But someone who looks less carefully at the changes and restorations of things might say to me: Those leaves have decayed, new ones are born. However, the one who considers well sees that even those which decay, contribute to the strength of the earth. For whence does the earth become enriched, if not from the decay of earthly things? Those who cultivate the field observe this; and those who do not, because they always live in the city, certainly know from the gardens near the city how even the most contemptible refuse of the city is saved with what care, by whom they are even bought at a price, where they are carried. Certainly, things already deemed contemptible, exhausted of all utility, might be thought so by the inexperienced. And who deigns to look at dung? What man shudders to look at, yet takes care to preserve. Therefore, that which seemed consumed and discarded returns to the richness of the soil, the richness into sap, sap into the root; and what passes from the earth into the root moves invisibly into strength, is distributed through branches, from the branches into buds, from the bud into fruit and leaves. Behold, that which you shuddered at in the decay of dung, you marvel at in the fruitfulness and greenness of the tree.
Objection that the body turns into ashes.
I do not want you to oppose me with the objection you are accustomed to: The body of the buried dead does not remain whole; for if it did remain, I would believe in resurrection. Therefore, do only the Egyptians believe in resurrection, because they diligently take care of the corpses of the dead? For they have the custom of drying out bodies and rendering them almost like bronze: they call them Gabbaras. Therefore, according to these people, who are ignorant of the secret depths of nature, where everything remains safe for the Creator, even when they are removed from mortal senses, only the Egyptians rightly believe in the resurrection of their dead, while the hope of other Christians is limited? For often, when tombs have been opened or exposed either by age or by some non-sacrilegious necessity, bodies have been found to have decayed, and people who love corporeal appearances have sighed deeply and groaned, saying in their hearts: Will this ash ever regain that form of beauty, be restored to life, be restored to light? When will this happen? When will I hope for something living from this ash? You who say this see only ash in the tomb: consider your own age, if you are, for instance, thirty, fifty, or more years old: in the tomb there is ash of the dead, where were you fifty years ago? Where were you? The bodies of all of us, who now speak or hear, will be ash in a few years, and a few years ago they were not even ash. Therefore, He who was able to create what did not exist, will He fail to repair what did exist?
The Lord Himself is a witness to us.
Therefore, let the murmuring of those who speak ill and corrupt good morals with evil conversations cease. Set your feet firmly on the path, firmly: so that you do not forsake the path, not to remain on the path, but as it is said: Run so that you may obtain. Let Christ always flourish in the heart, who willed to show in the head what the rest of the body hopes for. Indeed, on earth we toil, our head is already in heaven and neither dies, nor fails, nor suffers anything: yet it suffered for us. Because he was delivered up for our offenses and was raised for our justification. We know this by faith: and those to whom he appeared learned through their eyes. Yet we are not disqualified because he rose, and we could not see him with carnal eyes. We have the testimony of the Lord himself, who spoke to the doubting disciple and searched for belief by touch. For when he exclaimed, convinced by the touch of the scars, and said: My Lord and my God; he responded: Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who do not see and yet believe. Therefore, awaken to your blessedness, let no one with ill persuasion shake from your hearts what Christ has fixed in them.
Nor let that be said to me. For this is said by all who, even unwillingly, have yielded to the authority of Christ. For almost all Pagans, even those who are reluctant or delay in embracing Christ devoutly, do not dare to reproach him: although they dare to reproach Christians, they do not dare to reproach Christ; they yield to the head, and yet insult the body. But the body, hearing their insults, who now yield to the head, should not think itself cut off from the head, but supported by it. For if we were cut off, we ought to fear the voices of those insulting: but that we are not cut off, he himself testifies, who said to Paul, then Saul, persecuting the Church: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He had already passed through the hands of the impiety of the Jews, he had already penetrated the infernal, he had already risen from the tomb, he had already ascended into heaven, he had already enriched and strengthened the hearts of the believers with the gift of the Holy Spirit, seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us: he was not to be handed over to death again, but was to deliver us from death, what could he suffer from the raging Saul? How could Saul's hand touch him, even though, as it is written, he was breathing murder? He could attack the Christians laboring on earth: but when and how could he attack Christ? Yet he cries out for the other members, and does not say: Why do you persecute mine? For if he had said: Why do you persecute mine? we would believe him to speak of his servants. But not as much are the servants joined to the master as Christians to Christ. This is a different structure: a different order of members, a different unity of love. The head speaks for the members, neither does he say this at least: Why do you persecute my members? But he says: Why do you persecute me? He was not touching the head, but he was touching that which is joined to the head.
