Chapter I. — In all days indeed, dearly beloved, and in all seasons, certain signs of the divine goodness have been set before us, and no part of the year is a stranger to the sacred mysteries, so that, since the safeguards of our salvation everywhere meet us, we may ever more eagerly seek out the mercy of God that invites us. But whatever it is that in the diverse works and gifts of grace is bestowed for the restoration of human souls, all of it is now presented to us more clearly and more abundantly, when not certain things are to be done piecemeal, but all are to be celebrated together. For as the paschal festival draws near, there is at hand the greatest and most sacred fast, which proclaims its observance to all the faithful without exception:
for no one is so holy that he could not be holier, no one so devout that he ought not be more devout. For who, set in the uncertainty of this life, is found either free from temptation or clear of fault? Who is there who would not wish some virtue added to himself, or some vice taken away? Since adversity harms and prosperity corrupts, and it is of no less peril to lack the things desired than to abound in the things granted. There are snares in the abundance of riches, snares in the straits of poverty. The former lift one up to pride, the latter incite one to complaint. Health tempts, sickness tempts, since the one is an occasion of negligence, the other a cause of sorrow. There is a trap in security, a trap in fear;
nor does it matter whether the soul, which is held by earthly affection, is taken up with joys or with cares, since it is an equal disease either to grow faint under vain delight or to labour under anxious solicitude. Chapter II. — And so the sentence of Truth is fulfilled in all things, by which we learn that narrow and hard is the way that leads to life (Matt. 7:14); and while the breadth of the road that draws to death is thronged by many companies, in the paths of salvation the footprints of the few who enter are rare. But why is the way to the left more populous than the way to the right, except because the multitude is prone to worldly joys and bodily goods?
And although what is desired is fleeting and uncertain, yet toil is more willingly undertaken for the longing of pleasure than for the love of virtue. Thus, since there are countless who covet visible things, scarcely any are found who prefer eternal things to temporal. And therefore, as the blessed apostle Paul says: The things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18); the way of the virtues is in a manner hidden and concealed, since by hope we are saved (Rom.
8:24), and true faith loves above all things that which it attains by no sense of the flesh. It is therefore a matter of great labour and effort to keep the movement of the heart free from all sins, and, when innumerable enticements of pleasures allure from every side, not to relax the vigour of the soul unto any defilements. Who touches pitch and is not stained by it (Ecclus. 13:1)? who is not weakened in the flesh? who is not soiled in the dust? who, in short, is of such purity that he is not defiled by those things without which life is not lived? For the divine teaching commands through the Apostle that those who have wives be as though not having them; and those who weep, as though not weeping; and those who rejoice, as though not rejoicing; and those who buy, as though not possessing;
and those who use this world, as though not using it: for the fashion of this world passes away (1 Cor. 7:29-31). Blessed therefore is the mind which passes the seasons of its pilgrimage in chaste sobriety, and does not linger in those things through which it must needs walk, so as to be rather a sojourner than a mistress of earthly things, neither failing in human affections nor unjoined to the divine promises. Chapter III. — But this fortitude, dearly beloved, no days demand and confer more than the present ones: in which, while a special observance is paid, a habit is acquired in which one may persevere. For it is known to you that this is the time in which, throughout the whole world, while the devil rages, the Christian battle-line must do combat;
and those whom either sloth has made lukewarm or worldly care has kept preoccupied must now be equipped with spiritual arms and kindled by the heavenly trumpet to enter the contest: since he by whose envy death entered into the world (Wis. 2:24) now burns with peculiar spite, now is tormented with the greatest grief. For he sees new peoples brought into the adoption of the sons of God from the whole race of men, and the offspring of regeneration increased through the virginal fruitfulness of the Church. He sees himself deprived of the right of his dominion, driven out from the hearts of those whom he possessed, and torn from him in both sexes thousands of old men, thousands of young men, thousands of little children;
and that no man is harmed by either his own or original sin, where justification is not rendered to merits but is bestowed by the sole bounty of grace. He sees too that the fallen, and those deceived by the fraud of his snares, are washed by the tears of penance, and, the apostolic key unlocking the gates of mercy, are admitted to the remedies of reconciliation. He perceives besides that the day of the Lord's passion is at hand, and that he himself is crushed by the power of that cross which, in Christ who was free from all debt of death, was the redemption of the world, not the penalty of sin. Chapter IV. — Therefore, that the malice of the raging enemy may have no effect of its spite, a more diligent devotion must be assumed for carrying out the Lord's commands:
so that the time in which all the sacraments of divine mercy come together we may receive with a preparation both of souls and of bodies, imploring the governance and help of God, that through him without whom we can do nothing, we may be able through him to accomplish all things. For a precept is given for this reason, that the help of him who commands may be sought. Nor let anyone excuse himself on the occasion of weakness, since he who granted the willing gives also the power, the blessed apostle James saying: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all abundantly and does not reproach, and it shall be given him (James 1:5). What one of the faithful does not know to what virtues he ought to devote himself and what vices he ought to fight against?
