Among all the works, dearly beloved, of the mercy of God which from the beginning have been bestowed for the salvation of mortals, nothing is more wonderful and nothing more sublime than that Christ was crucified for the world. For to this mystery all the mysteries of preceding ages ministered, and whatever was varied by sacred dispensation in the differences of sacrifices, in prophetic signs and in appointed ordinances, this foretold that which was ordained, this promised that which was to be fulfilled: so that now, images and figures ceasing, it profits us to believe as already effected that which of old it profited to believe as to be done.
In all things therefore, dearly beloved, which pertain to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, this the catholic faith teaches, this it requires: that in our Redeemer we should know two natures to have met together, and, their properties remaining, so great a unity of both substances to have been made, that from that time when, as the cause of the human race demanded, the Word was made flesh in the womb of the blessed Virgin (John 1:14), we may not think of Him as God without this that He is man, nor as man without this that He is God. Each nature indeed expresses its own truth under distinct actions, but neither disjoins itself from connection with the other. Nothing there is void of one from the other, the whole humility is in majesty, the whole majesty in humility;
nor does the unity introduce confusion, nor does the property sever the unity. One thing is passible, another inviolable; and yet the reproach is of the same as is also the glory. He is in weakness who is also in power; the same is capable of death, and the same is victor over death. God therefore took up the whole man, and so joined Himself to him, and him to Himself, by the principle of mercy and of power, that each nature was present in the other, and neither passed over into the other from its own property. But because the dispensation of the mystery, ordained for our restoration before the eternal ages, was to be consummated neither without human weakness nor without divine power:
each form acts, in communion with the other, that which is proper to it, namely the Word working that which is of the Word, and the flesh executing that which is of the flesh. One of these coruscates with miracles, the other succumbs to injuries. That does not recede from the equality of the paternal glory, this does not relinquish the nature of our race. Nevertheless even the very reception of sufferings is not so exposed to the affection of our lowliness as to be disjoined from the power of the Divinity. Whatever of mockery and reproach, whatever of vexation and punishment the fury of the impious inflicted, was not endured of necessity, but taken up of will: for the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10);
and so He used the malice of His persecutors unto the redemption of all, that in the mystery of His death and resurrection even His slayers might be able to be saved, if they should believe. Whence, more wicked than all, O Judas, and more unhappy didst thou prove, whom repentance did not recall to the Lord, but despair dragged to the noose. Thou shouldst have awaited the consummation of thy crime, and until the blood of Christ should be poured out for all sinners, thou shouldst have deferred the hanging of thy shapeless death. And though so many miracles of the Lord, so many gifts tormented thy conscience, at least those mysteries should have recalled thee from thy headlong ruin, which at the paschal supper, thy perfidy being already detected by the sign of divine knowledge, thou hadst received.
Why dost thou distrust His goodness, who did not repel thee from the communion of His body and blood, who did not deny the kiss of peace to thee coming with crowds and a cohort of armed men to seize Him (Matt. 26:49)? But, O man unconvertible, a spirit going and not returning (Ps. 78:39), thou didst follow the frenzy of thy heart, and, the devil standing at thy right hand (Ps. 109:6), thou didst turn back upon thine own head the iniquity which thou hadst armed against the head of all the saints: so that, because thy crime had exceeded all measure of vengeance, thine own impiety should have thee as judge, and thine own punishment should suffer thee as executioner. Since therefore God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor.
5:19), and the Creator Himself bore the creature to be reformed to the image of its Maker; the miracles of the divine works being accomplished, which the prophetic spirit had of old foretold should be done: Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free (Isa. 35:5); Jesus, knowing that now the time of the glorious Passion to be fulfilled was at hand, says: My soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matt. 26:38); and again: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me (ibid. 39). By which words professing a certain dread, He was healing the affection of our weakness by partaking of it, and abolishing the fear of penal experience by undergoing it.
In us therefore did the Lord tremble with our fear, that He might put on the assumption of our weakness, and might clothe our inconstancy with the solidity of His own virtue. For there had come into this world a rich and merciful merchant from the heavens, and by a wondrous exchange had entered upon a saving traffic, receiving ours and bestowing His own, giving honour for reproaches, salvation for griefs, life for death; and He to whom, for the destruction of His persecutors, more than twelve thousand legions of angels could have served (Matt. 26:53), preferred to receive our fear rather than to exercise His own power.
