Hail, O light! For in us, buried in darkness, shut up in the shadow of
death, light has shone forth from heaven, purer than the sun, sweeter
than life here below. That light is eternal life; and whatever partakes
of it lives. But night fears the light, and hiding itself in terror,
gives place to the day of the Lord. Sleepless light is now over all, and
the west has given credence to the east. For this was the end of the
new creation. For the Sun of Righteousness, who drives His chariot over
all, pervades equally all humanity, like His Father, who makes His sun
to rise on all men, and distils on them the dew of the truth. He has
changed sunset into sunrise, and through the cross brought death to
life; and having wrenched man from destruction, He has raised him to the
skies, transplanting mortality into immortality, and translating earth
to heaven — He, the husbandman of God, “Pointing out the favourable
signs and rousing the nations, to good works, putting them in mind of
the true sustenance;” having bestowed on us the truly great, divine, and
inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying man by heavenly
teaching, putting His laws into our minds, and writing them on our
hearts. (A paschal hymn appearing in Clement of Alexandria’s Exhortation to the Greeks, Protrepticus, 11,114,1-5)
"χαῖρε φῶς"· φῶς ἡμῖν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ τοῖς ἐν σκότει κατορωρυγμένοις καὶ ἐν σκιᾷ θανάτου κατακεκλεισμένοις ἐξέλαμψεν ἡλίου καθαρώ 11.114.2 τερον, ζωῆς τῆς ἐνταῦθα γλυκύτερον. Τὸ φῶς ἐκεῖνο ζωή ἐστιν ἀίδιος, καὶ ὅσα μετείληφεν αὐτοῦ, ζῇ, ἡ νὺξ δὲ εὐλα βεῖται τὸ φῶς καὶ δύνουσα διὰ τὸν φόβον παραχωρεῖ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ κυρίου· τὰ πάντα φῶς ἀκοίμητον γέγονεν καὶ ἡ 11.114.3 δύσις εἰς ἀνατολὴν περιέστηκεν. Τοῦτο ἡ κτίσις ἡ καινὴ βεβούληται· ὁ γὰρ τὰ πάντα καθιππεύων "δικαιοσύνης ἥλιος" ἐπ' ἴσης περιπολεῖ τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα, τὸν πατέρα μιμούμενος, ὃς "ἐπὶ πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἀνατέλλει τὸν ἥλιον αὐτοῦ", καὶ καταψεκάζει τὴν δρόσον τῆς ἀληθείας. 11.114.4 Οὗτος τὴν δύσιν εἰς ἀνατολὴν μετήγαγεν καὶ τὸν θάνατον εἰς ζωὴν ἀνασταυρώσει, ἐξαρπάσας δὲ τῆς ἀπωλείας τὸν ἄνθρωπον προσεκρέμασεν αἰθέρι, μεταφυτεύων τὴν φθορὰν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν καὶ γῆν μεταβάλλων εἰς οὐρανούς, ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ γεωργός, "δεξιὰ σημαίνων, λαοὺς δ' ἐπὶ ἔργον" ἀγαθὸν "ἐγείρων, μιμνῄσκων βιότοιο" ἀληθινοῦ, καὶ τὸν μέγαν ὄντως καὶ θεῖον καὶ ἀναφαίρετον τοῦ πατρὸς κλῆρον χαρι ζόμενος ἡμῖν, οὐρανίῳ διδασκαλίᾳ θεοποιῶν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, "διδοὺς νόμους εἰς τὴν διάνοιαν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπὶ καρδίαν 11.114.5 γράφων αὐτούς."
