First Sermon for Easter Sunday: On the Apocalyptic Book and its Sevenfold Seal, and on the Proper Mode of Celebrating Easter

“And one of the ancients said to me: Weep not; behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof.’ — Apoc. v. 5.

“The Lion of the tribe of Juda hath prevailed ” (Apoc. v. 5). Wisdom clearly hath prevailed over malice (Wisdom vii. 30), Wisdom that “ reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly” (ibid. viii. 1), acting mightily for me, sweetly with me. He, the Wisdom of God, prevailed on the cross over the blasphemies of the Jews, He bound the strong man armed (Mark iii. 27), and triumphed over the very empire of death. Where now, O Jew, are thy reproaches? Where, O Zabulon, are now the captives of thy hand? “O death, where is thy victory ” now (r Cor. xv. 55)? The slanderer has been put to confusion, the robber has been stripped of his spoil. We have here presented to us a novel kind of power.* Death hitherto victorious has been confounded. What will you do now, O ye Jews, who on the day of the crucifixion were wagging your sacrilegious heads before the cross, and heaping insults on Christ, the true Head of man, calling out to Him in mockery, “ Let Christ the King of Israel come down from the cross ’’ (Mark xv. 32)? O venomous tongues !

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 163

O “evil words” (Ps. cxl. 4)! O “ wicked speech ” (Ecclus. xxxvii. 21)! These are not the words which thou, O Caiphas, didst utter a short time before, saying, “Tt is expedient for you that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not” (John xi. 50). That was no lie, because it was not thine own nor didst thou say it of thyself (ibid. 51). “ If He be the King of Israel let Him now come down from the cross” (Matt. xxvii. 42): these words are undoubtedly thine, or rather they belong to him who is a liar from the beginning (John viii. 44). For how does it follow from the fact of His being a King that He ought rather to descend than ascend? O thou “eld serpent ” (Apoc. xx. 2), hast thou thus forgotten how thou wert once obliged to withdraw in confusion after presuming to say to Him, “If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down” (Matt. iv. 6), and, ‘ All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me” (ibid. 9)? And thou also, O Jew, art thou so unmindful of what thou hast heard from the Psalmist, “The Lord hath reigned on the wood ” * (Ps. xcv. 9), that thou refusest to believe Him a king because He remains upon the wood? But perhaps thou hast not heard this announcement at all, since not to the Jews great Christian poet, Fortunatus, uses them in his magnificent hymn Vexilla Regis :— ‘‘Impleta sunt quae concinit David fideli carmine, Dicens in nationibus Regnavit a ligno Deus.”

Cf, Bellarmin on this verse.—(Transiator.)

but to the Gentiles it was to be made: “ Say ye among the gentiles,” sings the Prophet, “ the Lord hath reigned on the wood.”

Appropriately, therefore, did the gentile ruler put the title of king upon the cross of Christ. And the Jew had not even the power—although he had the wish—to change that title, to say nothing of preventing the Lord’s passion and our redemption. “If He be the King of Israel, let Him come down from the cross.” Nay, rather, because He is the King of Israel, let Him not abandon His title, let Him not lay aside the sceptre of His rule, for “ the government is upon His shoulder,” as the Prophet Isaias predicted (Is. ix. 6). ‘‘ Write not,” said the Jews to Pilate, “ Write not: the King of the Jews, but that He said: I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered: What I have written, I have written ” (John xix. 21, 22). Now if Pontius Pilate has written what he has written, shall not Christ complete what He has begun? Yea, as He hath begun so He will save us.* But the Jews say, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save” (Matt. xxvii. 42). Now, were He to come down from the cross, He would save none at all. For if final perseverance is necessary for him who would be saved (Matt. x. 22), much more necessary is it for Him Who would be a Saviour. “He saved others,” therefore, but not Himself, for being Himself Salvation (Ps. xxxiv. 3) He has no need to be saved. He is working our “salvation in the midst of the earth ” (Ps. lxxiii. 12), and He will not suffer the least part to be wanting in the saving Victim of the evening sacrifice. Well He knows what thou c=

