Paschal Homilies 1 part 24/28

But if there is nothing mystical in these things, if it is not a true word bearing, still written in shadows, the power of the mystery concerning Christ, then for what reason does the lamb, when slain, no longer save anyone, nor does its own blood any longer avert the destroyer? For the power of the divine mysteries will in no way grow weak.

And as the all-wise Paul writes, 'The gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.' It is therefore evident to all that it is in Christ alone that we have gained indestructibility;

for he is life and life-giving;

so that even what by its own nature is prone to corruption might come to be beyond suffering it, quite readily, once it has been enriched with the garment of incorruption — that is, Christ.

'For as many of you,' it says, 'as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.' It would be most fitting for each of the baptized to say, in the voice of the prophet:

'Let my soul exult in the Lord.'

'For he has clothed me with the garment of salvation and the robe of gladness.' For being clothed, as I said, with the robe of gladness — that is, Christ — we escape the power of death.

You have this mystery written in the shadows of the Law.

For the things given through Moses were types, and images of the realities, still bringing forth, as though in dim travail, the beauty of the truth.

Thus, to those of Israel once encamped in the wilderness, God gave as bread the mystical manna.

And they gathered what was sufficient for the day, the divine law also prescribing this.

For what was kept over would spoil, and the gathering of what was superfluous and beyond need was for them futile labor, and perhaps also the occasion of punishment.

And indeed, 'some kept it over until the morning,' as it is written, 'and Moses,' it says, 'was greatly angered at them,' since the sacred ordinances had been trampled underfoot.

But that what is by nature prone to corruption can, as I said, come to be beyond corruption and beyond the measures of its own nature, when God so wills, Moses has fully assured us.

For thus it is written in Exodus:

'And Moses said to Aaron:'

'Take a golden jar, and put into it an omer full of manna.'

'And you shall set it before God, for your generations.'

Therefore, when Christ enfolds us, just as, of course, the golden jar enfolded the manna, then we too shall remain incorruptible, God watching over us and, as it were, fixing his eye upon our affairs.

For having been cast out of his presence because of the transgression in Adam, and lying, as it were, out of his sight, we were carried down into corruption.

'When you turn away your face, they will be troubled, and will return to their dust.' But since we have been counted worthy of his sparing and his watchful oversight, and since we gain this too, along with other things, in Christ, we are transformed into a life of long duration, and we are before the eyes of the Father of all, and we shall remain in preservation, so that each of us, leaping for joy, may say:

'O Hades, where is your sting?' For the dead shall rise, according to the voice of the prophet:

'And those in the tombs shall be raised.'

'For the dew from you is healing to them.' Therefore, since we shall walk on into a life of long duration, and shall return to that which was in the beginning, let us show ourselves worthy to be with Christ.

For it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.' And, as his disciple says:

'If we call upon as Father him who judges without partiality according to each one's work, let us conduct ourselves in fear during the time of our sojourning' — knowing well that the things of this present life are small, quick to wither, altogether easy to lose, and pass away just like shadows;

whereas the things that come from God are unshakable and firmly established, and endure forever together with those who have received them.

Therefore, while the time still allows, let us wipe away defilements both of the flesh and of the soul.

Let us cultivate the ways of gentleness, let us put on a heart of compassion.

Let us grieve over the miseries of those in need.

Let us open our hearts to those in affliction, let us have pity on orphans, let us restore widows, let us share the tears of those in distress, let us have mercy on those in bonds, let us suffer together with the sick, restoring them with whatever remedies are available, and altogether let us practice every kind of virtue.

For thus, thus shall we fast purely, beginning the holy Forty Days from the thirteenth of the month Phamenoth;

and the week of the saving Passover from the eighteenth of the month Pharmouthi, ending the fasts on the twenty-third of the same month Pharmouthi, at deep evening, according to the proclamation of the Gospel;

and keeping the feast on the following dawning Lord's Day, the twenty-fourth of the same month Pharmouthi;

joining thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost, so that through upright conduct we may also delight in the holy words, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom, to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever. Amen.

