Chapter VII.
Let us proceed now to deal with the grace of the Economy of the humanity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and see what our blessed Fathers have handed down to us about it in the creed. This is the third day I am discoursing on this subject to your love, as I am anxious that you should learn it little by little and keep my words in your memory. Let us, therefore, begin to-day also to speak to you concerning things that fit the sequence of those already said.
Immediately they began the words which deal with the Economy (of our Lord) our blessed Fathers first showed for whom was all this Economy accomplished, and said: Who for us children of men, to which they added: And for our salvation in order that the purpose of the Economy might be known. To this they added also: Came down from heaven, in order that they might make us understand the |73 boundless humility that was involved in His coming down to us, as if they were repeating the sentence of the blessed Paul: "Though He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor," and humbled Himself to our wretchedness from the height of His glory and from His mighty greatness. And in order to show us how He came down they said: And became a man. He did not humble Himself here by an ordinary act of Providence nor by the gift of the assistance of (Divine) power that He had in the same way as He performed many other things, but He assumed and put on our nature in which He was, and in which He dwelt so that He might perfect it with sufferings and unite it to Him. In this they (our blessed Fathers) showed us the gift of His grace which they saw in the human race, and through which He assumed a man from us, was in Him and dwelt in Him, and they taught us that He endured and bore all according to human nature so that we might understand that He was not a man in appearance only, but that He was a real man who suffered all the human [passions] according to human nature.
And in order not to lengthen their speech they omitted all the things which He gradually performed and which we may learn with accuracy from the reading of the Gospel, and they rightly made use of condensed words and said: And was born of the Virgin Mary and was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and in this way they included all the Economy in its beginning and its end. We remember that we told your love that it is the habit of the Books to include all the Economy of Christ in the mention of the crucifixion, because death came to Him by crucifixion, and He abolished death by death and made manifest the new, immortal and immutable life.
In this way our blessed Fathers included also all the Economy in these words, but were aware that especial attention had to be paid to the words said of the Passion or of the things that happened in the Passion, as they transcend all human intellect. In order that no doubt concerning the reality of the Passion might enter the mind of the hearers on account of the sublimity of this same Passion, and in order that they might not think that it took place in appearance only, they stressed their words so that they should be believed in the sense that He died in reality and so as to show that human death and all |74 passions were abolished by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed, if Christ endured death by crucifixion in order to make manifest His death to all and with His death His resurrection also by which death was abolished, it is with justice that our blessed Fathers warned us first on the subject of His death and then taught us concerning His resurrection.
This is the reason why, after having said, And was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, they added: And was buried, in order to teach us that He did not die only in appearance and in an unreal way but that He actually died a natural death so that after His death His body was also buried according to the law of human nature. In this they followed also the teaching of the blessed Paul, who, when speaking to the Corinthians of the resurrection of the dead because of which he made mention of the resurrection of Christ our Lord—so that he might confirm the general resurrection from the resurrection of Christ— first taught about His death in saying that Christ died a real death, since His death once established the words concerning the preaching of His resurrection will be readily accepted. He said in effect: "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried." He did not make use of the additional sentence "and was buried" to no purpose, but he made use of it to show that He truly died according to the law of human nature and that He duly endured death according to a mortal nature.
In this same way, after our blessed Fathers had said, And was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, in order to show that He had died they added the sentence: And was buried, so as to demonstrate, according to the preaching of the Apostle, that He had truly died.
Further, as the blessed Paul, after having said that He was buried and that He had truly died, added: "He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" —and it was in this way that he was able to teach concerning the resurrection of Christ after His death and to fix the true belief in His death in the souls of the hearers—so also our blessed Fathers, after having said, And was buried, added: And rose the third day according to the Scriptures. They made |75 an accurate use of the words of the Scriptures in delivering to us the belief in the resurrection. The question involved in the resurrection is not an unimportant one because to those who do not believe it implies the danger of death and of falling away from all benefits, but on those who believe this same resurrection bestows confidence, and puts the seal on all the wonderful things accomplished in the Economy of Christ. Indeed this resurrection is the end of all the Economy of Christ and the principal object of all the reforms wrought by Him, as it is through it that death was abolished, corruption destroyed, passions extinguished, mutability removed, the inordinate emotions of sin consumed, the power of Satan overthrown, the urge of demons brought to nought and the affliction resulting from the law wiped out. An immortal and immutable life reigns by which all the above evils are abolished and destroyed, and it was through them that the demons entered to fight against us.
This is the reason why the blessed Paul said: "If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain." If it is not possible that the dead should rise it is evident that Christ also did not rise, because in His body He was of the same nature and received death according to the law of nature. If we believe that Christ rose it is clear and obvious that resurrection is a true fact, as that which is impossible would not have happened, even to Him, but since it happened to Him it is clear and evident that it is possible.
