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TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 07 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 27.02.43 Orations XLV Part 2
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XVII. Nor would it be right for us to pass over the manner of this eating either, for the Law does not do so, but carries its mystical labour even to this point in the literal enactment. Let us consume the Victim in haste, eating It with unleavened bread, with bitter herbs, and with our loins girded, and our shoes on our feet, and leaning on staves like old men; with haste, that we fall not into that fault which was forbidden to Lothyperlink by the commandment, that we look not around, nor stay in all that neighbourhood, but that we escape to the mountain, that we be not overtaken by the strange fire of Sodom, nor be congealed into a pillar of salt in consequence of our turning back to wickedness; for this is the result of delay. With bitter herbs, for a life according to the Will of God is bitter and arduous, especially to beginners, and higher than pleasures. For although the new yoke is easy and the burden light,hyperlink as you are told, yet this is on account of the hope and the reward, which is far more abundant than the hardships of this life. If it were not so, who would not say that the Gospel is more full of toil and trouble than the enactments of the Law? For, while the Law prohibits only the completed acts of sin, we are condemned for the causes also, almost as if they were acts. The Law says, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but you may not even desire, kindling passion by curious and earnest looks. Thou shalt not kill, says the Law; but you are not even to return a blow, but on the contrary are to offer yourself to the smiter. How much more ascetic is the Gospel than the Law! Thou shall not forswear thyself is the Law; but you are not to swear at all, either a greater or a lesser oath, for an oath is the parent of perjury. Thou shalt not join house to house, nor field to field, oppressing the poor;hyperlink but you are to set aside willingly even your just possessions, and to be stripped for the poor, that without encumbrance you may take up the Crosshyperlink and be enriched with the unseen riches.
XVIII. And let the loins of the unreasoning animals be unbound and loose, for they have not the gift of reason which can overcome pleasure (it is not needful to say that even they know the limit of natural movement). But let that part of your being which is the seat of passion, and which neighs,hyperlink as Holy Scripture calls it, when sweeping away this shameful passion, be restrained by a girdle of continence, so that you may eat the Passover purely, having mortified your members which are upon the earth,hyperlink and copying the girdlehyperlink of John, the Hermit and Forerunner and great Herald of the Truth. Another girdle I know, the soldierly and manly one, I mean, from which the Euzoni of Syria and certain Monozonihyperlink take their name. And it is in respect of this too that God saith in an oracle to Job, "Nay, but gird up thy loins like a man, and give a manly answer."hyperlink With this also holy David boasts that he is girded with strength from God,hyperlink and speaks of God Himself as clothed with strengthhyperlink and girded about with power-against the ungodly of course-though perhaps some may prefer to see in this a declaration of the abundance of His power, and, as it were, its restraint, just as also He clothes Himself with Light as with a garment.hyperlink For who shall endure His unrestrained power and light? Do I enquire what there is common to the loins and to truth? What then is the meaning to S. Paul of the expression, "Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth?"hyperlink Is it perhaps that contemplation is to restrain concupiscence, and not to allow it to be carried in another direction? For that which is disposed to love in a particular direction will not have the same power towards other pleasures.
XIX. And as to shoes, let him who is about to touch the Holy Land which the feet of God have trodden, put them off, as Moses did upon the Mount,hyperlink that he may bring there nothing dead; nothing to come between Man and God. So too if any disciple is sent to preach the Gospel, let him go in a spirit of philosophy and without excess, inasmuch as he must, besides being without money and without staff and with but one coat, also be barefooted,hyperlink that the feet of those who preach the Gospel of Peace and every other good may appear beautiful.hyperlink But he who would flee from Egypt and the things of Egypt must put on shoes for safety's sake, especially in regard to the scorpions and snakes in which Egypt so abounds, so as not to be injured by those which watch the heelhyperlink which also we are bidden to tread under foot.hyperlink And concerning the staff and the signification of it, my belief is as follows. There is one I know to lean upon, and another which belongs to Pastors and Teachers, and which corrects human sheep. Now the Law prescribes to you the staff to lean upon, that you may not break down in your mind when you hear of God's Blood, and His Passion, and His death; and that you may not be carried away to heresy in your defence of God; but without shame and without doubt may eat the Flesh and drink the Blood, if you are desirous of true life, neither disbelieving His words about His Flesh, nor offended at those about His Passion. Lean upon this, and stand firm and strong, in nothing shaken by the adversaries nor carried away by the plausibility of their arguments. Stand upon thy High Place; in the Courts of Jerusalemhyperlink place thy feet; lean upon the Rock, that thy steps in God be not shaken.
