At that time, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And looking, they saw the stone rolled back. For it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe, and they were astonished. Who said to them: Be not affrighted. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified; he is risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee; there you shall see him, as he told you.
For many lessons, dearest brethren, I have been accustomed to speak to you by dictation; but because, my stomach being weakened, I cannot myself read what I have dictated, I perceive some of you listening with less pleasure. Wherefore now, contrary to custom, I wish to demand of myself that amid the sacred solemnities of the Mass I expound the lesson of the holy Gospel not by dictating, but by conversing. And let it be received as we speak, because the voice of conversation stirs up torpid hearts more than the discourse of a reading, and knocks upon them with a certain hand of solicitude that they may awake. Yet I do not see that I can be sufficient for this task; but nevertheless, the strength which unskillfulness denies, charity supplies. For I know Him who said: Open thy mouth, and I will fill it (Psalm 80).
(Psalm 80:11.) Let the good work therefore be in our will, for from divine help it will be in its accomplishment. The great solemnity of the Lord's own resurrection itself gives boldness to speak; for it is exceedingly unfitting that on that day the tongue of the flesh should keep silent from the praises that are due — on that very day, namely, on which the flesh of its Author rose again. You have heard, dearest brethren, that the holy women who had followed the Lord came to the sepulchre with spices, and pay honour, out of zeal of humanity, even to him dead, whom they had loved living. But the deed done signifies something to be done in the holy Church. For thus it is necessary that we hear what has been done, in order that we may also consider what ought to be done by us in imitation of them.
We too, then, believing in him who died, if, filled with the fragrance of virtues, we seek the Lord with the repute of good works, come indeed to his sepulchre with spices. And those women who came with spices see the angels; for those minds behold the citizens on high who set out toward the Lord through holy desires with the fragrances of virtues. But we must note what it is that the angel is seen to sit on the right side. For what is signified by the left but the present life, and what by the right but life everlasting? Whence it is written in the Song of Songs: His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me (Cant. 2:6).
Since therefore our Redeemer had already passed beyond the corruption of the present life, rightly did the angel who had come to announce his everlasting life sit on the right side. He appeared covered with a white robe, because he announced the joys of our festivity. For the whiteness of the garment proclaims the splendour of our solemnity. Shall we call it ours, or his? But that we may confess more truly, let us call it both his and ours. For that resurrection of our Redeemer was both our festivity, because it led us back to immortality, and it became the festivity of the angels, because by recalling us to heavenly things it filled up their number.
In his festivity, therefore, and in ours, the angel appeared in white garments; for while we are led back to things on high through the Lord's resurrection, the losses of the heavenly homeland are made good. But let us hear what he says to the women who come: Be not affrighted. As if he plainly said: Let those be afraid who love not the coming of the citizens on high; let those greatly dread who, pressed by carnal desires, despair of being able to attain to their fellowship. But you, why are you afraid, who behold your fellow-citizens? Whence also Matthew, describing the angel's appearing, says: His countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow (Matt. 28:3). For in the lightning there is the terror of fear, but in the snow the pleasing brightness of whiteness.
But because almighty God is both terrible to sinners and gentle to the just, rightly is the angel, the witness of his resurrection, shown both with a countenance of lightning and in a habit of whiteness, so that by his very appearance he might both terrify the reprobate and soothe the pious. Whence rightly too a pillar of fire went before the people passing through the desert by night, and a pillar of cloud by day (Exod. 13:21,22). For in the fire there is terror, but in the cloud the mild soothing of the sight; and the day is taken for the life of the just, and the night for the life of the sinner. Whence also Paul says to sinners who have been converted: You were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8).
By day, therefore, the pillar was shown through the cloud, and by night through the fire; because almighty God will appear both gentle to the just and terrible to the unjust. These, coming in judgment, he soothes through the mildness of his clemency; those he terrifies through the strictness of his justice. But let us now hear what the angel subjoins: You seek Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus in the Latin tongue is interpreted 'salutaris,' that is, Saviour. But in truth many then were called Jesus, yet not substantially but only by name. Therefore the place too is added, that it may be made clear of which Jesus it was said: Of Nazareth. And straightway he added the cause: Crucified. And he added: He is risen, he is not here.
