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| For 334. Easter-day, xii Pharmuthi, vii Id. April; xvii Moon; Æra Dioclet. 50; Coss. Optatus Patricius, Anicius Paulinus; Præfect, Philagrius, the Cappadocian; vii Indict.
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Letter
VI.—For 334. Easter-day, xii Pharmuthi, vii Id. April;
xvii Moon; Æra Dioclet. 50; Coss. Optatus Patricius, Anicius
Paulinus; Præfect, Philagrius4072
| 4072 The
index gives still Paternus for Letters 6 and 7. On Philagrius, see p.
93, note 2. | ,
the Cappadocian; vii Indict.
Now again, my beloved, has God brought us to the
season of the feast, and through His loving-kindness we have reached
the period of assembly for it. For that God who brought Israel out of
Egypt, even He at this time calls us to the feast, saying by Moses,
‘Observe the month of new fruits4073
,
and keep the Passover to the Lord thy God4074
:’ and by the prophet, ‘Keep thy
feasts, O Judah; pay to the Lord thy vows4075
.’ If then God Himself loves the feast,
and calls us to it, it is not right, my brethren, that it should be
delayed, or observed carelessly; but with alacrity and zeal we should
come to it, so that having begun joyfully here, we may also receive an
earnest of that heavenly feast. For if we diligently celebrate the
feast here, we shall doubtless receive the perfect joy which is in
heaven, as the Lord says;
‘With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer. For I say unto you, that I will not eat it, until it is
fulfilled with you in the kingdom of God4076
.’ Now we eat it if, understanding the
reason of the feast, and acknowledging the Deliverer, we conduct
ourselves in accordance with His grace, as Paul saith; ‘So that
we may keep the Feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of
wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth4077
.’ For the Lord died in those days,
that we should no longer do the deeds of death. He gave His life, that
we might preserve our own from the snares of the devil. And, what is
most wonderful, the Word became flesh, that we should no longer live in
the flesh, but in spirit should worship God, who is Spirit. He who is
not so disposed, abuses the days, and does not keep the feast, but like
an unthankful person finds fault with the grace, and honours the days
overmuch, while he does not supplicate the Lord who in those days
redeemed him. Let him by all means hear, though fancying that he keeps
the feast, the Apostolic voice reproving him; ‘Ye observe days,
and months, and times, and years: I fear lest I have laboured among you
in vain4078
.’
2. For the feast is not on account of the days;
but for the Lord’s sake, who then suffered for us, we celebrate
it, for ‘our Passover Christ, is sacrificed4079
.’ Even as Moses, when teaching Israel
not to consider the feast as pertaining to the days, but to the Lord,
said, ‘It is the Lord’s Passover4080
.’ To the Jews, when they thought they
were keeping the Passover, because they persecuted the Lord, the feast
was useless; since it no longer bore the name of the Lord, even
according to their own testimony. It was not the Passover of the Lord,
but that of the Jews4081
| 4081 Cf. John vi. 4. ‘And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was
nigh.’ Cf. Origenis Comment. in Joannem, tom. x. §11.
p. 172. ed. 1759. | . The Passover was
named after the Jews, my brethren, because they denied the Lord of the
Passover. On this account, the Lord, turning away His face from such a
doctrine of theirs, saith, ‘Your new moons and your sabbaths My
soul hateth4082
.’
3. So now, those who keep the Passover in like
manner, the Lord again reproves, as He did those lepers who were
cleansed, when He loved the one as thankful, but was angry with the
others as ungrateful, because they did not acknowledge their Deliverer,
but thought more of the cure of the leprosy than of Him who healed
them. ‘But one of them when he saw that he was healed, turned
back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell on his face at the
feet of Jesus giving Him thanks; and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus
answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but those
nine—whence are there none found who returned to give glory to
God, but this stranger4083
?’ And there
was more given to him than to the rest; for being cleansed from his
leprosy, he heard from the Lord, ‘Arise, go thy way, thy faith
hath saved thee4084
.’ For he who
gives thanks, and he who glorifies, have kindred feelings, in that they
bless their Helper for the benefits they have received. So the Apostle
exhorts all men to this, saying, ‘Glorify God with your
body;’ and the prophet commands, saying, ‘Give glory to
God.’ Although testimony was borne by Caiaphas4085
against our Redeemer, and He was set at
nought by the Jews, and was condemned by Pilate in those days, yet
exalted exceedingly and most mighty was the voice of the Father which
came to Him; ‘I have glorified, and will glorify again4086
.’ For those things which He suffered
for our sake have passed away; but those which belong to Him as the
Saviour remain for ever.
