and of that blood, by comparison it raised to a higher level the blood which is truly superior. For it says: "But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Hebr. 12. 22-24). For the one speaks as an intercessor for sinners, and brings propitiation to the world. For the blood of Christ is the sprinkling of the inhabited world; the blood of Christ is the ransom of men. It is better, he says, than that of Abel, in the sense that the one intercedes, while the other acts as an advocate. Furthermore, the blood of Abel had a likeness to the blood of the Master in this manner: Adam, having sinned, fell under the curse of death: "Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return" (Gen. 3. 19). He accepted the sentence; Abel, having become righteous and not having fallen into transgressions, but having also been testified to by the divine vote, lived his life honorably. Then the fratricide Cain, having opened the gates of death, caused a bad thoroughfare for death to come to pass, or rather a good one. For observe the philanthropy of God. The condemned were not yet dead, neither Adam nor Eve; Abel not having sinned, first A
ON HOLY AND GREAT FRIDAY, ON THE HOLY PASSION OF THE LORD.
I wish today to fulfill the debt of yesterday's promise, beloved. But I seek the point where we left off; we were saying that the Jews took counsel against Jesus, how they might destroy him. And when they were gathered together B for the same purpose, behold Judas came to them and said to them: "What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" (Matt. 26. 15). And they arose with swords and staves and followed him. And he gave them a sign, saying: "Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast." And when they had come to the place where Jesus was with his disciples, Judas approached and kissed him, saying: "Hail, Rabbi." But the Lord said to him: "Friend, wherefore art thou come? That which thou art come to do, do." O treacherous kiss, full of iniquity and destruction! O bitter kiss, loss of the soul, harbinger of Gehenna! The harlot who kissed the feet of the Lord called back her own soul from the mire; but this man, by kissing, was severed from the book of life. O the philosophy of the woman! O the folly of the disciple! While she was kissing the feet of the Lord, angels were rejoicing and preparing her crown; but when this man kissed, demons rejoiced and were weaving the rope for the noose. "Hail, Rabbi." He rejoices, but thou art mourning because thou wert cast out of the joy. "Hail, Rabbi," and he kissed him. C And they took him and led him to Annas and Caiaphas the high priests. And they sought false witness against him and found none. Then they led him and set him up. And Pilate asked him, saying: "Art thou the king of the Jews?" But the Lord was silent, according to that which is written: "And as a sheep before her shearer is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth" (Isai. 53. 7). Pilate sat judging, and he who is to judge the living and the dead stood by; and the Sun of Justice stood by, and endured. The Lord, therefore, was on trial for the salvation of the world. But Pilate, being persuaded by the very facts that they delivered him up out of envy, taking water, washed his hands, saying: "I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it" (Matt. 27. 24). But Judas, seeing that he was condemned, returned the pieces of silver to the chief priests, saying: "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." And having cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself. And that which was written was fulfilled: "His travail shall return upon his own head, and his iniquity shall come down upon his own pate" (Ps. 7. 17). And Pilate said to the Jews: "I find no cause in him." And wishing to release him, he saith unto them: "It is a custom with you at the feast to release one of the evildoers. Hearken then, and I will release unto you one in whom I find no cause." But they with voices demanded that the murderer be released, but the one who justifies the ungodly, they cried, "Crucify him." Then D having scourged him, Pilate delivered him to be crucified. The Lord was scourged so that he might deliver us from diabolical bonds and whips; he wore a crown of thorns so that he might undo the curse against us. The earth was commanded to bring forth thorns and thistles for us because of the transgression; he wears the crown of thorns upon his head so that he might dissolve the curse against us. He was crucified upon a tree so that he might undo the sin that was brought about through the tree. For because of the tree Satan cast Adam out of paradise, and through the tree the Lord manifested the thief as a citizen of paradise. And the wondrous thing, beloved: on the sixth day the Lord fashioned Adam and on the sixth day he was cast out of paradise. Therefore the Lord also on the sixth day opened paradise and brought in the thief. In the evening Adam was cast out of paradise, having disobeyed the commandment of the Lord; in the evening the thief, having obeyed the voice of the Master, was brought into paradise. When therefore the devil saw that all things happened according to the divine economy, and the signs that occurred on the cross, the sun being darkened, the earth shaking, the veil of the temple being rent, the rocks being split, and himself being mocked, he fled to Hades and says to it: "Woe is me, the wretch! I have been mocked. Help my lowliness; let us close the doors, lest he enter here; secure them with bolts, and with all our might let us resist, so that we may not receive him." Hades ran therefore and locked the doors, and secured them with iron bars. And behold, the Lord comes to Hades, pursuing the devil, and the Powers were running ahead. And behold, the gates were closed, and the Powers called out, saying: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in" (Ps. 23. 