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 165 art thinking of, O wicked one. He will not give thee any occasion of craftily breaking off our perseverance, which alone shall becrowned. He will not close the mouths of them who preach the Gospel, of them who console the faint-hearted and admonish each of the faithful not to quit his appointed place, which we should doubtless do were it possible for us to answer that Christ had abandoned His own place. “ For the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil,” as the Scriptures bear witness (Gen. viii. 21). In vain, O malignant one, in vain hast thou “ prepared thy arrows in the quiver ” (Ps. x. 3). In vain dost thou reinforce the sorrow of the disciples with the insults of the Jews. The former are sinking into despair, the latter are multiplying their reproaches. But by neither of these species of darts can Christ be wounded. He has chosen another time for comforting His disciples and for confounding His foes. Meanwhile He is more solicitous to commend to us by His example the virtues of patience and humility, and to give us lessons in perfect obedience and perfect charity. With these four virtues, as with so many precious stones, the four branches of His cross are adorned: charity on top, obedience on the right, patience on the left, and humility, the root ofall the other virtues, beneath. With these spiritual gems, I say, the Lord decorated the trophy of His cross in the consummation of His passion. For He received with humility the blasphemous reproaches of the Jews, and showed patience in suffering when He was pierced outwardly with nails and inwardly with the tongues of maligners ; His charity was proved perfect in that He laid down His life for His friends, and His obedience when “ bowing His head, He gave up the ghost ” (John xix. 30), “ becoming obedient unto death” (Phil. ii. 8). Such, my brethren, is the dowry, and such the glory of Christ whereof they wished to rob the Church, who exclaimed, “ If He be the King of Israel, let Him come down from the cross.” They designed, namely, that we should have no pattern of obedience, that we should have no model of humility and patience, no motive of love, but that these most tender words should be blotted from the Gospel, these words “ sweeter than honey and the honey-comb” (Ps. xviii. 11) : “ Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends ” (John xv. 13), and these to the Father. “ I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do ” (ibid. xvii. 4), and these to the disciples, “ Learn of Me because I am meek and humble of heart ” (Matt. xi. 29), and these others to the multitude, ” And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all things to Myself’’ (John xii. 32). For what most particularly grieves the cunning and venomous old serpent is to see lifted up in the desert the brazen serpent, the contemplation of which heals the wounds inflicted by its malice (Num. xxi. 8). At whose instigation if not at the serpent’s * shall we suppose Pilate’s wife “sent to him, saying: Have thou nothing to do with that just Man. For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him” (Matt. xxvii. 19)? Therefore the devil was even then alarmed. But it was after the crucifixion common view the author of the dream which alarmed the governor's wife was not the devil but a holy angel. Cf. A Lapide.—(Translator.)

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 167 especially that he realised how much his power was weakened by the virtue of the cross, and he repented too late of his action. Those whom he had previously spurred on to crucify Christ, he now urges to induce Him to descend from the cross. “If He be the King of the Jews,” they cried, “let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.” This is undoubtedly the serpent’s craft, this is a stratagem of the “spirit of wickedness ” (Ephes. vi. 12). The impious one had heard the Saviour saying, “ I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel ” (Matt. xv. 24), and he knew what zeal He had shown for the salvation of the Jewish people. Wherefore, instructing the tongues of the blasphemers with malice exceeding great, he inspired them to say, “Let Him now come down from the cross and we will believe Him.” For he supposed that after this promise there was nothing more to prevent Christ from descending since what He had most at heart was the conversion of the Jews.

But what is the guileful serpent scheming for and against whom is he plotting? He is plotting against Him over Whom “ the enemy shall have no advantage, nor the son of iniquity have power to hurt Him” (Ps. Ixxxviii. 23). He cannot be deceived by an empty promise Who knows the hearts of all His creatures, any more than He Who is the meekest of men can be moved to anger by blasphemous insults. As for Satan’s design in urging Him to descend, it was not in order that the Jews might believe in Him, but rather to ruin our faith in Him (supposing we should have any) by every means possible. For having read that “‘ the works of God are perfect” (Deut. xxxii. 4) how could we acknowledge