Who is so favourable or so unskilled a judge of his own conscience that he is ignorant of what ought to be taken away from him or what ought to be increased in him? For no one is so estranged from reason that he does not understand the quality of his own manner of life or does not know the secrets of his own heart. Let him not therefore be pleasing to himself in all things, nor judge himself according to the delights of the flesh, but let him set his whole habit of life in the scale of the divine precepts: where, since some things are commanded to be done and others forbidden to be done, he will weigh himself in a just balance who has assessed the ways of his life by the comparison of both weights.
For the merciful God, the Craftsman, has fashioned in his commandments a most resplendent mirror, in which a man may inspect the face of his own mind, and recognize how conformed he is to the image of God, or how unlike. Especially that, worldly cares and disquieting occupations being laid aside for a little while, at least in the days of our redemption and restoration we may turn ourselves from earthly things to heavenly. Chapter V. — But because, as it is written, in many things we all offend (James 3:2), let the affection of mercy be first conceived, and let there be a forgetting of the offences of others against us: that we may not violate by any love of vengeance that most holy compact to which we bound ourselves in the Lord's Prayer, when we say:
Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:12), when we say this, let us not be difficult in remission: because either the desire of revenge or the indulgence of clemency recurs upon ourselves; and it is more to be desired for a man, ever exposed to the perils of temptations, that he should have his own faults unpunished than that he should punish those of others. And what is more fitting to the Christian faith than that remission of sins should be made not only in the Church, but also in the houses of all? Let threats be laid aside; let the bonds be loosened, by which he who has not released them will bind himself far more perilously. For what each one decrees against another, this he decides against himself by his own law. But blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them (Matt.
5:7): who in his judgements is both just and kind; permitting some to be under the power of others for this end, that under fair moderation both the usefulness of discipline and the gentleness of clemency may be preserved; and that no one may dare to deny pardon to the faults of another which he desires to receive for his own. Chapter VI. — But since the Lord says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matt. 5:9), let the strivings of all discords and hatreds be laid aside;
nor let anyone think that he will have fellowship in the paschal feast who has neglected to restore brotherly peace. For with the supreme Father, whoever has not been in the charity of the brethren will not be reckoned in the number of the sons. In the distribution of alms too, and in the care of the poor, let the Christian fasts grow fat; and what each one withdraws from his own delights, let him spend upon the weak and the needy. Let care be taken that all bless God with one mouth, and let him who gives any portion of his substance understand that he is a minister of the divine mercy, who has placed the share of the poor in the hand of the giver: so that the sins which are washed away either by the waters of baptism or by the tears of penance may also be blotted out by alms, the Scripture saying:
As water quenches fire, so alms quench sin (Ecclus. 3:33). Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. Chapter I. — As the paschal solemnity draws near, dearly beloved, there is at hand the customary fast that precedes it, which by the number of forty days exercises us unto the sanctification of body and mind. For being about to receive the greatest feast of all feasts, we ought so to prepare ourselves by this observance, that we, who have been raised together in his resurrection, may be found to have died together in his passion, the blessed apostle Paul saying: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with him in glory (Col. 3:3-4). But what is our participation in death with Christ, except that we cease to be what we were? or what is the likeness of the resurrection, except the laying aside of the old self? Hence he who understands the sacrament of his own restoration ought to strip himself of the vices of the flesh, and to cast off all the filth of sins: so that, being about to enter the wedding feast, he may shine in the garment of the virtues. For although the kindness of the bridegroom invites all to the fellowship of the royal banquet, yet all who are called must take care that they be not found unworthy of the gift of the sacred foods (Matt. 22:11).
