Homily I — One Christ in two natures, and what he restored
And you came forth from her one Christ, one Lord, one Son, the same both God and man: at once perfect God and perfect man, wholly God and wholly man, one composite hypostasis from two perfect natures, Godhead and manhood, and in two perfect natures, Godhead and manhood. You were not God bare of flesh, nor a mere man, but one Son of God and God incarnate, yourself at once God and man, neither undergoing confusion nor suffering division, bearing in yourself the natural properties of the two natures of different essence, united in hypostasis without confusion and at the same time without division: the created and the uncreated, the mortal and the immortal, the visible and the invisible, the circumscribed and the uncircumscribed; a divine will and a human will; a divine operation and, no less, a human operation; two powers of free choice, the divine and likewise the human; the divine miracles and the human passions, the natural and blameless ones, I mean.
For you assumed, Master, through your tender mercy, the whole first Adam as he was before the transgression, free from sin: body, soul, mind, and their natural properties, so that you might grant salvation to the whole of me; for truly what has not been assumed has not been healed. And so, becoming mediator between God and mankind (1 Timothy 2:5), you destroyed the enmity (Ephesians 2:14) and brought the rebels to your Father. You turned back what had gone astray, enlightened what was darkened, renewed what was broken (Ezekiel 34:16), changed the corruptible into incorruption. You set creation free from the error of many gods. You made human beings children of God; you made those who had been dishonoured sharers in your divine glory. Him who had been condemned to the regions beneath the earth you led up above every principality and authority (Ephesians 1:21); him who had been sentenced to return to the earth (Genesis 3:19) and to dwell in Hades you seated in yourself on the royal throne.
Who, then, has become the workshop of these boundless goods, which pass all mind and understanding? Is it not the ever-Virgin who bore you?
Greek
Καὶ προῆλθες ἐξ αὐτῆς εἷς Χριστὸς, εἷς Κύριος, εἷς υἱὸς Θεὸς καὶ ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτὸς, Θεός τε ὁμοῦ τέλειος, καὶ ἄνθρωπος τέλειος, ὅλος Θεὸς, καὶ ὅλος ἄνθρωπος, μία ὑπόστασις σύνθετος, ἐκ δύο φύσεων τελείων, θεότητός τε καὶ ἀνθρωπότητος, καὶ ἐν δύο τελείαις φύσεσι, θεότητί τε καὶ ἀνθρωπότητι· οὐ γυμνὸς Θεὸς, οὐδὲ ψιλὸς ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ' εἷς Υἱὸς Θεοῦ καὶ Θεὸς σεσαρκωμένος, Θεός τε αὐτὸς ὁμοῦ καὶ ἄνθρωπος, οὐ σύγχυσιν ὑποστὰς, οὐδὲ διαίρεσιν ὑπομείνας, φέρων ἐν ἑαυτῷ τῶν ἑτεροουσίων δύο φύσεων καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἀσυγχύτως ἅμα καὶ ἀδιαιρέτως ἡνωμένων τὰς φυσικὰς ἰδιότητας, τὸ κτιστὸν καὶ τὸ ἄκτιστον, τὸ θνητὸν καὶ τὸ ἀθάνατον, τὸ ὁρατὸν καὶ τὸ ἀόρατον, τὸ περιγραπτὸν καὶ τὸ ἀπερίγραπτον, θεῖόν τε θέλημα καὶ ἀνθρώπινον θέλημα, θείαν ἐνέργειαν, οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀνθρωπίνην ἐνέργειαν, αὐτεξούσιά τε δύο, θεῖον ὡσαύτως καὶ ἀνθρώπινον, τά τε θεῖα θαύματα, καὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα πάθη, τὰ φυσικά φημι καὶ ἀδιάβλητα. Ὅλον γὰρ τὸν πρῶτον Ἀδὰμ τὸν πρὸ τῆς παραβάσεως, τὸν ἁμαρτίας ἐλεύθερον, ἀνέλαβες, Δέσποτα, διὰ τὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους σου, σῶμα, ψυχὴν, νοῦν, καὶ τὰ τούτων φυσικὰ ἰδιώματα, ἵν' ὅλῳ μοι τὴν σωτηρίαν χαρίσῃ· ὄντως γὰρ τὸ ἀπρόσληπτον, ἀθεράπευτον· καὶ οὕτως μεσίτης Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος, τὴν ἔχθραν ἔλυσας, καὶ τῷ σῷ Πατρὶ τοὺς ἀποστάτας προσήγαγες, τὸ πεπλανημένον ἐπέστρεψας, τὸ ἐσκοτωμένον ἐφώτισας, τὸ συντετριμμένον ἀνεκαίνισας, τὸ φθαρτὸν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν μετέβαλες· τῆς πολυθέου πλάνης τὴν κτίσιν ἠλευθέρωσας· τέκνα Θεοῦ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους πεποίηκας, κοινωνοὺς τῆς θείας σου δόξης τοὺς ἠτιμημένους ἀνέδειξας· τὸν καταδεδικασμένον τὰ τῆς γῆς καταχθόνια, ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας ἀνήγαγες, ἐν τῷ θρόνῳ τῷ βασιλικῷ τὸν εἰς γῆν ἀποστρέφειν, καὶ τὸν ᾅδην οἰκεῖν κατακριθέντα, ἐν σεαυτῷ ἐκάθισας. Τίς οὖν τῶν ἀπείρων τούτων ἀγαθῶν, τῶν ὑπὲρ πάντα νοῦν καὶ κατάληψιν, ἐργαστήριον γέγονεν; οὐχὶ ἡ σὲ τεκοῦσα Ἀειπάρθενος;