Paschal Homilies 1 part 21/28

He knew that Satan was laughing broadly at all things, and easily seizing hold of those on earth, none defending them, subjecting them to his own yokes, and driving them without effort into any kind of monstrous evil whatsoever.

Then he ordained the law given through Moses.

But it was not in the law's power to escape the snares of sin;

it was not possible to wash away the stains of transgressions.

For the law exposed sin, and was set by God as, so to speak, a proof of the weakness of us all; and the blessed Paul, our wise witness, will testify:

'Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight.'

But this is not what the Spirit-bearing Paul means to say.

'What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not!'

But I would not have known sin except through the law.

For I did not know sin, unless the law had said, 'You shall not covet.' The law, then, is by no means a teacher of sin;

rather, as I said, it was a reproof of the weakness of those under the law, and a demonstration of that which is by nature prone to be corrupted.

And just as no one would blame the light of the sun's ray because it also makes visible pits, and the things strewn about at the crossroads, while it frees travelers from stumbling upon them;

so too, I think, no one of sound mind would indict the divine law as being productive of sin in us;

but will rather admire it all the more, as clearly revealing what is being accomplished.

But it was brought in, he says, 'that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world might become guilty before God.' For since, on account of very great weakness, and the ease with which one is carried away into transgression, no one fulfilled the law, all the world has become guilty before God, well-nigh driving together those on earth toward the necessity, henceforth, of thirsting for the grace that comes through faith in Christ.

And the most wise Paul confirms this word further, writing thus:

'But now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,'

'they fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.' In order, then, that he might declare us free both from the penalty and the judgment, and from that one's outcry against us, he who is truly man beyond all creation, the Word from God the Father, became like us while remaining what he was — the free one among slaves, the lawgiver under the law, the maker of the ages entering with us into a fleshly birth accomplished in time.

For he took hold of the seed of Abraham, and shared in blood and flesh — he who, as to his own nature, does not belong to a body — so that, having become our brother, he might make us partakers of his own glory, and, having sanctified us by his own Spirit, might henceforth call us both brothers and free.

For thus, somewhere, he says to the holy apostles:

'I no longer call you servants.' Forgetting, then, all these things, the Jews, denying the Savior and Redeemer of all, handed him over to Pilate, and demanded that he be crucified.

But he who is by nature God and all-powerful willingly let his own body fall into the snares of death, that he might rescue us also, having burst them asunder.

For on the third day he rose again, having preached to the spirits in Hades, and having said to those in bonds, 'Come out,' and to those in darkness, 'Be revealed.' Then, having shown himself openly to the holy apostles, and having said plainly:

'Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you' — he ascended to the Father who is in the heavens, and takes his seat again upon the throne of his own godhead, and in due season he will come in the glory of the Father with the holy angels, to judge the world in righteousness.

As those, therefore, who are about to make our defense and stand before his judgment seat, let us cleanse our own life through all gentleness, let us keep the faith unswerving, showing mercy to the poor, visiting widows, taking pity on those in bonds, sympathizing with those in toil and labor, cultivating mutual love, love toward God and toward the brethren, and rebuking the passions of the flesh.

For thus, thus let us keep the feast in purity, beginning the holy Forty Days on the third of the month Phamenoth;

and the week of the saving Pasch, from the eighteenth of the month Pharmouthi, breaking the fasts on the twenty-third of the same month, on the evening of the Sabbath, according to custom, and keeping the feast on the following dawning Lord's Day, the twenty-fourth of the same month Pharmouthi, and joining thereafter the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.

For thus, being nourished then with the words of truth, we shall be profited in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory and might, unto the ages.

In many parts and in many ways the God of all, foreshowing to us the truth through the shadow of the law, and, as it were skillfully sketching beforehand on a tablet the most genuine beauty of the evangelical way of life, said to the holy Moses through the ancient commandment:

'Make for yourself two trumpets of hammered silver;'

'you shall make them of silver, and they shall be for you for calling together the assembly, and for breaking camp.' Now the trumpets are of hammered silver, the matter itself hinting to us that the disclosure of the mysteries of our Savior is not measured out by, nor consists merely in, the shadow and riddle belonging to the law, but rather has made its progress little by little toward what is better and more true.

