On the Resurrection of Christ 3.673–5.689

the past and the future, and the body lies without sensation, not knowing a friend, not recognizing an enemy, not seeing those who stand around and watch, limp, dead, without any activity, no different from those laid in tombs and coffins. So you may rob the sleeper like a dead man, if you wish, empty his house, put chains on him, and he has no perception of what is being done. But a little later, when there is some respite and relief from that state, the man rises as if just brought to life, coming little by little to awareness of himself and of things, slowly resuming his activities, and as though given a soul again by the rekindling of wakefulness. If, then, while the living being still exists and survives, so many trances, alterations, changes, forgettings and rememberings by night and day are bound up with life, it is quite senseless and contentious not to believe God when he promises the final renewal, he who also crafted the first formation. But what most hems in the objectors and disposes them to unbelief is above all, I think, this: they suppose that a complete annihilation of bodies takes place. But it is not so. For the body is not completely annihilated, but is dissolved into the things from which it was composed; and it exists in water and air and earth and fire. Since the original elements remain, and what came from them returns to them after the dissolution, the parts too are preserved in the wholes. And although it is entirely easy for God to create out of things that do not exist (for so in the beginning all things received their origin), to produce from beginnings that exist is surely far easier and simpler. Let us not, then, take away the fair hope of mankind, the restoration of our weakness and, as one might say, the second birth, free from death; nor let us insult God's good and loving promise by excessive love of pleasure. For those who oppose the subject before us seem to me to be companions of vice and enemies of virtue, lustful and greedy, without restraint of eyes and hearing and smell, welcoming the pleasure that flows in on them through all the senses. Since the doctrine of the resurrection has the judgment before it, and they hear the sacred books say expressly that our life is not free of accountability, but that when we are renewed to the second life we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive under him as judge the due rewards for how we have lived, they, conscious of most shameful deeds deserving many punishments, abolish the resurrection out of hatred of the judgment. Like wicked slaves who have squandered their lord's property, and who picture to themselves the death and ruin of their master, and in vain toward their own desire

But no one of sound mind will think this way. For what is the use of justice and truth and kindness and every good? For what do people toil and practice philosophy, enslaving the pleasure of the belly, loving self-control, taking only a little sleep, and setting themselves against cold and stifling heat, if there is no resurrection? Shall we say to them the words of Paul: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”? If there is no resurrection, but death is the end of life, take away accusations and reproaches; give the murderer unhindered license; let the adulterer plot against marriages openly; let the greedy man live in luxury at the expense of his opponents; let no one rebuke the slanderer; let the perjurer swear continually, for death awaits the man who keeps his oath as well. Let another lie as much as he likes, for there is no fruit of truth. Let no one pity the poor, for mercy goes unrewarded. These notions produce a confusion worse than the flood; they drive out every sober word and sharpen every mad and murderous thought. For if there is no resurrection, there is no judgment either; and if judgment is abolished, the fear of God is cast out with it. And where fear does not bring sobriety, there the devil dances with sin. Very fittingly David wrote that psalm against such people: “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt and have become abominable in their ways.” If there is no resurrection, Lazarus is a fable, and the rich man, and the dreadful chasm, and the unquenchable burning of the fire, and the burning tongue, and the longed-for drop of water, and the poor man's finger. For it is plain that all these depict the resurrection to come. For tongue and finger are understood not as limbs of the bodiless soul, but as parts of the body. And let no one think that these things have already happened; they are a proclamation beforehand of what is to come. It will be then, when the refashioning, giving life to the dead, brings each to account for how he has lived, composite as before, made up of soul and body. And the God-inspired Ezekiel, beholder of great visions, toward what meaning was he led when he saw that great, wide plain full of human bones, over which he was commanded to prophesy? At once flesh grew round them, and the bones, loosened and scattered in disorder, were joined to one another in order and harmony. Is it not plain that by such words he sufficiently shows us the return to life of this flesh? Those who are contentious against this doctrine seem to me not only impious but deranged. For “resurrection” and “return to life” and “refashioning” and all such names carry the hearer's thought to the body that is subject to corruption. For the soul itself, considered by

itself, will never rise, since it does not die, but is incorruptible and indestructible. Being immortal, it has a mortal partner in its deeds; and for this reason, before the just Judge, at the time of the accounting, it will dwell again in its fellow worker, so as to receive with it shared punishments or honors. Or rather, so that the argument may follow still more closely, let us consider it thus. What do we call a man: the two together, or one of them? It is plain that the union of the two characterizes the living being; it is not right to linger on what is undisputed and well known. This being so, let us reckon this further: whether the things men do, such as adultery, murder, theft, and everything that goes with them, or on the contrary, sobriety, self-control, and every activity opposed to vice, we say are the work of both, or whether we restrict the deeds to the soul alone. But here too the truth is plain. For nowhere does the soul, cut off from the body, practice theft or commit burglary; nor again does it alone give bread to the hungry, or drink to the thirsty, or hasten readily to the prison to care for one suffering in prison. Rather, in every action both join with each other and accomplish together what is done. How, then, since this is so, while granting that there will be a judgment of how we have lived, do you tear the one from the other? And when the deeds are shared, do you restrict the court to the soul alone? If someone were an exact judge of human offenses, and considered carefully where the first causes of sin spring from, he would perhaps find the body first out of order in the charges. For often, while the soul is at rest and enjoys an untroubled calm, the eye has looked with passion on what it would have been better not to see, and passing the disease on to the soul has turned its stillness into storm and surge. Likewise the ears, hearing shameful or provoking words, pour into the thoughts, as through pipes, the mud of disturbance or of disorder. Sometimes the nose too, through its sense and the vapors, brings great and incalculable evils on the inner man. Hands also know how to soften by touch the firmness of a resolute soul. And as I go through it thus little by little and consider it, the poor body is found responsible for many sins. But it also bears the labors for virtue and toils in the contests for what is good: cut by iron, burned by fire, torn by scourges, weighed down by painful chains, enduring every outrage so as not to betray the sacred philosophy, like a city with fine towers surrounded by the war of vice. If, then, it toils with the soul in good deeds, and

does not abandon it in sins, on what ground do you bring the bodiless soul alone before the court? That argument is neither just nor that of sensible people. If the soul sinned alone and naked, he will punish it alone; but if it plainly has a fellow worker, the judge, being just, will not let that partner go. I also hear Scripture saying that just punishments will be laid on the condemned: fire, darkness, and the worm. All these are punishments of composite and material bodies. Fire would never touch the soul by itself, nor would darkness grieve it, since it has no eyes or organs of sight. And what would a worm do, being destructive of bodies, not of spirits? For this reason we are driven from every side by consistent reasonings to assent to the raising of the dead, which God will accomplish at the appointed times, confirming his own promises by deeds. Let us believe, then, him who says: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised”; and again: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” For he does not only promise, but also clearly teaches by the works he does every day that he is almighty. For neither did he grow weary when he created in the beginning, nor will he be at a loss for wisdom when he transforms. Let us look at present things, and we will not disbelieve what is to come. Every work of God is followed by amazement, and great and inexpressible is the wonder when we see the likenesses of fathers and great-grandfathers passing exactly into the forms of their descendants, and children becoming casts of their forefathers. Then I am utterly astonished at the all-wise art of God our Savior, the best of craftsmen: how imitations of archetypes that neither exist nor appear any longer are fashioned and molded again in an unspeakable mystery, raising up the dead in other persons by the working of the patterns. Often, too, the features of many persons together are portrayed in one body: the father's nose, the grandfather's eye, the uncle's walk, the mother's voice; and one man is seen like a plant that has received grafts from many trees and bears countless kinds of fruit for those who gather it. All these things are wonderful, and how they happen is unknown to us; but they are ready at hand for the Creator and, as we know, accomplished with great ease. It is quite absurd and ignorant to grant that the features of bodies already rotted and destroyed rise again in those born every day now, and that what belonged to some passes into others, yet not to agree that what is proper and peculiar to them is renewed and brought back to life in the very persons who once possessed it, but on the contrary to deny it and fight against it, and to think a fable, not a reasoned word, the promise of him who established this whole visible world and

ordered it as he willed. But we have believed in the resurrection, sending up glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

On holy and saving Easter.

