Patristic Wisdom for Easter

Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (Mark 16:1–8)

You have heard the lesson from the holy Gospel on the Resurrection of Christ. Our faith has been established on the Resurrection of Christ. Pagans, wicked people, and Jews believed in the Passion of Christ; Christians alone believe in His Resurrection. The Passion of Christ discloses the miseries of this life; the Resurrection of Christ points to the happiness of the life to come. At present, let us labor; let us hope for the future. Now is the time for work; then, for reward. He who is lazy in doing his work here is shameless if he demands recompense. You have heard what the Lord said to His disciples after the Resurrection. He sent them to preach the Gospel and they carried out His command; the Gospel was preached; it has come to us. Behold: ‘Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world.’ By one journey after another the Gospel came to us and to the farthest limits of our country. In a few words the Lord sketched His plan for us, telling His disciples what we were to do and what we were to hope for. As you heard when the Gospel was read, He said: ‘He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.’ Faith is demanded of us; salvation is offered to us. ‘He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.’ Precious is the gift which is promised to us; what is bidden is fulfilled without cost.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermons for the Easter Season 233.1

Christ descended into hell to liberate its captives. In one instant He destroyed all record of our ancient debt incurred under the law, in order to lead us to heaven where there is no death but only eternal life and righteousness. By the baptism which you, the newly enlightened, have just received, you now share in these blessings. Your initiation into the life of grace is the pledge of your resurrection. Your baptism is the promise of the life of heaven. By your immersion you imitated the burial of the Lord, but when you came out of the water you were conscious only of the reality of the resurrection.… The grace of the Spirit works in a mysterious way in the font, and the outward appearance must not obscure the wonder of it. Although water serves as the instrument, it is grace which gives rebirth. Grace transforms all who are placed in the font as the seed is transformed in the womb. It refashions all who go down into the water as metal is recast in a furnace. It reveals to them the mysteries of immortality; it seals them with the pledge of resurrection. These wonderful mysteries are symbolized for you, the newly enlightened, even in the garments you wear. See how you are clothed in the outward signs of these blessings. The radiant brightness of your robe stands for incorruptibility. The white band encircling your head like a diadem proclaims your liberty. In your hand you hold the sign of your victory over the devil. Christ is showing you that you have risen from the dead. He does this now in a symbolic way, but soon He will reveal the full reality if we keep the garment of faith undefiled and do not let sin extinguish the lamp of grace. If we preserve the crown of the Spirit, the Lord will call from heaven in a voice of tremendous majesty, yet full of tenderness: Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world. To him be glory and power for ever, through endless ages, amen.

Basil of Seleucia, Easter Homily

Patristic Wisdom for Good Friday

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.… [W]ho, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. (Hebrews 4:14–16; 5:7–9)

Jesus’ prayers were granted, but how were His prayers granted if He had demanded to be delivered from death? To be sure, He was not saved. He wanted to fulfill in Himself the will of the Father. And for this reason it was evident that He was the Son of God, because in behalf of human creatures He exposed His own soul for the rest of the soul of the one who sent Him, and His obedience was made evident by the hands of those who crucified Him. If, therefore, the crucifiers testify that His prayers were granted, if it is so, I say, He certainly wanted to die, and He demanded that the will of his Father was fulfilled. He offered supplications with loud claims to the One who was able to save Him from death; He who was about to die did not ask for delivery from death nor demand to be resurrected after His death because this had been promised to Him earlier, but He prayed for His crucifiers lest they might die in Him. And His prayers were granted, because the door was opened so that His crucifiers might live in Him. And the One who did these things, that is, the One who abased Himself to such humility and suffering for His murderers is the Son of God; and from this it was evident that He was satisfied in those sufferings which He endured. In fact, some of His murderers were converted, and through their repentance they were the heralds of His resurrection.

Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Hebrews

Patristic Wisdom for Maundy Thursday

What shall I give back to the Lord
For all He rendered to me?
I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His holy ones.
O Lord, I am Your servant;
I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid.
You broke apart my bonds;
I will offer a sacrifice of praise;
I shall pay my vows to the Lord
In the presence of all His people,
In the courts of the Lord’s house,
In your midst, O Jerusalem. (Psa 115:3–9 LXX [Psa 116:12–19])

I will take the chalice of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. This is indeed a worthy promise, but it would be hazardous presumption if it rested on human powers. Who can endow confessors with endurance of tortures except Him who deigned to accept the chalice of suffering on our behalf? To show with certainty that this is impossible for human powers, they next said: And I will call upon the name of the Lord. By relying on His help they believed that they were achieving what they thought their bodily frailty inadequate to perform. The death of martyrs is defined most beautifully and briefly as: The chalice of salvation. Chalice, because it is drunk in due measure; of salvation, because through the Lord’s generosity it is served for eternal salvation. Of this chalice the Lord also said in the gospel: Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?