For that which is hammered and beaten out always somehow makes progress.

But who, then, are those who use the trumpets? The sacred Scripture will again make clear.

'And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall sound the trumpets, and it shall be for you a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations.' For it is fitting, reasonably, that the sacred and chosen race, crowned with the insignia of the divine ministry, should speak the mystery of Christ, and should always signal to the peoples under their hand the things by which they may become worthy of citizenship in heaven, departing from earthly things and putting in at a godly and excellent way of life, playing the man valiantly against the enemies of the truth, and vigorously opposing those who war against the glory of Christ, while celebrating his feasts purely and blamelessly, and — as it is written — not with old leaven, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

'If you go out to war in your land against the adversaries who oppose you, and you sound the trumpets, then you shall be remembered before the Lord, and you shall be delivered from your enemies.'

'And on the days of your gladness, and at your feasts, and at your new moons, you shall sound the trumpets over the whole burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings,'

'and it shall be a memorial for you before your God.'

'I am the Lord your God.' For the weapons of the saints are indeed not fleshly;

but rather mighty through God, and the manner of the full armor consists not in visible and perceptible things, but in the power of the Spirit, and of righteousness, and of sanctification, and in the rectitude and precision of doctrines.

For they had to have the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation, and indeed the weapon of good favor, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

This, indeed, will terrify all the enemies, and quite easily too.

This will show those who lift up their horn on high, and speak unrighteousness against God, to be pitiable, cast down, and senseless — or rather, having a tongue full of all impiety, so that it may be said concerning them:

'The poison of asps is under their lips,' whose 'mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.' Let us, then, use against them the trumpets, that is, the sacred and blameless proclamations of the truth.

But then, if we would offer spiritual sacrifices to God the Savior of all, let us sing hymns of victory to him who for our sake became as we are, and who condescended even to the form of a servant.

For the Word from God the Father, being by nature God, became flesh — not casting away what he was, far be it, but rather taking on in addition what he was not — so that he might also transform us into the better and more glorious life;

'For though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich.' But the Savior of all, the only-begotten Word of God the Father, who is preeminent in equality with him in every respect whatsoever, who shares his throne and is of equal glory with him, did not reject the measure of self-emptying, dispensing it for our sake.

But the inventors of unholy doctrines, the enemies of the cross of Christ, 'whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly,' thinking meanly and lowly of him, shake the glory of the mystery, so that it may seem — as far as it concerns them — not to have been well done;

the wretched ones all but sneer at the wisdom of God, busying themselves as though it were possible for them to devise better counsels;

and a mouth speaking great things, after the manner of the son of lawlessness, whose forerunners they have dared to become.

They dishonor the birth of the Only-begotten according to the flesh;

and they say that the holy Virgin did not truly give birth according to the flesh to God, even though the holy evangelist proclaims:

'The Word became flesh.' But they say, rather, that the Word of the Father dwelt in a man;

so that the Savior is found to be, in the rank of the prophets, a God-bearing man, or perhaps even having nothing more than we ourselves have in this regard.

For the God of all dwells also in us ourselves, and the wise John will bear witness, writing:

'...of his own Spirit he has given to us.' What, then, is still thought to be exceptional about Christ beyond the others, if he too was a man, merely bearing within him the indwelling God of all, and were not, in very truth, the actual Son of God and the Father, and true God even with flesh? For he underwent birth according to the flesh, and remained God, having become as we are.

But the mind of the heterodox cannot endure to think these things.

But we have not been taught to think in this way, nor, by giving heed to their folly, shall we ourselves corrupt our own mind.

For there is, indeed there is, as the blessed Paul says, one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we through him; but not in all is there knowledge.

Let those, then, who hold a counterfeit faith in Christ, and who have lost their share in accurate and true knowledge, hear this: 'Walk in the light of your own fire, and in the flame which you have kindled.' For we shall walk the straight and unswerving road of the faith.

