A word of praise to Saint John the Baptist

In the “Eulogy to St. John the Baptist” (20 chapters) St. Sophronius of Jerusalem, compares St. John with the Old Testament prophets (Samuel, Isaac, Joseph, Jacob, Sampson), showing his superiority. The sermon focuses on the prophetic significance of the conception, birth and entire life of the prophet John. The saint emphasizes that even before his birth, St. John was filled with the Holy Spirit and announced the coming of the Messiah by leaping in his mother's womb. The author pays attention to the details of Zechariah's Annunciation, describing his confusion and punishment for unbelief. The author examines in detail the meaning of the name “John,” which is translated as “Grace of God.” He associates this name with the coming of Christ and the bestowal of grace on all mankind. St. Sophronius examines St. John as the link between the Testaments: he is the completion of the prophets of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, announcing the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and preparing the way for the Lord. *The title of the work in Latin is In Iohannem Baptistam. 1. Oh, you who were the voice (proclaiming) the Word, inspire us, give us what to say. O Lamp of Light, grant us illumination. O Forerunner of the Word, let our word flow smoothly, so that we, being able to praise you according to the merits of your deeds, may rejoice today. Because out of a sense of duty, we wish to sing praises to you, O Baptist, even more than your fathers and contemporaries, since we have abounded in gifts from you to a greater extent than from all your ancestors. And, since we are unable to adequately praise you, we again resort to you, the good giver, and pray that you yourself will be the leader in our praises to you. Lest, if our praises of you proceed only on the basis of our words, we, due to the insignificance and small dignity of our speeches, should not turn out to be some kind of insults to you rather than grateful praisers, in the eyes of people who do not take into account our imperfection in speeches, but demand that praise correspond to the greatness or dignity of the Praised One, and do not allow forgiveness for the speaker if, due to lack of strength, he will not achieve the goal and will not be able to ignite the hearts of listeners. But, truly, those who would like to crown you with praise will always fall far behind and will not achieve the goal of praising you worthily; at least, no one could claim so loudly, unless he was crazy or frenzied. So what should I do, who, like a tree planted by waters, am every hour “watered” by your countless gifts and constantly enjoy the source of your blessings? But, for the reason that no one is able to do this with dignity, is it better for him to remain silent and say absolutely nothing, than, on the contrary, to cry out as anyone can and is strong, thereby showing his inherent ardor of spirit, even if, due to the weakness of his voice, he could not utter a loud cry? But precisely such a person is recognized as worthy of approval and is counted among the prudent, like that foreigner and foreigner who was among the ten whom the Savior cleansed from leprosy (and who came to the Savior, thanking Him with a great voice for the healing), although he belonged to the group of those ungrateful people who did not thank their Benefactor according to their strength, because, having themselves received cleansing from their illness, they, however, did not give glory to Christ, who granted them such cleansing. 2. So, we should not remain silent, but out of love we should bring you a praiseworthy speech, although the speech will be lower than your greatness, so that we do not deserve the censure that these nine ungrateful people deserved, but be counted among the praised company with the one who was recognized as prudent. So, cry out to us now, O Forerunner, just as you cried out in the desert before. Because we too have become a desert in terms of words and voice and, moreover, an increasing spiritual radiance, from which and thanks to which the crown of glory is woven for you. The cry is louder within us now. Because we will cry out if you cry out, and we will be silent if you remain silent, even if we intended to cry out loudly. Because our cry will be counted as nothing, unless, thanks to your Divine cry, it gains strength, and the earth will not hear our voice at all, unless we perceive euphony from your great voice. Therefore, in all pain and illness, we call on you for help and we beg you to resolve our tongue, which is bound by muteness, as once with your birth, you resolved the language of your father Zechariah, and we ask you to give us a voice to proclaim your praises, just as you gave him, when he was born, a voice to proclaim your name to the people. Because if his tongue was tied until your Christmas resolved it and moved him to praise you, then how could we move our tongue to praise you, unless you yourself move it and convert it, and direct it along the current that pleases you? 3. But my word, having come to the barrier from where the speeches begin, and being amazed at the multitude of your miracles, experiences even greater difficulties, not knowing what to put at the head of the story about you. Shall you bring forward your Christmas, which Gabriel announced as the beginning of the joy that was to come to the world? Or was it your conception, which the barren and elderly old woman carefully hid? Or your leaping in your mother’s womb, which for the first time announced to everyone the God who exists in the womb of the Holy Virgin? And didn’t the Unartificial Mother, who was about to give birth to the One of the Holy Trinity, make a three-day journey (from Nazareth, where Her Annunciation took place, to the place of residence in Judea of ​​the Saints and Righteous Zechariah and Elizabeth) and didn’t She stay there for three months in order to see your wonderful Nativity and have an even stronger and stronger faith based on the foundations of these events? Or the image of your life in the desert that the world could not contain? Was it from the desert that you appeared to Israel, the first and the last, in which you revealed Christ to them and proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven? Or is it that you purified the people into the Jordan, and by which Christ purified (sanctified) you yourself, by receiving you and making you a minister of His own Baptism? Or the laws that you, lovingly and prophetically, proposed to those who obeyed conviction? Or the punishment that you threateningly announced to the disobedient? Is it your courage, with which you reproached princes and kings, and of which Herod rightly feared, despite the fact that, due to his passion for a woman, he cast aside fear? Is it valiant to behead and take away your venerable head, due to which you have doubly revealed yourself to be the Forerunner of the Savior, not only going before and preceding Him on earth, but also becoming His Forerunner in hell, waiting for Him there and remaining, just like those on earth, preaching (proclaiming) His saving Coming there? 