Works of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus

...[it is] neither [more] beautiful than this. Regarding these, what can [one] say? Regarding these, what can [one] say? The evil calumniators of the theology [are] our [opponents]. And the accusers of your Spirit. The [ones] [in] darkness concerning the light. The uneducated concerning wisdom. For whom Christ Christos died for free. The ungrateful creatures. The fabrications of the evil one. Do you accuse God Theos of this? Of the benefaction? [Is he] small for this reason, because he was humble for your sake? That the good shepherd came upon the lost sheep? That he sought the soul [which was] lost? [He went] upon the mountains and the hills upon which you were sacrificing [to idols], and he took the sheep, carrying [it] upon his shoulders, taking [it] upon [himself] upon which also the [burden]... and having taken [it], he led [it] back to the life above. And will [you] be compared to the countless [others] who remain? That he lit a lamp—his own flesh—and swept the house, cleansing the sin of the world, and sought the coin: the royal image buried in passions. And he calls together his friends, the powers, for the finding of the coin, and makes them participants of the joy, whom also [of] the economy [he] had initiated.

Because he [sent] the lamp of the forerunner before, [it was] the precursor to the light, [which is] shining; and [he sent] the voice [to] the Word, and [he sent] the bridesman [to] the bridegroom, and [he sent] the one preparing the people of the Lord, the peculiar [people], and cleansing [them] before through the Spirit through the water. [Are] these things for you...

To the God Theos? And for these things do you suppose [it is] joyful that he girds himself with a towel and washes the feet of the disciples, and shows [that] the best way of exaltation [is] humility? That because of [you], he threw himself upon the earth; the soul is humbled, so that we also may be humbled together away from [the] sin? But why do you not accuse that he also eats with tax collectors and [sits] with tax collectors, and makes disciples of tax collectors, so that he himself might gain something? What is this? The salvation of sinners. If one might not also accuse the physician, because he bends over the passions and endures the stench so that he might give health to those who are sick, and [he] works with [them] in his compassion, so that [they] might be saved from the [corruption] of the creature.

* Un-omitted. Without hatred... for us, so that also the fault [may be forgiven], and [your] degradation. And without... and [being] cast down... and we may be made brothers [in one] body.