And we shall walk the king's highway, turning aside neither to the right hand, nor indeed to the left.

For we confess that the Word, being God, became flesh, that is, man, not taking a body without soul nor without mind;

but rather an ensouled and rational one, so that, being united in all things to the brethren, apart from sin alone, he might offer himself for us to the Father as a rational fragrance, and, being one who died on behalf of all, might win all to himself, and through himself to God the Father.

For as the divinely inspired Paul writes, 'For this Christ died and lived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.' And if he has become Lord over that which is under heaven, having died in the flesh, but as God having brought his own temple to life;

then he could not reasonably be thought a mere man, honored merely by a conjunction with God according to worth alone, but true God, even though he became flesh, having all creation under his feet.

For he sits enthroned together with God the Father even with the flesh;

and 'every knee bows to him, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' And the word of truth in these matters, and the tradition of the right and blameless faith, holds this path.

But giving heed to deceiving spirits, and to men seared in their conscience, as the most wise Paul says, certain of the senseless have made shipwreck concerning the faith, and have stirred up the weapons of impiety against those accustomed to think rightly, assailing them with manifold plots and drawing taut the bow of envy.

But as the blessed Psalmist says, 'Their wounds became as the arrows of babes, and their tongues grew weak against them.' For the holy multitude of the venerable mountains of God everywhere did not remain idle;

but all having been gathered together into a single company, and having taken up the shield of faith, as it is written, and having shod their feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, that is, of Christ, and having raised aloft the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, they plundered the host of the unholy, crying out that word in the Psalms:

'The enemies of the Lord have lied to him;'

'and their time shall be forever.'

We say that something of this sort was done in the times of old, while Moses was still tutoring Israel according to the flesh.

They went out of Egypt, having cast off the yoke of the cruelty of those who had taken advantage of them;

but since they were encamping somewhere in the wilderness, they did not remain free from attack, nor indeed did they run their course toward the land promised to them without sweat and toil.

It is written that Amalek came and fought against Israel in Rephidim;

and Moses said to Joshua, 'Choose for yourself able men, and go out and array yourself for battle against Amalek tomorrow,'

'with the staff of God in my hand.'

And Joshua did just as Moses had told him;

And going out, he arrayed himself in battle against Amalek.

Now when Joshua had arrayed himself in battle and, together with the chosen men, had won the victory, the Lord, it says, spoke to Moses:

‘Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’ But those things were in shadows and types;

but in the realities that pertain to us, one might well marvel, beholding the beauty of the truth bare and unshadowed.

For now too the accursed Amalek has armed himself against the true Israel, warring against the glory of the Savior, and attempting to overturn the power of the mystery concerning him.

But our Lord Jesus Christ, having gathered together the chosen out of all Israel, arrayed himself in battle and won the victory;

and he will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. For he fights against him with a hidden hand;

and he shields those who have believed in him, having implanted in the hearts of all a bright and unadulterated knowledge of his own mysteries.

Let us therefore keep festival, since our enemies have been enfeebled, since Satan has been cast down, since the Church has been purified;

since no one any longer says that Emmanuel is not truly God, but rather all confess his glory and with unceasing lips render to him doxologies.

For it is written: ‘Let all the earth worship you, and sing praise to your name.’ For he has abolished Satan, who out of great arrogance said with excessive pride:

‘I will seize the whole world in my hand as a nest, and take it up as eggs that have been left, and there is none that shall escape or gainsay me.’ But together with him he also cast down the very dominion of death, sin having been abolished.

For the letter kills;

and the ministration of Moses has been named the ministration of condemnation, and quite rightly so;

for no one is justified before God by the law.

For the only-begotten Word of God let himself down into a voluntary self-emptying;

and he lived among those on earth as a man, undergoing birth according to the flesh through the holy Virgin, the Theotokos;

that by teachings above the law he might reshape for the better those who have believed in him, and, having shown forth the way of the evangelical life, might render them genuine worshipers.

