67. The bonds of this wild ass were loosed when the infirmities of his passion were changed into the glory of the resurrection.—For his bonds were then loosed when the infirmities of his passion were changed into the glory of the resurrection. The Lord had, as it were, certain bonds—those things which we by wickedness deservedly suffer, the infirm conditions of our mortality—by which he willed of his own accord to be bound even unto death, and which through the resurrection he wondrously loosed. For to hunger, to thirst, to grow weary, to be held, to be scourged, to be crucified, was the bond of our mortality. But when, death being accomplished, the veil of the temple was rent, the rocks were split, the tombs were opened, the bars of hell were unbarred;
what else is shown by so many proofs of such great power, but that those bonds of our infirmity were being loosed, so that he who had come to take upon himself the form of a servant, in that very form of a servant loosed from the bonds of hell, might return free to heaven even with his members? Of which bonds of his the apostle Peter bears witness, saying: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of hell, according as it was impossible that he should be held by it (Acts 2:24). And because, after his death and resurrection, he deigned to call the Gentiles to the grace of faith, after his bonds are said to be loosed, it is aptly subjoined: