Sermon 265D
Sermon 265/D
On the fortieth day of the Ascension of the Lord
The error of the Manichaeans regarding the flesh of Christ.
We have heard, when the holy Gospel was being read, and in awe we believed, and believing we were amazed, that the Lord appeared after His resurrection from the dead, offering Himself as proof to those who were dying, as an example to those who would rise again. He appeared to those in despair, who, when terrified, thought they saw a spirit. There is a malignant heresy, which even today believes what the disciples believed at that time: the Manicheans say that the Lord Christ was a spirit, not a body, and that all that happened was in the form of a body, and that it appeared more as movements of the limbs rather than being such. Let us address these people briefly, with your patience; because perhaps they may be hidden among you, let them not miss this occasion of the reading.
The error of the Manicheans was once of the Apostles.
What do you say, whoever you are, Manichaean, what do you say? Christ, he says, was a spirit, he did not have flesh, but appeared as if he had flesh. I admit for now, I admit one who contradicts, in order to make, if I can, a believer. You are undoubtedly saying that Christ was seen to be a spirit, not a body? This, you say. This, I say, even the disciples once thought. Therefore, I am not very angry, because you have erred in this way: but clearly you are to be condemned, because you remained in error when they were corrected. Was Christ a spirit, did he not have flesh? I admitted one who contradicts, listen to the teacher; listen, I say, to the teacher, not to me, but to him. Go, and say, and boast, and preach, and teach, and penetrate houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins; do it, and say: Christ was a spirit, he did not have flesh and bones. Hear him saying: Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet; handle and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. What are you contradicting? Are you a Christian? If you are a Christian, hear Christ saying: Why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet; handle and see, for a spirit - that is, what you think I am - does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. Do you still contradict? If you still contradict, see whether it is perhaps no harm to think Christ was a spirit, even if he had true flesh. If it were no harm, the Lord would have left his disciples in that error. Do not scorn the wound that such a doctor cared to heal; those thoughts are like thorns that, if they did not harm the Lord's field, the diligent farmer would not have extirpated them with his hand. But the disciples were corrected, the Manichaeans are perverted; that thought made a passing entry in the disciples' hearts like a stranger; it took possession of the hearts of the Manichaeans like a mistress, because it invaded like an enemy.
The Word, soul, and flesh in Christ.
Let it be taken care of, brothers, if anyone perhaps doubts this; let him hear the truth, let him set aside contention. Christ, Word, soul, and flesh. Any man, soul and flesh: Christ, Word and man. If Word and man, Word and soul and flesh. They are not three persons, Word and soul and flesh; because neither are you two, soul and flesh. You, soul and flesh, one man; he, Word, soul and flesh, one Christ. Furthermore, sometimes he speaks according to what is the Word, and yet Christ himself speaks; sometimes he speaks according to what is the soul, and yet Christ himself speaks; sometimes he speaks according to what is the flesh, and yet Christ himself speaks. Let us prove these with examples from divine scriptures. Hear according to the Word: I and the Father are one. Hear according to the soul: My soul is sorrowful unto death. Hear according to the flesh: It was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise on the third day. Where to rise again, except in that which could fall? There he rose again, where he was dead. Seek death in the Word: it could never be. Seek death in the soul: it was never there, where sin was not. Seek death in the flesh: there indeed it was; and therefore the resurrection was true, because the death was true. There was death. Why was it, where there was no sin? There the penalty was without guilt, so that in us both the guilt and the penalty might be dissolved.
Why should Christ die when he has not sinned at all?
