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| On the Passion, XVII.: delivered on the Wednesday.
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Sermon LXVIII.
(On the Passion, XVII.: delivered
on the Wednesday.)
I. Christ’s Godhead never forsook
Him in His Passion.
The last discourse, dearly-beloved, of which we
desire now to give the promised portion, had reached that point in the
argument where we were speaking of that cry which the crucified
Lord uttered to the Father: we bade the
simple and unthinking hearer not take the words “My God, &c.,” in a sense as if, when Jesus was
fixed upon the wood of the cross, the Omnipotence of the Father’s
Deity had gone away from Him; seeing that God’s and Man’s Nature were so completely
joined in Him that the union could not be destroyed by punishment nor
by death. For while each substance retained its own properties,
God neither held aloof from the suffering of
His body nor was made passible by the flesh, because the Godhead which
was in the Sufferer did not actually suffer. And hence, in
accordance with the Nature of the Word made Man, He Who was made in the
midst of all is the same as He through Whom all things were made.
He Who is arrested by the hands of wicked men is the same as He Who is
bound by no limits. He Who is pierced with nails is the same as
He Whom no wound can affect. Finally, He Who underwent death is
the same as He Who never ceased to be eternal, so that both facts are
established by indubitable signs, namely, the truth of the humiliation
in Christ and the truth of the majesty; because Divine power joined
itself to human frailty to this end, that God,
while making what was ours His, might at the same time make what was
His ours. The Son, therefore, was not separated from the Father,
nor the Father from the Son; and the unchangeable Godhead and the
inseparable Trinity did not admit of any division. For although
the task of undergoing Incarnation belonged peculiarly to the
Only-begotten Son of God, yet the Father was
not separated from the Son any more than the flesh was separated from
the Word1081
| 1081 For the doctrine
here stated, cf. Serm. LI., chap. vi. | .
II. Christ’s death was voluntary on
His part, and yet in saving others He could not save
Himself.
Jesus, therefore, cried with a loud voice, saying,
“Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” in order to notify to all how
it behoved Him not to be rescued, not to be defended, but to be given
up into the hands of cruel men, that is to become the Saviour of the
world and the Redeemer of all men, not by misery but by mercy; and not
by the failure of succour but by the determination to die. But
what must we feel to be the intercessory power of His life Who died and
rose again by His own inherent power.1082
| 1082 Quæ vero
illic vitæ intercessio sentienda est, ubi anima et potestate est
emissa et potestate revocata? If we adopt Quesnel’s
conjecture intercisio for intercessio the meaning is I
suppose, “What cutting off of the thread of life is conceivable
in His case Who &c.?” | For the blessed Apostle says the
Father “spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us
all1083
;” and again, he says, “For
Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself up for her, that He might
sanctify it1084
| 1084 Eph. v. 2,
and 25, 29. | .”
And hence the giving up of the Lord to His
Passion was as much of the Father’s as of His own will, so that
not only did the Father “forsake” Him, but He also
abandoned Himself in a certain sense, not in hasty flight, but in
voluntary withdrawal. For the might of the Crucified restrained
itself from those wicked men, and in order to avail Himself of a secret
design, He refused to avail Himself of His open power. For how
would He who had come to destroy death and the author of death by His
Passion have saved sinners, if he had resisted His persecutors?
This, then, had been the Jews’ belief, that Jesus had been
forsaken by God, against Whom they had
been
able to commit
such unholy cruelty; for not understanding the mystery of His wondrous
endurance, they said in blasphemous mockery: “He saved
others, Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let
Him now come down from the cross, and we believe Him1085
.” Not at your blind will, O
foolish scribes and wicked priests, was the Saviour’s power to be
displayed, nor in obedience to blasphemers’ evil tongues was the
Redemption of mankind to be delayed; for if you had wished to recognize
the Godhead of the Son of God, you would have
observed His numberless works, and they must have confirmed you in that
faith, which you so deceitfully promise. But if, as you
yourselves acknowledge, it is true that He saved others, why have those
many, great miracles, which have been done under the public gaze, done
nothing to soften the hardness of your hearts, unless it be because you
have always so resisted the Holy Ghost as to turn all God’s benefits towards you into your
destruction? For even though Christ should descend from the
cross, you would yet remain in your crime.
III. A transition was then being effected
from the Old to the New Dispensation.
Therefore the insults of empty exultation were
scorned, and the Lord’s mercy in
restoring the lost and the fallen was not turned from the path of its
purpose by contumely or reviling. For a peerless victim was being
offered to God for the world’s
salvation, and the slaying of Christ the true Lamb, predicted through
so many ages, was transferring the sons of promise into the liberty of
the Faith. The New Testament also was being ratified, and in the
blood of Christ the heirs of the eternal Kingdom were being enrolled;
the High Pontiff was entering the Holy of Holies, and to intercede with
God the spotless Priest was passing in through
the veil of His flesh1086
| 1086 Cf. Heb. x. 20: and below, S. Matt. xxvii.
51 and 54. | . In fine,
so evident a transition was being effected from the Law to the Gospel,
from the synagogue to the Church, from many sacrifices to the One
Victim1087
| 1087 The older editions
here add quæ Deus est (which is God), which however both Quesnel and the Ball. reject as a
marginal gloss. | , that, when the
Lord gave up the ghost, that mystic veil which
hung before and shut out the inner part of the Temple and its holy
recess was by sudden force torn from top to bottom1088
| 1088 Cf. Heb. x. 20: and below, S. Matt. xxvii.
51 and 54. | , for the reason that Truth was
displacing figures, and forerunners were needless in the presence of
Him they announced. To this was added a terrible confusion of all
the elements, and nature herself withdrew her support from
Christ’s crucifiers. And although the centurion in charge
of the crucifixion, in fright at what he had seen, said “truly
this man was the Son of God1089
| 1089 Cf. Heb. x. 20: and below, S. Matt. xxvii.
51 and 54. | ,” yet the wicked hearts of
the Jews, which were harder than all tombs and rocks, is not reported
to have been pierced by any compunction: so that it seems the
Roman soldiers were then readier to recognize the Son of God than the priests of Israel.
IV. Let us profit by fasting and good
works at this sacred season of the year.
Because, then, the Jews, deprived of all the
sanctification imparted by these mysteries, turned their light into
darkness and their “feasts into mourning1090
,” let us, dearly-beloved, prostrate our
bodies and our souls and worship God’s
Grace, which has been poured out upon all nations, beseeching the
merciful Father and the rich Redeemer from day to day to give us His
aid and enable us to escape all the dangers of this life. For the
crafty tempter is present everywhere, and leaves nothing free from his
snares. Whom, God’s mercy helping
us, which is stretched out to us amid all dangers, we must ever with
stedfast faith resist1091
so that, though he
never ceases to assail, he may never succeed in carrying the
assault. Let all, dearly-beloved, religiously keep and profit by
the fast, and let no excesses mar the benefits of such self-restraint
as we have proved convenient both for soul and body. For the
things which pertain to sobriety and temperance must be the more
diligently observed at this season, that a lasting habit may be
contracted from a brief zeal; and whether in works of mercy or in
strict self-denial, no hours may be left idle by the faithful, seeing
that, as years increase and time glides by, we are bound to increase
our store of works, and not squander our opportunities. And to
devout wills and religious souls God’s
Mercy will be granted, that He may enable us to obtain that which He
enabled us to desire, Who liveth and reigneth with our Lord Jesus Christ His Son, and with the Holy Ghost, for
ever and ever. Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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