But how much was conferred upon all the faithful by this humility, the first and most blessed apostle Peter experienced (ibid. 75); who, when the more vehement storm of the imminent savagery had troubled him, was by a swift change converted to the recovery of his vigour, taking a remedy from the example, so that the suddenly shaken member might return to the firmness of its own head. For the servant could not be above his lord, nor the disciple greater than his master (Matt. 10:24; John 15:20), who would not overcome the trembling of human frailty, unless the Victor over death had first feared.
The Lord therefore looked upon Peter (ibid. 61), and, being set amid the calumnies of the priests, amid the falsehoods of witnesses, amid the injuries of those striking and spitting, He met with those eyes the troubled disciple, with which He had foreseen him to be about to be troubled: and the inspection of truth entered into him where the correction of the heart was to be made; as if there some voice of the Lord resounded and said: Whither goest thou, Peter? Why dost thou withdraw into thyself? Turn to me, trust in me, follow me: this is the time of my passion, not yet has come the hour of thy suffering. Why dost thou fear that which thou thyself also shalt overcome? Let not the weakness which I have taken up confound thee. I was fearful of thy nature; be thou secure of mine.
But when morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, that they might deliver Him to death (Matt. 27:1). This morning, O Jews, brought you not the rising of light, but its setting; nor did the wonted day come forth to your eyes, but night of foul blindness settled upon your impious minds. This morning destroyed for you the temple and the altars, took away the law and the prophets, removed the kingdom and the priesthood, turned all your feasts into eternal mourning. For you entered upon an insane and bloody counsel, fat bulls, many calves, roaring beasts, raging dogs, that you might deliver to death the Author of life and the Lord of glory: and, as though the enormity of your fury were to be lessened, if you should use the sentence of him who presided over your province,
you led Jesus bound to Pilate's judgment; that, the timid judge being overcome by wicked clamours, you might choose a murderer of men for pardon, and demand the Saviour of the world for punishment. After this condemnation of Christ, which Pilate's cowardice rather than his power carried out—who with washed hands and polluted mouth sent Jesus to the cross with the same lips with which he had pronounced Him innocent—many mockeries the license of the populace, serving the priestly eyes, heaped upon the Lord: and against the meekness of Him who willingly endured these things, the raging mob vented its cruelty.
But because it is much, dearly beloved, that today's discourse should run through all things, let the rest be deferred to the fourth day, on which the reading of the Lord's Passion will be repeated. For the Lord will grant, you praying, that by His gift we may fulfil what we promise: through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen. To your expectation, dearly beloved, what is owed must, by the Lord's bounty, be rendered, your prayers earning it, that He may make us fit for the paying who made you attentive for the exacting.
For, speaking recently of the Lord's Passion, we came to that place of the Gospel history in which Pilate is narrated to have yielded to the impious clamours of the Jews, that Jesus should be crucified. And so, all things being accomplished which the Divinity, tempered by the veil of frail flesh, permitted to be borne, Jesus Christ the Son of God was affixed to the cross, which He Himself also had borne, two thieves being likewise crucified, one on His right, the other on His left: so that even in the very appearance of the gibbet might be shown that discrimination of all men which is to be made in His judgment; since the faith of the believing thief expressed the figure of those to be saved, and the impiety of the blaspheming one prefigured the form of those to be condemned.
The Passion of Christ therefore contains the mystery of our salvation, and out of the instrument which the iniquity of the Jews prepared for punishment, the power of the Redeemer made for us a step to glory: which the Lord Jesus so took up for the salvation of all men, that amid the nails by which He was held fixed to the wood, He besought the paternal clemency for His slayers and said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). But the chief priests, for whom the Saviour begged indulgence, exasperated the punishment of the cross with the stings of mockeries; and on Him against whom they could no longer rage with their hands, they hurled the darts of their tongues, saying: He saved others, Himself He cannot save.
