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Prologue
This is the Latin editorial introduction from Migne before the text of Diadochos of Photiki's homily:
Diadochos, Bishop of Photiki in Epirus, became renowned both through the ascetical writings that survive and through his distinguished disciple, Victor of Vita, who, at his master's urging, wrote the History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa and honored his teacher with this praise in the prologue:
“Having been instructed by so great a bishop, the blessed Diadochos, worthy of every kind of praise, whose many monuments of orthodox teaching shine forth like brilliant stars.”
Moreover, this brief homily On the Ascension of the Lord, which we have brought forth from Vatican Manuscript 455, was known to Lucas Holstenius, as is evident from one of his letters (Boissonade edition, pp. 209–210). However, Holstenius, prevented by his many occupations and then by his death, was unable to publish it, just as happened with other homilies of various authors that he had prepared for publication.
Therefore, we have judged that this homily, being entirely genuine and containing doctrinal teaching toward its conclusion, ought to be deposited in the public treasury of the Church before it might perhaps perish through some accident.
In the work Homily on the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Sermo de Ascensione Domini Nostri Iesu Christi), Venerable Diadochos, Bishop of Photiki, defends the dogma of the two natures of Christ. In this text he explains the fifth and sixth articles of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. Confessing the Chalcedonian dogma of the two natures united in the one Hypostasis of God the Word, Venerable Diadochos develops a Christology directed against the Monophysites.
The work consists of six chapters. The author emphasizes the distinction between the saving act of the Resurrection and its consequence — the Ascension — which marks the completion of Christ's redemptive mission. Through quotations from Holy Scripture, he unfolds the profound meaning of the Ascension, connecting it with the fulfillment of biblical prophecies and with the traditions of the books of the Old Testament. Thus, according to the prophecy contained in Psalms 8 and 46, the Son of God was lifted up to heaven as man, but ascended as God. Venerable Diadochos insists that Jesus Christ is a single Hypostasis uniting within Himself both the divine and the human nature.
The Ascension allows Christ's human nature, through His sufferings and Resurrection, to enter into the glory of God, thereby opening the way to deification for all believers. In deification, man comes into the state in which he once existed, but which he had lost.
Venerable Diadochos does not limit himself to theological analysis, but calls his readers to a personal experience of the Ascension. He teaches that believers may “ascend” to God through prayer, repentance, and the pursuit of virtue. This inward ascent to God is likened to the Ascension of Christ.
Homily on the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ
By Saint Diadochos, Bishop of Photiki in Epirus
By Saint Diadochos, Bishop of Photiki in Epirus
1. Bring to me now the Jewish priests, for it is the hour for words of triumph. Bring here also an ecclesiastical herald and preacher of Christ, and with the full power of your truth depict how those men cast down the silver of their evil counsel upon the soldiers, thinking to cover the all-conspicuous truth with a lie; and how now we, the liturgists of Christ, unceasingly await as Lord and Savior Him who rose from the dead on the third day and ascended into the heavens, continually glorying in Him, whom the heavens received when He entered them in a wonder befitting God; but whom the earth was not able to hold, since it is itself upheld by His will; whom a cloud of light received, visibly fulfilling the figure of the prophecy; and whom the angels, with their hymns, escorted as far as the paternal throne, crying unceasingly, “The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory;” concerning whom the Psalmist, foreseeing in the Holy Spirit His ascent from earth into heaven, chanted, “God has gone up with a shout; the Lord with the voice of a trumpet.” For the divinely inspired song also foresaw the proclamation of the holy gospel.
2. But those who boast of Abraham, the most faithful patriarch, as their father are unwilling to acknowledge that the Savior of us all has been raised from the dead, the wretched men imagining day after day that by a groundless report they can defile the beauty of so great a truth. (“For this saying,” it says, “has been spread among the Jews unto this day.”) Yet this truth the demons recognized, while those who confessed that they had received the commandments of God are unwilling even to honor it with a word. And this despite the Prophet's saying: “O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Your name in all the earth! For Your majesty has been exalted above the heavens;” and again: “Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and let Your glory be over all the earth.” These things the sophists of wickedness will never be able to distort, even if they philosophize according to the falsehood of their father; for He who was lifted up and exalted above the heavens is certainly Lord, because after first descending upon the earth He ascended into the heavens. Therefore elsewhere the Prophet proclaimed beforehand, saying: “O Lord, bow Your heavens and come down; touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Flash forth lightning, and You shall scatter them.” By this he was foretelling the crushing of the powers of Hades to those who were still sitting under the shadow of death; and that this was accomplished through the burial and resurrection of the Lord we have been fully assured by many testimonies. Therefore again, in another passage, we have the Psalmist saying: “Having ascended on high, He led captivity captive; He gave gifts among men.” For the Only-begotten Son of God, having taken humanity from the captivity of death through His own resurrection, and having ascended above the heavens, prepared weapons for those who desire righteousness (for He is the King of Glory), daily securing with spiritual breastplates those who are enlisted by Him under the seal of humility. For it was fitting that He should perfect praise out of the mouths of infants and nursing children, in order finally to reject those who imagine that perfection is attained through self-conceit. For humility is truly the seal of piety. Therefore those who refuse to believe that, according to the prophecy, Christ through His resurrection has made His dwelling in the light of the living, lie asleep amid the fruits of their own folly.
