Easter Song

Contents

Reading pages: 0.1–1.337 · 2.1–2.279 · 3.1–3.327 · 4.1–4.297 · 5.1–5.429

1. 0.1In his prefatory verses Sedulius invites the reader to a modest Easter meal of simple fare, not the lavish feast of learned poets.
2. 1.17Since pagan poets sing lies and crimes, Sedulius, a singer of the Psalms, will sing the miracles of Christ, who shares one power and glory with the Father, and he urges readers to leave pagan philosophy for the law of life.
3. 1.43Sedulius calls the Greeks away from the labyrinth of pagan worship to the waters of baptism that bear a hundredfold harvest, and begins a prayer to God the creator.
4. 1.68Sedulius praises God who made man, restored him by the food and drink of Christ's blood, and saved the world through the ark as a figure of baptism, and asks him to guide him on the narrow way to the fold of the good Shepherd.
5. 1.93Sedulius begins to recount a few of God's countless miracles: Enoch taken from death, the barren and aged Sarah giving birth to Isaac, and the ram offered in Isaac's place.
6. 1.116Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac foreshadows the Lamb's death; Lot's wife warns against looking back; Moses' burning bush, his rod turned serpent, and the parting of the sea are further miracles.
7. 1.141The crossing of the sea was a baptism under Christ's leadership; Christ was the manna, the rock that gave water and the waters themselves; and Balaam's ass spoke.
8. 1.163The sun stood still at Gibeon for Joshua, whose name foreshadowed Jesus; ravens fed Elijah, and Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire, a fitting end for one whose name in Greek almost means 'sun'.
9. 1.188God added fifteen years to Hezekiah's life; Jonah survived inside the sea-monster; the three young men were unharmed in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace; and the king, for his cruelty, lived like a beast for seven seasons.
10. 1.212Daniel is unharmed among the lions; Sedulius then sums up all these miracles and asks Nature who could so often overrule her laws.
11. 1.238All creation obeys its Creator, yet men worship idols, animals, the sun, the moon, stars, water and fire, which are creatures and servants, not gods.
12. 1.264Sedulius mocks the worship of trees and garden plants, refuses to dwell longer on such folly, and turns toward the heavenly city, where those who ask, seek and knock are answered.
13. 1.288Christ is the rejected cornerstone; having told the Father's miracles in the Old Testament, Sedulius will tell the Son's in the New, all works of the one triune God, and he condemns Arius, who made the Son less than the Father as among men.
14. 1.312Christ is the Father's Word and Wisdom, light from light, begotten not made, equal to the Father; against Arius, the Father and Son are one, and against Sabellius they are two, both heresies being as foolish as the quarrelling sects of philosophers.
15. 1.337At the gate of Christ's camp, marked with the cross, the poet asks a humble place in the heavenly city and prays to Christ, who took human nature without losing his divinity and is proclaimed by the four evangelists and twelve apostles; Book 1 ends.
16. 2.1Book 2 begins with the fall, which brought death on the whole race, so that even the longest life ended in the grave, until God in mercy restored his image, so that from the place where sin gave death kindness might give salvation.
17. 2.30Mary, the new virgin, undoes the sin of Eve: announced by the angel, she conceives and bears Christ, the Word made flesh, remaining a virgin, and he comes forth like a bridegroom in beauty.
18. 2.54The Lord took the form of a servant and lay in a manger; the poet hails Mary, mother and virgin without equal; angels announce the birth to the shepherds, and the magi come to Herod.
19. 2.76Herod, fearing a rival, plots to kill the child while pretending to seek him for worship; the magi follow the star and offer gold to the King, incense to God and myrrh for his burial.
20. 2.97The three gifts confess the triune God; the magi return home by another way, as believers must not go back to the evil one; Herod, deceived, massacres the infants like a lion robbed of its prey.
21. 2.123The mothers mourn the slain infants, with whom Christ suffered; at twelve he sits among the teachers, and at about thirty comes to the Jordan, where John, who leapt for him in the womb, hails him as the Lamb of God.
22. 2.150Christ takes away sin as light dispels darkness; by his baptism he sanctifies the waters, and the Father's voice, the Son and the Spirit as a dove reveal the one triune God.
23. 2.175After his forty-day fast Christ is tempted to turn stones into bread and to worship the devil for the kingdoms of the world, and refutes him from Scripture.
24. 2.201The devil sets Christ on the temple pinnacle and quotes Scripture; Christ, who came down from heaven, rebukes him, the devil flees, and angels serve Christ; he then calls fishermen to be fishers of men.