But certain men abuse the patience of God, and those who are not free in conscience become secure from long impunity: whereas vengeance is deferred for this reason, that correction may have time. Let no one therefore be slow to embrace the mercy of our God, which does not will the death of the sinner, but only that he be converted and live (Ezek. 18:32 and 33:11), merely because he has not received what he deserved. For nothing that is deferred is taken away; nor has he escaped condemnation who has not sought pardon. And the cause for imploring that mercy is not one and the same for all; because in many ways and by many measures both sin differs from sin, and crime differs from crime.
But because the whole body of the faithful ought to press on toward perfect innocence and full purity, that it may be worthy to be enrolled in the fellowship of those of whom it is said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8): with all urgency and strength we must strive that whatever stains the secret of the conscience, whatever darkens the keen sight of the mind, may be blotted out by the most diligent cleansings. For although it is written, Who will glory that he has a chaste heart, or that he is clean from sin (Prov. 20:9)? yet the attainment of purity is not to be despaired of, which, while it is ever sought, is ever received, nor does that remain to be condemned by judgement which has been purged by confession. Chapter II.
— This, dearly beloved, is that which all the children of the Church, praying, uniformly say according to the teaching of the Lord: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:12); because no one is so holy, no one so just, that in the time of this life, which is wholly a temptation, he does not stand in need of the remission of some sin or other. Perils of innumerable faults stand round about on every side (Job 7:1), and from lawful uses one passes over to immoderate excesses, while through care for well-being the delight of pleasure creeps in, and what can be enough for nature does not suffice for concupiscence. Hence the love of possessing arises, never to be sated;
hence the desire of rising above others, which, leaning either upon its own stock or upon its offspring, now has pride as its offspring, now as its parent. But against these and other temptations, whose interconnection is manifold and endless, what more rightly is set than the virtue, rather than merely the continence, which for the nourishing and preserving of the goods of soul and body both furnishes increase and strengthens them? Hence in the heavenly disciplines of the Church the divinely instituted fasts bring much profit: so that while by the laws of continence the carnal appetite is subdued, the inner motion also is tempered, and as the body from foods, so the mind may fast from iniquity. For the Lord says: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matt. 5:6).
The people of God therefore have spiritual banquets and chaste delights, which they wholesomely seek out and laudably desire; for, as the prophet praises and says: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Ps. 33:9): whoever has attained by the taste of the heart the sweetness of the righteousness and mercy of God, by which all things are dispensed by his providence, and has drawn in, never to be lessened by any disgust, the experiences of the joys above, will despise the corruptible and temporal goods in his admiration of the eternal: and he will grow warm in that fire which the charity of God kindles: so that, cold being turned to fervour and night changed into light, by one work in the souls of the faithful the Holy Spirit may both drive away the darkness and consume the sins. Chapter III.
— Hence, since continence, the mother of virtues, bears such fruits, and leads those who fast from vices to unspeakable delights; let us now, dearly beloved, with more zealous effort carry out the heavenly precepts: and since the whole paschal mystery is established for the remission of sins, let us imitate what we desire to celebrate. For the merciful and just Lord so promises his indulgence, that he also shows to whom it is granted. For in setting forth by what rule he willed us to make supplication to God the Father, he says: If you forgive men their sins, your Father also, who is in heaven, will forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your sins (Matt. 6:14).
An altogether just and kindly condition, by which man is made a partaker of the divine power, so that he may weigh the sentence of God by his own choice, and bind the Lord to himself by that judgement with which he himself has judged his fellow-servant. Whether therefore toward those below him or toward his equals, let the equality of nature be cherished: and since no one does not sin, let no one not spare; let us not with difficulty render what we have thankfully received: so that whether by the bounty of alms or by the pardoning of sins, the more merciful we are, the more perfectly innocent we may be. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. Chapter I.