He is not here, it is said, through the presence of the flesh, who yet is nowhere absent through the presence of his majesty. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee. We must ask why, when the disciples are named, Peter is designated by name. But if the angel had not named him expressly, Peter, who had denied his Master, would not have dared to come among the disciples. He is called therefore by name, lest he despair on account of his denial. Wherein we must consider why almighty God permitted him, whom he had disposed to set before the whole Church, to dread the voice of a maidservant and to deny himself.
This we recognize to have been done, without doubt, by a dispensation of great mercy, that he who was to be the Shepherd of the Church might learn in his own fault how he ought to have mercy on others. First, therefore, he showed him to himself, and then set him before the rest, that from his own weakness he might learn how mercifully he should bear with the weakness of others. Well too is it said of our Redeemer: He goeth before you into Galilee; there you shall see him, as he told you. For Galilee is interpreted 'a passing over accomplished.' Already indeed had our Redeemer passed over from passion to resurrection, from death to life, from punishment to glory, from corruption to incorruption.
And first after his resurrection he is seen by the disciples in Galilee, because we shall afterward behold with joy the glory of his resurrection, if only we now pass over from vices to the loftiness of virtues. He therefore who is announced in the tomb is shown in the passing over; because he who is recognized in the mortification of the flesh is seen in the passing over of the mind. These things, dearest brethren, we have run through concerning the exposition of the Gospel lesson, for so great a solemnity of the day; but it pleases us to speak somewhat more subtly concerning this same solemnity. For there were two lives, of which we knew the one, but were ignorant of the other. The one is mortal, the other immortal; the one of corruption, the other of incorruption; the one of death, the other of resurrection.
But there came the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus; he took up the one, and showed the other. The one he endured by dying, and the other he showed by rising again. If, therefore, to us who knew mortal life he had promised the resurrection of the flesh, and yet had not visibly exhibited it, who would have believed his promises? So then, having been made man, he appeared in the flesh, deigned to die of his own will, rose again by his own power, and showed by example what he promised us as reward. But perhaps someone may say: Rightly did he rise who, being God, could not be held by death. Therefore, to instruct our ignorance, to strengthen our weakness, he was unwilling that the example of his own resurrection should suffice for us.
He alone at that time died, and yet he did not alone rise again. For it is written: Many bodies of the saints that had slept arose (Matt. 27:52). Therefore all arguments of faithlessness are taken away. For lest anyone say: A man ought not to hope for himself what God made man exhibited in his own flesh — behold, we know that men rose together with God, whom we do not doubt to have been mere men. If therefore we are members of our Redeemer, let us presume in ourselves what is established to have been done in the Head. If we cast ourselves down greatly, we ought to hope in ourselves, the lowest members, what we have heard concerning his higher members. Behold, there comes to memory what the Jews, insulting the crucified Son of God, said:
If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him (Matt. 27:42). Had he then come down from the cross, yielding forsooth to those who insulted him, he would not have demonstrated to us the power of patience. But he waited a little, endured the reproaches, sustained the mockeries, kept his patience, deferred admiration; and he who would not come down from the cross rose from the sepulchre. It was therefore a greater thing to rise from the sepulchre than to come down from the cross. It was a greater thing to destroy death by rising than to preserve life by coming down. But when the Jews did not see him come down from the cross to their insults, when they saw him dying, they believed they had conquered him, and rejoiced that they had, as it were, extinguished his name.
But behold, from death his name grew throughout the world, out of which this unbelieving crowd believed they had extinguished it; and the one whom they rejoiced to have slain, they grieve to have died, because they recognize that he has come to his glory through his punishment. This the deeds of Samson well signify in the Book of Judges (Judg. 16), who, when he had entered Gaza, a city of the Philistines, the Philistines, straightway learning of his entrance, suddenly surrounded the city with a siege, appointed guards, and rejoiced that they had now captured the most valiant Samson. But we have learned what Samson did. In the middle of the night he carried off the gates of the city and ascended the summit of the mountain.
