshakably true to his own purpose, and keeps undiminished his own kindness and love for humankind?

Away, then, you ungodly, for you still may, while vengeance for your transgressions is held back for now! Be off to your sacrifices, your feasts, your scenes of revelry and drunkenness, where under the pretense of religion your hearts are given over to debauched pleasure, and where, while pretending to offer sacrifices, you are yourselves the willing slaves of your own pleasures. You have no knowledge of any good, not even of the first commandment of the mighty God, who both declares his will to human beings and commissions his Son to direct the course of human life, so that those who have lived a life of virtue and self-control may obtain, by the judgment of that Son, a second existence, a blessed and happy one. I have now declared God’s decree concerning the life he prescribes for human beings, neither in ignorance, as many have done, nor resting on opinion or guesswork.

But perhaps some will ask: Where does this title of Son come from? Where does this birth we speak of come from, if God is truly only One and incapable of union with another? We must, however, think of birth as being of two kinds: one by natural birth, which everyone knows; the other the effect of an eternal cause, whose manner is seen by the foreknowledge of God and by those among human beings whom he loves. For whoever is wise will recognize the cause that governs the harmony of creation. Since, then, nothing exists without a cause, the cause of existing things must necessarily have come before their existence. But since the world and all that it contains exist and are preserved, their preserver must have existed before them. So Christ is the cause of their preservation, and the preservation of things is an effect, just as the Father is the cause of the Son, and the Son the effect of that cause. Enough has now been said to prove that he existed first.

But how do we explain his coming down to this earth and to human beings? His motive in this, as the prophets had foretold, came from his watchful care for the good of all; for the Creator must care for his own works. And when the time came for him to take an earthly body and to live on this earth, as the need required, he devised for himself a new way of being born. There was conception, yet apart from marriage; childbirth, yet pure virginity; and a maiden became the mother of God! An eternal nature received a beginning of existence in time. A spiritual being appeared in a form the senses could perceive, and a bodiless radiance appeared in material form. Equally wonderful were the circumstances that attended this great event. A radiant dove, like the one that flew from the ark of Noah, alighted on the Virgin’s bosom. And the results that followed matched this union beyond all touch, purer than chastity, more guileless than innocence itself.

From infancy he possessed the wisdom of God. He was received with reverent awe by the Jordan, in whose waters he was baptized. He was gifted with that royal anointing, the spirit of universal understanding, and with the knowledge and power to perform miracles and to heal diseases beyond the reach of human skill. He granted the prayers of men swiftly and without hindrance, and his whole life was devoted without reserve to their welfare. His teachings instilled not prudence only, but true wisdom. His hearers were instructed not in the mere virtues of public life, but in the ways that lead to the spiritual world, and they gave themselves to the contemplation of unchangeable and eternal things and to the knowledge of the Supreme Father. The benefits he gave were no ordinary blessings: for blindness, the gift of sight; for helpless weakness, the vigor of health; in place of death, a return to life. I do not dwell on that abundant provision in the wilderness, by which a scanty measure of food became a full and lasting supply for the needs of a great multitude.

So we give thanks to you, our God and Savior, as far as our feeble power allows; to you, O Christ, supreme Providence of the mighty Father, who both save us from evil and give us your most blessed teaching. For I say these things not to praise you but to give thanks. For what mortal can worthily declare your praise? We learn of you that you called creation into being out of nothing and lit it with your light, and that you brought the confusion of the elements under the laws of harmony and order. But above all we mark your love for humankind, in that you have made those whose hearts turned toward you long earnestly for a divine and blessed life. You have provided that, like merchants of true blessings, they should pass on to many others the wisdom and good fortune they had received, while they themselves reap the everlasting fruit of virtue. Freed from the chains of vice and filled with love for their fellow human beings, they keep mercy always before their eyes and hope for the promises of faith. They are devoted to modesty and to all those virtues which the past course of human life had thrown aside, but which were now restored by him whose providence is over all.

No other power could be found to devise a remedy for such evils, and for that spirit of injustice which until then had held sway over the human race. Providence, however, could reach even this situation, and easily restored whatever had been thrown into disorder by violence and by unbridled human passion. And he exercised this restoring power openly. For he knew that while there were some whose minds were able to recognize and understand his power, there were others whose brutish and senseless nature led them to rely only on the evidence of their own senses. So in broad daylight, so that no one, good or evil, might find room for doubt, he displayed his blessed and wonderful power to heal: he restored the dead to life again, and with a word he renewed the powers of those who had been robbed of bodily feeling. Can we suppose, in short, that to make the sea as firm as solid ground, to calm the raging of the storm, and finally to go up into heaven, after turning people’s unbelief into steadfast faith by these wonderful acts, required anything less than almighty power, or was anything less than the work of God?

Nor was the time of his suffering without wonders like these, when the sun was darkened and the shades of night hid the light of day. Then terror seized the people everywhere, with the thought that the end of all things had already come, and that chaos, such as there had been before the order of creation began, would prevail once more. Then, too, people searched for the cause of so terrible an evil, and asked how the wrongs of men had provoked the anger of heaven; until God himself, who looked with calm dignity on the arrogance of the ungodly, renewed the face of heaven and adorned it with the host of stars. So the clouded face of Nature was restored once more to her original beauty.