Paschal Homilies 1 part 22/28

'Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers shall speak clearly.' Do you not always wish to hope in the coming of Emmanuel, and to expect the things you have seen accomplished? Does nothing of what has been worked bring you to full assurance of the wonder, but you wish instead to hide the things recognized by all? Do you close your eyes, and keep your ears shut against the wonders of Christ? You have, then, a fitting recompense for your own offenses.

For no longer are the symbols of piety with you, nor a city, nor a festal sacrifice; but you have been scattered, wandering throughout the whole inhabited world.

And you shall hear also, from one of those who have chosen to think rightly, that reproach which was announced beforehand to Baruch:

'What is this, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies? You have grown old in a foreign land, you have been defiled with the dead, you have been counted among those who go down to Hades.'

'You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.' You will therefore have no way to make a defense against the accusations.

Every argument at once becomes useless to you, when it contrives to sophisticate against the truth itself.

You shall therefore fittingly hear from him who is to be judge of all:

'You have handed over the Lord of glory and the Creator of all things;'

'you thought you could make life subject to death;'

'you did not know, nor did you understand, that it was procuring incorruption for human nature.'

Having gained such teachers as these, then, let us choose to obey them and yield to them, since, having been taught the truth by them, and having the divine Scriptures for perfect instruction and education, we may cry out to our Savior and Redeemer that which was said by the blessed Moses:

'Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you, glorified among the holy ones?' And again:

'What God is there like you, taking away iniquities and passing over transgressions?' Let no deceiver, then, persuade you to turn aside from the right faith.

Let us walk in the king's highway, turning aside neither to the right nor to the left;

let us keep the right faith simple and unadulterated, recognizing it not as an occasion for heretical wrangling over words, but as the faith of true piety.

Let us confess the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as consubstantial.

For this the divine Scriptures have handed down to us from above.

Let us recognize the Lord who for our sake became man and was born through the blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, Mary.

Let us say to him, according to what is written, 'My Lord and my God.' Thus, ordering our own life, and having wiped away the stain of our former sins through right and dignified conduct, pure and unblemished, and freed from every blemish, let us show ourselves possessing a father's compassion toward those afflicted with orphanhood, granting widows the sympathy fitting for holy ones, and, to speak comprehensively, loving our neighbor, and banishing all injustice from our own soul, bringing the homeless poor into our house;

so that, reckoning also the things granted by God for our stewardship as common to the poor, and clothing the naked, and, altogether girding ourselves with everything pleasing to God, we may be able to gain the enjoyment of the good things we hope for;

beginning the holy Forty Days from the twenty-seventh of the month of Mechir;

and the week of the saving Pascha from the twenty-fourth of the month of Phamenoth;

releasing ourselves from the fasts from the twenty-ninth of the same month of Phamenoth, at late evening, according to the gospel proclamation, and celebrating the feast on the following dawning Sunday, the thirtieth of the same month;

then joining thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.

For thus we shall inherit the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom be glory and might to the Father, unto the ages of ages.

This little discourse, or rather this letter, has not become for us a display of ambition in words, but we have again been called to this by the custom handed down from of old.

For indeed it was fitting that, our holy feast being now on the verge of arriving, the proclamation concerning it should shine forth beforehand.

Let those, then, who are truly eloquent and skilled in fine speech, if they make display of the eloquence inherent in them, delight in the applause of their hearers;

...but let us, with our own stammering words, interpret as far as we can the sense of Scripture.

Those who are distinguished by the honors of the divine priesthood, and who, singled out apart from the rest, have obtained by lawful votes the office of leading the peoples, were also appointed, as was necessary, to make proclamation beforehand of the things needful for our profit.