— The Gospel reading, dearly beloved, which through the ears of the body has struck the inner hearing of our minds, calls us to the understanding of a great mystery: which, with the grace of God breathing upon us, we shall the more easily attain, if we refer our consideration to those things which were related a little above. For Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, in founding that faith which both recalls the impious to righteousness and the dead to life, imbued his disciples with the admonitions of doctrine and the miracles of works for this end, that the same Christ might be believed both the Only-begotten of God and the Son of man. For one of these without the other did not avail unto salvation, and it was of equal peril to have believed the Lord Jesus Christ either only God without man, or
only man without God, was of equal peril, since each was equally to be confessed: because as there was true humanity in God, so there was true Divinity in the man. Therefore, to confirm the most wholesome knowledge of this faith, the Lord had asked his disciples, among the diverse opinions of others, what they themselves believed or thought of him: whereupon Peter the apostle, by the revelation of the supreme Father, surmounting things bodily and transcending things human, saw with the eyes of the mind the Son of the living God, and confessed the glory of the Deity, because he looked not to the substance of flesh and blood alone.
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Tantumqueinbacfideisublimitatecomplacuit,utbeatitudinisfelicitatedonatussacraminviolabilispetrasacciperetfirmitatem, superquamfundataEcclesiaportisinferietmortislegibuspraevaleret, necinsolvendisautligandisquorumcumquecausisalijdratumessetincœlisquamquodPetrisedissetarbitrio. CAp. II.
And so pleasing was he in this sublimity of faith, that, endowed with the felicity of blessedness, he received the sacred firmness of the inviolable rock, upon which the Church, being founded, should prevail against the gates of hell and the laws of death, nor should anything be ratified in heaven, in loosing or binding the causes of any persons, other than what Peter's judgement had determined. Chapter II.
— But this loftiness of praised understanding, dearly beloved, had to be instructed concerning the sacrament of the lower substance, lest the apostolic faith, exalted to the glory of confessing the Deity in Christ, should judge the reception of our infirmity unworthy of the impassible God and incongruous, and should thus believe that human nature was already so glorified in him that it could neither be afflicted with suffering nor dissolved by death. And therefore, when the Lord said that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and scribes and chief priests, and be killed, and on the third day rise again (Matt.
16:21 and 20:17-19), when the blessed Peter, who, illumined by the light from above, was fervent with the most ardent confession of the Son of God, had rejected the affronts of the mockeries and the reproach of the cruellest death with a fastidiousness that he supposed religious and free, being reproved by a kindly rebuke from Jesus, was also stirred up to the desire of sharing the passion with him. For the ensuing exhortation of the Saviour inspired and taught this, that those willing to follow him should deny themselves, and should count the very lightest loss of temporal things as the gain of eternal things: because he in the end would make his soul safe who feared not to lose it for Christ (Matt. 16:25).
That therefore they might conceive with the whole heart of the apostle that fortitude of blessed constancy, and might tremble at nothing of the harshness of the cross to be taken up, that they might not blush at the suffering of Christ, nor believe that patience to be a thing of shame for them which was so to undergo the savagery of the passion as not to lose the glory of power: Jesus took Peter, and James, and his brother John (Matt. 17:1), and, having ascended with them apart into a lofty mountain, showed them the brightness of his glory: because, although they had understood in him the majesty of God, yet they knew not the power of that very body by which the Divinity was veiled.
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Etideopropriesignanterquepromiseratquosdamdeaatantibusdiscipulisnonpriusgustaremortem, quamViderentFiliumhominisvenienteminregnosuo (Matth. XVI, 28), idestinregiaclaritate, quamspecialiteradnaturamsusceptihominispertinentem,histribusvirisvoluitesseconspicuam. NamillamipsiusDeitatisineffabilemet (Ii) inacessibilemvisionem, quaeinaeternamvitammundiscordeservatur, nullomodomortaliadhuccarnecircumdatiintueripoterantetvidere. CAp. III.
And therefore he had properly and expressly promised that some of the disciples standing by should not taste death before they saw the Son of man coming in his kingdom (Matt. 16:28), that is, in the royal brightness, which, as pertaining specially to the nature of the manhood he had assumed, he willed to be visible to these three men. For that ineffable and inaccessible vision of the Deity itself, which is reserved unto eternal life for the pure in heart, they could in no way behold and see while still encompassed with mortal flesh. Chapter III.
