On the Exaltation of the Venerable Cross
A Every transition from worse to better brings the greatest gladness and joy to the human race. For human nature is naturally inclined to strive toward better things. Thus, the transition from storm to fair and tranquil weather is pleasant for sailors; for travelers, the passage from fatigue to rest is pleasant; for those who mourn, the conversion from sadness to joy is sweet; sweeter is the return of health and strength for the sick; for those at war, the reconciliation and confirmation of peace is sweet; but sweeter still is the approach from darkness and the night into the day. And every action, I might say, is sweeter when it is joined with utility. Thus, we see the fruit granted to us by God producing gladness through its transformation. Grain, indeed, is sweet, but when it is cast into the ground with labor and multiplied, it appears sweeter, where it is used with joy for more abundant nourishment. For it is one grain that is cast into uncertainty. So too the vine offers us a sweeter recreation through the transformation of its fruit, while it brings a drink from the wood; for the shoots and leaves are possessed of most sharp force, so that they cannot even be tasted; but the grape that comes forth from the same wood with the shoots and leaves brings such sweetness to the palate that it settles sharp and bitter things and produces gladness from the drink. So the olive plant always exhibits green leaves; the tree is always seen to be verdant, yet it brings forth fruit in its own time, not according to the custom of other trees, but in a peculiar way. For at first the flower is like the thinnest dust, but in its midst it is held as if it were millet; and it grows like a cluster, and produces innumerable grains. But as it grows, it does not exhibit so frequent a multitude, and until the end it is bitter to the taste; when plucked, it cannot even be tasted; but it truly preserves its oiliness, and at last, with the bitterness transformed, it brings such sweetness to the taste that it is a seasoning for all delicacies, and adapts all foods to the life of men. Thus all trees and all seeds, through the transformation of their fruits, produce gladness for all. Since, therefore, that transition from bitter things to better ones is the cause of such sweetness, come, let us pass to more precious things and see of how many and how great blessings the Cross of Christ has been for us the cause, which by its own virtue has wrought for us such a transformation for the better. For even if the cross is sad B or ungrateful to hear of, it brings joy and gladness, and is the cause not of sorrow but of joy. And even if its name is a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, yet to us who believe it is recorded as salvation; for even while the cross is being read of in the church, and the passion is remembered through the cross, the people who believe in the cross are indignant, emitting a miserable voice, not without murmuring—not against the cross, but against the crucifiers and the unbelievers. For the cross is the salvation of the Church; the cross is the glory of those who have believed in it. The cross frees us from previous evils; these are the first fruits of good things; the cross is the reconciliation of enemies with God and the conversion of sinners to Christ. For through the cross we have been freed from enmity; through the cross we have been joined in friendship with God; through the cross we are freed from the tyranny of the devil; through the cross we are delivered from death and destruction. Therefore, the people, where first they heard of the cross, murmured, but upon hearing of the resurrection they changed their murmur into joy, celebrating the glory with a pure voice. The cross changed human nature into an angelic order, and showing it to be free from every corrupt work, it deemed it worthy to be a participant in incorruptible life. For it no longer calls men, but gods, saying: "I have said, You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High" (Ps. LXXXI, 6). It called them no longer slaves, but friends and brothers: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren" (Ps. XXI, 22). What more has it wrought? But that you might learn more clearly the virtue of the cross, think of what was before the cross and what has been after the cross, and you will understand the power of the cross. Before the cross, the Son was not known; today, while the cross is preached, that Son is called upon; and the Father is known through the Son. Before the cross, the devil was worshipped; now, after the preaching of the cross, the devil has fallen, and demons are put to flight. Before the cross, we were working for fornication and lasciviousness; now, when the cross is preached, not only do we abstain from fornication, but we even despise marriages, embracing virginity, which we had not known, as if we were preserving it as our own. When the cross was not yet preached, the devil gathered the Jews against Christ; today the cross is preached, and the apostles bring back the Jews through faith. When the cross was not yet preached, we were held by death; now the cross is preached, and we despise death as if it did not exist, and we desire eternal life. When the cross was not yet preached, we were aliens from paradise; with the appearing of the cross, immediately the thief was deemed worthy of paradise. O the great power of the cross! How great a transformation it has brought into the human race! C It has brought us from such darkness into immense light, it has recalled us from death to