Sermon 229H

SERMON 229/H

TREATISE ON THE THIRD DAY OF EASTER

Everything in Christ was working for the resurrection, which is the form of our faith.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith. For He who was born as a man from a human at a certain time, as God from God, without any time being involved; thus, He who was born in mortal flesh, in the likeness of sinful flesh, bore infancy, passed through childhood, reached youth, and carried this into death, all of this served His resurrection. For He would not have risen if He had not died; He would not have died if He had not been born; and thus, being born and having died has contributed to His resurrection. Many, both strangers and impious, believed that the Lord Christ was born as a man from a human; although they did not know He was born of a Virgin, they still believed that Christ was born a man, and both friends and enemies believed that Christ was crucified and died; only friends knew that He had risen. But why is this? The Lord Christ, because He chose to be born, because He chose to die, intended to rise; there He defined our faith for us. For in our kind, that is, in the kind of humanity, we knew two things: to be born and to die. To teach what we did not know, He took on what we did know. It was customary in the earthly realm, in the condition of our mortality, it was completely customary to be born and to die; so customary, that it could not be in heaven, but on earth it does not cease to be. But who knew about rising again and living eternally? He who came from God brought this new thing to our region. He was made man for the sake of man, a great act of compassion; made man, the creator of man. It was not great for Christ to be what He was, but it was great that He chose to become what He had made. What does it mean to become what He made? To become man, who had made man. This is His compassion.

We are born to die and there is no way the last day can be avoided.

Everything that is done in this life, in which men wish to be blessed, and cannot... For what they greatly wish is good, but they do not seek what they desire in its proper region. For certain things are born in their own regions. And gold is not born everywhere on earth, nor silver everywhere, nor lead everywhere; the very fruits come forth differently in different places; and there is nothing everywhere, except to be born and to die. Nevertheless, this very act of being born and dying does not belong to the whole world, but to this lowest part of the world; for in the heavens, there is no being born and dying, since all things were created there. The prince of the angels, indeed, could fall from there with his associates; but for the angels who fell, men will come there and fill the place of those who fell. Therefore, because the devil saw man about to ascend from where he had fallen, he saw and envied; he fell and cast down. But what does it mean that the devil fell? What does it mean that he cast man down? He overcame everything who did not fall, but descended. Man fell: God descended and was made man. Therefore, where being born and dying abound, it is a region of misery; men seek to be blessed in a region of misery, they seek eternity in a region of death. The Lord says to us, the Truth says to us: What you seek is not here, because it is not from here. You seek a good thing, which every man wants; you seek a good thing because it is good to live; but we are born for this, that we might die. Consider not what you want, but under what condition you have come. Therefore we are born that we might die. Life is not obtained by those who are dying, and therefore they are more wretched. For if we were to die, and wished to live, we would not be very wretched; but as we are very wretched because we wish to live and are compelled to die. Do you not know that any man cannot always stay awake, but also wants to sleep? It is not against his will that he sleeps; he cannot always stay awake, but he also wants to sleep. However, a man cannot be, except by both staying awake and sleeping. One comes to life, and every man says: I want to live, and no one wants to die; and although no one wants to die, he inevitably dies. As much as he can, he acts to live by eating, drinking, sleeping, providing for himself so he might live, by sailing, walking, running, avoiding, he wants to live. Often delivered from many dangers, he lives; but let him hold his age if he can; let him not reach old age. He passes through a dangerous day, and man says: I have escaped death. From what have you escaped death? Because the dangerous day has passed. However, a day has been added to you: one more day you have lived, one less you have, if I count. For if you were to live, for instance, thirty years, when the day has passed, it subtracts from the sum of life, as it increases the weight of death. And yet they say: Years are added to a man. I say, they are withdrawn: for I attend to that sum which remains, not which has passed. They are added, why? Because he who has lived fifty years now has fifty-one. In which he lives, or what he is about to live? For instance, he was to live eighty years; fifty he has from this, thirty remain. He lived one: he has what he lived, fifty-one; what he is to live, twenty-nine remain; and from here one left, another was added; but when it was added, you do not hold whence it left. Fearing, he lives another, twenty-eight remain; he lives the third, twenty-seven remain. By living, it is taken away whence it is lived, and by leading life is diminished and is not; because there is no way the last day can be avoided.

Through His resurrection, Christ promised us life, both eternal and blessed.

But our Lord Jesus Christ came and as if addressing us said: Why were you afraid, O humans, whom I created and have not abandoned? O humans, ruin from you, creation from me; O humans, why were you afraid to die? Behold, I die, behold, I suffer; behold, what you feared, do not fear, because I show you what to hope for. Behold, thus he acted, he showed us the resurrection into eternity; the same the Evangelists concluded in their writings, the Apostles proclaimed throughout the world. Because of the faith in his resurrection, holy martyrs were not afraid to die, and yet they feared to die; for they would rather die if they feared to die, and by fear of death deny Christ. Yet what is it to deny Christ but to deny life? How great is the madness to deny life by loving life! Therefore, the determination of our faith is Christ's resurrection. Hence, it is also written in the Old and New Testament, to do penance and receive the remission of sins, in the man in whom he defined faith for all, raising him from the dead. This is the definition of faith, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You live if you live; that is, you live forever if you live well. Do not fear to die badly: fear, rather, to live badly. What a strange perversity! Every man fears what no one can escape, and does not do what he can do. That you may not die, you cannot do; that you may live well, you can do. Do what you can, and you will not fear what you cannot. For nothing is as certain to man as death. Begin from the beginning. Man is conceived in the womb: maybe he is born, maybe not. He is born: maybe he grows up, maybe not; maybe he learns letters, maybe not; maybe he takes a wife, maybe not; maybe he will have children, maybe not, maybe he will have good ones, maybe bad ones; maybe he will have a good wife, maybe a bad one; maybe he will be rich, maybe poor; maybe he will be ignoble, maybe honored. Can it be said among these: Maybe he will die, maybe not? Therefore, every man born falls into a disease from which no one born escapes. He dies from it, as it is usually said. He has dropsy: he must die, no one escapes from it. He has leprosy: he must die, no one escapes from it. He is born: he must die, no one escapes from it. Because he must die, since life itself is not even permitted to be long-lasting, from infancy to decrepit old age, there remains nothing but to flee to him who died for us, and by rising gave hope; so that, because in this life, in which we run, we can only die, nor can we make it eternal, which we greatly love, we flee to him who promised us eternal life. For see what the Lord promised us, brothers: both eternal and blessed. Surely this one is miserable: who does not know this, who does not admit it? How much we have, how much we suffer, what we do not want, in this life! Quarreling, dissensions, temptations, ignorance of our hearts towards each other, such that sometimes unknowingly we embrace an enemy, fear a friend; where hunger, where nakedness, where cold, where heat, where weariness, where diseases, where jealousy. Surely this life is miserable. Yet, if this same miserable life could be given to us eternally, who would not rejoice? Who would not say: I want to be as I am, only I do not want to die? If you want to have a bad life, how will he who gives both eternal and blessed life be? But if you want to reach eternal and blessed life, have a good temporal life. It will be good in work, it will be blessed in reward. But if you refuse the work, with what face do you seek the reward? If you cannot say to Christ: I did what you commanded, how will you dare to say: Give what you promised?