...and the gates of heaven were opened, and God appeared as man, and man as God ascended, for whose sake the gates of Hades were shattered, and the adamantine bars were loosed! And the host below, having risen from the dead, brought the good tidings to the hosts above, from which a chorus was returned. O divine Pascha, which did not straiten God from the heavens, and now has joined us spiritually, for whose sake the great bridal chamber of the marriage was filled, and all bear the bridal garments, and no one is cast out as not having the bridal garment! O Pascha, illumination of the new lamp-bearing, adornment of the virginal torches! Wherefore the lamps of souls are no longer extinguished; for divinely and spiritually in all the fire of grace is carried as torches, being supplied in body, and in spirit, and in the oil of Christ. But we beseech Thee, O Lord God, eternal spiritual King Christ, stretch forth Thy great hands over Thy holy Church, and over Thy ever holy people, defending, guarding, preserving, acting as commander, fighting on (our) behalf, and subjecting all the enemies, and conquering even the invisible adversaries, as Thou hast also conquered our foes; raise up even now, O Thou Thyself, the trophies on our behalf, and grant us to sing with Moses the song of victory, for Thine is the glory and the power unto ages of ages. Amen.
ON THE FOLLOWING SERMON
Many of the Latins used to distinguish, and separate Pascha from the day of the Resurrection. Thus Gregory of Tours, where he relates the order from his predecessor Perpetuus, bishop of Tours, shows that the Resurrection of the Lord was celebrated before Pascha in this manner: The sixth of the Kalends of April, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the Basilica of Lord Martin. Pascha, in the Church. The day of the Ascension in the Basilica of Lord Martin. Where our Ruinart notes, p. 531: The feast of Pascha is distinguished from the feast of the Resurrection in the older calendars; where the feast of the Resurrection is recorded on March 27. But Pascha, as all know, on account of the variability of the moon, was always celebrated in the Church. Secondly, from these things which are observed in this sermon, it is likely that among the orthodox Greeks also, a variation sometimes occurred concerning the celebration of Pascha; so that some performed Pascha on one day, others on another, which is proven to have happened also among the Latin Catholics, as is not rarely observed by Gregory of Tours. Thus in Book V, p. 221, "In that year," he says, "there was a doubt about Pascha. But in Gaul, with many cities, we celebrated holy Pascha on the fourteenth of the Kalends of May; others, however, with the Spaniards, held this solemnity on the twelfth of the Kalends of April." Where Ruinart notes: These doubts arose from this, that they followed the older cycle, as had been decreed in the Council of Aurelian IV, Can. I, in the year 541; but the Spaniards followed the Latin canon. See Cointius for the year 539, no. 15. The same thing happened a few years later, according to Gregory, book X, p. 516. It is likely that those variations concerning the day of the celebration of Pascha had occurred in the East as well, which an anonymous writer insinuates, while he himself mentions, in the year in which he published his own sermon, the contradictory opinions on that matter. We have already commemorated this variation of observing Pascha in the first volume of the works of Chrysostom, p. 586, where in the year 587, which is assigned in the common paschal tables to April 25, it is in no way possible to agree with the sayings of Chrysostom on this day, from which it is clear that Pascha had been celebrated at Antioch many days earlier. See there.
ON THE SAME PASCHA, SERMON VII AND LAST
1. Yesterday, brothers, we were speaking somewhat concerning the appointed time of the holy Pascha; and since it seemed that there was some doubt, we indicated in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that long before we were ignorant neither of the doubt nor of the appointed time; and concerning these things it was spoken sufficiently—if indeed you have had the power in memory of the things said; but we are urged to speak today of the cause of the delay. And since such a discourse requires the contemplation of the whole topic regarding Pascha, we wish, if the Lord also wills, to take up the subject again, and as much as possible, to set forth the contemplations of the mystery. And since there is a great onslaught of the adversaries who are ignorant of the nature of the truth, and the heretics appear to have leapt away, and the Jews claim to celebrate Pascha, whereas this mystery belongs to Christians alone, and the celebration of the mystery among us is constituted with accuracy, I wish to make mention briefly of all those things, and to strip away the confusion from our mystery, and thus to speak the thought of each time, as the only-begotten Son of God may grant. For often we have seen some saying: "How is it that the birthday of the Savior is celebrated on a fixed day? For it takes place, as we all know, on the eighth of the Kalends of January according to the Romans; and the Theophany likewise; for these also are performed on a fixed day, the thirteenth of the fourteenth month according to the Asians; and similarly, in celebrating the memory of the martyrs, we adapt the remembrance to a fixed day; but in the case of Pascha, is the rule not so?" Because the mystery is not of one, nor of a simply occurring day, but we take up the many appointed times with examination to bring together into the place for the sake of the unfolding of the contemplation. For we keep first of all the first month truly of the first time, which is known from the vernal equinox. For the first month being first, ought to see the first time, for which it is also called the first month. And again, he who takes up the first time, ought to see the beginning of the first time—not any other than the vernal equinox, as I shall demonstrate further on.
