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| On the Passion, VII.
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Sermon
LVIII.
(On the Passion, VII.)
I. The reason of Christ suffering at the
Paschal Feast.
I know indeed, dearly-beloved, that the Easter
festival partakes of so sublime a mystery as to surpass not only the
slender perceptions of my humility, but even the powers of great
intellects. But I must not consider the greatness of the Divine
work in such a way as to distrust or to feel ashamed of the service
which I owe; for we may not hold our peace upon the mystery of
man’s salvation, even if it cannot be explained. But, your
prayers aiding us, we believe God’s
Grace will be granted, to sprinkle the barrenness of our heart with the
dew of His inspiration:
that by the pastor’s
mouth things may be proclaimed which are useful to the ears of his holy
flock. For when the Lord, the Giver of
all good things, says: “open thy mouth, and I will fill
it999
,” we dare likewise to reply in the
prophet’s words: “Lord, Thou
shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise1000
.” Therefore beginning,
dearly-beloved, to handle once more the Gospel-story of the
Lord’s Passion, we understand it was
part of the Divine plan that the profane chiefs of the Jews and the
unholy priests, who had often sought occasion of venting their rage on
Christ, should receive the power of exercising their fury at no other
time than the Paschal festival. For the things which had long
been promised under mysterious figures had to be fulfilled in all
clearness; for instance, the True Sheep had to supersede the sheep
which was its antitype, and the One Sacrifice to bring to an end the
multitude of different sacrifices. For all those things which had
been divinely ordained through Moses about the sacrifice of the lamb
had prophesied of Christ and truly announced the slaying of
Christ. In order, therefore, that the shadows should yield to the
substance and types cease in the presence of the Reality, the ancient
observance is removed by a new Sacrament, victim passes into Victim,
blood is wiped away by Blood, and the law-ordained Feast is fulfilled
by being changed.
II. The leading Jews broke their own Law,
as well as failed to apprehend the new dispensation in destroying
Christ.
And hence, when the chief priests gathered the
scribes and elders of the people together to their council, and the
minds of all the priests were occupied with the purpose of doing wrong
to Jesus, the teachers of the law put themselves without the law, and
by their own voluntary failure in duty abolished their ancestral
ceremonies. For when the Paschal feast began, those who ought to
have adorned the temple, cleansed the vessels, provided the victims,
and employed a holier zeal in the purifications that the law enjoined,
seized with the fury of traitorous hate, give themselves up to one
work, and with uniform cruelty conspire for one crime, though they were
doomed to gain nothing by the punishment of innocence and the
condemnation of righteousness, except the failure to apprehend the new
mysteries and the violation of the old. The chiefs, therefore, in
providing against a tumult arising on a holy day1001
, showed zeal not for the festival, but for a
heinous crime; and their anxiety served not the cause of religion, but
their own incrimination. For these careful pontiffs and anxious
priests feared the occurrence of seditious riots on the principal
feast-day, not lest the people should do wrong, but lest Christ should
escape.
III. Jesus instituting the Blessed
Sacrament showed mercy to the traitor Judas to the last.
But Jesus, sure of His purpose and undaunted in
carrying out His Father’s will, fulfilled the New Testament and
founded a new Passover. For while the disciples were lying down
with Him at the mystic Supper, and when discussion was proceeding in
the hall of Caiaphas how Christ might be put to death, He, ordaining
the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, was teaching them what kind of
Victim must be offered up to God, and not even
from this mystery was the betrayer kept away, in order to show that he
was exasperated by no personal wrong, but had determined beforehand of
his own free-will upon his treachery. For he was his own source
of ruin and cause of perfidy, following the guidance of the devil and
refusing to have Christ as director. And so when the Lord said, “Verily I say to you that one of you is
about to betray Me,” He showed that His betrayer’s
conscience was well known to Him, not confounding the traitor by harsh
or open rebukes, but meeting him with mild and silent warnings that he
who had never been sent astray by rejection, might the easier be set
right by repentance. Why, unhappy Judas, dose thou not make use
of so great long-suffering? Behold, the Lord spares thy wicked attempts; Christ betrays thee to
none save thyself. Neither thy name nor thy person is discovered,
but only the secrets of thy heart are touched by the word of truth and
mercy. The honour of the apostolic rank is not denied thee, nor
yet a share in the Sacraments. Return to thy right mind; lay
aside thy madness and be wise. Mercy invites thee, Salvation
knocks at the door, Life recalls thee to life. Lo, thy stainless
and guiltless fellow-disciples shudder at the hint of thy crime, and
all tremble for themselves till the author of the treachery is
declared. For they are saddened not by the accusations of
conscience, but by the uncertainty of man’s changeableness;
fearing lest what each knew against himself be less true than what the
Truth Himself foresaw. But thou abusest the Lord’s patience in this panic of the saints, and
believest that thy bold front hides thee. Thou addest impudence
to guilt, and art not frightened by so clear a test. And when the
others refrain from
the food in which the Lord had set His judgment, thou dost not withdraw thy hand
from the dish, because thy mind is not turned aside from the
crime.
IV. Various incidents of the Passion
further explained and the reality of Christ’s sufferings
asserted.
And thus it followed, dearly-beloved, that as John
the Evangelist has narrated, when the Lord
offered the bread which He had dipped to His betrayer, more clearly to
point him out, the devil entirely seized Judas, and now, by his
veritable act of wickedness, took possession of one whom he had already
bound down by his evil designs. For only in body was he lying
there with those at meat: in mind he was arming the hatred of the
priests, the falseness of the witnesses, and the fury of the ignorant
mob. At last the Lord, seeing on what a
gross crime Judas was bent says, “What thou doest, do
quickly1002
.” This
is the voice not of command but of permission, and not of fear but of
readiness: He, that has power over all times, shows that He puts
no hindrance in the way of the traitor, and carries out the
Father’s will for the redemption of the world in such a way as
neither to promote nor to fear the crime which His persecutors were
preparing. When Judas, therefore, at the devil’s
persuasion, departed from Christ, and cut himself off from the unity of
the Apostolic body, the Lord, without being
disturbed by any fear, but anxious only for the salvation of those He
came to redeem, spent all the time that was free from His
persecutors’ attack on mystic conversation and holy teaching, as
is declared in St. John’s gospel: raising His eyes to
heaven and beseeching the Father for the whole Church that all whom the
Father had and would give the Son might become one and remain undivided
to the Redeemer’s glory, and adding lastly that prayer in which
He says, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
Me1003
.” Wherein it is not to be
thought that the Lord Jesus wished to escape
the Passion and the Death, the sacraments of which He had already
committed to His disciples’ keeping, seeing that He Himself
forbids Peter, when he was burning with devoted faith and love, to use
the sword, saying, “The cup which the Father hath given Me, shall
I not drink it1004
?” and seeing
that that is certain which the Lord also says,
according to John’s Gospel, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal
life1005
;” as also what the Apostle Paul says,
“Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, a victim to
God for a sweet-smelling savour1006
.” For the saving of all through
the Cross of Christ was the common will and the common plan of the
Father and the Son; nor could that by any means be disturbed which
before eternal ages had been mercifully determined and unchangeably
fore-ordained. Therefore in assuming true and entire manhood He
took the true sensations of the body and the true feelings of the
mind. And it does not follow because everything in Him was full
of sacraments, full of miracles, that therefore He either shed false
tears or took food from pretended hunger or feigned slumber. It
was in our humility that He was despised, with our grief that He was
saddened, with our pain that He was racked on the cross. For His
compassion underwent the sufferings of our mortality with the purpose
of healing them, and His power encountered them with the purpose of
conquering them. And this Isaiah has most plainly prophesied,
saying, “He carries our sins and is pained for us, and we thought
Him to be in pain and in stripes and in vexation. But He was
wounded for our sins, and was stricken for our offences, and with His
bruises we are healed1007
| 1007 Is. liii. 45. Leo’s version is a very
literal translation of the LXX., which varies a good deal from the
Vulgate and the A.V.; he omits however, the clause, “the
chastisement of our peace,” &c., which is common to all
three. | .”
V. The resignation of Christ is an
undying lesson to the Church.
And so, dearly beloved, when the Son of
God says, “Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from Me1008
| 1008 S. Matt.
xxvi. 39 and 42. | ,” He uses
the outcry of our nature, and pleads the cause of human frailty and
trembling: that our patience may be strengthened and our fears
driven away in the things which we have to bear. At length,
ceasing even to ask this now that He had in a measure palliated our
weak fears, though it is not expedient for us to retain them, He passes
into another mood, and says, “Nevertheless, not as I will but as
Thou;” and again, “If this cup can not pass from Me, except
I drink it, Thy will be done1009
| 1009 S. Matt.
xxvi. 39 and 42. | .” These
words of the Head are the salvation of the whole Body: these
words have instructed all the faithful, kindled the zeal of all the
confessors, crowned all the martyrs. For who could overcome the
world’s hatred, the blasts of temptations, the terrors of
persecutors, had not Christ, in the name of all and for all, said, to
the Father, “Thy will be done?” Then let the words be
learnt by all the Church’s sons who have been purchased at so
great a price, so freely justified: and when the
shock of some violent
temptation has fallen on them, let them use the aid of this potent
prayer, that they may conquer their fear and trembling, and learn to
suffer patiently. From this point, dearly-beloved, our sermon
must pass to the consideration of the details of the Lord’s Passion, and lest we should burden you with
prolixity, we will divide our common task, and put off the
rest1010
| 1010 This is Sermon
LIX. which follows in extenso. See Serm. LIV., chap. vi.
n. 2. | till the fourth day of the week.
God’s grace will be vouchsafed to you if
you pray Him to give me the power of carrying out my duty:
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
&c.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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