4. But of your deeds, which should we tell first, and which should we leave in second place? When each has its inherent superiority and it is fair to argue about the primacy and does not allow the tongue to speak about anything else, so that the speech would remain unfinished or unsatisfactory (incomplete)? But it seems to me that it would be correct if we adhere to the order of sequence in time, because order dominates the time that follows it (and determines the course of events); and let our speeches follow this principle; in order that the speech may proceed in its proper order and avoid confusion due to the changes associated with time, I will give each of the events an appropriate and brief summary of it. Isn’t the cunning Laban commendable in this regard because he did not allow the younger daughter to marry before the eldest, although she was desired and preferred for a husband, not only because of her physical beauty, but also for the sake of her spiritual beauty? Let our word, therefore, return to the beginning of our speech and to the conception of the Miraculous (John the Baptist), as if this were the beginning of his coming into being and everything that follows, and let praise follow the order of things, so that He who is praised by us deigns to give us the word. It is possible that it would not be inappropriate to begin our word with the events preceding his conception, because even before his conception in his mother’s womb, he should have appeared in this way as someone who had to be great and had to arise in anticipation of great benefits that were to come as caused by our fall, not unknown to us, which happened to our nature as a result of our listening. And not only did human life become disastrous, but atheism was also mixed in with this, because, having abandoned the Creator of the universe and the Lord, we began to idolize the creature that served us, and called the product of our own hands “gods.” And therefore we have enslaved ourselves to dishonest passions, so that we began to give honor, which belongs only to God, to dishonest idols and demons. And the illness that afflicted human nature was so severe that it could not have been greater, that the greatest of all medicines was required to heal it. And it consisted in the fact that the Creator became like us, creatures, and God became a man like us, in that he united with human nature and took into Himself natural human properties and had to fully realize God’s plan, and thus, it was necessary to save man, who was held by his own will and possessed by passions, and to elevate him to the primitive blissful state, which God, creating him, assimilated to him from the beginning. 5. And that God would do this, He promised the first Abraham, announcing to him that it would be given to him that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed, because of the Incarnation, which would come from his race, the Only Begotten Son of God and the Word; then, after Abraham, God confirmed this promise with an oath to David, announcing to him that from his loins the King of Glory would sit on his royal throne, and this would happen at the end of the present age, and the time of the written (Old Testament) law determined by Him would come to fulfillment, or completion. Not only Abraham and David, who were worthy to accept such a promise, greatly desired to see and contemplate this, but also many other prophets and kings who came after them, just as Christ Himself, the Desire of all the saints, revealed in the Gospel to the blessed host of His disciples. So, the last times of the present age have come, and the promise given to each of them came to fruition, and the Law received, thanks to Christ, its expected fulfillment, and all the prophets and righteous men who were in Jerusalem, who were expecting the redemption of Israel and believed in the Spirit that it had come, wanted to see its coming not only with their spiritual, but also with their physical eyes, before their departure from this life. And they not only desired, but also prayed and offered their prayers to God, and what they asked for (because they were worthy of it) they received. Such was Simeon, like a priest who accepted Christ into his arms and confessed Him as the Lord of all creation. Such was Anna, who spent her many years of widowhood wonderfully, and stayed day and night in the church of God, who then, appearing at the inspiration of the prophetic Spirit, announced to all those then present the vision that had come into the world of what everyone was waiting for, and so that before this vision he would not see the expected death, and already existing at the door. This elder always brought such a prayer to God, praying to Him that the Light of salvation would soon shine for everyone, praying that he himself would see the rise of this Light. And so that now, when this time had come, he would not be snatched from life, without becoming a participant in this vision, he made extensive prayers about this, and especially when he offered God the service prescribed by law, he prayed that this service would soon change to a more spiritual and more perfect one, and that those who had an equal lot with him and bore the same yoke as he would be freed from the burden. Because while carrying out their turn of service, they stood with censers at the entrance to the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest entered once a year, offering blood in his hands and clearly revealing in a mysterious form the one and only Offering (Sacrifice), which the Bishop and the Lamb sacrificed to His God and Father for the people. 