Perhaps fear would have compelled him, lest he should lose his safety, save that this very thing was the whole cause of victory. For he lost his own safety, that he might gain the safety of all. He chose rather to be overcome here, that he might be victor in all things. 2. Susanna defended by her chastity. She earns a virgin for judge. But why do I speak of Christ, who is God? Susanna, a woman, kept silence before her enemies and conquered. For she did not defend herself before Daniel the judge by the reasoning of words, nor guard herself by the speech of an advocate: but in the holy woman, though her tongue was silent, chastity spoke for her. For the chastity of Susanna was present in the judgement which defended her in paradise: for there it looked to her modesty, here to her safety; there, lest her purity be stained; here, lest her innocence be condemned.
For the chastity of Susanna both convicted the unchaste elders in paradise, and in the judgement prevailed over the false accusers; and twice victorious it makes those guilty of false witness whom it had made guilty of adultery: and at last chastity earns as judge Daniel, a boy the younger, not yet of the age of manhood. Much therefore does modesty obtain from God, when it deserves a virgin for judge. For chastity is secure of victory when virginity is set to judge it. But none save a chaste man ought to hear the causes of modesty. For such an arbiter does purity deserve, before whom shamefacedness may not be endangered. 3. The judgement of Daniel and of Pilate is the same. The iniquity of Pilate. When therefore Daniel had learned of Susanna's case, when the ignorant crowd wished to condemn her by false...
accusations, he said: 'I am clean from the blood of this woman' (Dan. 13:46). By which word he recalled the erring people from their sin. This voice therefore, which Pilate used concerning the Lord, Daniel used concerning Susanna. For Pilate says, 'I am clean from the blood of this just man' (Matt. 27:24). By the same sentence therefore is purity acquitted, by which justice also was acquitted. But Daniel did better than Pilate: for he neither condemns the chaste blood, and sets it free; but Pilate confesses the blood of the just, and yet hands it over. For what did it profit to have borne witness to innocence, and as it were to have handed over the guiltless to wickedness;
save that it is a graver sin both to pronounce one and the same man just, and to hand him over to criminals? For he is a witness of his own iniquity, who acquits with his mouth, and condemns in his heart. Though Pilate wash his hands, yet he does not wash away his deeds: however much he thought to wipe the blood of the just from his members, yet by that same blood his mind is held stained. For he himself killed Christ, who handed him over to be killed. For a good and steadfast judge, that he might not condemn the blood of the innocent, ought to yield neither to malice nor to fear. Daniel therefore did better than Pilate. The one recalled the erring people from their sin; but the other confirmed the sacrilege of the raging Synagogue. SERMON 153. On the Passion of the Lord, IV. 1.
The whole world redeemed. He himself admonishes us, dearest brethren, to the solemnity of the Lord's Passion, at which even the dumb elements did not keep silence. Let the light of faith celebrate it with tongues of lights, which even the silences of the darkness proclaimed aloud. Today our Lord weighed out the price of our salvation on the balance of the cross, and by a single death, as the maker of all, so the restorer of all, absolved the whole world. For let us believe without doubt that he redeemed the whole world, who gave more than the whole world was worth. For the worth of the redeemed reward was surpassed by the dignity of the illustrious price. Between the redeemed and the Redeemer there was an outlay, there was no equal exchange. He therefore who had no sins of his own, worthily wiped away those of others:
he alone here fell as a holy victim for all, that he might raise up all. And because he alone had no debt, rightly did he pay out the interest of mercy for the debtors. Weigh well amid these things what manner of coin he gave for us, and what manner of usury he will exact from us. On this day therefore was fulfilled the faith of the prophetic announcement, which speaks thus: 'I gave my body to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked; I turned not away my face from the shame of spittings' (Isa. 50:6). He took upon himself our evils, that he might bestow his own goods. 2. How dear man is to God, how great his worth, how great his debt. The mystery of the scarlet robe, the crown of thorns, the thirst on the cross, the rent veil, and the opened tombs.
From this let us understand how greatly he deigned to love man before his fault, whom he so loves after his fall. Acknowledge, O man, how great is thy worth, and how great thy debt; and while thou perceivest so great a dignity of thy redemption, do thou thyself proclaim to thyself the shame of sinning. Behold, for the impious, piety is scourged; for the fool, wisdom is mocked; for the liar, truth is slain; justice is condemned for the unjust, mercy is afflicted for the cruel; for the wretched, sincerity is filled with vinegar, sweetness is made drunk with gall, innocence is delivered up for the guilty, life dies for the dead. The nature of things was aghast at the crime of men, and him whom rebellious creation does not acknowledge, the trembling earth attests to be the Lord of the world, and the fleeing sun confesses to be the King of heaven.