Him to be God Who left incomplete the work of our redemption? But let us hear what answer Christ Himself makes through His Prophet to this invitation : “ Seekest thou a sign, O Jew? ‘Expect Me in the day of My resurrection that is to come ’” (Soph. iii. 8). ‘“ If thou hast the good will to believe in Me,” He seems to say, “I have already offered thee signs enough, signs more wonderful than that which thou art now soliciting. I multiplied prodigies, and I wrought miraculous cures yesterday and the day before. But to-day it is necessary that I be consummated (Luke xiii. 32). Are not the things thou hast witnessed— the evil spirits going out of the bodies of the possessed and the paralytics springing up from their beds—are not these greater marvels than would be the withdrawal from My Hands and Feet of the nails which thou hast hammered in? At all events, this is not ‘the time for doing’ (Ps. cxviii. 126) but the time for suffering. And as thou strovest in vain to anticipate the hour of My passion (John vii. 30), so dost thou fruitlessly strive now to prevent its accomplishment.”

But if this “evil and adulterous generation still seeketh a sign, a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the Prophet ” (Matt. xii. 39): that is to say, not the sign of a descent from the cross, but the sign of a resurrection from the tomb. And if the Jew does not seek this sign, let the Christian at least embrace it and rejoice in it. For “the Lion of the tribe of Juda hath prevailed.” The ‘“Lion’s Whelp ” hath been aroused by the voice of the Father (Gen. xlix. 9): He Who refused to come down from the cross has issued forth from the closed sepulchre. As to whether the latter is not a greater miracle than

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 169 the former would have been, we may leave it to our enemies to decide, to them who were so solicitous to “make the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting guards ” (Matt. xxvii. 66). Of this great stone, concerning which the holy women “said to one another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre ? ”?” (Mark xvi. 3), we read how, after the Lord’s resurrection, “an angel rolled it back and sat upon it” (Matt. xxviii. 3). It is plain from this that Christ’s reanimated Body passed out from the closed tomb as It had originally issued forth to life at His birth from the inviolate womb of His Mother ; and as It was later on to enter the room where “ the disciples were gathered together, the doors being shut ” (John xx. 19). There was one place, however, whence he was unwilling to emerge leaving the doors shut, I mean the prison-house oflimbo. For there “He hath broken the gates of brass and burst the iron bars”’ (Ps. cvi. 16) and destroyed all the fastenings in order to lead out His own freely whom “ He redeemed from the hand of the enemy” (Ps. cv. 10), in order that through wide-open portals might issue forth the multitude of the purified, who “‘ have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb” (Apoc. vii. 14). Mark how the Evangelist says, “ made them white in the Blood of the Lamb,” because, namely, together with that Blood there also issued forth whitening water: “ he that saweth giveth testimony ” (John xix. 35). Or perhaps it is meant that the robes were indeed made white in blood, but in the milk-like Blood, white and ruddy, of a young Lamb, agreeably to what is written in the Canticle of Canticles, “ My Beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands ”? (Cant. v. 10). Therefore it was that the angel who announced His resurrection showed himself also in white garments, “ and his countenance was as lightning ” (Matt. xxviii. 3).

But if for the purpose of repelling the slanders of the Jews this one fact appears to suffice, that the Lord passed out from the closed sepulchre, He to Whom they said in mockery, “If He be the King of Israel, let Him come down from the cross’’—for they took more pains to close and seal the tomb (Matt. xxvii. 64-66) than they did to drive home the nails—if, I say, “the Lion of the tribe of Juda hath prevailed ” by this miraculous passage through the rock and offered His enemies a greater wonder than they demanded: to what can we compare the miracle of the resurrection itself? We read, it is true, of some other resurrections, or rather of certain resuscitations which preceded the resurrection of Christ ; but they were only figures of the latter, which, as you know, ex-celled them all in two important respects. In the first place, the other individuals who were restored to life were destined to die again; whereas “ Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more: death shall no more have dominion over Him. For in that He died to sin, He dieth once ; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God ” (Rom. vi. 9, 10), He liveth unto eternity. Justly, therefore, is Christ called the “ first-fruits” of them that rise from the dead (r Cor. xv. 20), because He arose in such a manner that He can fall no more, Who alone hath attained to immortality (1 Tim. vi. 16).

