A 3. But come, let us explain the divine feast in detail, as much as we are able. The true Pascha is how God, having adorned the sacred Pascha in Himself and through Himself, has granted them to us as an indulgence for humanity—so may we not be completely led astray. Let us speak, resuming from the beginning. First it is said: *This month is the beginning of months*. Why is the month of the Pascha the first of the months of the year? There is a secret Hebrew tradition that this is the time when the Lord of times and the Creator, God, created the universe; and that this was the first bloom of creation, the beauty of the world, when the Creator saw the whole shining image being moved and adorned in the mind, by that right order of the heavens, by the well-ordered seasons, by the right course of the sun, by the rising light not yet diminished, and already adorned with the birth of fruits, the fructification of plants, the recurring flowers of trees, the birth of flocks: when the whole earth blooms and germinates, and the flowering trees already provide the fruits they are carrying: when the farmer releases the yokes from the plow, and gives rest to the chariot of the lowing oxen, and after he has cast divine fruits into the earth, he receives the heavenly fountains and rains: when the shepherd is already milking the white milk: when the bee forms sweet honeycombs and wax: when the sailor now dares to venture upon the wide sea, and for the love of gain boldly confronts the dangers of the waves: and that this harmonious fitting-together of all things, and the good order of all, and, so to speak, this benevolence, is the beginning, namely the sweet pleasure of spring. Regarding these words, I would not find it difficult to believe, indeed I opine—or rather, I believe—that by the spiritual solemnity of the Pascha, the beginning, the head, and as it were the leader of all time is understood, and that this is the month of the Pascha, in which that great mystery is fulfilled and celebrated; so that just as the Lord of all intelligible and invisible things is the firstborn from the beginning, so also this month, which is honored by the sacred initiation, might be the first in the year, and the beginning of every age. This year, moreover, is the one which divine Scripture proclaims: *To preach the acceptable year of the Lord* (Luke 4:19). The lamb is the sacred victim. For He says: *He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent* (Acts 8:32). And John: *Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world* (John 1:29). It looks for a perfect lamb, and a yearling, as perfect as it is held to be upon the earth. A year takes for itself the measure of time on earth, the year revolves in itself, and by that revolution it imitates the immeasurable age. Moreover, the tenth of the month is taken, and that quite symbolically: for the Law differs from the Gospel. For the chief dogma of the Law is the decalogue: but after the ten precepts of the Law, then the mystical Lamb comes from heaven. It is kept through certain intermediate days, by which Scripture indicates that time up until the passion, when the Savior, having been apprehended, was detained in the house of the high priest. But he who is taken as neighbor to eat the lamb, I am. For by you, O Israel, the lamb was not taken. Furthermore, the lamb is indeed slaughtered toward evening. For toward the setting sun the sacred lamb is sacrificed. But the whole multitude of the synagogue of the sons of Israel slaughter it. For the incredulous Israel has been rendered guilty of this venerable blood: for the same people once killed, and the same now does not believe. Therefore the divine Spirit testifies and cries out against them: *Your hands are full of blood* (Isa. 1:15). But the blood is for a sign of the seal of Christ; it is my mystery. Yet the sign then was not the truth, but a sign of the truth to come. For as many as have the sign of blood upon their souls, as it was commanded to be imprinted and anointed according to the law in the houses, the destructive plague will pass over all these. *In which houses,* He says, *I shall see the blood, I will cover you, and there shall not be among you a plague that ruins you, when I strike in the land of Egypt* (Exod. 12:13). The blood, therefore, as a sign for protection: but in the houses, as in the souls. For the soul becomes a sacred habitation from the divine Spirit and from faith. By this, those who believe are covered. The Pascha is such a mystery throughout the whole world.
