By Fr. George Dorbarakis
“Receive, O Bethlehem, the Mother of God. For the Light that never sets has come to be born upon you. Angels, marvel in heaven; humans, glorify on earth; Magi from Persia, bring the thrice-renowned gift. Shepherds abiding in the fields, chant the thrice-holy hymn. Let every breath praise the Creator of all” (Vespers Idiomelon of the Forefeast of Christmas, plagal of the 4th tone).
The Hymnographer assumes the role of a prophet. Just as the prophets of the Old Testament, sent by God and illumined by Him, called the people of God to repentance whenever they strayed from His holy will and urged them to be ready to receive the Messiah whom God would send, so too does the Holy Hymnographer within the Church, the living Body of Christ. He functions as her mouth, proclaiming the joyful message of God’s incarnation in the world, the enfleshment of the Son and Word of God. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Salvation, as the finding of God after His loss through the fall into sin and as a living relationship with Him, is now a fact and a tangible reality. We await nothing else beyond faith in Christ and our incorporation into His Body, the Church, through repentance. In other words, the last things are already present. And this, we understand, constitutes the greatest mystery ever heard of or brought into being in the world: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.”
With awareness of his prophetic task as the mouth of the Church, the Hymnographer therefore moves beyond the merely sensible and earthly levels. As though standing on the summit of the world, addressing every creature of God — spiritual and material, animate and inanimate — with a sense of the weight of his responsibility, in a manner corresponding to the majestic call of the Old Testament (“Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth”), he summons the city of Bethlehem to realize what has occurred with the birth of the little Child Jesus. At that time people may have had no awareness, since “there was no place for them in the inn,” yet this “blindness” must now be overcome. For to the soil of that region has come the Mother of God, who gave birth to Him who is the Light of the world — a light that has no relation to the stars of heaven or to the artificial lights of human beings. For it is the light of God, God Himself, who is Light “without evening and without setting.” “I am the light of the world.” “I have come as a light into the world.”
Human reason falters and grows dizzy. “The mystery does not bear investigation; by faith alone we all glorify it.”
But the Prophet-Hymnographer, carrying out his supernatural task, also addresses the angelic world: “Angels, you too, marvel.” For what occurred surpassed even their understanding. The mystery of the Incarnation was hidden even from the noetic minds.
He then turns to the astonished participants in the unique Event: the shepherds and the Magi from Persia. "Come then, Magi: bring your gifts. Come then, shepherds: chant the thrice-holy hymn as well, uniting your voices with the angelic voices."
Finally, his gaze extends over the whole of creation, because creation belongs to God, and everything that breathes cannot remain indifferent to the movement of its Creator; it concerns it essentially as well: "Together, all of you, praise the Creator."
Bethlehem has once and for all become the timeless center of the universe. There the Creator was born as a human being, and the closed gate of Paradise was opened: “Prepare, O Bethlehem, for Eden has been opened to all.” And another pre-festal hymn explains this truth in a unique way:
“Angels encircled the manger as though it were a cherubic throne; for they beheld the Cave as heaven, since within it lay the Master; and they cried aloud: Glory to God in the highest.”
(Ode 9 of the Triodion at Compline)
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
The Hymnographer assumes the role of a prophet. Just as the prophets of the Old Testament, sent by God and illumined by Him, called the people of God to repentance whenever they strayed from His holy will and urged them to be ready to receive the Messiah whom God would send, so too does the Holy Hymnographer within the Church, the living Body of Christ. He functions as her mouth, proclaiming the joyful message of God’s incarnation in the world, the enfleshment of the Son and Word of God. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Salvation, as the finding of God after His loss through the fall into sin and as a living relationship with Him, is now a fact and a tangible reality. We await nothing else beyond faith in Christ and our incorporation into His Body, the Church, through repentance. In other words, the last things are already present. And this, we understand, constitutes the greatest mystery ever heard of or brought into being in the world: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.”
With awareness of his prophetic task as the mouth of the Church, the Hymnographer therefore moves beyond the merely sensible and earthly levels. As though standing on the summit of the world, addressing every creature of God — spiritual and material, animate and inanimate — with a sense of the weight of his responsibility, in a manner corresponding to the majestic call of the Old Testament (“Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth”), he summons the city of Bethlehem to realize what has occurred with the birth of the little Child Jesus. At that time people may have had no awareness, since “there was no place for them in the inn,” yet this “blindness” must now be overcome. For to the soil of that region has come the Mother of God, who gave birth to Him who is the Light of the world — a light that has no relation to the stars of heaven or to the artificial lights of human beings. For it is the light of God, God Himself, who is Light “without evening and without setting.” “I am the light of the world.” “I have come as a light into the world.”
Human reason falters and grows dizzy. “The mystery does not bear investigation; by faith alone we all glorify it.”
But the Prophet-Hymnographer, carrying out his supernatural task, also addresses the angelic world: “Angels, you too, marvel.” For what occurred surpassed even their understanding. The mystery of the Incarnation was hidden even from the noetic minds.
He then turns to the astonished participants in the unique Event: the shepherds and the Magi from Persia. "Come then, Magi: bring your gifts. Come then, shepherds: chant the thrice-holy hymn as well, uniting your voices with the angelic voices."
Finally, his gaze extends over the whole of creation, because creation belongs to God, and everything that breathes cannot remain indifferent to the movement of its Creator; it concerns it essentially as well: "Together, all of you, praise the Creator."
Bethlehem has once and for all become the timeless center of the universe. There the Creator was born as a human being, and the closed gate of Paradise was opened: “Prepare, O Bethlehem, for Eden has been opened to all.” And another pre-festal hymn explains this truth in a unique way:
“Angels encircled the manger as though it were a cherubic throne; for they beheld the Cave as heaven, since within it lay the Master; and they cried aloud: Glory to God in the highest.”
(Ode 9 of the Triodion at Compline)
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
