Christ suffered willingly, not by necessity.
What then, my brothers? Although, even before the Lord suffered, his body served him as Lord, for he was not so bound to the body as if for punishment, as if for retribution, to be struck by a servant as we are; but whatever he wanted to suffer in his body, he suffered willingly and by his power, not by necessity and poverty, as he himself said: "I have the power to lay down my life, and I have the power to take it up again: no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." Therefore, great power was in him; nevertheless, what he wanted to suffer in the flesh there he demonstrated, that you suffer deservedly. He suffered undeservedly, you suffer deservedly. But so that you may endure what you suffer deservedly, he who suffered undeservedly consoles you. Therefore, endure what you suffer, until your mortality passes away. Therefore, your kingdom will come with certain measures of time; he gives what he promised, because he has already shown in himself that he has risen. For he rose on the third day; he wanted to rise first and show us what we should hope for at the end. We thought the flesh would perish; therefore he did not want to take flesh from another place than where we also have flesh. For if he took it from somewhere else, we would say: "The flesh that was taken from another place could rise." Was it not taken from the same place where we took ours? Indeed, he did not admit a man's union to his mother, because he was the only Son of God. Since he had a Father above, he sought on earth only a mother. He showed us that what he created is not evil: he created male and female, he created both himself. But because man was seduced by the woman, women could despair of themselves, unless that sex was honored through the Virgin Mary. He chose to be born of a woman; it was fitting to take on a man, to be born a man. But not only did God create man, he also created woman himself. Women could despair of themselves, as I said, and say they do not pertain to the mercy of God, because man was deceived by a woman; he deigned to be born of a woman, taking on a man, and honored the sex; he showed himself the creator of both sexes, and afterward the liberator. For since through a woman death was prepared for man by the serpent, life was announced to men by women. For the risen Lord was first seen by women and announced to the male apostles. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ showed us in his flesh what we should hope for in the end. Therefore, he humbled us, that we might learn his justifications.
The cause of the sufferings which man endures is pride.
Now let us return humbled, who were cast down in pride. For the entire cause of our mortality, the entire cause of our weakness, the entire cause of all our torments, all our difficulties, all our hardships in this age, which the human race suffers, is nothing but pride. You have Scripture saying: "The beginning of every sin is pride." And what does it also say? "The beginning of pride of man is to apostatize from God." If pride seems to you to be a small evil, at least tremble at apostatizing from God. Further, if you tremble at apostatizing from God, remove the cause of apostasy. For pride made man apostatize from God. Because, therefore, it is itself the head of all our diseases - for we are sick in this life - just as a skilled doctor, when he sees a man languishing from various diseases, does not look at the proximate causes and ignore the origin of all causes - for if he cures the proximate causes while the source of diseases remains, the offshoots of calamity return, and for a time he seems to heal, but does not completely cure; however, that doctor is found to be most skilled who gathers well all the causes of all diseases, and having found the primary cause, from which all those diverse things seem to have sprouted like branches, cuts off the root, and the entire forest of pains is cut down - so the Lord Jesus Christ, why he is called Savior, and he who said: "The physician is not needed for the healthy, but for those who are ill," came to those who are sick, for the sick could not come to him; he sought those not seeking him, turned to the infirm, suffered many things, bore being killed by the blind, so that by his death he might heal their eyes - did all these things, and because he saw that the cause of all our diseases was pride, he healed us by his humility.
True is the flesh in which Christ was born and died.
