I too will proclaim the greatness of this day: the immaterial becomes incarnate, the Word is made flesh, the invisible makes itself seen, the intangible can be touched, the timeless has a beginning, the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, always the same, yesterday, today and forever… This is the solemnity we are celebrating today: the arrival of God among us, so that we might go to God, or more precisely, return to him. So that stripping off the old humanity we might put on the new; and as in Adam we were dead, so in Christ we might be made alive, be born with him, rise again with him… A miracle, not of creation, but rather of re-creation… For this feast is my perfecting, my returning to my former state, to the original Adam… Revere the nativity which releases you from the chains of evil. Honor this tiny Bethlehem which restores Paradise to you venerate this crib; because of it you who were deprived of meaning (logos) are fed by the divine Meaning, the divine Logos himself.
GREGORY NAZIANZEN Oration 38, For Christmas