To come now to the second point in which the resurrection of the Lord shines with an incomparable

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK I7I glory. Amongst all the others who came back from the dead, is there a single one that revived himself ? It is a thing hitherto unheard of: that of his own power a man hath aroused himself from the sleep of death. It is a prodigy unprecedented: ‘‘ there is none that hath done (the like), no, not one” (Ps. lii. 4). The Prophet Eliseus raised to life one who was dead, but it was another, not himself (4 Kings iv. 35). And behold how many years he has been lying in the tomb, hoping for a resurrection, not however from himself, because he has not the power, but from Him Who hath triumphed over the empire of death in His own Body. This is the reason why we say of all others who returned to life that they were resuscitated, whereas we speak of Christ as having arisen, Who of His own power vanquished death and issued forth from. the sepulchre : for herein also, “ the Lion of the tribe of Juda hath prevailed.” But if He had such power when “ counted among them that go down to the pit ” although “ free among the dead ” (Ps. Ixxxvii. 5), what power shall He possess, or rather what power shall He appear not to possess when revived and saying to the Father, “ I have arisen and am still with Thee ” (Ps. cxxxvill. 18) ?

He willed that His resurrection should not be postponed beyond the third day in order “ that His Prophet might be found faithful ” (Ecclus. xxxvi. 18), who had said, “He will revive us after two days, on the third day He will raise us up” (Osee vi. 3). For it is becoming that the resurrection of the members should follow the precedent given them by their Head. He redeemed man on the cross on the sixth day, the same day on which He created man at the beginning. On the following day He rested in the sepulchre, having completed the work which He had undertaken to do. But on the third day, which is the first of all days, He appeared as “ the first-fruits of them that sleep” (x Cor. xv. 20), the Conqueror of death, the New Man. So we also during the whole of this day in which we are created and redeemed should not cease to do penance, should not cease to carry our cross and to persevere on it, as Christ persevered, until the Spirit shall tell us to rest from our labours (Apoc. xiv. 13). My brethren, let us listen to no one who counsels us to descend from the cross, whether it be flesh and blood or an intangible spirit. Let us remain upon the cross and let us expire upon the cross. Let us be taken down from the cross by the hands of others, rather than by our own inconsistency. Our Divine Head was taken down by holy men. But the holy angels will condescend to take us down. Then, having courageously consummated the day on the cross, during the second day, which commences after death, we shall rest sweetly and sleep tranquilly in the tomb, ‘looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God ” (Titus ii. 13), Who, on the third day will raise up “the body of our lowness made like to the Body of His glory ” (Phil. iii. 21). The bodies that remain in the sepulchre until the fourth day are in a state of corruption, according to what was said of Lazarus, “ Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he is now of four days ” (John xi. 39).

This fourth day, my brethren, was not given us by the Lord, but was designed and formed by the children of Adam. Wherefore “ they are corrupt and are

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 173 become abominable in their ways” (Ps. xiii. 1), as “beasts that have rotted in their dung ” (Joel i. 17). There are only three days of divine ordinance, those which I have mentioned: the day of labour, the day of rest, and the day of resurrection. The children of men are not satisfied with these ; they want to give the preference to a day of their own devising, putting off the time of penance in order to indulge in their pleasures. This assuredly is not a “ day which the Lord hath made ” (Ps. cxvii. 24): they have become corrupt, “for they are now of four days.” The Holy One Who was born of Mary knew nothing of this fourth day of man’s making ; for He arose on the third day that He might not see corruption (Ps. xv. I).

So “the Lion of the tribe of Juda hath prevailed.” The Lamb was slain, but the Lion hath conquered. “The Lion shall roar, who will not fear? ’’ (Amos iti. 8). The Lion, I say, shall roar, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the mightiest of all animals, Who dreads the approach of no enemy. Let them be afraid who denied Him, who exclaimed, “ We have no king but Cæsar ” (John xix. 15). Let them be frightened who said, “We will not have this Man to reign over us ” (Luke xix. 14). For He will “ return, having received the kingdom ” (Luke xix. 15) and “ He will bring those evil men to an evil end” (Matt. xxi. 41). Do you want proof that He will return, having received the kingdom? Listen to His own words: “ All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth ” (Matt. xxviii. 18). Hear also what the Father says to Him in the psalm : “ Ask of Me and I will give Thee the gentiles for Thy inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron and shalt break them in pieces like a potter's vessel ” (Ps. ii. 8, 9). Strong in truth is our Lion, yet not cruel. Nevertheless, His anger is terrible: insupportable is the “ wrath of the Dove” (Jer. xxv. 38). But remember that the Lion will roar, not against His friends, but in their behalf. Others have good cause to fear, but let the tribe of Juda exult.

Let them rejoice, I say, who have “put on confession ° * (Ps. ciii. 1), “all whose bones exclaim : Lord, who is like to Thee ? ” (Ps. xxxiv. 10). “‘ Behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, hath prevailed” (Apoc. v. 5). Now David is said to have been a man of desirable appearance and very strong (x Kings xvi. 18); and he himself confesses, “ Lord, all my desire is before Thee” (Ps. xxxvii. 10) also, “T will keep my strength to Thee (Ps. Iviii fo). Christ is called by the Evangelist “ the Root of David.” David is not His root, but He is David’s, because He is the One Who supports, not the one supported. Rightly, O holy David, dost thou cali thy Son thy Lord (Ps. cix. r), since “‘ thou bearest not the Root, but the Root thee’ (Rom. xi. 18). The Root of thy strength and of thy desire is a strong Root and a desirable Root. ‘‘ Behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof ’’ (Apoc. v. 5). These words are taken from the Apocalypse. Attend to them you that have not heard them before, and do you that have known them remember them. “ And I saw,” says St. John, “in the right hand of Him That sat on the throne, a book written within and í

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 175 without, sealed with seven seals. . . . And no man was able . . . to open the book nor to look upon it. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open the book. And one of the ancients said to me: Weep not ; behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I saw: and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the ancients, a Lamb standing as it were slain. . . . And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him That sat on the throne, and when He had opened the book ”’ there was great rejoicing and thanksgiving in heaven (Apoc. v. 1-8). John heard the Lion and he saw the Lamb. The Lamb was slain, the Lamb took the book, the Lamb opened the book, and then appeared as a Lion. For, as the ancients sang, “ The Lamb That was slain is worthy to receive strength ” (ibid. 12). He does not lose His meekness, but acquires strength, so that He becomes a Lion without ceasing to be a Lamb. I will say something still more strange : in my opinion the Lamb is not only the Lion, but is also the Book That could not be opened. Where indeed could one be found worthy to open this Book? Even John the Baptist himself, than whom “there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater ” (Matt. xi. 11), even he acknowledges his unworthiness for such an office, saying, “The latchet of His shoe I am not worthy to loose”’ (John i. 27). For through the incarnation of the Word, the Divine Majesty came to us shod (so to speak) with the shoe of our humanity ; the Wisdom of God came to us, but in a book that was closed and sealed. That which was bound by the latchet of the shoe, the same was secured by the seals of the book.

But how am I to interpret this sevenfold seal ? Shall I take the seven seals to signify the three faculties of the soul, viz., memory, will, and understanding, together with the four elements of which the body is constituted, so that we may know that nothing of the reality of human nature is wanting to the Saviour? Or had I better suppose the book itself to be the sacred Humanity, and endeavour to find the seven seals thereof? In fact, it appears to me that I can discover seven circumstances which in a special manner concealed the presence of the Divine Majesty in the flesh, preventing the book from being opened by any one and the Wisdom hidden within it from becoming known. The circumstances or seals which occur to me at the moment are these: first, the Mother’s espousals, which veiled Christ’s virginal birth and the purity of His conception, so that the Creator of men was considered the Son of a carpenter ; second, the weakness of His Body, by reason whereof He used to weep and wail like an ordinary child of Adam, to feed and sleep, and to experience all the other necessities of the flesh, which served as a mask for the divine power dwelling in Him; third, His submitting Himself to the rite of circumcision, the remedy for sin and for the diseases of the soul—He Who came to take away all sin and all our moral distempers ; fourth, His flight into Egypt from the face of King Herod, which made it impossible to recognise in Him the Son of God or the King of heaven ; fifth, the threefold temptation to which He was subjected by the enemy, in the desert, on the pinnacle of the temple, and on

