復活節講道集 第 1 章 第 18/28 段

'but into the second only the high priest enters, once a year, and not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of ignorance of the people;'

'the Holy Spirit signifying by this that the way into the holy places had not yet been made manifest, while the first tabernacle still had standing.' For the first, as I said, was accessible to many;

but the second and innermost—the Holy of Holies—was inaccessible.

For only he who was, as it were, leader over the priestly orders entered, once in the year, and not without blood, according to what is written:

'For as a forerunner he entered on our behalf.' Jesus entered into the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption, not without blood, according to the Scriptures.

For he has been sacrificed on our behalf, as an unblemished victim, for a fragrant aroma to God the Father.

Therefore, in the first tabernacle, the standing of those who then offered sacrifice served a useful purpose, the law not yet permitting entry into the Holy of Holies.

'For the way into the holy places,' he says, 'had not yet been made manifest, while the first tabernacle still had standing.' What has been said above, then, suffices, as I think, for a clear demonstration of the season at which the Passover should fittingly be observed.

But it might now be fitting for us to say to some—taking our start from the sacred Scriptures—how one ought to eat it, or in what manner it is proper for it to be observed.

Our great Moses, then, in composing his oracle concerning it, said that those who have partaken of the holy and undefiled lamb must also make use of unleavened bread and the bitter herbs, and partake of the flesh, being arrayed in the following manner:

'Let your loins,' he says, 'be girded, and your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hands;'

'and you shall eat it in haste.'

'It is the Lord's Passover.' But what, someone might reasonably ask at times, is the meaning for us of the posture of those partaking of the meal?

For the law was by no means given to idle or careless speech;

but it will certainly follow that each of the things ordained ought to be held in great admiration.

For is it not full of absurdity and folly, that we, having chosen to think rightly, should be eager to avoid saying, or indeed to avoid doing, what is vain and unfitting, as something unseemly —

while supposing that the supreme Nature, which by law orders our affairs unto well-being, would regard as necessary something that contributes nothing to our benefit,

and would utter some foolish word? Away with such ill counsel!

What then is the reason why those who eat the lamb must gird their loins, bind sandals on their feet, and take a staff? Is not the type manifest, and does it not all but cry aloud the manner of the divine economy? For those who truly keep the all-holy festival, and who are called to partake of the blessing of Christ, will consider the distraction of this present life vain, and, casting away the choice to live after the flesh, henceforth mind the things above, hasten to the city above, and pass, as it were, into another life, one manifestly befitting the saints and freed from earthly concern.

For this reason, then, the law clearly assigns to those who eat the traveler's posture, as to those who are soon to migrate to the better and higher things —

for I say that, as I said just now, those who keep the festival purely, and who have been called into unity with God in Christ, ought to excel in this very purpose.

That sluggishness in these matters is not without penalty, and that falling into indolence does not escape justice, the lawgiver would show, having said concerning the holy Passover:

'And you shall eat it in haste.'

'It is the Passover of the Lord.' For it befits those who accomplish a life pleasing to God and approved to appear superior to hesitation, and not to admit delay,

but rather to seize the opportune times, as it were, and not to allow the season fitting for diligent labor to gallop past unused.

For just as, for those who have chosen to sail across the sea, to be slothful with regard to favorable winds is not without penalty,

and for farmers, when the season calls them to labor, to remain at home is unfitting —

so, I say, for those who are zealous for the highest things, delay is inglorious, and apt to bring blame upon them — or rather, it will prove the source of every loss, and of the wrongs that arise from hesitation and indolence.

Let delay, therefore, be set aside, and let the failings that come from sloth be cast far away;

for in no way would they be fitting for those who have been called through faith to partake of the blessing of Christ.

'And they shall eat unleavened bread, and with it bitter herbs.'

For thus the sacred Scripture speaks.

And what is the deep and ineffable mystery of the legal ordinances? Come, let us speak of it as best we can.

It is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to liken the ways of wickedness to leaven,

for such things embitter the mind, as it were, and afflict it with unbearable dejection.

Therefore, he says, if it should happen to anyone to come into participation with Christ, let him not treat virtue as something not to be pursued; let him depart from everything that is capable of defiling, and let him be seen to be patient in suffering,

and let him make it his practice to delight in this very thing.

For bodies, on the one hand, delight in the pleasures proper to them;

but the food of the mind would be, I think, the divine word and the exposition of the sacred doctrines, one that holds rightly and blamelessly to well-refined concepts, free from sophistry, deceit, and false speech.

Such food is pure and unleavened.