B Now, as we explain the initiation in detail—for how the matter truly stands, God the Word knows, who adorned the sacred Pascha in Himself and through Himself: but for us, as humans, pardon must be granted if we do not attain everything, and if we stumble. Let us speak, however, resuming the first points. First it is said: *This month is the beginning of months*. Why is the month of the Pascha the first of the months of the year? It is an arcane discourse of the Hebrews, that this is the time in which the Lord of the seasons and the Creator, God, created the universe; and that this was the first flower of creation, the beauty of the world, when the Creator saw the whole shining image in His mind move harmoniously, and be adorned with that right order of the heavens, with the good order of the seasons, with the right course of the sun, with the rising light not yet diminished, and already adorned with the sprouting of fruits, the fructification of plants, the recurring blossoms of trees, the births of flocks: when the whole earth blooms and germinates, and the flowering trees are already giving birth to the fruits they carry: when the farmer releases the yokes from the plow, and gives rest to the chariot of the lowing oxen, and after he has cast divine fruits into the earth, he receives the heavenly fountains and rains: when the shepherd is already milking the white milk: when the bee forms sweet favi and wax: when the sailor now dares to try the wide sea, and for the love of gain boldly engages in the dangers of the waves: and that this harmonious fitting-together of all things, and the good order of all, and, if I may so speak, this benevolence, is the beginning, namely the sweet pleasure of spring. But I, for my part, would not find it difficult to believe these words, but I opine, or rather, I believe, that by the spiritual solemnity of the Pascha, the beginning, the head, and as it were the leader of all time is understood, and that this is the month of the Pascha, in which that great mystery is consummated and celebrated; so that just as the Lord of all intelligible and invisible things is the firstborn from the beginning; thus also this month, which is honored with the sacred initiation, might be the first in the year, and the beginning of every age. This year, moreover, is the one which divine Scripture proclaims: *To preach the acceptable year of the Lord* (Luke 4:19). The lamb is the sacred victim. For He says, *He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent* (Acts 8:32). And John: *Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world* (John 1:29). Now it seeks a perfect lamb and one of a year, perfect as it is held to be upon the earth. It takes to itself the measure of time on earth, the year revolves in itself, and by that revolution it imitates the immeasurable age. Moreover, the tenth of the month is taken, and that quite symbolically: for the Law differs from the Gospel. For the chief dogma of the Law is the decalogue: but after the ten precepts of the Law, then the mystical lamb comes from heaven. Now it is kept through certain intermediate days, by which Scripture indicates that time up until the passion, when the Savior, having been apprehended, was detained in the house of the high priest. But he who is assumed as neighbor to eat the lamb, I am. For by you, O Israel, the lamb was not taken. Furthermore, the lamb is sacrificed toward evening. For toward the setting sun the sacred lamb is slaughtered. But the whole multitude of the synagogue of the sons of Israel slaughter it. For the incredulous Israel has been rendered guilty of this venerable blood: for the same people once killed, and the same now does not believe. Therefore the divine Spirit testifies and cries out against them: *Your hands are full of blood* (Isa. 1:15). And on the two doorposts, as on the two peoples. For it does not satisfy the Savior, O Israel, that He was sent to you first: for I was not sent, He says, to you, but to the sheep which perished of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24). But I, as a little dog, sat at the alien table, when I could not yet eat bread, but as a parasite collected the falling crumbs. But because you did not know the manna from heaven, in me the bread was translated through faith, and in place of a dog I have been made a son, and I eat meat. For the light of the world is killed in the great body of Christ. *Take, eat, this is my body* (Matt. 26:26). Meat roasted by fire. For the rational body of Christ is fiery. *I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I wish if it be already kindled?* (Luke 12:49). Roasted C generally, useful, acceptable: not roasted in water; lest it be moist, watery, or dissolved. The head with the feet and the entrails. The beginning and the middle, as it were an invisible counsel; the feet as a man. The head with the feet and the entrails: the beginning and the middle and the end: it contains, constricts, and conglutinates all things in itself with indissoluble bonds, truly having been made the mediator of God and men. The head with the feet and the entrails. With height, depth, breadth, which are the roots of the earth. The head with the feet and the entrails. The Law, the Word, so also the counsel. *How beautiful are the feet of those preaching good things* (Isa. 52:7). *And you shall not break a bone of it* (Exod. 12:46); so that the resurrection with the body may be known. For, *Put,* He says, *your fingers into the fixings of the nails* (John 20:27), so that you may know, *that spirit has not flesh and bones* (Luke 24:39). Unleavened bread with bitter herbs. For bitter is that which is for you, and its mysteries are of bitter works. Your land is desert, your cities are burned with fire, strangers eat your land before you, and it is desert, subverted by foreign peoples. *You shall eat the Pascha with haste* (Isa. 1:7). For it is necessary that he who is about to approach such a great body must be vigilant and awake. Your loins girded. Let the genital and dissolute fluxes of the flesh cease, and sordid pleasures. Your sandals on your feet: so that the steps may be straight, and the supports firm: for they are the roots of truth. Your sandals on your feet: which Moses indeed removed, Jesus truly bound. For, *Remove,* He says, *the sandal of your feet* (Exod. 3:5), so that it might be shown that the Law was about to pass away. *Whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loosen* (Luke 3:16), so that it might be shown that the Word was constricted on all sides. Your staves in your hands: signs of divine virtue, supports of rational fortitude. A rod through Moses, a rod through Aaron, a hazel rod, the rod by which He divides the depths of the sea, which rendered the bitterness of the fountains sweet, the rod upon which the seven spirits of the holy God have rested: *The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of the fear of God will fill him* (Isa. 11:2).