Against those who say that only Christ was allowed to rise again.
We have often said this, but because the analogy is apt and well illustrates the matter, it must be repeated. He who treads on you in a crowd presses your foot, but does nothing to your tongue. What then does it mean that your tongue shouts, "You are treading on me"? The pressure is on the foot, there is no injury to the tongue, but there is one body. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Therefore, if your tongue speaks for your foot, does Christ not speak for Christians in heaven? Your tongue does not speak for your foot by saying, "You are treading on my foot," but rather, "You are treading on me," though it itself has not been touched. Recognize Him as your head, as He speaks for you from heaven and says, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Therefore, brothers, why have we said this? Lest perhaps those of whom the Apostle speaks subtly creep in among you: Bad company corrupts good morals, because they say, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die"; so that they say to you (for they do not dare to reproach Christ, they tremble at His majesty, established throughout the whole world; but as it is written: The sinner will see and be angry, he will gnash his teeth and melt away: he can gnash and melt away; but he does not dare to blaspheme Christ); lest perhaps they speak thus and say, "Only Christ was permitted to do this." Sometimes they speak from the heart, but sometimes out of fear: you however notice what they dare to say, and what they do not dare to.
How one should respond to those who exaggerate the majesty of Christ with perverse praise.
They will therefore say: You tell me that Christ has risen, and from there you hope for the resurrection of the dead; but it was permissible for Christ to rise from the dead. And now he begins to praise Christ, not to give honor to Him, but to make you despair. The cunning destructiveness of the serpent, to turn you away from Christ with the praise of Christ, deceitfully proclaims what he does not dare to blame. He magnifies His majesty to make it singular, lest you hope for something similar, as was shown in His rising. And he appears more reverent towards Christ when he says: Behold, he who dares to compare himself with Christ, as if because Christ rose, he thinks he will rise too. Do not be disturbed by the perverse praise of your Emperor; hostile schemes disturb you, but the humility and humanity of Christ comfort you. He proclaims how exalted Christ is from you: but Christ tells how much He descended to you. So answer him: awaken that faith; it is a storm, there are waves, the ship is struggling, Christ is asleep; awaken that faith, do not forget what you believed. You will respond immediately, when the evangelical faith begins to awaken in you. You will not lack in responding: for it will not be you who speaks; Christ dwelling in you will seize His instrument, your tongue, like His sword, using your heart and voice as dwelling possessor, He will resist the adversary, He will make you secure: you only awaken the sleeper, that is, remember the forgotten faith.
On the mortality of Christ by which he became a mediator for us.