9, 10). And Hades says from within, answering: "Who is this King of glory?" And again the Powers say: "The Lord of Hosts, he is the King of glory" (Ps. 23. 10). Hades answering said: "Who is this, of whom ye speak? And if he is such, what does he seek here? Why did he leave heaven and descend here?" And the Powers say: "Because he is the King of glory, he came to bind the one who became a condemned prisoner through rebellion and deliver him to thee, and to pull his soldiers out from thee and to call them back." But Hades, answering, says to the devil: "Three-headed Beelzebub, fallen from the angels, laughing-stock of the saints, weakling, hidden from the light, did I not say to thee: 'Do not fight with him?' See now what I foretold thee; he is present, and what dost thou do, wretch? Why didst thou disobey my words? See, he has come to seek thee and to bind thee, and through thee I am being made a prisoner. Get out, if thou art able, and meet him. For I am not able to help thee." And the devil to him: "Have mercy on me for a while; do not open; sometimes he turns away; for now, strive on my behalf, even if I have been mocked." For who is not mocked by such words of his? For sometimes, fearing death, he was saying: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death"; and sometimes he was offering a supplication to the Father, saying: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." These words baited me. The other, answering, said: "These things I also, the wretch, supposed, that fearing death he was sorrowing. While they were saying these things
[Latin column continues from previous page] with him? Behold, the things I foretold to you are now here. What are you doing, wretch? Why did you not listen to my words? Behold, he comes to seek you and bind you, and on your account I shall be a captive. Escape, if you can, meet him, and resist him. For I am not able to bring you aid." Then the devil said to him: "Pity me for now, do not open; perhaps he will turn away; meanwhile fight for me, even though I have been deceived." For who would not be deceived by words of this kind from him? For sometimes, fearing death, he said, "My soul is sorrowful even unto death"; at other times, he offered supplication to the Father, saying, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matt. 26:38-39). These words snared me. The other replied: "I, too, wretch, suspected these things, that he was affected by sorrow, fearing death." while they were saying these things, the Virtues persisted, saying, "Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, O eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter in." And the prophets, hearing the voice of the King of glory, rejoiced and exulted. John said, "Did I not tell you that he would come to lead us out?" All were rejoicing, and they said to hell: "Open your gates that the King of glory may enter." Hell was unwilling. David the prophet answering said: "Let him be: for it is necessary that my prophecy be fulfilled. For when I was on earth, I foresaw what has happened, namely that he would not open willingly, and I said: 'The Lord breaks the wars, the Lord has broken the brazen gates and smashed the iron bars' (Ps. 106:16). And immediately the Lord approaching, broke the gates, and smashed the bars, trampled the Virtues of hell, and loosed the pains of death, crushed the stings of hell: and that which is written was fulfilled: 'Where is thy victory, O hell? Where is thy sting, O death?' (1 Cor. 15:55). The prophets ran to meet him, rejoicing, exulting, singing hymns and saying: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: hosanna in the highest' (Matt. 21:9)." Then the Lord, taking the devil, bound him with indissoluble chains, and led him down to the lowest parts of hell; and set under him unquenchable fire, immortal worms, and there he is shut up, weeping and gnashing his teeth. The Lord, however, having led all the prophets out of hell, said, "Go into paradise." They indeed exultingly leaped out of hell. David the first, striking his lyre, was saying joyfully: "Come, let us exult in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior" (Ps. 94:1): because our King has conquered for us in the war. And all answered, "Alleluia." And again the same: "All nations, clap your hands, shout to God with a voice of exultation" (Ps. 46:2): because our King has conquered for us in the war. And thus A exaulting they ran into paradise: and having entered there, they found the thief, and were stupefied; and they themselves were saying: "Who led you here? Who opened the gates to you? What have you done, that you have entered here before us? Have you come to steal and plunder what is here? Was it not enough for you to have snatched earthly things, are you now also going to snatch heavenly things? Tell us, who led you here? We do not envy you that you have entered, but we seek the cause." He answered: "I was not worthy to enter here by my own works; but the clement and merciful Lord led me here. I had nothing good