Sermon 218A

SERMON 218/A

FROM THE SERMON ON THE PASSION OF THE LORD
In the collection of Bede and Florus

FRAGMENTA

How will the righteous not reign, when the wicked one was sought by the death of God?

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Therefore Christ died for the ungodly. And Christ is God. How will the righteous not reign found in the life of God, when the ungodly was sought lest they perish, by the death of God? For in the life of God we will be saved, because in our own life we had perished. But when we hear both the life of God and the death of God, let us discern what is from what. For He brought us life, but accepted death from us: yet not for His own merit, but for us.

By the mercy of God, the Gentiles enter into the promises of the fathers.

Therefore, Christ is the King of the Jews, under whose gentle yoke even the Gentiles are sent to salvation; because greater mercy has been granted to them. The Apostle himself shows this more clearly, where he says: "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy." For it was not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs, unless the dogs, humbled to gather the crumbs they see falling from the masters' table, exalted through that very humility and made human, deserved to approach that very table.

In the inner man, oldness and newness are acted upon.

For, as some think, the old man is not the body and the new man the soul; rather, the body is the outer man, and the soul is the inner man. In the inner man, this oldness and newness occur. For when the Apostle said, "Put off the old man, and put on the new," he was not commanding that the body be abandoned, but that life be changed for the better. Finally, he subsequently taught this; for wishing to explain what he had said, he declared: "Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor."