Easter Song 5.1–5.429

Amid these riches of mighty works the day of the Pasch had now begun to draw near, when the glory of the Lord wished to lay down mortal flesh and take it up again alive, not other flesh, but the same again, which, full of the gift of light, he raised from the underworld and led to the stars. And crying out openly, “Father, save me from this hour; but for this purpose I came to this hour; glorify,” he said, “your name.” And a great voice came resounding from heaven through the clouds: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” What is plainer, with the Father as witness and heaven as advocate? Yet not even so would the Jewish nation recognize Christ as God; some said that this was thunder, some that an angel's speech had crashed. O nation blind of eye, O nation hardest of heart! Could thunder, or any angel, have begotten Christ, its own author, so as to answer when the name of the Father was heard? But from the mouth of the Thunderer, who acknowledges his Son, so that the people standing by might believe, the voice sent forth answered in harmony with his Word. Then, celebrating by the yearly gifts of the sacred supper the Paschal meal according to custom, and making himself a humble master and leaving welcome examples to his own, he rises and, willingly serving his servants, girded with only a linen towel, bowed down all his honor, so that, of his own accord washing the feet of all the disciples,

he did not except even Judas, whom he knew to be the author of wicked betrayal. But that glory gave you nothing, cruel traitor, to stand on clean feet, you who were polluted in mind, like every tomb that wears outwardly the covering of a white form and is full within of filth and a foul corpse. Nor did the plot escape the Lord, and he revealed the author of the coming crime, to whom he himself handed bread, he who was the bread to be handed over: for after he had established the two gifts of his body and his blood and had given the food and drink by which faithful souls without stain shall never hunger or thirst for all eternity, at once the foulest spirit entered Judas, where envy had its seat, and, taking up arms, raised a servile war against the Lord, having bargained the great wickedness for any price at all: nor is his guilt measured by the price, but the crimes cling to the deed. Taking thrice ten coins of silver, blinded by a small reward, he committed as great a crime as he would have committed if he had taken all the kingdoms of the earth, the riches of the sea, and the whole sky with its wandering clouds: for the goods of the world would not suffice as a price for the shed blood of the great Christ, who is the father of the world, who had made even Judas to be born.

And would that he, condemned by a barren womb, had never felt his day of birth, nor drawn in the calm breezes of this light with life-giving breaths, lying hidden in eternal torpor, and it would have been a better lot for the wretch not to know the life given than to lose it: or, badly poured out on the ground, would that he had at once lost the gift of light like dust, which the great wind tosses from the face of the earth, and which, driven in swift flight, is scattered into empty shadows, darker than the mists. Are you, bloody, fierce, bold, insane, rebellious, treacherous, cruel, deceitful, venal, unjust, pitiless traitor, savage betrayer, impious robber, going ahead as standard-bearer and escorting the horrible swords? And when you lead on the sacrilegious band, threatening with swords and clubs, do you press your mouth to his mouth, put poison into honey, and betray the Lord under a pleasing image? Why do you pretend to be a comrade and greet him with friendly fraud? Never does peace conspire with terrible swords, nor does the savage wolf offer kisses to the gentle lamb. Handed over, then, to wicked men, the holy worker does not leave off his accustomed help, and to the servant he restored the ear torn off by Peter's sword, lest the merciful one be empty of mercy. For human vengeance did not befit the Thunderer, who could ask the Father to give him more than twelve thousands of angelic legions, if he had preferred to punish what they deserved rather than freely forgive his own wounds.

