Sermons & Tracts 2 part 13/18

But clearly the faith of this thief, though it was his last, yet was not his least, who deserved to acknowledge and confess the Lord—then not raising the dead, but dying for sinners! In short, Peter alone, terrified by the fear of the Passion, denies Him as though a mere man, while the thief adores the Crucified: but the Lord corrected Peter by looking upon him, whereas He beatified the thief by taking him up into glory. O thief, praiseworthy, wonderful, worthy of imitation, raging with the sword, yet violent toward heaven, gaping after plunder, yet fervent in faith! But this change is of the right hand of the Most High (Ps. 77:10); that Christ might render a reversed turn to the devil:

namely, that just as the devil, by first corrupting man, had taken him away from Paradise, so Christ might rescue the confessing thief from hell. The devil deceived the one who presumed upon the forbidden tree; Christ redeemed the one hanging upon the tree of punishment. 5. The thief's word, to be taken up by us. For indeed, brethren, let us also take up the word of this thief, if we do not wish to be thieves. Let us also say: Remember us, O Lord, when You come into Your kingdom. Therefore this confession of that holy thief, dearest brethren, which we have uttered in chanting and made with our own voice in responding, let us bring forth with most assured devotion: and let us so speak that we may be heard; let us so confess that we may be saved. Let us therefore say it with faith, let us cry it with the heart.

For our Lord Jesus Christ Himself will assuredly hear the voice of our cry, if He has approved the whole-hearted devotion of the mind. May He Himself lead us to the tree of life, who rescued us from the pit of misery. May He Himself open to us the gates of Paradise, who broke down the gates of hell. May He Himself deliver His people from the scourge, who permitted Himself to be held before the governor Pontius Pilate. May He Himself lead the confessing into His kingdom, who, being innocent, deigned to suffer for the impious: that the name of the Lord may be blessed for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON 157. On the vigil of Pascha, 1. On the words of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 1 and following: In the beginning God made heaven and earth, etc. 1. The exordium of the sermon.

Many and great are the mysteries of the venerable Pascha, which are consecrated in the divine Books and had been reserved in the ancient archives of the Jews; whose admirable and marvelous meaning, whose pure faith and sincere religion, as though covered by a certain veil, hid their holiness in secret places, and the priests of old beheld them foreshadowed, and offered bloody sacrifices as gifts. This the Artificer depicted, not with earthly colors, but with heavenly virtues, with the shield of devotion gleaming with gold, and tenaciously loving the soul, He consecrated it in the very temple of the human body, distributed its duties to the whole and keenest senses, and enclosed love within its heart.

And when that bright ruler, begetter of the starry pole, leader of the day, emperor of light, interposer of the seed, temperer of autumn, has completed the course of the year and the fourfold spaces of the seasons, He taught us to celebrate the solemnity of this day. How great blessings the wondrous triumphs of the Lord's Passion have conferred upon us, I am able neither to proclaim with mortal and human voice, nor to enumerate from memory. Therefore, out of that heap of benefits which heavenly munificence has lavished upon the human race, I will place in the bosom of wisdom one grain of faith, which contains within itself the manifold reckoning of life:

that what is sown by the shower of the divine word may grow together in the very furrow of prudence, and from a small stock may yield great and wondrous things, and by the richness of its abundance may surpass the plainness of the discourse. 1. Light created, as much as the mortal eye could seize. The earth invisible. It is made visible. — 'In the beginning,' he says, 'God made heaven and earth.' He shut out the errors of all the wretched: He showed one sovereign, God the Father; He pointed to one maker of the universe, the Son. 'Let there be light: and light was made.' 'And God saw the light, that it was good': not because God did not know the light beforehand, so that He should praise it only once seen, since He alone is Himself the light of all, as the Evangelist testifies, 'I am the light of the world' (John 8:12);

and the Apostle: 'Who dwells in light inaccessible, whom no man has seen, nor can see' (1 Tim 6:16). This light He called good in the world, that is, according to man, not according to God. For God did not bestow so great a light as He Himself could give, but as much as the mortal eye could receive. Nor would He who illumines the whole world grant a splendor except such as a mortal could receive or at any rate bear. 'The earth was invisible and unformed.' But the earth could not be invisible: to whom then was it invisible? If to the angels—where could so great a mass be hidden? If to men—as yet there was no man.

