Catechetical Lectures 12.28–13.15

But meet those of the circumcision with this question: Which is harder, for an old and barren woman whose customary courses have ceased to bear, or for a young virgin to give birth? Sarah was barren, and when the ways of women had ceased with her, she bore against nature. If, then, it is against nature for a barren woman to give birth, so too for a virgin. Either reject both, then, or accept both. For it is the same God who did the one and brought about the other. For you will not dare to say that it was possible for God there and impossible here. And again: what is the nature of a man's hand, to be changed in a single hour into another form and restored again? How, then, was the hand of Moses made white as snow and at once restored again? But you say that God willed it and changed it. There God willed it and was able; and here is he not able? And that sign was for the Egyptians only, but this was a sign given to the whole world. O Jews, which is harder: for a virgin to give birth, or for a rod to be quickened into a living creature? You confess that in the time of Moses a perfectly straight rod became snake-like and was terrible to the one who threw it down, and that he who held the rod before fled from it as from a serpent. For it truly was a serpent; and he fled, not afraid of what he had held, but in dread of the one who had changed it. The rod had teeth and a serpent's eyes. Do seeing eyes, then, grow out of a rod, and is a child not born of a virgin's womb, if God wills? I say nothing of the fact that Aaron's rod did in a single night what other trees do over several years. For who does not know that a rod that has lost its bark will never sprout, not even if it is set among rivers? But since God does not follow the natures of trees, but is the maker of natures, the fruitless, dry and barkless rod blossomed, budded and bore nuts. Did he who for the sake of the high priest in figure gave the rod fruit beyond nature not grant the Virgin to bear for the sake of the true High Priest?

These are fine reminders from the accounts. But the Jews still object, and will not be persuaded by the accounts of the rod unless they are persuaded by births equally marvellous and against nature. Question them, then, in this way: Of whom was Eve born in the beginning? What mother conceived her who had no mother? But Scripture says that she came from Adam's side. Is Eve, then, born from a man's side without a mother, and is a child not born from a virgin's womb without a man? The female sex owed men a debt of gratitude: for Eve was born of Adam, not conceived of a mother, but as it were brought forth of a man alone. Mary, then, repaid the debt of gratitude, by giving birth not of a man, but of herself alone, undefiled, of the Holy Spirit, by the power of God.

But let us take what is greater still. That bodies should be born from bodies, though wonderful, is nevertheless possible; but that the dust of the earth should become a man, this is more wonderful. That shapeless clay should receive the coats and the brightness of eyes, this is more wonderful. That from dust of one kind should come the hardness of bones and the softness of the lungs and the other different kinds of members, this is wonderful. That clay, given life, should go about the world moving of itself, and build houses, this is wonderful. That clay should teach and speak, work as a craftsman and reign as a king, this is wonderful. Whence, then, most ignorant Jews, did Adam come? Did not God take dust from the earth and form this wonderful creature? Is clay, then, changed into an eye, and does a virgin not give birth to a son? Does what is more impossible among men happen, and what is possible not happen? [31] Let us remember these things, brothers; let us use these weapons of defence. Let us not tolerate the heretics who teach that his coming was in appearance only. Let us spit also upon those who say that the Saviour's birth was from a man and a woman, who dared to say that he was from Joseph and Mary, because it is written, “And he took his wife.” For let us remember Jacob, who before he took Rachel said to Laban, “Give me my wife.” For as she, before the marriage was made, was called Jacob's wife only because of the promise, so Mary too was called the wife of Joseph because she was betrothed. And see the exactness of the Gospel, which says, “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph,” and so on. And again, when the census was taken and Joseph went up to be enrolled, what does the Scripture say? “And Joseph also went up from Galilee to be enrolled with Mary, who was betrothed to him as his wife, being with child.” For she was with child; yet it did not say “with his wife,” but “who was betrothed to him.” “God sent forth his Son,” says Paul, not “born of a man and a woman,” but “born of a woman” alone, that is, of a virgin. For we have shown before that a virgin too is called a woman. For he who makes souls virgins was born of a Virgin.

But you wonder at what happened; she herself who bore him wondered at it too. For she says to Gabriel, “How shall this be to me, since I do not know a man?” And he says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy one that is born will be called Son of God.” The birth was undefiled and unstained. For where the Holy Spirit breathes, there all defilement is taken away: unstained was the birth in the flesh of the Only-begotten from the Virgin. And if the heretics speak against the truth, the Holy Spirit will convict them; the power of the Most High that overshadowed her will be indignant; Gabriel will stand face to face against them on the day of judgment; the place of the manger, which received the Master, will put them to shame. The shepherds will bear witness, who then received the good news, and the host of angels praising and singing hymns and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will”; the temple into which he was then brought up on the fortieth day; the pairs of turtledoves offered for him; and Symeon, who then took him in his arms, and Anna the prophetess, who was present.

Since, then, God bears witness, and the Holy Spirit bears witness with him, and Christ says, “Why do you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth?”, let the heretics be silenced who speak against his humanity; for they speak against him who says, “Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” Let the Lord born of the Virgin be worshipped, and let the virgins recognize the crown of their own way of life; let the order of the monks also recognize the glory of chastity; for we are not deprived of the dignity of chastity. The Saviour's time of nine months was spent in the Virgin's womb, but the Lord was a man for thirty-three years; so that if a virgin glories because of the nine months, much more do we because of the many years.

Let us all, by God's grace, run the race of chastity, young men and maidens, old men with the younger; not going after licentiousness, but praising the name of Christ. Let us not be ignorant of the glory of chastity: for its crown is angelic, and its achievement is beyond man. Let us spare our bodies, which are to shine like the sun; let us not for a little pleasure defile so great and so noble a body; for the sin is small and for an hour, but the shame lasts many years, for ever. Those who practise chastity are angels walking on the earth; the virgins have their portion with Mary the Virgin. Let all adornment be banished, every harmful glance, every mincing walk, every robe and perfume that entices to pleasure. But let the perfume in all be the prayer of sweet fragrance, and the doing of good deeds, and the sanctification of bodies; so that the Lord born of the Virgin may say also of us, both of the men who live chastely

and of the women who are crowned, “I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” To him be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

Every deed of Christ is a boast of the Catholic Church; but the boast of boasts is the cross. And knowing this Paul says, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of Christ.” For it was wonderful that the man blind from birth received his sight at Siloam; but what is that compared with the blind of the whole world? It was great and beyond nature that Lazarus rose on the fourth day; but the grace reached him alone: what is that compared with those throughout the world who are dead in sins? It was wonderful that five loaves poured forth food for the five thousand; but what is that compared with those starving in ignorance throughout the world? It was wonderful that she who had been bound by Satan for eighteen years was set free; but what is that compared with all of us who are bound fast by the chains of our sins? But the crown of the cross enlightened those blind in ignorance, set free all who were held by sin, and redeemed the whole world of men.

And do not wonder that the whole world was redeemed; for it was not a mere man, but the only-begotten Son of God, who died for it. Yet the sin of one man, Adam, had power to bring death to the world. But if by the trespass of the one death reigned over the world, how much more shall life reign by the righteousness of the one? And if then they were cast out of paradise because of the tree of eating, shall not believers now, because of the tree of Jesus, more easily enter paradise? If the first-formed man brought death on the whole world from the earth, does not he who formed him from the earth bring eternal life, being himself the life? If Phinehas, in his zeal, by slaying the evildoer stopped the wrath of God, does not Jesus, who slew no other but gave himself up as a ransom, take away the wrath against men? [3] Let us not, then, be ashamed of the cross of the Saviour, but rather glory in it. For the word of the cross is to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to us salvation; to those who are perishing it is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it was not a mere man, as has been said, who died for us, but the Son of God, God made man. Again: the lamb in the time of Moses drove the destroyer far away; did not the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, much rather set us free from our sins? The blood of an irrational sheep gave salvation; does not the blood of the Only-begotten much rather save? If anyone disbelieves the power of the Crucified, let him question the demons; if anyone does not believe words, let him believe what is seen. Many have been crucified throughout the world, but the demons cower before none of them; but at the mere sight of the sign of the cross of Christ, who was crucified for us, the demons cower; because the others died for their own sins, but he for the sins of others; for “he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” It is not Peter who says this, who might be suspected of favouring his teacher, but Isaiah who says it, who was not present with him in the flesh, but foresaw in the Spirit his coming in the flesh. But why do I bring only a prophet as witness? Take as witness Pilate himself, who condemned him, saying, “I find no guilt in this man”; and when he had given him up, he washed his hands and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man.”