Then he bids them spare the sword, because he had come himself to lay down his life for all, not to take it from anyone. For when Peter had long before declared in a clear voice that he was willing to die with the Lord: “Before the winged cock crows,” he said, “you will deny me three times this night,” not reproving his faith but foretelling his fear. At once he is led to the grim house of Caiaphas. He was then the chief of the priests and the chief of crimes; for, with him presiding, the pestilent council burns, stirred up by false witnesses, and now, now a thousand lies fly against the Lord, kindled from the empty embers of men, and they perish by their own lightness, like fire wandering over dry stubble, whose power to burn the weak material snatches away at its height, and, its fury overcome, the unsightly glory of the feeble flame dies down. When no way lay open for deceit, savage fury arms them to raise their arms against the innocent. Alas for me, with what tears am I hindered from telling how the raging tumult moved sacrilegious hands! The accursed rabble did not cease everywhere to beat his head with blows, to strike him with their palms, or to spit in his face. Yet he, patient, submitting his body, endured all and gave his limbs for our salvation.

For through these blows our head can be healed, through the Lord these spittings washed our form, by these slaps the greatest freedom was granted us. But the elder, to whom the mighty Author had foretold all that was to come (since what Christ said could not pass unfulfilled), denied once, twice and three times that he was at all one of his companions. And the cock crowed; Christ's decree was fulfilled, and Peter came to his senses: remembering his evils, he condemned the deed of his forgetful self, and, as groaning followed, the guilt fled, the offenses yield to streaming tears, and you, bitter tears, gave birth to sweet pardon. And now the day had come, sadder than the shadow of night, to see a new outrage, and, the darkness removed, it was laying open the crimes of the Jewish nation to the peoples. Soon, then, when wicked Judas saw the Lord bound with chains being led to Pilate's walls, he stiffened, and, giving back in vain the proceeds of his crime, he returned the price of the deed, but not the deed. For what does it profit to tremble with fear there where there is no fear? Or what confession shines in foul hell, when the axe, already sunk into the roots of the unspeakable tree which bore its deadly fruit, overturns its funereal shoots utterly, and the evil wood perishes in the flames it deserves?

And at once, seized in mind by a grim fury, he seeks his own death too, though he would then have been more sane had he run forward to avenge the crime; and the very throat, the path of the dread voice that dared to sell the redeemer of the whole world, he chokes with a knotted noose and hangs his unhappy soul from on high. A milder punishment indeed than so great a crime deserved, for which no penalty of all evils would be equal. Yet this manner of death and the corpse hanging aloft showed the peoples from what height he who was once a disciple and is now guilty had fallen, leaving the high stars and descending to the depths of Tartarus; then an apostolic man, now made a vile apostate. But the Lord, patient, when he stood before the governor's tribunal like the gentlest lamb led to the slaughter, the hostile band, finding nothing in the innocent worthy of death, accuses him of saying that he was a king, being a king, and, lying, treats the truth as a crime. Nor is it surprising if a faithless nation shuns God's rights and denies his rule, a nation that always loved the sacred groves and cherished idols; for, raging in the same way, they worshipped Baal then and chose Barabbas now. And, the righteous man condemned and the wanton one spared, the sentence reversed the just course in both:

he who was the author of death was ordered to receive the light, he who was the author of light was ordered to receive death. Believe in Christ now, believe that he suffered for all. Why do you still doubt? See, his back torn by whips, subjected to insults, he embraces all punishments, so that not even a robber who deserved death might perish. Alas, the grim sickle of the fathers that would cut down the crop of their descendants, alas, your crime, Pilate! If you had noted with a watchful mind how many crimes you committed in one judgment, you ought to have hoped for the sacred bath of pardon not by washing your hands alone, but with your whole body. You seize the innocent, you set a king under a governor, you put the human before God; to what death are you liable, for fixing the Lord to the cross with so many wounds? And when the Holy One went off to his punishment, handed to the savage soldiers, he is clothed in a cheap cloak of red scarlet, so that the whole bloody appearance might be the image of death; a woven crown of thorns encircled his great head, because he in his kindness had taken on himself all the thorn-thickets of our evils; a reed fills his hand, because the scepter of the earth is unsteady, weak, fragile, empty, light. And soon, taking off the garments of others, he took his own clothing again, showing that he would lay down the covering of human flesh and take it up again, so as to bear nothing changeable after death, rising again in his own majesty,