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 177 the mountain: “ If Thou be the Son of God,” said the demon, ‘‘command that these stones be made bread ” (Matt. iv. 3), and, “ If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down ” (ibid. 6). But Christ did neither the one nor the other in order that the book might be more securely sealed and the truth kept from the knowledge of Satan. So greatly in fact was the latter deceived that he now held it as certain that Christ was nothing more than a mere man, and blinded by pride he became so utterly infatuated that he no longer said, “ If Thou be the Son of God,” but, ‘‘ All these will I give Thee if falling down Thou wilt adore me ” (ibid. 9). The sixth seal is the seal of the cross upon which the Lord of Majesty hung between two robbers “ and was reputed with the wicked ” (Is. liii. 12). The sepulchre finally sealed this book ; and no other seal bound it so firmly or so thoroughly concealed “the mystery of godliness” (x Tim. iii. 16). For after the Lord had been laid in the tomb, nothing seemed to remain but despair, so that the disciples themselves lost hope, since they said, “We hoped that it was He That should have redeemed Israel ” (Luke xxiv. 21). Who would not have wept at that time when the book was so tightly closed and sealed and there was none to open it ?

But weep no more, O blessed John; and do thou also, holy Magdalen, dry thy tears. Let grief withdraw afar and the clouds of sorrow bescattered. ‘“‘ Beglad in the Lord and rejoice ye just, and glory, all ye right of heart” (Ps. xxxi. 11). For “ the Lamb That was slain is worthy ” (Apoc. v. 12), and the Lion That has arisen, to open the Book : yea, the Book also is worthy to open Itself. By rising from the dead, and rising

II 13 by His own power, and after three days, as He had foretold according to the testimony of His very enemies (Matt. xxvii. 63), and by rising in such majesty and glory, He plainly indicated that all the seals or masks of which I have spoken were voluntarily assumed, not unavoidably submitted to, and belonged to Him not by necessity of His condition but by the choice of His condescension. Wherefore, O ye Jews, did you so lately seal the sepulchre? Because “that Seducer said, while He was yet alive: after three days I will rise again > (ibid.). Yea, a Seducer He is, indeed, but in a good, not in a bad sense of the word. “ Thou hast deceived me, O God, and I am deceived,” cried one of your prophets, speaking in your person, “Thou hast been stronger than I and Thou hast prevailed ” (Jer. xx. 7). He hath deceived you, O ye Jews, in His passion ; and in His resurrection He hath overcome and prevailed, the conquering Lion of the tribe of Juda. For hear what the Apostle says, “if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory ” (x Cor. ii. 8). What, therefore, will you do? He foretold that He would arise and He has arisen. Examine carefully the seal of His sepulchre : you shall find it loosed. You have been offered the sign of Jonas the Prophet, as He also predicted (Matt. xii. 39). As Jonas emerged from the stomach of the whale after three days, so did Christ issue forth on the third day from the heart of the earth (ibid. 40). But manifestly “ a greater than Jonas is here ” (ibid. 41), since the Saviour delivered Himself mightily from the very womb of death. Therefore “ the men of Ninive shall rise in judgment ” (ibid. 41) against you; therefore, they shall be your judges, because they gave heed

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 179 to a prophet, whilst you refuse to obey even the Lord of the prophets.

Where now is that promise of yours, given in the words, “ Let Him now come down from the cross and we will believe Him ” (Matt. xxvii. 42)? You wanted Him to break the seal of the cross, promising that, if He did so, you would accept the faith and enter His fold. Behold that seal is now, not broken indeed, but loosed. Will you not enter? But if you will not believe in Him after His resurrection from the dead, neither would you have believed in Him, had He come down from the cross. If the cross of Christ has been a scandal to you, as the Apostle bears witness, saying, “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block ” (x Cor. i. 23), at least let the novel glory of the resurrection attract you. As for us, we find our glory even in the cross (Gal. vi. 14). “ To them that are saved, that is, to us, it (the cross) is the power of God ” (x Cor. i. 18), and the fulness, as I have shown, of all virtues. But do you have part with us at least in the resurrection. Perhaps, however, the resurrection also will prove a scandal to you, yea, and a greater scandal than the cross? Perhaps what to us is “ the odour of life unto life ” will be to you “the odour of death unto death ” (2 Cor. ii. 16). Wherefore, then, should I insist further? Our elder brother cannot endure to hear the music and the dancing ; he is angry because the fatted calf has been killed for our entertainment ; he remains outside and absolutely refuses to enter (Luke xv. 25-28). But let us enter, dearest brethren, and “let us feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth’ (x Cor. v. 8), “for Christ, our Pasch, is sacrificed’ (ibid. 7). Let us embrace the virtues commended to us in the cross of the Lord : humility, patience, obedience, charity.

