ACC ~ Luke 1 v78 - 79

JOHN AS THE LAMP PRECEDING CHRIST

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: For those under the law and dwelling in Judea, John the Baptist was a lamp preceding Christ. God also spoke of him in a similar way: “I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.” [1] And the law also typified him in the lamp. In the first tabernacle it was necessary for the lamp to always remain lit. But the Jews, after being pleased with him for a short time, flocking to his baptism and admiring his mode of life, quickly made him sleep in death, doing their best to extinguish the ever-burning lamp. Therefore the Savior also spoke of him as “a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.” [2] COMMENTARY ON LUKE. [3]

[1] Ps 132:17 (131:17 LXX).

[2] Jn 5:35.

[3] CGSL 42**.

GOD ENTERS THE DARKNESS OF OUR WORLD AND BRINGS LIGHT

BEDE: When Zechariah says, “for his people,” he certainly does not mean that he found them his people upon his arrival but that he made them his by visiting and redeeming them. Do you want to hear about the condition in which he found this people and what he made of them? The end of this canticle clearly makes this evident by saying “the day shall dawn upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” He found us sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, weighed down by the ancient blindness of sins and ignorance, overcome by the deception and the errors of the ancient enemy. He is rightly called death and a lie, [1] just as on the contrary our Lord is called truth and life. [2] Our Lord brought us the true light of recognition of himself and, having taken away the darkness of errors, opened up for us a sure way to heaven. He guided our works so that we may be able to pursue the way of truth that he showed us and enter into the dwelling of everlasting peace, which he promised us. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.20. [3]

[1] Jn 8:44.

[2] Jn 14:6.

[3] CS 111:209.

THE DAYSPRING IS THE SON OF THE MOST HIGH

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: What greater destiny can befall man’s humility than that he should be intermingled with God, and by this intermingling should be deified, and that we should be so visited by the “dayspring from on high”? Further, that even the holy thing that should be born should be called the Son of the Most High and that he should be given “a name that is above every name”? And what else can this be but God? That every knee should bow to him that was made of no reputation for us, that mingled the form of God with the form of a servant, and that all the house of Israel should know that God has made him both Lord and Christ? For all this was done by the action of the begotten One, and by the good pleasure of him that begot him. ORATION 30.3, ON THE SON. [1]

[1] LCC 3:178-79*.

CHRIST BRINGS PEACE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: For the world was wandering in error, serving the creation in the place of the Creator and was darkened over by the blackness of ignorance. Night, as it were, that had fallen upon the minds of all, permitted them not to see him, who is truly and by nature God. But the Lord of all rose for the Israelites, like a light and a sun. COMMENTARY ON LUKE. [1]

[1] CGSL 42*.