A This Pascha, the Lord’s Pascha, the Spirit has proclaimed! For this is not a Pascha of shadow or history or type, but truly the Pascha of the Lord. And the blood is for a sign, and the sign is of the future truth, the archetype of the true Spirit, the imitation of the great anointing. *And I shall see the blood and I shall cover you.* You have truly covered us, Jesus, from the destruction, and you have stretched forth your fatherly hands; you have sheltered us within your fatherly wings, shedding divine blood upon the earth through your bloody and philanthropic offerings. And you have warded off the threats of wrath from us, and have granted us the first reconciliations from above. Those people, then, let them eat unleavened bread for seven days, contemplating the weekly period of the world and eating the food ordained on earth. But for us, Christ is our sacrificed Pascha, and we have received the new lump of his holy blending, having been entirely leavened and mixed by his Spirit. For I have leavened the kingdom of heaven itself with the blended dough, corresponding to three measures of fine flour. For this reason, this is the Pascha. B *The foreigner shall not eat of it* (Exod. 12:43). For I do not cast pearls before swine, nor do I give what is holy to the dogs. But he who formerly served in sins, his heart shall be circumcised, and freed from bitter slavery, he will thus approach the mystery with nobility; and then, with freedom, he will eat the Pascha freely. For Christ has redeemed us from slavery and the curse, having become a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).
§ In one house it shall be eaten, and you shall not take any of the meat outside (Exod. 12:46). For there is one assembly and one house, that is, the one Church, in which the holy body of Christ is eaten; and for this reason the flesh shall not be cast outside the one house of the Church. But he who eats elsewhere shall be punished as a thief and a transgressor. *One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger* (Exod. 12:49). Where Christ is, there is freedom for all, equality of speech, and equal law; all have been bought with precious blood. For this reason, you are no longer a slave, no longer a Jew, but free; for we have all become free in Christ. For listen, indeed listen, after the types and the legal economy, who and how great He is after the arrival of Christ upon earth. What is the arrival of Christ? It is the flight from slavery, the relief from ancient necessity, the honor of adoption, the source of the remission of sins, truly immortal life in all things. Seeing us from above being tyrannized by death and loosed in the bonds of corruption, flowing along the necessary and irrevocable path, He came and took [the initiative] regarding the first creation in the fatherly counsels; He did not entrust the ministry for us to angels or archangels, but the Word Himself undertook the entire struggle for us, being obedient to the fatherly commands. And since the divine Spirit was inaccessible and unmixed for all, so that He might not consume everyone through the unblended incursions of the Spirit, He Himself willingly gathered and collected Himself, and came as much as He willed, not being diminished in Himself, nor lessened, nor spent in glory, C but by the excess of fatherly power, He did not lose what He possessed, and He added what He did not have. He came as much as it was destined to be contained. And because it was necessary that there be a certain vessel for the divine Spirit, so that the first of human nature and substance might participate, having filtered and numbered it, as much as was superfluous and muddy He cast away and separated; but as much as was pure and clear and sincere, having illumined and flashed upon and shone upon and fired and kept chaste and—so to speak—declared, He was formed bodily into the human image, having a spiritual rising, but receiving a bodily form. Therefore the Scripture has noted Him most mystically: *For behold, it says, a man, whose name is the Rising* (Zech. 6:12); a rising as in spirit, but a man as in body. *For the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy thing that is born will be called the Son of the Most High* (Luke 1:35).