And indeed, one of the holy prophets said:

'Priests, hear, and testify to the house of Jacob,' says the Lord Almighty. Now the house of Jacob would not be, altogether and in every way, those of the blood of Abraham, but those justified through faith in Christ, just as the all-wise Paul writes, 'Not all who are of Israel are Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.' What, then, does the divine and sacred word charge? And what does it persuade us to cry out, now that the season shines upon us again in which the holy and all-pure festival is celebrated — that is, I mean, the festival in honor of Christ, the Savior of us all? 'Sanctify a fast, proclaim a healing.' To choose, then, to labor, and vigorously to lay claim to deeds of valor unto piety — I myself would say that this is among the things most especially profitable;

for the matter has a glorious fruit, and as the prophet says, 'A man labors in toils for himself, and forces out his own ruin.' What, then, among those of sound mind, could be equal in worth to this possession? Nothing at all;

and the Savior himself will confirm this, saying:

One might also observe something of this sort happening with regard to ourselves, such as would occur with horses being trained to be tamed;

for whom it is not sufficient, for the appearance of being well tamed, if they merely accept the bit;

but there is need, I think, always and altogether, that they learn to make the beat of their feet rhythmic, and to be most skillful and swiftest in running.

So this would be a necessary and profitable thing for us also, if, in addition to the obligation of choosing to labor, I discern the further need of wisely knowing, in each matter to be done, the path that leads straight through, or the one that does not.

For we make use, so to speak, of a bit — the all-pure fast — which checks the mind's inclination toward the worse, and chastens the disorderly movement of the flesh.

For bodily luxury is, as it were, a certain root and origin of bitter and untamed pleasures, and it violently opposes our eagerness toward the good, advancing with unchecked impulses toward baser things.

But the labors of abstinence from food rise up vigorously, and contend against the assaults of the passions innate and present within us, and very effectively turn the flesh — which by its nature leaps up to do wrong — back toward tractability.

And thus far, then, fasting would help those who love it.

But for those who are eager to proceed skillfully in each of the things to be done, or not, it will surely follow that they become good in everything;

for the things accomplished by quick understanding are splendid and admirable.

And the all-wise Paul will also bear witness to these things, having written to Timothy, 'Train yourself for godliness;'

'for bodily exercise, that is, clearly, through fasting and labors, is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.' Some of the ancients did fast, but they made their abstinence bare and wholly devoid of the deeds of valor arising from other virtue.

'...your own wills, and you oppress all those under your hand.'

'You fast for strife and quarrels, and strike the humble with your fists.'

'Why do you fast for me?' Observe, then, that for those who fast, it is least of all fitting to cling to their own wills — I mean those inclined toward baseness;

but rather, so to speak, to bid these wills farewell, and to migrate toward better things, and, as it were, to love clinging tightly, attached to pursuits leading to virtue, and thus to sing and say, 'My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready.'

Therefore, since it is the Passover of the Lord, and the season of the salvation and life of us all is rising, come, let us with intelligible adornments gladden the Only-Begotten Word of God, who for our sake became as we are, that is, became man according to the divine economy, so that we might be beyond ourselves, and beyond the measures of humanity, being named children of God, and having as our brother him who is above all creation.

Come, let us offer to him sacrifices, spiritual ones, that is, and thank-offerings.

For ancient Israel used to honor him with the slaughter of sheep, and made use of sacrifices through blood.

'Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?' For the Divine is all-sufficient, and gives life to all things, yet has no need whatsoever of any such things.

for he seeks the bringing of gifts from us as though it were in the manner of a debt owed, especially when the season above all calls us to a feast;

for thus he spoke through the all-wise Moses: 'Command the sons of Israel, and say to them, saying, My gifts, my offerings, and my oblations for a sweet-smelling savor you shall keep, to bring to me at my feasts.' We must then consider what this matter of the offering is, and how indeed it might come to be accomplished by us.

For he rejects, as both powerless and unprofitable, the force of worship performed in shadows.

For I hear him saying to those of Israel:

'I did not speak to your fathers concerning whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices, on the day when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt.' And Paul also writes: 'For there takes place an annulling of the former commandment, because of its weakness and unprofitableness;'

'for the law perfected nothing.' And God also had cried out beforehand through one of the holy prophets:

'Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not abide in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.'

'For this is the covenant which I will make with them:'

'In those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their understanding, and I will inscribe them upon their hearts;'

'and by no means shall they teach, each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord;'

'for all of them shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them, because I will be merciful toward their sins, and their iniquities I will remember no more.'

'And I will be God to them, and they shall be my people.' The first covenant, then, has been made old;

and henceforth the new and evangelical covenant has been introduced.

'Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.'

'I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.'

'For I say to you, that not one iota nor one stroke shall pass away from the law, until all things come to pass.'

