the repetition of old wickedness is destruction to the communion [of him who has been] transformed. If you live according to the flesh, he says, you will die (Rom. 8:13). But what is the symbol of the seven days? He says, "For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread." It happens that seven days are the entire time. For after the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there is a return to the first day, and this cycle of time revolves through seven days. Through the whole time, certainly, it is necessary to live in simplicity and sincerity, and this is truly salutary. In Spirit, he says, mortify the deeds of the body, and you will live (ibid.). Simple, moreover, are the ways of him who does not seek after carnal things, who is alien to evil habits and guile, thinking nothing evil, nothing bitter. Why, then, does he call the first and seventh day holy, saying: "The first day shall be called holy, and the seventh day shall be holy to us" (Exod. 12:16)? Because the first day denotes the beginning, in which we are sanctified by receiving the Holy Spirit; the seventh, however, signifies the end, when, migrating from this B body, we are with Christ and depart to the Lord, leaving behind this earthly pilgrimage, and are transferred wholly to holiness. When we are, he says, in the body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6). The law wishes these holy days to be void of works. For it says: "You shall do no work in them" (Exod. 20:10). This implies that the soul should not be plunged into earthly business, nor ought it to be subject to a servitude not congruent with the service of God; but that those things alone should be diligently attended to, and one should strive for those things, which are useful to the soul. And of this matter, too, that is a symbol: "However, whatever is to be done for every soul, this alone shall be done by you." Wherefore the Lord, that he might bring forward the interpretation of legal rest—namely, that rest was to be sought solely from vain works, but not from those which look to the utility of the soul—rebuked the Pharisees: "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a soul or to destroy it?" (Mark 3:4). But if you wish to keep the Sabbath and the festive rest rightly and according to Christ, withdraw that care from worldly cares and works and perform those things which are of God and are done for the utility of the soul; and thus you will keep the Sabbath holy and truly good, and you will celebrate a holy solemnity, an image of that which is with Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
CONCERNING THE SAME SUBJECT. IV.
Pascha, indeed, the Jews celebrate in commemoration of the liberation from Egypt, at which time the firstborn were snatched from death. Therefore it is called Pascha, because it is a passing over death: for the Hebrew word signifies this. We, however, celebrate Pascha, not a part only of the snatching from death, as they did, nor liberation from temporary servitude; but perfect redemption from death, and perfect release from the servitude of the devil. The death of the firstborn passed over those who had sacrificed the typical lamb and had anointed the doorposts of their houses with blood: but we, the death brought by the first-formed man has passed past, nor can it grasp those who have received the sacrifice of the divine Lamb and have been signed with the faith of the saving blood. For them the lamb was taken from the earth; for us, from heaven, according to the type of Abraham, when he had a ram sent by God to offer for his son; but now, in truth, the Lamb has been sent from heaven, who was offered for us, that we might no longer be held by death, on account of Christ, who cannot be held by death. For, he says, "God sent the Son, the Savior of the world" (1 John 4:10); and "I came down from heaven" (ibid. 6:42). And the Baptist testifies concerning him: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (ibid. 1:29). For a senseless lamb would not take away sin, and therefore neither the death brought by sin: but the most rational Lamb, with sin dissolved, destroyed death with it. Moreover, he leads us out, not from Egyptian captivity into Judea, but from a corrupt world into an eternal possession. He is at once the Lamb and the Shepherd leading the sheep. "I will go before them," he says, "leading them into eternal life." The beginning of months C to the Jews is the sacrifice of the lamb and the departure from Egypt: to us, however, the beginning of life is the Lord's passion and