Come then, again, as the season urges us on to the necessity of fulfilling what is proclaimed in the divine ordinances, let us, as it were taking up the sacred trumpet, and crying out with a great and resounding voice, say:

'Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord.' For the power of the dispensation in the flesh is set forth for us as a spiritual feast by the Only-begotten Word of God, who, in no way falling short of the excellence of him who begot him, being of equal glory and equal power, as being of one substance with him, and having appeared from him according to nature, and being distinguished by unvarying identity;

for he is the exact representation of his hypostasis, and the radiance of his glory; and, according to the faith of the sacred Scriptures, he brought himself down into our condition;

not slipping away from the dignities inherent in him, but rather coming to be in the assumption of flesh and blood, so that we too might become partakers of the divine nature, gaining this reality spiritually through our union with him.

For we are joined to him through faith and sanctification, and through deeds of valor done in piety.

And this is a feast, and a festal assembly, and the source that procures for us the highest of goods.

For this reason, the Savior and Lord of all himself, by way of a parable, indicates the power of his own coming, saying:

'The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who had been invited, saying:'

'Behold, I have prepared my dinner;'

'my oxen and fattened calves are killed, and all things are ready;'

'Come to the wedding feast.' By this bodily marriage feast, he deems it fitting to represent the spiritual reality.

'He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with him.' Since, then, God the Father gathers us together to the spiritual banquet, and provides for us a most abundant array of the divine teachings—

'My oxen and my fatlings are killed.' Come, then, let us put on the robe befitting those who keep festival, and, as though weaving a crown from flowers of spring, bind about ourselves the crown woven of manifold virtue; and having as leader of our dance him for whose sake we celebrate this festival, let us sing and say:

But in another way too they live in luxury, rushing with unbridled impulses toward whatever is most extravagant.

But such luxury ends in punishment, and the outcome of love of the flesh hangs over them a harsh and inescapable penalty.

'For he who sows to the flesh,' it is said, 'will from the flesh reap corruption.' Upon those accustomed to live in this way, the divinely-inspired prophet Amos too lets fall a tear of love, saying:

'Those who sleep on beds of ivory, and sprawl upon their couches, and eat kids from the flocks, and suckling calves from the midst of the herds; who clap their hands to the sound of instruments—they have reckoned these things as abiding, and not as fleeting.'

'Those who drink strained wine, and anoint themselves with the finest ointments;'

'and they were not at all grieved over the affliction of Joseph.'

But from such shameful pursuits and vain wandering, the disciple of the Lord turns us away, us who are in Christ, saying:

'Little children, do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world.' And again it is written:

'Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.' Standing, then, outside worldly desires, and withdrawing as far as possible from every matter bearing the stamp of profane fleshly indulgence, we shall be holy celebrants;

and celebrating to Christ the all-pure festival, we shall hear him saying:

For the all-wise Paul writes again, 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.' Yet we, though it is granted to us to delight ungrudgingly in the gifts bestowed by God, choose instead the unmixed life of the worse course, shake off his generosity, and provoke to wrath the divine and undefiled Mind.

For the Divine is by nature incapable of wrath.

Yet it does not tolerate those who have inclined themselves without restraint toward the doing of evil deeds.

And in saying this concerning his wrath, we make use of expressions proper to ourselves.

For it was not possible in any other way to signify to anyone the things that are above us, that is, the things that inhere in the divine and ineffable nature.

Whenever, therefore, he beholds men turned aside to indolence, mired in the swamps of fleshly love, holding it of no account whatever that they ought to be schooled by his laws, and setting off directly away from every fair and good deed—

then, at that time, imitating the best of fathers, he raises up the scourge.

For indeed it was likely that some would go so far as to suppose that he is not good at all, unless with measured motions he checks their indolence, and drives back to the better course those whose bent would else be to be swept away from what is most profitable to them, and, with the unbridled impulses of the mind, to rush upon the rocks and leap senselessly down into the pit of destruction.

We shall find that the most sacred Paul himself also wrote something of this kind:

'For what son is there whom a father does not discipline?' And in addition to this he says:

'Moreover, we had fathers of our flesh as disciplinarians, and we respected them.'

'Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they indeed disciplined us for a little while, as seemed best to them;'

'but he does so for our profit, that we may partake of his holiness.'

'Now all discipline for the present does not seem to be a matter of joy, but of grief;'

'but afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.' God, then, disciplines out of love.