Therefore, do not mock the humility of Christ. For many pagans mock Christ because He came humbly - and would that it were only pagans! - and many heretics who call themselves Christians do too. It offends them that Christ was born of a woman; it offends them that He was fixed on the cross and was wounded, and those wounds He received were real, and those nails that were driven in were real; it offends them and they say: "He feigned all those things, He pretended and did not endure them." So, has the truth freed you by means of a lie? Did you labor in deceit and were cured by deceit? How can that be? But whoever says these things shows what kind of masters they are themselves. For if the Lord has risen and presented His hands with their wounds to be touched by His doubting disciple, saying: "I will not believe unless I put my fingers into His side," He showed Himself not just to be seen by the eyes but to be touched by the hands; and when the disciple touched the wounds, he found the truth embodied and exclaimed: "My Lord and my God." So if Christ deceived, will you speak the truth? How can I listen to you, tell me. Do you wish me to listen to you as a teacher? "As a teacher," he says to me. What are you telling me, what are you teaching me? "I teach you," he says, "that Christ was not born of a woman, and did not have real flesh, and that death was not real, nor were those wounds real, and if those wounds were not real, then neither were those scars." And I learned differently from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, when His disciple doubted, offered him His scars. Certainly, He could have risen without any scars, He who healed the eyes of the man born blind. But why did He want to bring testimony through His scars? Because the testimony of the scars of the body was the remedy for the wounds of the mind. So are you going to teach me that those things were false, and that Christ pretended all these things, and the disciple deceived by falsehood exclaimed: "My Lord and my God"? So if He wanted to restore health through falsehood, how do I know whether you speak the truth to me or lie? For you do not consider it a crime to lie when you try to present Christ the author of lies to me. For I will say to you: "You are lying," and you to me: "By no means, I am not lying." You are certainly lying. "Far be it from me to lie." This is what you will say to me, so that I believe you. For tell me: "I am lying," and I wish to know if I should believe anything you say. And to believe anything you say, you will say to me: "Far be it from me to lie." Why do you say "Far be it from me to lie" if you do not consider lying a crime when you teach? So what you consider a crime for yourself, you assign to Christ? Therefore, let human deceptions be gone: Christ came as it is written in the gospel. Do not be offended by the humility of Christ; that humility offends pride. Do not be proud, and the humble Christ will not offend you.
"Do not disdain the humility by which you are healed."
The Apostle says: All things are clean to the clean. However, to the impure and unbelieving nothing is clean, but both their minds and consciences are polluted. With a pure heart, say: "A woman conceived, a virgin conceived." She conceived by faith, a virgin conceived, a virgin gave birth, a virgin remained. Believe all these things, and do not let those innards seem unclean to you. Because even if that flesh had been entirely unclean, Christ, coming to the flesh, would purify the unclean, not become unclean from the unclean. See the humility of your Lord: if it horrifies you, you are proud. Humility horrifies the proud. As proud as you are, compel yourself so that the cup of your pride does not horrify you. For when you are proud, you swell; you are not great. If you swell, drink the cup, so that your innards may de-swell, so that you can be healthy. This cup the doctor has prepared for you, so that you may drink. The doctor himself has prepared the cup for you: drink the bitter cup if you wish to be healthy. Do you not see that you swell, do you not see that your innards are not healthy? You think you are great, and you swell. That is not greatness, but sickness. Do you want to be free of sickness, do you want to be free of swelling? Drink the cup of humility. He who came to you in humility prepared it for you. And lest you hesitate to drink, the doctor drank first, not because it was necessary for the doctor, but to remove the hesitation from the patient. Do not, therefore, despise humility, by which you are healed. The root of all diseases is pride. He who deigned to become the head of the Church came to heal the root of all diseases. With the root of all diseases removed, you will be healthy. Humble yourself and you will be healthy, and you will say more securely: It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I might learn your righteousness. For you have exalted yourself and have been humbled. Humble yourself and you will be exalted, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, God has concluded all in unbelief, so that He may have mercy on all.
Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.