We ought not, therefore, to deny resurrection as an impossible thing, but it is imperative for us to believe in it, because it did happen once and had its beginning in Christ our Lord. He who denies the general resurrection denies also the resurrection of Christ, because in His flesh He was part of human nature, and he who denies this shows that "our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain." Because resurrection is the principal benefit of all the Economy of Christ in the flesh—since by it all evil things vanish and an entry is effected for all good things—He who denies this same resurrection makes our preaching and your faith vain. If death is not abolished the dominion of evil things is still standing and we do not look yet for good things. It is indeed plain that if the resurrection did not take place death |76 would still be holding dominion, from which it could not have been overthrown, and because of this same death sin would also be in the ascendant and all evil things would be surrounding us, because he (Paul) said: "If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised then your faith is vain and you are yet in your sins." In this he shows that death was abolished through resurrection, and sin through death, as after the resurrection we become immortal and immutable, and if the resurrection does not take place faith is vain and death holds sway together with sin, and you also are still in your sins and have no hope of good things which we announced as coming to you through the resurrection.
It is with justice, therefore, that in accordance with the words of the Apostle our blessed Fathers first mentioned the principal benefit of the Economy of Christ in saying: And rose from the dead, and then added the sentence: And ascended into heaven. It was necessary that after having known that He rose from the dead we should also know where He is after His resurrection. As the Sacred Book, after saying that God made Adam, added how, from what, and also in which locality He placed him to lead his earthly life, so also in the case of Christ our Lord who was assumed from us and was according to our nature, because after (our blessed Fathers) said that He rose from the dead they rightly added that He ascended into heaven so that we should learn that He moved into an immortal nature and ascended into heaven, as it was necessary for Him to be high above all. All the evangelists narrated to us His resurrection from the dead and with it they ended their respective Gospels, because they knew that it was sufficient for us to learn that He rose from the dead, moved to an immortal and immutable life and gave us the hope of participating with Him in the future good things. The blessed Luke, however, who is also the writer of a Gospel, added that He ascended into heaven so that we should know where He is after His resurrection. It is also known that he taught us this at the beginning of his teaching when he wrote the Acts of the Apostles, where he further added the rest of the facts, one after another, as it fitted the sequence of the narration.
As it is not only in His resurrection that Christ became our |77 firstfruits but also in His ascension into heaven—in both of which He made us partakers of His grace—it is right that we should be instructed in both of them, because we do not expect only to rise from the dead but also to ascend into heaven, where we will be with Christ our Lord. In this same way the blessed Paul said also that "our Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet our Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with our Lord." In another passage he said also: "For our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may resemble His glorious body," in order to show us that we shall be transferred to heaven from whence Christ our Lord will come and change us at the resurrection from the dead and make us like the form of His body and take us up to heaven so that we may ever be with Him. And again he said: "For we know if this our earthly house were dissolved, we have a building of God and an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," in order to teach us that at the resurrection we will become immortal and dwell in heaven. And a little further on he said: "While we are in the body, we are absent from our Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight; we are confident and willing to be absent from the body and to be present with Christ," and showed that as long as we are in this mortal body we are as it were absent and remote from our Lord, as we are not actually enjoying yet the future good things since we have only received them by faith, but in spite of their being so we have great confidence in possessing them, and we are looking with great eagerness to the time when we will divest ourselves of this mortal body and cast it away from us and become immortal and immutable at the resurrection from the dead, and then we will be with our Lord like men who for a long time and for the duration of this world were absent and expecting to be present with Him.
This is the reason why he said: "Jerusalem which is above is |78 free, which is the mother of us all." He called "Jerusalem which is above" the abode which is in heaven and in which we, reborn at the resurrection, shall become immortal and immutable, when we shall truly enjoy perfect freedom and happiness, and when nothing will constrain us and no pain will affect us, but we will be in ineffable pleasures and in a happiness that will have no end; and we are expecting to enjoy these pleasures in which Christ our Lord became our firstfruits, (Christ) whom God the Word put on, and who through the close union that He had with Him became worthy of all this glory and gave to us also the hope of communion with Him.
It is with justice, therefore, that the Sacred Book taught us that not only He rose from the dead but ascended also into heaven, so that we too should preach that which is implied by our blessed Fathers who, after having said, He rose the third day, added: And ascended into heaven. And they further added to their words: And sat at the right hand of God, in order to show first the great honour that came to the man who was assumed, from His union with God the Word who had put Him on, and secondly in order that we might understand the nature of the good things in which we shall dwell if we have truly communion with Him. Indeed, after the blessed Paul had said, "You were dead in your trespasses and your sins and He quickened you with Christ," he added: "Ye are saved. And He hath raised you up and made you sit together in heaven in Jesus Christ" in order to show us the sublimity of the communion that we shall have with Him.
After our Fathers wrote down this they added with justice: And He shall come again to judge the living and the dead, in order to inform us concerning His second coming in which we shall receive communion with Him while truly looking for Him coming from heaven to fashion us, according to the saying of the Apostle, like unto His glorious body. They added after His coming the sentence: To judge the dead and the living, so that with the mention of the good things done to us they should also implant fear into us and make us ready for the gift of the glory of all this Economy. They said, "of the dead and the living," not that the dead shall be judged—what kind of judgment can there be to the dead who do not feel?—but |79 that at the time of His coming He will raise all of us born of Adam, that is all the children of men who had died, and will transform them into an immortal nature.