Whom, dearest brethren, in this deed does that Samson signify but our Redeemer? What does the city Gaza signify but hell? What is demonstrated by the Philistines but the faithlessness of the Jews? Who, when they saw the Lord dead and his body now laid in the sepulchre, at once appointed guards, and rejoiced that they had caught, held fast in the prisons of hell, the one who had shone forth as the Author of life — as though they had caught Samson in Gaza. But Samson at midnight not only went out, but also carried off the gates; because indeed our Redeemer, rising before the light, not only went out free from hell, but even destroyed the very prisons of hell.
He carried off the gates and climbed the summit of the mountain, because by rising he took away the prisons of hell, and by ascending he penetrated the kingdoms of heaven. This glory of his resurrection, therefore, dearest brethren, which was both formerly demonstrated by sign and afterward made plain by fact, let us love with our whole mind; for love of him let us die. Behold, in the resurrection of our Author we have recognized his ministers the angels to be our fellow-citizens. Let us therefore hasten to that thronged solemnity of these citizens. Since we cannot yet be joined to them by vision, let us be joined to them by desire and mind. Let us pass over from vices to virtues, that in Galilee we may be worthy to see our Redeemer. May he help —
— may almighty God help our desire toward life, who for us gave to death his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with him, God, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen. At that time, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early, when it was yet dark, to the sepulchre, and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. She ran therefore and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them: They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out, and that other disciple, and they came to the sepulchre. And they both ran together;
and that other disciple outran Peter more swiftly, and came first to the sepulchre. And when he had stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying, yet he went not in. Simon Peter therefore came, following him, and went into the sepulchre. And he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped up apart into one place. Then that disciple also went in, who had come first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. My stomach, broken by long distress, has for a while prevented me from speaking to your charity concerning the exposition of the Gospel lesson. For the voice itself sinks beneath the effort of crying out;
and because I cannot be heard by many, I am ashamed, I confess, to speak among many. But this bashfulness in myself I also reprove. For what then? If I cannot profit many, shall I not take care for a few? And if from the harvest I cannot carry many sheaves, ought I therefore to return empty to the threshing-floor? For although I am unable to carry as many as I ought, at least let me carry a few, at least two, at least one. For the very intention of weakness has the certainty of its own reward, because our supernal Judge, though he considers the weight in the recompense, yet weighs the strength in the weight.
The lesson of the holy Gospel which you have just now heard, brethren, is very open on the historical surface, but its mysteries must be sought out by us under its brevity. Mary Magdalene, when it was yet dark, came to the sepulchre. According to the history, the hour is noted; but according to the mystical understanding, the understanding of her who sought is signified. For Mary was seeking in the sepulchre the Author of all things, whom she had seen dead in the flesh; and because she did not find him there, she believed him to have been stolen away. Therefore it was still dark when she came to the sepulchre. She ran swiftly and announced it to the disciples. But those ran before the rest who loved before the rest, namely Peter and John.
They both ran together, but John outran Peter more swiftly, and came first to the sepulchre, yet he did not presume to enter. Peter, coming later, entered. What, brethren, what does this running signify? Is this so subtle a description by the evangelist to be believed to be void of mysteries? By no means. For John would not say both that he had gone before and had not entered, if in his very hesitation he had believed a mystery to be lacking. What then is designated by John but the Synagogue, what by Peter but the Church?
Nor let it seem strange that the Synagogue is represented by the younger, but the Church by the elder; for although the Synagogue is prior to the Church of the Gentiles in the worship of God, yet in the use of the world the multitude of the Gentiles is prior to the Synagogue, as Paul attests, who says: Not that which is spiritual was first, but that which is animal (1 Cor. 15:46). By the elder, therefore, is signified the Church of the Gentiles; but by the younger, John, the Synagogue of the Jews. They both ran together, because from the time of its rising even to its setting, by an equal and common way, though not by an equal and common understanding, the Gentile world ran with the Synagogue.