For God indeed founded the earth upon the waters, and set the half of the waters above the heavens, and plunged the half into the abyss, and gathered them into the seas, and so the earth appeared. And God said: 'Let there be a firmament between water and water.' And God called the firmament heaven. Do you see that He set water above the firmament of heaven, and by the separation of the waters the dry earth appeared, and that as the waters withdrew He made it visible? But in that it was invisible and unformed, it had not yet been ordered, not yet filled with its various fruits. 3. The Spirit upon the waters is not God, but a thing of God. It is the seed-bed of the creation to be quickened. Two spirits, of God and of the world. — 'Darkness,' he says, 'was upon the abyss, and the Spirit of God was borne upon the waters.'

For if you bring a little torch into the darkness, at once all things are lit up: how much more, where God was, could there be no darkness? Thus the spirit is indeed a thing of God: yet it is not to be understood to be God Himself. For although it is called spirit, not every spirit is God. For 'the Spirit of God' is so called just as also 'the angel of God': that is, a thing of God; yet not God Himself, who is the Spirit of God. This spirit, then, which was borne over the waters, is the seed-bed of the creation to be quickened: whence also the waters and the earth soon came forth at God's command; for neither water nor earth would live or generate anything, unless the Spirit of God quickened this: whence the earth brought forth crops, and the water fishes.

That there are two spirits, one of God, the other of this world, the Apostle says: 'We now have not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God' (1 Cor 2:12), that he might show that the one is the Spirit of God, who is God; the other the spirit of this world, by which all living things are animated. The prophet Amos says: 'Who makes firm the thunder, and created the spirit'—since indeed that which could not be called God was created. 4. An allegorical exposition of the invisible earth, the division of the waters, the earth putting forth growth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the fishes. — He made therefore in the beginning heaven and earth: heaven the spirit, earth the flesh, that is, the spiritual man; in the beginning, that is, in Christ. The Jews asked Him, 'Who do you say you are?'

He answered: 'The Beginning, who also speak to you' (John 8:25). 'The earth,' he says, 'invisible and unformed.' Because Christ was arranging to take on the flesh of man, it was called unformed. It was not yet formed: because not yet formed by the announcement of the angel Gabriel, not yet made visible by the Lord's assumption of it, not yet filled with the fruits of virtues. The division of the waters: of the peoples of the Jews and of the Christians, as the Apocalypse says: 'The waters which you saw are peoples and nations' (Rev 17:15). When it says the waters were set above the heavens, it announces the Christian people. On the third day the earth puts forth the grass of fodder according to its kind, and every tree bearing fruit.

When therefore He bids the earth put forth growth, in the Church the catechumens are as it were grasses: when they believe, they raise themselves up as into stalks. The faithful too grow up ripe into the ear; whence also the grains of the saints are stored away in the heavenly granaries. For the fruit-bearing tree—these are the various kinds of the saints. These trees neither the whirlwinds of desires can overturn, nor the flames of burning lust can burn up. 'Let there be,' he says, 'a greater luminary at the beginning of day, and a lesser luminary at the beginning of night.' The Sun is Christ; the Moon is the Church, completed in her orb, daily illumined by the brightness of the sun. The shining stars too are the thousands of the saints;

that is, the Apostles, the Patriarchs, the martyrs, the virgins, the priests, all the just alike and the faithful, radiant with the flame of their virtues. On the fifth day it came to pass that the waters should bring forth their offspring, fishes and birds. By comparison with the fishes we call those saints who live in the water of Baptism. Therefore the fishes deserved to obtain the blessing first, because the faithful could be blessed in the sacrament of Baptism. But on the sixth day God made man to His own image and likeness. SERMON 158, on the vigil of Easter, n. 1. Joseph asks Pilate for the body of Jesus.

The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ being accomplished, and the resurrection in which the whole sum of our faith consists, there comes forth a certain Joseph, formerly indeed a lover and disciple of the Lord, and one who, as the circumstances of the time allowed, rendered secret funeral rites to the deceased; for the fury of the persecutors forbade mercy even to those they knew. This deed John the Evangelist thus narrated: 'Joseph,' he says, 'asked Pilate secretly, for fear of the Jews, and begged for the body of Jesus, and Pilate permitted it' (John 19:38). When in his religious mind fear strove with devotion, he at once devised what would satisfy both his faith and his fear, asking secretly, that he might both commit the slain man to the ground and avoid the madness of the Jews.