For many, often all but dancing in mockery upon the rightness of the divine doctrines, and sporting with the words of truth, are eager to bring in, alongside them, unholy importations of their own wretched notions; and these miserable men, fashioning myths as inventions of worldly deceit, do harm to the minds of the more simple.

But let Christ set foot among his own disciples, saying:

'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Scribes.' For the old-wives' fables befitting their foolishness are not far removed from Jewish sophistry.

Let us, then, abstain from such food;

and, before all else, let us hold to the evangelical and saving teaching, the writings of the apostles — not, as is the custom with some, forcing the meaning of what is written toward an unseemly interpretation, nor unholily wresting it away from what is right, but eagerly running through it in the very direction the aim of its teachings would lead.

Let us together cultivate patience along with this, not refusing to be worn down by bitter labors, for the sake of choosing to live rightly and pressing on after the things that have been divinely ordained.

For virtue is, admittedly it is, not accessible simply to just anyone, but hard to approach and steep.

One would attain it not by being a lover of pleasure or slack, not one overcome by the passions of the flesh and wholly bound thereby, nor one who, letting out every sail, as it were, is driven uncontrollably toward inclinations to baser things; but rather he who excels in sobriety, is full of boldness for good things, is a lover of good order, has been reared together with gentleness, makes light of the toil that looks toward better things, and purchases good repute through the labors undertaken for virtue's sake —

For it would not be possible for anyone to succeed in accomplishing any of the things held in admiration, unless he pursued it with earnestness, and chose that he must endure suffering.

Therefore, the law, as in types — I mean by leaven and bitter herbs — makes known to us things that are necessary.

If we should refuse the experience of these things, straying far from the divine path, and running past the life most fitting for the saints, we shall wrong ourselves not a little.

For if Jesus, the author and perfecter of our life, was made perfect through sufferings, according to what is written, how shall we not live out an inglorious and derided life, if we refuse to share in the same, and avoid the ways of good repute? For we shall at once hear Christ crying out and saying:

'If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,'

'and follow me.' It is necessary, then, that we follow in the footsteps of Christ, who gave himself for us.

And for what reason? For of old the human race was being plundered by the inventor of sin;

and, allowing no method of scheming to remain untried in his own perversities, he deceived those on the earth, and, dreaming of the glory of deity for himself, he ordered altars and precincts to be built for him, and commanded that he be honored with the sacrifice of oxen and with incense.

And carrying off those who had been led astray to whatever he wished, he persuaded some to attach their worship to the sun, and others to the moon and stars;

but he even, plunging them into baser offenses than these, made them consecrate the forms of irrational beasts, thereby, I suppose, heaping outrage upon the dignity of the divine;

daring to carry away the glory of the highest of all essences, and presuming, out of sheer malice, to liken it to things so utterly base — even to things of which no account could ever be given.

Having thus driven man astray, like straying cattle, from the true knowledge of God, and having persuaded him to be deprived of the best counsel and right judgments, and having, through deceit, brought him under his own yoke, he immediately made him a lover of all wickedness, and, having rendered virtue for him untrodden and altogether impassable, he set him up as abominable and hated by God.

God called ancient Israel through Moses, selecting it out as a kind of firstfruit of his own deity, and indeed, by ordering it amid disorder with the best laws, made it an object of emulation.

But nonetheless that one, stealing beneath the hearts of the more simple, prepared them to lay claim to shameful practices and unholy counsel.

Physicians, skilled in delivering men from the sicknesses of the soul, were raised up from time to time according to the divine dispensation.

But even these — the holy prophets — they dishonored, and were caught in many kinds of transgression.

— the earth, that is, having had sin removed from it, and death, which had sprung up on account of it, having perished together with its very root, and, besides this, the tyranny of the devil itself having been abolished —

It was fitting that such brilliant and conspicuous achievements should belong to none of the created beings, but rather to that Nature alone which surpasses all things, and which is very well crowned with the highest powers and excellences.

Therefore the Only-begotten Word of God became man — he through whom all things were brought into being, and, having been made, are preserved.

And as for the manner of this economy, that is, of the union of the Word with the flesh taken from the earth, it is not without harm to pry into it curiously.

For that which is beyond mind and reason ever surpasses scrutiny, and rightly demands that our researches yield to it in reverence.

Having become like us in all things, save only for knowing how to sin, he was shown clearly and manifestly, by the surpassing greatness of his wonder-working deeds, to be God by nature.

