Sermon 229D
Sermon 229/D
ON HOLY EASTER
The meditation on the mysteries of Christ should be for us a daily celebration of Easter.
Always, indeed, brothers, you ought to remember that Christ was delivered up for our offenses and rose again for our justification; yet especially in these days of such great grace, being reminded by which we are not permitted to forget this very thing, which happened once, by annual celebration—informed by faith, strengthened by hope, inflamed by love—let us solemnly frequent temporal things, let us unceasingly desire eternal things. For if God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Christ suffered, let us die to sin; Christ rose again, let us live to God. Christ passed from this world to the Father; let not our heart be fixed here, but let it follow the things above. Our Head hung on the tree; let us crucify the lusts of the flesh. He lay in the tomb; buried together, let us forget past things. He sits in heaven; let us transfer our desire to lofty things. He is coming as judge; let us not be yoked together with unbelievers. He will raise even the dead bodies of the deceased; let us make the merit befitting the body having changed by a changed mind. He will put the wicked on the left, the good on the right; let us choose our place by our works. His kingdom will have no end; let us not fear the end of this life at all. All the teaching of our peace is in Him, by whose stripe we are healed.
But the annual solemnity more joyfully renews the mysteries of Christ.
Therefore, beloved, let the most persistent meditation on all these things be for us the daily celebration of Easter. For we ought not to hold these days as so special that we neglect the memory of the Lord's passion and resurrection every day, since we have His body and blood as our daily feast. Nevertheless, this festival more clearly commemorates, more fervently excites, and more joyfully renews, because it recalls the events, as it were, with the actual sight of them represented by the annual cycle of seasons. Thus, let the passing feast be celebrated, and always consider the coming kingdom that will last forever. For if these passing days gladden us so much, during which we devoutly commemorate the passion and resurrection of Christ, how will the eternal one bless us, where we shall see Him and remain with Him, whom we now rejoice in, longing and hoping for? How great an exultation will He give to His Church, to which, regenerated through Christ, He removes in a way the foreskin of carnal nature, that is, the reproach of birth? Hence it is said: And you, when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive with Him, forgiving us all our debts. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Thus, what was hidden in the shadow of the old circumcision is revealed in the baptism of Christ; and this also pertains to that same uncircumcision made without hands, when the covering of carnal ignorance is removed. When you shall have passed on to Christ, he says, the veil is taken away.