The true rest of the Sabbath, which received God's blessing, on which the Lord rested from his own works, keeping Sabbath for the salvation of the world in the stillness of death, has now come to its end, and has shown its own grace to eyes and ears and heart, since the feast has been celebrated for us through all of these: through what we saw, through what we heard, through the gladness we received in our hearts. What the eyes saw was light, carried before us through the night by the torches, as in a cloud of fire. The word that sounded in our ears all night long, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, flowing like a stream of joy through the hearing into the soul, filled us with good hopes. And the heart, gladdened by what was said and seen, was given the imprint of the inexpressible blessedness, led by the hand through what appears to what is invisible. So the good things of this rest are an image of those good things “which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man,” confirming by themselves the unspeakable hope of what is laid up for us. Since, then, this night full of light, mingling the gleam of the torches with the morning rays of the sun, has made one continuous day, not divided by any intrusion of darkness, let us understand, brothers, the prophecy that says: “This is the day that the Lord has made.” On it the work to be done is nothing heavy or hard to accomplish, but joy and gladness and exultation, for so the word says: “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” O fine things! O sweet lawgiving! Who delays to obey such commands? Who does not count even a short delay a loss? Gladness is the work, and exultation the command; through them the condemnation for sin is undone and sorrows are turned into joy. This is the saying of Wisdom: “In a day of gladness there is forgetting of evils.” This day has brought forgetfulness of the first sentence passed against us; or rather annihilation, not forgetfulness, for it has wiped out entirely every memory of our condemnation. Then childbirth was in sorrows; now the birth is without pangs. Then we were born flesh of flesh; now what is born is spirit of spirit. Then we were born sons of man; now we have been born children of God. Then we were sent away from

heaven to earth; now he who is from heaven has made us heavenly too. Then death reigned through sin; now righteousness takes power in its place through life. Then one man opened the entrance of death; through one man life is now brought in its place. Then through death we fell from life; now death is destroyed by life. Then we hid under the fig tree from shame; now through glory we draw near to the tree of life. Then through disobedience we were driven out of paradise; now through faith we come to be inside paradise. Again the fruit of life is set before us, to enjoy as we will. Again the spring of paradise, divided fourfold through the rivers of the Gospels, waters the whole face of the church, so as to drench the furrows of our souls, which the sower of the word has cut with the plow of teaching, and to multiply the harvest of virtue. What, then, is fitting for us to do in return? What else but to imitate the prophetic mountains and hills with leaping? “The mountains,” he says, “skipped like rams, and the hills like lambs of the flock.” Come, then, let us rejoice in the Lord, who has destroyed the power of the enemy and has raised for us the great trophy of the cross over the fall of the adversary. Let us shout. A shout is the cry of victory raised by the conquerors over the conquered. Since, then, the enemy's battle line has fallen, and he himself who held power over the wicked army of demons is gone and has vanished and has now passed into nonexistence, let us say: “The Lord is a great God, and a great King over all the earth,” who “has blessed the crown of the year of his goodness” and has gathered us into this spiritual choir, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory to the ages.

On the light-bearing and holy resurrection of our Lord and God.

Blessed be God. Let us praise today the only-begotten God, the begetter of the things of heaven, who has risen up out of the hidden depths of the earth and has overshadowed the whole world with his light-bearing rays. Let us praise today the burial of the Only-begotten, the resurrection of the victor, the joy of the world, the life of the nations of the world. Let us praise today him who clothed himself with sin. Let us praise today God the Word, who refuted the wisdom of the world, ratified the foretelling of the prophets, gathered the band of the apostles, and spread abroad the calling of the church and the grace of the Spirit. For behold, we who were once strangers to the knowledge of God have come to know God; and what is written has been fulfilled: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.” What will they remember? The old fall and the new resurrection; the ancient transgression and the later correction; the death of Eve and the giving birth of the Virgin; the restoration of the nations, the forgiveness of sinners, the foretelling of the prophets, the preaching of the apostles, the rebirth of the font, the dwelling in paradise, the return to heaven; the Creator rising, he who put off his unsightliness, he who by his divine might changed the corruptible into incorruption. And what unsightliness did he put off? That of which Isaiah spoke: “And we saw him,” he says, “and he had no form or beauty; but his form was dishonored, falling short of the sons of men.” When was he dishonored? When you kept company with the accursed Jews and were called a Samaritan and one who has a demon; when Judas Iscariot and the offspring of darkness seized for murder him whom nothing can contain. Not without reason did John say to them: “Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” For truly the wrath of God will remain on them. When was he dishonored? When the shoot of gentleness received a blow, and they questioned under oath him who is the judge of oaths. When was he dishonored? When the Judge was put on trial, and the Judge of the world was judged; the servant questioned, the Master was silent; the light was still, and the darkness exulted; the creature was insolent, and the Creator endured. When was he dishonored? When the bulls gored and the calf stood by; when the lion roared and the bulls exulted, as it is written: “Many calves surrounded me, fat bulls encircled me; they opened their mouth against me like a lion ravening and roaring.” When was he dishonored? When the dogs barked and the Master bore it; when the wolves snatched and the sheep stood by; when a robber was called to life, and the Life of the world was dragged to death; when they shouted that disorderly and destructive cry: “Away, away, crucify him! His blood be on us and on our children!”: the Lord-killers, the prophet-killers, the fighters against God, the God-haters, the outragers of the law, the enemies of grace, the strangers to the faith of their fathers, the advocates of the devil, the brood of vipers, the whisperers, the slanderers, darkened in understanding, the leaven of the Pharisees, the sanhedrin of demons, the accursed, the utterly wicked, the stoners, the haters of the good. Naturally they cried out, “Away, away, crucify him!” For the coming of the Godhead in the flesh weighed on them, and the manner of his reproofs grieved them; for it is the habit of sinners to hate meeting the righteous. When was he dishonored? When they scourged him and tortured his holy body, as he willingly bore suffering to heal the old bruises of our sins; when the wood of