And there is another witness to the sinlessness of Jesus, the robber, the first to enter paradise, who rebuked his neighbour and said, “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong; for you and I were present at his trial.”

Jesus, then, truly suffered for all men; for the cross was not a semblance, otherwise the redemption too would be a semblance; the death was not imaginary, otherwise salvation too would be a myth. If the death was imaginary, those were telling the truth who said, “We remember that that deceiver said while he was still alive, After three days I rise.” The passion, then, was real: for he was truly crucified, and we are not ashamed of it; he was crucified, and we do not deny it; rather, I glory in saying it. For even if I should deny it now, … refutes me …; the wood of the cross refutes me, which from here has since been distributed piece by piece to the whole world. I confess the cross, because I know the resurrection. For if after being crucified he had remained so, perhaps I would not have confessed it, for I might have hidden it along with my teacher; but since the resurrection followed the cross, I am not ashamed to declare it.

He was crucified, then, being in the flesh like all; but not for like sins. For he was not led to death for love of money, for he was a teacher of poverty; nor was he condemned for lust, for he himself says plainly, “Whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her”; not for striking or beating rashly, for he turned the other cheek also to the one who struck him; not for despising the law, for he was the fulfiller of the law; not for reviling a prophet, for he himself was the one proclaimed by the prophets; not for defrauding anyone of wages, for he healed without pay and freely; not for sinning in words, in deeds, or in thoughts: he “who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth; who when reviled did not revile in return, when he suffered did not threaten”; who came to the passion not unwillingly, but willingly; and if anyone dissuading him should say even now, “God forbid, Lord,” he will say again, “Get behind me, Satan.” [6] And would you be persuaded that he came to the passion willingly? Others, who do not know beforehand, die unwillingly; but he foretold his passion: “Behold, the Son of Man is handed over to be crucified.” And do you know why the lover of mankind did not shun death? So that the whole world might not perish in its sins. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over and will be crucified”; and again, “He set his face to go to Jerusalem.” And would you know clearly that the cross is a glory to Jesus? Hear him saying it, not me. Judas betrayed him, having become ungrateful to the master of the house: having just gone out from the table and drunk the cup of blessing, in return for the drink of salvation he wished to shed righteous blood. “He who ate my bread lifted up his heel against me.” His hands had just received the blessings, and just afterwards, for the money of betrayal, he was preparing death. And when he had been exposed and had heard, “You have said so,” he went out again. Then Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” You see how he knew the cross as his own glory? Then, was Isaiah not ashamed when he was sawn asunder, and will Christ be ashamed when he dies for the world? “Now is the Son of Man glorified”: not that he did not have the glory before, for he was glorified with the glory before the foundation of the world; but he was always glorified as God, while now he was glorified as wearing the crown of his endurance. He did not give up his life by compulsion, nor was he violently slain, but willingly. Hear what he says: “I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it again.”

“Willingly I yield to my enemies; for if I did not will it, it would not happen.” He came, then, to the passion by his own choice, rejoicing in the achievement, smiling at the crown, glad at the salvation of men; not ashamed of the cross, for it was saving the world. For the one who suffered was not a common man, but God made man, contending for the prize of endurance.

