On the Incarnation of God the Word

The correct understanding of the Divine Scripture, which distinguishes the minds of the saints, serves as an adornment to their souls. The Holy Spirit opens to them the abyss of the eternal knowledge and wisdom of Christ. God, the Father of all, is glorified by them. “I will reveal to you,” the Scripture says, “secret and unseen treasures” (Is. 45:3). I consider the treasures of true knowledge to be the eyes of the mind, which look directly and impartially. On those who have come to know God, He pours out all-perfect and incomprehensible gifts to the human mind. Our all-perfect God, the Lord of all, richly rewards those who lead a good life with perfections and blessings. His special love and favor embraces those who serve Him with a pure and unfeigned heart. So, let all who are accustomed to truly philosophize come to Christ, the eternal source (of wisdom), hearing the voice of the Gospel: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). Without knowing in advance the sacrament of piety, one should not recklessly explore and reason about Christ. Deceivers and seducers of the hearts of listeners are those who claim that God the Word, having taken (the flesh of) man, passed through the Holy Virgin, and that this man was created by God the Word himself. Such people do not understand the sacrament of piety and degrade the value of the economy of the Only Begotten. We, brothers, are not so taught. We recognize the one born of the Holy Virgin as both a perfect God and a perfect man, endowed with a rational soul. Therefore, we call the Holy Virgin the Mother of God and say that God the Word essentially - not only in thought, but in reality - dwelt in her and that He, when He was two or three months old, is the Son of God and at the same time the Son of man. The characteristics attributed by Divine Scripture either to His human nature or to His Divine power, in our opinion, were united in Him into one personality. He was the same when He slept and when He tamed the sea and the winds with His power; one and the same, when he was tired on the way and when he walked on the sea and passed through the desert according to His power. So, without any doubt, He was God and at the same time man. For what wonder would it be if some man like us, endowed with power, performed miracles? Divine Scripture shows us that God the Word did not diminish Himself in imagination or in an imaginary way, but in reality. Through the prophets and apostles it clearly announced to us that He is God and at the same time man. So, in fact, there were: the conception of God from the Virgin, His birth, His similarity with us in everything, His suffering, preaching in darkness and the canopy (to those sitting), His Resurrection and, finally, ascension into heaven. The Incontainable One, having received flesh from Mary, determines to be imprisoned in a virgin’s womb. The infinite is contained by the flesh. The unchangeable takes on human form. The impassive one suffers for us and for us with his flesh. He who abides inseparably with God and the Father “on earth”, according to Scripture, “appeared and lived among men” (Bar.3:38). The untouchable is pierced by a spear from the wicked. The dispassionate one voluntarily bears the cross for us. The immortal light is subjected to death on the cross. Having been in the bosom of the Father, He does not refuse to ascend with His flesh to heaven. Those who say that God the Word accepted some man like us, without being with him a hypostatic, active and living Son, and in the types of economy living inhumanly, the holy council that was in Ephesus rejects. You might be interested in: