Sermons & Letters 47

Chapter I. — The magnitude, dearly beloved, of the ineffable sacrament so overcomes the height of human understanding and the whole faculty of eloquence, that the triumph of the Lord's Passion is more sublime than even the most excellent talents and the most eloquent tongues. But we ought rather to rejoice than to be ashamed that we are overcome by the dignity of so great a subject; concerning which no one has felt more humbly than he who thought that what he said had sufficed. Therefore we do not superfluously preach what we have preached, nor, in speaking of divine matters, are the fastidious disdains of carnal ears to be feared, as though they were to be held in contempt because they are frequently recognized as repeated:

since this pertains especially to the solidity of the Christian faith, that, according to the apostolic doctrine, we should all say the same thing, and be perfect in the same mind and in the same knowledge (1 Cor. 1:10). Unbelief indeed, which is the mother of all errors, is torn asunder into many opinions, which it must needs color by the art of speaking. But the testimony of truth never departs from its own light, and that it shines less for some and more for others is not caused by any variation of the light, but by the weakness of contemplation. And this must be tempered according to the aid of heavenly illumination, even by my discourse: so that, since you are God's tillage, God's building (1 Cor. 3:9),

He may grant sufficiency both to the one who dispenses and to the one who receives, who knows how to exact the just usury of His own gifts. Chapter II. — Therefore, dearly beloved, now that the text of the Gospel reading has been gone through, which you received with intent hearing concerning the glory of the Cross of Christ, perceive that all the mysteries of the divine oracles are laid open to you; and rejoice that whatever the shadow of the Old Testament veiled under the prophetic testimonies is made manifest in the sacrament of the Lord's Passion. For therefore the varieties of sacrifices and the differences of purifications have ceased,

therefore the commandment of circumcision, the distinction of foods, the rest of the Sabbath, and the slaying of the paschal lamb ceased, because the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). The figures went before, that the effects might follow, and by the coming of the things heralded the offices of the heralds were ended, in such a way tempered for the reconciliation of the human race, that the salvation which is in Christ was lacking in no age under the same justification; and to this the delay of the fulfillment contributed, that the things long believed before they came to pass might be honored without wavering.

For since the virtue of faith is established in those things which are not subject to sight (Heb. 11:1), the heavenly teaching dealt more indulgently with us, whom it deferred unto these times of the world, so that for the ease of understanding we might use far more prophets and witnesses than the earlier ages. Chapter III. — Therefore what the sacred Gospels, written by the finger of God, attest to us concerning the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, receive without the cloud of hesitation: and hold the order of the events done as manifest as if you had attained all things by bodily sight and touch. Let true Deity in Christ and true humanity be believed. He Himself is flesh who is the Word, and as He is of one substance with the Father, so is He of one nature with His mother. He is not doubled in person, not confounded in essence;

impassible in power, mortal in humility; but so using each that the power could glorify the weakness, and the weakness could not obscure the power. He who contains the world suffers Himself to be seized by persecutors, and is bound by the hands of those in whose heart He is not comprehended. Justice does not resist injustice, and Truth trusts the testimonies of falsehood: so that, remaining in the form of God, He might fulfill the form of a servant, and confirm the truth of His bodily nativity by the savagery of a bodily passion. But that the Only-begotten of God should undergo and endure this was the reason not of the condition of necessity, but of mercy: that from sin He might condemn sin (Rom. 8:3), and the work of the devil might be undone by the work of the devil.