Only just now, what shall I say, how shall you respond to such things? I will not say something new, but what you have believed. Therefore, arouse faith, and respond to the one saying: Christ alone could do it, we cannot: respond and say: Therefore Christ could, because he is God; he certainly, because he is God. If because he is God, because he is omnipotent; if because he is omnipotent, why should I despair that he could achieve in me what he demonstrated in himself for me? Then I inquire from where Christ rose. He will respond: From the dead. I inquire why he died. For can God die? That divinity, the Word equal to the Father, the art of the omnipotent creator, through whom all things were made, immutable wisdom, remaining in itself, renewing all things, reaching from end to end mightily and disposing all things sweetly, could it die? No, he says. And yet Christ died. From whence did he die? Clearly, because he did not consider being equal to God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. Before this, what does he say? Who, though he was in the form of God. Had he taken the form of God, or was he naturally in it? The Apostle makes a distinction. When he said the form of God, he said was: when he mentioned the form of a servant, he said taking. Therefore, Christ was something, he took something, so that what he took would be one with him. In the form of God he was equal to God, as that fisherman evangelist says: The Word was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; that is: Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal to God something to be grasped. For what is not naturally inherent, but is illicitly seized, is a robbery. The angel usurped equality with God, and fell, and became the devil: man usurped equality with God, and fell, and became mortal. He however, who was born equal, because he was not born in time, but the eternal Son to the eternal Father, always born, through whom all things were made, was in the form of God. But to be a mediator between God and men, between the just and the unjust, between the immortal and mortals, he took something from the unjust and mortals, preserving something with the just and immortal. For with the just and immortal retaining justice, assuming mortality from the unjust and mortals, he became the reconciler in the middle, tearing down the wall of our sins; from whom it is sung by his people: And in my God I will leap over a wall; returning to God what sins had alienated, redeeming with his blood what the devil had possessed; he died for us, and rose for us. He bore our sins, not clinging to them, but sustaining them: just as Jacob bore the skins of the goats, so that he would appear hairy to his blessing father. The evil Esau had his own hair, but the good Jacob carried others'. For sinful men carry sins inherently. But they did not adhere to him who said: I have the power to lay down my life, and I have the power to take it up again.
Death, therefore, in our Lord was a sign of others' sins, not the punishment of His own. But in all men, mortality is the punishment of sin: for it is drawn from the origin of sin, whence we all come; from the fall of that man, not from His descent. For it is one thing to fall, another to descend. One fell wickedly, another descended mercifully. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive. Bearing, therefore, others' sins: "What I did not steal, I then had to restore"; that is, having no sin, I was dying. "Behold," He says, "the prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me." What does it mean: "he has nothing in me"? He shall find no cause of death in me. For the cause of death is sin. Why, then, will you die? He proceeds and says, "But that all may know that I do the will of my Father, arise, let us go hence." And He rises, proceeding towards the passion. Why? Because He was doing the will of His Father, not because He owed anything to the prince of sins, in whom there was no sin. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ brought His divinity with Him, but He assumed mortality from us. He received this in the womb of the Virgin Mary, uniting Himself, the Word of God, to human nature, as a bridegroom to the bride in the virginal chamber, that He might come forth as a bridegroom from His chamber.
Moved by mercy, Christ became mortal.
Return, therefore, to what I was saying. Mortality came from sin to all men: however, in the Lord, it was from mercy, and yet it was true; because such flesh was true, and truly mortal, having the likeness of sinful flesh; not the likeness of flesh, but the likeness of sinful flesh: for it was true flesh, but not flesh of sin. For He did not receive that mortality, as I said, on account of the merit of sin, He who emptied Himself taking the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death. What therefore was He, and what did He have? He was divinity, having mortality. However, from what He died, from that He rose again.
Consider now those who say: Only Christ could rise again, not you. But respond and say: Christ rose again in what he had taken from us. Take away the form of a servant, there would not be one in which he could rise again; because there would not be one in which he could die. Why, then, do you wish to destroy in me the faith of the praise of my Lord, which my Lord has built in me? For in that he took the form of a servant, he died. According to this, however, he rose again, according to what he died. In no way, therefore, should I despair of the servant's resurrection, since the Lord rose in the form of a servant. Or if they attribute to the power of man that Christ rose from the dead; for they also often say this, that he was so just a man that he could also rise from the dead: in the meantime, speaking according to them, and not mentioning the divinity of our Lord; that just one, to the point that he could even rise from the dead, could in no way deceive us when he also promised us resurrection.
How the future resurrection is proven.