But the judge keeps the same disposition toward the dead man that he showed when he heard him: for the one whom he had constrained to hand over to punishment, he freely delivers to burial. But after the body of Jesus was buried, at once He reclaims His own power, in which the majesty that was to return had come. For He whose human birth had shown Him a son, His death disclosed as God. 2. Peter aware of Christ's resurrection before the cross. For when Mary Magdalene had come to the monument—whom, mindful of the Savior, devotion, her faith lost, was driving to tears—seeing the stone rolled away from the entrance, when she had not found the Lord in the tomb, she began to grieve more bitterly, that she had lost even the dead one.

But at once she flies to Peter His disciple, whom, according to the quality of his merit or faith, a greater care about His departure was touching: she announces the empty tomb; the removed body is sought. But Peter, aware even before the cross of the resurrection of the Son of God, which He Himself had foretold He would suffer, at such news did not weep or grieve: but keeping his custom in divine deeds of power, he hastens to prove what he believed. And so with swift course he hurries to the tomb of the Lord, ready to return more joyful if he should not find Him whom he sought. But the blessed Evangelist proves the power of the risen One even from what follows. 'Simon Peter came,' he says, 'and entered into the monument:'

and when he had not found the Lord, he saw the linen cloths laid, and the napkin that had been over His head (John 20:6-7). Now God made manifest, about to carry into heaven Him whom He had made alive, empties both death and the tomb. For the linen cloth, with which the corpse was covered, being laid aside, majesty, now clothed with a living body, left to the earth the spoils of death. Peter therefore, seeing the resurrection which the Son of God had foretold fulfilled, who had come anxious, departed secure. 3. Mary rebuked by the angel. Mary nevertheless, ignorant of the resurrection, does not cease to pour out tears, not knowing that this was the glory of the Lord's body, which she thought an injury.

Whose vain sorrow the angel rather forbids than consoles, as the Evangelist also testifies: 'Mary,' he says, 'why do you weep?' If with spiritual prudence you understand the intention of the divine word, he asks the cause of her tears not as one ignorant, but rebukes the importunate weeping of the grieving woman. 'Mary,' he says, 'why do you weep,' when, at the empty monument, not by the loss of a funeral but by the merit of the risen One, the power of Jesus Christ had claimed His body for Himself and not a crime? He blames at the very time that Mary poured out tears, in which she ought to have rejoiced. 'Why do you weep, or whom do you seek?' The angel instructs her who does not know, with sound counsel, that she should not seek the living among the dead.

And this woman, because she wept for one whom she could not believe had come to life again, and rebuked did not recognize Him, is afterward recalled from superfluous tears by the words of the risen One. For with like words Jesus addresses Mary: 'Woman,' He says, 'why do you weep, or whom do you seek?' (John 20:13,15) This is to say: 'Now that I am living, for whom do you pour out tears as for one dead? Or, I being present, whom do you seek?' But she, recognizing Jesus when addressed a second time, by the working power of the divine majesty, finds alive Him whom she sought as slain, Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom always in the Father be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 159, On Easter, 1. This day more radiant than the rest, the mother of all days. I cannot, dearest brethren, bring forth by mouth what I conceive in mind;

and my tongue does not unfold the gladness of my heart. And this I not only suffer, who desire to tell what I feel, but you also suffer it with me, exulting more in conscience than uttering it in speech. This day seems to me more radiant than the other days, the sun to have shone brighter upon the world, the stars too and all the elements to rejoice: and those which, while the Lord suffered, had withdrawn their own light and refused to look upon their Creator crucified, behold, now they attend Him as victor and rising from the dead with the fresh homage of their brightness. Heaven believes, earth believes, and the net which fished the whole world could not hold the Jews. 'This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it' (Ps.

117:24). As Mary the Virgin, mother of the Lord, holds the primacy among all women, so also among the other days this is the mother of all days. I say a new thing, but one that is confirmed by the voices of the Scriptures. This day is both one of the seven and outside the seven: this is the day which is called the eighth; whence also in the titles of certain Psalms it is superscribed, 'For the eighth' (Ps 6, etc.). This is the day on which the Synagogue is ended and the Church is born: this the day in whose number eight souls were saved in Noah's ark. And what need is there for me to repeat things without end? The day will fail me, if I should wish to expound all the mystery of this day. 2. To this day all the grace of the Sabbath is transferred. The just are adorned with Christ's crown as well.