But even in this it is possible to marvel greatly at the surpassing excellence of the tranquility that dwells within him.

For although it was possible for him, without hindrance, to inflict penalties proportionate to our offenses, he has, in a sense, measured his action to the weaknesses of those who err;

and he rather alarms than truly punishes.

But in order that we may show our own statement not to be false, come, let us bring forward into the midst the things that were, from time to time, brought upon the ancients.

And let us relate on what account they occurred.

For the sacred Scripture said somewhere, 'These things happened to them as types.'

'And it was written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.'

The God of all things, therefore, laid down through Moses for those of Israel a law guiding them toward whatsoever is praiseworthy, and able to crown with the honors of righteousness those who had fully resolved to accomplish what was fitting.

But they missed the mark, and having thrust away their tutor, cast themselves into the charges of disobedience.

And God had it written down against those transgressing the law, somewhat as follows,

speaking through the voice of the prophet Hosea:

'Hear the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, for the Lord has a judgment against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God upon the land;'

'but cursing, and murder, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery have been poured out upon the land,'

'and they mingle blood with blood.'

'They set themselves to devise trouble, and to work evil upon their beds, and at daybreak they carry it out.'

'And they coveted fields, and plundered orphans, and oppressed households, and plundered a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.' And another of the prophets also cried out:

'Woe to those who join house to house, and bring field near to field, that they may take away something from their neighbor.'

'Will you dwell alone upon the land? For these things have been heard in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.' For those unrestrained in greed, always eager to add to what they have things that belong not to themselves but rather to their neighbors, are perhaps in haste to have the habitable earth to themselves alone, unable to tolerate neighbors.

These things some of the ancients did, disregarding the divine laws.

But even so the Lawgiver and Judge was loving toward mankind.

He called, at any rate, those who had grieved him to a change of heart, through the voice of Jeremiah, saying:

'Return to me, O dwelling-place of Israel, says the Lord, and I will not set my face against you, for I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not be angry with you forever.'

'Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God.' But since they, being greatly diseased with disorder, and possessing an uncleanness hard to wash away, and deeming it of the utmost importance that they must be firmly fixed in wickedness, were being caught in the very acts, he thereafter let loose upon them the effects of his wrath.

Yet not at all disproportionately, but rather mingling mercy with his indignation.

'And I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.'

'And I withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest; and I will rain upon one city, but upon another city I will not rain.'

'And the portion upon which I do not rain will be dried up, and two or three cities will gather together to one city to drink water, and they will not be satisfied.'

'yet even so you did not return to me, says the Lord.'

'I struck you with blight and mildew;'

'you multiplied your gardens and your vineyards; and the caterpillar devoured your fig orchards and your olive orchards;'

'yet not even so did you return to me, says the Lord.' Observe, then, how he did not send down fire from above upon those who had sinned,

but rather he alarmed them by curtailing the necessities of life.

And making the matter into a kind of reminder, that, having abandoned lawless living, they ought to desire what is better.

That those against whom these things happened to come have paid the penalty for their offenses, the God of all things shows, saying:

'Because you neglected me, says the Lord, your ways and your practices have done these things to you.' These, then, are the things concerning them.

But let us, if it please, examine carefully the things concerning ourselves.

For at times the fallings of rain hold back, even though the season allots that we should delight in them; and the cutting-off of river streams causes grief;

the sweats of those accustomed to plow go unrewarded.

Barrenness of fields, ruin of the ripening crops.

Terrible and most grievous illnesses of the body.

From this come griefs, beatings of the breast and lamentations, and great scarcity of men throughout cities and villages.

Come, then, imitating the most skillful of physicians, let us wisely investigate the cause of such a calamity.

Manifold sin, then, has as it were an evil root.

From there our miseries arise;

and as for the origin of the things by nature grievous, one led well by the hand from what befell the men of old to an understanding of our own affairs could say it is no other.

And not stumbling at one time only, but having grown negligent of the sacred commandments,

For that he possesses unsurpassable gentleness and love for mankind is not hard to see even from this.