with me, for which reason the Jews condemned me to death with the immortal King: and when they wanted to kill me, they rather quickened me by crucifying me with Christ. I saw the signs made on the cross, and understanding him to be the Son of God, I cried out with a loud voice saying: 'Remember me, Lord, when you shall come into your kingdom' (Luke 23:42). And he looking at me said: 'Amen I say to you, this day you shall be with me in paradise.' And he gave me the sign of the cross, saying: 'Taking this, go into paradise, and if the flaming sword forbids you entrance, show him the royal sign, and he will open the gates to you.' I came, and the moment the flaming sword, which guards paradise, saw me, it closed the doors. I however said: 'The King who is now crucified has sent me,' and I showed the sign of the cross, and immediately it opened to me. Having entered, I found no one, and I was stupified in my mind, and I was saying to myself: 'Where are Abraham, Isaac, and the rest of the multitude of holy prophets?' While I was wondering and thinking these things, behold, there appeared to my right side two men aged in days, wondrous in form, and choice in countenance. And they asked me: 'Who are you? You are not Abraham; for his habit was priestly. You are not Moses; for he was of feeble voice and slow of tongue, but your tongue is fluent. Who are you? You seem to be a thief: for your habit smacks of a thief.' And I confessed that I was a thief, and that the Lord of paradise had led me here, because I was a companion to him in the death which he underwent for us. And I said to them: 'Who are you, I pray?' One of them answered me: 'I am Elias the Thesbite, and I was brought here in a fiery chariot, I have not yet seen death; this one who is with me is Enoch, who was translated here by the word of God.'" Hearing these things, the prophets glorified God for such a gift granted to sinners. The Lord, however, who despoiled death, trampled hell, and healed wood with wood, who broke the gates and smashed the bars, and bound the devil, and freed the world, led all into heaven after he had risen from the dead. Therefore let us celebrate the incarnate one, let us glorify the crucified one, let us give thanks to the risen one, so that he may also rescue us from the darkness of our sins, and make us heirs of his kingdom. For to him is due honor and adoration with the Father who is without beginning, and the holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
CONCERNING THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE
The love of money tends toward avarice, but it is healed by almsgiving if it runs toward repentance. The disease of fornication leads to sin, but the mourning of repentance heals it and shows the soul purer than the sun, shining with the virtues of chastity. The inhumanity of robbery is healed when the robber changes his bloody works and cries out to Christ: "Do not deprive me, Christ, of your kingdom," and his soul enters into paradise. The error of idolatry also has its remedy when it faithfully receives Christ proclaimed and renounces the error of iniquity and embraces the grace of pious religion, through baptism which signifies the eternal Trinity in the threefold name of God. The mire of fraternal hatred is washed away when that evangelical oracle is accepted with a good spirit: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God" (Matt. 5:9). Who does not rejoice when he is called a child of God and Father? Because God formed man and by a benign nod sustains the world, and all things yield to his will: out of the excess of his goodness he brought forth visible things from nothing and placed man as the steward of his creatures, so that remaining faithful he might receive the reward of five talents and rule over ten cities, which are mentioned in the Gospels. If, however, anyone is found lazy to whom one talent has been entrusted, and he hides it and does not bring double the price to the master; that is, the spiritual man along with the sensible man; and begins to say: "I feared because you are an austere man" (Luke 19:21), and the remaining ungrateful and wicked words, then that which he has will be taken away from him and he will be cast into the furnace of fire. For this world is in
its own way a shadow-like fantasy, a reed shaken by the wind, smoke raised into the air and vanishing into nothingness. What do you think, O arrogant man, that you possess more than the destitute? Nothing. Do you perhaps see a different heaven, while he is scorched by the ray of the sun? Or when the weather becomes frozen, are you warmed by the sun while he is chilled by the frost? Does he not breathe the air in the same way? Does he not walk upon the same earth? Is he not clothed in the same body? Should you not rather give thanks to God, who has entrusted to you so much that the needy person is not able to measure? I tell you, brother, this ought rather to urge you to humility. For the rich man who is moderate shows his philanthropy, while the poor man—even if he does not wish to—possesses humility. You, therefore, will be shown to be great when you pursue voluntarily that which he pursues by necessity. But if you are not persuaded by these things, hear the Scripture: *God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble* (Prov. 3:34). If you despise even these words, you will be despised by God; then pride, wishing to raise you to a lofty height, intends to lift you up greatly so