The Synagogue came first to the sepulchre, but did not enter, because it indeed received the commandments of the Law, heard the prophecies concerning the Lord's incarnation and passion, but would not believe in him dead. For John saw the linen cloths lying, yet he entered not; because the Synagogue indeed knew the sacraments of Sacred Scripture, and yet deferred to enter by believing in the faith of the Lord's passion. Whom it had long and far prophesied, it saw present, and refused; it despised him to be man, it would not believe God to have been made mortal in the flesh. What is it, then, but that it both ran more swiftly, and yet stood empty before the sepulchre?
But Simon Peter came, following him, and entered into the sepulchre; because the Church of the Gentiles, following later, both recognized the Mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ, as dead in the flesh, and believed him to be the living God. He saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped up apart into one place. What, brethren, do we believe this to be, that the napkin of the Lord's head is not found in the sepulchre with the linen cloths, but that, as Paul attests (1 Cor. 11:3), the head of Christ is God, and the incomprehensible sacraments of the Godhead are set apart from the knowledge of our weakness, and his power transcends the nature of the creature?
And it is to be noted that it is said to be found not only apart, but also wrapped up into one place. For of a linen cloth that is wrapped up, neither the beginning nor the end is seen. Rightly, then, was the napkin of the head found wrapped up, because the loftiness of the Godhead neither began to be nor ceases; neither is it born by a beginning, nor is it constricted by an end. Well too is it added: Into one place, because in the rending of minds God is not. For God is in unity, and they merit to have his grace who do not divide themselves from one another through the scandals of sects.
But because the sweat of those who labour is wont to be wiped away by a napkin, by the name of napkin may also be expressed the labour of God, who indeed in himself remains ever at rest and unchangeable, yet nevertheless declares that he labours when he bears the hard perversities of men. Whence also through the prophet he says: I have laboured, sustaining (Jer. 6:11). But God appeared in the flesh; he laboured out of our weakness. And while the unbelieving saw this labour of his passion, they would not venerate him. For him whom they saw mortal in the flesh, they disdained to believe immortal in his Godhead. Whence also Jeremiah says: Thou wilt render them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands; thou wilt give them a shield of heart, thy labour (Lam. 3:64,65).
For lest the darts of preaching should pierce their hearts, while they disdained the labour of his passion, they held that same labour of his as though for a shield, so that they would not permit his words to pass over to them, by that whereby they saw him labour even unto death. But what are we but members of our Head, that is, of God? By the linen cloths of the body, therefore, are signified the bonds of labours, which now constrain all the elect, that is, his members. The napkin, then, which had been over his head is found separately, because the passion of our Redeemer is far separated from our passion; for he endured without fault what we endure with fault; he willed of his own accord to succumb to death, to which we come unwilling.
There follows: Then that disciple also went in, who had come first to the sepulchre. After Peter entered, John also went in. He who had come first entered later. It is to be noted, brethren, that at the end of the world Judaea also shall be gathered to the faith of the Redeemer, as Paul attests, who says: Until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved (Rom. 11:25,26). And he saw and believed. What, brethren, what is he to be reckoned to have believed? Was it that the Lord, whom he sought, had risen again? Not at all, because it was still dark at the sepulchre, and the words subjoined also contradict it, when it is said: For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
What then did he see, and what did he believe? He saw the linen cloths lying, and believed what the woman had said, that the Lord had been taken away from the sepulchre. Wherein the greatness of the divine dispensation is to be weighed: that the hearts of the disciples are both kindled to seek, and are held back lest they find; so that the weakness of the soul, tormented by its very sorrow, may become both purer for finding, and may hold the more strongly when it has found, by however much the later it has found what it sought. These things, dearest brethren, we have run through in brief concerning the Gospel lesson; now it remains that we speak somewhat concerning the very nobility of so great a solemnity. For I shall rightly call this the nobility of a solemnity, because it precedes the other solemnities.