But the Jews contradict this, always ready to contradict and slow to believe; so that for this reason the prophet just read says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” Persians believe, and Hebrews do not believe; “those to whom it was not proclaimed concerning him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand,” while those who study will reject what they study. They speak against us and say, “Does the Lord, then, suffer? Did human hands then prevail over his lordship?” Read the Lamentations; for in lamenting you Jeremiah wrote in the Lamentations what is worthy of lament. He saw your destruction, he looked upon your fall; he lamented the Jerusalem of that time; for the one that now is will not be lamented. For that one crucified the Christ, but this one worships the Christ. Lamenting, then, he says, “The breath of our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in our corruptions.” Am I, then, inventing? See, he testifies that Christ the Lord was taken by men. And what is to follow from this? Tell me, O prophet. And he says, “Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.” For he hints that the grace of life is no longer to dwell in Israel, but among the nations. [8] But since there has been much contradiction from them, come, at your prayers, as far as the shortness of the hour allows, let us by the grace of the Lord set out a few testimonies about the passion. For all the things concerning Christ are written, and nothing is doubtful, for nothing is without witness; all are inscribed on the pillars of the prophets, written plainly, not on tablets of stone, but by the Holy Spirit. Since, then, you have heard the Gospel speaking about Judas, ought you not to receive the testimony to it? You have heard that his side was pierced with a spear; ought you not to see whether this too is written? You have heard that he was crucified in a garden; ought you not to see whether this too is written? You have heard that he was sold for thirty pieces of silver; ought you not to learn the prophet who said this? You have heard that he was given vinegar to drink; learn where this too is written. You have heard that the body was laid in a rock and a stone placed upon it; ought you not to receive this testimony too from the prophet? You have heard that he was crucified with robbers; ought you not to see whether this too is written? You have heard that he was buried; ought you not to see whether what concerns the burial is accurately written somewhere? You have heard that he rose; ought you not to see whether we are deceiving you in teaching these things? “For our speech and our preaching are not in persuasive words of human wisdom.” We are not now setting sophistical contrivances in motion, for they are exposed; we do not conquer words with words, for they come to nothing; but “we preach Christ crucified,” who was proclaimed beforehand by the prophets. But you, receiving the testimonies, seal them in your heart. And since they are many, and the rest of the time is narrowed to a little, hear now a few of the most important, as far as is possible. Take these starting points, be diligent, and search out the rest. Let your hand not be stretched out only to receive, but be ready also to work. God grants all things: “For if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives, and he will receive.” May he, at your prayers, grant to us who speak the power to speak, and to you who hear the power to believe. [9] Let us seek, then, the testimonies concerning the passion of Christ; for we have come together now not to make a speculative exposition of the Scriptures, but rather to be assured of what we have believed. You received first the testimonies of the coming of Jesus; and that he walked on the sea, it is written (“For your way is in the sea”), [“Walking on the sea as on solid ground”]; and concerning the various healings you received testimony on another occasion. I begin, then, where the passion began. Judas was the traitor, and he came against him and stood, speaking words of peace and plotting war. The Psalmist, then, says of him, “My friends and my neighbours drew near against me and stood”; and again, “Their words were softer than oil, yet they are darts.” “Hail, Rabbi”—and he was handing over his teacher to death. He was not put to shame by the warning of him who said, “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” For he was all but saying to him, “Remember your own name.” Judas means “confession”: you have made the agreement, you have taken the money; confess quickly. “O God, do not keep silent at my praise; for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful have been opened against me; they have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue, and surrounded me with words of hatred.” And that some of the chief priests also were present, and that the binding took place before the gates of the city, you heard recently, if you remember the exposition of the psalm that told the time and the place: how “they returned at evening

and hungered like dogs, and went round about the city.”

Hear also concerning the thirty pieces of silver. “And I will say to them, If it is good in your sight, give me my wages, or refuse,” and so on. One wage is owed me by you, for healing the blind and the lame, and I receive another: instead of thanksgiving, dishonour; instead of worship, insult. You see how the Scripture foresaw the events? “And they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.” O the prophetic exactness! O the great and unerring wisdom of the Holy Spirit! For he did not say ten, nor twenty, but thirty, exactly as many as there were. Tell us also where this price goes, O prophet. Does he who receives it keep it, or give it back? And after he gives it back, where does it go? The prophet, then, says, “And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them into the house of the Lord, into the foundry.” Compare the Gospel with the prophecy: “Judas,” it says, “repented, and threw down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed.”

But now I must seek the exact solution of what seems a discrepancy. For those who reject the prophets say that the prophet says, “And I cast them into the house of the Lord, into the foundry,” but the Gospel, “And they gave them for the potter's field.” Hear, then, how both are true. For the Jews who were supposedly devout, the chief priests of that time, seeing Judas repent and say, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood,” say, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” Is it, then, nothing to you who crucify him? Shall he who took and returned the price of murder see to it, and shall you, the murderers, not see to it? Then they say among themselves, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.” Out of your own mouth comes the condemnation: if the price is defiled, the deed is defiled too; but if you are fulfilling righteousness in crucifying Christ, why do you not accept the price? But the question is this: how do they not disagree, the Gospel saying “the potter's field” and the prophet “the foundry”? But not only goldsmiths have a foundry, nor only coppersmiths; potters also have foundries for clay. For sifting the fine, rich and useful earth from the gravel, and separating out the bulk of the mixed matter, they first temper the clay with water, so that what is to be made may be worked without hindrance. Why, then, do you wonder if the Gospel spoke plainly of the potter's field, and the prophet gave his prophecy as a riddle, since prophecy is often in riddles?