that it may bring you down more grievously. For what is wealth? Matter transitioning from one to another; for when death enters, it abandons you, but the evils resulting from it never abandon you. See that you do not exalt yourself, being but earth and ashes, lest you fall into the downfall of the Pharisee; know yourself; for even the Lord advises this when saying by the parable: *Two men went up into the temple to pray; one a Pharisee, and the other a publican* (Luke 18:10). Two men went up, but two men did not come down, having completed the same path in a blameless way. And the Pharisee was clearly misled in this. They entered upon one place to pray, and they were not found having exited into one place. The Pharisee ran confidently, while the publican departed trembling; and the one who was running remained [in his sin], but the one who was behind surpassed him. The Pharisee ran to announce his righteous deeds; the publican also hastened to announce his transgressions. They went up to pray; and the one was seen puffing himself up, while the other was shown praying. For the Pharisee thus legislated for himself, saying: I am not a debtor to the injunction of the Law; I am not liable for the things which the prophets enjoined; I have no need of the teaching of Moses, for I have sinned in none of these things; but I go up to pray, fulfilling a debt of custom, which my ancestors performed. Why, therefore, O Pharisee, do you worship the temple for the sake of your ancestors, but do not see the temple for the sake of prayer? Your ancestors faithfully performed their thanksgiving, but you make a spectacle of your thanksgiving, so that your sacrifice might be glorified by men; and that saying of David comes to pass upon you: *Let his prayer be turned into sin, and let another take his office* (Ps. 108:7-8)—that is, the publican. And what of the publican’s acts? He went into the temple condemning himself, calling himself unworthy of prayer. He called himself unworthy; therefore, Christ accepted his intention. He confessed himself a great debtor to sin, but Christ showed him to be reliable in righteousness; He granted him the forgiveness of his faults, and He exchanged his intention; He freed him from sin so that He might enslave him to righteousness. O slavery, through which we flee an evil slavery, and flee for refuge to the freedom of Christ! O slavery, providing a light yoke, and after this possessing and rendering eternal life! O slavery, called bondage in this world, but granting an unending kingdom in the world to come! Let us run to this slavery, brothers, so that we may reap the freedom of our souls. Whenever someone becomes a good slave, then the Lord reveals him as a true son, then He fulfills that saying through the Prophet concerning him: *I said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High* (Ps. 81:6). Blessed are those who are deemed worthy of such honor! Blessed are those who have studied to be delivered from corruption! Blessed are those who through this slavery have gained freedom, and crying out to the freedom with which Christ has redeemed us, we stand having the cross of Christ supporting us. Let us cry out to Christ: Account us, O Good Shepherd, as one of your lost sheep; seek us out in the thoughts of our hearts, and having found us straying and about to be seized by the enemy, gather us into your fold. Account us as one drachma, and having lit the fire of your divinity, search and, having found us, rejoice together with the saints and the angels who dwell with your immaculate divinity. Show us to be like the publican, so that as we pray we may embrace humility, and turn away from pride, and strip off our high-mindedness, the mother of sin, and embrace our self-control, the mother of repentance. Let us cast off the old man with his deeds, and clothe ourselves in the new man with his deeds and his grace; let us groan from the depth of our hearts as we pray, so that we may drive away from us the enemy in the depth of the furnace of hell. For when you groan, he is struck; when you strike your breast, he is wounded; when you receive the blows, he receives the slaughter. For indeed, the publican, striking his breast, smote the Pharisee in return, and rebuked the logic of pride working within him. For the Pharisee stood and prayed thus to himself: *God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican: I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess* (Luke 18:11-12). O Pharisee, you emptied your reward through your boasting! Because of this, you received a vote of condemnation. You say: *I am not as other men are.* He was a human being indeed according to his nature and the fashioning of God, but a brute animal according to the assimilation of pride; a human being as holding the image, but a beast as possessing arrogance. For he placed himself outside the nature of men, he legislated another creation for his own body, he made himself out to be higher than earthly things, he took himself to be greater than every prophet and patriarch. Did you not remember, O Pharisee, the boasting of Elijah who boasted of such things, though not out of conceit, but out of divine zeal, when he said: *Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone* (3 Kings 19:10)? And what was the response to him? *I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.