3. But let us, brethren, once again reflect upon the words of the Psalmist, so that we may again behold with the eyes of reason the Lord who ascended into the heavens upon a cloud. For the discourse urges me for the present to pass over the testimony of the Apostles in silence, lest I seem, in the eyes of the foolish, to be pleading my own case, since every apostolic teaching is borne witness to by prophetic truth. For the words of the Apostles are recognized as the offspring of the prophetic utterances. What the prophets, according to foreknowledge, disclosed concerning the incarnation of the Lord, these same things the Apostles, according to full knowledge, made manifest, having been inspired by the same Holy Spirit. For, as he says, “As the years draw near, You shall be known; when the appointed time comes, You shall be revealed.” Therefore let us say again: “O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Your name in all the earth! For Your majesty has been exalted above the heavens,” so that we may clearly know that the incarnation of the Lord and His return from earth into the heavens, whose remembrance we celebrate today, filled the world with the knowledge of God. For while He was still upon the earth, the many entertained only a small conception of the greatness of His glory; but when He visibly ascended into the heavens, having perfectly fulfilled all the will of the Father as was fitting, every longing was filled with wonder and with knowledge, beholding the Lord of all either ascending or being taken up. He was lifted up, that is, exalted above all the heavens according to the prophecy, as man; but He ascended as God. For, it says: “God has gone up with a shout; the Lord with the voice of a trumpet.”
4. For the Prophet would not have employed these expressions unless he had first beheld His descent with the unerring eyes of foreknowledge. For how would it have been fitting for him to say, “Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and let Your glory be over all the earth”? Or again, “God has gone up with a shout,” if the theologian had not beheld, through the foreknowledge of the Spirit, both His descent and His ascent? For this reason, as I said before, in one place he says that He was lifted up, and in another that He ascended, in order that we might believe that the same One is both God and man in one hypostasis. For according to His divinity He ascended; but according to the body He is said to have been lifted up, that is, to have been taken up. Therefore it is necessary to understand throughout that He who descended is Himself also He who ascended above all the heavens, in order that He might fill all things with His goodness, and, having first delivered His Apostles from the passions of sin through the descent of the Holy Spirit, might exalt them unto the end. For what does he say? “Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and let Your glory be over all the earth, that Your beloved may be delivered.” For they are truly the beloved of the Lord in the primary sense, those who shared in His Passion in every respect, and who became eyewitnesses and heralds of His majesty.
5. Thus the prophets proclaimed one and the same Lord; yet they did not merge the form of His incarnation into one nature, as some maintain. Rather, they spoke in a manner befitting God concerning the expressions that pertain to His divinity, and in a manner befitting man concerning those that pertain to His body, in order to teach clearly that the Lord who ascended, that is, who was lifted up into the heavens, is one and the same: He who is exists from the Father, and He who came to be from the Virgin remains man, being one in manifestation and one in hypostasis. For the incorporeal One, having given Himself visible form through the assumption of flesh, visibly ascended to that place from which He had invisibly descended and become incarnate. Therefore He was taken up in glory, was believed in power, and is awaited in fear, being expected once more to have the cloud foretold by prophecy as the servant of His descent. For the prophets also foretold that a cloud would minister to Him then, so that some bodily and subtle substance might again appear bearing the incarnate Lord. For, as I have said, He bears all things by His will as God; but He shall be borne by the cloud also as man, so that the One who loves the nature He assumed may not, even then, deny the laws of that nature.