After He had said that He would offer the sacrifice of praise, He adds: In the courts of the house of the Lord, so that you would not believe that it could be discharged anywhere whatsoever. Those courts are the catholic Church spread throughout the world, in which are contained all most genuine Christians, but not the heretics who are segregated through their empty wickedness. His words: I will pay my vows to the Lord, is a promise to offer Himself. The vow of all the faithful is self-offering to Christ and abiding in the right belief of the Church. Observe what follows, so that you may recognize the nature of this house of the Lord.

Notice his information here about the house of the Lord which He mentioned in the previous short verse: it is in the sight of all his people, for it is right that He who deigned to suffer for the salvation of all should receive public praise. The Lord is most perfectly aware of it even if it is performed in the recess of the heart. This contributes to the edification of the people, if a good confession is absorbed by the ears of the community at large. As Christ says in the gospel: He who confesses before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. He added: In the midst of thee, Jerusalem, where the Lord’s peace resides, and where the unity of the holy people rejoices in contemplation of the Lord.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 115.13, 18–19

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Sunday of the Passion

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am afflicted;
My eye is troubled with anger;
So are my soul and my stomach.
For my life is wasted with grief
And my years with sighing;
My strength is weakened with poverty,
And my bones are troubled.
I became a reproach among all my enemies,
And especially to all my neighbors,
And a fear to all my acquaintances;
Those who saw me outside fled from me.
I am forgotten like one whose heart is lifeless;
I was made like a vessel that is utterly broken.
For I heard the blame of many who dwell round about
When they were gathered together against me,
When they plotted to take my life.
But as for me, I hope in You, O Lord;
I said, “You are my God.”
My times are in Your hands;
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies,
And from those who persecute me.
Make Your face shine upon Your servant;
Save me in Your mercy. (Psalm 30:10–17 LXX [Psa 31:9–16])

[T]he wicked reproach the Savior. So not every reproach conveys a cause for censure to the one who is being reproached. There are times when those who reproach are to blame, and those in turn are people who are reproached by sin. And indeed, in the scripture of Proverbs it is said to the wise man, “Do not acquire the censures of evil men.” By the added phrase “of evil men,” he showed that there are reproaches of virtuous men as well. The disciples, for instance, are commanded to rejoice when they are reproached. The above censures are not those with which the apostles are censured; they belong to evil men instead. Then, since it is in our power to do things that are worthy of reproach, he prescribes, “Do not acquire the censures of evil men, and do not strive after their ways.” For the one who strives after their deeds and their thoughts has become an evil man, having acquired for himself harmful reproaches.…

About this reproach it is said that some arise “to reproach and eternal disgrace.” However, not all arise “to reproach and eternal disgrace,” but only those who seem to be good here. When, even though they are considered to be virtuous and holy men, they rise again and the shameful things of their soul appear, these arise into reproach, for those who are manifestly evil arise again not into reproach but into punishment.

And if the Savior says this, then He is calling the cross a “reproach.” For the apostle taught this: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” Again, “He who, for the sake of the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disregarding its shame.” Now, reproach and shame are the same thing. And see this at least, as far as it concerned Him, joy was set before Him because He had no sin. Therefore He disregarded the shame; He trampled over it.

Didymus the Blind, Lectures on the Psalms 30.13

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:35–45)

What He is saying is that, if you wish the privilege of the first place and the highest honor, seek the place which is last, seek to be less worthy, more humble, less important than all, and to rank yourselves below the others. This is the virtue which gives this honor. And we have a most profitable example in the verse which follows, where He says: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” What He is saying is this. “You can see that to humble themselves is what makes men glorious and remarkable if you look at what happened to me, even though I have no need for honor and glory. Still it was by my humility that I accomplished countless good deeds.” For before He humbled Himself and became man, everything had perished and was destroyed. But after He humbled himself, He exalted all things.

He erased the curse, He triumphed over death, He opened paradise. He struck down sin, He opened wide the vaults of the sky, He lifted our first fruits to heaven, He filled the whole world with godliness. He drove out error, He led back the truth, He made our firstfruits mount to the royal throne. He accomplished so many good deeds that neither I nor all men together could set them before your minds in words. Before He humbled Himself, only the angels knew Him. After He humbled Himself, all human nature knew Him. You see how His humbling of Himself did not make Him have less but produced countless profits, countless deeds of virtue, and made His glory shine forth with greater brightness. God wants for nothing and has need of nothing. Yet, when He humbled Himself, He produced such great good, increased His household, and extended His kingdom.