* What then? Since everyone had acted lawlessly, there were seven thousand who had the divine zeal, and were made equal to the prophet, and you cry out, *I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers*? Has no one escaped the filth of greed under heaven, Pharisee? You condemn yourself, you who are condemned by all; you judge against yourself, you who are rejected by God; you crown yourself through boasting, but you lost your crown through condemnation; you praise yourself as sinless, but you were shown to be liable for sin; you proclaim yourself as one who has fulfilled the law, but having touched the law, you insulted the Lawgiver. You cried out your good deeds before all; you changed them into transgressions. The publican, having cried out with his silence, moved the Word of God, whom you provoked by crying out against yourself. You were not ashamed, saying: *I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican*, who is defiled by sins, who is immersed in debaucheries, who has made common the holy place by his entry, who is unworthy praying with me, a worker of all lawlessness. And the name is sufficient as a testimony of his own state; for he is a publican, taxing the works of wickedness by sin. Even if these things are not written in these very words in the immaculate Gospels, yet the scope of pride preserves this manner. O Pharisee, you indeed thought yourself to be of the publican, but Christ inclined to the publican; you treated him contemptuously against yourself, but Christ crowned him before all. First, seeing the publican’s repentance entwined with him, and his groaning from the depth of his heart to heaven, tears straightway pouring forth; Christ was pleased with the publican, for he shook off his shame.
How well did the publican adapt to himself this word of Wisdom: "There is shame that brings sin, and there is shame that brings glory and grace."
A The publican beautifully applied to himself this saying of Wisdom: *There is a shame that bringeth sin* (Eccli. 4:25). This shame he accepted while he lived wickedly. And there is a shame that is glory and grace; this he embraced through his manner of repentance, healing contrary things with contrary things through faith. Imitating a physician, he applied to his body a plaster which, though it might lacerate the flesh, yet cleansed the ulcer, so that when the living body was revealed, he might know the method of cure. He obstructed the channels of his passions by using, as it were, the cauterizing iron of groaning, and he soothed and healed his swollen ulcer with tears; he repressed the wound of the ulcer through the beating of his breast, dried up the fluid flowing from his body into his soul, and offered it to the Creator, cleansed by repentance. But let us hear the rest of the Pharisee’s words: *I fast twice in the sabbath.* He declares his abstinence on the second and sixth days of the week. For the sabbaths are a rest for the Hebrews. *I abstain from luxurious foods, I do not defile my lips with impure eating; I am clothed all around with temperance; I am covered all over with holiness; furthermore, I bring to God the tithes of what I possess.* O tumor breathing insensibility! Was he not acting as if he were bestowing his own food upon God? *I fast twice in the sabbath.* "Lord," he says, "does not fasting commend the precepts of the Law to God? And what men accomplish with labor, I do by design." What, then, does the benevolent Judge, the generous gamester B who crowns the course of repentance, do? He both tolerated the Pharisee vaunting himself and was delighted with the repenting publican. For because the one, with words as if with a violent wind, shook off the fruit of his soul, while the other, crushing himself, did not wait for another accuser, He distributed to each according to his merit: for he dismissed the publican as the accuser of his own crime and free from condemnation; but the Pharisee, who had brought his good deeds into the open, He declared poorer than the publican. To each the measure was appropriate: for the one, his riches were the cause of poverty; to the other, from his riches, poverty was eliminated. For what does the Lord say: *Amen I say to you, this man went down to his house justified rather than that one* (Luc. 18:14). The Pharisee, as if flowering with blossoms, crowned with good deeds, came with the publican, who was bare of all self-defense. The one, humbling himself, was easily exalted; the other, however, lifting himself on high intemperately, underwent a ridiculous nakedness. Would it not have been better to use lowered voices? Would it not have been better to hear the prophetic voice saying: *Be humbled before the Lord, and he will exalt you* (Jac. 4:10)? Would it not have been more useful to restrain the tongue and preserve the riches which he had acquired with much labor? For the virtues which he had collected over time, he dissipated with a word. The Pharisee had not, perhaps, heard that which is written: *Every proud man is impure in the sight of the Lord* (Prov. 16:5); he had not learned that beautifully spoken: *Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth* (Matth. 6:3). Perhaps he knew both, but he was overcome by vainglory. Let us, therefore, acquire the humility of the publican and lay down the burden of our sins; but let us hold in hatred the pride through which the Pharisee lost the riches of his virtues. For *God resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth grace* (Prov. 3:34). To Him be glory and power, now and always, and for ages C of ages. Amen.
