The faith, dearly beloved, requires that we render that portion of the discourse concerning the Lord's Passion which we promised, with the same help of Him in whom we do not doubt we are aided by your prayers. For it pertains to the common gain, if you can have me devout: because whatever is granted to our ability is expended upon your edification. After therefore that impious and detestable bargain of Judas, by which the Redeemer of the world was betrayed by him, the Jews pursuing Him, after those sacrilegious mockings, amid which His meekness was led even to the place of punishment, there were crucified with Him two thieves, gibbets being set up on either side:
of whom one, up to that very time equal and like his companion, a lier-in-wait upon the roads and ever hostile to the safety of men, a guilty man even up to the cross, suddenly becomes a confessor of Christ; and amid those most bitter torments of body and soul, which both the imminence and the difficulty of death increased, changed by a wondrous conversion, he says: Remember me, Lord, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom (Luke 23:42). What exhortation persuaded him to this same faith, what teaching instilled it? What preacher kindled it? He had not before seen the miracles wrought, the healing of the sick had then ceased, the enlightening of the blind, the raising of the dead; those very things which were soon to be done, were not yet present;
and yet he confesses as Lord and King Him whom he sees to be the partner of his own punishment. Thence therefore arose this gift, whence faith itself received its answer; for Jesus says to him: Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise (ibid. 43). This promise exceeds the human condition; nor is it uttered so much from the wood of the cross as from the throne of power. From that height is the reward of faith given, upon which the bond of human transgression is abolished: because the form of God did not sever itself from the form of the servant, while even amid the very torments both the inviolable Deity and the passible nature preserved their property and unity. To the confirmation of our hope is added the attestation of the whole creation.
When Christ sent forth His spirit, all the elements trembled; the splendour of the sun, veiled by dense darkness, extraordinarily made the day subject to night; the earth, shaken by deep convulsions, did not keep its stability, and the firmness of the rocks, their solidity broken, split asunder. The veil of the temple, by which the mysteries of former things were no longer to be overshadowed, was rent; and, the bodies of many saints being raised up, the tombs opened to fortify the faith of the resurrection (Matt. 27:51-53; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45-46). Against you therefore, O Jews, heaven and earth pronounced sentence; against you the sun withdrew its service and its day; against you the orders of the elements denied their attendance;
and, the ministry of creation departing from its own laws, your blinding, your confusion was signified. For when you said: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matt. 27:25); deservedly was this recompensed, that what the impious portion of your race lost, the faithful fullness of the nations might attain. We therefore, dearly beloved, to whom our Lord Jesus Christ crucified is not a scandal nor foolishness, but the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23); we, I say, the spiritual seed of Abraham, not born in the offspring of servitude, but reborn in the family of liberty;
for whom, led out by a mighty hand and outstretched arm from the oppression of the Egyptian domination, the true and spotless Lamb, Christ, was slain (1 Cor. 5:7); let us embrace the wondrous mystery of the saving Passover, and be reformed to the image of Him who was made conformable to our deformity. Let us be raised up to Him who made the dust of our abjection the body of His glory; and, that we may be worthy to be partakers of His resurrection, let us be conformed in all things to His humility and patience. We have taken up the warfare of a great name, the discipline of a great profession. It is not lawful for the followers of Christ to depart from the royal way, but it is fitting not to be occupied with things temporal, striving toward things eternal.
And because we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, let us glorify and bear God in our body (1 Cor. 6:20); that we may be worthy to attain to those things which have been prepared for the faithful, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory unto ages of ages. Amen.