Sermons & Letters 39

Chapter 1. Christ, the Creator and Lord of all things, after the unwonted childbirth of the sacred Virgin, after His cradle adored by the confession of the Magi, and after the manifold teaching of heavenly eloquence and the healing remedies of various cures wrought by the power of His mighty word, consummates the dispensation of all the mysteries and of all the virtues by His saving Passion. The true ground therefore, beloved, and the principal cause of Christian hope is the cross of Christ: which, though to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness, is nevertheless to us the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23).

Wherefore this supreme and most powerful mystery of the divine mercy is indeed always to be retained in our hearts with its whole dignity, but now it demands a more lively feeling of the soul and a purer gaze of the mind, since not only by the recurrence of the season, but also by the very text of the Gospel reading, the whole work of our salvation is set before us. Let therefore the thoughts of the impious have no place among us, nor let either Jewish offence or Gentile mockery corrupt the integrity of sound understanding: so that what was done for us not only humbly but also sublimely may not seem either impossible according to man or unworthy according to God. But both are fittingly received, both fittingly believed:

for no man can be saved except in both. For the just and merciful God did not so use the right of His own will that, for our restoration, He should exercise only the power of His goodness: but because it was consequent that the man committing sin should be the slave of sin (John 8:34), so was the medicine bestowed on the sick, so the reconciliation on the guilty, so the redemption on the captives, that the just sentence of condemnation might be dissolved by the just work of the Liberator. For if the Deity alone had opposed itself on behalf of sinners, reason would not so much conquer the devil as power. And again, if the nature of mortals alone had pleaded the cause of the fallen, it would not be freed from the condition, since it was not free from the stock.

Whence it was necessary that in our one Lord Jesus Christ both the divine and the human substance should come together, so that both the origin of the new man might succour our mortality through the Word made flesh, and His Passion likewise. Chapter 2. Since therefore in Christ Jesus the blindness of the Jews does not see the things which are divine, and the wisdom of the Gentiles despises the things which are human—the former calumniating against the glory of the Lord, the latter waxing proud against His humility—we adore the Son of God both in His powers and in our infirmities; nor are we ashamed of the cross of Christ, and amid the tongues of gainsayers we doubt neither concerning His death nor concerning His resurrection. For that which draws the proud to unbelief, this directs us to faith;

and what among them is matter of confusion, this among us is cause of piety. Having therefore admonished His disciples to strive with watchful prayer against the force of the pressing temptation, the Lord Himself, beseeching the Father, says: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt (Matt. 26:39). The first petition is of infirmity, the second of virtue: the former He desired from what is ours, the latter He chose from what is His own: for the Son, equal to the Father, was not ignorant that all things are possible to God, nor had He descended into this world to take up the cross without His own will, so as to suffer this conflict of diverse affections with reason in some way disturbed.

But that the distinction of the nature assuming and the nature assumed might be made manifest, that which belonged to man desired the divine power; that which belonged to God looked to the human cause. To the higher will, therefore, the lower will yielded, and it was quickly shown what may be prayed for by one who trembles, and what ought not to be granted by one who heals. For since we know not what we should pray for as we ought (Rom. 8:26), and it is often useful to us that what we wish be not done; the just and good God, when things that will harm are asked for, shows mercy by denying. When therefore the Lord had confirmed the correction of our will by His threefold prayer, He said to the disciples, still weighed down with grief: Sleep now, and take your rest.

Behold, the hour has drawn near, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise, let us go. Behold, he who will betray me has drawn near (Matt. 26:45-46). Chapter 3. But amid these very words of the Lord, those who had been foretold rushed in, and with swords and clubs a crowd flowed together to seize Christ, following as their leader Judas Iscariot, who by the privilege of his treachery had obtained the primacy in the crime. Lest any occasion of offence should furnish him a reason for his crime, no honour was denied him; but he was inflamed and burned with the spirit of that one to whom he willingly lent his service; and such a mind as he had, such a governor did he also find. Deservedly, as the prophet had foretold, his prayer was turned into sin (Ps. 108:7):

for, the crime being consummated, his own conversion was so perverse that even in repenting he sinned. The Son of God therefore admits impious hands upon Himself, and what is driven by the fury of the raging is accomplished by the power of the One who suffers. For this was that mystery of great piety which Christ pursued through injuries: which, if He had repelled them by open power and manifest strength, He would have exercised only the divine and not cared for the human. But in all things which the frenzy of the populace and of the priesthood insolently and shamelessly inflicted upon Him, our stains were washed away, our offences were expiated: because the nature which in us had always been guilty and captive, in Him suffered innocent and free;

so that, to take away the sin of the world, He as the Lamb offered Himself as a victim, whom bodily substance joined to all, yet spiritual origin distinguished from all. Let these things, beloved, insinuated this day into your ears, suffice. The rest let us defer to the fourth day of the week, the Lord aiding your prayers, who will deign to grant that we fulfil what we promise: through the same our Lord, to whom be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.