It’s the very last day of Christmas today, and I wanted to observe it by looking at the mystery and marvel of Christ’s Incarnation just one more time. As I continue to read The Life of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos (Holy Apostles Convent, 1989), I get to read so many more passages from the early days of Christian faith and the Church Fathers, that show how they kept alive a sense of complete astonishment that God would do such a thing. I’ll show you some of the passages I’ve read in that very interesting book, and add a few more that come to mind.
The great hymn-writer Saint Ephraim the Syrian (306-373) writes :
If she could carry you, it was because you, the great Mountain, had lightened your weight;
If she feeds you, it is because you have willingly taken on hunger [Matthew 4:2];
If she gives you her breast, it is because you, of your own will, have thirst [John 4:7];
If she can hold and caress you, it is because you, the fiery coal [Isaiah 6:7], in your mercy protected her bosom from harm. …
Who ever saw a child who can see every place?
His gaze is like one who orders all creatures, those that are above and those that are below.
His face is like the Commander who commands all. …
St. Ephraim imagines Mary speaking to her Child:
“How can I open the fountain of milk to you, O Fountain?
How shall I nourish you, who nourishes all from your table?
How shall I wrap swaddling clothes around you, who are wrapped around with clouds of glory?” …
“The Son of the Most High came and dwelt in me, and I became his mother.
And as I brought him forth by birth, he brings me forth in a second birth.”
Because he put on his mother’s human garment, she could clothe her body with his glory.
St. Joseph the Hymnographer (816-886) depicts Mary saying:
“O my most-sweet child, how shall I feed you, who gives food to all?
How shall I hold you, who holds all things in your power?
How shall I wrap you in swaddling clothes, who wraps the whole earth in clouds?…
How can I look at you without fear, on whom the many-eyed cherubim dare not lift their gaze?
I hold you in my arms as a child, you who uphold all,
And I am filled with amazement.” …
Rejoicing at once, and weeping, she raised her voice and said,
“Shall I give my breast to you, who gives nourishment to all the world?
Or shall I sing your praise as my Son and God?
What manner of name can I find to call you, O Lord, whom none can name?”
A kontakion is a long storytelling hymn, but we often sing just the first verse. The kontakion for December 26 addresses the Virgin, saying:
He who before the morning star was begotten of the Father without a mother,
is today born in the flesh on earth, without a father, through you.
The great teacher Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) writes:
Even when he was still an infant in swaddling clothes,
Lying in the bosom of the Virgin his mother,
He filled the whole Creation as God,
Co-Ruler with the Father who had begotten him. …
Christ was born in order that he might bless the very beginning of our existence,
And so that the curse against the whole human race may be stopped.
St. John of Damascus (675-749) says God made Mary’s womb large enough to contain the Creator of the universe:
O sanctified temple and spiritual paradise,
the glory of virgins, of whom God was incarnate
and became a child, our God before the ages.
He made thy body into a throne,
and thy womb more spacious than the heavens.
Romanos the Melodist (about 490-555) wrote a whole long kontakion for Christ’s Nativity, and we still sing this first verse every year:
The Virgin brings forth today the Omnipotent One,
And the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One.
Angels with shepherds give glory,
And the magi journey with the star,
Since for our sake is born
As a newborn babe,
He who is from eternity God.
There is enough there to ponder for a lifetime. And how grateful it makes us! Cultivate a little awe about the Incarnation; that’s easy to do if you think about it just a little bit.