A Since therefore we observe the first time, and the equinox, and moreover the fourteenth day of the moon, and in addition the three days—namely, Preparation Day, Sabbath, and Sunday—and it is impossible for the Pascha to be celebrated if one of these periods of time is lacking, we cannot assign a definitive day for the mystery of Pascha. But by gathering all these periods together, we complete the contemplation of the saving passion.
I wish therefore, before speaking of the contemplation—which is altogether mystical, and of the fourteenth day of the moon (which itself is not void of mystery), and of the three days which have a causal fitness for the end of the mystery—to speak first of the custom held by those outside, the Jews, which they have absurdly pieced together, and then to discern from it the purity of the ecclesiastical mystery. For heretics, even if they establish false positions, are yet to be preferred to these. For the Jews do not observe one definite day for the celebration of Pascha; but they keep the solar month, as they suppose, and the fourteenth day of the moon. When therefore the fourteenth day of the moon happens among them, if the first month has not yet arrived, they postpone this fourteenth day in order to occupy the first solar month; and thus, by a meeting of the first time and the fourteenth day of the moon, they appear to act according to their own pleasure. B You see, therefore, brother, that the Jews do this, and have this in common with us: that they do not seek one day for the celebration, but many times.
The heresy of the "Fourteenth-dayers" is that which celebrates Pascha with the Jews and does the very same thing. The Novatians appear to imitate ours to some extent, in that they serve the time defined by the Jews; they observe the first month and the fourteenth day of the moon as well. But they do not stop their step there: for after they have reached this point, they proceed to the three days, but without any authority and not according to ecclesiastical harmony, as will be shown. There is furthermore another heresy, that of the Montanists, which contends that it does not imitate the Jews, yet it dissents from the Church to its own peril. For it observes the fourteenth day of the first month—that is, according to the Asians, the seventh month—not the fourteenth day of the moon, and I know not whence it received this link. C For the only-begotten Son of God suffered in the Pascha of the Jews, on the fourteenth day of the moon, in the first month; in this, I say, the fourteenth day, in the Pascha of the Jews, Christ suffered. Whence then does this execrable heresy derive the fourteenth day from the solar month, and not from the lunar, unless by the guidance of a deceiving demon? Though it has indeed fallen away from the ecclesiastical number, it nevertheless arrives at the three days in its own way. But let this be dismissed.
Since I have thus taught that every heresy strives to observe a definite time, whether more or less, I will undertake at last to refute the Jews and then explain the cause of the Christian assembly. The definite time of the Passion stands in the Church: the vernal equinox, the fourteenth day of the moon, and the three days—namely, Preparation Day, Sabbath, Sunday. We use these to determine the day; and thus it properly happens in its own time. We follow no other novelty, but the tradition of Moses himself, namely, holding to the fourteenth day after the equinox. I have wise Hebrews as witnesses. D For we ought not to pay attention to the folly of the Jews of this time, since they have trampled underfoot all the established laws of the Law; but we ought to listen to the wise Hebrews narrating, and their calculation must necessarily be used, and the others must be rejected as transgressors, and our statements confirmed, which are supported by such testimonies. For the Jews have cast out all good things: they immediately rejected the Scriptures of the seventy-two wise interpreters. For such were those Jews who applied themselves to the composing of such a work; ancient men, that is, who were chosen by the best before the arrival of the Savior, for the interpretation of the Scriptures, which at that time, written in Hebrew characters, were in the best state. That interpretation was approved then, and curses were pronounced by all the Hebrews upon anyone who would change this interpretation. We therefore observe these Scriptures, hearing Moses saying: *At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand* (Deut. XIX, 15). We gladly accept the version not of two, but of seventy-two witnesses. But as long as the wise men of the Jews were the survivors, that version had force; but after the wicked crime perpetrated against the Savior, all good things were extinguished among the Jews. The Prophet is he who proclaims: *Behold, the Lord of Sabaoth shall take away from Jerusalem and from Judea the mighty and the strong, the strength of bread and the strength of water, the giant and the strong man and the man of war, and the judge, and the prophet, and the soothsayer, and the elder, and the wise architect, and the prudent listener, and He will set young men as their princes, and mockers shall rule over them* (Is. III, 1-4). This prophetic oracle humbled the multitude of the Jews, and as there was no prudence, and no prophet to teach saving truths, they eliminated the traditions of their wise men, and finally the laws were endangered. As therefore they changed the Scriptures and despised the interpretation of their wise men, having confidence in the interpretation of a certain proselyte, they perverted the defined time of Pascha in contempt of so many men and of their own curses.
