Tractates 1 part 12/14

Lastly (a point most pertinent to vindicating several matters that might be objected, which we have proposed to be considered in the general preface), another account must be taken of the sermons which were collected and published by the authors themselves, and another of those which others, after the authors' death, gathered from their papers and made public. When authors published their own works, they published only what was elaborated, polished, and perfected, in which accordingly nothing is wont to be read as repeated, nothing disjointed, nothing mutilated, as may be seen in the tractates of Saint Gaudentius, which he himself delivered to Benivolus in the same century as our Author. But when others made a collection,

then, on account of the merit and esteem of the authors which prevailed among the collectors, there could be gathered from the papers all whatsoever they had found, even repeated, mutilated, and rough pieces, which the authors, had they been present, would have thought should be rejected or perfected. So great, moreover, seems to have been Zeno's fame, and the deference shown him by all, that the collector made it a matter of conscience to cast aside nothing that he had found among his papers; and hence he judged that several tractates, though repeated, mutilated, and least of all perfected, should be inserted into the collection.

Now, that we may say something concerning the order of these tractates which pertain to the paschal offices: there will be placed in the first place the Invitations to the font, together with two tractates on Psalm XLI, which, since they coincide with the same, will be inscribed with the same title; afterward seven tractates to the neophytes after baptism; then nine tractates on the Day of the Pasch; finally fifteen tractates on Exodus, and nine on Daniel at the Pasch, all of which excellently represent the image of the paschal feast or of baptism from the readings of Exodus or of Daniel recited with solemn rite amid the sacred offices.

In editing these tractates or addresses, since the titles of the manuscripts are not constant even in those tractates which present almost the same words, not to say the same sentences, we have not always followed them, and the inscriptions of the editions seemed to agree better, as will become plain from the annotations upon these same titles. TRACTATE XXX. Invitation to the font I. Exult, brethren, in Christ, and with all longing flying together, receive the heavenly gifts. Already the saving warmth of the everlasting font invites you. Already our mother adopts you, that she may give birth:

but not by that law by which your own mothers bore you, who, themselves groaning with the pain of childbirth, brought you forth into this world weeping, filthy, bound with filthy swaddling-clothes, surrendered as captives to the world; but rejoicing with gladness, heavenly, free, loosed from all sin, and happily reared not in fetid cradles but at the sweetly fragrant rails of the sacred altar: through our Lord Jesus Christ. TRACTATE XXXI. Invitation to the font II. Now, now, quicker than the word is spoken, enter the heavenly gates, brethren; and laying yourselves in the life-giving bed of the eternal flood, do not suppose that grace works any partiality with respect to persons. By your own judgment are you born, knowing that he who shall have believed the more will render himself the nobler.

Constantly therefore and faithfully cast off that old man of yours with his fetid rags, all of you new, all of you white-robed candidates, all soon to advance, rich with the gift of the Holy Spirit. TRACTATE XXXII. Invitation to the font III. Come now, why do you stand, brethren, whom the life-giving wave conceived through your faith and now through the sacraments brings to birth? Hasten as quickly as possible to the things desired. Behold, already the solemn hymn is being sung; behold, the voice of infants and their sweet wailing is heard; behold, from the womb of the one giving birth there comes forth a most glorious throng. It is a new thing, that by spiritual right each one should be born. Run beyond, run to the mother, who then does not labor if she cannot number those whom she brings forth.

Enter therefore, enter, you blessed ones, all together suddenly about to become suckling babes. TRACTATE XXXIII. Invitation to the font IV. Why do you stand, you who are diverse in race, age, sex, and condition, but soon to be one? Fly to the sweet ever-virgin womb of the mother of the font; and there, in your nobility, in your faith, knowing that as much as each one shall have believed, so much of blessedness shall he also possess. O admirable and truly divine, holy condescension! in which she who gives birth does not groan; he who is reborn knows not how to weep. This is the renewal, this the resurrection, this eternal life, this is the mother of all, who, having made us joined into one, gathered out of every people and nation, afterward forms us into one body. TRACTATE XXXIV. Invitation to the font V.

Exult, brethren, whom your own faith brings to birth, who, fleeing the snares, the guilt, the wounds, and the death of this world, implored the help of the Father's majesty, and now fly to the flood of the holy font, not with swiftness of feet, but of a devout mind. Immerse yourselves steadfastly, with your state of salvation kept safe, about to live by the happy death of your old man. TRACTATE XXXV. Invitation to the font VI. Make haste, make haste, brethren who are about to be well washed. The living water, tempered by the Holy Spirit and by sweetest fire, with gentle murmur already invites you. Already the bath awaits, girded to furnish what is needful for anointing, what for drying, and also the golden denarius marked with the unity of a triple coinage. Rejoice therefore.