For, he says, ‘God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.’ And I say that those who would be true worshipers, and genuine laborers in the worship that is in spirit and truth, must shake off every defilement — of soul, I mean, and of body;

and must strive to accomplish, and indeed most eagerly, those things through which they might be delivered from every ground of blame.

For it is fitting to be holy both in body and in spirit.

Let us, then, put pleasures to death;

and let us not have our own mind overcome by the passions of the flesh,

but rather setting our mind on the things of the spirit, and knowing how to expose every kind of impurity as counterfeit;

but rather inclining toward every good thing, and being zealous to put as far away as possible the sin that so easily besets us.

For the pleasures of the body bewitch the human mind, and vigorously plunder the hearts of some, invading almost fiercely like enemies.

But those who are armed with divine fear, all but laughing at the assaults of such passions, say:

‘The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what flesh shall do to me.’ And the all-wise Paul, exclaiming, brings them to this resolve, and indeed to spiritual strength, saying:

‘Put to death your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire.’ And this is accomplished through labors which one might well judge worthy of admiration, and to which one might assign the vote of praise above all things that are praised.

‘I buffet my body and bring it into subjection, lest, after preaching to others, I myself should become disqualified.’ Rejoicing, then, as workers of every virtue, let us welcome the truly all-pure and holy fast, the nurse of all good order, the mother of sanctification, and the procurer of favor from on high.

And while subduing the body through abstinence from food, let us also of necessity add to it the ways of gentleness.

For thus we shall be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

For it is somehow always the case that the glories arising from good works follow upon the labors of bodily discipline.

This will crown the athlete of piety with the awards that come from God;

this will procure the prize of the upward calling for those who play the man in endurance.

Therefore, while we have opportunity, let us work what is good toward all. [4]

To teach us these things the Only-begotten appeared in a form like ours;

but Israel did not understand the Savior and Redeemer of all;

although the law had already made manifest beforehand the mystery concerning him, as in shadows and types, and the holy prophets too had cried out in many and various ways.

Let those, then, who have been afflicted with ignorance concerning him, hear:

‘Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken:’

‘I have begotten and reared sons;’

‘The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger,’

‘but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me.’ For they persecuted him, accusing him and saying:

‘It is not for a good work that we stone you, but for blasphemy;’

‘because you, being a man, make yourself God.’ Let it, then, indeed be said concerning them, and most fittingly:

‘Woe, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, evil offspring, lawless sons;’

‘you have forsaken the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger.’ For indeed it was necessary to confess that he is both God and Lord of all;

and indeed, recognizing from the things wondrously accomplished his ineffable and God-befitting power, to utter that prophetic word:

‘Behold, here we are; we will belong to you, for you are the Lord our God.’ Yet they did none of these things; instead they grew bitter and fierce, at one time being eager to revile him outrageously, calling him a Samaritan and a wine-bibber, and indeed saying that he was born of fornication;

and at another time driving him out with stones from the borders of Judea, and at last they crucified him.

And they wagged their heads at him, and indeed said:

‘You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself;’

‘if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ So then, as far as their undertaking went, they killed the Author of life;

But it was not possible for him to be held by death, as the divinely-inspired Peter says,

but he came back to life on the third day, having as God given life to his own temple, and having become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and the firstborn from the dead, that he might render human nature superior to death and corruption, and transform it into everlasting life.

And having manifested himself to the holy apostles, he ascended to the Father and God in the heavens, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of majesty on high;

for the rest, waiting until his enemies are put under his feet. And in due seasons he will come down from heaven in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, to judge the living and the dead.

Knowing these things, then, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit,

let us perfect holiness in the fear of God, practicing piety in every way, keeping our faith in him upright and unadulterated, restoring widows, comforting orphans;

attending to those in poverty, according to our ability, with what resources we have;

sympathizing with those who suffer, as being ourselves also in bodies;

remembering those in bonds, as bound with them.

on the twenty-seventh of the month Mechir, the week of the saving Passover beginning from the second of the month Pharmouthi;

concluding the fasts on the seventh of the same month Pharmouthi, in the deep evening, according to the apostolic traditions;

and celebrating the feast on the following dawning Lord’s Day, the eighth of the same month Pharmouthi;

joining thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.

