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ORATION 44

ORATION 44 On New Sunday.1 he high value we place on ceremonies of dedication , or rather on the opportunity of honoring new departures through them, is the product of a long and venerable tradition;2 and in doing so not just once but often , on all anniversary occasions, so that our blessings do not fade away with the passage of time or slip into the dark pit of oblivion. Islands are dedicated to God, as we read in Isaiah, however we choose to interpret the word “islands.”3 In my view they are the newly established congregations of gentiles that have emerged from the bitter salt sea of unbelief and found a firm anchor in God. In another prophet it is a brazen wall that is dedicated ,4 which I understand to mean a true heart of gold, newly grounded in piety. And we are told to sing to the Lord a new song,5 as much those of us who, after being dragged off by sin to Babylon ’s infernal chaos, then returned to the salvation of Jerusalem (there, to be sure, we could not sing a song of God because we were in a foreign land,6 but here we have found a new song and new way of life), as those of us who steadily abided and ad1 . PG 36.608A–22A. Delivered 383 in Nazianzus. 2. The first Sunday after Easter, or New Sunday, marked the “first of the days” in the Christian year and the “anniversary of salvation” for the faithful (sec. 5). Ceremonies of dedication or renewal (ejgkaivnia) were normally associated with the consecration of places, such as a church, and the annual commemoration of their consecration. Here, Gregory extends the concept of inauguration to the spiritual dedication of the “new creature” in Christ. See also G. Galavaris, The Illustrations of the Liturgical Homilies of Gregory Nazianzus (Princeton , 1969), 38–40. 3. Is 41.1 LXX. 4. Jer 1.18; Is 16.11 LXX. 5. Ps 33.3 (LXX 32.3), 96.1 (LXX 95.1), 98.1 (LXX 97.1), 149.1. 6. Ps 137.4 (LXX 136.4). 230 vanced in virtue by the moral worth we have shown in the past and continue to show through the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. 2. The tent of meeting designed by God, constructed by Bezalel and erected by Moses, was celebrated by a dedication,7 and a very sumptuous one, as was also David’s accession to the throne, solemnized not in a single ceremony but rather a first when he was anointed and a second after he was proclaimed.8 It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; it was winter,9 the winter of unbelief , and Jesus was present, who is God and temple, God eternal , temple newly made, destroyed in one day and risen on the third and abiding for all time that I might be saved and restored from the fall of long ago and become a new creation, formed anew by his supreme act of loving-kindness. And David seeks to have a clean heart created in him and a right spirit renewed within him,10 not because he did not possess these things—who, if not the great David, would?—but because he understood “new” to mean whatever is improved on a regular and current basis. But why adduce more dedicatory rites when we can turn our attention to the one we are celebrating today, one that brings us into contact with life after death? Dedication! This holiday, my brothers, is a dedication. Let us proclaim it over and over again from joy! And dedication of what? Those of you who know, tell us; those who do not, dedicate your ears. 3. There was light, unapproachable and everlasting,11 God, light without beginning, without end, without limit, ever shining with triple splendor, light whose magnitude can be envisioned by few, no, not even them. And there were lights of the second order, effulgences of the first, the powers that surround him and the ministering spirits.12 The light with which we are familiar not only came into existence later, but is also cut off by night and in turn cuts night off for an equal period of time; it is given over to the use of our eyes through its diffusion in the air, and what it bestows it receives from an external source. It makes ORATION 44 231 7. Nm 7.1–11...