6. So, Zechariah, being here (because he was worthy of such service) and standing before the altar, and earnestly imploring the Father for the coming of the Word in constant prayer and burning incense with the fragrant incense, saw on the right side of the altar standing a heavenly Angel, who brought him favorable and heavenly news. It was Gabriel who became the messenger of such messages, revealing by his very coming to him, before words, his notification to him: because he came to announce the divine Incarnation of God’s Word, for which the elder fervently prayed; and the Angel of God, seeing that as a result of the vision, Zechariah is in confusion and his confusion increases into fear - for it is said: “Zechariah saw confusion, and fear came upon him” (Luke I, 12): because in his face he depicted the shock into which the Law came, during the transition from the way of life presented in the Law, to the Gospel life - first eliminates his confusion and fear, and then is already beginning to reveal good announcements to him. Because what he proclaimed to him was not a matter of fear, but a source of confidence and joy. What is he saying? - “Do not be afraid, Zechariah: your prayer has already been heard” (Luke 1:13). By this he seems to be saying: Why are you horrified, oh old man? Why are you horrified now that your prayer has been answered? Why do you become afraid when the burden of the Law is lifted from you? Why are you dismayed when you see that the shadow is being taken away? Why do you become confused when you see the cessation of impermanent things? My announcements are indeed amazing, but they should not instill fear in those who hear them; and I have great secrets to tell you, but it is not fitting for you, who listen attentively to them, to be overwhelmed by confusion and fear; but you should rejoice and be merry with me; because these announcements lead to joy and gladness. Because the deliverance (or: redemption) of people has come; the rising of the fallen has come; the completion of the Law has come; the time of Grace has dawned. And you will see the beginning of this with your own eyes in the near future; namely: God the Word, incarnate from the Virgin and born of her in the image of you, people, and delivering the entire human race. And you will not only be a spectator of these things, but also a blessed servant of them. But in order for you to believe in what I told you, with a new miracle I encourage you to believe, telling you what you no longer hoped to see. What is this? “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and she will call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many people will rejoice at his Christmas. It will be a great thing before the Lord: he will not have wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the father to the children, and those who oppose in the wisdom of the righteous, to prepare a perfect people for the Lord” (Luke 1:14-17). 7. Do you see how the glory of John, even before his conception in his mother’s womb, is testified by the words of angels? Indeed, Samuel was born from a barren woman, but not from an old woman and not from a father who was in old age. And Isaac was born of elderly parents, when the parental abilities of the body declined; but he was not filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother’s womb; but in relation to all the others, not one of them was so designated as John was designated, even before his birth. And Samuel, indeed, was a prophet and, like a seer, made the right decisions, because he saw the future as if it were already the present and, being an ascetic, did not drink either wine or strong drink; but he did not live in the desert and did not eat food alien to people, nor did he bring joy to many with his birth, as did John, who with his birth brought the greatest joy to the whole world. And Joseph the wisest was the fruit of a barren woman; but before Rachel, who was previously barren, gave birth to him, Jacob (his father) was already blessed (bearing the blessing of God); and, indeed, he was chaste (for he had erected for himself an admirable trophy in regard to the Egyptian woman); but he did not become the leader of virginity, as John became such; as far as there is a difference between virginity and chastity, this is loudly declared by the merits of these virtues and, in particular, by the best place (position) of sons and daughters, given there (in heaven) only to those who, with soul and body, honored the virginity inherent in Christ, and were imitators of the Most Pure Virgin who gave birth to Him. The Savior Himself clearly announced this to everyone, saying that not everyone can receive this (Matthew 19:11), that is, the gift of virginity: but only those whom Jesus, according to Divine foreknowledge, prepared for this. Jacob was also loved by God, even when he was still in his mother’s womb: “I loved Jacob and hated Esau” (Mal. 1:2; Rom. 9, 13); but while in his mother's womb he was not filled with the Spirit; and although he was able to fight with God throughout the night (because then the darkness of ignorance of God covered the entire universe), he was not able to flow to God and baptize Him, which only John, of all people, had the audacity to do. Because the dawn of the knowledge of God has risen and the light of the true day has already risen. And although Jacob remained undefeated in the struggle with God, however, being wounded in the thigh (due to descendants descended from his rib), he completely lost the strength to move quickly, and in this mysterious way he clearly presented their slowness and inactivity in their way of life in relation to the advancing God’s grace, and on the basis of this, the most destructive “limping” would appear in them, which John, of course, was not subject to, although, like they, he came from Jacob; but he became, as it were, a kind of walker to her (Grace) and the Forerunner, moving far away from the mysterious images of Jewish unbelief and night. 8. For comparison, I also wanted to bring Sampson. Because he, too, was born of a barren woman and was the fruit of prayer to God, and voluntarily took upon himself a vow not to cut the hair on his head. Because God said about him: “Iron will not go up on his head” (Judges 13:5); and he was endowed with certain other gifts from God. However, Delilah the harlot often captivated him tightly, which cannot be said about John. And although, indeed, they were all great before the Lord, however, they did not show themselves to be converting many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and did not precede Christ God in power and in the spirit of Elijah, and did not show themselves to be turning the hearts of the fathers to children, that is, they did not convert those who had grown up in the Law into sons of grace, and did not instruct the disobedient Jews on the path of the righteous, justified in Christ, and did not They prepared people for the Lord who had risen on earth, and they did not even do more than that. Because what could be greater than seeing the Lord in the flesh and baptizing Him in the waters, and being born from a barren mother? And these great people flourished with certain great superiorities in comparison with the virtues of other people; small, however, if we compare them with the grace-filled gifts of John. Because of which, and in view of their unsurpassed superiority, Zechariah, who then had to become the father of John, in amazement in the face of their apparent impossibility, became wounded by the sting of unbelief, and struck by it, he uttered words to the blessed