st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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Il8 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
in the 1
confessedly genuine works of Damascenus.
But a few extracts may perhaps with propriety be
given, if only to enable the reader to form some
estimate for himself of the merits of this discourse.
He begins with a panegyric upon the cross, and the
day on which Christ was crucified. "On this, the
sixth day, Adam was formed. On this day he bore
the likeness of God. On this day was established
the microcosm in the macrocosm (i.e., man, the
lesser universe in the greater). On this day man,
as pilot, had given to him the fair rudder of the
world, a living creature that was to control all living
creatures. On this day he received commandments
to be willingly obeyed ;
on this, he fell from paradise ;
on this, he was brought into paradise again. Oh !
day of vicissitudes, mournful, yet free from mourning.
Oh !
day fraught with sorrow at dawn, with gladness
at eventide ; nay, rather, a day that wounded not so
much as it healed. Downcast I am, let me own
it, as I recur to those disastrous deeds of old ;
as I
hear of Adam expelled from his native home ;
from
paradise its denizen, man. There had he found
It would be out of place here to go into minute details of
1
criticism. But I doubt whether Damascenus uses such terms
as \OITTOV (= ijdrj) "now
j" Xevxei/jiovai "I "am
rejoice (lit.
clad in white garments "), povovovw, and some others. There
is also a conspicuous absence of that constant allusion to the
twofold nature of Christ, and kindred topics, observed in
Damascenus. The mention, too, of all peoples, nations and
languages (col. 592), as observing the Lenten fast, would be
less appropriate in the case of Damascenus, at a time when the
world, especially his own quarter of it, was being overrun by
the Saracens.