The minds
of the faithful, beloved, ought indeed always to be occupied with wonder at
God's works and their reasoning faculties devoted particularly to those
reflections by which they may gain increase of faith. For so long as the pious
heart's attention is directed either to the benefits which all enjoy, or to
special gifts of His grace, it keeps aloof from many vanities and retires from
bodily cares into a spiritual seclusion. But this must be the more eagerly and
thoroughly done at the season of the Lord Passion, that what is then read in
the sacred lections may surely be received with the ears of understanding, and
that the themes which are great in word may be seen to be yet greater from the
mysterious realities which underlie them. For the first reason for our lifting up
our hearts is that the voices of the prophets have sung of the things which the
truth of the Gospel has also narrated, not as destined to happen, but as having
happened, and that what man's ears had not yet learned was to be accomplished,
was already being proclaimed as fulfilled by the (Holy ) Spirit. For King
David, whose seed according to the flesh is Christ, completed his lifetime more
than 1,100 years before the day of the Lord's Crucifixion, and endured none of
those punishments which he relates as inflicted upon himself. But because by
his mouth One spoke Who was to take suffering flesh of his stock, the story of
the cross is rightly anticipated in the person of him who was the bodily
ancestor of the Saviour. For David truly suffered in Christ, because Jesus was
truly crucified in the flesh which He had from David.
The
Divine foreknowledge does not account for the Jews' wickedness so as to excuse
them
Since
then all things which Jewish ungodliness committed against the Lord of Majesty
were foretold so long before , and the language of the prophets is concerned
not so much with things to come as with things past, what else is thereby
revealed to us but the unchangeable order of God's eternal decrees, with Whom
the things which are to be decided are already determined, and what will be is
already accomplished? For since both the character of our actions and the
fulfilment of all our wishes are fore-known to God, how much better known to
Him are His own works? And He was rightly pleased that things should be
recorded as if done which nothing could hinder from being done. And hence when
the Apostles also, being full of the Holy Ghost, suffered the threats and
cruelty of Christ's enemies, they said to God with one consent, For truly in
this city against Your holy Servant Jesus, Whom You have anointed, Herod and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel were gathered
together to do what Your hand and Your counsel ordained to come to pass.
Did then the wickedness of Christ's persecutors spring from God's plan, and was
that unsurpassable crime prefaced and set in motion by the hand of God? Clearly
we must not think this of the highest Justice: that which was fore-known in
respect of the Jews' malice is far different, indeed quite contrary to what was
ordained in respect of Christ's Passion. Their desire to slay Him did not
proceed from the same source as His to die: nor were their atrocious crime and
the Redeemer's endurance the offspring of One Spirit. The Lord did not incite
but permit those madmen's naughty hands: nor in His foreknowledge of what must
be accomplished did He compel its accomplishment, even though it was in order
to its accomplishment that He had taken flesh.
Christ was in no sense the Author of His murderer's guilt
In fact,
the case of the Crucified is so different from that of His crucifiers that what
Christ undertook could not be reversed, while what they did could be wiped out.
For He Who came to save sinners did not refuse mercy even to His murderers, but
changed the evil of the wicked into the goodness of the believing, that God's
grace might be the more wonderful, being mercifully put in force, not according
to men's merits, but according to the multitude of the riches of God's wisdom
and knowledge, seeing that they also who had shed the Saviour's blood were
received into the baptismal flood. For, as says the Scripture, which contains
the Apostles' acts when the preaching of the blessed Apostle Peter pierced the
hearts of the Jews, and they acknowledged the iniquity of their crime, saying,
what shall we do, brethren? the same Apostle said, Repent and be baptized, each
one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For to you is the promise, and to
your sons, and to all that are afar off, whomsoever our Lord God has called,
and soon after the Scripture goes on to say: they therefore that received his
word were baptized, and there were added on that day about 3,000 souls Acts
2:37-41 . And so, in being willing to suffer their furious rage, the Lord Jesus
Christ was in no way the Author of their crimes; nor did He force them to
desire this, but permitted them to be able, and used the madness of the blinded
people just as He did also the treachery of His betrayer, whom by kindly acts
and words He vouchsafed to recall from the awful crime he had conceived, by
taking him for a disciple, by promoting him to be an apostle, by warning him
with signs, by admitting him to the revelation of holy mysteries, that one who
had lacked no degree of kindness to correct him, might have no pretext for his
crime at all.