XX. What sayest thou? Thus it hath pleased Him that thou shouldest come forthhyperlink out of Egypt, the iron furnace; that thou shouldest leave behind the idolatry of that country, and be led by Moses and his lawgiving and martial rule. I give thee a piece of advice which is not my own, or rather which is very much my own, if thou consider the matter spiritually. Borrow from the Egyptians vessels of gold and silver;hyperlink with these take thy journey; supply thyself for the road with the goods of strangers, or rather with thine own. There is money owing to thee, the wages of thy bondage and of thy brickmaking; be clever on thy side too in asking retribution; be an honest robber. Thou didst suffer wrong there whilst thou wast fighting with the clay (that is, this troublesome and filthy body) and wast building cities foreign and unsafe, whose memorial perishes with a cry.hyperlink What then? Dost thou come out for nothing and without wages? But why wilt thou leave to the Egyptians and to the powers of thine adversaries that which they have gained by wickedness, and will spend with yet greater wickedness? It does not belong to them: they have ravished it, and have sacrilegiously taken it as plunder from Him who saith, The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,hyperlink and I give it to whom I will. Yesterday it was theirs, for it was permitted to be so; to-day the Master takes it and gives it to thee,hyperlink that thou mayest make a good and saving use of it. Let us make to ourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness,hyperlink that when we fail, they may receive us in the time of judgment.
XXI. If you are a Rachel or a Leah, a patriarchal and great soul, steal whatever idols of your father you can find;hyperlink not, however, that you may keep them, but that you may destroy them; and if you are a wise Israelite remove them to the Land of the Promise, and let the persecutor grieve over the loss of them, and learn through being outwitted that it was vain for him to tyrannize over and keep in bondage better men than himself. If thou doest this, and comest out of Egypt thus, I know well that thou shalt be guided by the pillar of fire and cloud by night and day.hyperlink The wilderness shall be tamed for thee, and the Sea divided;hyperlink Pharaoh shall be drowned;hyperlink bread shall be rained down:hyperlink the rock shall become a fountain;hyperlink Amalek shall be conquered, not with arms alone, but with the hostile hand of the righteous forming both prayers and the invincible trophy of the Cross;hyperlink the River shall be cut off; the sun shall stand still; and the moon be restrained;hyperlink walls shall be overthrown even without engines;hyperlink swarms of hornets shall go before thee to make a way for Israel, and to hold the Gentiles in check;hyperlink and all the other events which are told in the history after these and with these (not to make a long story) shall be given thee of God. Such is the feast thou art keeping to-day; and in this manner I would have thee celebrate both the Birthday and the Burial of Him Who was born for thee and suffered for thee. Such is the Mystery of the Passover; such are the mysteries sketched by the Law and fulfilled by Christ, the Abolisher of the letter, the Perfecter of the Spirit, who by His Passion taught us how to suffer, and by His glorification grants us to be glorified with Him.
XXII.hyperlink Now we are to examine another fact and dogma, neglected by most people, but in my judgment well worth enquiring into. To Whom was that Blood offered that was shed for us, and why was It shed? I mean the precious and famous Blood of our God and High priest and Sacrifice. We were detained in bondage by the Evil One, sold under sin, and receiving pleasure in exchange for wickedness. Now, since a ransom belongs only to him who holds in bondage, I ask to whom was this offered, and for what cause? If to the Evil One, fie upon the outrage! If the robber receives ransom, not only from God, but a ransom which consists of God Himself, and has such an illustrious payment for his tyranny, a payment for whose sake it would have been right for him to have left us alone altogether. But if to the Father, I ask first, how? For it was not by Him that we were being oppressed; and next, On what principle did the Blood of His Only begotten Son delight the Father, Who would not receive even Isaac, when he was being offered by his Father, but changed the sacrifice, putting a ram in the place of the human victim?hyperlink Is it not evident that the Father accepts Him, but neither asked for Him nor demanded Him; but on account of the Incarnation, and because Humanity must be sanctified by the Humanity of God,hyperlink that He might deliver us Himself, and overcome the tyrant, and draw us to Himself by the mediation of His Son, Who also arranged this to the honour of the Father, Whom it is manifest that He obeys in all things? So much we have said of Christ; the greater part of what we might say shall be reverenced with silence. But that brazen serpenthyperlink was hung up as a remedy for the biting serpents, not as a type of Him that suffered for us, but as a contrast; and it saved those that looked upon it, not because they believed it to live, but because it was killed, and killed with it the powers that were subject to it, being destroyed as it deserved. And what is the fitting epitaph for it from us? "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"hyperlink Thou art overthrown by the Cross; thou art slain by Him who is the Giver of life; thou art without breath, dead, without motion, even though thou keepest the form of a serpent lifted up on high on a pole.