laying down the mortal flesh with its human covering. Nor was it done without divine guidance that, receiving the wine mixed with gall and its bitter taste, he touched it with his lips and moved it away from his mouth, since he was to taste bitter death for a short time, which he was preparing to scorn when his flesh returned. At once, hung on the top of the spreading wood, changing the wrath of the ordeal by holy devotion, he himself was the peace of the cross, and, making the violent wood glorious with his own limbs, he clothed the punishment with honor, and made the torture a sign of salvation instead, and, sanctifying the very torments in himself, blessed them. And lest anyone not know that the form of the cross is to be revered, which bore the Lord in triumph, by a mighty reasoning it gathers to itself the four regions of the square world. The East shines bright from the head of the Author, his holy feet are licked by the western star, his right hand holds the North, his left raises up the middle axis, and all nature lives from the limbs of the Creator, and Christ rules the world, embraced by the cross, on every side. The title too is written: This is the King of the Jews, in which nothing lacks divinity; for what was done by heaven's will this the Hebrew, this the Greek and the Latin tongue proclaim; this one faith teaches: to say three times one king.

Lots are cast for his garments, so that the sacred robe, remaining untouched, might forbid schism from Christ. Moreover, on either side of the innocent one they set bloodstained men, though the same sentence does not make one merit for all; for among the executioners, the Holy One hanging between robbers, the punishment of the three is equal, but the cause of two of them is different. For these are guilty before the world for many crimes; to this one the world is guilty, saved by his just blood. And yet even in the punishments the Ruler of all did not lose the rights of power: for as a just judge, looking on both, he chose this one and rejected that one, weighing the merits of both in a lofty trial. For one, whose fierce life did not leave him even in death, hurling wicked insults at the Lord, was biting with his own words, and like a bristly goat was tearing the lovely vine with venomous mouth: the other, having adored Christ with words of prayer, bent down his wounded eyes, cast down, only his eyes, for wounds held back both his hands. Him the Lord, like a shepherd, gathers up, a straying sheep through the desert fields, and rejoices to lead him with him into your fields, paradise, where with everlasting flowers the grassy field delights, and the pleasure of the groves is nourished by watering streams, and among gardens kindly famous for fruits that do not deceive the ancient serpent groans that a settler now dwells.

So both robbers, setting out on different paths, committed a great and violent crime of different kinds. That one goes to the doors below, this one to the doors above; that one, following the depths, entered the prison of Gehenna, this one carried off the kingdom of heaven by his robbery. Meanwhile a dreadful darkness suddenly came and held the whole sky, covering the blackening day with sad funeral rites; the sun, hiding its flashing rays in a cloud and veiled in a foul garment, hid itself and stained the sad world with mourning. The elements deserved to see this face of theirs, bereft of their Father's help, glad at his rising, sad at his setting. For as the light shone at the time of the Lord's birth, so it withdrew as he died, not to stay away long, but signifying mystic secrets by its span; for as for three hours the stars of the darkened sky lay hidden in blindness, so the Lord bore three days in the cave of the closed tomb. Nor was the earth without disaster, which, seeing such things, trembled to its foundations, and nature, uncertain of its end, dreaded the final limit, lest the highest summit, heading for the underworld, should compel the whole mass to fall, and the world, following its Author, depart through Tartarus. But immense kindness was hastening to the wandering shades, restoring what was lost, not destroying what stands.

Yet those who fixed the Lord to the cross feared no signs of so great a danger; moreover, when, thirsting, he asked for a drink, one of the unspeakable crowd held out vinegar soaked in a sponge on a reed. That liquid suited bastard peoples who had turned to the worse; for as sweet wines, when they are turned into horrible vinegar, lie thrown out from the tables, so the nation once accepted by God is now a hated offspring. So when the whole passion of the good Christ was completed, he himself sent forth his holy soul from his own body, he himself would take it up again, because the same one was dead and the same one alive, his limbs dying in him but God not dying; by whose power the ways of the underworld lay open backwards, and the rocks, their joints sundered, burst apart, and the bodies of the saints who lay there, revived, went out from the broken tombs, animated in their own ashes; and with a sudden crash that temple, rejoicing to see that the summit of a greater temple had fallen, like a mourning foster-child bared its wounded breast as the veil was torn, teaching that its inner secrets were … to be unlocked to future peoples, because the law, long covered by the veil of Moses, lies open to us as Christ comes.

