Paschal Homilies 1 part 2/28

'and send for the skillful women, that they may speak out, and take up a lamentation over you, because the flock of the Lord has been shattered.' Now the prophet Jeremiah, as one already seeing them afflicted, and being not far from punishment, introduces them lamenting over themselves and saying:

'Our time has drawn near, our days have been fulfilled, our end is at hand.'

'Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of heaven.' Since, then, so great an error had seized all things, and everything under the sun had been mastered by the devil, Hades, as the prophet says, enlarged its soul, and opened its mouth, so as not to cease. For the Greeks, having slipped through much folly into polytheism, and having exchanged the glory of the great God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of reptiles;

as if hastening to sail with a fair wind, they were running toward the innermost recess of death.

But the Jews, having disregarded the commandment given to them—or rather, having gone forth into such great ignorance as to think it somehow disgraceful to be seen doing those very things by which it was necessary for them to gain the verdict of the best conduct of life—hastened to walk the same path as those Greeks.

He who, taking up our likeness, and becoming man, and being born through the holy Virgin Mary—not taking up what he already was, but taking on in addition what he was not—works out our salvation.

But he remains, as Paul says, the same yesterday and today and forever; having undergone no alteration of his divinity, nor any change, through the incarnation;

but, being what he was, he will also be forever.

the devil crying out, 'I will seize the world as a nest with my hand, and as eggs that have been left I will take them up, and there is none that shall escape or gainsay me'—yet he grants laughter and mockery to those who have believed in him.

He, having overthrown through the washing of regeneration the sin that had tyrannized over us, revealed the world to be clean.

He taught us the way of salvation;

and, having scattered our folly like a mist or cloud, he made manifest to us the bright knowledge of the divine doctrines.

He makes us fellow citizens with the angels in heaven.

He joined earthly things to heavenly things, and showed human nature to be a fellow-dweller with the spirits that are there—human nature which had once been separated through sin, and had fled away, but has now been joined to them through faith and piety toward him.

This one the wretched Jews were unwilling to confess as Savior and Lord; rather, as though they had been wronged in the greatest degree—because indeed he had come to benefit their race, and had come to save us from so great a destruction—though it was fitting that, confessing the grace for the good they had received, they should show themselves grateful, they handed him over to death and the cross.

But seeing him hanging on the tree, the Jews again spoke blasphemy, and reproaching him they said:

'If you are the Son of God, come down now from the cross, and we will believe you.' Having therefore endured death on behalf of us all, the Savior, and having descended into Hades, despoils the wealth of the devil, saying to those in bonds:

'Come out'; and to those in darkness:

'Be revealed', just as the prophet says.

But having raised up his own temple on the third day, as the firstfruits of those who had fallen asleep, he showed our nature to be free from the bonds of death, saying:

'O death, where is your victory? O Hades, where is your sting?' And making heaven accessible to it after the dispensation of the incarnation, he is taken up,

offering himself as a certain firstfruits of human nature to the Father, and granting us the Spirit as, so to speak, a pledge of the hope that is to come, saying:

'Receive the Holy Spirit.' These are the marks of the salvation wrought by our Savior;

on the basis of these things we proclaim him benefactor and Savior.

As for the week of the saving Passion, it runs from the twentieth of the month Pharmouthi;

and we bring the fasts to an end on the twenty-fifth of the same month, according to custom, and we keep the feast on the dawning Lord's Day, the twenty-sixth of the same month Phamenoth;

joining thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.

For thus, together with the saints, shall we inherit the kingdom of the heavens in Christ, unto the ages of ages.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Our discourse also runs to this same starting point, and quite reasonably so;

for what is being proclaimed is a feast.

But for him whose aim is to announce that we ought to rejoice over the achievements of the Savior, how could any other beginning reasonably be found more fitting than the one already discovered,

more fitting? The discourse, then, will rightly proceed upon this course,

being eager to set it forth in public.

Now, as the divine oracle has declared, there is a season for every matter,

and a season, if indeed any other is fitting for us, this present one is most fitting for the need of our proclamation.

Already, then, our all-glorious feast, unfolding its yearly cycle, has come to stand at our doors, and, almost overleaping the threshold, is settling itself into the souls of all.

It would be, as it seems to me, among the most absurd of things, that the Jews, priding themselves on the law, and shadow, and type, should proclaim their own feasts beforehand with the sounds of trumpets;

but that we, who have preferred the better things among what they possess, and who have ratified, with a right and just judgment, that the truth ought to be preferred to what is merely figured, should appear to have far less zeal about this than they do—if, agreeing with one another to keep silence, we should sit quietly, and hand over in silence so notable a feast—even though God says:

'Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on the notable day of your feast.' Let, then, our discourse come forward into the midst, announcing the notable day of the feast with a notable proclamation.

For as many advantages as have accrued to our nature through the Savior's loving-kindness, even if we should keep silent, the stones will cry out, according to that same word of the Savior.

But as I clearly consider each of the things that have come to pass, a great multitude of matters presents itself to me, on account of which one who has chosen to keep silence would reasonably incur no small blame.

For if, having taken pains to think what is right and just, we shall be reckoned among the best in this—namely, in sending up thanksgiving to God for the benefits we have received—and yet this practice shall be assigned no place at all among us, how shall we not be altogether waging war against our own resolves, if we should be unwilling to do these very things for which we might reasonably blame others also as negligent? Let us, then, offer up thanksgivings to the Savior.

But perhaps we shall make our inability to speak worthily of his achievements a pretext for hesitation and cowardice—although all, I think, would agree that to yield the victory to one's betters brings not a charge of weakness, but rather procures a reputation for good judgment.

The blessed Moses indeed, great as he was in virtue—so great that he heard God say to him:

'I know you above all, and you have found favor with me'—was nevertheless not ashamed to say of himself that he was slow of speech and slow of tongue, and unfit for the ministry of proclamation.

But if, though saying such things, he is free from blame and from every shameful charge—and indeed one might judge the prophet worthy of every praise for it—how shall we not reasonably concede to the achievements of the Savior, which are above the law, the power to overcome every argument? Moreover, it is consistent to add this too: that we have not been trained in the contests of rhetoric, nor do we promise any display of Attic eloquence.

But let the pursuits concerning such things be a care to others, and let distinction in eloquence be their profession;

but for us, beloved, the discourse is brief, and the writing is a command laid on us by necessity.

'For woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward;'

'but if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.'

Hence, I think, no one may justly find fault with my poor little words.

For whatever the grace of God may suggest to our mind, these things also we will make plain to you;

having restrained untimely reticence with sound-minded reasoning.

'Observe the new month, and you shall keep the Passover to the Lord your God.' How, then, is it not necessary for us, already at hand, to announce the season of the feast? For gone is the gloomy threat of winter; foul weather and darkness have been driven away; rains and the onsets of wild winds are now out of our path.

And spring seasons rise again:

freeing the cultivator from hesitation and idleness, almost sending out a voice to the farmers, that it is time to set about their labors.

For the meadows pour forth every varied form of flower,

and bring forth for the gardens the travailing growth that belongs to them, as though bursting out the energy of their own nature from its very loins.

And already the fields are clothed with green, showing this too as a witness to God's loving-kindness;

'for he causes the grass to spring up for the cattle,' it says. Now these words have not been brought forward by us idly;

for let no one suppose that we are discoursing about these things pointlessly, but rather that the usefulness arising from the commandment may become apparent.

For it was not in vain that the law commanded us to observe the month of the new things.

It was fitting also that human nature should vie with the fields as they bear their green growth, and be seen, so to speak, adorned all around with the blossoms of piety.

Come, then, let us apply the force of these matters to ourselves, and, transferring the aim of our thought to what is useful, let us see accurately whether our discourse will fall short of what is fitting, in calling the season of the sojourn of our Savior Jesus Christ the month of the new things—that season on account of which indeed it is fitting for all to keep festival.

For already that arch-evil demon is passing away to destruction—he who, like winter, assails the souls of all, and, as it were, pours down upon us a flood of rain, dripping improper desires upon us;

but the strength of the unclean spirits has been driven away, the gloomy cloud of sin has been shaken off through grace.

And a spring-like light, as it were, has been spread out upon us;

and then, besides these things, the given firstfruits of the Spirit, like a west wind or a gentle breeze, blows about the souls of all, variously preparing those in whom it dwells to be no less than blossoms in fragrance.

'For we are the fragrance of Christ to God,' as Paul says.

And the staleness of our past life we have cast off like a leaf, and we are being renewed again unto another manner of life, freshly blooming and newly planted.