Angel, full of terrible unbelief. - “Why do I mean this? For I am old, and my wife has grown tired in her days” (Judges 13:18). Which words were by no means appropriate for John’s father to utter; He said this not as the father of the Voice that speaks great and wonderful things, but as personifying the thin-voiced and tongue-tied Law, because Moses, who wrote it, was, as it is written, “thin-voiced and tongue-tied” (Exod. 4, 10); and therefore, behold, he had to do this in everything, and represent in his own person the fact that the Law of Moses fell silent when the Great Lawgiver, Christ, appeared to us in the flesh, deigning that Zechariah should become the image of this (Old Testament) law; after the Angel healed his speechlessness, he believed. “I am Gabriel, standing before God: and I am sent to speak to you and bring this good news to you. And you will be silent and unable to speak, until this day will come to pass: you did not believe my words before, and they will come to pass in their time” (Ex. 4:19-20). And how rightly he imposed on him the penance of silence, despite the fact that he had to become the parent of the Voice; not for the reason that he was just an image of unbelieving Jews holding to the letter of the Law, but also because he did not believe that the Voice would come from him, which would be sent to proclaim these things; and because he allowed the wrong thing to enter his heart, he was deprived of his voice. Because, as the wise Solomon said: “Whoever sins by these is tormented (punished)” (Wis. 11, 17); so that, thanks to this, he learns not to disbelieve the Voice coming from the desert; because from a barren land, that is, from a barren mother, John arose, and, being in the desert, he cried out to the souls of the Jews, barren in relation to the fruit of faith; He also appealed to the Church, which was made up of the pagans, which had not previously brought forth cultivated and nutritious fruit that could feed Christ, like that food in Samaria (John 4:32-34); because turning to both of them, John cried out in the desert with a great and loud voice, proclaiming to them a saving sermon, in order to sow fruitful seed into the desert and barren land of their hearts. 9. So, for what reason did this elder and priest and mentor and teacher of the Law, and waiting for the consolation of Israel, and always offering earnest prayer for the seven, did not believe the good announcements of the Angel? Is it not only because he prefigured in his own person the unbelief of those under the Law? If he concluded that he saw an Angel standing at the altar and thus addressing him, then why did he not listen to his words with faith? Was it not following the example of what happened to Abraham and Sarah that he also acted in relation to faith? But even if this were not so, he still should have fully believed the proclaiming God that He would create something miraculous and surpassing the laws of nature. Because is there anything in nature that would not immediately and in everything fulfill the will of God? This is the wonderful Job, taught by God Himself through a voice coming to him from the cloud, miraculously exclaimed like this: “We know that you can, but nothing is impossible for you” (Job 42:2). If Zechariah assumed that some force hostile and contrary to God was speaking to him, then why does he seek confirmation of what was announced to him, saying to her: “By what reason do I understand this?” After all, he knew that the devil is a liar from the beginning and cannot speak the truth; and that he, having first deceived (the first people) and completely mired in lies, will not find it difficult to lie a second time in order to confuse his captive with great pretensions if he succumbs to his first attacks (approaches). Yes, but Zechariah, the father of the great John, was not so simple-minded. Get rid of that very thought! And it was not from such a root, to such an unreasonable degree, that this sweetest fruit vegetated - John, who, perhaps for that reason, ate honey in the desert, so that for all those who love an excellent way of life it would become enjoyable and sweet, and all of them, through some divine sweetness, would be called and exhorted to imitate him. But, as we said, it seems to me that the elder, like Isaac, fell into a frenzy, and revealed both the silence of the Law and the unbelief of those under the Law, and also foreshadowed the coming thunder of the Gospel, shaking all the ends of the universe and foreshadowing the faith of the pagans under grace (that is, in New Testament times). 10. So, this great priest mysteriously did not believe, and even more mysteriously he was deprived of the use of speech due to the foolishness (orig. - wordlessness) of the unbelief of the Jews; and yet from him came John, the Forerunner of the Word, carrying within himself the virtues of his parent. If, indeed, a tree is known by its fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, according to the divine words belonging to God Himself (Matthew 7:18), then if not in this way (i.e., in the above-mentioned sense) who would want to understand the elder’s unbelief, then it follows that in terms of virtue, Zechariah is in many ways inferior to Elizabeth; because she, although she had not at all heard about the things that had happened (for the elder returned to her dumb), seeing the Blessed Virgin coming to her, greeted Her with joyful exclamations, and hearing the kiss (greeting) of the Virgin, immediately called Her “Theotokos,” exclaiming in a loud voice: “Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the fruit of Your womb. And where do I get this, so that the Mother of my Lord may come to me? Behold, as if the voice of Thy kiss came into my ear, the baby leaped with joy in my womb” (Luke 1:42–44), and she worthily called Her “Blessed,” saying: “And blessed is she who believed, for the fulfillment of those things spoken to Her by the Lord” (Luke 1:45). Thus, not only did she learn by the Spirit that the Mother of God was pregnant, but she was also enriched by the knowledge of those words that were spoken to Her by God by the voice of an Angel, which, of course, would have been completely impossible if she had suffered from unbelief; but the perfection of Zechariah before God is evident not only on the basis of the fact that an Angel was sent to him, who fulfilled such great commissions on earth, and the fact that he had to become the parent of John and be exalted by his kinship with Christ; “Behold, Elizabeth, Thy little girl,” says the Angel himself who preached the gospel to the Holy Virgin; - but (his perfection) is also evident from the words that, after the birth of John, he prophetically sang and foretold about Christ, crying: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and brought about redemption for His people, and has raised up the horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David: just as His prophet spoke on the lips of the saints of the world” (Luke 1, 68–70), etc. what he mentioned about Him in his words and what he prayed to God to see before his death. 