25. 2.229God chose the lowly; Christ taught the brief Lord's Prayer: calling God Father makes believers brothers and adopted sons; his name is hallowed by pure hearts; and his kingdom is the endless day of Christ's reign.
26. 2.255The Lord's Prayer continued: God's will be done on earth as in heaven; our daily bread is Christ, Word and food; and we must forgive our debtors, as the parable of the unforgiving servant warns.
27. 2.279God leads no one into temptation but abandons those who love the world's snares; the narrow way leads to the kingdom, the right-hand path to Abraham's bosom, the left to hell; Book 2 ends with the flock escaping the wolf.
28. 3.1Book 3 begins with Christ's first sign, turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana; he heals the official's son by a word, and travels everywhere healing.
29. 3.26Christ cleanses a leper, cures Peter's mother-in-law of fever, casts out demons and heals many, then sets out by boat with his disciples.
30. 3.50A storm threatens the boat while Christ sleeps; woken by his disciples, he calms the wind and sea; landing, he meets two men possessed by a legion of demons.
31. 3.76The demons, not daring to remain in human beings, are sent into the swine; Christ returns to his own town, where he forgives the sins of a paralytic and makes him walk and carry his bed.
32. 3.103Jairus begs Christ to raise his dead daughter; on the way a woman who had bled for years touches the hem of his garment in faith and is healed, and Christ praises her faith.
33. 3.129At Jairus's house Christ says the girl is only asleep and raises her; he then gives sight to two blind men who call him Son of David.
34. 3.152Christ heals a deaf and mute demoniac, then sends out his disciples to heal and preach the kingdom to Israel, freely giving what they freely received; their teaching flows to all ages like the four rivers of paradise.
35. 3.176Those who receive God's gifts must give freely, as stewards, not merchants; Christ heals a man's withered hand in the synagogue, frees a blind and mute demoniac, and meets a woman long bent over.
36. 3.202Christ straightens the woman bent for eighteen years; like a new Moses he feeds five thousand with five loaves and two fish, leaving twelve baskets over; then he walks on the sea to the disciples' storm-tossed boat.
37. 3.228Peter walks on the water and is rescued by Christ's hand; at Gennesaret all who touch his garment are healed; and the Canaanite woman's humble faith wins her daughter's healing.
38. 3.251On the mountain Christ heals the blind, lame, lepers and deaf, and on the third day feeds four thousand men with seven loaves and a few fish, leaving seven baskets over.
39. 3.273Christ's divinity, though veiled in flesh, shone out at the transfiguration before three disciples, with Moses and Elijah beside him and the Father's voice declaring him Son; afterwards a father begs him to heal his possessed son.
40. 3.302Christ casts the demon out of the boy; he pays the temple tax with a coin from a fish's mouth; and he teaches that whoever humbles himself like a child is greatest in the kingdom.
41. 3.327Christ commends the humility of children; God lifts the lowly and casts down the proud rebel; Book 3 ends with the poet confessing that God's deeds are too many to tell one by one.
42. 4.1Book 4 begins with Christ healing in Judea; the rich cannot enter the kingdom any more than a camel through a needle's eye, except by God, who teaches them to lay up treasure in heaven through works of mercy.
43. 4.27What is given to the poor is given to Christ and gained in heaven; Christ heals two blind men, then the blind and lame in the temple, and curses the barren fig tree, which withers.
44. 4.52The barren will be burned but the righteous flourish; Christ frees a mute demoniac, and at a Pharisee's dinner forgives a sinful woman who washes his feet with her tears.
45. 4.76Confession heals; in the synagogue at Capernaum Christ silences and casts out a demon that recognizes him as the Holy One of God, for the fallen devil knew him from heaven.
46. 4.99Christ heals a deaf mute near Sidon and a blind man by spitting on his eyes; then, teaching from Simon's boat, he tells him to let down his nets, and the catch fills two boats.
47. 4.124At Nain Christ raises a widow's only son from his bier and gives him back to his mother; and he drives seven demons out of Mary Magdalene.
48. 4.150Christ sends out other disciples like lambs among wolves, with power over serpents and demons, but tells them to rejoice that their names are written in heaven, since without a good life miracles are worthless, as with Pharaoh's magicians; then he dines with a ruler of the Pharisees.
49. 4.175On the Sabbath Christ heals a man with dropsy, teaching that the Sabbath was made for man; then ten lepers call to him and he sends them to the priests.
50. 4.198Of the ten lepers healed, only one returns to give thanks, presenting himself to Christ, the true high priest after the order of Melchizedek who offers bread and wine; blind Bartimaeus, crying out persistently, receives his sight, like the friend who gets bread at midnight by persistence.