He is clothed in a scarlet robe; because by the blood of his martyrs the body of the Church is adorned. A crown of thorns is placed upon his head; because the pricking of our sins, by whose remission the glory of the Redeemer is built up, is compared to dry brambles. Let us now on the other hand strive that the life of the members may be a crown to the head. In that, being placed on the cross, he says he thirsts, he longs for the faith of the unbelieving nation: but on the contrary they offer him the vinegar of malice; because they had corrupted by sinning the wine of wisdom which they had received from God. The veil of the temple is rent; because the Synagogue is stripped of honour: the ancient observance is dissolved; the unity of the Church is foreshown. The tombs are opened, because the rights of death are rightly overcome.
The infernal seat being loosed by the Lord of things, the bars of the deep night are unbarred, and him whom men do not receive, the powers below acknowledge to be God. 3. The mystery of Judas, who paid back the price of Christ he had sold. But that Judas the profane seller paid back the thirty pieces of silver, indicated that the price of Christ would profit him nothing, but that the benefit of salvation, by his own crime, would be conferred upon others. Let us see what the divine oracles attest was purchased with this returned price. 'They bought with it,' he says, 'the potter's field, for the burial of strangers' (Matt. 27:7). The potter is Christ; the field of Christ is the Church; the purchase of strangers is the people of the Gentiles. It remains, dearest ones, that we strive to be daily and perpetual cultivators of this field:
let us sow in it the fruit of a good conscience, so that when the time of harvest, that is, of consummation, and the day of rendering account shall have come, we may with security and exultation bring back the sheaves of good works, and after the bruising of the fasts of the present Lent, clothed with the brightness of praiseworthy deeds and adorned with the garment of chastity, may proceed to the festivals to come, and, engrafted into the councils of the pious, may celebrate that eternal Pasch; our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing it, who with the Father, etc. SERMON 154. On the Passion of the Lord, V; and on the blessed Robber. 1. Christ's purpose in the mysteries of the flesh.
We have frequently heard, most beloved brethren, the blessed Apostle Paul saying, 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself' (2 Cor. 5:19): that is, the divinity was working in the body; humanity appeared in frailty, and majesty in power. To this end therefore he lived among us in the flesh, that he might set before us examples of righteousness; to this end he underwent death for us, that he might confer the gifts of eternal salvation. To this end he put on man, that he might instruct him; to this end he was handed over, that he might redeem; to this end he took it up again, that he might take man up into God. To this end he laid down his life, that he might bestow it; to this end he took up death, that he might conquer it: yet to that death, whose usurped dominion he was to restore, he as it were succumbed as a servant, but commanded as a Lord.
Since neither could the gate of hell hold his soul, nor the sepulchre hold his body: which during those three days in no way defiled the flesh with mortal corruption; because in hell, during the same interval, his soul was destroying the reign of death. 2. God's immense condescension toward man. Christ's death reveals the man, his resurrection God. The absolution of the Robber becomes the world's hope and consolation. The hope of salvation is from the two. What shall we render to the Lord for the gifts of so great a condescension? From the heavenly fullness the Maker emptied himself into his own workmanship, the potter passed over into his own vessel, and the Lord went to war on behalf of man. He went to war, I said; for the cross bespeaks one fighting, the resurrection one triumphing. Who could tell of so great a love? 'His going forth is from the highest heaven' (Ps. 19:6),
and his descent is even to the depths of hell. In one and the same person, how well are the human and the divine alike made manifest? For, about to penetrate the seat of hell, he confessed himself man while he descended; he revealed himself God while he returned. That he might redeem the impious, as the divine word says, that he might redeem the wicked, 'he was reckoned among the wicked' (Isa. 53:12), between two whom we read hung on his right and on his left (Luke 23:33). He delivered himself to the confusion and reproach of the cross, that he might glorify the robber. But if we look well, we find this bestowed not on him alone. For while he releases so notable a man, while he refunds to so great a debtor the bond of his enormous debt, he wrote out for the human race a warrant of security;
so that the absolution of one despairing man became the consolation and hope of the whole people, and a private gift grew into a public benefit. Wherefore it must be believed without doubt, that to that robber, for the commendation of his faith, there accrued also the cause of our hope and profit. For the immense goodness of our God freely bestows what it foreknows will be of general profit. And therefore, according to the confidence of so great a clemency, if any of us shall have condemned his own crimes by a commendable conversion of life, and shall have believed in Christ with his whole heart, let him know that even now, in the robber, he has opened for himself an entrance into paradise. How great a work is wrought in the hope of human salvation by the greatness of faith, and the height of the riches of the mercy of God!