everlasting life, it has transformed us from corruption into incorruption. For the eyes of the heart are no longer obscured by the darkness of ignorance, but through the cross are illuminated by the light of knowledge; the ears of the deaf are no longer closed by unbelief; for the deaf have heard the word of the Lord, and the blind have received their sight, that they might see the glory of God. These are the works of the cross; these are the gifts bestowed upon us through the cross. For what good has not been given to us from the cross? What good has not been perfected for us from the cross? Through the cross we have learned to act piously, and we have recognized the power of the divine nature; through the cross we are taught the justice of God, and we follow the virtue of temperance; through the cross we know one another, and those who are far off are joined to Christ, and are deemed worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit; through the cross we know the power of charity, and we do not refuse to die for others; through the cross we contemn all things that are in the world and hold them as naught, while we strive toward future good things and attain invisible things as if they were visible. The cross is preached, and faith in God is held in confession, and the truth is admired in the whole world; the cross is preached, and martyrs are exhibited, and the confession of Christ is strengthened; the cross is preached, and the resurrection is shown, and life is manifested, and the kingdom of heaven is believed; those who were unbelievers believe in the cross, and those who devised the cross against life attain salvation. This cross has reconciled all things for us, and through the cross we have learned the song. What then is more precious than the cross? What is more useful to our souls? Let us not, therefore, be ashamed to name the cross, but with all confidence let us confess it, through which we have been called to salvation and are sent forth to eternal life. Do you see how great an economy the cross has been the cause of for the world? It has changed its iniquitous works and impious dogmas. We no longer use diabolical laws, we do not dwell in deadly decrees. For God has come among us and has cut away the madness of the passions; He has brought forth His own laws and has taught what is useful and congruent for us. He has given laws of continence and has amputated pleasure; He has set down decrees of holiness and has fashioned the law of chastity, and has put to flight iniquitous fornication; He has established the rule of temperance and has subverted the empire of pleasures; by divine decree He has plucked out the organs of concupiscence and has diminished every sin brought in through pleasure. For because the beginning of fornication is the imagining of idols, and the invention of those things is the corruption of life, therefore He has cut off the root of iniquity, so that He might repress all the floods of impiety. And He has removed the detestable cults of idolatry and has destroyed wicked practices; He has rendered the Bacchic dissension of iniquity useless, and has obscured the figments and ornaments of impiety; He has cut off the injustice of deception, He has blocked the rivers of destruction, He has cleansed souls that were pulling up the thorns of impiety; and those souls have brought forth the seeds of pious religion like a grain of wheat, so that they might exhibit souls bearing the fruit of justice; He has opened the spiritual cataracts
diminished sin. For since the beginning of fornication was the mental conception of idols, and their discovery the corruption of life, for this reason He cut off the root of lawlessness, so that all the currents of impiety might cease. And He abolished the abominable venerations of idolatry, and destroyed the practices of forbidden things, and rendered useless the schisms of the Bacchic lawlessness, and darkened the fabrications and adornments of impiety; He stopped the trespasses of deception, and blocked the currents of perdition; He cleansed souls by uprooting the thorns of impiety, and brought the seeds of godliness like a grain of wheat, so that He might prove souls to be bearing the fruits of righteousness; He opened the floodgates of spiritual distribution, and filled the rational storehouses with the divine fruits of heavenly wisdom; He satiated those who believe with the sanctification of the Spirit, and each one became a vessel of divine holiness, and a river of divine splendor. Of all these things the cross provided us the possession, and through the cross we enjoy all such great goods. Through the cross we have received the knowledge of all these things, and through it we have been taught all these things. But that you may learn the power of the cross and how much the strength of the cross avails, consider the things that happened upon the cross, and you will find works of divine power accomplished through it. A cross is fixed against life, and Life for the world is devised through the cross unto death, and death is shown to be dead through it; a cross is spread against the truth, and through the cross the world is filled with the truth; a cross is stretched out against the Master, and the Master, by extending His hands upon it, gathered all things unto Himself. Christ hangs upon the cross, and the devil is dead; Christ is stretched out upon the cross, and a sign of salvation is gifted to the world; Christ is nailed upon the cross, and every soul is redeemed from bonds; Christ is fixed upon the cross, and the whole creation is liberated from the corruption of