If He be the king of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him (Matt. 27:42). From what fount of error, O Jews, from what lake of envy did you drink the poisons of such blasphemies? What master delivered to you, what teaching persuaded you, that you ought to believe Him the king of Israel, Him the Son of God, who would either not suffer Himself to be crucified, or shake Himself free from the fastening of the nails? Not the mysteries of the law, not the sacraments of the paschal observance, nor any mouth of the prophets ever sang this to you; but that indeed you have read truly and abundantly which pertains to the detestable impiety of your crime and to the voluntary Passion of the Lord. For He Himself speaks through Isaiah:
I gave my back to the scourges, my cheeks to the palms, but my face I turned not away from the confusion of spittings (Isa. 50:6). He Himself through David says: They gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink (Ps. 69:22). And again: Many dogs have compassed me, the council of the malignant hath besieged me. They have dug my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones. But they have looked and stared upon me, they have parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they have cast lots (Ps. 22:17). And lest only the order of your crime should seem foretold, but no power of the Crucified prophesied, you have indeed not read, The Lord came down from the cross; but you have read: The Lord hath reigned from the wood (Ps. 96:10).
The cross of Christ therefore holds the mystery of the true and foretold altar, where by the saving victim the oblation of human nature might be celebrated. There the blood of the immaculate Lamb blotted out the covenants of the ancient transgression: there the whole adversity of the diabolical domination was crushed, and humility, victorious over the elation of pride, triumphed; since the effect of faith was so swift, that of the thieves crucified with Christ, he who believed in Christ the Son of God entered paradise justified. Who shall unfold the mystery of so great a gift? Who shall relate the power of so wondrous an exchange? In a brief moment of time, the guilt of long crimes is abolished; amid the harsh torments of a struggling soul, one hanging upon the gibbet passes over to Christ;
and to him whose own impiety had brought punishment, the grace of Christ gives a crown. Hence now, the vinegar being tasted, which that vine gave forth—the vine which, degenerating from the planting of its author (Matt. 21:38), had been changed into the bitterness of a strange vine—the Lord says, It is finished (John 19:30); that is, the Scriptures are fulfilled: there is no more that I should await from the madness of the raging people; nothing less have I borne than I foretold I should suffer. The mysteries of weakness are accomplished, let the proofs of power be brought forth. And so, bowing His head, He gave up the spirit, and admitted to His body, to be raised on the third day, the repose of a placid slumber.
To what a mystery did the Author of life expend Himself, and to how great a condescension of the divine majesty, that the whole frame of the world by which it is held together might, when the impious crime had cast the whole into confusion, condemn the creation both sacred and profane (as was said in the earlier sermon, chapter 6), and that the very elements of the world might pronounce a manifest sentence against the guilty! What spirit was in you, O Jews, what conscience was yours, when the judgment of the whole universe pressed upon you, and your impiety, the crime being consummated, could not be called back to itself? What confusion covered you? What punishment did your heart undergo? Since therefore, when...
beloved, so great is the mercy of God that He has deigned to justify many even from such a people by faith, and has adopted us, who were perishing under the deep night of our former ignorance, into the fellowship of the patriarchs and into the lot of the chosen race: let us run to the height of our hope neither sluggishly nor with torpor; but pondering prudently and faithfully from what captivity and from how wretched a servitude we have been redeemed, at what price, and by what arm we have been led out, let us glorify God in our body; that we may show by the very uprightness of our conduct that He dwells within us.
And because in the whole dignity of the virtues nothing is more excellent than the piety of mercy and the purity of chastity, let us equip ourselves more especially with these two safeguards, so that, lifted up as by two wings—by the work of charity and by the splendour of chastity—we may deserve from earthly beings to become heavenly. Whoever, aided by the grace of God, is filled with this desire, and glories in his progress not in himself but in the Lord, this man rightly honours the paschal mystery. The destroying angel does not enter the threshold of such a man, marked beforehand with the blood of the lamb and the sign of the cross. He does not dread the plagues of Egypt, and by the same waters by which he himself was saved he leaves his enemies destroyed.
Let us therefore embrace, beloved, with purified minds and bodies, the wonderful mystery of our salvation, and, cleansed from all the old leaven of malice (1 Cor. 5:7), let us celebrate the Lord's Passover with worthy observance: so that, the Holy Spirit governing us, we may be separated by no temptations from the love of Christ, who, making peace by His blood in all things, both received Himself into the height of the Father's glory and did not forsake the lowliness of those who serve Him; to whom be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.