This only I say, that all the grace of the Sabbath and that ancient festivity of the people of the Jews has been changed into the solemnity of this day. On that Sabbath they did no servile work: we on the Lord's day, that is, on the day of resurrection, do no servile work; because we do not serve sins and vices: 'For whoever commits sin is the slave of sin' (John 8:34). They did not go out of their houses: and let us not go out of the house of Christ; for we are in the Church. As they did not kindle fire on the Sabbath day: we on the contrary let us kindle in ourselves the fire of the Holy Spirit, and burn away every vice of sins; of which fire the Lord says: 'I came to send fire upon the earth; and what do I will, but that it be kindled?' (Luke

12:49). The Lord desires that this fire burn in us, according to the Apostle, that is, to be fervent in the Holy Spirit (Rom 12:11), that the charity of God may not grow cold. They on the Sabbath day do not walk on a journey; for they have lost Him who said, 'I am the way' (John 14:6): but we say, 'Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord'; and again, 'I have chosen the way of truth'; and, 'Teach me the way of your justifications' (Ps 118:1,30,26). They crowned the Lord with thorns: but we, if we shall be precious stones, crown our Lord. Diadems adorn the head of the emperors of this world: we are therefore set upon the head of our king, that we may be adorned by our Head.

They did not receive Christ and are to receive antichrist: we have received the humble Son of God, that we may have Him afterward triumphant. And at the last, our goat is sacrificed before the Lord upon the altar: their goat, the antichrist, spat upon and cursed, is cast out into the wilderness. Our thief entered paradise with the Lord: their thief, a murderer and blasphemer, dies in his sin. To them Barabbas the robber is released: for us Christ is slain. 3. Today the gate of heaven is unbarred. The gate of the Church, the gate of paradise. For all which things, dearest brethren, let us sing together with harmonious voice: 'This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and be glad in it.'

That fiery sword and the gate of paradise, which no one could break open, today Christ has unbarred with the thief. Today Christ said to the angels: 'Open to me the gates of justice; entering into them I will confess to the Lord'; which gate, once it is opened, is never closed to believers. From the time when the Lord suffered even to the present day, this gate has been both closed and unbarred: closed to sinners and unbelievers, unbarred to the just and believers. Through this Peter entered, through this Paul entered, through this all the saints and martyrs entered, through this daily the souls of the just from the whole world enter. For there are two gates: the gate of paradise and the gate of the Church:

through the gate of the Church we enter into the gate of paradise. So therefore we ought to live, lest we be cast out of that house, and cast forth outside be devoured by beasts: which the prophet, dreading in another place, recalling, says, 'Do not deliver to the beasts the soul that confesses to you' (Ps 73:19). Behold now the Lord, standing at the gate of paradise, speaks to us who are gathered together in His house, and says: 'This is the gate of the Lord; the just shall enter through it' (Ps 117:19-20). Which may He deign to grant, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 160, On Easter, 2. 1. How Christ acted freely. What is the delay of death and the bite of hell.

Although all the volumes of the Old Testament, dearest brethren, foretold long beforehand the passion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; yet also through the mouth of the prophet David the Holy Spirit clearly showed it, saying: 'The God of vengeance, the Lord, the God of vengeance has acted freely' (Ps 93:1). For He alone acted freely, who today has shown us what He has done. For He acted freely, of whom it had been prophesied long before, because 'he was made like a man without help, free among the dead' (Ps 87:5-6). Do you nevertheless wish to know what He did? Hear what He accomplished.

By no necessity, but by His own will, He allowed Himself to be suspended on the tree, He did not refuse His body to be pierced with nails, by laying down His soul He endured death, He laid His flesh in the tomb, and with His soul accompanying Him He descended to the lower regions. Through this the elect, who although in the bosom of tranquility were yet held within the enclosures of hell, were led back to the delights of paradise. What He had said before the passion, the Lord fulfilled in His resurrection: 'If I be lifted up,' He says, 'from the earth, I will draw all things to myself' (John 12:32). For He drew all things, who left none of His elect among the lower regions: He took away all, that is, the elect.

For the Lord did not, by rising, restore to pardon any unbelievers and those given over to eternal punishments for their crimes: but He snatched from the enclosures of hell those whom He recognized as His own in faith and deeds. Whence rightly it is also said through Hosea: 'I will be your death, O death; I will be your bite, O hell' (Hos 13:14). For that which we kill, we bring it about that it be utterly no more; but from that which we bite, we draw away a part and leave a part: because therefore in His elect He utterly slew death, He became the death of death; but because from hell He took away a part and left a part, He did not utterly slay, but bit hell. He says therefore, 'I will be your death, O death:'

as if He plainly said, 'Because in my elect I utterly destroy you, I will be your bite, O hell; because when my own are taken away I carry you off in part.' For then our Lord Jesus Christ bound that prince of darkness and death, threw his legions into confusion: He broke the iron bars of the gates of hell, He set free all the just who were held bound by original sin, He recalled the captives to their pristine liberty, He poured splendid light over those blinded by the darkness of sins. 2. The voices of Tartarus at the coming of Christ. Behold, you have heard what our defender, the Lord of vengeance, is described to have freely done.

For after He was lifted up, that is, suspended by the Jews on the cross, that I may briefly touch on all these things, as soon as He rendered up His spirit, His soul, united to His divinity, descended to the depths of the lower regions. And when, like a certain splendid and terrible despoiler, He had reached the boundary of the darkness, the impious and Tartarean legions, beholding Him, terrified and trembling began to inquire, saying: 'Who is this, terrible and gleaming with snowy splendor? Never has our Tartarus received such a one, never has the world vomited such a one into our cavern. This one is an invader, not a debtor; he is an exactor, not a suppliant: we see a judge, not one entreating. He comes to command, not to succumb; to snatch away, not to remain.'

'Where were our gatekeepers sleeping, when this warrior was assailing the barriers? If this one were guilty, he would not be so powerful. If any sins darkened him, he would never scatter our Tartarus with his radiance. If God, why does he come? If man, what did he presume? If God, what does he do in the tomb? If man, why does he loose sinners? Has he perhaps made a covenant with our author; or perhaps, having engaged, has he conquered even him, and so ascended to our realms? Surely he was dead, surely he was conquered. Our warrior was deluded, he did not know what carnage he would procure for hell—that deceiving cross beguiling our joys, giving birth to our losses. By the tree we were made great, by the tree we are overthrown: that power always dreaded by the peoples perishes.'

'No living one ever entered here, no one terrified the executioners, never to this muddy place, ever blinded with black gloom, has a pleasant light appeared. Or has the sun perhaps migrated from the world? But neither heaven nor the stars appear to us; and yet hell shines. We are not able to defend the guard of our prison against him. To our ill fortune we entered; we could not darken so great a light: moreover we are afraid even for our own destruction.' 3. Tartarus's apostrophe to its prince. 'Whence is this one so splendid, so strong, so illustrious, and so terrible? That world which was subject to us, and always paid the tributes of death to our uses, never sent us such a one, never destined such gifts to the lower regions.'

'Who then is this, who so undaunted enters our borders; and not only does not fear our torments, but moreover looses others from our chains? Or is he perhaps that one of whom our prince a little before was saying, that through his death he would receive the power of the whole world? But if it is he, the sentence of our warrior has turned to the contrary: and while he seemed to himself to conquer, he rather has been conquered and laid low. O our prince, is this that one over whose future death you were always applauding yourself? Is it he in whose cross you believed the whole world would be subjected to you? Is it he in whose end you promised us such spoils? What is it that you have done? What is it that you wished to do?'

'Behold, now he has put to flight all your darkness with his splendor, and broken all your prisons, cast out the captives, loosed the bound, changed their mourning into joy. Behold, those very ones who used to sigh under our torments, exult over us at the receiving of salvation; and not only do they now fear nothing, but moreover they threaten. Never did the dead here so grow proud, nor could the captives ever be so glad. Why did you wish to lead this one hither, at whose coming all who before had been in despair are restored to joys? No accustomed bellowing of theirs is now heard here, no groaning resounds.'

'The commerce of redemption has come about for the captives. O our prince, those riches of yours, which you had first acquired through the loss of paradise, you have now lost through the cross: all your joy perishes, your gladness is turned into mourning. While you hang Christ upon the tree, you do not know how great losses you are sustaining in hell. Could you not foresee that you were leading the overthrower of your kingdom to death without any guilt? If you had attended to the cause, you would have sought out the fault. In whom you had recognized nothing of evil, why were you leading him to our country? You have brought this one in free; and you have lost all the guilty.' 4. The entreaty of the just to Christ.

After these voices of the cruel infernal ministers, without any delay, at the command of our Lord and Savior all the iron bars were broken: and behold suddenly the innumerable peoples of the saints, who were held captive in death, embracing the knees of their Savior, beseech Him with tearful entreaty, saying: 'You have come, Redeemer of the world; you have come, whom desiring we daily hoped for; you have come, whom the Law and the Prophets had announced would come to us; you have come, granting in the flesh pardon to the living sinners of the world: loose the dead and the captives of hell. You have come after long tears; you alone deliver, who suffered for us. Creator of heaven, you have deigned to enter the lower regions:'