Christ himself thus firmly affirms that he has come to fulfill both the prophets and the law;

those of the blood of Israel, then, used to bring to the all-pure God the sacrifices prescribed by the law, a calf perhaps, or a sheep;

for he had no need of flesh or blood, nor is he in any way gladdened by the savor of fat and by smoke.

In what manner, then, shall we explain the sacrifices prescribed by the law? I think we shall judge rightly by holding that the things ordained through Moses were types, and images of intelligible wonders, variously shaping forth spiritual realities.

The thing offered in sacrifice by the ancients was a calf.

But in it, see, if you will, such-and-such a one, that is, one of those who have believed, consecrating himself to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

For it is written: 'Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, your reasonable service.' Understand, then, how he calls man's consecration a 'reasonable service,' setting this matter over against the sacrifices prescribed by the law.

For that which was done was not a reasonable service;

rather they were slaughterings of oxen, travailing, as in shadow and in types, to bring forth the beauty of the truth.

Then what manner of intelligible and spiritual consecration might be ours, we could discern, and quite readily, by searching out the depth of the sacred Scriptures, and, as it were, shaking off the outward semblance of the types, and thus beholding, bare and unclothed as it were, the truth most dear to God.

It is written, then, at the beginning of Leviticus:

'If a man of you bring an offering to the Lord from the cattle, from the herd, or from the flock, you shall bring your offerings;'

'if his offering be a whole burnt-offering, a male without blemish from the herd, he shall bring it to the door of the tabernacle of witness; he shall offer it acceptable before the Lord, and shall lay his hand upon the head of the offering, that it may be accepted to make atonement for him.'

'And they shall slaughter the calf before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron the priests shall bring the blood, and shall pour the blood round about upon the altar which is at the doors of the tabernacle of witness; and having flayed the whole burnt-offering, they shall cut it up limb by limb;'

'and the sons of Aaron the priests shall lay them upon the altar, and shall pile wood upon the fire; and the sons of Aaron the priests shall arrange the pieces, and the head, and the fat upon the wood which is upon the fire that is upon the altar;'

'but the inward parts and the feet they shall wash with water; and it is a burnt-offering, a sacrifice, a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord.' The calf, then, as I have said, is the thing offered in sacrifice.

But what the type would wish to signify, we shall explain as best we can.

For it is in strength of mind that we draw near to God, prevailing mightily over every worldly pleasure.

Now the calf is a strong animal.

And they say it must be male;

for indeed what is womanish and easily broken down is, in character and manner, unsuited to the saints; and the mind of those who love virtue is ever superior to being softened, and to sinking down to baser things.

To such, then, and very fittingly, the sacred Scripture proclaims, leading them toward spiritual manliness: 'Be men, and let your heart be strengthened, all you who hope in the Lord.' And the victim, having been brought to the very doors of the holy tabernacle, was slaughtered before the Lord, as it is written:

'Look upon me and have mercy on me.' For he crowns with the highest honors those whom he chooses to regard.

For to those of the blood of Israel who make an outward show of eagerness to be fit for any good thing whatsoever, yet who have made a practice of counting it as nothing at all to offend him, and who have impiously neglected the reverence due to the law, he says: 'When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you.' But he is gladdened by those who love him, and he looks with favor upon those who approach him through faith in Christ.

For it is written: 'The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their supplication.' The calf, then, was slaughtered, and the blood was poured out upon the altar.

But these things also, I think, would come to pass in our own case, understood, of course, intelligibly and spiritually.

— we die to what is evil, we die to the world, but we pass over into a holy and blameless life;

and this is a matter most worthy of praise in the sight of God who loves virtue.

'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones.' Having endured this glorious and admirable mortification, the all-wise Paul writes in his epistle, saying:

'For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God;'

'and I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me.' And he wrote also to others, or rather to us ourselves: 'Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.' The death of the calf, then, signifies our having died to the world;

while the pouring of the blood upon the altar hints at the consecration of a holy soul, and signifies the sweet fragrance of a life that is holy and beloved of God;

for blood is taken as a type of the soul, or rather of life, in the God-inspired Scripture.

'Take heed strongly not to eat blood, for its blood is its soul.'