— The Lord therefore opens his glory before the chosen witnesses, and so illumines with such great splendour that form of body common to him with the rest, that his face was like the brightness of the sun, and his raiment equal to the whiteness of snow (Matt. 17:2). In which transfiguration this indeed was chiefly done, that the scandal of the cross might be taken away from the hearts of the disciples; and that the humility of the voluntary passion might not disturb the faith of those to whom the excellence of the hidden dignity had been revealed. But with no less providence the hope of the holy Church was founded, that the whole body of Christ might recognize with what transformation it was to be endowed, and that the members might promise themselves the fellowship of that honour which had shone forth beforehand in the Head.
Of which the same Lord had said, when he spoke of the majesty of his coming: Then shall the just shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:43); the blessed apostle Paul attesting this very thing, and saying: For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18); and again: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with him in glory (Col. 3:3-4). Chapter IV. — But for the confirming of the apostles and their advancement unto all knowledge, another instruction also was added in that miracle.
For Moses and Elijah, that is the law and the prophets, appeared speaking with the Lord: so that most truly in that presence of five men might be fulfilled what was said, In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand (Deut. 19:15; Matt. 18:16; John 8:17; 2 Cor. 13:1; Heb. 10:28). What is more stable, what more firm than that word, in whose proclamation the trumpet of the Old and the New Testament sounds in concert, and with the evangelical doctrine the instruments of the ancient testimonies concur? For the pages of both covenants attest one another; and him whom the preceding signs under the veil of mysteries had promised, the manifest and clear splendour of the present glory displays:
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quia, sicutaitbeatusJoannes,lexperMosendataest,gratiaautemeetveritasperJesumChri-slumfactaesi (Joan. I, ii); inquoetpropheticarumpromissioimpletaestfigurarumetlegaliumratiopræceptorum, dumetveramdocetprophetiampersuipræsentiam, etpossibiliafacitmandatapergratiam. CAp. V. - HisergosacramentorumrevelationibusPetrusapostolusincitatus,mundanaspernensetterrenafastidiens, inæternorumdosideriumquudammentisrapiebaturexcessu; etgaudiototiusvisionisimpletus,ibicumJesuoptabathabitare,ubimanifestataejusglorialætabatur; undeetait: Domine,bonumestnoahicesse:
because, as the blessed John says, the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17); in whom both the promise of the prophetic figures was fulfilled and the reason of the legal precepts, since he both teaches the true prophecy by his presence, and makes the commandments possible through grace. Chapter V. — Incited therefore by these revelations of the sacraments, Peter the apostle, spurning things worldly and disdaining things earthly, was caught up into the desire of eternal things by a certain rapture of mind; and filled with the joy of the whole vision, he longed to dwell there with Jesus, where he rejoiced at the manifestation of his glory; whence also he says: Lord, it is good for us to be here:
if you will, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah (Matt. 17:4). But to this suggestion the Lord did not respond, signifying that what he desired was not indeed wicked, but disordered; since the world could not be saved except by the death of Christ, and by the Lord's example the faith of believers was called to this, that although one ought not to doubt the promises of blessedness, we should yet understand that amid the temptations of this life endurance must first be sought by us before glory: because felicity in reigning cannot forestall the times of suffering. Chapter VI. — And while he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying:
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him (ibid. 5). The Father indeed was present in the Son, and in that brightness of the Lord, which he had tempered to the sight of the disciples, the essence of the Begetter was not separated from the Only-begotten; but to commend the propriety of each person, as the splendour from the body signified the Son to the sight, so the voice from the cloud announced the Father to the hearing. Which voice being received, the disciples, in that they fell upon their face and feared exceedingly, trembled not only at the majesty of the Father, but also of the Son: for with a deeper sense they understood the one Deity of both: and because in faith there was no hesitation, in their fear there was no distinction.
That testimony therefore was broad and manifold, and was heard more in the power of the words than in the sound of the voice. For when the Father said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him; was it not evidently heard: This is my Son, for whom to be from me and with me is without time? Because neither is the Begetter prior to the Begotten, nor is the Begotten posterior to the Begetter. This is my Son, whom Deity does not separate from me, whom power does not divide, whom eternity does not distinguish. This is my Son, not adoptive, but proper; not created from elsewhere, but begotten of me; nor made comparable to me from another nature, but born of my essence equal to me.