Tell me where your sad victory is now, tell me where now, Death, your horrible sting is, you who, never sated with rich evils, are accustomed to invade all nations with your penal rule? Look, most wicked one, you do not reach Christ, but Christ reaches you, he who could die without death, and who, begetting all things and establishing all things, did not form you to exist: you were created from the viper's seed, with guilt as your mother, and you perish as pardon reigns. Already the spirit had left the limbs for a time, already the cold body hung on the spreading wood, and still fury supplies arms: it violates his side, pierced with a spear point, and from the open wound purple blood ran, and water with it. For these are, for the honor of holy religion, the body, the blood, the water: three gifts of our life. Reborn from the font, we feed on the limbs and the blood of Christ, and therefore we are counted a temple of the Godhead; may God grant us to keep it undefiled, and make us, slight as we are, able to hold so great an indweller. So when that noble place received the rich treasure of the body laid in it, the Lord lying there, but nobler still when he rose, the deceitful generation was nursing wickedness in its heart: that in the silent night the disciples would steal Christ away and report that he had gone when the third day came round, as he himself had foretold.

Spurred by this fear, they ask that more guards be posted and that the place be held under savage siege. If, executioners, after the bonds of the cross, after the wounds of iron, after his death, bloody with many blows, you have not yet finished your work, and do not believe that he who so often brought souls back from the lowest shades can all the more recall his own: then arm deceits fit for worse counsels, seal the tomb, post guards, roll a stone against the monument. Who will be able to guard God, to whom on the hinge of the world all things lie open? He dwells in the waves, reigns through Tartarus, and thunders from the clouds of heaven. Why, savage mob, do you waste your work on watches? Why do you strive to test the faith which you do not wish to believe? Meanwhile, after the sad Sabbath, the happy day had begun to shine, which draws the height of its lofty name from the ruling Lord, and first deserved to see the world born and Christ rise again. For when Genesis calls the seventh day the Sabbath, it is clear that this day is the head of the world, to which the glory of its King, granting it now the splendor of his own trophy too, gave it to keep the primacy. At this rising of light the virgin mother, and other mothers with her, came weeping with the gift of a harvest of spices to the familiar tomb, and see the place now empty of the body, but full of power. For an angel sent from the stars was sitting on top of the stone that had been rolled away, flaming in appearance, bright in a snow-white robe.

He, bearing terror and joy in a twofold appearance and dispensing all things, had come in a form of menacing fire to the guards, and in white to those who were seeking Christ. So the women learned through the angel's faith that the Lord lives, death trodden down. But the terrified soldier keeps his life in a dangerous plight, flees, deserting his post, and, a witness of his fear, tells the truth for nothing; after bribes were given, he lies, and, a practiced pretender, says that the band of disciples had secretly stolen Christ away for themselves in a night raid at the time of calm sleep. Speak, wicked guard, answer, criminal band: if Christ, as you dare to say, was brought out stealthily from the closed cave without the sleepers' noticing, whose grave-clothes lie inside? Beside whose discarded garments does the angel sit? Or did the one who took away the blessed body think it quicker to unwrap him than to carry him off bound? Since delay is the enemy of theft, it would have been safer to take his linen cloths along with the Lord. Your empty words have lied. Yet this event holds an excellent figure: it is clear that the Christ whom we carry in our devoted hearts was taken away from the Jews. Lament, Judea, for your priests who will perish, lament for your ministers and your people, for such daring. Not the trumpet, not the anointed, not your victim any longer is pleasing.