UPON THE ENTRY OF THE HOLY FASTS
There has arisen for us today, beloved, the joyful spring of the holy fasts, and it prepares us to run alacritously into this paradise worthy of God, so that we may reap the fruits of temperance and, plucking the flowers of chastity, weave a crown of continence. Again the angelic life calls us to the ancient pleasure, and opens the gates for us to that divine and blessed usufruct. Voluntary fasting offers great confidence before God, which cleanses the body through temperance, but sanctifies the soul through confidence toward God, and through the forgetfulness of all earthly things which it induces, and through the love of celestial things which it brings. Fasting leads its lovers to heaven; it brings it about that we stand near to Christ and have fellowship with the saints. The father of fasting, beloved, is the Law of God; its mother is temperance, patience, virtue; its daughters are exercise, chastity, continence; its sons are Moses, Elijah, Daniel, John the Baptist, and the chorus of the saints, especially those who withdrew into the desert, and the ascetics; its friends are faith, hope, charity; its companions are peace, meekness, concord; its handmaid is the glorification of God, perpetual psalmody, pure prayer; its housemate is the fear of God; the fruits of those who fast assiduously are holiness, incorruption, confidence toward God, the kingdom of heaven, eternal life. Therefore, beloved, those who love fasting, having the Law of God in their hearts, fast sincerely; but the wicked do not fast. And the just indeed fast always, acting piously and meditating upon and fulfilling the Law of God, loving chastity and embracing continence, by which they are rendered free and adhere to Christ. The wicked, however, not only do not fast, but are even filled with every wickedness and satanic operation. Every lasciviousness, impiety, and iniquity is practiced among them; among them are obscene words, immoderate laughter, diabolical modes and habits; among them will be gluttony, drunkenness, and the disturbance of order. For many evils arise indeed from drunkenness. For those who are drunk with wine are darkened in mind, like madmen and those bereft of sense, who are carried hither and thither: they strike from wall to wall, are pushed indecently against those they meet, and fall shamefully to the ground. Therefore, beloved, let us flee this turpitude, and let us fast alacritously with the fear of God, firm in faith, supported by the Law, adorned with temperance, decorated with chastity, tempering our eyes, sanctifying our mind, praying with much patience and a pure heart, laying aside temporal things and attaining the eternal. For whoever fasts sincerely, he imitates Christ; dwelling on earth, he is like the angels, rivals the prophets, is a partaker with the apostles, and is altogether transformed in nature through fasting, becoming just from unjust, good from evil, pious from impious, and thus receives Christ into his inheritance and the treasure of life: which may it be granted to us all to attain, through the grace and benevolence of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power together with the Father, who is without beginning, and the life-quickening Spirit, now and always, and for the ages of ages. Amen.
UPON THE HOLY ASCENSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Still contemplating in my soul the profit produced for men from the cross, and weighing with an equal balance of mind the utility of the resurrection, the inexhaustible riches of the divine Ascension rush in; and I see my Lord and God ascending into the heavens, where D He was before; so that, placing me, who am clay, upon the throne of the unblemished Father, He might seal in fact and deed the words of Paul: *He hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places* (Ephes. 2:6). As many of us, therefore, as have laid aside both the garment and the mind of the first Adam, and bear the second Adam, who is Christ,