This is my Son, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made (John 1:3): because all things that I do he likewise does, and whatever I work, he works inseparably with me and without difference. For the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son (John 10:38), nor is our unity ever divided. And although I who begot am one, and he whom I begot is another, yet it is not lawful for you to think anything other concerning him than what it is possible to feel concerning me. This is my Son, who did not by robbery seek that equality which he has with me (Phil. 2:6), nor presume upon it by usurpation;
but remaining in the form of my glory, that a common counsel might be carried out for the restoring of the human race, he bowed his immutable Deity even unto the form of a servant. Chapter VII. — Him therefore, in whom I am in all things well pleased, and by whose preaching I am made manifest, by whose humility I am glorified, hear without hesitation: for he himself is the truth and the life, he my power and my wisdom. Hear him, whom the mysteries of the law foretold, whom the mouths of the prophets sang.
Hear Him who redeems the world with His own blood, who binds the devil and plunders his vessels, who tears asunder the bond of sin and the covenants of transgression; hear Him who opens the way to heaven and by the torment of the cross prepares for you the steps of ascension to the kingdom. Why do you tremble to be redeemed? Why are you terrified to be set free? Let what Christ wills be done, since I too will it. Cast off carnal fear and arm yourselves with faithful constancy; for it is unworthy that you should dread in the Saviour's passion what by His gift you shall not fear even at your own end.
These things, dearly beloved, were spoken not only for the benefit of those who heard them with their own ears, but in those three apostles the whole Church learned whatever their sight beheld and their hearing received. Let therefore the faith of all be confirmed according to the preaching of the most sacred Gospel, and let no one blush at the cross of Christ, through which the world was redeemed. Nor let anyone fear to suffer for righteousness or distrust the recompense of the promises, since it is through labour that we pass to rest and through death to life; for He has taken upon Himself all the weakness of our lowliness, in whom, if we abide in confessing and loving Him, we both conquer what He conquered and receive what He promised.
For whether it be for the doing of the commandments or for the enduring of adversities, the Father's foregoing voice ought always to resound in our ears, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear Him—who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto ages of ages. Amen. The mystery, dearly beloved, of the Lord's Passion, which the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, took upon Himself for the salvation of the human race, and, as He promised, being lifted up drew all things to Himself, the Gospel word has laid open so plainly and clearly that to religious and pious hearts it is no different to have heard what was read than to have seen what was done.
Wherefore, since the sacred narrative holds indubitable authority, we must strive, with the Lord's help, that our understanding may see clearly what history has made known. For after that first and universal ruin of human transgression, out of which by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned (Rom. 5:12), no one could escape the foul domination of the devil, no one the harsh chains of captivity; nor would reconciliation unto pardon or return unto life lie open to anyone, unless the Son of God, coeternal and coequal with God the Father, should deign to become also the son of man, coming to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10):
that as by Adam came death, so by our Lord Jesus Christ came the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:22). For not because, according to the inscrutable purpose of the wisdom of God, the Word was made flesh in the last days (John 1:14), did the birthgiving of the saving Virgin profit only the generations of the final age, and not pour itself out also upon the ages that were past. Absolutely all the antiquity of those worshipping the true God, all the number of the saints among the earlier ages, lived and pleased in this faith; and neither to the patriarchs, nor to the prophets, nor to any of the saints whatsoever, was there salvation and justification except in the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ:
which, as it was awaited, promised by many oracles and signs of the prophets, so was it also presented by that very gift and work. Hence now, dearly beloved, in the whole order of the Lord's Passion, let us not so consider the human weakness as to think that the divine power was there wanting; nor let us so conceive that form of the Only-begotten, coeternal and equal to the Father, as to suppose that those things were not true which seem unworthy of God. Wholly of both natures, Christ is one: neither is the Word there separated from the man, nor is the man dissociated from the Word. The humility was not disdained, because the majesty was not diminished. Nothing harmed the inviolable nature which had to be inflicted upon the passible:
and that whole mystery, which both the humanity and the Deity together accomplished, was a dispensation of mercy and an act of loving-kindness. For we were held bound by such fetters that we could not be loosed except through this succour. The humility therefore of the Divinity is our advancement. We are redeemed at so great a price, we are healed at so great a cost. For what recourse would there have been from impiety to righteousness, from misery to blessedness, unless He who is just had bent down to the impious, and He who is blessed to the wretched? Therefore, dearly beloved, the cross of Christ is not to be blushed at by us, for it is of the power of the divine counsel, not of the condition of sin.
For although out of our weakness the Lord Jesus truly suffered and truly died, yet He did not so abstain from His own glory that amid the outrages of the passion He exercised nothing of divine operation. For when impious Judas, no longer veiled in the sheep's fleece but manifest in wolfish fury, beginning the violence of his crime under the appearance of peace, offered with a kiss the sign of betrayal, more cruel than any weapon, and the raging multitude which had thronged together with an armed cohort of soldiers to seize the Lord, amid torches and lanterns, blinded by its own darkness, did not perceive the true Light, the Lord, who had chosen rather to await than to avoid the crowds, as John the Evangelist testifies (John
18:4), though not yet found, asks whom they seek: and when they said that they sought Jesus, He says, I am He (ibid. 5). Which word so laid low and struck down that band gathered from the most ferocious men, as if by some thunderbolt's blow, that all those fierce, threatening, and terrible men were driven back and fell down. Where was the conspiracy of savagery? Where the ardour of wraths? Where the array of arms? The Lord says, I am He: and at His voice the throng of the impious is prostrated. What now shall His majesty be able to do when it comes to judge, whose humility to be judged had such power? But the Lord, knowing what better befitted the mystery He had undertaken, did not persist in this power;
He did not permit His persecutors to return to the capacity for the crime they had arranged. For if He were unwilling to be held, He certainly would not be held. But what man could be saved, if He did not suffer Himself to be seized? For even blessed Peter, who clung to the Lord with more spirited constancy, and, kindled with the fervour of holy charity against the onslaught of the violent, used the sword against the servant of the chief of the priests, and cut off the ear of the man too fiercely pressing on (Matt. 26:51; Mark 14:47; Luke 22:50; John 18:10). But this pious movement of the zealous apostle the Lord does not allow to go further:
He commands the sword to be sheathed, and does not suffer Himself to be defended against the impious with hand and steel. For it was contrary to the mystery of our redemption that He who had come to die for all should be unwilling to be taken: lest, the triumph of the glorious Cross being delayed, both the diabolical domination should become longer and human captivity more lasting. He therefore gives to those raging against Him licence to vent their cruelty, yet even toward such the Divinity does not disdain to show itself. The hand of Christ recalls to its place the ear of the servant, already dead by the very cutting and estranged from the fabric of the living body, upon the head thus dishonoured. He reforms what He Himself had formed: nor is the flesh slow to follow the command of Him whose fashioning it was. These works therefore have divine power.
But that the Lord restrains the power of His majesty and admits against Himself the violence of the persecutor, this proceeds from that will by which He loved us and gave Himself for us (Eph. 5:2): the Father cooperating in this very thing, who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32). For the will of the Father and of the Son is one, as the Divinity is one; of the effect of whose dispensation we owe nothing to your favour, O Jews, nothing to you, O Judah. To our salvation, indeed—not because you willed this—your impiety was made to serve, and through you was done whatever the hand of God and His counsel had decreed to be done (Acts 4:28). The death of Christ therefore frees us, but accuses you.
Deservedly you alone have not that which you willed should perish for all. And yet so great is the goodness of our Redeemer, that even you may be able to obtain pardon, if, confessing Christ the Son of God, you forsake that parricidal malice. For not in vain did the Lord pray on the cross, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Which remedy would not have passed you by either, Judas, had you fled to that repentance which would recall you to Christ, not that which would drive you to the noose. For in saying, I have sinned, betraying innocent blood (Matt. 27:4), you persisted in the perfidy of your impiety: because amid the extreme perils of your death you believed Jesus to be not God the Son of God, but only a man of our condition;
whose mercy you would have moved, had you not denied His omnipotence. Let these things, dearly beloved, imparted this day to your pious ears, suffice, lest weariness at length creep in from prolixity. But what is lacking to the fullness, we promise, with the Lord's help, to render on the fourth day: since He who has given us what we have spoken will give, as we believe, what we are to speak: through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory unto ages of ages. Amen.