Into the font indeed you will be plunged naked, but clothed with an ethereal garment, anon you will rise thence as white-robed candidates; and whoever shall not have defiled it will possess the heavenly kingdoms: through the Lord Jesus Christ. TRACTATE XXXVI. Invitation to the font VII. Come now, brethren, whom the ardor of a blessed thirst, longed for, sets afire, whom the sweet murmur of the nectar-flowing stream invites, fly without delay to the milky water of the life-giving font, and drink mightily, while it is permitted, plunged beneath the wave of the overflowing river; with all your might and all your devotion fill your vessels, that water may always suffice for you, knowing this above all, that this water may neither be poured out nor again drawn up. TRACTATE XXXVII. Invitation to the font VIII.

In which, with very few things added and certain things changed, is contained that which was in the preceding one. Come now, brethren, whom the longed-for ardor of a blessed thirst sets afire, with the desire and swiftness of a deer fly to the milky water of the life-giving font. Drink mightily, that water may always suffice for you, knowing this principally, that it is not permitted either to pour this water out or again to draw it up. TRACTATE XXXVIII. To the neophytes after baptism I. After the chaste fasts of the most devout consummated sacred expiation, after the sweet vigils of the most splendid night with its own sun, after the laver of the milky font giving life

and making your souls sprout into the hope of immortality, by which you who were diverse in age, diverse in nation, suddenly emerged as true brothers, suddenly as only-begotten infants: I exhort you to celebrate the festival of so great a birth with a joyful banquet; yet not with that one in which, amid diverse dishes contending for the highest place by the seductions of seasoned relishes, the overwhelmed breast is often assailed by raw and acid vomits; in which the worldly sweetness of your new wine is corrupted by the exhaled stench of the previous day's wine; but with a heavenly meal, honest, pure, wholesome, and everlasting; which, that you may be able to be always filled and happy, receive with hunger.

The Householder bestows on you bread and precious wine from His own provisions, from His own table. The three unanimous youths bring in the vegetables first, upon which, that the flavor may be well known, they sprinkle the salt of wisdom; Christ pours in the oil; Moses, ever swift, procured the firstling and tender lamb; Abraham faithfully the fat and seasoned veal. Isaac innocently carries the oil and the wood. Jacob patiently presents various flocks. Joseph, set in advance over the measure, allots provision to all. Indeed, if anyone should desire anything, Noah, who stored it up, the keeper of the ark, will not deny him anything. Peter the fisherman sets out fresh sea-fish in abundance, with a marvelous salt-fish.

Tobias the wayfarer carefully prepares the inward parts of the river-fish, and it is enough. John the camel-clad, devoutly running ahead, brought from his own place locusts as well. That one should not censure another who is eating, Paul the inviter admonishes (Rom. XIV, 3). David, the royal shepherd, at every moment supplies silvery milk and cheese. Zacchaeus without delay pays out his fourfold tribute-gifts. God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, supplies sweet things, just as He who, before us, was fed at this banquet, says: 'How sweet are Your words to my throat, above honey, and the honeycomb to my mouth!' (Ps. CXVIII, 103). These things, brethren, if anyone shall have willingly believed, he will find yet more abundant fare;

with which, if he be diligent, he will always satisfy both himself and others with all good things: through our Lord Jesus Christ. TRACTATE XXXIX. To the neophytes after baptism II. Rightly does the most holy David say: 'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered' (Ps. XXXI, 1); for he cannot be blessed, brethren, who persists in his first nativity, whom the kindled torch of seething offenses burns at every moment; who carries about with him the stench of his own prison; who feels the executioner before he sees him; who dreads the name of the judge; who, as soon as a whisper has arisen, thinks himself sought, thinks himself found out:

for whom there is no advance toward security, even if it should befall him to lack an accuser and a knowing witness; since he cannot lack his own self, because conscience, more violent than any torturer, never deserts its own sinner. In this guilt, brethren, you have been until now; but you have been mightily examined; but, that you might receive pardon, you kept good watch on your own behalf, and you have been most excellently heard. A new kind of judgment, in which the accused, if he excuses his crime, is condemned, and is absolved if he confesses it. O great power, great skill, great piety of our Judge! by whom sinners of every kind, that they may be able to live blessedly, hasten to be punished;