6. Therefore the divinely inspired Paul also taught us that the saints shall be caught up in clouds when the Lord who is expected to come shall come upon a cloud. For what is fitting for the incarnate God because of the body, the same thing is fitting also for those who shall be deified because of the abundance of His grace, since God has graciously willed to make men gods. Therefore let no one suppose, brethren, that the density of human nature — which the holy Word of God is known to have shared essentially — was altered by the radiance of His divine and glorious essence in such a way as to destroy the reality of the two natures that remain inseparably united in Him. For the Glorious One did not become incarnate in order to render His own creature a mere appearance, but in order completely to consume, by communion with Himself, the disposition that had been sown within it by the serpent. Thus the incarnation of the Word changed a disposition, not a nature, so that we might put off the remembrance of evil and put on the love of God; being changed not into what we were not, but being renewed with glory through that change into what we were. To Him, therefore, be glory and dominion — to Him who descended invisibly from heaven and ascended visibly into heaven, to Him who is before the ages, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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Εἰς τὴν Ἀνάληψιν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ Λόγος
Διαδόχου Ἐπισκόπου Φωτικῆς τῆς Ἠπείρου
Διαδόχου Ἐπισκόπου Φωτικῆς τῆς Ἠπείρου
1. Φέρε μοι νῦν τοὺς Ἰουδαῖκοὺς ἱερεῖς, ὥρα γὰρ ἐπενικίων λόγων· φέρε ὧδε ἐκκλησιαστὰ καὶ Χριστοῦ κήρυξ λέγε, καὶ ζωγράφει τῇ σῇ δυνατῶς ἀληθείᾳ· πῶς μὲν ἐκεῖνοι τὸ ἀργύριον τῆς αὐτῶν κακοβου. λίας ἐπὶ τοὺς στρατιώτας κατέβαλον, ψεύδει τὴν ἀπερίβλεπτον νομίζοντες καλύπτειν' ἀλήθειαν· πῶς δὲ νῦν οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ λειτουργοὶ τὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναστάντα, καὶ ἀναβάντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, ἀπεκδεχόμεθα Κύριον, Σωτῆρα τοῦτον ἀπαύστως καυχώμενοι, ὃν οὐρανοὶ μὲν ἐδέξαντο, θεοπρεπεῖ αὐτοῖς ἐπιστάντι θαύματι· γῆ δὲ βαστάξαι, ὡς ὑπὸ τῆς αὐτοῦ θελήσεως βασταζομένη, ὑπομένειν οὐκ ἴσχυεν· ὃν νεφέλη μὲν ὑπέλαβεν φωτὸς, ἐμφανῶς τὸ σχῆμα πληρώσασα τῆς προφητείας· ἄγγελοι δὲ τοῖς ὕμνοις ἄχρι τῶν πατρικῶν ἀπεκατέστησαν θρόνων, Κύριος τῶν δυνάμεων, αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης, ἀπαύστως βοῶντες· οὗτινος ὁ ψαλμῳδὸς τὴν ἀπὸ γῆς εἰς οὐρανὸν ἐπάνοδον ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ προθεωρῶν Πνεύματι, Ἀνέβη ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἀλαλαγμῷ, Κύριος ἐν φωνῇ σάλπιγγος, ἔψαλλεν. Προέβλεπεν γὰρ καὶ τὴν τῶν ἁγίων Εὐαγγελίων ὁ θεσπέσιος ᾠδήν.