'The soul shall not be eaten together with the flesh;'

'it shall be poured out upon the ground like water.'

But also, it says, having flayed the whole burnt-offering, they shall cut it up limb by limb. Paul, being well versed in the law, understood this very well, and writes in his epistle, saying:

'For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart; and there is no creature hidden before him,'

'but all things are naked and laid bare before his eyes.' For the removal of the hide hints at this nakedness.

For absolutely nothing that is in us is hidden, nor could anything at all escape the notice of the divine and undefiled mind;

and it reaches even to the joints and the marrow; and this, I think, is what is meant by the cutting up of the animal limb by limb.

And I hear him saying plainly: 'Who is this that hides counsel from me, and holds words fast within his heart, and thinks to hide them from me?' And indeed elsewhere: 'I am a God who draws near, says the Lord, and not a God far off;'

'shall anything be hidden from me?' For he fills all things, and there is nothing that exists which is absent from him.

He has, moreover, in addition to these things, commanded that the inward parts of the calf, and the feet, must be washed.

And this the Savior himself makes plain to us, saying:

'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' The feet, then, might serve as a type of one's course as it were in works, and, as it were, of the path leading according to virtue.

For it is written: 'Make straight paths for your feet, and direct your ways.' For such feet are exceedingly pure, and they also lead one on to the need of fully carrying out the commandments of the Lord;

who, that he might set those upon the earth upon paths so revered, though being God by nature, and begotten ineffably of God the Father, emptied himself, that he might render human nature full of the good things from above;

he has humbled himself, that he might grant to us the grace of being exalted;

he has been born according to the flesh of a woman, that we, through him, might be enriched with the regeneration by the Spirit unto newness of life;

and, in short, our condition has become his own through a dispensational appropriation, so that we too, in what is peculiarly his, might ascend together with him and on account of him, gaining this benefit through the gentleness that comes from him.

I go to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. For we have been named sons of God, having as our firstborn and brother according to the flesh the Only-begotten.

Therefore the Lord is God, and he has appeared to us, that he might justify circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

For the law given through Moses was imposed, not upon all who are under heaven, but rather only upon those of Israel, and the race descended from Abraham was named a chosen portion belonging to God.

He scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God, and the people of the Lord became his portion, Israel the line of his inheritance. But as the divine evangelist John says concerning the Son, 'He came to his own, and his own did not receive him'; and yet the writings through Moses had already proclaimed quite clearly the mystery concerning him, and the holy prophets besides. But since they beheld the Only-begotten Son of God made man and made flesh, being ill-disposed, small-minded, and utterly without understanding, they were convicted by the very facts themselves.

Search diligently the words of the holy prophets.

Examine the writings of Moses, to see in what manner it was proclaimed through them that the Only-begotten Word of God would shine forth upon the earth.

For if, being incorporeal and intangible, and, as God, beyond our power to see, you were perhaps to make unbelief seem plausible, approaching and saying:

Behold the once fearsome and unapproachable Satan, fallen and lying prostrate — behold the once fearsome and unapproachable Satan, fallen and lying prostrate.

for he has been placed under the feet of the saints.

and you will see him superior to every disease and infirmity, commanding the elements of the world in a manner befitting God, checking the onrush of savage winds, calming even the sea and rebuking the waves — for what wonder did he not accomplish without toil?

'It shall not come up upon the heart, nor be visited, nor be named, and it shall no longer be done.' But surely it was fitting indeed that Israel, understanding these things, should have honored Emmanuel with faith.

But they turned to the complete opposite.

For they resisted him beyond measure, driven by unholy passion toward every kind of outrageous conduct, and having their hearts inflamed by the fire of envy, they dared to slander Jesus as he worked wonders, and they hurled at him the darts born of jealousy.

And the magnitude of their madness came at last to this, that they even sought to kill the Author of life.

And they killed him indeed, yet he came to life again, and became the Firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and the Firstborn of the dead, so that we too, shaking off corruption and stripping off the dominion of death, might say that prophetic word:

'Where is your penalty, O death? Where is your sting, O Hades?' Having thus abolished death, he ascended to the Father and God who is in the heavens;

and thus he will come in due time in glory befitting God, and he will sit as judge;

for he will render to each one according to his work.