XXIII. Now we will partake of a Passover which is still typical; though it is plainer than the old one. For that is ever new which is now becoming known. It is ours to learn what is that drinking and that enjoyment, and His to teach and communicate the Word to His disciples. For teaching is food, even to the Giver of food. Come hither then, and let us partake of the Law, but in a Gospel manner, not a literal one; perfectly, not imperfectly; eternally, not temporarily. Let us make our Head, not the earthly Jerusalem, but the heavenly City;hyperlink not that which is now trodden under foot by armies,hyperlink but that which is glorified by Angels. Let us sacrifice not young calves, nor lambs that put forth horns and hoofs,hyperlink in which many parts are destitute of life and feeling; but let us sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise upon the heavenly Altar, with the heavenly dances; let us hold aside the first veil; let us approach the second, and look into the Holy of Holies.hyperlink Shall I say that which is a greater thing yet? Let us sacrifice ourselves to God; or rather let us go on sacrificing throughout every day and at every moment. Let us accept anything for the Word's sake. By sufferings let us imitate His Passion: by our blood let us reverence His Blood: let us gladly mount upon the Cross. Sweet are the nails, though they be very painful. For to suffer with Christ and for Christ is better than a life of ease with others.
XXIV. If you are a Simon of Cyrene,hyperlink take up the Cross and follow. If you are crucified with Him as a robber,hyperlink acknowledge God as a penitent robber. If even He was numbered among the transgressorshyperlink for you and your sin, do you become law-abiding for His sake. Worship Him Who was hanged for you, even if you yourself are hanging; make some gain even from your wickedness; purchase salvation by your death; enter with Jesus into Paradise,hyperlink so that you may learn from what you have fallen.hyperlink Contemplate the glories that are there; let the murderer die outside with his blasphemies; and if you be a Joseph of Arimathaea,hyperlink beg the Body from him that crucified Him, make thine own that which cleanses the world.hyperlink If you be a Nicodemus, the worshipper of God by night, bury Him with spices.hyperlink If you be a Mary, or another Mary, or a Salome, or a Joanna, weep in the early morning. Be first to see the stone taken away,hyperlink and perhaps you will see the Angels and Jesus Himself. Say something; hear His Voice. If He say to you, Touch Me not,hyperlink stand afar off; reverence the Word, but grieve not; for He knoweth those to whom He appeareth first. Keep the feast of the Resurrection; come to the aid of Eve who was first to fall, of Her who first embraced the Christ, and made Him known to the disciples. Be a Peter or a John; hasten to the Sepulchre, running together, running against one another, vying in the noble race.hyperlink And even if you be beaten in speed, win the victory of zeal; not Looking into the tomb, but Going in. And if, like a Thomas, you were left out when the disciples were assembled to whom Christ shews Himself, when you do see Him be not faithless;hyperlink and if you do not believe, then believe those who tell you; and if you cannot believe them either, then have confidence in the print of the nails. If He descend into Hell,hyperlink descend with Him. Learn to know the mysteries of Christ there also, what is the providential purpose of the twofold descent, to save all men absolutely by His manifestation, or there too only them that believe.
XXV. And if He ascend up into Heaven,hyperlink ascend with Him. Be one of those angels who escort Him, or one of those who receive Him. Bid the gates be lifted up,hyperlink or be made higher, that they may receive Him, exalted after His Passion. Answer to those who are in doubt because He bears up with Him His body and the tokens of His Passion, which He had not when He came down, and who therefore inquire, "Who is this King of Glory?" that it is the Lord strong and mighty, as in all things that He hath done from time to time and does, so now in His battle and triumph for the sake of Mankind. And give to the doubting of the question the twofold answer· And if they marvel and say as in Isaiah's drama Who is this that cometh from Edom and from the things of earth? Or How are the garments red of Him that is without blood or body, as of one that treads in the full wine-press?hyperlink Set forth the beauty of the array of the Body that suffered, adorned by the Passion, and made splendid by the Godhead, than which nothing can be more lovely or more beautiful.