the cross, the trophy against the devil, he carried on his shoulders; when they put a crown of thorns on him who crowns those who trust in him; when they clothed in purple him who grants incorruption to those reborn through water and the Holy Spirit; when they nailed to the wood him who is Lord of life and death. When was he dishonored? When the soldiers in mockery made a show of the Master of the host of heaven. When was he dishonored? When they put a sponge on a reed, filled it with vinegar and gave it to him to drink, and gave gall to him who had rained down manna on them; when the rocks split and the veil of the temple was torn, struck with amazement at the daring of the accursed; when the sun mourned and put on darkness like sackcloth, mourning the falling away of the Jews (for the day lamented the calamities of the Jews); when the Life hung between robbers, one reviling and slandering, the other stealing paradise by repentance. When was he dishonored? When his body was given up for burial. When was he dishonored? When soldiers stood guard, and the earth hid him who founded the earth upon the waters; when the apostles hid, unable to bear the weight of the trials. But see, beloved, the wonders of God, and after the passion the triumphs of joy. The dishonored one was changed into glory, and the joy of the world has been raised incorruptible with the body. Then the earth was in labor, the day was pregnant, and death spat out the life of all. For it was not possible for him who rules all things by his word to be held by death. Let us celebrate, then, the resurrection on the third day, the source of eternal life. For just as Mary the Theotokos, in a virginal and unwedded travail that left her virginity intact, by the will of God and the grace of the Spirit gave birth to the Maker of the ages, God the Word from God, so too the earth, loosing the pangs of death from its own depths, at the command spat out the Master of the Jews; for it could not hold a body that had become a vehicle of immortality. So the prophet David, considering the restoration of comeliness, the loosing of death, the freedom of those who were once slaves, cries out and says: “The Lord has reigned; he has clothed himself with comeliness.” With what comeliness has he clothed himself? With incorruption, with immortality, with the assembly of the apostles, the crown of the church. No longer does Judas betray; no longer does Caiaphas threaten; no longer does Pilate judge, nor do the Israelites hold power. For the corruptible has become incorruptible, and he who was thought among them to be a mere man has been shown to be true God. So we too cry out: “Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?” “The Lord has reigned, he has clothed himself with comeliness; the Lord has clothed himself with power and girded himself.” By “power” he means the dispensation through the flesh. For since nothing is mightier than that, the bodiless one cast down the demons through a body, and through the cross he reduced the opposing powers by siege. For since at first sin shook the

earth, our Lord Jesus Christ, rising as he had foretold, made it firm by the wood of the cross, so that it should no longer go toward the slippery fall of destruction nor be tossed by the storms of error. Let us bring the blessed Paul as witness to this word, who says simply: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption.” That is why the Psalmist too says: “Your throne is prepared from of old; you are from everlasting”; and, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, which will not be destroyed”; and again, “Your kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages”; and again, “The Lord has reigned; let the earth exult, let the many islands be glad.” For to him belong glory and power. Amen.