4. But in our commemoration of these things, my
brethren, let us not be occupied with meats, but let us glorify the
Lord, let us become fools for Him who died for us, even as Paul said;
‘For if we are foolish, it is to God; or if we are sober-minded,
it is to you; since because one died for all men, therefore all were
dead to Him; and He died for all, that we who live should not
henceforth live to ourselves, but to Him who died for us, and rose
again4087
.’ No longer then ought we to live to
ourselves, but, as servants to the Lord. And not in vain should we
receive the grace, as the time is especially an acceptable one4088
, and the day of salvation hath dawned, even
the death of our Redeemer4089
| 4089 Cf.
S. Cyril. Hom. Pasch. xxiv. sub init. | . For even for our
sakes the Word came down, and being incorruptible, put on a corruptible
body for the salvation of all of us. Of which Paul was confident,
saying, ‘This corruptible must put on incorruption4090
.’ The Lord too was sacrificed, that by
His blood He might abolish death. Full well did He once, in a certain
place, blame those who participated vainly in the shedding of His
blood, while they did not delight themselves in the flesh of the Word,
saying, ‘What profit is there in my blood, that I go down to
corruption4091
?’ This does not mean that the
descent of the Lord was without profit, for it gained the whole world;
but rather that after He had thus
suffered, sinners would prefer to suffer loss than to profit by it. For
He regarded our salvation as a delight and a peculiar gain; while on
the contrary He looked upon our destruction as loss.
5. Also in the Gospel, He praises those who
increased the grace twofold, both him who made ten talents of five, and
him who made four talents of two, as those who had profited, and turned
them to good account; but him who hid the talent He cast out as
wanting, saying to him, ‘Thou wicked servant! oughtest thou not
to have put My money to the exchangers? then at My coming I should have
received Mine own with interest. Take, therefore, from him the talent,
and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to every one that hath
shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly; but from him that
hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the
unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth4092
.’ For it is
not His will that the grace we have received should be unprofitable;
but He requires us to take pains to render Him His own fruits, as the
blessed Paul saith; ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and
peace4093
.’ Having therefore this right
resolution, and owing no man anything, but rather giving everything to
every man, he was a teacher of the like rightness of principle, saying,
‘Render to all their dues4094
.’ He was
like those sent by the householder to receive the fruits of the
vineyard from the husbandmen4095
; for he exhorted
all men to render a return. But Israel despised and would not render,
for their will was not right, nay moreover they killed those that were
sent, and not even before the Lord of the vineyard were they ashamed,
but even He was slain by them. Verily, when He came and found no fruit
in them, He cursed them through the fig-tree, saying, ‘Let there
be henceforth no fruit from thee4096
;’ and
the fig-tree was dead and fruitless so that even the disciples wondered
when it withered away.
6. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by
the prophet; ‘I will take away from them the voice of joy and the
voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the
bride, the scent of myrrh, and the light of a lamp, and the whole land
shall be destroyed4097
.’ For the
whole service of the law has been abolished from them, and henceforth
and for ever they remain without a feast. And they observe not the
Passover; for how can they? They have no abiding place, but they wander
everywhere. And they eat unleavened bread contrary to the law, since
they are unable first to sacrifice the lamb, as they were commanded to
do when eating unleavened bread. But in every place they transgress the
law, and as the judgments of God require, they keep days of grief
instead of gladness. Now the cause of this to them was the slaying of
the Lord, and that they did not reverence the Only-Begotten. At this
time the altogether wicked heretics and ignorant schismatics are in the
same case; the one in that they slay the Word, the other in that they
rend the coat. They too remain expelled from the feast, because they
live without godliness and knowledge, and emulate the conduct shewn in
the matter of Bar-Abbas the robber, whom the Jews desired instead of
the Saviour. Therefore the Lord cursed them under the figure of the
fig-tree. Yet even thus He spared them in His loving-kindness, not
destroying them root and all. For He did not curse the root, but
[said], that no man should eat fruit of it thenceforth. When He did
this, He abolished the shadow, causing it to wither; but preserved the
root, so that we might [not]4098
| 4098 The
negative (which is here placed within brackets) is found in the Syriac
text; but there is little doubt that it is an error. | be grafted upon it;
‘they too, if they abide not in unbelief, may attain to be
grafted into their own olive tree4099
.’ Now
when the Lord had cursed them because of their negligence, He removed
from them the new moons, the true lamb, and that which is truly the
Passover.
7. But to us it came: there came too the solemn
day, in which we ought to call to the feast with a trumpet4100
| 4100 Cf.
Letter i. S. Cyril, Hom. i. de Festis Pasch. vol.
v. pt. 2, p. 6. | , and separate ourselves to the Lord with
thanksgiving, considering it as our own festival4101
. For we are bound to celebrate it, not to
ourselves but to the Lord; and to rejoice, not in ourselves but in the
Lord, who bore our griefs and said, ‘My soul is sorrowful unto
death4102
.’ For the heathen, and all those who
are strangers to our faith, keep feasts according to their own wills,
and have no peace, since they commit evil against God. But the saints,
as they live to the Lord also keep the feast to Him, saying, ‘I
will rejoice in Thy salvation,’ and, ‘my soul shall be
joyful in the Lord.’ The commandment is common to them,
‘Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord4103
’—so that they also may be
gathered together, to sing that common and festal Psalm, ‘Come,
let us rejoice4104
,’ not in
ourselves, but, ‘in the Lord.’
8. For thus
the patriarch Abraham rejoiced not to see his own day, but that of the
Lord; and thus looking forward ‘he saw it, and was glad4105
.’ And when he was tried, by faith he
offered up Isaac, and sacrificed his only-begotten son—he who had
received the promises. And, in offering his son, he worshipped the Son
of God. And, being restrained from sacrificing Isaac, he saw the
Messiah in the ram4106
| 4106 Gen. xxii. 15. The Syriac, here
rendered by ‘ram,’ is the usual word for sheep, common
gender. It is the same word that is used directly after in the
quotation from Isaiah, and rendered ‘lamb.’ | , which was offered
up instead as a sacrifice to God. The patriarch was tried, through
Isaac, not however that he was sacrificed, but He who was pointed out
in Isaiah; ‘He shall be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers he shall be speechless4107
;’ but He took away the sin of the
world. And on this account [Abraham] was restrained from laying his
hand on the lad, lest the Jews, taking occasion from the sacrifice of
Isaac, should reject the prophetic declarations concerning our Saviour,
even all of them, but more especially those uttered by the Psalmist;
‘Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not; a body Thou hast
prepared Me4108
;’ and should refer all such
things as these to the son of Abraham.
9. For the sacrifice was not properly the setting
to rights4109
| 4109 The
phrase ‘setting to rights’ is used for want of one that
would better express the meaning. The Syriac noun is that used to
render διόρθωσις
in Heb. ix. 10, from a verb
‘to make straight, set upright, or right.’ | of Isaac, but of Abraham who also
offered, and by that was tried. Thus God accepted the will of the
offerer, but prevented that which was offered from being sacrificed.
For the death of Isaac did not procure freedom to the world, but that
of our Saviour alone, by whose stripes we all are healed4110
. For He raised up the falling, healed the
sick, satisfied those who were hungry, and filled the poor, and, what
is more wonderful, raised us all from the dead; having abolished death,
He has brought us from affliction and sighing to the rest and gladness
of this feast, a joy which reacheth even to heaven. For not we alone
are affected by this, but because of it, even the heavens rejoice with
us, and the whole church of the firstborn, written in heaven4111
, is made glad together, as the prophet
proclaims, saying, ‘Rejoice, ye heavens, for the Lord hath had
mercy upon Israel. Shout, ye foundations of the earth. Cry out with
joy, ye mountains, ye high places, and all the trees which are in them,
for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and Israel hath been glorified4112
.’ And again; ‘Rejoice, and be
glad, ye heavens; let the hills melt into gladness, for the Lord hath
had mercy on His people, and comforted the oppressed of the people4113
.’
10. The whole creation keeps a feast, my
brethren, and everything that hath breath praises the Lord4114
, as the Psalmist [says], on account of the
destruction of the enemies, and our salvation. And justly indeed; for
if there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth4115
, what should there not be over the abolition
of sin, and the resurrection of the dead? Oh what a feast and how great
the gladness in heaven! how must all its hosts joy and exult, as they
rejoice and watch in our assemblies, those that are held continually,
and especially those at Easter? For they look on sinners while they
repent; on those who have turned away their faces, when they become
converted; on those who formerly persisted in lusts and excess, but who
now humble themselves by fastings and temperance; and, finally, on the
enemy who lies weakened, lifeless, bound hand and foot, so that we may
mock at him; ‘Where is thy victory, O Death? where is thy sting,
O Grave4116
?’ Let us then sing unto the Lord
a song of victory.
11. Who then will lead us to such a company of
angels as this? Who, coming with a desire for the heavenly feast, and
the angelic holiday, will say like the prophet, ‘I will pass to
the place of the wondrous tabernacle, unto the house of God; with the
voice of joy and praise, with the shouting of those who keep festival4117
?’ To this course the saints also
encourage us, saying, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob4118
.’ But not for the impure is this
feast, nor is the ascent thereto for sinners; but it is for the
virtuous and diligent; and for those who live according to the aim of
the saints; for, ‘Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? or
who shall stand in His holy place, but he that hath clean hands, and a
pure heart; who hath not devoted his soul to vanity, nor sworn
deceitfully to his neighbour. For he,’ as the Psalmist adds, when
he goes up, ‘shall receive a blessing from the Lord4119
.’ Now this clearly also refers to what
the Lord gives to them at the right hand, saying, ‘Come, ye
blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you4120
.’ But the deceitful, and he that is
not pure of heart, and possesses nothing that is pure (as the Proverb
saith, ‘To a deceitful man there is nothing good4121
’), shall assuredly, being a stranger,
and of a different race from the saints, be accounted unworthy to eat
the Passover, for ‘a foreigner shall not eat of it4122
.’ Thus
Judas, when he thought he kept the Passover, because he plotted deceit
against the Saviour, was estranged from the city which is above, and
from the apostolic company. For the law commanded the Passover to be
eaten with due observance; but he, while eating it, was sifted of the
devil4123
, who had entered his soul.
12. Wherefore let us not celebrate the feast
after an earthly manner, but as keeping festival in heaven with the
angels. Let us glorify the Lord, by chastity, by righteousness, and
other virtues. And let us rejoice, not in ourselves, but in the Lord,
that we may be inheritors with the saints. Let us keep the feast then,
as Moses. Let us watch like David who rose seven times, and in the
middle of the night gave thanks for the righteous judgments of God. Let
us be early, as he said, ‘In the morning I will stand before
Thee, and Thou wilt look upon me: in the morning Thou wilt hear my
voice4124
.’ Let us fast like Daniel; let us pray
without ceasing, as Paul commanded; all of us recognising the season of
prayer, but especially those who are honourably married; so that having
borne witness to these things, and thus having kept the feast, we may
be able to enter into the joy of Christ in the kingdom of heaven4125
. But as Israel, when going up to Jerusalem,
was first purified in the wilderness, being trained to forget the
customs of Egypt, the Word by this typifying to us the holy fast of
forty days, let us first be purified and freed from defilement4126
| 4126 Gregory Nazianzen speaks of the Lenten fast as κάθαρσις
προεόρτιος, vol. i. p. 715. §30. ed. Ben. fol. Par.
1778. | , so that when we depart hence, having been
careful of fasting, we may be able to ascend to the upper chamber4127
with the Lord, to sup with Him; and may be
partakers of the joy which is in heaven. In no other manner is it
possible to go up to Jerusalem, and to eat the Passover, except by
observing the fast of forty days.
13. We begin the fast of forty days on the first
day of the month Phamenoth (Feb. 25); and having prolonged it till the
fifth of Pharmuthi (Mar. 31), suspending it upon the Sundays and the
Saturdays4128
| 4128 The
Saturdays and Sundays during Lent were not observed as fasts, with the
exception of the day before Easter-day. S. Ambrose says, Quadragesima
tot’s præter Sabbatum et Dominicam jejunatur diebus. vol. i.
p. 545, §34. ed. Par. 1686–90. | preceding them, we then begin again on
the holy days of Easter, on the sixth of Pharmuthi (Apr, 1), and cease
on the eleventh of the same month (Apr. 6), late in the evening4129
| 4129 Cf.
Dionys Alex. ad Basilid. in Routh Rell. Sac. iii.
226. | of the Saturday, whence dawns on us the holy
Sunday, on the twelfth of Pharmuthi (Apr. 7), which extends its beams,
with unobscured grace, to all the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost.
Resting on that day, let us ever keep Easter joy in Christ Jesus our
Lord, through Whom, to the Father, be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen. All the brethren who are with me salute you. Salute one
another with a holy kiss.
Here endeth the sixth Festal Letter of the holy
and God-clad Athanasius. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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