XXVI.hyperlink To this what will those cavillers say, those bitter reasoners about Godhead, those detractors of all things that are praiseworthy, those darkeners of Light, uncultured in respect of Wisdom, for whom Christ died in vain, unthankful creatures, the work of the Evil One. Do you turn this benefit into a reproach to God? Will you deem Him little on this account, that He humbled Himself for your sake, and because to seek for that which had wandered the Good Shepherd, He who layeth down His life for the sheep,hyperlink came upon the mountains and hills upon which you used to sacrifice,hyperlink and found the wandering one; and having formal it, took it upon His shoulders,hyperlink on which He also bore the wood; and having borne it, brought it back to the life above; and having brought it back, numbered it among those who have never strayed. That He lit a candle,hyperlink His own flesh, and swept the house, by cleansing away the sin of the world, and sought for the coin, the Royal Image that was all covered up with passions, and calls together His friends, the Angelic Powers, at the finding of the coin, and makes them sharers of His joy, as He had before made them sharers of the secret of His Incarnation? That the Light that is exceeding bright should follow the Candle-Forerunner,hyperlink and the Word, the Voice, and the Bridegroom, the Bridegroom's friend,hyperlink that prepared for the Lord a peculiar peoplehyperlink and cleansed them by the waterhyperlink in preparation for the Spirit? Do you Reproach God with this? Do you conceive of Him as less because He girds Himself with a towel and washes His disciples,hyperlink and shows that humiliation is the best road to exaltation;hyperlink because He humbles Himself for the sake of the soul that is bent down to the ground,hyperlink that He may even exalt with Himself that which is bent double under a weight of sin? How comes it that you do not also charge it upon Him as a crime that He eateth with Publicanshyperlink and at Publicans' tables, and makes disciples of Publicanshyperlink that He too may make some gain. And what gain? The salvation of sinners. If so, one must blame the physician for stooping over suffering and putting up with evil smells in order to give health to the sick; and him also who leans over the ditch, that he may, according to the Law, save the beast that has fallen into it.
XXVII. He was sent, but sent according to His Manhood (for He was of two Natures), since He was hungry and thirsty and weary, and was distressed and wept, according to the Laws of human nature. But even if He were sent also as God, what of that? Consider the Mission to be the good pleasure of the Father, to which He refers all that concerns Himself, both that He may honour the Eternal Principle, and that He may avoid the appearance of being a rival God. For He is said on the one hand to have been betrayed, and on the other it is written that He gave Himself up; and so too that He was raised and taken up by the Father, and also that of His own power He rose and ascended. The former belongs to the Good Pleasure, the latter to His own Authority; but you dwell upon all that diminishes Him, while you ignore all that exalts Him. For instance, you score that He suffered, but you do not add "of His own Will." Ah, what things has the Word even now to suffer! By some He is honoured as God but confused with the Father; by others He is dishonoured as Flesh, and is severed from God. With whom shall He be most angry-or rather which shall He forgive-those who falsely contract Him, or those who divide Him? For the former ought to have made a distinction, and the latter to have made a Union, the one in number, the other in Godhead. Do you stumble at His Flesh? So did the Jews. Do you call Him a Samaritan,hyperlink and the rest which I will not utter? This did not even the demons, O man more unbelieving than demons, and more stupid than Jews. The Jews recognized the title Son as expressing equal rank; and the demons knew that He who drove them out was God, for they were persuaded by their own experience. But you will not either admit the equality or confess the Godhead. It would have been better for you to have been circumcised and a demoniac-to reduce the matter to an absurdity-than in uncircumcision and robust health to be thus ill and ungodly disposed. But for our war with such men, let it be brought to an end by their returning, however late, to a sound mind, if they will; or else if they will not, let it be postponed to another occasion, if they continue as they are. Anyhow, we will have no fear when contending for the Trinity with the help of the Trinity.
XXVIII. It is now needful for us to sum up our discourse as follows: We were created that we might be made happy. We were made happy when we were created. We were entrusted with Paradise that we might enjoy life. We received a Commandment that we might obtain a good repute by keeping it; not that God did not know what would take place, but because He had laid down the law of Free Will. We were deceived because we were the objects of envy. We were cast out because we transgressed. We fasted because we refused to fast, being overpowered by the Tree of Knowledge. For the Commandment was ancient, coeval with ourselves, and was a kind of education of our souls and curb of luxury, to which we were reasonably made subject, in order that we might recover by keeping it that which we had lost by not keeping it. We needed an Incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live. We were put to death together with Him, that we might be cleansed; we rose again with Him because we were put to death with Him; we were glorified with Him, because we rose again with Him.