So too the blessed Paul used to say:

'So that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away;'

'behold, they have become new.' But if it seems to anyone that, through the divine Scripture as well, one may see this discourse not having strayed far from the truth, let him hear the Bridegroom speaking, and signifying to the Bride the truer month of the new things:

'Arise, come, my companion, my fair one, my dove, for behold, the winter has passed;'

'the rain is gone, it has passed away; the flowers have appeared in the land; the time of pruning has arrived.' For just as those well trained in the art of husbandry cut away the useless branches of the vine;

but as many as seem fit for bearing fruit they allow to remain on it, being guided by their own skill toward what is beneficial—so too our all-wise God, searching out the mind of each, cuts away those resolves that are more sluggish toward piety and, so to speak, have grown hardened;

but the sound-minded reasoning he allows to be relaxed and preserved, and to remain.

Hence, being now trained toward salvation, we send away the passions of the flesh, and, settling within ourselves the pure grace of the Spirit, we are transformed unto a better manner of life, and we remember the words of Paul, who says:

'Our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we should no longer be enslaved to sin.'

'For he who has died has been justified from sin.'

'But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.' For we shall truly live together with him, and reign together with him, turning away from the defilement that comes from the body, and hating, as one of the saints says, the tunic stained by the flesh;

but honoring the self-control that is dear to God, bringing back, as it were, a life of virtue as a gift to Christ who died for us. So too the Psalmist said:

'All who are around him shall bring gifts.' What, then, shall our gift to the Lord be, or in what manner shall it be brought, and again how shall it be acceptable? This is worth searching out, and learning from the divine Scripture.

What, then, does it say? 'If a soul offers a gift, a sacrifice to the Lord, fine flour shall be his gift, and he shall pour oil upon it, and he shall put frankincense upon it.'

the fragments being bound together into one loaf signify the manifold multitude of virtues, which together produce a single piety, which is offered to God by us in the manner of a sacrifice and a gift;

and he commands oil to be poured upon it, which is a symbol of cheerfulness.

For it is not fitting that the righteous man should be gloomy over the sweat he has expended for piety's sake;

but rather, rejoicing in hope, he should do battle against sin.

And the frankincense sprinkled upon it indicates the fragrance that comes from good works.

For thus he himself would be full of all praise, and his incense would become acceptable.

Let us examine the nature of what is said, judging by our own standards the more divine matters.

For would anyone, if he wished to offer a gift to some illustrious person of this life, have dared to approach him with his body smeared in filth? Would he not be regarded as loathsome and insolent? Would not such a man deserve every disgust? But if we, judging the matter in the best way concerning ourselves, will grant that this reasoning is not outside what is fitting, how could one reasonably not blame someone — not merely for ordinary improprieties — if he should wish to draw near to God while not yet appearing to have washed off the filth of sin, even though the divine law expressly says:

Every sacrifice which you offer to God, you shall not make with leaven.

For you shall not offer to the Lord as a gift any leaven at all, nor any honey at all, as an offering made by fire from it.

And you shall not bring it up upon the altar as a sweet savor to the Lord.

And every gift of your sacrifices shall be salted with salt.

The salt of the covenant of the Lord shall not be lacking from your sacrifices, and upon every gift of yours you shall offer salt to the Lord your God. What, then, the leaven signifies you will understand from Paul, who says:

Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are unleavened. For how could the antiquity of evil be accepted as a sweet savor to the Lord, who seeks from us a new and undeceitful life? He likewise rejects the offering of honey as well;

for this too signifies pleasure.

For the pleasure that attends each of the sins seems sweet, yet its end is more bitter than gall.

Yet he nevertheless commands the sacrifices to be salted with salt, thereby introducing a symbol of reason and prudence.

And how shall we not deem worthy of all praise that which is proclaimed through Paul, saying:

Let your speech be always seasoned with salt, in grace? But I think that speech cannot be seen to be of such a kind unless our inner disposition is first rightly ordered;

for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Let, then, the mind of the pious be salted;

let sin flow away from it like some refuse;

let it not be softened, wandering after strange pleasures.

Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For in saying, 'be steadfast,' he places far from all praise those who do not yet have their minds firmly set and secured;

They loved to move their feet, and did not spare themselves, and God was not well pleased with them. Now the 'feet' here signify a certain movement from place to place, and the inclination of the mind toward one side or the other — I mean toward base things, and toward whatever demands for itself the verdict of being admired — so that the feet should altogether be as though fixed, already possessing steadfastness as a settled habit, and shrinking from the road that leads toward baseness.

Such is the blessed Psalmist, when he says:

And the apostle Paul exhorts us that we must abound in the work of the Lord, so far as human nature permits, and be shown, undivided, to have friendship with the divine through good works.