11. In a similar way, this is clear from those words that at the end of his song he prophetically announced about his son: “And you, a child,” he says, “have been called a prophet of the Most High: for you have gone before the face of the Lord, to prepare His way, to give the understanding of salvation to His people, for the forgiveness of their sins: mercy for the sake of the mercy of our God” (Luke 1, 76-78). And he said this not on his own, but because he was filled with the Holy Spirit; because in the Gospel it is written about him: “And Zechariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied” (Luke 1:67). What is the verb? – Yes, the same thing that we cited above; it is clear that Zechariah would not have been clearly filled with the Spirit if he had not been faithful to the Spirit and worthy of what He desired to be filled; and he would not have become the father of John if he could not compete with him in dignity. So, let all this precede the conception of John, revealing before his conception that he is the greatest of all those born of women, like Christ, the Truth itself truly testified about him, so that on the basis of the fact that he was not born from some great (of this world) parents, no one would think that he was lesser than any of the people; and, therefore, in concern to remove such a suspicion that may be created in some people on the basis of the previous passage in Scripture speaking of his birth, the Gospel text clearly foreshadowed his parents, saying so; “And both are righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1:6). So what? – The Gospel text testifies that Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John, reached such a pinnacle of virtues, which can be considered the most excellent quality among people: because the impartial Gospel testimony ascribed to them not only righteousness, but precisely: “righteousness before God”: because according to the Gospel law - which they foresaw with a prophetic gaze as already established - they tried to appear righteous only before God; and the commandment: “Do not let your fool know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3), they tried to implement it with their way of life and get ahead of the commandment of its law by their deeds and behavior. According to this testimony, something else is clearly added to this, namely: their impeccable fulfillment of all Mosaic commandments and justifications, in order to show that they followed the laws in both cases: in one, crowned with the glory of the Old Law; and in another - shining with the height of the gospel way of life. 12. Because in them one should and must see the fundamental principles inherent in John himself, since he had to appear to us as a mediator between one and the other Testaments and truly contains the best of both. Thus, it is recognized that the Old Testament ended with him (because he completed the number of the host of prophets, since all the prophets prophesied before John the Baptist); He is the beginning and introduction of the New Testament: because he preceded all the apostles, because he was entrusted from Above with the angelic dignity (ministry) to precede and forerunner of Christ. He was commanded, like an angel, to precede God. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been in need, and the needy have taken it away” (Matthew 11:12); because with him it began to be perceived with effort and it is stolen by everyone by voluntary adherence to the gospel way of life. So, from a father who was a priest and a prophet and in everything else was light and God-bearing, in the womb of a sacred and prophetess mother this John is conceived, surpassing all the prophets, because he is the only one who prophesied while still in his mother’s womb, since he knew the Lord present in the womb of the Most Pure Virgin, and was the only one who was filled with the Holy Spirit while in his mother’s womb, “conceiving Him” and “conceived by Him”: conceived - in a barren mother, conceiving by the grace of the Spirit and experiencing prophetic parental pangs before being born, giving birth to the gifts of the Spirit, as, according to the divine Isaiah, those prophetically serving the Spirit, conceive in the womb and suffer from parental pains, and then give birth, that is, they clearly proclaim the hidden will of this; but John did this later, after his miraculous conception. Behold, he was conceived in the barren womb of an old mother from an old father, and for the time being he rested here, obeying circumstances, as well as his mother’s will, although (or: because) “he did not want the grace of the Spirit, with which he was filled, as announced by the Angel,” growing in his mother’s womb, to remain inactive in him. Thus, the five-month period (of his stay in his mother’s womb) has passed when the law begins to manifest itself in us, as a result of the perception that belongs to and contributes to it, the five bodily and rapid (most expressive) senses; yet his mother hid the fact that she would be a mother, and along with herself hid this incessant Prophet. 13. And, behold, the sixth month has already come, and the Virgin came, carrying in her womb the Uncreated One being created in Her, because in the sixth month (from the time of John’s conception) She conceived the One who created the world in six days and on the sixth day created man, and then recreated him with His Cross when he found himself in distress; and John was no longer able to remain silent and in the presence of the Word could no longer restrain his voice: but he became a preacher before reaching mature age, not at all experiencing obstacles in his preaching by the fact that his tongue was tied; because with his leaping in his mother’s womb he cried out when the One who liberates us humans from the bonds appeared and gave us to leap (rejoice) because we were freed from the bonds. In joy he cried out to the Spirit when He came who takes away every tear from every face and gives unshakable joy to the entire human race; he stretched out his finger and revealed the Lamb of God, who for our sake, for the sins of us goats, is slain as a sacrifice and will completely take away the sin of the world; he stretched out both hands, and thereby foreshadowed the victory of the Cross; He who is now in the womb of the Virgin came to confront the demons; he stood upright, and with this mysteriously proclaimed the resurrection of everyone from hell, which the One now hidden in the seedless