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| On the Passion, III.; delivered on the Sunday before Easter.
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Sermon LIV.
On the Passion, III.; delivered on the
Sunday before Easter.
I. The two-fold nature of Christ set
forth.
Among all the works of God’s mercy, dearly-beloved, which from the
beginning have been bestowed upon men’s salvation, none is more
wondrous, and none more sublime, than that Christ was crucified for the
world. For to this mystery all the mysteries of the ages
preceding led up, and every variation which the will of God ordained in sacrifices, in prophetic signs, and in the
observances of the Law, foretold that this was fixed, and promised its
fulfilment: so that now types and figures are at an end, and we
find our profit in believing that accomplished which before we found
our profit in looking forward to. In all things, therefore,
dearly-beloved, which pertain to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Catholic Faith maintains and
demands that we acknowledge the two Natures to have met in our
Redeemer, and while their properties remained, such a union of both
Natures to have been effected that, from the time when, as the cause of
mankind required, in the blessed Virgin’s womb, “the Word
became flesh,” we may not think of Him as God without that which is man, nor as man without that
which is God. Each Nature does indeed
express its real existence by actions that distinguish it, but neither
separates itself from connexion with the other. Nothing is
wanting there on either side; in the majesty the humility is complete,
in the humility the majesty is complete: and the unity does not
introduce confusion, nor does the distinctiveness destroy the
unity. The one is passible, the other inviolable; and yet the
degradation belongs to the same Person, as does the glory. He is
present at once in weakness and in power; at once capable of death and
the vanquisher of it. Therefore, God
took on Him whole Manhood, and so blended the two Natures together by
means of His mercy and power, that each Nature was present in the
other, and neither passed out of its own properties into the
other.
II. The two natures acted conjointly, and
the human sufferings were not compulsory, but in accordance with the
Divine will.
But because the design of that mystery which was
ordained for our restoration before the eternal ages, was not to be
carried out without human weakness and without Divine power973
| 973 This passage from
“both form” down to “race” is repeated almost
word for word in Lett. XXVIII. (The Tome), chap. 4. | , both “form” does that which
is proper to it in common with the other, the Word, that is, performing
that which is the Word’s and the flesh that which is of the
flesh. One of them gleams bright with miracles, the other
succumbs to injuries. The one departs not from equality with the
Father’s glory, the other leaves not the nature of our
race. But nevertheless even His very endurance of sufferings does
not so far expose Him to a participation in our humility as to separate
Him from the power of the Godhead. All the mockery and insults,
all the persecution and pain which the madness of the wicked inflicted
on the Lord, was not endured of necessity, but
undertaken of free-will: “for the Son of Man came to seek
and to save that which had perished974
:” and He used the wickedness
of His persecutors for the redemption of all men in such a way that in
the mystery of His Death and Resurrection even His murderers could have
been saved, if they had believed.
III. Judas’ infamy has never been
exceeded.
And hence, Judas, thou art proved more criminal
and unhappier than all; for when repentance should have called thee
back to the Lord, despair dragged thee to the
halter. Thou shouldest have awaited the completion of thy crime,
and have put off thy ghastly death by hanging, until Christ’s
Blood was shed for all sinners. And among the many miracles and
gifts of the Lord’s which might have
aroused thy conscience, those holy mysteries, at least, might have
rescued thee from thy headlong fall, which at the Paschal supper thou
hadst received, being even then detected in thy treachery by the sign
of Divine knowledge. Why dost thou
distrust the goodness of Him, Who did not
repel thee from the communion of His body and blood, Who did not deny
thee the kiss of peace when thou camest with crowds and a band of armed
men to seize Him. But O man that nothing could convert, O
“spirit going and not returning975
,” thou
didst follow thy heart’s rage, and, the devil standing at thy
right hand, didst turn the wickedness, which thou hadst prepared
against the life of all the saints, to thine own destruction, so that,
because thy crime had exceeded all measure of punishment, thy
wickedness might make thee thine own judge, thy punishment allow thee
to be thine own hangman.
IV. Christ voluntarily bartered His glory
for our weakness.
When, therefore, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself976
,” and the Creator Himself was
wearing the creature which was to be restored to the image of its
Creator; and after the Divinely-miraculous works had been performed,
the performance of which the spirit of prophecy had once predicted,
“then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the
deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue
of the dumb shall be plain977
;” Jesus
knowing that the time was now come for the fulfilment of His glorious
Passion, said, “My soul is sorrowful even unto death978
;” and again, “Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from Me979
.” And these words, expressing
a certain fear, show His desire to heal the affection of our weakness
by sharing them, and to check our fear of enduring pain by undergoing
it. In our Nature, therefore, the Lord
trembled with our fear, that He might fully clothe our weakness and our
frailty with the completeness of His own strength. For He had
come into this world a rich and merciful Merchant from the skies, and
by a wondrous exchange had entered into a bargain of salvation with us,
receiving ours and giving His, honour for insults, salvation for pain,
life for death: and He Whom more than 12,000 of the angel-hosts
might have served980
for the
annihilation of His persecutors, preferred to entertain our fears,
rather than employ His own power.
V. S. Peter was the first to benefit by
his Master’s humiliation.
And how much this humiliation conferred upon all
the faithful, the most blessed Apostle Peter was the first to prove,
who, after the fierce blast of threatening cruelty had dismayed him,
quickly changed, and was restored to vigour, finding remedy from the
great Pattern, so that the suddenly-shaken member returned to the
firmness of the Head. For the bond-servant could not be
“greater than the Lord, nor the disciple
greater than the master981
,” and he
could not have vanquished the trembling of human frailty had not the
Vanquisher of Death first feared. The Lord, therefore, “looked back upon Peter982
,” and amid the calumnies of
priests, the falsehoods of witnesses, the injuries of those that
scourged and spat upon Him, met His dismayed disciple with those eyes
wherewith He had foreseen his dismay: and the gaze of the Truth
entered into him, on whose heart correction must be wrought, as if the
Lord’s voice were making itself heard
there, and saying, Whither goest thou, Peter? why retirest thou upon
thyself? turn thou to Me, put thy trust in Me, follow Me: this is
the time of My Passion, the hour of thy suffering is not yet
come. Why dost thou fear what thou, too, shalt overcome?
Let not the weakness, in which I share, confound thee. I was
fearful for thee; do thou be confident of Me.
VI. The mad counsel of the Jews was
turned to their own destruction.
“And when morning was come all the chief
priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him
to death983
.”
This morning, O ye Jews, was for you not the rising, but the setting of
the sun, nor did the wonted daylight visit your eyes, but a night of
blackest darkness brooded on your naughty hearts. This morning
overthrew for you the temple and its altars, did away with the Law and
the Prophets, destroyed the Kingdom and the priesthood, turned all your
feasts into eternal mourning. For ye resolved on a mad and bloody
counsel, ye “fat bulls,” ye “many oxen,” ye
“roaring” wild beasts, ye rabid “dogs984
,” to give up to death the Author
of life and the Lord of glory; and, as if the
enormity of your fury could be palliated by employing the verdict of
him, who ruled your province, you lead Jesus bound to Pilate’s
judgment, that the terror-stricken judge being overcome by your
persistent shouts, you might choose a man that was a murderer for
pardon, and demand the crucifixion of the Saviour of the world.
After this condemnation of Christ, brought about more by the cowardice
than the power of Pilate, who with
washed hands but polluted mouth sent
Jesus to the cross with the very lips that had pronounced Him innocent,
the licence of the people, obedient to the looks of the priests, heaped
many insults on the Lord, and the frenzied mob
wreaked its rage on Him, Who meekly and voluntarily endured it
all. But because, dearly-beloved, the whole story is too long to
go through to-day, let us put off the rest till Wednesday, when the
reading of the Lord’s Passion will be
repeated985
| 985 Leo seems here to
speak as if the story of the Passion from the Gospels in his time was
read only on the Sunday and Wednesday in Holy Week: various uses
prevailed, for which cf. Bingham’s Antiq. Bk. xiv. chap. iii.
§ 3. | . For the
Lord will grant to your prayers, that of His
own free gift we may fulfil our promise: through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth for ever and
ever. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