for the merciful sword descended in the sight of the sinner, and with one and the same stroke, the matter of the body remaining unharmed, it slays the old man, creates a new one, and buries him in the element of the sacred flood. And whereas the nature of all waters is such that, when they have received men alive into the depth, they vomit them up dead, our water receives the dead and vomits up the living, men made true men out of mere animals, men about to pass over from men into angels, if the advanced age of these do not change their infancy. TRACTATE XL. To the neophytes after baptism III. Let us exult, brethren, in Christ;

and let us render thanks to the everlasting Triumpher with hymns, harps, timbrels, and songs, who, perpetuating His promises to us by a holy ordinance (as they say), sent keys that are truly golden: and indeed not those which, by a malign benefit, receive crimes, which spare the body but cannot free the soul; which, when by dissembling they pass over sins, do not take them away but shut them in; which dismiss the guilty just as they found him; which in an equal cause can profit nothing to the very one who bestows them. But ours absolve in a heap whatsoever they have found, nor do they suffer anything to remain over: rather they open all the inner recesses of the breast and diligently drive out all crimes,

and again diligently close it up, lest anything, even trifling, from that which is shut out, should return thence. Wondrous reason, wondrous blessedness! With the accused kept safe, the guilt is punished in the accused, and with his state kept whole, that dies in the man on account of which the man had been about to die. Hence it is that our confession has no need of torments; that without the sweat of the torturer the guilty man of his own accord confesses his deeds, that he may become innocent. Precious is the indulgence, brethren, which bestows both pardon and medicine. For the rest, whoever spares a poisoner, a murderer, an adulterer, an incestuous man, a sacrilegious man, unless he have cured his disease, I do not see what he has done for him. O the profound providence of our Liberator! O singular excellence! O sweet sentence!

O necessary condemnation! Man is slain, that he may live: the striker is not seen, nor the striker's sword; the wound of the stricken does not gape, the blood does not flow, the color is not discolored. He is the same, and yet he is not the same. The dwelling indeed seems old, but the tenant is new, showing the nobility of his nativity to unbelievers by various virtues through a change of conduct. Keep his ordinance, your age remaining ever in its own infancy through every course of life; and mightily take care that you never recall the memory of the first man, who once was yours. TRACTATE XLI. To the neophytes after baptism IV. In which, with a few things added

and certain things changed, is contained that which is set forth partly in tractate XXXIX, partly in tractate XL. Exult, brethren, in Christ, and the indulgence having been received, diligently, mightily, and faithfully keep the royal benefit; for every bond of yours has been taken away and removed: rejoice securely; you now owe nothing to the world. The image of guilt, indeed, you have been until now, but you have been mightily examined; and, that you might receive pardon, you kept good watch on your own behalf: you have been most excellently heard. A new kind of judgment it is, in which the accused, if he excuses his crime, is condemned; he is absolved, if he confesses it.

Great reason, great power, great piety of our Judge, by whom sinners of every kind, that they may be able to live blessedly, hasten to be punished. Wondrous reason: a wondrous mystery indeed. With the accused kept safe, the guilt is punished in the accused, and with his state kept whole, that dies in the man on account of which the man had been about to die. Hence it is that our confession has no need of torments, that without the cruel sweat of the torturer the guilty man of his own accord confesses his deeds, that he may become innocent. A precious thing it is, brethren, which bestows both honor and reward. O the profound providence of our Liberator! O singular excellence! O sweet sentence! O necessary condemnation! In his very self man is slain, that he may live:

the striker is not seen, the striker's sword is not discerned, the wound of the stricken does not gape, the blood of the dying does not flow, the body does not throb, the color is not discolored. He is the same, yet he is not himself. The dwelling indeed seems old, but the new tenant exults in the change of conduct, about to prove the nobility of his nativity to unbelievers by various virtues. TRACTATE XLII. To the neophytes after baptism V. Hail today, brethren born in Christ, and the indulgence having been received, diligently, mightily, and faithfully keep the royal benefit; for every bond of yours has been taken away: rejoice securely; you now owe nothing to the world. Behold, there is no weight, no grating of worldly chains upon your necks.

Your hands are hindered by no bonds, your feet weighed down by no fetters. No terror harasses you, no defilements darken you. You who feared the conscious accomplice no longer fear conscience: for your old man has been happily condemned, that he might be absolved; buried by the wave of the sacred flood, that, quickened in the nest of the tomb, he might taste the rights of resurrection. O the great providence of our God! O the pure charity of a good mother! receiving those diverse in race, sex, age, and condition, she slays them out of hatred for their crimes, as a stepmother; she preserves them devoutly, as a mother; and she does not quicken the slain before she has extinguished all the venom of their old state.