womb revealed when he was hidden in the tomb; and it is possible that he struggled with his mother, that he, who wanted to exclaim these things, she bound him with the bonds of nature and, against his will, kept him a prisoner, although rather yielding her voice to him, she made it possible for him through herself to greet the Blessed Virgin: “Blessed is the Fruit of Your womb. And where do I get this from, so that the Mother of my Lord may come to me?” These words most likely belong to John, although they were spoken through the mouth of Elizabeth; because close to this in a solemn sense, he exclaimed to the Savior Christ, when again He came to him, while he was baptizing the people in the Jordan, and He came to be baptized by him: because when he saw Him approaching him, he exclaimed: “I demand to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me” (Matthew 3:14); you saw the similarity of speech; know that it was he who said both: this he spoke on his own behalf, and this through the lips of his mother. 14. It seems to me that he was so eager to preach Christ that he silently turned to Him who sent him with a prayer and, at the same time, with a complaint about his mother, who was holding him in the womb and not allowing him to leave there: “Master, You sent me to proclaim Your ineffable Coming to earth, and my mother keeps me chained; You commanded me to cry, and she tied my tongue; You directed me to precede You, but she blocked my path. You are the Lord of nature: commanded and nature to fulfill Your order; command, and the mother will not be able to hinder; just say it, and what You say will immediately become deed; Your will is accompanied by power, and everything is submissive to Your Divine omnipotence; but if You do not command me to do this, then You, having established this obstacle to running, will not condemn me for negligence in running; because You Yourself have set the boundaries of nature, which cannot be surpassed by those who are subject to the laws of nature. - But in response to John’s zeal, the Lord of nature did not order anything, which from the beginning faithfully follows His will, and the laws of which He, together with us, deigned to obey, becoming for our people, the same as we are, a man; but, perhaps, even now He answered him with the same words with which he answered later, approaching baptism: “Leave it now, for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3, 15); and, undoubtedly, John, having heard this, fell silent and did not dare to speak anymore, although he was very burdened by the period of his mother’s pregnancy, which was set for everyone, wanting to get out of the mother’s womb that restrained him as soon as possible and begin the preaching entrusted to him from God; in this way another three months had to pass, during which he saw the Creator living with him and bound by the same laws of nature as he; and, behold, the time of his birth came, and the womb-bearing Virgin stayed with Elizabeth for three months, so that, having completed her term, a true preacher sent to the world would be born from her, who, while still in his mother’s womb - like Moses in the cloud - was initiated into the secrets of the Divine Trinity; and he is born at the command of God, who (at that time) was hidden in the virgin womb. 15. And having been born, he immediately stopped the grief of the mother who gave birth to him, whom she had on the basis of the reproach of childlessness; the bridle that tied the tongue of the father who gave birth to him, which he took on the basis of the temptation of his unbelief, he did not loosen; and the boy became the subject of a dispute for everyone who saw him: because his mother, having a soul illuminated by the Spirit, wanted to call him “John,” which was a Hebrew word, which, when translated into Greek, means “Grace of God,” “Presentation before God.” Nearby, the followers of the synagogue and the nurse, having heard that she wanted to call the Prophet by this name and considering that the grace of God and the Father had already come into the world, rejected her from such a name and hastened with their instructions, and tried and wanted to replace it with another name, and not without insolence they said to his parents: “For there is no one in your kindred who is called by that name” (Luke. 1, 63); They said so because they intended to fulfill the existing Jewish custom at seven; his father, since he could not speak, took a writing tablet to express his will, and scratched out “John - the name of the youth”; He wrote this not only on wax, but while he was writing in letters, he exclaimed in words: the movement of his tongue was combined with the movement of his hand; so that the writing stick and the words together made a flow; because, wanting to indicate this more clearly, the blessed Evangelist said: “And ask for a letter to write the verb: John will be his name”; for he wrote and spoke together, and presented to see that both parts: the action of the tongue and the action of the hand proceeded simultaneously; because it was not what he wrote but did not say; or - said, but did not write; but he both said and wrote; the hand moved below, and the word flowed upward; and neither one nor the other yielded the palm of victory to each other, but together and in harmony they achieved victory in the race; and just as they began running together from the starting barrier, so together they were crowned with crowns of victory, since none of them wanted to remain defeated; and everyone was surprised at this: because what was happening was truly worthy of surprise; but if for those who were amazed at the thing then, it was only an object of surprise in a carnal understanding, because for them it appeared only in a carnal understanding, then, behold, for the mysteries of the Spirit, what belongs to the Spirit will not remain only within the limits of the visible; but the word (i.e. e. the name “John”) shows that it contains something hidden, and that by exploring with the help of the Spirit, we will comprehend its spiritual meaning; and in order to achieve this spiritual illumination, which is sent down to us, children of the Spirit, let us hasten to a spiritual meal. 16. The name “John” means, as we said, “The Grace of God,” since he was sent to be the Forerunner and good preacher of It. “God’s” “Grace” is believed to be the Word of God, Who for our sake, disgraced by sin, appeared on earth in our flesh and, freeing us from such dishonor, filled us with His glory and grace; because in this way God, the Creator and Provider, equally appeared to everyone: Jews, Greeks, barbarians, ignorant, wise, unwise, slaves, masters - and warmed everyone equally with His love for mankind; although in the flesh He was born of Jews, because of His promise