51. 4.222Christ, thirsty at the well, offers the Samaritan woman the living water of baptism; in the temple he sets free a woman caught in adultery, since none of her accusers is without sin, and tells her to sin no more.
52. 4.248One who returns to sin, like a dog to its vomit, loses forgiveness; Christ heals a man born blind with clay and the water of Siloam, a figure of humanity's blindness healed by Christ's flesh and baptism.
53. 4.271Christ weeps at the tomb of Lazarus, in his human nature, and by his divine word raises him from four days' death; then, to show himself God, he enters Jerusalem not in a chariot or on a horse.
54. 4.297Christ enters Jerusalem humbly on a donkey, while the people spread their garments and greet him with palms and hymns, a glory given to no other king; Book 4 ends with praise of the Trinity.
55. 5.1Book 5 begins as the Passover nears: Christ prays to the Father, who answers from heaven, though many say it thundered; at the supper he girds himself and washes his disciples' feet.
56. 5.26Christ washes the feet even of Judas, who is clean outside but foul within; after instituting the gifts of his body and blood, he gives Judas the bread, Satan enters him, and he sells Christ for thirty pieces of silver, a crime no price could measure.
57. 5.50It would have been better for Judas never to have been born; he leads the armed band and betrays Christ with a kiss; Christ heals the ear Peter cut off, refusing vengeance though he could summon legions of angels.
58. 5.77Christ, come to give his life, foretells Peter's denial; he is taken to Caiaphas, where false witnesses fail, and the crowd beats, slaps and spits on him, which he bears for our salvation.
59. 5.101Christ's sufferings heal and free us; Peter denies him three times, the cock crows, and Peter's bitter tears win pardon; at dawn Christ is led to Pilate, and Judas returns the silver, too late.
60. 5.126Judas hangs himself, an apostle become an apostate; Christ stands silent before Pilate like a lamb, accused of calling himself king, and the people choose Barabbas.
61. 5.150Christ is scourged and handed over, and Pilate, though he washes his hands, is guilty; the soldiers mock Christ with a scarlet cloak, a crown of thorns and a reed, each of which the poet reads as a sign.
62. 5.176Christ tastes and refuses the wine with gall; hung on the cross, he makes it a sign of salvation whose four arms embrace the four quarters of the world; the title 'King of the Jews' in three languages proclaims him king.
63. 5.200The soldiers cast lots for the seamless robe, a sign of the church's unity; of the two robbers crucified with Christ, one mocks him and the other prays, and Christ takes him into paradise like a lost sheep.
64. 5.227One robber goes to hell and the other steals heaven; darkness covers the land for three hours, a sign of Christ's three days in the tomb, and the earth quakes as Christ descends to the dead to restore the lost.
65. 5.252Christ is given vinegar, a figure of a people turned sour; he gives up his spirit, dying as man but not as God; the earth quakes, rocks split, the dead saints rise, and the temple veil is torn, opening the law to all.
66. 5.276Death has lost its sting, for it did not reach Christ but Christ reached it; from his pierced side flow blood and water, the gifts of baptism and the Eucharist; he is buried, and his enemies fear the disciples will steal the body.
67. 5.301The tomb is sealed and guarded in vain; on the first day of the week, the Lord's Day, the day of creation and of resurrection, the women come with spices and find the tomb empty and an angel sitting on the stone.
68. 5.329The angel terrifies the guards and gladdens the women; the guards are bribed to say the disciples stole the body, but the grave-clothes left behind expose the lie; the poet laments that Judea has lost its Christ.
69. 5.354The synagogue yields to the church, Christ's bride, embodied in Mary, ever virgin, to whom (the poet says) the risen Christ first appeared; he is known at Emmaus in the breaking of bread, eats fish and honeycomb, and shows his wounds to the disciples behind closed doors.
70. 5.379Christ lets doubting Thomas touch his wounds, showing he is no deceiver; at the sea he tells the disciples to cast their nets to the right, and the great catch, the fish, bread and fire are read as figures of the church and of baptism, the Eucharist and the Spirit.
71. 5.404After the meal Christ asks Peter three times whether he loves him and entrusts him with his sheep, undoing the threefold denial; he gives his disciples his peace and commands them to baptize all nations, then ascends from Bethany and sits at the Father's right hand.
72. 5.429The disciples watch Christ ascend and go to teach all; they wrote only a few of his deeds, for the whole world could not contain the books if all were written, and the poem ends.