Lest she bring forth anything adulterate, and lest she seem to love anyone more or less, she bestows on all one nativity, one milk, one stipend, one and the same dignity of the Holy Spirit. How beautiful it is, brethren, and how salutary, to admire him whom a little before you held in ridicule; to long to imitate the virtue of him whose corruption you abhorred; to be amazed at him whom you ever dreaded as covetous, now pouring out everywhere all his goods upon the poor and needy; and finally to rejoice that he whom you had known to be a shrine of idolatry is a temple of God. Therefore he is ever blessed who remembers that he has been reborn; more blessed he who does not remember what he was before he was reborn;

most blessed he who shall not have changed his infancy by the advance of time. TRACTATE XLIII. To the neophytes after baptism. On the twelve signs. I. Heavenly peoples, exult, new pledges in Christ; and the whiteness of your most flourishing spiritual birth this day, keep with unceasing diligence, that you may in no way stain it; for it knows not how to repeat what it bestows. Behold, boys, adolescents, young men, old men of either sex, who were guilty, were also unclean by worldly nativity, are now, on the contrary, free of all guilt, clean infants: and, what is admirable and welcome, you have suddenly in one moment been made of equal age, you who were of diverse ages. But I well know your curiosity from the usage of your old life;

which indeed will henceforth not be permitted to you. Perhaps you may ask of us also, by what birth, by what sign, your mother bore you, so diverse, so many, so unlike, all in one birth. Just as I will indulge the little ones, I will disclose with all brevity the secrets of the sacred horoscope. II. Therefore, brethren, such is your nativity. The First, who rejects no one believing in Him, received you not as the Ram but as the Lamb: who clothed your nakedness with the snowy whiteness of His own fleece: who graciously poured His own blessed milk into your lips gaping with infant wailing.

Likewise the Bull admonishes you — not swollen of neck, not grim of brow, not threatening with the horn, but as the best, sweet, gentle and mild Calf: that, snatching after no omens in any work, submitting to his yoke without malice, and by taming the earth of your flesh making it fruitful, you may bring a joyful harvest of the divine seeds into the heavenly granaries. And he admonishes through the Twins that follow, that is, through the two Testaments singing salvation in concert, that above all you flee idolatry, unchastity, and avarice, which is an incurable cancer. But our Lion, as Genesis testifies (Gen. 49:9), is the whelp of a lion, whose holy mysteries we here celebrate, who for this reason lay down and slept, that he might conquer death;

and for this he awoke, that he might bestow on us the gift of immortality of his blessed resurrection. Fittingly the Virgin follows, foretelling the Balance, that we might know, through the Son of God who came forth incarnate from a virgin, the wickedness and the justice brought upon the earth: and whoever holds this justice steadfastly and ministers it faithfully shall — I will not say the Scorpion, but, as the Lord says in the Gospel — tread upon all serpents whatsoever with unharmed foot. Nay, neither shall he ever dread the devil himself, who is truly the most savage Archer, armed with various and fiery arrows, at every moment piercing the hearts of the whole human race: on account of which Paul the Apostle thus speaks:

Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, having taken up the shield of faith, by which you will be able to extinguish all his arrows of the evil one, which are full of fire (Eph. 6:11). For he sometimes sends upon the unhappy the Goat, deformed of face, and through its horn, frothing with swelling veins from its thinner lips, with the throbbing collapse of its captive, he rages pitiably through all the members. Some he makes mad, some frenzied, some murderers, some adulterers, some sacrilegious, some he blinds with avarice. It is too long to go through them one by one. He has various and innumerable arts of doing harm: but all these our Water-Bearer, flowing with a saving stream, is not greatly wont to wipe away;

and him there necessarily follow in the sign two Fishes, that is, two peoples from the Jews and the Gentiles, living by the water of baptism, sealed with one seal into the one people of Christ. TRACTATE 44. To the Neophytes after baptism, VII. On the Lord's Day, concerning the comparison of the wheat. I. Let us exult, brethren, in Christ, and enriched by the return of so great a yield, let us render praises and thanks to God the almighty Father; who has changed the tares, the darnel, the burrs, and the thistles into joyful grain, which, purged by diligent cultivation, and happily crushed by the holy weight of the millstone, sifted in due order, with all the bran cast off, gleamed in wondrous splendor into white flour;