Therefore, all that has been said, brothers, is meant for this end, that you may be instructed if any say that the dead do not rise. What has been said, if you remember, as far as God has deemed necessary to suggest, and testimonies from the nature of things and daily examples have been given; and about the omnipotence of God Himself, to whom nothing is difficult, who, if He could create what was not, can much more easily restore what was; and about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself, whom it is certain has risen, and His resurrection did not occur except in the form of a servant, because death could not have come, from which it would be necessary to rise, except through the form of a servant. Hence, because we are servants, we ought to hope for that in our form, which He deemed to prefigure in the form of a servant. Thus let the tongues of those who say: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die, fall silent. Indeed, you also respond, and say: Let us fast and pray, for tomorrow we die.
On the expectation of the last day. An example is taken from Noah.
It remains for us to speak of what the life of the righteous will be like in the resurrection. But because you already see the time taken today is moderate, ponder what we have delivered; and pray that we may sometimes deliver what we owe. Especially remember that which we have spoken, particularly for these festive days, my brothers, which the pagans celebrate. Be attentive: this world is passing away, remember the Gospel where the Lord predicts the last day will come like in the days of Noah. They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying and being given in marriage, until Noah entered the ark; the flood came and destroyed them all. You have the Lord clearly warning you, and in another place saying: Do not let your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness. Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning; and be like the servants waiting for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding. Let us wait for Him to come, let Him not find us slothful. It is shameful for a married woman not to desire her husband: how much more shameful is it for the Church not to desire Christ? The husband comes to physical embraces and is received with great vows by his chaste wife: the Bridegroom of the Church will come to grant eternal embraces, to make us his coheirs forever, and we live in such a way that we not only do not desire His coming, but we even fear it! How true is it that that day will come like in the days of Noah? How many will He find to be so, even those who call themselves Christians? Therefore the ark was being built through many years, so that those who do not believe may awaken. For a hundred years it was being built, and they did not awaken to say: The man of God is not building the ark without reason, but because destruction threatens the human race; and they would have appeased God's wrath, turning to the ways which please God, as the Ninevites did.
For they produced the fruit of repentance, and appeased the wrath of God.
And Nineveh is an example.
Jonah announced, not mercy, but future wrath: for he did not say, "In three days, Nineveh will be overthrown; but if you repent in these three days, God will spare you." He did not say this. He only threatened destruction and foretold it. And yet, they, not despairing of God's mercy, turned to repentance; and God spared them. But what shall we say? That the prophet lied? If you understand it carnally, it seems he spoke falsely; if you understand it spiritually, what the prophet said came to pass. For Nineveh was overthrown. Consider what Nineveh was and see that it was overthrown. What was Nineveh? They were eating and drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, giving themselves to perjuries, lies, drunkenness, crimes, corruption: this was Nineveh. Consider Nineveh now: they are mourning, grieving, feeling contrite, in sackcloth and ashes, in fasting and prayers. Where is that Nineveh? Clearly, it is overthrown, for it is no longer engaged in those former activities.
Who are the men who enter into the ark of the Church which Christ builds?
Therefore, brothers, even now the ark is being built, and those hundred years are these times: this entire span of time is signified by that number of years. If then they rightly perished, who disregarded Noah building the ark; what do they deserve, who disregard salvation while Christ is building the Church? There is as much difference between Noah and Christ, as there is between a servant and a master; even more, as between God and man. For a servant and a master can also both be called men. And yet, because men did not believe when a man was building the ark, an example is given from them for posterity to beware. Christ God, becoming man for our sake, builds the Church; He laid the foundation of that ark with Himself: daily, uncorrupted wood, faithful men renouncing this world, enter into the structure of the ark; and it is still said: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die. Therefore you, as I said, brothers, say against them: Let us fast and pray; for tomorrow we die. For they say: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die, who do not hope for the resurrection: but we, who now believe and proclaim the resurrection both in the words of the Prophets, and with Christ and the Apostles preaching, who hope to live after this death, let us not falter, nor burden our hearts with gluttony and drunkenness; but eagerly expecting, girded with loins and with lamps burning, the coming of our Lord, let us fast and pray, not because we will die tomorrow, but so that we may die in security. What remains then, brothers, demand it from us at another time in the name of the Lord. Turned to the Lord, etc.