and words to Abraham, who was born of the Gentiles and begat the Jewish people. “Or is the God of the Jews only, and not of the tongues? - says the wisest Paul, “for there is one God, who will justify circumcision by faith and uncircumcision by faith” (Rom. 3:29-31); so that, in this way, the same and similar Grace appeared to both. Then Zechariah, moved by the prophetic Spirit, expressed in word and letter the wonderful name of John, demonstrating in the competition between this and that in this way of expressing that for all one, the same grace of adoption to God will be given: both for those who are of the Law, and for those who are from the pagans, turning to it and desiring it and perceiving it with true faith and spiritual purity. “When the little ones received Him,” says the Evangelist, “he gave them the power to become children of God, not of blood, nor of the lust of the flesh, nor of the lust of men, but born of God” (John. 1, 12–13); because the letter written on the writing tablet clearly represented the Jews as servile to the letter of the Law; and by the word and the spirit of the mouth the pagan peoples were represented as having become more partakers of the Word (Logos) and coming closer to the spirit of the Law; since the Law itself is known as sublime: in one respect, being carnal and expressed in letters; in another respect, being pertaining to the soul and expressed in the spirit; in this sense, this Gospel mystery is explained to us, containing the deep meaning and mysterious meaning of the name of John, and we, on our own, could not have found the reason for this if John himself had not revealed it to us, like an unquenchable Light shining and illuminating what is hidden; and therefore we are now even more surprised than these people, who were surprised only by what was happening then and what appeared to their eyes. So John in his life preceded the Sun of Truth, ahead of Him with impetuous running (orig. leaps), as if some Morning Star, astonishing everyone with its brilliance and radiance and the power of its light, which radiance to present gave it a great and glorious and inseparable precedence to the Sun, rising immediately after it in His excellence of radiance and extreme light and splendor. 17. This, born and named John, also indicating by his name the power of Him who had after him to be born of the Virgin, releases from the bonds of dumbness who gave birth to and gave him a name, the father, whose tongue until now was in servile service to the Law, and, being the Voice, having to loudly proclaim the Word, Which after him had to be born, grants both the Law, weak in relation to the voice, and his father (bound dumbness) the power of the voice, so that they would throw off the weakness of speech inherent in Moses the Lawgiver. And would it be possible that now, when before the Word the Voice was born, producing (proclaiming) the Word, the parent of this Voice would be overcome by muteness? or should the tongue be bound by the bonds of silence, which itself must, to some extent, precede and proclaim the Word? Because it clearly follows that Jesus, the Word, who was born after John, the Voice, freed the language of the Law from the bonds of tongue-tiedness; because the hidden things that were in him and in the prophetic promise were sealed, and He gave him a great and appropriate voice for proclaiming them, removing from him the previous apparent dumbness, and by the Manifestation of His illumination (or: Coming), removing from him his voicelessness, which had previously invisibly been oppressing him. So, therefore, in the person of Zechariah, who was at the same time both a priest and a prophet, both came to completion in a mysterious way, as if clearly bearing within himself the image of both: with his priesthood he represented the Law, with his old age he depicted the antiquity of the Law, and with the gift of prophecy he personified the entire host of prophets. “He opened his mouth,” it says, “his mouth was abyss and his tongue, and he spoke, blessing God” (Luke 1:64): i.e. he announced that, truly, Christ appeared on earth to those on earth; He is the Word and Wisdom of the Father, and He has broken the seal from the prophetic lips and loosed the bonds of the tongue of the Law; and equally both; namely: the Law and the Prophets clearly proclaim the Mystery of Christ and bless (praise) Him as the eternal God, working together and warming up with the Gospel preaching. Therefore, great fear seized those present at that time and the neighbors living in that area, and in concern they reasoned regarding him: What is this, and what will John be? and at the same time they noticed, saying that with his birth such wonderful things happened that we had not encountered in relation to anyone else. 18. But I will answer their reasoning: - this all happened for the reason that no one else like him before him was born of a woman, so that this was combined with such miracles and such amazing phenomena; and for this reason he is attested that he is the greatest of all those born of women, and was awarded such great glory at his birth, so that by this he glorified Christ, who had after him, for our sake, to be born; but not only through miraculous signs did Christ surround His Forerunner with such glory, but also invisibly, as God, being with him, He made him appear great and glorious to everyone, because this is what the Gospel narrative says about this: “And it came to pass that the fear of all those who lived around them and in all the land of the Jews would tell them all these words. And he who heard everything put it in his heart, saying, “What then will this boy do?” and the hand of the Lord was with him” (Luke 1:65–66). Because the Hand of God, i.e. - The Only Begotten Word of God, did not at all deprive him of being with Her, remaining with him with Her Divinity, and exalting him as Her first and greatest herald; because the Son of God was called “Hand of God” and “Hand” and “Ramen”, because everything was created by God through Him, despite the fact that, having become incarnate, he was conceived in the womb and rested, as it were, on a royal bed. Therefore, having been born, John is superior to all those born of women, and, having been born, he created great fear not only on those who dwelt with him and were unanimous with him and strongly desired Christ's divine Coming to us, but also on those living around ("around them") and staying outside of grace, due to the reasons for their difficult stay in the letter of the Law; partially perceiving the Law and adhering only to its letter, they, in some respects, consider us to be “living around them” (i.e. for strangers), due to which they separated from us and withdrew from the grace intended for them, and thus the unfortunate ones, due