For just as in the sacred eloquence, on account of its greatness, the 'holy of holies' or the 'Song of Songs' are so called, so this festivity may rightly be called the solemnity of solemnities. For from this solemnity the example of the resurrection has been given to us, the hope of the heavenly homeland opened, and the glory of the kingdom on high made already something to be presumed upon. Through this, the elect, who, although in the bosom of tranquillity, were nevertheless held near the prisons of hell, have been led back to the delights of paradise. What he said before his passion, the Lord fulfilled in his resurrection: If I be lifted up, he says, from the earth, I will draw all things to myself (John 12:32). For he drew all things, who of his elect left none in hell. He took away all things — the elect, to be sure.
For by rising again the Lord did not restore to pardon the unbelieving and those given over to eternal torments for their crimes; rather, He snatched from the prison of hell those whom He recognized as His own in faith and in deeds. Whence He rightly says also through Hosea: 'O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite' (Hosea 13:14). For what we slay, we so act upon that it wholly ceases to be. But from what we bite, we draw away a part and leave a part behind. Therefore, because in His elect He utterly slew death, He became the death of death. But because from hell He took away a part and left a part, He did not slay it utterly, but bit hell. He says therefore: 'O death, I will be thy death.' As if He plainly said:
Because in My elect I utterly destroy thee, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite, because when they are taken from thee, I pierce thee in part. What then is this solemnity that has destroyed the barriers of hell and opened to us the gates of the heavenly kingdom? Let His name be more subtly inquired into. Let the excellent preacher be sought out. Let us see what he declares concerning the estimation of Him. For he says: 'For Christ our Passover is sacrificed' (1 Corinthians 5:7). If, then, Christ is our Passover, we must weigh what the Law says of the Passover, that we may more subtly investigate whether these things seem to be said of Christ. For Moses says: 'They shall take of the blood of the lamb, and put it upon both doorposts, and upon the lintels of the houses in which they shall eat it;'
'and they shall eat the flesh that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread with wild lettuces. You shall not eat of it anything raw, nor boiled with water, but only roasted with fire. You shall devour the head with its feet and entrails, nor shall anything of it remain until morning. If anything is left over, you shall burn it with fire' (Exodus 12:8ff.). Where it is also added: 'And thus you shall eat it: You shall gird your loins, and you shall have shoes on your feet, holding staves in your hands, and you shall eat in haste' (ibid., 11). All these things surely bring us great edification, if they are examined by a mystical interpretation. For what the blood of the lamb is, you have learned not now by hearing, but by drinking.
This blood is put upon both doorposts when it is drawn not only with the mouth of the body, but also with the mouth of the heart. For the blood of the lamb is placed upon both doorposts when the sacrament of His passion is taken with the mouth unto redemption, and is also pondered with an intent mind unto imitation. For he who receives the blood of his Redeemer in such a way that he is not yet willing to imitate His passion has placed the blood upon one doorpost—the blood which ought moreover to be placed upon the lintels of the houses. For what do we understand spiritually by houses, if not our minds, in which we dwell through thought? The lintel of that house is the very intention, which stands above the action.
He, therefore, who directs the intention of his thought toward the imitation of the Lord's passion places the blood of the lamb upon the lintel of the house. Or certainly our houses are our very bodies, in which we dwell as long as we live. And we place the blood of the lamb upon the lintel of the house when we bear the cross of His passion upon our forehead. Concerning this same lamb it is further added: 'And they shall eat the flesh that night, roasted with fire' (Exodus 12:8). We eat the lamb by night indeed, because we now receive the Lord's body in the sacrament while we do not yet see one another's consciences. Yet this flesh is to be roasted with fire, because fire assuredly dissolves the flesh which water has boiled, but strengthens that which fire cooks through without water.
Thus the fire cooked through the flesh of our Lamb, because the very power of His passion rendered Him more mighty unto resurrection and strengthened Him unto incorruption. For He who grew strong out of death—His flesh, that is, was hardened by the fire. Whence He also says through the Psalmist: 'My strength is dried up like a potsherd' (Psalm 22:15). For what is a potsherd before the fire, but soft clay? Yet by the fire it is brought about that it be made solid. The strength of His humanity therefore dried up like a potsherd, because from the fire of His passion it grew unto the strength of incorruption. But the sacraments of our Redeemer, once received, do not suffice for the true solemnity of the mind, unless good works also are joined to them.