Why, then, are you afraid that you will become less if you humble yourself? If you do humble yourself, you will become more exalted, you will be great, you will be illustrious, you will be renowned on every side. But this will happen only when you are satisfied to become less, to face dangers, and to be put to death. First you must seek to serve, to attend to and care for all men. If you will become exalted by humbling yourself, you must be ready to do and suffer all things.

Ponder this, my beloved, and then let us be fully prepared to pursue humility. When we shall be insulted and spat upon, when we shall be subjected to every humiliation, when we shall be dishonored and scorned, let us endure all this and be glad. Nothing is so likely to exalt us and win us glory and honor, nothing is so likely to show us as great as is the virtue of humility. May it come to pass that, while we succeed in gaining this virtue in its perfection, we may obtain all the blessings which have been promised through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory and honor and worship to the Father and the Holy Spirit now and forever, world without end. Amen.

John Chrysostom, On the Incomprehensible Nature of God 45–48

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday in Lent

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. (John 3:14–21)

What He says, is of this kind: Marvel not that I am to be lifted up that you may be saved, for this seems good to the Father, and He has so loved you as to give His Son for slaves, and ungrateful slaves. Yet a man would not do this even for a friend, nor readily even for a righteous man; as Paul has declared when he said, Scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Now he spoke at greater length, as speaking to believers, but here Christ speaks concisely, because His discourse was directed to Nicodemus, but still in a more significant manner, for each word has much significance. For by the expression, so loved, and that other, God the world, He shows the great strength of His love. Large and infinite was the interval between the two. He, the Immortal, Who is without beginning, the Infinite Majesty, they but dust and ashes, full of ten thousand sins, who, ungrateful, have at all times offended Him; and these He loved. Again, the words which He added after these are alike significant, when He says, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, not a servant, not an Angel, not an Archangel. And yet no one would show such anxiety for his own child, as God did for His ungrateful servants.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John 27.2

Let us praise the Son first of all, venerating the blood that expiated our sins. He lost nothing of His divinity when He saved me, when like a good physician he stooped to my festering wounds. He was a mortal man, but He was also God. He was of the race of David but Adam's creator. He who has no body clothed Himself with flesh. He had a mother who, nonetheless, was a virgin. He who is without bounds bound Himself with the cords of our humanity. He was victim and high priest—yet He was God. He offered up his blood and cleansed the whole world. He was lifted up on the cross, but it was sin that was nailed to it. He became as one among the dead, but He rose from the dead, raising to life also many who had died before Him. On the one hand, there was the poverty of His humanity; on the other, the riches of His divinity. Do not let what is human in the Son permit you wrongfully to detract from what is divine. For the sake of the divine, hold in the greatest honor the humanity, which the immortal Son took on Himself for love of you.

Gregory Nazianzen, Poem 2

The Life of Repentance

“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” —Martin Luther, 95 Theses 1

And when I saw these things in that bright mirror of the holy Gospel of my Lord, my soul became weak and my spirit was at an end and my body was bent down to the dust; my heart was filled with bitter groans that perhaps my stains might be made white by the washing of my tears. And I remembered that good Lord and kindly God who cancels through tears the bond of those in debt and accepts lamentation in the place of burnt sacrifices. When I came to this point, I took refuge in repentance and I hid myself beneath the wings of compunction. I sought refuge in the shade of humility and I said, “What more than these am I required to offer to Him who has no need of sacrifices and burnt offerings?” Rather, a humble spirit, which is the perfect sacrifice that is able to make propitiation for defects, a broken heart in the place of burnt offerings, and tears of propitiation in the place of a libation of wine are things which God will not reject.

Ephrem the Syrian, Letter to Publius 24

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday in Lent

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. (John 2:13–22)

If Jesus says that the temple in Jerusalem is the house of his own Father, and this temple was constructed for the glory of Him who created the heaven and the earth, are we not taught openly to consider the Son of God to be a Son of none other than the creator of heaven and earth? Since it is a house of prayer, the apostles of Christ, too, are commanded by the angel to enter this house of Jesus’ Father (as we have found in the Acts of the Apostles), and to stand and speak “to the people all the words of this life.” … Furthermore, if the house of Christ’s God were not the house of the same God, how would the disciples have remembered what is said in Psalm 68 [LXX]: “The zeal of your house has devoured me”? For that is what is stated in the prophet, and not ‘devours me.’ Now Christ is especially jealous for the house of God in each of us, not wishing it to be a house of merchandise, nor that the house of prayer become a den of thieves, since He is son of a jealous God. This is the case if we understand such words from the Scriptures in a reasonable manner, which were spoken metaphorically from the human viewpoint to set forth the fact that God wishes nothing alien to His will to be mingled with the soul of any men, but especially with the soul of those who wish to receive most divine faith.

Origen, Commentary on John 10.216, 220–221