Begotten from the Father before all ages..., he was incarnate from the Virgin Mary

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1:1-18.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be
through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God.
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'"
From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.


Commentary of the day : Saint Maximus of Turin
«Begotten from the Father before all ages..., he was incarnate from the Virgin Mary » (Creed of Constantinople)

We read, dearest brethren, that there are two births in Christ: both are the expression of a divine power that completely outstrips us. On the one hand, God generates his Son out of his own self; on the other, a virgin has conceived him by God's intervention... On the one hand, he is born to create life, and on the other to take away death. In the former, he is born of his Father; in the latter, he is brought into the world by human beings. By his generation from the Father he is at human origins; by his human birth he sets humanity free. Both of these kinds of birth are, properly speaking, inexpressible and at the same time inseparable...

In teaching that there are two births in Christ we do not intend to say that the Son of God is born twice over, but we are affirming the twofold nature in one and the same Son of God. On the one hand, what already existed is born; on the other, what did not as yet exist is brought forth. The blessed evangelist John affirms this in these words: «In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God» and again: «The Word was made flesh.»

Thus God who was with God came forth from him and the flesh of God that did not belong to God is fruit of a woman. So the Word became flesh, not in such a way that God was incorporated into man, but so that man might be gloriously raised up to God. That is why God was not born twice but by means of these two kinds of birth – namely, that of God and that of man – the only Son of the Father desired to be both God and man in a single person. «Who, then, can tell his birth?» (Is 53,8 Vg.).