For he extends a saving hand to those who have slipped,

and bids them turn to what is better, saying:

'Seek the good, and not the evil, that you may live, and so the Lord God will be with you.' And to those who have chosen to do this, he promises an abundant supply of good things, saying:

'And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that I will hearken to the heavens, and the heavens shall hearken to the earth, and the earth shall hearken to the grain, and the wine, and the oil.' But also again through another prophet:

'If I do not open for you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out upon you my blessing, until you are satisfied' — that is, until you are filled and have enough.

Let us turn our own hearts to the willing of what is good.

For indeed the charges of negligence are, in a way, altogether without excuse.

For the Son himself has appeared to us from the heavens, and we have obtained as our teacher him who illumines the heavens, and who brightens even the powers above themselves.

For being God by nature, and having appeared from God, the only-begotten Word of God partook of blood and flesh, and became man according to the divine dispensation, so as to render us both knowers of every virtue, and cultivators of the noblest pursuits, and men who have come to stand well in the true knowledge of God.

For since the divine nature is altogether unseeable and invisible, and possesses a glory that cannot be beheld (for, according to the word of Paul, it dwells in unapproachable light), he clothed himself with our flesh, and lived among men, conforming himself to the measures of humanity while remaining what he was, and he began his sacred pronouncements among those of the blood of Israel.

For the promises were theirs;

yet in the end, unrestrained, they crucified him; he departed from them, and gave himself as a gift to the flocks of the nations.

For it was not beyond his power not to endure to suffer;

but since he had promised us the resurrection of the dead, he made his suffering endurable, so that,

having trampled down death, and having risen from the dead, he might become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and that we might believe firmly that he will destroy corruption, and will drive away from our bodies the assault of death, being by nature life itself and life-giving, as God.

And in addition to this, that he might also render for us the path to the realms above passable and easy to tread, he ascended to the Father and God who is in the heavens, together with the flesh that had been united to him, animated with a rational soul.

And he is at the right hand of the Father, having all creation under his feet, beyond every created thing, and in a lordship that is natural to him.

And having a kingdom that cannot be shaken, he will come in due season in the glory of the Father with the holy angels, to render to each according to his works, as it is written.

As those, then, who are about to give account to the Judge, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit.

Let us rightly practice every manner of gentleness.

Let us love righteousness, love, self-control, brotherly affection, and love of the poor.

Let us show mercy to orphans, let us stem the tears of widows, let us visit those in bonds.

Let us restore the sick with kindness, and, in a word, let us be zealous to practice every kind of virtue rightly.

For thus, thus shall we be well-pleasing to Christ, the Savior of us all.

We begin the holy Forty Days on the fifth of the month Phamenoth;

and the week of the saving Pascha from the tenth of the month Pharmouthi, ending the fasts on the fifteenth of the same month, at the deep evening of the Sabbath, according to the tradition of the Gospel;

and we celebrate the feast on the following dawning Lord's Day, the sixteenth of the same month Pharmouthi;

joining thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost,

so that, having passed through this season also rightly and with piety, we may be counted worthy of the communion of the saints, in Christ Jesus our Lord,

through whom and with whom be glory to God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

The brothers who are with me greet you.

I shall again make use of the words of the all-wise Paul, and indeed I shall say to those who have been justified in faith and sanctified in spirit:

'Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men.' It is a time of steadfastness and endurance;

a time of extraordinary deeds of valor, and of spiritual manliness.

For the season of our holy feast is again advancing upon us,

with the venerable and all-pure fast, evidently, rising up before it;

so that, by rightly living out a glorious and well-approved life, and by good labors wiping away the defilements that come from sin, we may present ourselves holy and blameless to Christ, all but crying out and saying:

'But for me, it is good to cling to God.' And I think it necessary that those who would be versed in the good life of the Gospel, and lovers of the rewards prepared for the saints, being roused by a certain unconquerable eagerness, should proceed to this, casting far away from their own minds the feeble and profitless sloth, and, so to speak, bidding farewell to senseless idleness.

For indeed the choicest of things are not attainable by those who have inclined toward idleness;

nor indeed are the things of God to be seized by them.

She renders that most excellent race easy of access, as one who nets and draws to herself the kind that is most naturally disposed toward good repute, while driving away, as it were, whatever is slothful and unwarlike.

For she loves, as I said, those who have been chosen out.

