The blessed Apostle today related that two men gave a beginning to the human race, namely Adam and Christ; two men equal in body, but unequal in merit; wholly alike in the frame of their members in all truth, but wholly unlike in their very origin in all truth. The first man Adam, he says, was made into a living soul; the last Adam into a life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15). That first was made by this last, from whom he obtained a soul that he might live; this last was fashioned by himself as his own author, one who did not await life from another, but himself alone bestowed life upon all; that first is molded from the vilest clay, this proceeds from the precious womb of the Virgin; in the one earth is changed into flesh, in the other flesh is advanced into God.
And what more? This is the Adam who then placed his own image in that first Adam when he was being fashioned. Hence it is that he takes on his person and receives his name, lest that which he had made to his own image should perish for him. The first Adam, the last Adam; that first has a beginning, this last has no end. For this last is truly himself the first, as he himself says: I am the first, and I am the last (Isaiah 48). I am the first, that is, without beginning; I am the last, assuredly without end. But not first, he says, is that which is spiritual, but that which is animal, then that which is spiritual. First indeed is the earth rather than the fruit; but the earth is not so precious as the fruit; the earth demands groans and toils, the fruit bestows substance and life.
Rightly does the prophet glory in such a fruit, saying: Our earth has given its fruit (Psalm 84). What fruit? That very fruit of which he says elsewhere: Of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy throne (Psalm 131). The first man, he says, of the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven, heavenly. Where are those who think that the conceiving of the Virgin, the childbearing of the Virgin, is to be measured by the childbearings of women, since the one is of the earth, this of heaven; this is of divine power, that of human weakness; that is in a body of suffering, this is wholly in the tranquillity of the divine Spirit, in the repose of a human body?
The blood was silent, the flesh was struck with awe, the members were lulled to sleep, and the whole court of the Virgin was suspended in a heavenly dwelling, until the Author of flesh should take on the garment of flesh, and become the heavenly man, who would not only restore the earth to man, but also grant heaven to man. The Virgin conceives, the Virgin gives birth, the Virgin remains a virgin. Therefore the flesh is conscious of power, not of pain, which rather in giving birth receives increases of its integrity and knows no losses of modesty; she stands rather as a witness of her own childbearing, who bore no pangs of childbearing; and the new mother marvels that she has been present at heavenly mysteries, she who understands that the manner of the birth has nothing of human custom. If the Magus confesses that God is thus born by his gift, he confesses it while he adores:
consider what a Christian ought to feel, what he ought to believe. But let us hear what follows. As is the earthly, such also are the earthly; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. How can those who are born in such a manner be found to be such, not by remaining what they were born, but by remaining what they were reborn? Hence it is, brethren, that the heavenly Spirit makes fruitful the womb of the virginal font by the hidden mingling of his own light; so that those whom the origin of the muddy stock had brought forth as earthly under a wretched condition, it may bring forth as heavenly, and lead them to the likeness of their Author. Therefore, now reborn, now reformed to the image of our Creator, let us fulfil what the Apostle commands: Therefore, as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly.
It may have been a necessity that, formed from the earth, we could not breathe of heavenly things; that, born of concupiscence, we could not avoid concupiscence; that, acquired under the dominion of allurements, we were compelled to endure the vileness of allurements; that, received into the dwelling of this world, we were captives to evils. But after the pattern of our Lord, as we have said, now reborn—we whom assuredly a virgin conceived, the Spirit quickened, modesty bore, integrity brought forth, innocence nourished, holiness instructed, virtue trained, and God adopted as sons—let us bear the whole image of our Author with the whole likeness:
not in the majesty in which he alone is, but in the innocence, simplicity, meekness, patience, humility, mercy, and concord in which he deigned to be made and to be common with us. Let the pestilent itch of vices cease, let the deadly blandishments of offences be conquered; let the accursed fury and the source of crimes be repressed; let all the darkness of worldly pomp be shaken from our senses; let the delusion of worldly desire be cast off from our minds; let the poverty of Christ be sought, which possesses everlasting riches in the heavens; let all holiness of soul and body be guarded, so that the image of our Creator may be borne and shine forth in us, not by greatness, but by deed. The Apostle confirms what we have said, when he says:
This I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God. Behold how the resurrection of the flesh is preached, because there the flesh shall be possessed by the spirit, the flesh shall not possess the spirit, as is made clear from what follows. Neither shall corruption possess incorruption. You see that it is not the flesh that perishes, but corruption; not the man, but the fault; not the person, but the crime; so that man, living in God and before God, may at last rejoice to have attained the end of his offences. A discourse proper to the resurrection must be delivered, brethren, because it is not fitting that, in passing and at the very end of our word, anything be said about that which transmits us to eternal times and to perpetual life.
Since the whole hope of the Christian faith is set upon the resurrection of the dead, lest anyone dare to doubt of it, we have caused to be recited to you today the most ample lesson of blessed Paul, who asserts it by authority, by facts, and by examples—a lesson to which our own discourse could find nothing to add. But because your charity always requires the service of our office, we long, with the very ardour of the resurrection, to repeat these same things and to inculcate these very matters more vehemently. Brethren, it is always pleasing to speak of the resurrection, it ever delights to hear of the resurrection, because it is never pleasant to die, and ever delightful to live.