For it is not, I think, the work of a sound mind, at one time to apostatize from the divine laws, and at another time again, as though roused from sleep, to cling to the same laws.

For such people, it seems to me, suffer the same fate as those who fall from ships in the midst of the sea and the waves — men who, though able to free themselves from fear by rejecting sloth, only barely perceive what is useful once they are already in the very midst of the evil, and then, swimming back to the ship, seek the safety from which they had fallen.

And yet it would have been far better not to wait for the outcome of the danger, but to hate it while it was not yet present;

for thus they would have counseled themselves more prudently.

But if it will appear to everyone as utterly full of folly for a man to accept the imitation of such conduct, and to admire what is justly condemned, how is it not fitting that we, bringing in every eagerness, should hold fast, unyieldingly, to the divine laws, and offer up, as an unceasing offering, our unblemished conduct? Hear again what the divine law declares to us concerning these matters:

And the Lord spoke, saying:

Command Aaron and his sons:

This is the law of the whole burnt offering.

This is the burnt offering upon the altar, all the night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall burn upon it, it shall not be extinguished. But how, beloved, being small and weak, could I explain in due order the things signified by this commandment? What discourse could set forth for us the precise force of its meaning? But since it is written:

Open your mouth, and I will fill it — come then, let us again take courage in the grace of our Savior, and hold fast to the clarity that lies within these matters.

The philanthropic Word of God draws all men to piety, and stirs up to virtue all who suppose that they ought to keep their hearing more obedient to his laws.

But not all show equal zeal in this regard, nor is each person led by the same eagerness.

For some approach God more fervently, and considering nothing more honorable than piety toward him, offer themselves as a whole and undivided offering, like a complete victim, for a sweet savor to the Lord.

For these, the name of the 'whole burnt offering' is most fitting;

for this is truly the whole burnt offering, when someone offers himself, wholly and entirely, to God, working evil at no time whatsoever.

But observe what the law of the whole burnt offering says concerning such a one.

This is the whole burnt offering, all the night upon the altar until morning.

And the fire of the altar shall burn upon it, it shall not be extinguished. What could the fire of the altar be, but altogether the disposition of the Holy Spirit within us? This is also what the Savior signified to us, saying:

I came to cast fire upon the earth. He, then, who is wholly burnt as an offering, and who offers himself wholly and entirely to God, let him keep the fire in himself unquenched, and let the power of that holy flame within him ever be in full vigor;

for it says, 'all the night,' which is to be understood as referring to the present life.

For it is not fitting that one should sometimes grow cold, inclining toward what is base;

and at another time again have his mind rekindled, but rather he should be of a single, unvarying character, and always fervent in spirit, even as Paul says.

This would become even clearer to us through other examples as well, if we should carefully examine the precise intention of the law.

For God again speaks thus, in what follows, to Moses the revealer of sacred things:

And these are the things which you shall do upon the altar:

Two yearling lambs, day by day, continually upon the altar, a whole burnt offering of perpetual continuance,

receiving from us a continual sacrifice.

For the command that one lamb should be slain at the beginning of the day, and the second at its end, seems to signify the whole of time, embracing the middle by means of the extremities.

And he wills the fine flour to be mixed with wine and oil, commanding not the whole measure to be poured upon it, but a fourth part of a hin;

teaching by this enigma that those who continually offer honor to God — or rather, who are offered up, more pleasingly, as a kind of victim to the Lawgiver — having received mercy, will rejoice: in the present life receiving some small part of the gift (for he commands that a fourth part of a hin be poured out), but in the age to come the grace will be rendered to them in its fullness, when, as the prophet says, everlasting joy shall be upon their head;

But what I mean by this, I shall try to make clear to you again by taking an image from the divine Scripture.

For when God appeared to the sons of Israel in fire and darkness and tempest, and was determining the laws concerning what was to be done, the all-wise Moses, deeming it necessary also to demonstrate to the sons of Israel, by a manifest deed, the pattern of the conduct pleasing to the Lawgiver — insofar as suited their disposition and understanding, which was not yet able to receive the more perfect things — did something of this sort:

For rising early in the morning, it says, he built an altar under the mountain, and twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel;

and he sent forth the young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered up whole burnt offerings, and they sacrificed young bulls as a sacrifice of peace offering to God.

And Moses took half of the blood, and poured it into a basin, and the other half of the blood he poured out at the altar. But let us again examine each of the things that are written, carefully unfolding them, and see what manner of benefit is disclosed to us from this.

Moses, then, rises early and builds the altar, teaching us thereby that it is necessary first to be roused as though from sleep, and for man to rise up to sobriety, having driven away the mist of sin as one drives away some dark night, and now running toward the light of knowledge;

so that, being now able to perform sacred service to God, he might raise up his own understanding as a good altar for himself.

For this, I think, is also what the prophet Isaiah said:

From the night my spirit rises early to seek you, O God, for your ordinances are a light upon the earth. Moses' rising early, then, signifies something of this kind.

But that we may keep to the sequence of the meaning, let us proceed now to the order of the matter under inquiry.

He sets up the altar not upon the mountain, but under the mountain, which shows the mind of those who are still lowly, falling short of perfection, not yet able to ascend, as it were, to a mountain, to the summit of the perfect commandments, but who are nonetheless near to them;

yet nevertheless having descended, they approach God not upon the mountain, but under the mountain.

Then he supposed that twelve stones must be set around the altar, for the twelve tribes of Israel;

so that through this too we might learn that we ought always to attend upon God, never falling away into unrestrained sin.

This the Psalmist, proclaiming to us more clearly, said:

'And I will go about your altar, O Lord.' And after this again:

...Israel, and they offered whole burnt offerings, and sacrificed young calves to God as a peace-offering. We shall say, then, that being able to offer sacrifices to God is not the work of a sluggish or otherwise feeble mind, but of a vigorous and noble disposition,

But it is possible, through this again, to see, as the matter is transformed from a type and figure into differences of manner, that the intention of those who offer is praiseworthy, yet nonetheless weaker, and inferior to the greater and more perfect.

For what is offered is not a full-grown bull, but a young calf, falling short of the mature bull in both size and strength.

And taking the blood, he poured half of it into a basin;

and the other half, upon the altar.

One may see here, then, the life of the worshipper divided, as it were, in a riddle.

For the blood is taken as a type of the soul, whose life God divides with us in equal portion, so that we may not live for ourselves alone, but also keep the portion belonging to the altar.

Such, then, is this middle and more moderate way of life, having neither a harsh participation in what is overly severe, nor falling, through excessive license, into sins;

but standing above the more lukewarm through reverence, while unable to be compared with the more perfect, owing to a deficiency of zeal.

And since the disposition hangs, as it were, from both, and the quality found in the things mentioned comes together into one, a certain dignified and gentle manner is displayed;

because, by their mutual relation to one another, whatever is grievous in each is done away with, and the rigor of strictness is relaxed by the smoothness of freedom;

while the excess of that freedom, being pruned away, as it were by a sickle, through the keenness of the mind, will display a conduct that is upright and blameless.

It is good, then, beloved, to be zealous for the better things, and to devote oneself all the more to whatever contributes more to virtue.

But as Paul says:

'Each of you has his own gift from God:'

one in this way, another in that. For our Maker, being good, gives even to the weaker opportunities of being saved;

deeming worthy of greater praise the one who is eager to excel in the more perfect things;

yet nevertheless allowing that even the one who has so small a share of virtue should not go without a portion of his loving-kindness.

For just as faces are not alike to one another, as Solomon says, so neither are the minds of men.

For the nature of the body is one, and is completed through the same parts;

but the difference of features found in each produces the variation.

So too shall we find with regard to the mind:

through the same faculties it is composed equally in all, yet by the qualities of their dispositions it is divided into dissimilarity.

I think that such a meaning as this is also brought forth through the parable of the Gospel.

'For a sower,' it says, 'went out to sow his seed;'

and as he sowed, some fell along the paths and on the rocky ground, some among the thorns, and some fell on the good earth and produced fruit, one sixtyfold, another thirtyfold. Do you see how he said the earth was all good, yet in regard to the difference of the fruits an inequality appears?

The number a hundred, then, signifies those who are perfect in virtue, and who have ascended to the very summit of piety;

sixty signifies those who fall a little short of those already mentioned, yet who themselves also stand within no small degree of virtue;

and thirty signifies those still more deficient, who are nevertheless not outside the most excellent earth, nor deprived of bearing fruit, even though they fall short of the perfect and of the one slightly beneath the perfect, ranking, as it were, in a third order among those established in virtue.

For there are many mansions with the Father, as the Savior says, marking out for each the measure of honor that is his due.

So too was the distribution of the talents made to the servants.

'To one,' it says, 'he gave five;'