the translation with Christ out of this world: for then we live when we die to the world; then we are regenerated into God when we put off our earthly generation. The lamb is indivisible, which is eaten in one house of the spiritual Church. It is not found elsewhere: just as it was forbidden the corporeal Jews to carry the flesh of the lamb outside the house. Christ is the lamb by reason of his meekness. According to a higher way, however, a kid was then sacrificed in his likeness. The bread was unleavened for those who ate the Pascha: for us, however, it is communion with Christ, with a new and most simple mind; just as the unleavened bread is a new and simple lump. The bitter herbs which were eaten with the Pascha then signified our tribulations, through which we share in the passions of Christ. For bitter is the thing that is tribulation, although the fruit it brings forth is sweet. The bone of the lamb was not broken, and the law commanded this, prefiguring Christ, as the Gospel explains, because no one broke the sacred legs of the Lord: "That the Scripture might be fulfilled: A bone of him shall not be broken" (John 19:33, 36). The flesh was eaten by night, and nothing was left until the following day, because the death of Christ is commemorated in the present age, while in the future life appears. The habit of those who ate the Pascha was the girding of loins, shoes on their feet, staffs in their hands; the attire of travelers, who are ready to make a journey with haste: to us, however, the proposition of the soul is our equipment for departure from this world. And therefore, prepared and girded souls flee worldly solicitations to hasten on the journey, that they may run to heaven. For "our conversation," he says, "is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). Faith in Christ is hope. A lamp is lit for our souls, just as the lamp for them was corporeal. The lamp of souls for us is the law of Christ: for, "Thy law is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths" (Ps. 118:105). The Lord himself says concerning these: "Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning; and you yourselves like men expecting their lord" (Luke 12:35). It remains to see who these are who eat the Pascha. No uncircumcised person eats the Pascha; but even if a stranger, or a bought slave, he is circumcised. For no one can be a partaker of Christ if he does not circumcise human superfluities and unless he is purged from carnal filth, which we have received from our birth from our fathers. For of this matter the corporeal circumcision was a type. Therefore the prophet Jeremiah said (Jer. 4:4), that the hardness of your heart must be circumcised. Let us hasten, therefore, to the blessed communion of Christ and be made D pure from the evils of the world, that we may be sanctified by spiritual goods. Let no one be turned toward the world, but let us all hasten (to heaven), lest we remain under the servitude of the prince of this world: but let us be transferred to the liberty by Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.IN THE SAME ARGUMENT. V.
For the law, he says, had a shadow of future good things (Heb. 10:1), but grace came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). For neither are the Jewish things alien from Christ; but through figure and shadow they were referred to Christ. But of his personalorum (Hebr. 10. 1); , per Jesum Christum facta est (Joan. 1. 17). Neque enim Judaica aliena sunt a Christo; sed per figuram et umbram referebantur ad Christum. Ejus autem personali presence, there is perfection and the clear vision of things, as well as the immediate vision of the King Himself. For anyone portraying a likeness first sketches a shadow, then completes the drawing with colors; and while the icon is, in its appearance, different from the shadow, it is the same with respect to the character underlying the colors. Consider, then, the truths for me through the shadows, behold the things signified through the types, and proceed from small to great things. Do not remain fixed on the earth, rendering tributes to the freedom of a single nation from a tyrant, to the temporary salvation of children, or to a migration from one land to another. For you will not find the festivals of the Gentiles to be at all distant from such commemorations. They too celebrate escapes from diseases, liberations from tyrannies, colonies, the foundation of cities, victories in war, and such things, taking all these earthly and temporary matters as the subject of their festivals.