For he commanded the dead, already putrid and corrupted in their tombs, to return again to life;

he gave sight to those blind from birth;

he delivered the sick from long-standing diseases;

he was marveled at for rebuking the sea and the winds; and the account concerning these things would become long indeed, were one to choose to relate each one clearly.

But whereas it was fitting that those of Israel should exceedingly admire him for these things, and, being persuaded at last by the very signs of his divinity, cry out —

'Truly you are the Son of God' — instead they were caught dishonoring him in many ways, and in the end crucified him.

For Christ, according to the divine economy, submitted himself to this;

so that, having on our behalf been numbered among the dead, and having preached to the spirits in Hades, he might rise again on the third day, having abolished the grim and implacable dominion of death, and having uprooted corruption from its very root, and thus, henceforth, might render heaven itself accessible to those on earth.

For as a forerunner on our behalf he ascended to the Father.

And in due season he will come in the glory of him who begat him, together with the holy angels, to render to each according to his work.

As those, then, who are to be judged, let us keep the faith, and conduct our lives with due diligence;

let us live rightly, utterly rejecting as counterfeit the ways of wickedness;

and, cultivating every form of virtue — mutual love, love of the poor — let us care for orphans, visit widows, show mercy on the tears of those in sickness;

let us visit those who are in bonds;

let us cultivate purity of the body.

For thus, thus fasting, shall we purely accomplish the holy and all-pure feast:

beginning the holy Forty Days' fast from the sixteenth of the month Phamenoth;

and the week of the saving Passover from the twenty-first of the month Pharmouthi, ending the fasts on the twenty-sixth of the same month Pharmouthi, at deep evening, according to the gospel proclamation;

and keeping the feast on the following dawning Lord's Day, the twenty-seventh of the same month, joining thereafter also the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.

For thus, thus again shall we delight in the divine words, in Christ Jesus our Lord:

through whom and with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory and dominion,

We shall now also read the customary things, and feast ourselves upon ecclesiastical discourses, making it, as it were, a kind of invitation that one ought to choose, and to be distinguished by right faith, and to love the glorious and blameless life,

of every kind, and, ever casting far away whatever stands in the way as a hindrance, they have resolved to hold the completion of the tasks at hand worthy of their most pressing concern.

I would say that for this there will be need also of the fullest possible admonition for them, and of that which knows how to whet them to a more vigorous zeal:

just as, indeed, for the young men accustomed to wrestling, the voice of the trainer is needed, ever rousing them to endurance, and all but compelling them to long for the glory of victory.

So I too have come forward into the midst, crying out together with the lyre of the Psalmist to the lovers of good boasting:

And, I think, it is also possible to take courage for the contest in another way, for one who has carefully considered that saying.

'Who gave man a mouth? And who made the deaf and dumb, the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God? And now go, and I will open your mouth.' That ancient oracle, then, is shadow and type, even though it was allotted through angels, with Moses as mediator.

Yet it would in no way lack a share in thoughts above sense-perception, if one were to observe it with keen eyes, and, being accustomed to disregard the shadowy outlines of the letter, were to search out the sense lying deep and innermost within.

The Law, then, has ordained beforehand that the God of all must be honored with offerings in many ways;

and it added that it is also necessary to consecrate turtledoves to him.

And yet countless are the flocks of birds throughout the world, of which some, by the law of nature, have been honored with flight on high;

while others also take to the water for this purpose.

Their size, shape, and beauty are not all the same.

Nature paints each one differently, and by the skill of the Creator their kind is broadened into a flowery variety of colors.

Then why, one might ask, has the Law passed over those, and, bypassing the best of all, all but crowns the turtledove with the highest honors, having ordained that it be made a sacred offering to God? What is the reason, and what is the wisdom of the Law? He who is beyond all understanding — I mean God — accepts the reason, as being the Father of the Word;

and he makes acceptable the sparrows that are accustomed to sing sweetly, and sets them before the others, even though at times these others possess much charm in abundance;

teaching us in a riddling way that among us too, those who have been entrusted with the ministry of the word are better and most sacred than the rest, and are able to admonish the lovers of the most excellent teachings,

not simply uttering an indistinct and unclear sound, but persuading you to keep the feast with fitting reasonings, so that the matter may go well;

that you may act rightly and blamelessly, according to what seems good to the Lawgiver.

The inspired Luke, then, has told us in his own writings:

'Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover had to be sacrificed;'

'and he sent Peter and John, saying,'

'Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.'

'Where do you want us to prepare it?' And he said to them,

'Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you;'

'follow him into the house into which he goes, and say to the master of the house,'

He said that an upper room, great and furnished, would be shown to the holy apostles, and he directed that the man laden with the water-jar, who was bringing the water in to the master of the house, should serve as guide to it. Come, then, let us pass by way of these slight notions to matters yet greater and intelligible.