which is corrupted by no leaven, but diligently kneaded and worked together. Salt was put into it; it was smoothed with the oil of the sacrifice, tempered with the fitting rites, and rendered into unleavened loaves. These whom you see, of excellent baking and sweetly fragrant, were baked not in an oven but in a font; not by human, but by divine fire: no breeze has corrupted them; no bitter smoke has tainted them; no cold has crushed them; and — what is more — they have been raised without leaven. Surely they are not pot-baked, nor stale, nor scorched, nor raw, nor moldy. Their color is milky; their taste is milky. II. But perhaps, because some appear smaller in form, if anything be thought otherwise of the baker, it is no concern of mine, brethren:

for though I am poor, yet I guard my brow and I know my faith. Surely, if they know anything, let the workmen who are with me speak. I rejoice in gain, but — I confess plainly — without the awareness of any theft. Finally, you too retain the ancient weight: you have the balance; make the weighing as you wish: weigh them one by one: you will find that none weighs less. They are all three pounds, stamped with one pound of the sacred coinage, who serve at the table. TRACTATE 45. Concerning the Lord's Day of Easter. I. The heir of the ages, running forth and back with swift course, wheeled upon itself by solemn motion, bringing forth for itself a beginning out of an end, infinite birthdays out of a setting, the everlasting day has shone forth:

on which, the sadness of the rolled-up winter being shaken off, with the new West Wind Favonius caressing, the sweet meadows everywhere breathe again, sprouting with diverse flowers spread abroad in one birth, alike in kind, color, and scent. The new but rich harvest exults, happily beating down the wheat into its various heaps, crushing the spiked palm: and fittingly the wine-bearing autumn follows it, so that of necessity to the grace of bread the pleasantness of wine too might be joined. Who would not recognize these things as fitted to the heavenly mysteries?

For the winter, slothful, foul, and sad, pertains to those who, serving idolatry, fettered by worldly pleasures, devoted to lust and the gullet, far cut off — that is, destined by God to eternal death, because they loved the work of darkness. As the sacred spring we ought to receive the font, from whose rich channel — Favonius generating not as wind but as the Holy Spirit — the most radiant flowers of the Church, breathing a divine fragrance with blessed faith, by diverse gifts but one birth, and our sweet infants, are poured forth.

But the summer is the faithful people, angelic and clean, who, openly and bravely holding fast their pledge, cleansed from the chaff of sins, desiring once to bring the precious grain into the divine granaries, although it abounds with its own font, yet ever burns with the ardor of righteous labor. Autumn too is the place of martyrdom, in which not the blood of the vine but of the digger is poured out: that a blessed life may be purchased by the vintage of a precious death. But the Day pertains to the mystery of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is all in all: who is truly eternal, and a day without night; whom twelve hours serve in the Apostles, twelve months in the Prophets;

whom the four saving seasons of the Gospels proclaim; to whom respond not yearly but daily fruits, singing a hymn to God for the believing peoples, who are propagated unto the ages with every seed of immortality. Walking in the light of this Day, let us exult in faith, let us be glad in good conduct, that we may merit to obtain everlasting life; through the Lord Jesus Christ. TRACTATE 46. On Easter, II. Girded with manifold grace in its steadfast course, the saving Day has come with the solemn footstep of the seasons. The same as its own successor and its own predecessor, ever young in long age, parent of the year and offspring of the year, it goes before and follows the seasons and the infinite ages. It brings forth for itself a beginning out of an end;

and yet it does not depart from its native cradle. Truly it bears the image of the Lord's mystery; for by its setting it celebrates together the passion, and by its rising with renewed birth the resurrection, through which it promises us the gift of future blessedness: this too it is about to grant to those of ours who are seeking it (the candidates for baptism), whom now the happy setting invites, that, plunged into the milky deep of the sacred ocean, rising thence with the new day and renewed, they may be able with us to attain unto the glory of immortality. TRACTATE 47. On Easter, III. The steadfast runner, garlanded with manifold grace, retracing through the windings of the seasons with swift feet its own footsteps by solemn office, the saving Day has come.

The same as its own successor and its own predecessor, ever young in long age, parent of the year and offspring of the year, it goes before the seasons that follow, and scatters abroad the infinite ages. It brings forth for itself a beginning out of an end; this too it is about to grant today to those of ours who seek it, whom now the happy setting invites, that, plunged into the milky deep of the sacred ocean, rising thence renewed with the new day, shining with their own light, they may be able with us, the course being kept, to come by the airy path to the time of the promise — unto immortality, where one rises forever. TRACTATE 48. On Easter, IV.