For thus, thus shall we find favor, and shall commend our own souls to the God who is over all, in Christ Jesus our Lord;

through whom and with whom be glory and dominion to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages.

It is indeed most gratifying to me, brothers, in making the proclamation of our holy festival even at the present season, to have employed toward you the customary words, having omitted nothing that looks to spiritual benefit and that sets forth the assurance of right and unerring faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

For thus I myself would have gained the benefit of my own eagerness, while you would have remained without loss of the things that are able to profit you.

But since not all things run with a fair wind according to human designs, nor does the outcome always and altogether arrive straight according to intention, come, let us say, as far as possible, the pressing matters — or rather, as much as the magnitude of the illness that has befallen us, and continues even until now, allows us to be able to say.

For it has burdened us so heavily with its own symptoms, that we cry out that saying uttered by the holy disciples, when they too were in peril with the Savior:

'Lord, save us, we are perishing.' I know, then,

that, being distinguished by understanding, you possess a wise and prudent mind, holding fresh in your ears the exhortations of our holy Fathers and most excellent teachers, so that nothing is lacking to us, according to what the blessed writer of Proverbs says:

'All things are plain to those who act, and right to those who find knowledge.' Speaking, then, to those who already know, I shall boldly declare

Behold, now too the auspicious and saving season of the holy feast has arrived, in which, having shaken off the burdensome load of old sins, we have willingly taken upon ourselves the saving yoke of God the Word who came down from heaven, no longer laboring and burdened, but being instructed by the gentle word of Emmanuel who knows how to save.

Therefore, rejoicing with one another in the churches, through this common, sacred, and unanimous assembly let us send up hymns of thanksgiving to Christ the Savior who has redeemed us all, from the stain long ago worked into us through the transgression of the first-formed man, crying out that saying wisely spoken of old: 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.' For since, through the covetousness of the devil, we fell from paradise and the delight therein, having justly come under the indignation of our Maker, and having heard that fearful and most grievous voice, 'Earth you are, and to earth you shall go,' we were seen to become prey of the devil's tyranny, we wretched ones no longer daring to look up at all toward the things above.

...of men, he did not consider being equal with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and took on likeness to us, so that, having saved all through himself and made them pure from stain and defilement, he might present them to God the Father, being made like his brothers in all things, except sin alone.

Therefore let fasting also take the lead among us as forerunner of the holy festival, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

For when we keep ourselves blameless and unstained, and practice with utmost purity the manner of life pleasing to God, as genuine servants we shall fittingly hear:

'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord.' For the fruit of fasting will not be unprofitable to those who hope in him, nor will they ever hear that accursed voice fitting for Jews:

'I have not chosen this fast,' says the Lord. For he accuses them, and quite justly, through the voice of Isaiah, and says, 'You fast, and you strike the humble with your fists.'

'Why do you fast for me?' There is need, then, of that most excellent life which runs alongside fasting, having the bright and unblemished beauty, the shining provision for incorruption, the lovely pledge of the kingdom of heaven, the secure and unconquerable support of eternal life.

Which the multitude of the Jews was unwilling to confess, and so again heard God speaking through the voice of Isaiah:

'Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins, evil seed, lawless children!'

'You have forsaken the Lord, and provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel.'

'Why should you be struck any more, adding lawlessness?' For neither being astounded at the extraordinary works accomplished by the Savior himself, nor marveling at the divine signs which he worked by his own power, did they turn instead to boldness against him from the opposite side, saying, 'By Beelzebul, prince of demons, he casts out demons.' O God-hated madness, and ineffable impiety!

'They did not know, nor did they understand; they walk about in darkness, and they wander, both small and great among them.' If you do not understand the things written about him, nor grasp the message of the holy disciples, why do you boast, imagining yourself to be a keeper of the lawful commandments? When have you seen fulfilled what was foretold of old: 'Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear'?