And if anyone's purpose is to have Christ dwelling and lodged within his mind, and keeping the feast together with him, let him, having in the meantime become rich in the purification that is through water, wash away the sin of his own soul, and rub off the defilements of those ancient enigmas.

For thus, indeed, God also says, through the voice of Isaiah:

'Wash yourselves, and become clean;'

'remove your wicked deeds from your souls, from before my eyes;'

'cease from your evil deeds, learn to do good, seek out justice, rescue the one who is wronged, judge for the orphan, and plead the widow's cause; and come, and let us reason together,' says the Lord.

'And though your sins be as crimson, I will make them white as snow;'

'and though they be red like scarlet, I will make them white as wool.' For I myself say that the filth arising from wickedness must first, as it were, be squeezed out of our minds;

and then to bring in, in this way, glorious and estimable virtue, than which nothing could be found of equal weight, at least in the judgment of those sound of mind, and who know how to distinguish that which is not naturally disposed to do wrong from that which is.

For just as, I think, in every way and altogether, things that are by nature opposed to one another cannot coexist together in one and the same subject at the same time;

'For what fellowship has light with darkness?' as it is written; and if the one is removed, it will altogether yield its entrance to the other;

in the same way, I think, wickedness and virtue, having a contrary quality in their works, and separated by the widest possible difference, how could they enter into one and the same mind? Would they not then render the one who has received them both unlovely and fickle, and as it were limping on both feet? But the prophet Elijah rebukes those who are accustomed to live in this manner, saying:

'How long will you go limping on both hams?' And the Law also excludes us from such habits and manners, commanding in a riddling way that we reject what is incongruous and irreconcilable.

'You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.' And again:

'You shall not wear wool and linen together.' Observe how, in every respect, it declared that we must hate whatever is, so to speak, incompatible and not fittingly joined together, as unlovely and unholy, since it does not know how to honor the combining of dissimilar things.

To one who is thus disposed and made radiant, it would now be fitting also to possess a lofty upper chamber, and, as it were in an upper room, to keep festival and dwell together with Christ amid the boastings that arise from virtues — Christ, who for our sake became poor, though he was rich, that we through his poverty might become rich. For being himself the very form, the character of God and the Father, the Son, the radiance of his glory, and begotten of him according to nature, distinguished by equality in every respect whatsoever, coexisting and coeternal, equal in power and equal in working, equal in glory and sharing the same throne, he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, as it is written.

For he descended into our condition, and underwent a voluntary emptying;

and, as the wise John says, 'became flesh, and tabernacled among us'; and he who, before every age and time, had his begetting from God who is also the Father — a begetting beyond all mind and reason whatsoever — since he became flesh and endured a human birth according to the economy, and he who is the maker and artificer of all time, as though brought forward to the beginnings of existence, when he became like us, heard the Father saying:

'Today I have begotten you.' Shall we then, on account of this, suppose that he bartered away the glory of pre-existing before all things? By no means.

Let us rather wisely consider this instead, that even though his own Son had come to be in flesh, the Father does not set him outside the natural prerogatives inherent in him;

but again acknowledges him, even though he is seen in the guise that is like ours.

For the only-begotten Word of God did not become man for this reason, that he might slip away from being God;

rather, even in the assumption of flesh, he preserves the glory of his own transcendent majesty.

For thus have we been made rich by his poverty, since in him human nature has been restored to a dignity befitting God, and established upon a throne that is above all things.

For although, as the Word, he always sits enthroned together with his own Father, existing from him and in him according to nature, yet again, even with flesh, he heard him saying:

'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' Thus also we say that he is worshipped both by us ourselves and by the holy angels, not senselessly reducing him to bare humanity, but following divine Scripture, and binding the Word who came forth from God into union with our nature, and weaving the two into a single reality, so that he may not be conceived simply as a man who bore God within himself, but rather as God become man, in a union according to the economy — a union, I mean, with his own flesh — having undergone birth from the Holy Virgin.

For thus, and not otherwise, could Christ be understood as one, and one Lord — not divided part by part into man and God after the ineffable conjunction, but rather, even if the nature of those things which have run together into unity be understood as different, received and understood as one Son.

For just as certain gleams flash within the most precious of gems, whitening their depths, and, if one wished to separate the combination in thought, one might observe the gem in itself, and again another might observe the light swimming within it, yet the underlying subject is understood as one out of both; and any cutting apart would altogether destroy the reasoning concerning it, disjoining unattractively the things that had been brought together into union;

so we also say concerning Christ.

For divinity and humanity have run together ineffably, and in a manner that no one could either conceive or express, into that which is henceforth understood as one thing;

so that he may be understood, in one and the same subject, to be both man like us and God above us;

and thus both only-begotten and firstborn.

And indeed he was brought forth from the virginal womb, and though still an infant, he had the mind of God.

And the blessed Isaiah will bear witness concerning him, saying:

But he was, as I have said, God even in humanity, permitting our nature to proceed according to its own laws;

while at the same time preserving the purity of the Godhead.

For only in this way, and not otherwise, could the one born be understood to be God by nature, and the Virgin who bore him could rightly be called henceforth a mother — not simply of flesh and blood, as indeed with us our own mothers are, but rather of the Lord and God who had put on the likeness that is like ours.

For as the inspired Paul writes:

God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. For we do not say that the Word of God dwelt in a man born through a woman, just as indeed he was also in the prophets; rather, let us crown with the correct verdict the voice of John, who spoke wisely and precisely:

'And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.' We shall understand that the Word became flesh in this sense: that he partook of flesh and blood—

and this in like manner to those who are of blood and flesh, that is, to us.

And if he became like us, how would it follow that he dishonored human birth? For he dwelt among us in flesh and blood, in a manner befitting God and ineffably, mingling as it were his own nature with ours.

For this deity of the Word, if it be considered alone and by itself, has a sufficient generation from God the Father;

Yet, having condescended by the economy to union with us, and having been interwoven with flesh, that is, with our nature, which is complete according to its own principle, then indeed—without any blame whatsoever, and being in no way at all wronged as regards being what it is—it will also accept birth according to us;

not as though called from somewhere into the beginnings of being (for it was always, and is, and shall be;

it has an existence older than everything), but wisely permitting itself to come, through its own principles, under the laws of humanity.

For just as the precious and all-pure flesh from the holy Virgin became the very own flesh of the Word who is from God the Father, so also there became his own everything befitting that flesh, apart from sin alone.

And most especially fitting to flesh, before all else, would be birth through a mother.

Therefore the deity itself, considered by itself, if thought of apart from flesh, will be motherless, and quite rightly so.

But once the mystery concerning Christ has been set forth in our midst, any account of this differing from what we hold would prove exceedingly feeble.

For we, having chosen to think rightly and walking the most unerring path, shall hold that the Virgin gave birth not to a bare deity, but rather to the Word who is from God the Father, having become man and united to flesh—she having been taken up for the service of bearing in the flesh him who was united to flesh.

Emmanuel, then, is accordingly God;

and she who bore in the flesh the God who appeared in the flesh for our sake would rightly be called Mother of God.

And the infant was not merely like us, that is, not in a bare and mere resemblance to us;

but in humanity indeed, on account of the flesh;

but divine, as being above us and from heaven.

And indeed the divinely-inspired Paul says: 'The first man was of the earth, earthy;'

'the second man is from heaven.' And indeed the blessed prophet Isaiah, as he was taught the power of the mystery in a prophetic vision, says that he himself beheld the Lord and God of all in the holy Virgin, all but witnessing the very conception of the divine infant.

And the manner of the vision was indeed shaped in a human fashion, yet it is understood otherwise, in a manner befitting God.

For indeed the divine is not according to our measure.

'Take for yourself a great new tablet, and write on it with a man's stylus, concerning making a swift plunder of spoils, a speedy despoiling.'

'For it is at hand; and I made for myself faithful witnesses, Uriah and Zechariah the son of Berechiah.'

'And I went in to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said to me:'

'Call his name, Swiftly plunder, quickly despoil.'

Yet it is written with a man's stylus;

For the account of the deity, if it be conceived once more as bare, by itself and apart from flesh, requires expression by human words; yet the reason that is within us is utterly incapable of expressing what transcends mind, nor can it make clear what lies beyond all speech.

But since the only-begotten Word of God became man, and dwelt among us, the things concerning him are written with a stylus such as ours.

But come now, let us again consider that point.

For God, having commanded the prophet to take the tablet and to write on it, with a stylus such as ours, the things contained in it, the prophet went in to the prophetess.

And what does 'he went in' mean? It stands for his enacting the custom of conjugal union.

And he calls the holy Virgin 'prophetess';

for she prophesied while bearing Christ in her womb.

And she conceived, and bore a son, to whom the scripture also assigns a name, not again as to a mere man in a private sense, but, from his achievements, as to God.