Man departed from God, followed his desires, loosened the reins: by wandering and erring, he reached the worship of idols. Even the Jewish people, who worshipped one God, became proud and fell into iniquity. God, wanting to show them that they were weak, wanting to show them that they lie under the frailty of their flesh, and that the desire derived from their parents' lineage still remained in them, gave them the law and righteous, good, and holy commandments, as the Apostle says: Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. What then, he says, is good, made death to me? By no means! But sin, so that it may appear sin, worked death in me through what is good. See how he calls the law itself good, which was given to the Jews. He calls it good because God had given it. And truly, He had prescribed all good things in the decalogue. Was there anything evil: Do not steal, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness, and so on, do not covet your neighbor's property? For even if you do not take it but merely covet it, the laws of the forum do not hold you, but God holds you in judgment. Therefore, brethren, consider: the law was given to the infirm Jews, but also to the proud. They began to try to do the righteousness of the law and suppress their desires, and they became guilty. Those who were previously iniquitous were not guilty of the law, nor were they transgressors. Whence the Apostle says: For where there is no law, there is no transgression. When the law is given, the one who acts against the law, even if he does what he was doing before, when he did this without the law, he was a sinner but not a transgressor; but when he does it after receiving the law, he is not only a sinner but also a transgressor. Therefore, because he is not only a sinner but also a transgressor, what the Apostle says is fulfilled: But the law entered so that the offense might abound. Why, then, did the offense abound? It is thus: God, you have rejected us and cast us off. He then continues and says: But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Since sin abounded, we rightly say: God, you have rejected us and cast us off, you were angry. But since grace abounded much more, we rightly add: And you had mercy on us. Thus, let not the Jews say: "We are something." For God has concluded them all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all.
Let us lament, for we are away from the Lord.
Let us know, therefore, dearest brothers, our life, our Lord Jesus Christ; let us hold the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ as the remedy for our pride. Let us believe in Him, let us hope entirely in His mercy, who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; and when perhaps we make progress in His justifications, let us not become proud and disdain others, but let us consider on the path of righteousness not how much we have passed, but how much remains for us to complete; and let us mourn everywhere, and let us mourn as long as we are strangers, because our joy will not be except in the homeland, when we have been made equal to the angels. As long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord. Why are we away from the Lord? For we walk by faith, he says, not by sight. Faith is to believe what you do not see, sight is to see what you have believed. When therefore sight comes, that flame of charity will be more intense, because what you desired absent, you embrace present; what you believed absent, you see present. And if God believed is sweet, what will He be seen? When therefore all these things which still torment us because of the remnants of our sins are ended, then there will be the fullness of righteousness, then united with the angels we will sing the eternal hymn "alleluia": the praise of God will be without defect to us, nor will hunger drive us away from there, because the body does not hunger, unless it is corrupted and burdens the soul; nor will we thirst nor be sick nor grow old nor incline to sleep nor be fatigued by any weariness, but just as the bodies of angels are, such will our flesh be in the resurrection of the dead. Do not marvel because these bodies will be heavenly bodies in the resurrection of the dead. Consider that before we were, we were nothing, and from this believe what we will be when we have resurrected. Let each consider himself: before he was born, what was he, where was he, where was he hidden? All this distinction of body: ears, eyes, face, the spirit that animates the entire weight of the body, where were all these? Surely in the secret of nature, surely where they were not seen. They proceeded from there, God formed you who were not. What is great for God to make an angel from man, who made man from clay? What were you? and you are a man; you are a man, and will you not be an angel? Closer it is to make an angel from a man, than from what you were to make a man. He has done the more wonderful thing in you, will He not do what remains?
We see that the promises of God have been fulfilled.