Behold, punishment sent to innocence a man wrapped up in crimes, and offence led him through to glory. Him whom guilt had lost for salvation, perdition found, torment absolved, condemnation consecrated. 3. The Robber deservedly obtains salvation, believing Christ while he is forsaken. But not without cause did he merit so much. Let us see at what time he appeared faithful. Behold, amid signs and mighty works, with miracles bearing witness and crying aloud, sometimes in the disciples the now robust mind wavered; and now, while Christ's sufferings in a manner contradicted him, in the robber a new faith grew strong. Under the very time of the Passion, being questioned by a maidservant,
one of the disciples, the blessed Peter, more particularly known to Christ, answered thus: 'I know not this man' (Matt. 26:72): and this man, who before had not known him, cries out, 'Remember me, Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom' (Luke 23:42). How singular and how stupendous a devotion! At that time the guilty one believed, when the elect one denied. This therefore was more praiseworthy and more magnificent in the robber, that he believed to be God a man condemned and failing amid the extremest torments, than if he had believed amid the works of his mighty deeds. Not therefore without cause did he merit so much. 4. He confesses God while he suffers. Let us note more fully at what time he confesses the Lord. The iniquity of the persecutors seethed, the impiety of the blasphemers exulted;
bruises, livid welts, and wounds showed Christ to be only man. The stretching out of the sacred hands on the wood of the cross, and the venerable nailing, which condemned the hands of Adam and Eve, stretched out through their transgression—to be lamented through the ages—to the forbidden food of the tree; this nailing, I say, asserted in every way the weakness of the man. The dread piercing of the lance struck through his side showed as much of the man as it hid of God. While the Apostles despaired after the divine miracles, this one alone does not acquiesce in the scandal of the cross and death; this one alone is a witness of the majesty, who is proved a companion of the suffering, and therefore, still set among his robberies, already sees with angelic eyes the invisible God.
The divinity, brought nearer in body to the side of the one now believing in Christ, had illumined, I believe, the nascent faith, that divinity which poured itself out more abundantly in that moment when the redemption was being accomplished. 5. The faith of that prayer. The Robber a martyr. But let us see of what sort was the entreaty itself of the one confessing. 'Remember me,' he says, 'Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom.' He did not say, 'If thou art God, snatch me from the present torment': but rather, 'Because thou art God, free me from the judgement to come.' How swiftly did the instruction of the Holy Spirit fill him, by which, thinking of the day of the future examination, although he proves that what he feels is intolerable, yet he understands that what he fears is graver. He proclaims to the ages the Judge and King of the ages:
not yet called, and already elect; not yet a servant, and already a friend; not yet a disciple, and already a teacher, and out of a robber a confessor. 'Remember me,' he says. With a glorious voice he tempers his present torments. He tempers them, we have said, because, although the punishment had begun in the robber, it is consummated by a new kind in the martyr. From the wood of the cross he cries out; but already he is thinking of the times of retribution. 6. The reward promised to the Robber. Let us see what the rich and lavish goodness of God answers amid these things: which, as it exceeds our prayers, so it adds grace to merits. 'Today,' he says; as if he said to him: Why, most faithful companion and sole witness of so great a triumph, why dost thou think that I must be so greatly entreated, that on the day of my judgement I should remember thee?
Why dost thou defer me, who am ready for a present recompense, to times so long? Why dost thou weary with a perfect faith in me into future ages? 'Today thou shalt be with me in paradise' (Luke 23:43). Therefore, as it were a hereditary and paternal seat, which, when Adam was expelled, which, when the two were expelled, was closed to innumerable peoples, shall be unbarred at thy entering. Enter thither first; but with a happier entrance than the first. Enter paradise, nevermore to look upon hell with Adam. Fear there no lethal food, no law now, no tree: I myself will be to thee there sustenance and life.
And lest perchance thou fear that any enemy in that blessed grove, that that ancient robber lie in wait for thee, thy possession there shall be made firm, with me leading thee in. Let unbelief therefore withdraw, which does not recognize both God and man. For as it is the devil who expelled from paradise; so it is God who leads back. 7. Christ on the cross the whole creation attests to be God—his judgement concerning the robbers, his wondrous patience, the whole creation. How great man's hardness. According to these things, dearest ones, let us through the whole order of the events acknowledge God working under the man. Placed on the gibbet like an arbiter in the midst of the condemned, he repelled the one denying, he received the one confessing; this one he assigns to the kingdom, that one he leaves to hell.