XXIX. Many indeed are the miracles of that time: God crucified; the sun darkened and again rekindled; for it was fitting that the creatures should suffer with their Creator; the veil rent; the Blood and Water shed from His Side; the one as from a man, the other as above man; the rocks rent for the Rock's sake; the dead raised for a pledge of the final Resurrection of all men; the Signs at the Sepulchre and after the Sepulchre, which none can worthily celebrate; and yet none of these equal to the Miracle of my salvation. A few drops of Blood recreate the whole world, and become to all men what rennet is to milk, drawing us together and compressing us into unity.
XXX. But, O Pascha, great and holy and purifier of all the world-for I will speak to thee as to a living person-O Word of God and Light and Life and Wisdom and Might-for I rejoice in all Thy names-O Offspring and Expression and Signet of the Great Mind; O Word conceived and Man contemplated, Who bearest all things, binding them by the Word of Thy power; receive this discourse, not now as firstfruits, but perhaps as the completion of my offerings, a thanksgiving, and at the same time a supplication, that we may suffer no evil beyond those necessary and sacred cares in which our life has been passed; and stay the tyranny of the body over us; (Thou seest, O Lord, how great it is and how it bows me down) or Thine own sentence, if we are to be condemned by Thee. But if we are to be released, in accordance with our desire, and be received into the Heavenly Tabernacle, there too it may be we shall offer Thee acceptable Sacrifices upon Thine Altar, to Father and Word and Holy Ghost; for to Thee belongeth all glory and honour and might, world without end. Amen.
Footnotes
32 Exod. xxxii. 20.
33 Gen. xix. 17.
34 Matt. xi. 20.
35 Is a. v. 8.
36 Mark x. 21.
37 Jer. v. 8.
38 Col. iii. 5.
39 Matt. iii. 4.
40 The expression is often used in the LXX.. to represent the word dwrg
41 Job xxxviii. 3.
42 Ps. xviii. 32.
43 Ib. xciii. 1.
44 Ib. xiv. 2.
45 Eph. v. 14.
46 Exod. iii. 5.
47 Matt. x. 9.
48 Isa. lii. 7.
49 Gen. iii. 15.
50 Luke x. 19.
51 Ps. cxxii. 2.
52 e'celqei=n c. acc. loci; a very rare use, but found in classical authors.
53 Exod. xi. 2.
54 Ps. ix. 6.
55 Hag. ii. 8.
56 Matt. xx. 14.
57 Luke xvi. 9.
58 Gen. xxxi. 19.
59 Exod. xiii. 20.
60 Ib. xiv. 21.
61 Exod. xiv. 28.
62 Ib. xvi. 15.
63 Ib. xvii. 6.
64 Ib. xvii. 10, 11.
65 Josh. iii. 15, 16.
66 Ib. x. 13.
67 Ib. vi. 20.
68 Ib. xxiv. 12.
69 Gen. xxii. 11, &c.
70 Have we not here the germ of the idea, afterwards known as the Scotist, that the Incarnation was the purpose of God independently of the Fall, for the perfecting of Humanity; but that the Passion and death of Incarnate God were the direct result of the sin of man?
71 Num. xxi. 9.
72 Hos. xiii. 14 and 1 Cor. xv. 55.
73 Heb. xii. 22.
74 Luke xxi. 20-24.
75 Ps. lxiv. 32.
76 Heb. xiii. 15 and x. 20.
77 Mark xv. 21.
78 Luke xxiii. 42.
79 Isa. liii. 12.
80 Luke xxiii. 43.
81 Rev. ii. 5.
82 Luke xxiii. 52.
83 1 John i. 7.
84 John xix. 39.
85 Ib. xx. 11, etc.
86 Ib. xxi. 17.
87 Ib. xx. 3, 4.
88 Ib. xx. 25.
89 1 Pet. iii. 19.
90 Luke xxiv. 51.
91 Ps. xxiv. 7, 10.
92 Isa. lxiii. 1.
93 This passage, to nearly the end of c. XXVIII., is taken from the Oration on the Nativity, cc. XIII -XIV.
94 John x. 11.
95 John v. 35.
96 Hos. iv. 13.
97 Luke xv. 4, 5.
98 Ib. xv. 8, 9.
99 Ib. i. 23; iii. 9, 29.
100 A reminiscence of S. Luke i. 17.
101 Matt. iii. 11.
102 John xiii. 4, 5.
103 Matt. xxiii. 12.
104 Luke xiii. 10, etc.
105 Mark ii. 15, 16.
106 Luke xv. 2.