Chapter I. — The gospel reading, dearly beloved, which unlocked the most sacred history of the Lord's passion, is so well known to the whole Church from common and frequent hearing, that each one of you may recall the order of the events as though it were held before your eyes. Nor are those to be reckoned to have profited little who do not doubt concerning the things they have heard, so that, even if they cannot yet clearly grasp any mystery of the Scriptures, they nevertheless most firmly believe that in the divine books there is no falsehood. Since therefore to sincere faith the fulness of understanding is promised, let the vigour of enlightened minds raise itself up to deserve the instruction of the Holy Spirit;
and let it not be content to know the order of the deed, unless it also examine the very reason of the loving-kindness bestowed upon it: so that human nature, by knowing how much it was loved by its author, may love Him the more. For God had no cause for having mercy upon us except in His own goodness; and the second generation of men is more wonderful than the first creation: because it is a greater thing in the last ages to have restored what had perished than in the beginning to have made what did not exist.
The freedom of natural innocence, therefore, which we lost by the transgression of our first parents, none of the saints who went before received by their own merits, because the sentence pronounced against the transgressors bound the whole progeny of a captive posterity, and no one existed exempt from condemnation, because none was free from guilt. But the redemption of the Saviour, destroying the work of the devil and breaking the chains of sin, so ordered the mystery of His great loving-kindness, that indeed the predetermined fulness of generations should run on even to the consummation of the world, but that the renewal of our origin through justification should pertain, without distinction of faith, to all ages past. For the incarnation of the Word, and the slaying and resurrection
of Christ became the salvation of all the faithful, and the blood of the one just One bestowed upon us this, whom we believe to have been poured out for the reconciliation of the world, which it conferred upon the fathers, who likewise believed it was to be poured out. Chapter II. — Nothing therefore, dearly beloved, in the Christian religion is different from the ancient signs, nor was salvation ever hoped for from the preceding just men except in the Lord Jesus Christ, the dispensations being indeed varied according to the reason of the divine will, but shining forth unto the selfsame end in the testimonies of the law, and the oracles of prophecy, and the offerings of sacrificial victims:
because it was fitting that those peoples should thus be instructed, that they might receive as foreshadowed what they could not receive as revealed, and that the authority of the Gospel might be the greater, to which the pages of the Old Testament had done service with so many signs and so many mysteries; of which the Lord declared that He had not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it (Matthew 5:17). Let not the Jew therefore reckon it profits him that he lingers upon the carnal surface of the letter, and is convicted of resisting those Scriptures which among us hold their true dignity, while we both believe the things foretold and are enriched by the things fulfilled. For when the Lord says: 'When I shall be lifted up, I will draw all things to myself' (John
12:32), nothing of the legal institutions, nothing of the prophetic figures remained which did not wholly pass over into the mysteries of Christ. With us is the seal of circumcision, the sanctification of the chrisms, the consecration of priests; with us is the purity of sacrifice, the truth of baptism, the honour of the temple, so that deservedly the heralds ceased after the things announced had come; nor is the reverence of the promises made void, because the fulness of graces is made manifest. But because, as the Apostle says: 'Blindness in part is happened to Israel, and they who are the children of the flesh are not the children of the promise' (Romans
11:25), the ineffable mercy of God made for Himself an Israelite people out of all nations, and, softening that stony hardness of the hearts of the Gentiles, raised up true sons of Abraham from the stones (Matthew 3:9): that, all being shut up under sin (Romans 11:32), those who were born of the flesh might be born again of the Spirit, and that it might make no difference by what father each was begotten, since through the undistinguished confession of one faith both the font of baptism makes them teachable, and the election of adoption confirms them heirs. Chapter III. — For what else has the cross of Christ done and does it do, than that, enmities being destroyed, the world may be reconciled to God, and through the sacrifice of the immolated Lamb all things may be called back into true peace?
But he does not agree with God who dissents from the profession which he uttered in his regeneration, and, forgetful of the divine covenant, is shown to cleave to the things he renounced, while he is found to shrink back from the things he believed. For in vain does one usurp for himself the name of Christian, and let him by no means reckon that he celebrates the Lord's Passover, who does not believe that Jesus Christ rose again in that flesh in which He was born, and suffered, and died, and was buried, and does not confess that the firstfruits of our nature were raised up in Him. Let the true worshipper, therefore, of the Lord's passion so behold Jesus crucified with the eyes of the heart, that he may recognize His flesh to be his own.
Let the earthly substance tremble at the torment of its Redeemer, let the rocks of unbelieving minds be rent, and let those who were weighed down in the sepulchres of mortality leap forth, the mass of obstacles being shattered. Let there appear now also in the holy city, that is, in the Church of God, the tokens of the future resurrection, and what is to be enacted in bodies, let it be done in hearts. To none of the weak is the victory of the cross denied; nor is there anyone whom the prayer of Christ does not aid. For if it profited many who raged against Him, how much more does it help those who turn to Him? Ignorance has been taken away, difficulty tempered, and the sacred blood of Christ has extinguished that flaming sword by which the region of life was shut off.
To the true light the darkness of ancient night has yielded. The Christian people are invited to the riches of paradise, and to all the regenerate the return to the lost fatherland has been thrown open, if no one makes for himself that way to be closed, which could be opened to the faith of the robber. Chapter IV. — Celebrating therefore, dearly beloved, the ineffable mystery of the paschal feast, let us acknowledge, the Spirit of God teaching us, to the participation of whose glories we are called and to what hope we have entered. Nor let the actions of the present life so occupy us, now anxiously, now proudly, that we do not strive with the whole affection of our heart to be conformed to our Redeemer through His examples. For there is nothing that He did not either do or endure for our salvation, that the virtue which was in the Head might be also in the body.
For first, that very assumption of our substance into the Godhead, whereby the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), whom of men did it leave exempt from His mercy, save the unbelieving? And who has not a nature in common with Christ, if he receives Him who took it, and is regenerated by that Spirit by which He was begotten? Then, who does not recognize his own infirmities in Him? Who does not see that the taking of food, the repose of sleep, the anxiety of sadness, the tears of compassion, belonged to the form of a servant?
And because these things had to be healed of ancient wounds, and to be purged of the filth of sin, so the Only-begotten of God was made also the son of man, that He might lack neither the whole truth of humanity nor the fulness of Divinity. Just as, therefore, ours is that which His mother's virginity brought forth with the union of the Godhead, so ours is that which Jewish impiety crucified. Ours is that which lay lifeless in the tomb, and that which rose again on the third day, and that which ascended above all the heights of the heavens to the right hand of the Father's majesty: so that, if we walk in the way of His commandments, and if we are not ashamed to confess the things He expended for our salvation in the lowliness of the body, we too may be advanced into the fellowship of His glory:
since that which He announced will manifestly be fulfilled: 'Everyone who shall confess me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in heaven' (Matthew 10:32). Chapter V. — But to this our exhortation the grace of God is present and gives aid, which, the truth being revealed through all the Churches, has destroyed the enemies of Christ's incarnation and of His death and resurrection; so that the faithful of the whole world, being in concord with the authority of the apostolic faith, might rejoice together with us in one exultation, the blessed Apostle Paul saying: 'Know ye not that whosoever of us are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death?'
'For we are buried together with Him by baptism into death, that as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be so also of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified together with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, that we may serve sin no longer. For he that is dead is justified from sin. But if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Him' (Romans 6:3-8): who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.