The
enormity of Judas' crime is set forth
But O
ungodliest of men, you seed of Chanaan and not of Juda , and no longer a vessel
of election, but a son of perdition and death, you thought the devil's
instigations would profit you better, so that, inflamed with the torch of
greed, you were ablaze to gain 30 pieces of silver and saw not what riches you
would lose. For even if you did not think the Lord's promises were to be
believed, what reason was there for preferring so small a sum of money to what
you had already received? You were wont to command the evil spirits, to heal
the sick, to receive honour with the rest of the apostles, and that you might
satisfy your thirst for gain, it was open to you to steal from the box that was
in your charge. But your mind, which lusted after forbidden things, was more
strongly stimulated by that which was less allowed: and the amount of the price
pleased you not so much as the enormity of the sin. Wherefore your wicked
bargain is not so detestable merely because you counted the Lord so cheap, but
because you sold Him Who was the Redeemer, yea, even yours, and had no pity on
yourself. And justly was your punishment put into your own hands because none
could be found more cruelly bent on your destruction than yourself.
Christ's Passion was for our Redemption by mystery and example
The fact,
therefore, that at the time appointed, according to the purpose of His will,
Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried was not the doom necessary to His
own condition, but the method of redeeming us from captivity. For the Word
became flesh in order that from the Virgin's womb He might take our suffering
nature, and that what could not be inflicted on the Son of God might be
inflicted on the Son of Man. For although at His very birth the signs of
Godhead shone forth in Him, and the whole course of His bodily growth was full
of wonders, yet had He truly assumed our weaknesses, and without share in sin
had spared Himself no human frailty, that He might impart what was His to us
and heal what was ours in Himself. For He, the Almighty Physician, had prepared
a two-fold remedy for us in our misery, of which the one part consists of
mystery and the other of example , that by the one Divine powers may be
bestowed, by the other human weaknesses driven out. Because as God is the Author
of our justification, so man is a debtor to pay Him devotion.
We
can only attain to Christ's perfection by following in His steps
Therefore,
dearly-beloved, by this unspeakable restoration of our health no place is left
us for pride or for idleness: because we have nothing which we did not receive
, and we are expressly warned not to treat the gifts of God's grace with
negligence. For He that comes so timely to our aid justly urges us with
precept, and He that leads us to glory mercifully incites us to obedience.
Wherefore the Lord Himself is rightly made our way, because save through Christ
there is no coming to Christ. But through Him and to Him does he take his way
who treads the path of His endurance and humiliation, and on that road you may
be sure there are not wanting the heats of toil, the clouds of sadness, the
storms of fear. The snares of the wicked, the persecutions of the unbelieving,
the threats of the powerful, the insults of the proud are there; and all these
things the Lord of hosts and King of glory passed through in the form of our
weakness and in the likeness of sinful flesh, to the end that amid the danger
of this present life we might desire not so much to avoid and escape them as to
endure and overcome them.
Christ's cry of Forsaken on the cross was to teach us the insufficiency of the
human nature without the Divine
Hence it
is that the Lord Jesus Christ, our Head, representing all the members of His
body in Himself, and speaking for those whom He was redeeming in the punishment
of the cross, uttered that cry which He had once uttered in the psalm, O God,
My God, look upon Me: why have You forsaken Me ? That cry, dearly-beloved, is a
lesson, not a complaint. For since in Christ there is one person of God and
man, and He could not have been forsaken by Him, from Whom He could not be
separated, it is on behalf of us, trembling and weak ones, that He asks why the
flesh that is afraid to suffer has not been heard. For when the Passion was
beginning, to cure and correct our weak fear He had said, Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will but as You; and
again, Father, if this cup cannot pass except I drink it, Your will be done
Matthew 26:39, 42 . As therefore He had conquered the tremblings of the flesh,
and had now accepted the Father's will, and trampling all dread of death under
foot, was then carrying out the work of His design, why at the very time of His
triumph over such a victory does He seek the cause and reason of His being
forsaken, that is, not heard, save to show that the feeling which He
entertained in excuse of His human fears is quite different from the deliberate
choice which, in accordance with the Father's eternal decree, He had made for
the reconciliation of the world? And thus the very cry of Unheard is the
exposition of a mighty Mystery, because the Redeemer's power would have
conferred nothing on mankind if our weakness in Him had obtained what it
sought. Let these words dearly-beloved, suffice today, lest we burden you by
the length of our discourse: let us put off the rest till Wednesday. The Lord
shall hear you if you pray that we may keep our promise through the bounty of
Him Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
By Saint Leo the Great
Did you enjoy this Post?
Share it by clicking one of the Icons below :)
_1772._Oil_on_canvas,_125_x_142cm._Museo_Nacional_del_Prado.jpg)
.jpg)
_-_Crucifixion_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
