Let us speak of the Birth of the Firstborn on His feast. On His day He gives hidden helps. If an unclean king, at the memorial of his own day, gave a gift of wrath—a head on a platter—how much more will the Blessed One give blessings to whoever sings at His feast!
Refrain: Blessed is He who became small without limit, that without limit He might make us great.
Let us not count this vigil like the vigils of ordinary days. It is a feast whose reward is a hundredfold greater. By its wakefulness it contends with sleep; by its voice it contends with silence. Clothed in every blessing, it stands foremost among feasts and is rich in every joy.
Today angels and archangels came down and sang a new praise on earth. In that same mystery they descend and rejoice with those who keep vigil. At the time when they first praised, blasphemy filled the world; blessed is the Child through whom the world now thunders with songs of glory.
This is the night that joins the Watchers above with those who keep vigil below. The Watchful One came to make watchers within creation. Those who keep vigil have become companions of the Watchers, and those who sing praise have become companions of the Seraphim. Blessed is the one who becomes a lyre for Your praise and receives Your mercy as his reward.
Let us sing of the Firstborn’s Birth: how the Divinity wove for itself a garment in the womb, put it on, and came forth in birth. In death it stripped it off again; once it stripped it off and twice it put it on. It wrapped the garment on the left, removed it from there, and placed it on the right.
The Power who governs all dwelt in a little womb. While He remained there, He held the commands of all creation. He obeyed the One who begot Him, that He might fulfill His will. Heaven and every creature were full of Him. The Sun entered the womb, yet His rays remained in height and depth.
He dwelt in the spacious bosoms of all creatures, yet all were too small to contain the greatness of the Firstborn. How, then, did Mary’s womb suffice for Him? It is a wonder if it sufficed—[source lacuna]. Of all the bosoms that held Him, one bosom truly sufficed: that of the Great One who begot Him.
If the womb that held Him contained Him wholly, it would equal the wondrous bosom of the Great One who begot Him. But who would dare say that a small, weak, lowly womb equals the Supreme Being? He dwelt there because of His mercy; His nature is so great that nothing can set a boundary around it.
O reconciling Peace sent to the nations; O joyful Radiance who came to the sorrowful; O mighty Leaven who silently conquers all; O Patient One who catches creation one person at a time! Blessed is the one who receives Your joy into his heart and forgets his troubles in You.
The Watchers cried peace to those keeping vigil, and their good news met the wakeful ones. Who could sleep on this night that awakened creation? They announced peace where anger had reigned. Blessed is the Child whose silent majesty shepherded those whose words had provoked Him.
Watchers mingled with watchers and rejoiced that the world had come to life. The Evil One was shamed: he had made himself king and bound on a false crown, setting up his throne in the world as though he were God. The Child laid in the manger cast him from his rule. The sun returned its worship through the Magi: through those who had worshiped it, it worshiped Him.
God saw that people worshiped created things. He put on a created body so that, through our own habit, He might capture us. In this molded body our Fashioner healed us, and in this creaturely form our Creator gave us life. He did not drag us by force. Blessed is He who came in what is ours and mingled us with what is His.
O One greater than measure, who without measure became small! From glorious praise You descended into lowliness. The mercies dwelling in You bowed You down to all this. Let Your mercy bow down to me and be praised even through my evil. Blessed is the one who becomes a fountain of voices and gives all of himself in praise to all of You.
He became a servant on earth while remaining Lord in heaven. He inherited height and depth while becoming a stranger. Those who judged Him unjustly will be judged by Him in truth. Those who spat in His face received from Him the breath of the Spirit. He who held a frail reed became the staff on which the aging world leans.
He stood and served His servants, yet when He sits He is worshiped. The scribes mocked Him, while the Seraphim sanctify themselves before Him. Adam had wanted to steal this glory in secret. The serpent that cast him down saw to what height he was raised. Because it deceived him, it was crushed beneath the feet of Eve, into whose ears it had poured its venom.
The married woman was barren and longed for fruit; Mary’s womb, however, conceived in holiness. Fields and plantings had reason to wonder at her: she received and returned what she had never borrowed. Nature confessed that it had been overcome; the womb repaid a debt to nature that nature itself had never given it.
Mary was vindicated through Elizabeth in the judgment. Barrenness demonstrated the power of the Will that could close an open door and open a closed one. He made the virgin womb fruitful. Because the people had become faithless, He made the married womb stand as a barrier before the Pure One.
The One who could cause barren and dead breasts to flow made them dry in youth and made them flow in old age. He compelled and altered nature both in its season and outside its season. The Lord of natures altered the condition of the Virgin; because the people had become barren, He made the aged woman a mouth on behalf of the young maiden.
As He began with Birth, so He advanced and completed His work in death. His Birth received worship; His death paid the debt. When He came to Birth, the Magi worshiped Him; when He came to His Passion, the thief took refuge in Him. Between Birth and death He placed the world midway, and through Birth and death He gave it life.