Therefore, as those who will render an account of their own lives, let us be eager to lay claim to the boasts that pertain to gentleness, and let each one make his own life radiant through every virtue;

let us preserve the nobility of the body;

let us cease from every base and abominable pleasure;

let us be found superior to smallness of soul toward our brothers;

let us master the movements that arise from anger;

and let swearing by God be far from us, and, as the all-wise Paul says, 'Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that it may give grace to those who hear it.' Let us be found kind and compassionate toward those in need.

Let us do good to orphans, let us restore widows, let us visit those in bonds;

let us remember those who are sick, since we ourselves also exist in bodies;

let us keep our faith secure and unshaken toward Christ, the Savior of all.

For thus, thus indeed shall we complete the holy and all-pure feast:

beginning the holy forty-day fast on the ninth of the month Phamenoth;

and the week of the saving Passover, from the fourteenth of the month Pharmouthi, ending the fasts on the nineteenth of that same month Pharmouthi, in the deep of evening, according to the traditions of the Gospels;

and celebrating the feast on the Lord's Day that dawns next, the twentieth of that same month Pharmouthi, joining thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.

For thus, thus again shall we take delight in the words that are in Christ Jesus our Lord,

through whom and with whom, to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, honor, and dominion, now and always, and unto the ages.

This little discourse has now been composed by us as well, not making a profession of rhetorical ambition — for that is not our aim — but able, as I think, to bring necessary benefit to those who hear it, and to direct them toward the ways of good living.

For it has been composed for no other reason than this alone.

Therefore let not the precision of diction or composition be scrutinized in every respect, but let the purpose of the writer be commended.

For it calls near, as it were, those who have withdrawn and, so to speak, departed from God — I mean, according to those dispositions of mind by which some might become estranged from their intimacy with God.

It is necessary to inquire carefully who these are.

The first and foremost is choosing to worship the creature rather than the Creator, and to kindle reverence toward the elements of the world.

And besides this, unbelief, and indeed also false belief;

the one of these one might attribute to those of the blood of Israel;

but the other, to the fading, specious inventions of the heresies.

And to these we will add the common malady of all who are upon the earth, I mean, sin.

Therefore, with a sacred and far-resounding proclamation, it commands those who have been named to abandon their more shameful ways and choose to pass over to what is better: that the children of the Greeks should thoroughly escape the darkness that, through diabolical perversity, had taken up residence in their minds, and hasten toward the pure light of truth, and confess as God him who is truly and by nature the Maker and Lord of all things;

and that the Jews, at last recognizing — late and with difficulty — him who was announced in many ways through the Law and the Prophets, should say, together with the holy apostles:

— those who were maliciously equipped for wrongdoing — but rather to run straight toward the truth, and to love the right and unerring word of faith, one that has nothing overwrought about it;

and that those who have stepped into the pits of destruction and the snare of sin should draw their feet out, and wipe away from their minds the Jewish defilement that has become ingrained in them, since God in mercy and love for mankind justifies the ungodly — clearly, through faith in Christ;

this the all-wise Paul wrote, teaching those who believed in him:

'Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since God is one, who will justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith.' Therefore, since praise befits the upright, as it is written, let us cleanse our souls of all filth and come, let us greatly rejoice in the Lord. But for those who wish to do this blamelessly, this must be carefully considered: how, and in what manner, one might rejoice in the Lord and not miss the mark.

For the one who is overcome by love of the flesh, and shrinks from nothing outrageous, but has trained himself in every word to do that which is most counterfeit and unholy in manner, and delights rather in the distractions of the present life and the luxuries that come from wealth — he who devotes himself hardly at all to rejoicing and delighting in the Lord, but rather has given himself over to fleeting pleasures — will not be a revered participant in the festival, nor will he be numbered among the holy dancers.

For it is written, 'Praise is not fitting in the mouth of a sinner.' But the one who has been zealous to distinguish himself by the manly virtues of self-control, and to go beyond every passion, so far as is attainable for human nature — he might reasonably possess what is most fitting for him, namely, the duty to offer praise.

The all-wise Paul also benefits us in this regard, having written thus:

'This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of Christ because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;'

who, having become callous, gave themselves up to licentiousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

'But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard him and were taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus:'