And the birth being paradoxical and divine, the Spirit has rightly marveled, saying: *Who shall describe his generation?* (Isa. 53:8). And there being four ruling names of the Godhead, through which the divine Spirit is especially believed—lordship and godhead, sonship and eternal kingdom—you see that He was honored to receive not only these virtues and glories. And first, behold Him as the Lord. *The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand* (Ps. 109:1). Do you see His Lord from the Lord? Behold also His Son. *He shall call me Father, and I will make him my firstborn* (Ps. 88:27-28); and, *You are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance* (Ps. 2:7-8). Do you see Him as Son and firstborn and only-begotten? Behold also the God. *Tall men shall pass over to you, and in you they shall pray, and in you they shall worship, and they shall follow bound in fetters. For you are God, because God is in you* (Isa. 45:14). Have you seen His God? Behold also His eternal King. *Your throne, O God, is for the age of the age; a rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom. You loved righteousness and hated injustice. Therefore God has anointed you, your God, with the oil of gladness above your companions* (Ps. 44:7-8). Have you seen His King? Behold with the King also the Lord of hosts. *Lift up your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory* (Ps. 23:7-10). Do you see His Lord of hosts with the King? Behold, moreover, also the eternal High Priest. *The Lord has sworn and will not repent: You are a priest forever* (Ps. 109:4). And if He is Lord, and God, and Son, and King, and Lord of hosts, and eternal High Priest, when He wills, He is also man. And who shall know Him? D That He is man is clear, and pre-existently so, because He is also God. And so that one might not think, according to the opinions of men, that a phantom or spirit happened to be present upon the earth automatically and without birth, hear also of Him becoming a child. *Hear now, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to provide a struggle for men? And how do you provide a struggle for the Lord? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel* (Isa. 7:13, 14). And they will wish, if they had become burnt with fire. *For a child is born to us, on whose shoulder the government rests; and his name is called the Angel of great counsel, Wonderful counselor, God the Mighty. Prince of peace, Father of the age to come* (Isa. 9:5, 6). That this great Jesus is God and man who has come to us, let no one disbelieve. The ruling [Spirit] was contained by a human body. For Adam also contained the first mystical breath of the Father, being in the earth and clay; for the divine Spirit is not harmed by being conjoined to the body by the counsel of God. If the first dust contained the holy Spirit, an ensouled body contained the immortal life of Christ. Therefore, if the Spirit alone had visited [the world] enslaved to sin and death, the great arrival of the body would have been superfluous, with neither sin nor death having been conquered. But it was necessary that sin also be destroyed. And for this reason He Himself *committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth* (1 Pet. 2:22). He Himself, therefore, clothed Himself in that first poor and mortal body. For this reason the Spirit also cries out concerning Him: *He has no form or glory, and we saw him, and he had no form or beauty; but his form was dishonored, failing beside the sons of men* (Isa. 53:2). *For in the likeness of the flesh of sin, without sin, he condemned sin* (Rom. 8:3), showing that *those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick* (Matt. 9:12). He therefore healed our bodies from their infirmities, and cured the individual diseases by the authority of power, so that it might be fulfilled: *I, the Lord God, have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your right hand, and I will establish you as a covenant of my people, for a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to lead the prisoners out of darkness* (Isa. 42:6-8). *Hear, O deaf, and look, O blind* (Isa. 42:18). *Then the lame shall leap, and the dumb shall be and [the] tongue of the stammerers shall be clear* (ibid., v. 18; cf. v. 35:6). For since malice was destroyed in part, the final enemy, death, is destroyed into victory, where is death, your sting (1 Cor. 15:54)?