Through these things therefore let us believe that he will judge in majesty, whom we already see on the cross exercising both mercy and judgement. Let us believe, I say, that he is God, if only from the sole virtue of patience, who, while he is handed over by man to the cross and to death, thus also promises glory to man: who turned those very injuries and blows heaped upon his body into our ransom. But even the whole rational creation of the world speaks God by its own motions. For in the midst of the Passion of the Lord and Saviour, the heavenly and the earthly things are thrown into confusion; light is mingled with night, the elements are shaken, and are driven away from their ancient ministries. Openly the nature of things is seen to be stirred, as if it wished to be armed to avenge its Author.
The earth itself, shaken from its foundations, as if it could scarcely bear the cross of the Lord, trembled as at its own crime. The day, with its light fleeing away, takes up mourning as it can, and, in the dusky garb of sad darkness, after the manner of one grieving, is clothed: and just as the whole face of heaven attests the glory of the Lord's Nativity with new light, so it detests the injury of the cross with new darkness. And what hardness of the human heart? Woe to those who amid these things do not believe; since the insensible creation, which cannot receive the affection of belief, yet renders to God the homage of confession:
and although Christ died for man alone, yet even that part of the world—to which the benefits of the Passion did not reach—bears him witness of his divinity. 8. How great man's worth and debt. How guilty when he sins. The forgetting of the future judgement is a great punishment of sin. Since these things are so, dearest ones, let man acknowledge how great is his worth, and how far either nature or grace makes him beholden to God. Let man acknowledge how much God expects from him; and him whom he held dear with so great a condescension, how precious he wills him to be in his manner of life. Let man acknowledge how great is his worth, and how great his debt:
and while he considers his own price, let him cease to be worthless in his own eyes, and rather let him restore to the Saviour a recompense of gift out of his own good, that is, out of the salvation preserved. Let us therefore carefully guard what Christ redeemed by the commerce of so great a sweat. Guilty therefore he shall be not of a small price, but of the blood of Christ, who violates and defiles a soul cleansed by the blood and Passion of Christ; the blasphemer, the murderer, the betrayer of chastity. These three kill in a capital manner. We attest to your Charity the causes of eternal evils. The blasphemer, the murderer, the betrayer of his own chastity, the assailant of another's; that is, he who transgresses the rights of the lawful bed, who wanders beyond his own spouse through deadly embraces, shall be guilty of eternal death:
because he held cheap in himself the blood of the Redeemer. And because the Apostle cries out, 'Neither the rapacious, nor adulterers shall possess the kingdom of God' (1 Cor. 6:10); let us keep our hands from what belongs to others, let us beware our eyes from another's woman: lest to that body which Christ assumed from ours, we do injury in our own body. Let us so beware to betray our life by sins and crimes, that that terrible prophecy may not look upon us, which says, 'God is not before his eyes, his ways are polluted at all times, thy judgements are taken away from before his face' (Ps. 10:5). It is an irremediable peril, thus for anyone to loosen the reins to vices and lusts, that he remember not that he must render an account to God;
because I think that it is already a great punishment of sin, to have lost the fear and memory of the future judgement. Let not the spoils of the poor be so sweet to us, being afterwards to become too bitter. Nonetheless, as has been said, let us flee the abominable contagions of another's flesh, let us shun the obscene fires of hostile pleasure. He who does these things, dearest ones, out of the stubble and wood of iniquities kindles for himself perpetual fires, and contrives vapours never to be extinguished. Life is not worth so much, if man live for this, that in the few years of this life he consume things eternal, and under a brief end heap up for himself punishments that shall abide without end. 9. Let the Robber's example not be an occasion of a more lax life: because to few is the Robber's faith, and many are deceived by this vain hope.
