From the hidden recesses of a most ancient Ambrosian codex, this fifty-sixth sermon was first of all brought out by Muratori, who published it together with many others in Volume IV of the Anecdota. In the often-praised Turin codex the same sermon is ascribed to St. Maximus, and it is the first 'On the Pasch.' And although in the Laurentian codices 39 of Plut. XVII, and IV of Plut. XXXIII, of the library formerly of the Friars Minor Conventual, it bears the name of Augustine, the Maurists nevertheless placed it neither among the sermons of Augustine nor in the appendix. In Vatican codex 1270, page 10, it is attributed to St. Ambrose. But it is anonymous in the codices Urbevetanus page 121, Vallicellanus XXV page 8, and A 9 page 17, and codex 174, formerly of the office of the metropolitan church of Florence, in the Laurentian library.
The fragment which we bring to light exists not only in the Laurentian codices, but also in the aforesaid Vatican, Urbevetan, and Vallicellan ones. But in the fragment there is no connection of those matters which are read in the sermon. No less ought we now to rejoice, brethren, than we rejoiced yesterday: for although the dark night of the past has intervened in our joys, yet it is the same day of holiness; although the evening gloom has divided the seasons, yet the blessedness of the Lord shines with perpetual light. For Christ, who enlightened us yesterday, today too Himself surrounds us with warmth. For as the blessed Apostle says: 'Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday and today' (Heb. 13). For He himself was made day for us.
He was today begotten for us, according to what David says in the person of God the Father: 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you' (Ps. 2). 'Today,' he says, 'I have begotten you'—that is, not that He begot the Son on a day, but that He begot the Son Himself as it were a day and a light. Therefore, when Christ the only-begotten is today begotten, it is understood that in the nativity of the Saviour not so much a man was born as a light which should shine for all, give light to all. But it is called 'today' because, as a present and unfailing light, it contains all things with the perpetual light of the age, and, on account of that very perpetuity of its brightness, it is seen to be one single day. Whence the holy prophet says: 'A thousand years before your eyes are as one day' (Ps. 89).
Christ is plainly one single day, because in Him there is one eternity of the Godhead. But He is called 'today' because things neither slip away from Him by aged antiquity, nor pass Him by through ignorance of the future. But like a most powerful light He contains all things, knows all things, and, as having them in the present, possesses all things; because with Him neither do things past glide away, nor are things future hidden. But at what time it was said to Him, 'Today I have begotten you,' we ought to know: not at that time when He was born according to the flesh of the Virgin Mary, nor at that time when according to His divinity He proceeded from the mouth of God the Father, but at that time when He rose from the dead: for as the apostle Paul says: 'Raising up the Lord Jesus Christ, as it is written in the psalm:
You are my Son, today I have begotten you' (Acts 13:32-33). Rightly then is it said 'today' when, out of the foul night of the nether world, He shone forth to those above like a splendid light. Rightly is it called a 'day' whose brightness the dark deed of the Jews could not obscure. Nor plainly could He better receive light on any day than today, He who to all the departed restores both day and salvation; who by the presence of this day's life raised up men long since dissolved by death. Let us rejoice therefore, and exult in this day, on which the Lord brought us light, brought us salvation, brought us peace;
peace, I say, Christ rising again brought us, because, even when about to suffer, He did not deny peace to the disciple who betrayed Him; or how does He embrace those who confess, who thus kissed the one denying Him? But that kiss of Judas Iscariot I would not have you think was given by the Lord except out of charity, though He knew beforehand that he would be a betrayer. He knew plainly the pledge of love; and therefore He did not deny it; for it is a kind of piety not to deny last kisses to those about to perish, and to have paid the final consolation to those whom we have loved. At the same time, too, by that very office of love He willed to amend him, that, admonished by piety, he might not forsake the one who loved him, nor betray the one who kissed him:
and therefore that kiss was given to Judas as it were unto judgment, so that if he should amend, it might be a bond of peace to the disciple; if he should betray, it might be a testimony of his crime to the traitor. The Lord therefore says: 'Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?' (Luke 22). Where is the subtlety of your machinations, where the lurking snares? Behold, every secret of wickedness is caught out, and the traitor is betrayed before he betrays: 'Do you betray the Son of Man,' He says, 'with a kiss?'—that is, do you inflict a wound with the pledge of love? do you shed blood by the office of charity? do you deal out death by the token of peace? I ask, what love is this? You offer a kiss, and you threaten. These are not kisses, but poisons, by which the servant betrays his master, the disciple his teacher, the chosen one his maker.
