Homilies on the Dormition of the Mother of God · §3.3 · John of Damascus

Homily III — A new exodus song, and why she had to die

Let the demons flee; let the thrice-wretched Nestorians and their leader, the new Pharaoh, the bitter destroyer and tyrant, wail as the Egyptians did long ago. For they have been buried in the depths of their blasphemy (Exodus 15:4–5). But let us who were saved with dry feet (Exodus 14:29) and have crossed the salt sea of ungodliness sing to the Mother of God the song of her exodus.

Let Miriam, the Church, take the timbrel in her hands and lead off the festal song (Exodus 15:20–21). Let the young women of the spiritual Israel go out with timbrels and dances, shouting for joy. Kings of the earth and judges with rulers, young men and virgins, old men with the younger (Psalm 148:11–12): let them sing hymns to the Mother of God. Let assemblies, and words of every kind, and the varied tongues of nations and peoples compose a new song. Let the air resound all around with spiritual reeds and trumpets, and let it fashion a new day of salvation with flashes of fire. Rejoice, you heavens, and let the clouds rain down gladness (Isaiah 45:8). Leap, you rams of God's chosen flock, you divine apostles, raised up like high and lofty mountains by the loftiest contemplations; and you lambs of God, holy people, nurslings of the Church, like hills reaching up by your own choice toward the high mountains (Psalm 114:4).

Ah! Ah! Has the fountain of life died, the Mother of my Lord (Luke 1:43)? Yes, for what was put together from earth had to return to earth (Genesis 3:19), and so pass over to heaven, receiving from the earth, through the laying of her body in it, the gift of a life wholly pure. For like gold she had to cast off the earthy and lustreless thickness of mortality, and, with death as the furnace, to rise from the tomb with her flesh incorrupt and pure, shining with the light of incorruption.

Greek

Φευγέτωσαν δαίμονες, ὀλολυζέτωσαν τρισάθλιοι Νεστώριοι, ὡς πρόπαλαι οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι, καὶ ὁ τούτων ἔξαρχος ὁ νέος Φαραώ, ὁ πικρὸς ἀλάστωρ καὶ τύραννος. Τῷ βυθῷ γὰρ τῆς βλασφημίας κατεχώσθησαν. Ἡμεῖς δὲ οἱ σωθέντες ἀβρόχοις ποσίν, καὶ τὴν ἁλμυρὰν τῆς ἀσεβείας ὑπερβάντες θάλασσαν, ᾄσωμεν τῇ Μητρὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ ᾠδὴν τὴν ἐξόδιον.

Αἱρέτω Μαριὰμ ἡ Ἐκκλησία ταῖς χερσὶ τὸ τύμπανον, καὶ ἐξαρχέτω ᾠδὴν τὴν ἑόρτιον. Ἐξίτωσαν τοῦ πνευματικοῦ Ἰσραὴλ αἱ νεάνιδες μετὰ τυμπάνων καὶ χορῶν ἀλαλάζουσαι. Βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς καὶ κριταὶ σὺν ἄρχουσι, νεανίσκοι καὶ παρθένοι, πρεσβῦται μετὰ νεωτέρων, τὴν Θεοτόκον ὑμνείτωσαν, σύλλογοι, καὶ λόγοι παντοδαποί, καὶ ἐθνῶν καὶ λαῶν γλῶσσαι διάφοροι, ᾆσμα καινὸν μελουργείτωσαν. Περιηχείτω ἀὴρ πνευματικοῖς δόναξί τε καὶ σάλπιγξι, καὶ τοῖς ἐκ πυρὸς ἀμαρύγμασιν ἡμέραν καινουργείτω σωτήριον. Εὐφράνθητε, οὐρανοί, καὶ αἱ νεφέλαι ῥανάτωσαν ἀγαλλίασιν. Σκιρτήσατε, κριοὶ τῆς ἐκλεκτῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ποίμνης, οἱ θεῖοι ἀπόστολοι, ὡς ὄρη ὑψηλὰ καὶ μετέωρα ταῖς ὑψηλοτάταις θεωρίαις ὑψούμενοι, καὶ ἄρνες Θεοῦ, λαὸς ἅγιος, τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τὰ θρέμματα, ὥσπερ βουνοὶ πρὸς τὰ ὑψηλὰ ὄρη τῇ προαιρέσει ἀνατεινόμενοι.

Βαβαί! βαβαί! τέθνηκεν ἡ πηγὴ τῆς ζωῆς, ἡ τοῦ Κυρίου μου Μήτηρ; Ἔδει γὰρ τὸ ἐκ γῆς συντεθὲν παλινοστῆσαι πρὸς γῆν, καὶ οὕτω μεταναστῆναι πρὸς οὐρανόν, ἐκ τῆς γῆς λαβὼν τὴν δεδωρημένην τῇ γῇ τῇ καταθέσει τοῦ σώματος παναχήρατον ζωήν. Ἔδει γὰρ καθάπερ χρυσὸν ἀποβαλοῦσαν τὸ γεῶδες καὶ ἀλαμπὲς τῆς θνητότητος πάχος, ὡς ἐν χωνεύσει τῷ θανάτῳ τὴν σάρκα ἄφθαρτον καὶ καθαράν, τῷ φέγγει τῆς ἀφθαρσίας ἐκλάμπουσαν ἐξαναστῆναι τοῦ μνήματος.

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About this text

John of Damascus's three sermons on the falling asleep of Mary, preached at her tomb at Gethsemane: praise of the Mother of God, the story of her last days and burial, and the old account in which Juvenal of Jerusalem tells the empress Pulcheria that the apostles found the tomb empty.

English translated from the Greek of Migne, Patrologia Graeca 96, cols. Where the printed Greek is plainly wrong, the English follows the reading that the sense and Migne's facing Latin require; each such place is listed below. Psalm numbers are given in the English (Hebrew) numbering.

Printed text used

Translated from Migne, Patrologia Graeca 96 (Paris, 1860), cols. 699-762 (Greek · All three homilies)

Where the prints differ

Homily II, section 1 — Printed διαιρέσεως ('division'); the English follows προαιρέσεως ('a good will'), with the facing Latin 'probaque voluntate'.
Homily II, section 2 — Printed ἐνδέδυμαι ('I have put on') is read as ἐκδέδυμαι ('I have put off' the garments of skin), with the facing Latin 'exui'; printed ὑπερέρχεται is read as ὑπέρχεται ('undergoes'); printed ἀχειροτμήτῳ is taken in the sense 'not made by hands'.
Homily II, section 4 — Printed θέσματα ('ordinances') is rendered 'wills', with the facing Latin 'voluntates'.
Homily II, section 10 — Printed 'our hands' is read as 'my hands', since Mary is speaking (facing Latin 'manuum mearum').
Homily II, section 13 — Printed ἀμελητί ('carelessly') is read as ἀμελλητί ('at once').
Homily II, section 14 — Printed ἐλαίου ('oil') is read as ἐλέου ('mercy'), as Migne's own note directs; printed γεύμασιν is read as ῥεύμασιν ('in their flowing'), with the facing Latin 'fluentis'.
Homily III, section 2 — Printed κλίματι is read as κλίμακι ('ladder'), ἐδείξατο as ἐδέξατο ('received'), and 'fruits of the presence' as 'the bread of the presence', each with the facing Latin.

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