Let the resurrection therefore always resound in our mouth, always let the resurrection be conveyed to the hearing of our mind, so that death, which ever besieges our senses, may be put to flight from our senses with its terror and with its lamentations. For just as the farmer sings of rich fruits and abundant feasts, that he may not feel the monstrous toil and sweat of the plough; so the sailor chants of harbours and gains, that he may not dread the ruin of the waves and the perils of the sea; so the soldier, that he may not fear wounds, that he may not dread swords, sounds forth of spoils and triumphs. Whence let the Christian behold, sing, and ponder the resurrection with mind, mouth, and eyes, that he may be able to despise and trample down all the dread of death.
Death, brethren, is the mistress of despair, the mother of unbelief, the sister of corruption, the parent of hell, the spouse of the devil, the queen of all evils, which assails every kind of men in this insatiable order: first it sends forth its whisperer, despair, urging such things as these: Man, why do you waste your times? Behold, death your mistress comes, reducing your soul to nothing, consuming your flesh with rottenness, your bones with age, so that it may make you, who were not before you were born, to be nothing after death. Render therefore your dues before death—you who are about to die soon—to yourself, to your ages of life:
give infancy to games, give adolescence to delights, give youth to pleasures, but give old age to me, lest, being in despair, you should think you have despised me without cause. After this, it sends its daughter, unbelief, threatening thus: As if you were not to die, as if you were to escape death, do you so dispose of your life? Man, faith deceives you, you trust in trust, which, that it may take away things present, promises things future, and that it may take away the things that are before death, promises I know not what invisible things to be after death. Who has come back from thence, or what wise man believes things promised for so many ages and not yet rendered? O if you would eat and drink! Eat and drink, for tomorrow you shall die (Isaiah 22).
The third sister of its wickedness, corruption, it directs with such fury as to invade the sight of men, to draw and seize it; through the sepulchres it shows the furthest dungeons, and demonstrates that its own lie there bound immovably; and that it may throw men into confusion with horror at the sight and with utter dread, it pours forth rottenness, belches up gore, scatters stenches, and proclaims that to one body of a man it has given innumerable butchers, its own worms. Why should Christians not believe despair, why not unbelief? These are the wars of death; with these leaders, with these counsels, in such conflict it takes captive, lays waste, and slays all whom nature has led into the present life.
It leads kings, it drags peoples, it drives nations; it could never be redeemed by riches, nor bent by prayers, nor softened by tears, nor ever overcome by force. They erred, brethren, who attempted to write of the good of death. And what wonder? Then do the wise of this world esteem themselves great and illustrious, if they have persuaded the simple that what is the highest evil, this is the highest good: rightly does Scripture say of them: Woe to those who call good evil, and evil good (Isaiah 5). Woe to those who put darkness for light, and light for darkness! And in very truth, whom would these not deceive, whom could they not blind, who have brought it about that the incautious believe that to live is evil and to die is good?
But these things, brethren, truth removes, light puts to flight, faith assails, the Apostle marks out, Christ blots out—Christ who, while he restores the good of life, discloses, condemns, and shuts out the evil of death. For thus the Apostle begins: I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, through which also you are saved: in what manner I preached to you, you ought to hold fast, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15). God's bounty enriches him who is to live, not who is to die. Or what good does he receive, if he himself who receives shall not be? In which also you stand.
He indeed stands who lives forever, because the dead man ever lies prostrate. In which also you are saved. If anyone dies, he perishes; but he is saved who lives forever. In what manner I preached to you, you ought to hold fast, unless you have believed in vain. Not only, brethren, did he believe in vain, but he also lived in vain, who believed himself born for this alone, that he might perish. Man, what rises for you that does not set? What sets for you that does not rise again? The day rises in the morning, and again rises in the morning; at evening it is buried in the night, and again rises in the morning; the sun is born daily, daily it dies, daily it rises again; the seasons, while they pass away, perish; while they return, they come to life again.
Whence, O man, if you do not believe God, if you do not acquiesce in the law, if you do not consent to hearing, at least believe your own eyes, or acquiesce in the elements that continually preach your resurrection to you. Surely, if these things which are far inferior, which are in your hands and are raised up from death by your own work, may teach you that you can be raised up by the work of God. Go to the seed, as the Apostle teaches you (1 Corinthians 15); take the dry grain of wheat, without sense, without motion; draw a furrow, dig the earth, make a sepulchre, bury the wheat, and behold how by death it perishes, swells with moisture, is corrupted by rottenness;
and when it has come to all that despair, all that unbelief, all that corruption suggested to you above, then straightway it revives in the sprout, comes into leaf in the blade, grows young in the stalk, ripens in the ear, and rises again into that whole appearance and form which you bewailed as having perished; so that the wheat may teach you, O man, not so much to eat as to be wise, may compel you not so much to labour as to believe. Let us pass over the rest in silence, because both whence, and when, and how, and through whom death came, the blessed Apostle declares in plain and sufficiently lucid and divine speech. Man, receive faith, because it is given freely; believe the resurrection, because he who promises it demands no price.