Let us therefore rejoice and exult on this day, most beloved, which we venerate with our yearly devotion. Just as it promises us life and glory for the future, so also for the past there arise from it the grounds and occasions of our salvation; and thus he who is worshipped for this end, that he may show mercy, has already shown mercy. Made anew and restored by him, let us now the more earnestly exult in his benefits, because those days on which we are set free are better than those on which, by being born, we are led into the perils of this life. And for this reason we read that 'thy mercy is better than lives' (Psalm 62). Better, then, are the days on which we are reborn to eternal life than those on which we are brought forth into this temporal one. For the gifts of grace are greater than those of nature.
In this twofold work of our God, in the one is the matter of power, in the other of gift. In the one is contained might, in the other mercy. By the first birth we enter upon earthly things, by the second we are prepared for the heavenly. And just as the feasts of the present season admonish us, so did he who contended for the salvation of the world—as we read of the most valiant Samson—slay more of his enemies by his death than he had killed while living.
Moreover, the tradition of secular writings also relates that a certain man in the exercise of contest possessed this kind of strength and vigour: that as often as, by the thrust of his adversary, he touched the earth, the friend and nurse of his powers, rising from the ground he prevailed more and more against his opponent; and thus the throwing down of the prostrate man became the occasion of his triumph. For in a manner his weakness gave him strength, his fall the palm, his overthrow the victory. I think that all this can far more justly be fitted to that heavenly athlete who is read to have wrestled against Jacob; I judge that these things more truly befit that person.
For when in due time he strove in the arena of the world with the public enemy, he acted to this end, that he might rise the more gloriously; he fell to this end, that he might raise all men up. He it was who, poured out, overwhelmed the adversary; prostrate, he crushed him; cast down, he lifted up the fallen man; while he succumbed, he struck death down, and while he rose again, he raised up the dead. This is that angel who wrestled with Jacob in the night, as we have it in Genesis: 'And behold, a man wrestled with him until morning; and when Jacob prevailed, the angel said to him, Let me go, for now the dawn ascends. Jacob answered, I will not let thee go unless thou bless me. So the angel blessed him, and said to him, If thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men.'
'And the angel touched the breadth of his thigh, and he indeed went lame in his foot' (Genesis 32). What is this? He who is overcome gives the blessing; and he goes lame who believed he had conquered. In Jacob, then, the people of the Jews is recognized; in the angel, Christ. And that we may know that the Lord was in that same angel, blessed Jacob himself says thus: 'I have seen the Lord face to face, and my soul has been saved' (ibid. 32). Jacob, then, prevailed while the angel yielded. The Jews too prevailed for a time in the Passion of Christ, taking refuge in the night of that day, and smiting him with all their impiety they prevailed when they crucified him; they prevailed when they slew him.
Therefore, when Jacob had conquered, he nevertheless recognized that he could be blessed by the one he had vanquished, saying, 'I will not let thee go unless thou bless me.' What a mystery in the contest! He who is deemed the weaker is found fit to confer a blessing. Openly did Christ bless his adversaries, when he even prayed for those who were slaying him, saying: 'Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23). The vanquished blessed, who by suffering set free; the accused interceded, and the condemned absolved—for even if his adversaries repent, the one who was slain grants redemption. What too is this, that after that struggle Jacob received a blessing and yet walks lame? For he speaks thus:
'And the angel touched the breadth of his thigh, and he went lame in his foot.' The breadth of the thigh is the multitude of the Jewish race. What is it, I say, that he went lame on one foot, but this: that of Jacob—that is, of the Jewish nation—when Christ rose again, a part believed, and a part remained in unbelief and went lame away from the paths of righteousness and life. And as for what the angel himself says, 'Let me go, for now the dawn ascends,' this signified that he could be vanquished by death, but could not be held fast by it. Rather, after that night was put to flight by the light of the Passion, he promises that the dawn of the Resurrection is to be given back at once. Who lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen.