DAILY CONTEMPLATION

May 9, 2026 ~ Pashons 1, 1742

He becomes the firstborn of the new creation of men and women in Christ by the twofold regeneration,
reborn by holy baptism and by that birth that is the consequence of the resurrection from the dead.
In both alike He becomes for us the Prince of life, the firstfruits and the firstborn.
This firstborn, then, also has brothers. This is who He is referring to when He says to Mary,
“Go and tell my brothers, I go to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.”
In these words He sums up the whole aim of His dispensation as man.
For humanity rebelled against God and “served those that by nature were no gods.”
And even though they were the children of God, they became attached to an evil father falsely so called.
Therefore, the Mediator between God and man, having assumed the firstfruits of all human nature,
sends to His brothers the announcement of Himself not in His divine character
but in that which He shares with us. He says,
“I am departing in order to make that true Father, from whom you were separated, to be your Father;
and to make that true God from whom you had rebelled to be your God.
And I am doing this in My own person.
For by those firstfruits that I have assumed, I am in Myself presenting all humanity to its God and Father.”
Since, then, (Christ) the firstfruits made the true God to be its God and the good Father to be its Father,
the blessing is secured for human nature as a whole,
and by means of the firstfruits the true God and Father becomes Father and God of all men and women.
Now “if the firstfruits are holy, the lump also is holy.”
But where the firstfruits, Christ, is—and the firstfruits is none other than Christ—
there also are those who are Christ’s, as the apostle says.
St. Gregory of Nyssa