But lest perchance, dearest ones, so new a felicity of belief make anyone too secure or too lax, lest perchance anyone say in his heart: Let not a guilty conscience trouble and torment me so far, let not a culpable life sadden me so far; I see in a moment, I see in a scant space the robber's crimes forgiven him, and to me they are conceived with an untroubled mind. First, there must be considered in that robber not only the compendious devotion of his belief, but also the occasion of that time, under which these things were done, in which the perfection of the just is read to have wavered. Then, first show me the robber's faith, and then promise thyself the robber's blessedness. The devil instills security, that he may bring in perdition:
nor can it be counted how many this shadow of an empty hope has deceived. Let there deter us, I pray, from this persuasion the innumerable peoples who, under such security, naked of goods and full of evils, have been snatched away from this light. 10. To defer the time of salvation is most perilous, most foolish, hateful to God. The Robber did not defer the work of salvation. Daily to be dreaded is the uncertain hour of our passing and migration; which are even now either unforeseen or sudden, and shall for eternity be without remedies. The day that is wont to forestall must be forestalled. He seduces himself, and makes sport of his own death, who thinks this: 'The indulgence of the last moment can come to my aid.' It is not so:
first, because most perilous is the security promised to the last day; then, it is most foolish that a cause which concerns eternal necessities should be committed to the last uselessnesses of a failing life. It is hateful in God's sight, when a man, under confidence of a repentance reserved for old age, sins more freely. Believe, dearest ones, it is difficult that the cunning dissimulation of a consummation to be arranged should be worthy to obtain the desired opportunity: before him who is the interpreter of the heart, artifice is not admitted to salvation.
But he of whom we have spoken, the blessed robber, blessed, I say, no longer laying ambushes along the way, but holding the Way itself in Christ, and suddenly seizing the prey of life, with his kind changed and carrying off new spoils from his own death—he neither knowingly deferred the times of salvation, nor placed the remedies of his estate by an unhappy fraud in the last moments, nor reserved the hope of his redemption for the utmost of despair: he had known neither religion before, nor Christ. And if he had known, he would perhaps have been among the Apostles not last in number, who was made first in the kingdom. Therefore even from this last extremity he pleased God; because to attain faith that hour was to him not the last, but the first.
It is needful therefore that man provide for himself by a daily act, and procure a good consummation: it is needful that our whole life be such in its manner of living, that we may deserve to be free at the end. Ceaselessly thinking on the day of our passing and the time of judgement, let us too together with the robber continually cry out, 'Remember me, Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom.' SERMON 155. On the Passion of the Lord, VI; or on the Cross and the Robber. 1. The Cross now glorious, the cause of innumerable gifts. On this present day our Lord hung upon the cross, and we feast, that we may learn that the cross of Christ is a holy day and a spiritual fair. For formerly the cross was a name of condemnation, but now it has been made a thing of honour:
before, it stood in the condemnation of a curse, now it has been raised up in the occasion of salvation. For this cross has stood forth to us as the cause of innumerable good things: this freed us from errors, this illumined us as we sat in darkness, this reconciled us to God from being the devil's assailant, and restored us from strangers into members of the household; from those far off it made us near, from pilgrims it rendered us citizens. For this is the destruction of enmities, the firm foundation of peace, and the treasury of all good things for us. Because of this we no longer wander in the wildernesses; for we have recognized the way of truth: nor are we now outside the kingdom; for we have entered the door of the King: now we fear not the fiery darts of the devil; for we have found the fountain of life, whereby they might be quenched.
Because of this we are no longer in widowhood; for we have received the Bridegroom: we do not dread the wolf; because we have found the good Shepherd: for he says, 'I am the good Shepherd' (John 10:14). Because of this we do not fear the tyrant; for we cleave to the King: because of this we keep a festival day, celebrating the memory of the cross. 2. The festivity of the cross instituted by Paul. The cross an altar; Christ, priest and victim. So too the Teacher of the Gentiles instructs us that an annual festival was instituted on account of the cross. 'Let us feast,' he says, 'not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.' Then, adding the reason for keeping the solemnity, he says:
'For our Pasch, Christ, has been sacrificed for us' (1 Cor. 5:7, 8). But where the sacrifice is, there also is the destruction of sins; where the destruction of sins is, there is the reconciliation of God; where the reconciliation of God is, there is the voice of gladness and salvation in the tabernacles of the just (Ps. 118:15). But let all the earth also rejoice: our Pasch, Christ, has been sacrificed for us. And where was he sacrificed? I have said: On the height of the cross. New is the altar of this sacrifice; because the immolation too is new and admirable. For he himself was both victim and priest: victim indeed according to the flesh, but priest according to the Spirit. He himself both offered indeed according to the Spirit, but was offered according to the flesh.
Hear now therefore how Paul manifested both of these: 'Every high priest,' he says, 'taken from among men, is appointed for men: whence it is necessary that he too have something to offer' (Heb. 5:1). Behold, he offered himself. But elsewhere it is said, 'That the Lord was once offered as an oblation of himself; thereafter, that he might take away the sins of many; and a second time he shall be seen without sin by those who await him unto salvation' (Heb. 9:28). Behold, here he was offered, there he offered himself. Thou hast seen how at once he was made both victim and priest, and the altar was the cross. 3. Why he was sacrificed under the open sky, not in the temple. The cross consecrated every place into a temple.