Now, however, one must call to mind the great things, the gifts that are divine and truly of God, and celebrate the great and eternal festival: the liberation from opposing demons who war against the good and draw men away from the kingdom of God; a salvation not for a short life but for eternal duration; a migration from earth to heaven, according to our present conduct, and into an eternal possession, according to the future resurrection. A Egypt oppressed the Jews, who were free by parental succession, subjecting them to the yoke of slavery, compelling them to make bricks and build cities. This is a symbol of the worldly affliction in which the human race was labored, having fallen from the luxury and freedom bestowed by God, working hard at earthly tasks and building up structures that perish; for nothing among men is stable or secure, but all things are perishable works of human hands and expenditures of time. God wills to liberate them from this slavery, pitying His own handiwork, just as He saw the affliction of the children of Israel; He liberates them through acquisition (for those who have willingly leaped away must willingly return to God). Servants are sent bearing laws, through the law exhorting to justice, through justice guiding to God, inflicting minor punishments on the opposing powers, not yet bringing about a complete destruction, not yet utterly wiping out the impious. For this was reserved for the presence of the Master, who arrived after the servants. B The types and symbols of these were Moses being sent to the Jews with Aaron his brother, calling them to the worship of God, striking Egypt with partial plagues on behalf of the enslaved and afflicted people. But even while these things were happening, Israel was still in Egypt, and the king of the Egyptians still had room to oppose God. Nine plagues, and yet the end of the matter was not reached. It was necessary for the last one to be brought on: the destruction of the firstborn, and along with this, for Israel to depart. There, a sheep is sacrificed, the entrances of the Hebrew houses are smeared with blood, and the firstborn of the Jews escape the plague of death through the symbol of the blood. The Jews eat the sheep with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They depart from Egypt; Pharaoh and the remnant of the Egyptians pursue them; they come to the Red Sea. This sea, having been divided by the power of God and the rod of Moses, receives the army of the Hebrews; but it drowns the Egyptian force that followed after them. C Christ is the sheep at the departure from the world, and He transfers you also to heaven as He ascends; He leads you too up to eternal life. Moving the man who was born of David, He moves with him those who follow, the obedient and submissive ones, those who no longer fear Pharaoh, nor remain in the slave-like and wretched earthly pains for the sake of the slight and bitter pleasure, the type of which Israel had in the eating of leeks, onions, and garlic in Egypt. For such is pleasure according to the world, having a most bitter city of cares woven into it, and a carnal and beast-like satiety.
But as you depart from the worldly life, the beginning of a true life comes to pass for you; just as for them, the typical Passover was the beginning of months. For now is the beginning of living, when you renounce the worldly and earthly life; now you discover what true living is, which is in the spirit. Christ is sacrificed, so that you may know the sacrifice that was produced for your sake. Then for you is fulfilled, *He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb* (Isai. 53. 7). And the gentleness preserves in Him the archetype of the sheep; but the ascent into the height—not remaining in the things below—preserves the goat's progress toward the high places. For goats leap and ascend to the highest and most difficult-to-traverse places. D Yet an heaven was [high] for man and difficult to traverse, from the day he fell, having tripped from the divine commandment, serving the flesh, and being separated from the Holy Spirit. He ascends, and the divine victim sacrificed for your sake leads you up. For He died with you, that you might live in Him. But the blood of the lamb is lifegiving to you, if you approach the blood faithfully, if you smear your own senses and the thoughts through which death enters, sending sin along with it, with the faith of the blood, just as Israel smeared the entrances with blood. For if desire does not enter for you through the eyes, through the hearing, through the smell, through the taste, through the touch, and after these through the thoughts, death does not master you; but bearing in the body the dying of Jesus, you have the life also manifested in your body, and thus the death from the first-born Adam will pass over you, just as the destruction of the firstborn passed over the houses of the Hebrews. Wherefore the name of the festival for these things is *Pascha*, signifying a "passing over." The sheep is unblemished for you; for Jesus is unblemished for you, *who*, he says, *did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth*. A perfect male. For the perfection of justice is with the one true King. And the yearling sheep is a type of the eternal Christ. For a year is a symbol of the ages, the same being many times revolved in every age, and having all transformations in itself, a type of the new man, in whom the old of our humanity has been transformed into newness; *For put on*, he says, *the new man* (Ephes. 4. 24). Having put on the innocence and perfection of the sheep, you shall be a sheep of God, and you yourself having presented your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, according to the Apostle, and you shall be sent forward to eternal life (Rom. 12. 1).