What wars will the trumpet sound for you, your king slain? Who will be your anointed, since you have lost the true Anointed? What victim will be offered, when the shepherd is held to be the victim? Let the synagogue depart, darkened by its own color; Christ has joined the church to himself in beautiful love. She shines in conspicuous honor in Mary, who, though she is ever mother by a glorious name, remains ever virgin; standing before her eyes the Lord first showed himself openly in the light, so that the good mother, spreading abroad his great miracles, she who was once the way of his coming, might also be the herald of his return. Soon, a mighty guest, he shone out and was recognized by others in the breaking of bread, because the true bread is always present to opened eyes, which the grace of faith makes clear, so that they can see the Lord living. Often after that, at hours of various times, he comes openly to his own disciples while they are eating, now suddenly showing his face, now eating a meal of broiled fish and honeycomb, so as to teach clearly that the food was bodily and that he was seen in the limbs he had before. Again, in fear of the apostate people, which had blindly denied the Lord, when the faithful company was sitting with the doors shut, he came in, greeting them with peace, and, showing his pierced palms, he bares his side. But Thomas,

who was surnamed Didymus, had not been with his brothers, and bore a doubtful faith in his heart, until, when he too was sitting with them, there came again he who had never been taken away. Then, the door shut, he stood in their midst, not disdaining to show his open side to the disciple and to be tested by the touch of the wound, and to bear patiently the wavering mind: recognized all the more from this, that he is the friend of the doubter. For whoever devises crafty frauds under a dark image and wishes to practice empty illusions does not want to be recognized, does not want his deeds examined, so as to lurk under a cloud of deceit, and, shutting all things up in mist, the pretender hates anxious friends. Likewise the Lord, knowing that Peter, fishing on the sea with his companions, had caught nothing, urges them to let down their nets into the waters on the right. Soon, the deep enclosed, the hanging nets hauled in a wave-wandering prey, to be understood by way of a figure: for the nets are the shining precepts of God for the worthy, by which all who remain in that right-hand part are enclosed, and are carried together in the apostles' arms to the feet of the Lord Christ. Nor were fish and coals and bread lacking, found by the disciples in one place. Who would doubt that one faith consists in these things? for the fish is in the water, Christ is present as the bread, and the Holy Spirit as the fire.

For by the one we are washed, by this one fed, by that one consecrated. Then the teacher invites them to eat the meal with kind words, as was his custom, and, coming to the table with one mind, they enjoy the Lord's familiar goodness and knew him to be their Christ. And when, with a modest meal, hunger was overcome and they had risen, leaving their places in order, the Lord asks whether Peter loves him from the depth of his heart; Peter assents. So the loving shepherd, wishing to increase his shining flocks, entrusts the sheep to a worker good in every part, entrusts the lambs too, giving this charge in threefold speech, so that the threefold guilt of the recent denier might remain purged by an equal number. Then, teaching what they must follow, he says: “Have peace, all of you, bring my peace, carry quiet peace, scatter peace among the peoples by holy admonitions and empty the world of evils: and I command that the nations be called from all the ends of the earth, wherever the wide world stretches, and that all be washed in the font.” When the Lord had finished these words in kindly speech, he soon goes to the fields of Bethany: and before the blessed men who alone deserved to see the triumph, raised on high, he departs into the regions of heaven. And he sits at the right hand of the Father and governs all things by his own right, he who, holding all things high and low, entered Tartarus after heaven, and heaven after Tartarus.

But they, watching with glad faces as the Lord went above the high clouds and trod the shining tracts with his footsteps, reverently adore him and carry back in eager hearts the starry ways, to teach them to all: for they were rightly faithful witnesses of the divine power, who, having seen many things, wrote down a few of his countless good deeds. For if they had wished to hand down in sacred pages all the deeds of the Redeemer, not even the whole world would be enough to hold the crowded books in so many volumes.