2. Οἱ δὲ πατέρα τὸν πιστότατον ̓Αβραάμ καυχώμενοι, ἐγηγέρθαι τὸν πάντων ἡμῶν Σωτῆρα οὐ θέλουσιν ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἀνυποστάτῳ φήμη καθ' ἑκάστην οἱ δείλαιοι νομίζοντες τὸ κάλλος τῆς τοσαύτης μολύνειν ἀληθείας (Διεφημίσθη γάρ, φησὶν, παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις ὁ λόγος οὗτος ἄχρι τῆς σήμερον)· ἥντινα δαίμονες μὲν ἐπέγνωσαν · οἱ δὲ τὰς ἐντολὰς τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑποδεδέχθαι ὁμολογήσαντες. οὔτε ἄχρι λόγου τιμῆσαι προαιροῦνται· καὶ ταῦτα τοῦ Προφήτου λέγοντος· Κύριε, ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν, ὡς θαυμαστὸν τὸ ὄνομά σου ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ ! ὅτι ἐπήρθη ἡ μεγαλοπρέπειά σου ὑπεράνω τῶν οὐρανῶν· καὶ πάλιν· Υψώθητι ἐπὶ τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἡ δόξα σου. "Απερ οὔτε πῶς οἱ τῆς κακίας σοφισταὶ διαστρέψαι εὑρήσουσιν, κἂν ὅπως τὸ ψεῦδος τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῶν φιλοσοφήσωσιν· ὁ γὰρ ἐπαρθεὶς καὶ ὑψωθεὶς ἐπάνω τῶν οὐρανῶν, Κύριος πάντως, ὅτι πρῶτον καταβὰς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἀναβέβηκεν εἰς τοὺς οὐρανούς. Διόπερ ἀλλαχοῦ προανεφώνησεν ὁ Προφήτης λέγων· Κύριε, κλῖνον οὐρανοὺς, καὶ κατάβηθι ἅψαι τῶν ὀρέων, καὶ καπνισθήσονται· άστραψον ἀστραπὴν, καὶ σκορπιεῖς αὐτούς. Τοῦτο δὲ ἔλεγεν τῶν τοῦ ᾅδου δυνάμεων τὴν συντριβὴν προευαγγελιζόμενος τοῖς ὑπὸ τὴν σκιὰν ἔτι τοῦ θανάτου καθημένοις· ἥντινα ἐνεργεῖσθαι ἐκ τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου ταφῆς καὶ ἀναστάσεως διὰ πολλῶν πεπληροφορήμεθα. Διόπερ ἐν ἑτέρῳ πάλιν κεφαλαίῳ τὸν Ψαλμῳδὸν ἔχομεν λέγοντα· ̓Αναβὰς εἰς ὕψος, ἠχμαλώτευσεν αἰχμαλωσίαν, ἔδωκεν δώματα ἐν ἀνθρώποις. Ἐκ γὰρ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας τοῦ θανάτου διὰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἀναστάσεως λαβὼν τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα ὁ μονογενὴς Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ ἀνελθὼν ὑπεράνω τῶν οὐ· ρανῶν, ὅπλα τοῖς θέλουσιν δικαιοσύνην (βασιλεὺς γάρ ἐστι δόξης) ηὐτρεπίσατο, λογικοῖς θώραξι τοὺς παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ ἐν σφραγίδι ταπεινοφροσύνης στρατολογουμένους καθ' ἡμέραν ἀσφαλιζόμενος· ἔπρεπεν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐκ στόματος νηπίων καὶ θηλαζόντων καταρτίσασθαι αἷνον, τοὺς τῇ οἰήσει τελεῖσθαι νομίζοντας ἀποδοκιμάσαι εἰς τέλος. Σφραγὶς γὰρ ὄντως εὐσεβείας, ταπείνωσις· διόπερ ἐκεῖνοι μὲν ἀπειθοῦντες τὸ κατασκηνώ σαι κατὰ τὴν προφητείαν διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ τῶν ζώντων, τῆς ἑαυτῶν κοιμιοῦνται ἀνοίας τοὺς καρπούς.