Those men who will be overtaken by the general resurrection while still alive He will only transform, and from being mortal He will make immortal. This is the reason why they said, "the living and the dead." Those who will be alive at that time they called "the living," and those who had already died and passed away they called "the dead," in order to show us that all the children of men shall be judged and none shall escape scrutiny, and that when they have been judged they shall receive a judgment commensurate with the nature of their actions in a way that some of them will be rewarded and some others punished.
The blessed Paul said also in the Epistle to the Corinthians: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." By these words he shows that all of us shall not die but that all of us shall be changed; the dead shall rise incorruptible and immortal, and the living shall be changed into an immortal nature. Both acts will be accomplished in the twinkling of an eye. He said the sentence, "we shall be changed" of those who shall then be alive because when he wrote it he himself was alive, and thus he personified the living.
He wrote something similar to this to the Thessalonians: "We which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep, for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with our Lord." He says that all these things will happen with the swiftness of the twinkling of an eye and that those who are alive will not prevent those who are dead when these go out to meet our Lord, and he shows that the latter will rise and the former will be changed, and both will be caught up together to meet our Lord.
Our blessed Fathers said these things to warn us, to inspire us with fear and to induce us to prepare for the future account (that we |80 shall give of ourselves). They rightly ascribed the sentence: To judge the living and the dead to the prosopon of the man who was assumed on our behalf so that they should show us the honour that came to the temple of God the Word, that is to say to the man who was assumed for our salvation, and so that they should implant fear into us when teaching us by their words concerning the future judgment, which will be all the harder for us if we have a bad and inordinate will. It would be against our duty to minimise that man who was assumed on our behalf; who possesses such a great honour; who will judge the living and the dead because He was freed from all sin and was, on account of the honour that came to Him, in a position to be immune from death—as He said: "I have power to lay my life down, and I have power to take it up again," in order to show that He was the Lord and had power to die and not to die—who received the death that came His way, and in the confidence that He had (with God) was able to conquer it; who granted immunity from death to all the human race; who was from us and from our human nature and was immune from death because of the greatness of His excellence and was always without stain by the power of the Holy Spirit, but nevertheless received upon Himself death and passion—an ignominious death by crucifixion—so that He should grant us to delight in the future pleasures, (it would indeed, I say, be against our duty to minimise that man) who endured all these things for us and not to remain steadfast in His love and not follow His commandments and value His love and affection more highly than anything else. We ought to show forth such feelings because of the ineffable benefits that through Him will accrue to us.
Examine the strength of their statement from the fact that in speaking of His humanity, His Passion and His resurrection they affirmed that the very same prosopon to whom all this happened shall sit in judgment. In order, however, that no one might be led to believe that a mere man will be the judge of all the creation they added the word Again, so that they should refer (the act of judging) as by a sign to the Godhead of the Only Begotten who was in Him and from whom He received all that honour. If they did not wish to imply this it would have been sufficient to say: He shall come to judge the living |81 and the dead, but with the addition of again they referred to His Godhead. He who shall come openly is in truth the man who has been assumed from us, and it is He who shall come from heaven, and He of whom it may rightly be said that He moves from place to place, as it is written: "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." This was to demonstrate to them that it would be the very man who was seen by them, and was with them, and was now being separated from them, who would be coming and be seen by all men. To this man the word again is not fitting. Indeed, it is not He who came but it is the Godhead that came down from heaven, not that it moved from place to place, but by its condescension and its Providence for us which it manifested in the man who was assumed on our behalf. The word again will refer in the next world to the man whom (the Godhead) assumed on our behalf. The man who was assumed on our behalf went now first into heaven and will come again first from heaven, but because they (our blessed Fathers) were referring in their words to the Divine nature they counted His coming twice, first when He came down through that man, and secondly when He will come again through the same man who has been assumed, because of the ineffable union that that man had with God.
This is the reason why the blessed Paul, after saying, "We look for the glorious appearing of the great God," added: "and the Saviour Jesus Christ." He shows that we are looking for the Divine nature, which is higher than everything, to come and appear to all men, and because this Divine nature cannot be seen with material eyes, it will make its appearance to men according to the power of the onlookers. And he showed us the way in which we expect the Divine nature to appear by adding: "and our Saviour Jesus Christ." He refers here to that corporeal man and shows clearly that it is in the coming and the vision of that man that the Divine nature will make its appearance. It is in this man by whom it had formerly saved us that it will make its appearance in order to grant these ineffable benefits.
It is with justice, therefore, that our blessed Fathers added the word again in order to show us the Divine nature from which the |82 great honour of judging was given to that visible (man). It is that (Divine nature) that will judge all the world according to the sentence of the Apostle who said that it will judge all the earth through the man Jesus. It is clear that the blessed Paul shows us that it is God who will judge all the earth through that man who was assumed on our behalf and who rose again from the dead for the confirmation of our faith.
Let what has been spoken suffice for the teaching of to-day, and let us praise God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, now, always and for ever and ever.
Here ends the seventh chapter.