Sermons 145

In the same codices just indicated, this thirty-fifth sermon follows the preceding one, inscribed: 'Likewise also concerning the Pasch, Sermon XIX'; but in the codex of Appania, from which it was transcribed, a great part of it perished, a leaf having been torn out. Those who know the manner of writing that Maximus used will surely judge that this sermon too must be reckoned as belonging to him. Therefore, brethren, no small price of our redemption was paid by the Lord our God. Therefore He who, for the salvation of mortal men whom He had created, hung fixed with nails upon the wood, who bore death, and who rested in the tomb, rose again alive from the nether world. Rejoice therefore and be glad, O Zion, in the most holy festival of this so great day;

for while Christ our Lord returned from the nether world to those above, He made us pass over from death to life. For we who by the original guilt of our origin were widely condemned to death, are now by His death called back to our former innocence. We who by our sins had deserved the pains of hell, are by His most precious death called back to the joys of eternal blessedness. We who through Adam's transgression were vessels of wrath, are now, on account of His resurrection, escaped to become fellow citizens of the saints. Wonderful indeed is the charity of our Saviour, which, in order to raise the weak and to call back the fallen to life, chose death for their sake. Who then does not exult in the great gladness of this day?

Who would not rejoice with continual gladness on this day which the Lord has made? Heaven rejoices, the whole earth is glad, while it beholds its Creator and Redeemer returning from the nether world, death having been vanquished. The whole multitude of the angels rejoices, since by the death of their eternal King all the malice of the devil's fraud has been overcome. The sun itself too rejoices, and on this present day, with more joyful rays, glows red after those mournful shadows with which it had veiled the whole world when its Lord and Creator had died. Let us also rejoice therefore, brethren, and be glad in this day which the Lord has made, we who, when we were far off, have been made near, and who, in His resurrection, hope for the future resurrection of our own flesh as well.

Rightly then shall we rejoice, brethren... (A leaf is missing; then it is thus concluded:) Since therefore, brethren, we have been delivered from the fire of Tartarus and from the pains of eternal death without any preceding merits, let us so order our life that we may be able to attain to that eternal fatherland which our Saviour opened to us today, He himself aiding us, etc.