Weshould likewise ponder in diligent thought what is that which is especially commended to us by this glorious solemnity of Easter. As for myself, I take it to be three things: a resurrection, a passage, and a transmigration. For Christ, dearest brethren, has not fallen back to-day, but has arisen ; He has not returned, but passed on ; He has transmigrated, not retraced His steps. The very word Pasch, the name of the feast we are celebrating, signifies, not a going back, but a passing over ; and the name of Galilee, where it is promised us that we shall see Him Who has arisen, means a transmigration, not a return. I suppose the minds of some of you are now running ahead of me and have divined the drift of my remarks. But even so, I will speak my thoughts: yet in few words, lest, amongst other reasons, the prolixity of the sermon should weary your devotion on so great a solemnity as to-day’s. If, then, after the consummation of the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ had arisen again to this our mortal existence and to the miseries of this present life, I should have said He had returned, not that He had passed over : that He had gone back to His former condition, not transmigrated to a state more sublime. Now, however, having Himself passed on to a newness of life, He invites us also to make the same passage, He summons us to Galilee. For therefore “in that He died to sin, He dieth once,” because “in that He liveth now, He liveth—not unto flesh but—unto God ” (Rom. vi. 10).

What shall we say of ourselves, my brethren, who empty the holy resurrection of the Lord of the title

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 18r of pasch, proper to it, by making this solemnity rather an occasion of returning for our souls than of passing on? The days of Lent we passed in mourning, devoting ourselves to compunction, prayer, recollection, and abstinence, anxious to make amends and satisfaction during that sacred quadragesimal season for the sins and negligences of other times. We have communicated in the sufferings of Christ, having been again “planted together with Him in the likeness of His death ”?” (Rom. vi. 5), by a second baptism, as it were, of tears, penance, and confession. If therefore we have truly “ died to sin,” how can it happen that we shall ever again live in sin? If we have sincerely lamented our shortcomings, how is it that we so soon fall back into them once more? By and by we shall again be found as much given to curiosity as we were before, as talkative as we were before, as slothful and negligent as we were before ; we shall be found as much infected as ever with the vices of vanity, suspicion, detraction, irascibility, and all the other spiritual maladies, which we lamented so bitterly during the days just elapsed. “T have put off my garment, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? ” (Cant. v. 3). This, my brethren, is not a transmigration. Not so shall Christ beseen. This is not the way in which God has promised to show us His Salvation (Ps. xl. 23). For “no man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke ix. 62).

It is thus the lovers of this world, “ enemies of the cross of Christ ” (Phil. iii. 18), Whose name they take in vain by calling themselves Christians : it is thus they long during the whole time of Lent for the coming of the present paschal season, in order, alas! that they may indulge more freely their appetite for pleasure. So sorrowful a reflection, dearest brethren, overcasts with a cloud of gloom the joy of to-day’s solemnity. But it is the dishonour done to the solemnity that makes me weep, a dishonour which I cannot shut my eyes to, no, not even on the day of the solemnity itself, nay rather much less on this day. Oh, the shame of it! That the day of Christ’s resurrection should be made a time for sinning, an occasion for relapsing! From this day the “rioting and drunkenness ” shall return, the “‘ chamberings and impurities’’ shall reappear (Rom. xiii. 13), and a free rein shall be given to passion: as if, forsooth, it is for such things Christ arose from the dead and not rather “ for our justification’ (Rom. iv. 25). O miserable men, is it thus you honour Christ now that you have received Him? You made ready a lodging for Him in your hearts before He had yet arrived, confessing your sins with tears, chastising your bodies, distributing alms to the poor: and behold, no sooner has He become your Guest than you deliver Him up to His enemies, yea, oblige Him to withdraw from your souls by readmitting your former vices ! For light can have no “fellowship with darkness ” (2 Cor. vi. 14), neither can Christ dwell in the same heart with arrogance, with cupidity, with ambition, with uncharitable feelings, with luxury and the vices of the flesh. How can it be that less honour is due to Him when arrived than when approaching? Why should not the time of His resurrection demand from us as much reverence as the |timeZof#His passion ? But you make fit manifest that you have no respect for either the passion or the resurrection. For if you

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 183 really suffered with Him you would also reign with Him (2 Tim. ii. 12) ; if you really died together with Him, you would rise to a new life together with Him.