2. You see that your Passover has no comparison to the Jewish one, but that the other had only its shadow-like likeness. And Israel was a child at the sacrifice of the sheep, thinking this to be sought after by God, and imagining through this to have received salvation, and not seeing it as a type of the sacrifice that truly saves. Therefore, it is said by God to them through Jeremiah, that *I did not command you regarding sacrifices* (Jer. 7. 22). And there is no lie with God, that He should say He did not command after having commanded. But the power of the matter is revealed, that the sacrifice was performed prophetically and as a pre-announcement of Christ. And God, commanding to sacrifice a sheep, revealed Christ who was to be sacrificed, and typified all the things concerning the sheep toward Christ; of which you have already seen some, and behold the subsequent ones according to your ability. A Upon every Hebrew house there is one, self-sufficient sheep, and no portion of the meat is carried out of the house in which it is sacrificed. For upon every Church and soul, Christ is whole, everywhere, and is not partial. Wherefore, while the sheep were many there in each house, Christ is one in every soul, the same. The sheep is held on the property for five days, from the tenth until the fourteenth; then it is sacrificed on the fourteenth toward evening by the synagogue of the Jews. Five intervals of time are signified by these five days from Adam until the consummation: one until Noah, the second from then until Abraham, the third at Moses, the fourth from Moses until the presence of Christ, the fifth the present time of the presence. And it is sacrificed toward evening, because at the end of the age Israel conspired against Christ by the whole synagogue. The sacrifice of Christ was practiced from the beginning in the constant sufferings of the righteous from Abel the righteous, and Christ was the one suffering in all; but it was accomplished when the divine lamb Himself, being present, suffered through Himself. And indeed, on the fourteenth of the same month He suffered, and He delivered up His spirit toward evening, and according to this type is this, that the sheep is taken from the tenth for the sacrifice.
fourteenth of the same month He suffered, and He delivered up His spirit toward evening, and according to this type it was ordained that the sheep should be taken from the tenth for the sacrifice, and be immolated on the fourteenth day toward evening; because from the beginning of the Passion the counsel had been fixed, yet in the end the Passion itself took place. A Next, consider for me the precept of God concerning the eating of the lamb, how new and stupendous it is: *You shall not eat the flesh of the lamb raw.* For who would eat raw meat? Let it be said, not roasted, that they might not delay: for time was pressing; but what is this, *not raw, but cooked with fire*? No one forbids that which is never done. But, as I have said, the things themselves are signified through types. He brings forth raw holy food who has an idle faith; he who is voluptuous, who flows away in the sloth of life, brings it forth roasted. It is the strenuous work of faith to accomplish the matter in a burning and fervent spirit. You are commanded to eat the head with the feet and the inwards. From the head, recognize Christ, because He is God before the ages, the head of the invisible and spiritual Church; from the feet, likewise, because as a man He arrived on earth in the last ages; from the inwards also, because having secret virtue and justice in the flesh, He is useful and salutary to those who participate, not only from the exterior things which are perceived by the eyes, but also according to the interior and hidden things. B Moreover, the meats are eaten by night, and nothing is left until the day. For there is a commemoration of Christ’s Passion in the time of the night of this world, after which the day shall shine and the life of Christ shall appear. According to that saying, *The night is far spent, the day is at hand* (Rom. XIII, 12). *No one broke His bones*: for the executioners did not break the legs of Christ, although the bones of those crucified with Him were broken, as the evangelist testifies (John XIX, 33). The bitter herbs, which were eaten with the lamb, indicated the bitterness of tribulations; the unleavened bread, the simplicity and sincerity, as Paul says; that is, the new virtue cannot be mixed with the old iniquity. It remains for you to explore and imitate spiritually the habit of those eating the Pascha: for in the spiritual sense, a bodily habit will be found. It is no empty thing, but a salutary work to gird your loins—not with a corporeal girdle, but the loins of your soul with preparation. C In like manner, shoe your feet in the preparation of the Gospel, according to the Apostle (Ephes. VI, 15). Have a staff in your hands, not of wood, but faith supporting you. That whole habit was of travelers, namely of those who were hastening to come out of Egypt; do you imitate this better, as one hastening to the exit from the world and from corruption. Let there be zeal, and no sloth in the spiritual eating of the lamb. Here is the best diligence, not such as might express the voracity of those eating meat, but such as exhibits the divine love of those who hasten from the world to God. Unleavened bread was eaten for seven