Something of this sort the prophet also says:

'Straight are the ways of the Lord, and the righteous shall walk in them;'

'but the impious shall grow weak in them.' Therefore, as the divinely-inspired Paul writes, 'Finally, be strengthened in the Lord, and in the might of his strength;'

'put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.'

'Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.' For just as, in a city that neighbors and borders the land of barbarians, some of the inhabitants, being experienced in war and skilled in tactics, count the incursions of those enemies as of altogether little account,

while others, falling short of the resolve to labor and to march out manfully against those who have chosen to ravage the land, will lie exposed as the readiest prey,

so also is it with those who devote themselves to the life according to the law:

among them, those who fight are near at hand,

for these are very many, and bitter.

But those who have a mind that is strong, and who, having fitted on piety toward Christ as a kind of spiritual full armor, march out against them, will prove superior to their perversity,

and, keeping their own heart unwounded and unstruck, they will kindle songs of thanksgiving to Christ, saying:

'Through you we will gore our enemies with our horns, and in your name we will bring to nothing those who rise up against us.' Since, then, Christ locks shields with those who love him, and whets to a boldness befitting saints those who have chosen to follow the ordinances of the Gospel, let us subdue the flesh, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement;

let us remember the divine Scripture which says, 'But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;'

'neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather thanksgiving.'

'For this you know for certain, that no fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.' And again:

'So then, brothers, we are debtors — not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh;'

'for if you live according to the flesh, you will die;'

'but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.'

'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.' For we are enrolled among the children of God, having taken up in our own minds the beauty of the citizenship that is in Christ, and being very well conformed to him through our pursuits of piety.

When, then, the marks of the incorruptible nature shine forth within us, and we have been enrolled among the children of God, and have gained the wealth of brotherhood — that is, brotherhood with Christ, the King of all — let us, consecrating our own life to him, remain radiant.

For thus we shall be genuine celebrants, having him as the president of our festival.

And if it is most fitting for those who keep festival to be arrayed splendidly, it would, I think, be not unfitting that they ought to be made radiant with the adornments that come from virtues.

Rather, indeed, it is altogether fitting for those who wish to enter into the Holy of Holies, where Christ entered as a forerunner on our behalf, according to the word of the divinely-inspired Paul.

We say that the Holy of Holies are the various modes of mystical perfection.

Nor could one draw near to God — that is, in disposition and in sanctification — without first thoroughly washing away all the filth that comes from sin and from fleshly desires.

Since the things ordained typologically for those of old through the all-wise Moses were written for our instruction, and are images of spiritual realities teeming with much profit, come, let us set before our hearers, for full assurance and clear proof of what we have just said, that which is written in Exodus.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

'Make for yourself a bronze laver, and a bronze base for it, for washing.'

'And you shall set it between the tabernacle of witness and the altar;'

'and you shall pour water into it, and Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet with water from it, whenever they go into the tabernacle of witness, lest they die.'

'And it shall be an everlasting statute for him and for his generations after him.'

Observe, then, how the divine law has commanded that those who wish to enter into the Holy of Holies must first wash themselves.

And for those who would not endure to do this, it is seen that the penalty fixed reaches even to blood;

for it is not, it is not possible for us to go with unwashed feet toward the necessity of drawing near to God; otherwise we shall always and altogether do ourselves wrong, undergoing the ultimate penalty.

For what fellowship has light with darkness, according to what is written?

'Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has Christ with Belial?' Should the purification that is to be accomplished by us, then, reasonably be understood as bodily rather than spiritual? How, then, could it be right to doubt that it is spiritual, since God says so plainly, through the voice of Jeremiah:

'Wash your heart clean of wickedness, Jerusalem, that you may be saved'? And exceedingly many indeed are the ways of baseness: sorceries, love of the flesh, covetousness, whisperings, false oaths, and deceits.

But what provokes the God over all to wrath more than anything else is that some love to be filled with notions easily led astray and perverted toward what is not lawful, and are carried away into a reprobate mind, and choose to follow deceiving spirits, refusing to admit the exact and unadulterated faith.

For there are, indeed there are, those who bend the force of truth to what seems good to them privately, and heap up upon the crowd of the common multitude a mass of notions from those who fancy themselves wise.

'How long will you set upon a man? Will you all slay him?' And to what I have said I will add also this: