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| On the Passion, XI.
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Sermon
LXII.
(On the Passion, XI.)
I. The mystery of the Passion passes
man’s comprehension.
The Feast of the Lord’s Passion1030
| 1030 Festivitas
dominicæ passionis is at first sight a strange phrase, but in
reality most suggestive. | that we have
longed for and that the whole world may well desire, has come, and
suffers us not to keep silence in the tumult of our spiritual
joys: because though it is difficult to speak often on the same
thing worthily and appropriately, yet the priest is not free to
withhold from the people’s ears instruction by sermon on this
great mystery of God’s mercy, inasmuch
as the subject itself, being unspeakable, gives him ease of utterance,
and what is said cannot altogether fail where what is said can never be
enough. Let human frailty, then, succumb to God’s glory, and ever acknowledge itself unequal to
the unfolding of His works of mercy. Let us toil in thought, fail
in insight, falter in utterance: it is good that even our right
thoughts about the Lord’s Majesty should
be insufficient. For, remembering what the prophet says,
“Seek ye the Lord and be
strengthened: seek His face always1031
,” no one must assume that he has
found all he seeks, lest he fail of coming near,
if he cease his endeavours. And
amidst all the works of God which weary out
man’s wondering contemplation, what so delights and so baffles
our mind’s gaze as the Saviour’s Passion? Ponder as
we may upon His omnipotence, which is of one and equal substance with
the Father, the humility in God is more
stupendous than the power, and it is harder to grasp the complete
emptying of the Divine Majesty than the infinite uplifting of the
“slave’s form” in Him. But we are much aided in
our understanding of it by the remembrance that though the Creator and
the creature, the Inviolable God and the
passible flesh, are absolutely different, yet the properties of both
substances meet together in Christ’s one Person in such a way
that alike in His acts of weakness and of power the degradation belongs
to the same Person as the glory.
II. The Creed takes up S. Peter’s
confession as the fundamental doctrine of the Church.
In that rule of Faith, dearly-beloved, which we
have received in the very beginning of the Creed, on the authority of
apostolic teaching, we acknowledge our Lord
Jesus Christ, whom we call the only Son of God
the Father Almighty, to be also born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy
Ghost. Nor do we reject His Majesty when we express our belief in
His crucifixion, death, and resurrection on the third day. For
all that is God’s and all that is
Man’s are simultaneously fulfilled by His Manhood and His
Godhead, so that in virtue of the union of the Passible with the
Impassible, His power cannot be affected by His weakness, nor His
weakness overcome by His power. And rightly was the blessed
Apostle Peter praised for confessing this union, who when the
Lord was inquiring what the disciples knew of
Him, quickly anticipated the rest and said, “Thou art Christ, the
Son of the living God1032
.” And this assuredly he
saw, not by the revelation of flesh or blood, which might have hindered
his inner sight, but by the very Spirit of the Father working in his
believing heart, that in preparation for ruling the whole Church he
might first learn what he would have to teach, and for the
solidification of the Faith, which he was destined to preach, might
receive the assurance, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it1033
.” The strength, therefore, of
the Christian Faith, which, built upon an impregnable rock, fears not
the gates of death, acknowledges the one Lord
Jesus Christ to be both true God and true Man,
believing Him likewise to be the Virgin’s Son, Who is His
Mother’s Creator: born also at the end of the ages, though
He is the Creator of time: Lord of all
power, and yet one of mortal stock: ignorant of sin, and yet
sacrificed for sinners after the likeness of sinful flesh.
III. The Devil’s devices were
turned against himself.
And in order that He might set the human race free
from the bonds of deadly transgression, He hid the power of His majesty
from the raging devil, and opposed him with our frail and humble
nature. For if the cruel and proud foe could have known the
counsel of God’s mercy, he would have
aimed at soothing the Jews’ minds into gentleness rather than at
firing them with unrighteous hatred, lest he should lose the thraldom
of all his captives in assailing the liberty of One Who owed him
nought. Thus he was foiled by his malice: he inflicted a
punishment on the Son of God, which was turned
to the healing of all the sons of men. He shed righteous Blood,
which became the ransom and the drink for the world’s
atonement. The Lord undertook that which
He chose according to the purpose of His own will. He permitted
madmen to lay their wicked hands upon Him: hands which, in
ministering to their own doom, were of service to the Redeemer’s
work. And yet so great was His loving compassion for even His
murderers, that He prayed to the Father on the cross, and begged not
for His own vengeance but for their forgiveness, saying, “Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do1034
.” And such was the power of
that prayer, that the hearts of many of those who had said, “His
blood be on us and on our sons1035
,” were
turned to penitence by the Apostle Peter’s preaching, and on one
day there were baptized about 3,000 Jews: and they all were
“of one heart and of one soul1036
,”
being ready now to die for Him, Whose crucifixion they had
demanded.
IV. Why Judas could not obtain
forgiveness through Christ.
To this forgiveness the traitor Judas could not
attain: for he, the son of perdition, at whose right the devil
stood1037
, gave himself up to despair before Christ
accomplished the mystery of universal redemption. For in that the
Lord died for sinners, perchance even he might
have found salvation if he had not hastened to hang himself. But
that evil heart, which was now given up to thievish frauds, and now
busied with treacherous designs, had
never entertained aught of the proofs of
the Saviour’s mercy. Those wicked ears had heard the
Lord’s words, when He said, “I
came not to call the righteous but sinners1038
,” and “The Son of man came
to seek and to save that which was lost1039
,” but they conveyed not to his
understanding the clemency of Christ, which not only healed bodily
infirmities, but also cured the wounds of sick souls, saying to the
paralytic man, “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven
thee1040
;” saying also to the adulteress that
was brought to Him, “neither will I condemn thee; go and sin no
more1041
| 1041 S. John viii. 11; this famous section therefore is
recognized by S. Leo: see Bright’s note 69. | ,” to show in all His works that He had
come as the Saviour, not the Judge of the world. But the wicked
traitor refused to understand this, and took measures against himself,
not in the self-condemnation of repentance, but in the madness of
perdition, and thus he who had sold the Author of life to His
murderers, even in dying increased the amount of sin which condemned
him.
V. The cruelty of Christ’s
crucifixion is lost in its wondrous power.
Accordingly that which false witnesses, cruel
leaders of the people, wicked priests did against the Lord Jesus Christ, through the agency of a coward governor
and an ignorant band of soldiers, has been at once the abhorrence and
the rejoicing of all ages. For though the Lord’s cross was part of the cruel purpose of the
Jews, yet is it of wondrous power through Him they crucified. The
people’s fury was directed against One, and the mercy of Christ
is for all mankind. That which their cruelty inflicts He
voluntarily undergoes, in order that the work of His eternal will may
be carried out through their unhindered crime. And hence the
whole order of events which is most fully narrated in the Gospels must
be received by the faithful in such a way that by implicit belief in
the occurrences which happened at the time of the Lord’s Passion, we should understand that not only
was the remission of sins accomplished by Christ, but also the standard
of justice satisfied. But that this may be more thoroughly
discussed by the Lord’s help, let us
reserve this portion of the subject till the fourth day of the
week.1042
| 1042 See Serm. LIV. chap.
vi. n. 2. | God’s
grace, we hope, will be vouchsafed at your entreaties to help us to
fulfil our promise: through Jesus Christ our Lord, &c. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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