3. Ἡμεῖς δὲ τὰ τοῦ Ψαλμῳδοῦ καὶ πάλιν, ἀδελφοὶ, φιλοσοφήσωμεν ῥήματα, ἵνα ἴδωμεν καὶ πάλιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τοῦ λόγου τὸν ἐπὶ νεφέλης εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀναβάντα Κύριον· τὴν γὰρ τῶν ἀποστόλων μαρτυρίαν τέως σιωπᾶν με προτρέπεται ὁ λόγος, ἵνα μὴ δόξω παρὰ τοῖς ἄφροσιν ἐμαυτῷ συνηγορεῖν, ὁπότε πᾶς ἀποστολικός λόγος, ὑπὸ τῆς προφητικῆς μαρτυρεῖται ἀληθείας· γεννήματα γὰρ ὄντες οἱ αὐτῶν λόγοι γνωρίζονται τῶν προφητικῶν ῥήσεων. "Α γὰρ οἱ προφῆται κατὰ πρόγνωσιν περὶ τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως τοῦ Κυρίου ἠν[ο]ίξαντο, οἱ ἀπόστολοι ταῦτα κατ' ἐπίγνωσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐμπνευσθέντες ἁγίου Πνεύματος διετράνωσαν. Ἐν τῷ ἐγγίζειν γὰρ, φησὶν, τὰ ἔτη ἐπιγνωσθήσῃ, ἐν τῷ παρεῖναι τὸν καιρὸν ἀναδειχθήσῃ. Εἴπωμεν οὖν πάλιν · Κύριος, ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν, ὡς θαυμαστὸν τὸ ὄνομά σου ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ! ὅτι ἐπήρθη ἡ μεγαλοπρέπειά σου ὑπεράνω τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἵνα γνῶμεν σαφῶς, ὅτι ἡ ἐνανθρώπησις τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ ἡ ἀπὸ γῆς αὐτοῦ εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἐπάνοδος, ἦστινος τὴν μνήμην σήμερον ἑορτάζομεν, Θεοῦ γνώσεως τὸν κόσμον ἐπλήρωσεν. Ἕως μὲν γὰρ που ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, μικρὰ περὶ τοῦ μεγαλείου τῆς αὐτοῦ δόξης οἱ πολλοὶ ὑπελάμβανον· ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐμφανῶς ἀνῆλθεν εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, πᾶσαν τὴν τοῦ Πατρὸς, ὡς ἔπρεπεν, ἀποπληρώσας βούλησιν, θαύματος ἡ πᾶσα καὶ γνώσεως ἐπληρώθη αἴτησις, ἀναβαίνοντα ἤτοι ἀναλαμβανόμενον τὸν τῶν ὅλων Κύριον θεωροῦσα. Ἐπήρθη μὲν, ἤτοι ὑψώθη ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν, κατὰ τὴν προφητείαν, ὡς ἄνθρωπος· ἀνέβη δὲ ὡς Θεός· Ἀνέβη γὰρ, φησὶν, ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἀλαλαγμῷ, Κύριος ἐν φωνῇ σάλπιγγος.
4. Οὐκ ἂν δὲ τούτοις ὁ Προφήτης ἐχρήσατο τοῖς ῥήμασιν, εἰ μὴ τὴν κάθοδον αὐτοῦ ἦν προθεωρήσας τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀπλανῶς τῆς προγνώσεως. Ποῦ γὰρ ἦν ἀκόλουθον εἰπεῖν αὐτὸν, Ὑψώθητι ἐπὶ τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, ὁ Θεός, καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἡ δόξα σου; ἢ πάλιν· ̓Ανέβη ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἀλαλαγμῷ, εἰ μὴ καὶ τὴν κατάβασιν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν ἀνάβασιν ἦν θεωρήσας ὁ θεολόγος τῇ προγνώσει τοῦ Πνεύματος; Διὰ τοῦτο μὲν, ὡς προέφην, ποῦ μὲν αὐτὸν ἐπαρθέντα λέγει, ποῦ δὲ ἀναβάντα, ἵνα Θεὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπον τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι πιστεύσωμεν ἐν μιᾷ ὑποστάσει. Διὰ μὲν γὰρ θεότητα ἀνέβη· διὰ δὲ τὸ σῶμα ἐπῆρθαι λέγεται, τουτέστιν ἀνειλῆφθαι. Οὐκοῦν διὰ πάντων δεῖ νοεῖν, ὅτι ὁ κατελθὼν αὐτός ἐστιν καὶ ὁ ἀνελθὼν ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἵνα πάντα τῆς αὐτοῦ πληρώσῃ χρηστότητος, [καὶ] τοὺς ἀποστόλους αὐτοῦ πρῶτον ἐκ τῶν παθῶν τῆς ἁμαρτίας διὰ τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος καθόδου ῥυσάμενος, εἰς τέλος ὑψώσῃ. Τί γάρ φησιν; Ὑψώθητι ἐπὶ τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἡ δόξα σου, ὅπως ἂν ῥυσθῶσιν οἱ ἀγαπητοί σου. Αγαπητοὶ γὰρ ὄντως εἰσὶ τοῦ Κυρίου κατὰ πρῶτον λόγον, οἱ τὸ αὐτοῦ πάθος διὰ πάντων κοινωνήσαντες, καὶ αὐτόπται καὶ κήρυκες γενόμενοι τῆς αὐτοῦ μεγαλειότητος.