Why do you marvel that Christ died, when Christ did not sin at all? He wished to repay what he did not owe for you, so that he might release you from your debt. Rightfully, the devil possessed the deceived human race; he possessed what he had captured, he captured what he had deceived. Christ brought in mortal flesh the blood to be shed, by which the handwriting of sins would be erased. He would still hold the guilty if he had not killed the innocent. Now see how justly it is said to him: You killed one who owed nothing, restore the debtors. Behold, he says, the prince of this world comes, and he will find nothing in me. How is it nothing? Do you not have a soul, do you not have a body? Are you not also the Word? All these things nothing? By no means. Nothing of his own, because there is no sin. He is the prince of sins: the prince of sins will find nothing in me. I have not sinned, I have drawn nothing from Adam, who came to you from a virgin. I added nothing, because to whom should I add, since I had none, and by living justly, I committed nothing. Let him come, and if he can, let him find something of his own in me. But he will find nothing of his own in me; I have no sin: born innocently, I led an innocent life. Let him come, he will find nothing. Why then do you die, if he comes and finds nothing? And he gives the reason why he dies: Behold, the prince of this world will come, and he will find nothing in me. And as if we were to say: Why then do you die? he replied: But so that all may know that I do the will of my Father, rise, let us go hence, to the passion, for the will of the good Father, not because of the debt to the evil prince.
The cross of Christ was the trap for the devil.
Why then do you marvel? Certainly, Christ is life: why did life die? Neither the soul died, nor did the Word die; the flesh died, so that in it death might die. Having suffered death, He killed death; He placed bait on the trap for the lion. The fish would not be caught on the hook if it did not want to devour anything. The devil was greedy for death, the devil was covetous for death. The cross of Christ was the trap; the death of Christ, rather the mortal flesh of Christ was like bait in the trap. He came, he swallowed it, and he was caught. Behold, Christ has risen: where is death? Already it is said in His flesh what will be said in ours at the end: Death has been swallowed up in victory. It was flesh, but it was not corruption. While the nature remains, the quality is changed: the substance itself, but there is no longer any defect, no slowness, no corruption, no need, nothing mortal, nothing like we are accustomed to know on earth. He was touched, handled, felt, but not killed.
The Apostles had not yet been endowed with power from on high.
Listen further. He ascended into heaven, and was taken from the sight of the disciples; he left those watching and made them witnesses. It was said to them: Why do you stand? This Jesus, who was taken up from you, will come in the same way. In the same way, how is that? In the same form, in the same flesh: They will see the one whom they pierced. He will come in the same manner as you saw Him going into heaven. Certainly, they saw, certainly they touched, they felt: they strengthened their faith both by seeing and by touching. They escorted Him ascending into heaven with their eyes: they listened attentively to the angel's voice proclaiming the coming Christ. Yet, now that all these things have been accomplished in them so that they might become witnesses of Christ, and endure all things bravely for the preaching of the truth, and contend against falsehood even unto blood, it was not that vision alone, nor the touching of the Lord's limbs that afforded them this power. But who granted them this? Hear the Lord Himself: But stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high. You have seen and touched; but you cannot yet preach and die for what you have seen and touched until you are clothed with power from on high. Let them go now, and ascribe to men their abilities, if they can. Peter was there, but he was not yet established on the rock; he was not yet clothed with power from on high; for no one can receive it unless it is given to him from heaven.
To do right, you need a helper.
Therefore, brothers, let truth itself persuade us; let no one glory in his own strengths, let no one exalt in the freedom of his will. Alone, you are capable of sinning: to do right, you need a helper. Say, “Be my helper, do not forsake me”; woe to you if He forsakes you. When He leaves you to yourself, to whom does He leave you but to a man? Do you not fear when you hear, “Cursed is everyone who puts his hope in man”? Behold, Christ the Lord, as I said, is Word, soul, and flesh; there is God, there also are you; and one Christ. How are you there? By what merit, by what free will did the Lord take on human nature, was the Word clothed in human nature? What merit preceded the human nature itself? Or perhaps you will say that Christ was living well somewhere unknown and by living well earned the right to be received by the Word and to become one with the Word, and to be born of a virgin? God forbid, God forbid: remove this from the minds of Christians, Lord our God. We see Him as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. For the Word had no way to die for you: it was fitting that Christ should die for you, and in the Word, there was no way to die for you; for the Word, being simple life, without flesh and blood, without any changeability, was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How far from death! Therefore, what mercy! Mary indeed was of human stock: a virgin, but human; holy, but human. However, the Lord, the only-begotten Word, took on for you what He would offer for you. He took it on for you, but only from you; because He had nothing in Himself from which He could die for you. Neither did you have anything from which to live, nor did He have anything from which to die. Oh great change! Live from what is His, because He died from what is yours.