They bound Jesus and brought him into the court of the high priest. Would you also know that this too is written? Isaiah says, “Woe to their soul, for they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying, Let us bind the righteous man, for he is troublesome to us.” And truly, “Woe to their soul”; let us see. Isaiah was sawn asunder, and after that the people was healed. Jeremiah was cast into the mire of the cistern, but the wound of the Jews was healed; for it was smaller, since the sin was against a man. But since the Jews sinned not against a man but against God made man, “Woe to their soul.” “Let us bind the righteous man.” Could he not, someone will say, free himself, he who freed Lazarus, four days dead, from the bonds of death, and freed Peter from the iron bonds of prison? Angels stood ready, saying, “Let us burst their bonds asunder”; but they hold back, because the Master wills to endure this. Again he was brought to judgment before the elders. You have the testimony already: “The Lord himself will enter into judgment with the elders of the people and with its rulers.”

But the high priest, having questioned him and heard the truth, is indignant; and the wicked servant of wicked men gives him a blow; and the face that had shone like the sun endured being struck by lawless hands. And others come and spit on the face of him who had healed the man born blind with spittle. “Do you thus repay the Lord? This people is foolish and not wise.” And the prophet, greatly wondering, says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” For the thing is incredible, that God, the Son of God and the arm of the Lord, should endure these things. But so that those who are being saved may not disbelieve, the Holy Spirit writes beforehand in the person of Christ, who says (for he who then spoke these things was afterwards present), “I gave my back to the scourges” (for Pilate, having scourged him, handed him over to be crucified), “and my cheeks to blows; and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spitting”: all but saying, “Knowing beforehand that they would strike me, I did not even turn my cheek aside. For how should I have strengthened the disciples for death on behalf of the truth, if I myself had shrunk from it? I said, He who loves his life will lose it; if I had loved my life, how could I teach without doing what I taught?” First, then, he himself, being God, endured suffering these things at the hands of men, so that we men, suffering such things at the hands of men for his sake afterwards, might not be ashamed. …

… that the prophets plainly wrote these things too beforehand. But we pass over many of the testimonies of the Scriptures because of the shortness of time, as I said before. For if one should search out everything exactly, none of the things concerning Christ will be left without witness.

Bound, he came from Caiaphas to Pilate. Is this too written? “And having bound him they led him away as a present to King Jarim.” But one of the sharper listeners objects, “Pilate was not a king” (to pass over for now most of the question): “how, then, did they bind him and lead him away as a present to the king?” But read the Gospel: “When Pilate heard that he was from Galilee, he sent him to Herod.” And Herod was then king, and was present in Jerusalem. And see the exactness of the prophet: for he says that he was sent as a present; “for Pilate and Herod became friends with each other that very day, for before they had been at enmity.” For it was fitting that he who was about to make peace between earth and heaven should first make peace between the very men who condemned him; for the Lord himself was present, who reconciles the hearts of the rulers of the earth. Mark the exactness of the prophets and their true testimony.

Wonder at the Lord being judged. He endured being led and carried about by soldiers; Pilate sat in judgment, and he who sits at the right hand of the Father stood and was judged. The people that had been redeemed by him from the land of Egypt, and often elsewhere, cried out against him, “Away, away with him, crucify him!” Why, O Jews? Because he healed your blind? Because he made your lame walk, and the rest of his benefits? So that the prophet, astonished, speaks of this too: “Against whom have you opened your mouth, and against whom have you let loose your tongue?” And the Lord himself says in the prophets, “My inheritance became to me like a lion in the forest; it gave forth its voice against me; therefore I have hated it.” I did not reject them, but they rejected me; therefore I say accordingly, “I have forsaken my house.”