days; that is, let sincerity prevail through your whole life. For through seven days the whole of time is multiplied. And he who has leaven shall be exterminated. For the iniquity of the old man is pernicious, nor can it be mixed with the justice and holiness of the new man. And you see that it was just that it should be brought in for the sake of the corruption of leaven, but for the common leaven of bread, God would not be seen to be justly indignant. D For justice is not detected in types, but it shines and is recognized in the truth of the thing; just as that unction of blood, which is seen to be unworthy of God, is removed when the figure is viewed according to the truth of the thing. For it would be indecorous for God to be in need of blood to recognize the houses of the Hebrews; but it is most convenient to Him that we should be recognized by Him through faith in the blood of Christ and obtain salvation. Again, it would be indecorous to understand that which concerns circumcision simply, as if God had seriously ordered that he who is about to eat the Pascha should be circumcised, if he were not already circumcised, and thus approach the eating? But if you know the spiritual virtue of circumcision, you will see the mystery, and you will glorify God. The circumcision was of the genital member. From birth, O man, you had a covering, which you needed to remove, that with uncovered face you might see the truth, and not look upon it under a terrestrial covering of the body. For when you have been denuded of the carnal body, you approach Christ as a spirit, and adhering to the Lord you become one spirit through the sacred and salutary participation, which the eating of the flesh indicated. Circumcise and strip off the body after Christ according to Paul, who says: *You are circumcised with circumcision not made by hand, in the stripping off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ* (Col. II, 11): and thus, circumcised from all avarice, the love of vain glory and pleasure, you fill yourself with divine food, which may lead you to heaven, free you from evil masters, rescue you from grave labors, and procure for you a glorious and blessed return to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
ON THE SAME SUBJECT. VI.
The rays of Christ, which are already above the light of the sun, are bursting forth, and like pure beacons of the pure Spirit, they open the treasures of the glory of the celestial and royal divinity. Much and dark night has been absorbed, and hateful death has been obscured; life is opened to all, and all things are filled with perennial light, and the rising of the rising ones prevails over all: and He who was born before the morning star, immortal and great, Christ shines for all more than the sun. And therefore a long and eternal day is present to us who believe in Him, bright, a mystical Pascha, celebrated indeed figuratively through the Law; a Pascha, a marvelous work of divine virtue and power; truly a feast and a legitimate, everlasting memorial: from passion, impassibility; from death, immortality; from youth, life; from a wound, a remedy; from a fall, an erecting; from a descent, an ascent. Thus God works great things; thus from impossibilities He creates stupendous things, that it may be shown that He alone, willing it, can do all things. Let the Law announce these figures, let the angel interpret the images of truth beforehand, preaching the great coming of the great King: where the people of the Egyptian first-born were dead, and Israel was saved by mystical blood. All these things are a shadow of things to come: but with us are the forms of images, and the complements of types, and the firm and exact truth in place of the shadow. There, a lamb from the herd; here, the Lamb from the heavens: there, a sign of blood, which in a minor affair may preserve the whole; here, the Word, a cup full of divine blood and spirit: there, a lamb from the herd; here, the Pastor Himself for the lamb. For *As a sheep He was led to the slaughter* (Isai. LIII, 7). How therefore do they profess the whole salvation? And only the figures are salutary. Let the heavens celebrate the feast, as the divine Spirit cries, declaring the glory of God: let the angels and archangels of the heavens likewise celebrate, let all the celestial people celebrate, seeing the supreme Leader of the heavenly host arriving corporally as bishop: let the choirs of stars celebrate, indicating Him who rises before the morning star: let the air, extended into the immense depth and breadth, celebrate: let the salt-water of the sea celebrate, honored by divine footsteps and tracks: let the earth celebrate, washed by divine blood: let every human soul celebrate, restored into new generation through the resurrection. This Pascha, the common celebration of all, accomplished in the world by the Father’s will, the mission of Christ, the divine rising upon the earth, the sempiternal solemnity of angels and archangels, the immortal life of the whole world, the destruction of death, the salutary fountain, the incorrupt delights of men, the celestial, sacred initiation which interprets the old and new mysteries, which are seen by the eyes on earth, but are understood in the heavens by those who have received these new things with sacred knowledge: this I have explained in a few words. Such is the public solemnity of the Pascha. But that I may explain to you...