You must believe, and your faith should not abandon Christ, should not abandon the gospel, should not abandon His promises. Understand that all things that are written are nearly fulfilled; few things remain. This Church, which you see spread throughout the world, did not exist a short time ago. You were pagans a few years ago, now you are Christians; your parents served demons, temples were once full of those offering incense, now the Church is full of those who praise God. How swiftly did God change human affairs? Before all these things came to pass, the scriptures were read, believed, but not seen; now we see those things which our ancestors read. If therefore so many things have been fulfilled, are the few remaining things not going to come? Believe firmly that they are coming, brothers, because all these things indeed came as they were written and foretold before they happened. Many thousands of years ago, when it was said to Abraham: 'In your seed all nations will be blessed,' it was said to one man: 'In your seed all nations will be blessed'; he considered himself as one and this seed, and his wife already old and worn with age, and it was said to him not only: "A seed will come from you" - which if it alone had been said, what would be more marvelous? -, it wasn't enough to say to an old man: "You will have a son," [but] "In your seed," He says, "all the nations will be blessed." God spoke marvels, He spoke impossibilities, but they were easy for Him. That one man believed what he did not see, and we see; what he believed, was given to us, indeed it was given back to him, what was exhibited in us. For from the seed of Abraham came Isaac, and from Isaac came Jacob, and from Jacob the people of the Jews, and from the people of the Jews came David, and from the seed of David came the Virgin Mary, and from the Virgin Mary, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in the seed of Abraham, all nations will be blessed, because all nations are blessed in Christ. Behold, now what was promised to him has been given to us. Therefore, Almighty and faithful God, who fulfilled what He promised to one man, will He not fulfill what He promised to all? My brothers, let your faith be strengthened, let your hope be fortified. He did not deceive one man; will He deceive the whole world? He gave the whole world full of Christians to one man, will He not give the world to live with His Son Christ forever?
"The Church is not in part, but in the whole."
Holding these things, brothers, understand that the Church is not in a part, but in the whole. Christ bought all, He gave His blood for all: the whole world holds Christians, the unity of the Church is of Christ. Heretics argue in vain with the Church of Christ: it is not enough that they wish to disinherit themselves, they also slander the heirs. You, in unity, hold to the whole, do not let them deceive you to a part. If you follow them, you will go to a part; if they hear you, they will come to the whole: they win themselves for their gain. For Christ bought all, when He hung on the cross, my brothers: the bargains of Christ, the passion of Christ; there He bought us where He was crucified. There indeed He shed His blood, our price, there as it was foretold in the psalms still to come. See how many years ago it was foretold: They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones; they looked and stared at me, they divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. All these things can scarcely be discerned whether they are heard in the psalm or recited from the gospel. Is it not that as they are sung in the psalm, so they are read in the gospel: They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones? There Christ bought us, where all His bones were counted; where His hands and feet were pierced with nails, there He bought us. There indeed He shed His blood, which is our price. In that very psalm it is understood what He bought. Do you want to know? Ask the psalm itself. What did Christ buy, hanging on the tree? For after a few verses it says: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before Him. Why will they worship? Because the kingdom is the Lord's, and He rules over the nations. As if it were asked why, who is he to whom all the ends of the earth will turn and before whom all the families of the nations will worship? Because it says, his is the kingdom, and he rules over the nations. Why is it his? Because he bought it.
Let us rejoice because we belong to the lot of Christ.
Recently the enemy, the possessor, has rushed in, and this under the name of Christ. He can divide some of the garments of Christ; no one will divide that tunic which is woven from above. "They divided," he says, "my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." And the evangelist says: There was a certain tunic woven from the top, and those who crucified the Lord said among themselves: Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it. It was not placed in division; the tunic remained apart from division. Why did that tunic remain apart from division? Because it was woven from above. It was signified why it did not deserve to be divided, being woven from above. What is that is woven from above? Whence it is said to us "Lift up your heart." Thus, he who has his heart lifted up cannot be divided into parts, because he will belong to that tunic which cannot be divided. Therefore, my brothers, this tunic came by lot to our Lord Jesus Christ himself, because his lot is his inheritance. And since it was his inheritance, he bought it. Those, however, who are divided can belong to the other garments of Christ, because he is clothed in all. He is clothed in all who believe in him, in whatever way they are clothed. But all who seek earthly honors, temporal advantages, bodily illusions, are not woven from above, because they desire worldly things. Therefore, they can be divided. But that tunic which is woven from above, it cannot come into division. Rejoice that you belong to it, who are seedlings of the Catholic faith. Question your heart if you seek nothing from Christ except the kingdom of heaven: not vain things, not temporal things, not bodily images, not those things which delight in this world and on this earth. When you question yourselves, your conscience will answer "lift up your heart." And if you have "lifted up your heart," you are woven from above; if you are woven from above, you cannot be divided.