to their malice, lost the hidden life that was contained in the Law; her preacher and Forerunner, having been born with her, absorbed her along with her mother’s milk; and after he was fed, he went into the desert, abandoning all communication with people, as unworthy of the superhuman way of life that he led: because he has nothing earthly and characteristic of people in himself, no home, no food, no shelter, no friendship, no needs, no intercourse, no carnal desires, no communication with women, or anything else that happens in villages and cities, how could he live with people? He did not go into the desert for the sake of competition with the great Moses, because more than Moses, he learns divine revelations, and, laying down the law, he returns to his own, frees the erring people and wonderfully leads them to piety, a people who miserably suffer oppression from the spiritual Egyptians (i.e. from evil force); and not in imitation of the ancient Elijah, who performed great signs on earth, although he is called the “new Elijah”, and appears in his strength and spirit, and Herod, this new Ahab, edifying, restrains, and suffers persecution from Herodias, another Jezebel, and in this persecution suffers murder; He did not set anyone else as a model for his life, so that he himself could live according to their way of life; because even among God-inspired and reasonable people there is a habit of competing in terms of virtue not with those weaker than them, but with stronger ones: but nature itself does not allow any of the people to become greater than John. I say: “among people,” that is, among men; because Christ did not allow anyone to think that John was superior to both the Most Holy Virgin and the Most Glorious Mother of God, for She is superior to all people, both men and women... So, it is obvious that John did not go into the desert out of imitation of any of the people, but did so in imitation of the Heavenly Angels, since he was honored with their names (Mark 1:2). 19. It is just that he had such a good and God-loving competition with them, the only one who appeared as an Angel in the flesh on earth, and he became a participant in heavenly dignity and had the service equal to the Angels to perform for Christ, who was baptized in the streams of the Jordan, as well as all the other services that he performed throughout his entire earthly life, he performed in an angelic manner. And so, for this purpose, he left his father’s hearth in order to settle in some sublime and heavenly region, namely in the desert, giving everyone the opportunity to see, as if in a mysterious image 1, that God’s grace, i.e. - Christ will leave the synagogue that gave birth according to the flesh and the fathers and will settle in the desert, that is, in the Church of those who came to faith from paganism, and He will stay in it not for a certain period of time, but forever, until again, for the second time, He appears from heaven with great glory and power, in order to appear to true Israel. “And the child grew stronger and stronger in spirit: and he was in the deserts until the day of his appearance to Israel” (v. 80). Thus, those adorned with paternal insight understand the words of Christ to the Jewish people: “Behold, let your house be left to you” (Matthew 23:38) in the sense that He made the Church that was in the desert from those who came from the pagans His home, and He made those called His body, and, equally, became their Head. Because, “We are the body of Christ, and part and parcel, and have Him as our Head” (1 Cor. 12:27; Col. 1:18), as the chosen vessel says when teaching; Christ dwells in us, allows us to grow in our members and body, and strengthens us with the spirit, which strengthens our spiritual strength, and, for our sake, accepts our growth as His own. It is beautifully said in the text that he was “in the deserts,” because this shows even more clearly that Christ is and will be not only in one nation, as previously only in Israel, but in all nations and in all the Churches composed of them. Because they are cited in many places in Scripture under various names: sometimes as “exalted mountains,” sometimes as “hills,” sometimes as “springs,” or as “islands of the pagans,” and in another place they are figuratively designated under the name “Carthaginian ships.” So, here, O blessed Baptist (I will address you with the name “Baptist of Christ”, although my word did not represent you in this position), for this purpose you achieved desert revenge, in some more mysterious sense, preaching to them the saving Divine grace, which will soon come to them and be accepted by them. 20. I, despite my love for you, am refrained from following further exposition and experience a strong obstacle; and this is due to human weakness (and I am not ashamed to tell you the truth: you already knew this before my speech). And this is because, as you see, the time has come to serve the sacred liturgy: and this, in itself, forces us all to stop (in our speeches) and does not allow us to retire with you into the beloved desert. If our speech was more brief than it was desirable for you, and was beyond my strength and did not respond to your praiseworthy words, then, asking for forgiveness for this, I beg you: to remain with us in spirit, even if in body you move away from us into the desert, and to constantly provide your help to us, who are constantly in need of it; if you deign to help, no place (of your stay) interferes with this; dwelling in heaven in spirit, you easily watch over us all. Grant that we celebrate this honorable holiday of yours with worthy joy, as it would be pleasing to you, the Forerunner of Grace, and would correspond to your life blessed by God. Lead and instruct the remaining part of our earthly life in this way, as the law of the spirit commands, an example of which (the law) you yourself presented to us in Christ; so that, inspired by you, we become doers of this, and Christ, the Teacher of this life, is called upon by those who have retired to one of the cities dedicated to you. I do not dare to assert that Christ appeared after you (only) in order to in some way take care of your holy institutions, which he gave to you and to the divine men who will be after you, so that we who dwell in them, united with you, our intercessor and commander, and guardian, and lawgiver, and mentor of a bright way of life, as well as with your servants and true ones who lived here under your protection. disciples, became participants in the eternal life prepared for you, in Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom, to God and the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, honor, power, forever and ever. Amen. Lat. translation - in the mirror. 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