In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
We have come, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to this the fortieth day of the fast of preparation for the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Church has called us to prepare ourselves to meet Emmanuel, God with us, that we may bear him in our hearts and bring his presence into our world. You may know of the connection between seventy and seventy-two, that these two numbers are sometimes used interchangeably in ancient texts: the same is true for forty and forty-two, one is used as a substitute for the other.
Rain fell for forty days and forty nights when God uncreated the Earth (Genesis 7:4) and then Noah waited forty days from the appearance of the tops of the mountains before he opened the window of the Ark (Genesis 8:5–6), the spies of Israel returned from spying the land of Canaan after forty days (Numbers 13:25), yet the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years (Numbers 32:13). For these periods of forty, or forty-two, represent a period of preparation, a period of six sevens which imply for us a coming seventh seven when we will receive our inheritance.
And from Abraham to Christ we have three fourteens, these forty-two generations preparing us for the coming Messiah. Christ will be born in the hidden place, the cave of our heart and we have prepared ourselves to meet him. But I have not prepared myself, I have not cleansed myself from the sin within and I have no wedding garment for the Marriage Feast (see Matthew 22:12).
And yet I do not despair, I have not lost hope, for I may cry out with the Psalmist,
A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,
Psalm 50:19 lxx
a broken and humbled heart God will not despise.
So I may still approach the Lord even now, but with a humbled heart. And labouring only from the eleventh hour, I may approach the feast.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
Paschal Homily of St John Chrysostom
He gives rest to him who comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him who toiled from the first.
To this one he gives, and upon another he bestows.
He accepts the work as he greets the endeavour.
The deed he honours and the intention he commends.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
To those who have prepared these Forty Days and to those who have not: Come and see! To those who are pious and to those who are impious: Come and see! To those who have fasted with rigour and those who have been negligent: Come and see!
Come and see the One Who Is, the One Who Causes All Being, Come and see our God before the ages become vulnerable for our sake, Come and see the One whom the Angels praise, the shepherds wonder and the Magi magnify. Come and see!
To our incarnate God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all glory, honour and worship, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundation, whose builder and maker is God. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets – who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
— Hebrews 11:9–10, 32–40
The book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa, and Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.
— Matthew 1:1–25