Now the humility practised by you worldlings during the time of Lent is proved to have been only conventional and simulated by the fact that it is not followed by a spiritual exaltation (Matt. xxiii. 12). “ Therefore,” as the Apostle says, “ there are many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep” (x Cor. xi. 30).* Therefore death is wont to be particularly busy during these days in various countries.

Quaesumus auctor omnium

In hoc paschali gaudio

Ab omni mortis impetu

Tuum defende populum ; which, since the correction (?) of the hymns in the Roman Brevihas stood thus: Í Ut sis perenne mentibus Paschale, Jesu, gaudium, A morte dira criminum Vitae renatos libera.”

Faber, Blessed Sacrament, p. 555.—(Translator.)

What, then, are you to do? O ye prevaricators, you have been “taken in the midst of straits” (Jer. Lament. x. 3), not because you have transgressed, but because you have continued obstinate in sin and added prevarication thereto, either wholly impenitent or coldly contrite, refusing, even after lamentable experience, to avoid the occasions of sin. The enemy has entangled you with a net of “ sinews wrapped together ” as the Scripture says (Job. xl. 12). Now if you refuse to participate in the Sacrament of Christ because of this evil state of your conscience, you shall have nothing in common with Him, and “ you shall not have life in you ” (John vi. 54). For this is what He has said Himself, “ Except you eat of the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you.” On the other hand, if you approach the altar unworthily, “you eat judgment to yourselves, not discerning the body of the Lord” (x Cor. xi. 29). Therefore, ‘return, ye transgressors to the heart ”’ (Is. xlvi. 8). Seek ye the Lord with your whole heart (Deut. iv. 29) and “hate evil” (Ps. xcvi. 10), proving yourselves to be penitent “not in word and in tongue only but in deed and in truth” (t John iii, 18). But inasmuch as he does not seem sincerely sorry for having fallen who is resolved to remain still upon the ice, nor he for having strayed who refuses to seek for a guide: let the abandonment of opportunities and the avoidance of the occasions of sin prove the reality of your repentance. Otherwise it is greatly to be feared that this day, which “is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many ” (Luke ii. 34) shall be a day of reprobation for you, either as openly alien from Christ Whom you

ON THE APOCALYPTIC BOOK 185 refuse to receive in the Holy Communion, or as the associates of Judas Iscariot, into whom “ Satan entered after the morsel’’ (John xiii. 27). . But, my brethren, “ what have I to do to judge them that are without ? ” (x Cor. v. 12). The only reason for referring to them at all is in order that we may grieve for having been once ourselves caught in the same snare, and that we may rejoice at having been delivered by the pure mercy of God from the same snare in which, with sorrow springing from brotherly love, we behold them still entangled. Yet would to God that even we ourselves were now found to be altogether purified and estranged from the wretched and sacrilegious custom I have been condemning, and that the advent of Easter did not cause us to diminish or relax anything of our spiritual fervour, but rather encouraged us to advance and increase! For whosoever does not return to the consolations of the flesh after the lamentations of penance, but passes out of himself into an assured hope in the divine mercy, and enters upon a new life of devotion and “ joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Rom. xiv. 17), and is more ravished with the thought and more inflamed with the desire of his heavenly crown than disquieted by the memory of his past transgressions: such a soul has indeed arisen with Christ, and is celebrating the pasch, and is hastening forward to Galilee. ‘‘ Therefore,’’ dearest brethren, “if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth” (Col. iii. 1, 2); “ that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so you also may walk in newness of life’’ (Rom. vi. 4), and may have the joy of passing over from earthly delights and consolations through compunction and “the sorrow that is according to God”’ (2 Cor. vii. 10) into holy fervour and spiritual exultation, by the grace of Him Who hath “ passed out of this world to the Father ” (John xiii. 1), and Who now deigns to draw us after Him and to invite us to Galilee, where He will show Himself to us (Mark xvi. 7), He Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.