slavery; Christ rests upon the cross, and a newer wonder is shown to the world: for the light of the sun is darkened. A A symbol to the unbelieving, that darkness is stored up for the day of judgment, but to the believing, the light of the day is transformed from darkness. And this is also what the prophetic declaration proclaims somewhere, saying: *And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, the sun shall set at noon, and it shall darken in the day the light, and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations* (Amos 8:9, 10). Do you see, beloved, how great a mystery the prophetic declaration contains? For here he hints at the affairs of both, I mean the Jews who were under the law, and the Gentiles outside the law who were performing their illegality. For those who were keeping the law according to the law will mourn, having finished their feasts, and instead of songs they will raise a lamentation over Jerusalem. For there will no longer be a Jerusalem having the rites, nor will a feast be celebrated in it, for all things have reached an end after the coming of Christ, and His passion, and the economy. For this reason, then, he says: *I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations*; they are being deprived of the legal things and handed over into slavery to every nation, because they did not believe in the divine and wondrous preaching of the cross. But the Gentiles, confessing their sins, will also mourn—a mourning that is the source of blessedness. For *Blessed*, he says, *are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted* (Matt. 5:4). They will mourn, therefore, over their vain feasts and lawless songs, which they used to perform for the impure demons. For see for me today, how the pagan who has repented, who formerly was feasting to idols, turns the feast into mourning, repenting for the things he did wrongly, and says, lamenting that prophetic word: *We have been led astray in our shame, and our sins have covered us, because we have been filled with our impiety. We have known the injustices of our fathers* (Jer. 3:25; 14:20). Thus, therefore, let us also, properly lamenting and mourning for the evils that have been described for us, attach ourselves to the cross, casting our hopes upon the cross, so that, being tutored through the cross, and stretching our mind toward heaven, and approaching Christ our Savior, we may be deemed worthy to be near God in the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Himself our Lord, to whom is the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.
CONCERNING THE HOLY APOSTLE THOMAS
B I come to pay you the debt, friends, a debt that enriches me, the payer, and benefits you who receive it. I am here again to demonstrate Thomas, at the beginning indeed disbelieving the Savior's resurrection, afterward, however, after the sight and the touch, believing in Christ, and naming Him Lord and God. Stretch therefore your minds with me, I beseech you; implore Thomas, so that by placing his holy right hand, which touched the Master's side, upon my lips, he may strengthen my tongue for the exposition of the things you desire, and you may endure with calm the poverty of my words, in order that you may reap a small benefit from them. When our Savior had torn apart the all-devouring belly of Hades, and had become the firstborn of the dead, and had entered through closed doors to His own disciples, Thomas, who is called Didymus, was not with them. C Oh, the depth of the miracle! The one who was desired was present, and the one desiring was left behind; the Good Shepherd stood before the flock, and the sheep was wandering outside the flock, or rather, outside the fold; the King of heaven was present and visiting, and the soldier was passing his time far from the divine camp. D Yet this too was a mystery of the divine economy, that Thomas was not present then. For if he had been present, he would not have disputed; and if he had not doubted, he would not have touched; and if he had not touched, he would not have so believed; and if he had not so believed, he would not have taught us so to believe. So that even the disciple's disbelief has become the mother of our faith. For this reason, we too, not seeing Christ, worship Him, because he, seeing Him, worshipped; for this reason, not touching the untouchable, we hymn Him, because he, having held the Master with his own hands, hymned Him, saying: *My Lord and my God* (John 20:28, 25). The other disciples were therefore saying to Thomas, who arrived later: We have seen the Lord, we have seen the One who said: *After three days I rise*, and we have found the truth of the words from the deeds; we have seen the One who said: *I am the resurrection and the truth and the life* (John 11:25), and we have received the resurrection and the truth and the life from the Life; we have seen the One who said: *I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again* (Ibid. 10:18), and we have received His power in the deed. For the Savior stood suddenly before us, without having broken the doors of the room; we, however, at His strange appearance, were naturally astonished and marveled at Him who had innovated such an entry. We heard Him saying to us: Peace be to you (Ibid. 20:21), and we turned the storm of grief into the calm of joy; we saw His hands, in which He received the points of the nails, and wiped away the sins of men; we saw His hands, through which He crushed death, and procured the resurrection for all men; we saw His sacred side offered for us, which emitted blood and water, the two fountains of our salvation.