For the enemy of the human race had inflicted a lethal wound on the whole universe of mankind, to be put to death in its very origin, and the captive progeny of the surrendered seed could not decline the debt owed to guilt. Hence, when among so many generations subjected to the mortal law he saw one among the sons of men, whose virtues he marveled to excel above all the saints of all time, he believed himself secure concerning the perpetuity of his own right, if no merits of justice could overcome the laws of death. Therefore against his own slaves and hirelings more vehemently

he incited them, and served against his own condemnation, and while he thinks that one whom he could have killed owes him something, he did not see the liberty of singular innocence, persecuting the likeness of the nature. Now he did not err in the kind, but was deceived in the crime. For the first Adam and the second Adam were one in flesh, not in work: and in the one all die, in the other all shall be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22). The one, through the lust of pride, made his way unto misery; this One, through the strength of humility, prepared the way unto glory. Whence He Himself says: 'I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life' (John 14:6). The Way, namely, in the form of righteous conduct; the Truth, in the expectation of the sure reality; the Life, in the perception of eternal felicity. Chapter IV.

— This sacrament of great piety, dearly beloved, both Jewish impiety and diabolical pride did not know. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty (1 Cor. 2:8). But because the counsel of God's mercy lay hidden from the enemy of the human race, and, the veil of flesh being set before Him, God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, was concealed (2 Cor. 5:19): he persisted in raging against Him in whom he could find nothing of his own. For it could have profited his malignity more if he had spared Him, and had abstained from the shedding of that blood, through which the captivity of all was to be loosed and liberty to be restored. But the darkness did not comprehend the light (John 1:5), nor could lying blindness perceive the wisdom of truth.

Therefore ordained meekness held back its patience, and, restraining the legion of angelic powers that served Him, He drained the cup of grief and death, and transferred the whole punishment into triumph. Errors were conquered, powers were subdued, the world received a new beginning: so that the condemned generation might not stand in the way of those to whom regeneration would come for their saving. The old things have passed away, and behold, all things are made new (2 Cor. 5:17); for of all who believe in Christ and are reborn in the Holy Spirit, through Him and with Him there is one fellowship both of the Passion and the eternity of the Resurrection, as the Apostle says: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

But when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:3, 4). Chapter V. — Established therefore in this hope, dearly beloved, beware of all the wiles of the devil, who lies in wait not only through the concupiscences of the flesh, nor only through bodily allurements, but also, sowing the tares of falsehoods even among the very seeds of faith, strives to violate the cultivation of truth, so that those whom he could not corrupt by evil deeds he may subvert by impious errors.

Flee therefore the arguments of worldly doctrine, and avoid the viperous conversations of heretics. Let you have nothing in common with those who, opposing the catholic faith, are Christians in name alone. For they are not the temple of the Spirit of God, nor the members of Christ; but, entangled in false opinions, they have as many shapes of the devil as they have images of falsehood. Freed from these evils through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both the Way, and the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), let us endure all the temptations of this life and all its dangers with the exultation of faith. For if we suffer together, we shall also reign together (Rom. 8:17; 2 Tim. 2:12).

Which reward is prepared not only for those who were slain by the savagery of the impious for the name of the Lord, since the whole company of those who serve God and live to God, as it is crucified in Christ, so it is to be crowned in Christ: those indeed excelling in all glory, who by enduring terrible deaths and cruel torments even unto the breathing out of the spirit overcame them, but also those following after who, by the mortification of their own flesh, conquered the greed of avarice, the exaltation of pride, and the desires of luxury. Whence the Apostle rightly says that all who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). Of whom assuredly he is not a stranger, who is not estranged from piety:

for he solemnly keeps the paschal festival who works not in the leaven of old malice, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:8); and lives no longer in the first Adam, but in the second Adam, having become, namely, a member of the body of Christ: who, though He was in the form of God, deigned to be made in the form of a servant (Phil. 2:6), so that in the one mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5), there might be both the fullness of divine majesty and the truth of human nature. Which, unless the Deity of the Word had assumed into the unity of His own person, there would be neither regeneration in the water of baptism, nor redemption in the blood of the Passion.

But because in the sacrament of Christ's incarnation we have received nothing false, nothing figurative, not in vain do we believe both that we have died with Him who died, and that we have been raised up with Him who rose again: He Himself remaining in us who works all things in all (1 Cor. 12:6), living and reigning with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God unto the ages of ages. Amen.