5. Ὥστε ἕνα μὲν καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν οἱ προφῆται ἐκήρυττον Κύριον· τῆς δὲ σαρκώσεως αὐτοῦ τὸ σχῆμα εἰς μίαν, ὡς τινες εἰσηγοῦνται, οὐ συνέχεαν φύσιν· ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν τῇ θεότητι αὐτοῦ διαφέροντα ῥήματα θεοπρεπῶς ἔλεγον, τὰ δὲ τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ ἀνθρωποπρεπῶς, ἵνα διδάξωσι σαφῶς, ὅτι ὁ ἀναβὰς, ἤτοι ὁ ἐπαρθεὶς ἐπὶ τοὺς οὐρανοὺς Κύριος, ὁ α μὲν ἔστιν, ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὑπάρχει· ὃ δὲ γέγονεν ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου, μένει ἄνθρωπος, εἷς ὢν ἐν εἴδει, καὶ εἷς ἐν ὑποστάσει. Ὁ γὰρ ἀσώματος, ἑαυτὸν τῇ προσλήψει τῆς σαρκὸς εἰδοποιήσας, ἐμφανῶς ἀνέβη διὰ τοῦτο, ὅθεν ἀφανῶς καταβὰς ἐσαρκώθη. Διόπερ ἀνελήφθη μὲν ἐν δόξῃ, ἐπιστεύθη δὲ ἐν δυνάμει, προσδοκᾶται δὲ ἐν φόβῳ, τὴν νεφέλην πάλιν προσδοκώμενος σχεῖν τὴν προφητικὴν εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ κάθοδον ὑπηρέτην. Καὶ γὰρ τότε νεφέλην αὐτοῦ ὑπηρετήσασθαι οἱ προφῆται προείπον, ἵνα σωματώδης τις καὶ ἐλαφρὴ οὐσία τὸν σεσωματωμένον φανείη πάλιν βαστάζουσα Κύριον. Βαστάζει μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ βουλήσει, ὡς ἔφην, τὰ σύμπαντα ὡς Θεός· ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς νεφέλης βασταχθήσεται ὡς καὶ ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα μήτε τότε τοὺς νόμους ἧς προσέλαβεν ἀρνήσηται ὁ φιλόψυχος φύσεως.
6. Διόπερ καὶ τοὺς ἁγίους ἐν νεφέλαις ἁρπαχθήσεσθαι προσεδίδαξεν ἡμᾶς ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος, ὅταν ἔρχηται ἐπὶ νεφέλης ὁ ἐλθεῖν προσδοκώμενος Κύριος. Ὁ γὰρ ἀρμόττει τῷ σαρκωθέντι Θεῷ διὰ τὸ σῶμα, τοῦτο καὶ τοῖς θεωθησομένοις διὰ τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ, θεοὺς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ποιῆσαι φιλοτιμησαμένου Θεοῦ. Μηδείς οὖν ὑπολαμβανέτω τὴν πυκνότητα τῆς ἀνθρώπου φύσεως, ἤνπερ οὐσιωδῶς κοινωνήσας ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος ἐγνώρισται, ἐκ τῶν μαρμαρυγῶν τῆς θείας αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐνδόξου οὐσίας, ἀδελφοὶ, ἠλλοιῶσθαι τὴν τῶν ἑκατέρων ἐν αὐτῷ ἀχωρίστως ἀλήθειαν φύσεων. Οὐ γὰρ ἵνα τὸ ἑαυτοῦ πλάσμα φαντάσῃ, ἐσαρκώθη ὁ ἔνδοξος, ἀλλ ̓ ἕνα τὴν ἐνσπαρεῖσαν ἐν αὐτῷ ἕξιν ἐκ τοῦ ὄφεως τῇ ἑαυτοῦ κοινωνίᾳ ἀναλώσῃ εἰς τέλος. Ωστε ἕξιν, οὐ γὰρ φύσιν, ἤλλαξεν ἡ σάρκωσις τοῦ Λόγου, ἵνα τὴν μὲν μνήμην ἐκδυσώμεθα τοῦ κακοῦ, τὴν δὲ ἀγάπην ἐνδυσώμεθα τοῦ Θεοῦ· οὐκ εἰς ὅπερ μὴ ἦμεν ἀλλασσό μενοι, ἀλλ ̓ εἰς ὅπερ ἦμεν τῇ ἀλλαγῇ μετὰ δόξης άνακαινιζόμενοι. Αὐτῷ τοίνυν ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος τῷ κατελθόντι ἐξ οὐρανῶν ἀφανῶς, ἀνελθόντι δὲ εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἐμφανῶς, τῷ πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων καὶ νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. ̓Αμήν.
Source: Patrologia Graeca 65, 1141-1148. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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