A For if motion had possessed irregularity, the creation ought to have displayed equality. But I wish to demonstrate this from Scripture. In the beginning, he says, God made the heaven and the earth. Then he adds that there was darkness, and light was not yet. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God divided between the light and the darkness, and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. You have the first day and the first night. For what? How did he say, “And God divided between the light and the darkness,” which he ordered into night? For "between" implies the two extremes. Since all things that God created, he created in a defined nature, he reasonably produced the first day and the first night in a defined and equal encircling; and having finished the measure, he saw that it was very good; then, as I have already said, he left the irregularity henceforth to be produced by motion. If, however, the first state was in equality, then the equinox became the beginning of the first time, as has been proven. Then after the equinox (observe what I say) on the fourth day the sun and moon come into being. The equinox of the equinox are these luminaries. On the sixth day he molds man; and then on the seventh he rests from all his works. On the following day, which is also the first, as if it were finished, he left the universe to be carried in order. Keep this in mind, and with your memory present, you will be able to appreciate the sense of the interpretation.
God thus made man, and as a good God, he made man so great and such a being. Do not look, then, at his later state, but imagine his first condition. For he made him in his own image. And to show his nature competing with the stars, he signifies that he placed him naked in paradise, not needing clothing; for insult had not yet been joined to the vision, so that man should need a covering. But Scripture testifies that God made man, and put him in paradise, and that they were naked, and were not ashamed. But as the sun and moon decorate themselves with their own nakedness, so also these were allowed to be beautified by natural comeliness. Having, therefore, bestowed such a benefit upon him, and having established him in luxury in paradise, and having richly imparted grace to him, God sought out his own perception according to justice, and taught him to honor grace through obedience. And since God saw that it was impossible for the gift to be preserved by him unless he took refuge in the honor shown to the God who gave it, he defined a law as a guardian of his nature, so that by memory and the help of the lawgiver, he might be preserved as if by some good medicines; and he promised immortality if the law were kept, but death if he transgressed. But while these things were so, what transpired came to pass, and the man, persuaded by the envy of the devil to transgress the law, becomes corruptible; and he is set outside of paradise; and henceforth, given over to the multitude, he lived a beastly life, and became a vessel of atheism and licentiousness. And for this reason the prophets cried out, both about his former worth and his subsequent unworthiness. "Man being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless cattle and became like them" (Ps. 48:13).
Since these things were so and nature was perishing, the only-begotten Son of God, desiring with the Father’s counsel to bring man back and to snatch him from the pending judgment, devised the time and the manner of help; the time, B so that he might arrive at the right moment for the cure; the manner, so that he himself might be suitable for the restoration of the cleansing. And having become man, while remaining God, he underwent the universal Passion. I have spoken often about this victim. I said much beforehand, making my proofs from the Jews themselves to the Jews, and from the Greeks themselves to the Greeks, and showing that this slaughter is a deterrent and destroyer of demons and dangers and enemies and all obscenity for the affairs of life; so that, not taking up the argument against them again, I might not hinder myself with regard to the sequence of the discourse before me. Since, therefore, the only-begotten Son of God desired to procure resurrection for the fallen man, and to renew him, and to restore him by his own passion to the first state, see what he does: Since he himself was the creator of the first man, he was destined to be his healer for the correction of the whole nature. He offers himself to the passion, and takes up the whole time for the renewal, which he also took up for the creation; so that the end might appear in harmony with the beginning, and the manner of the Creator be the same. For he was concerned, since he had established the cleanest time for the molding of the first man, and this first time was stained by the transgression, having perished together with the transgressor, and having henceforth shown the following age to be stained, he took up that same first time for the achievement of man; so that with this, through the cleansing from the passion, he might show the following age to be cleaner from the beginning, so that in the same [act] he might show everything, both the renewal of man, and the cleanliness of the age, and clearly prove himself the corrector and creator of nature from these very symbols of time.
3. What then is the first time? What is the summit of the first time? The equinox, brother, as we have shown, demanding equal sections of day and night, and the vernal equinox; whence the naming of spring [comes] from the very sequence according to history. Moses records, therefore, that on the third day God ordered flowers and trees and herbs to be; these are symbols of spring, corresponding to the art, way, and order of God creating all things. Since, therefore, the first creation of man took place after the equinox on the sixth day from the equinox (for man was created on the day of preparation, and the full moon was also created after the equinox on the fourth day, and the fall from the sin of man happened), for this reason he takes up his correction and renewal upon the deadline of his creation, and bringing together the equinox, and the fourteenth [day] after the equinox, and the sixth day, so that through all deadlines he might show the resurrection of the sufferer, and the renewal and recapitulation of nature. For this reason the Apostle, signifying this recapitulation being accomplished by God, said: *In all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him for the dispensation of the fullness of the times, to recapitulate all things in Christ, both those in the heavens and those on earth* (Ephes. 1:8-10). Do you see how he speaks of the recapitulation of things on earth toward the heavenly? Since the fall of man had happened and a separation from the piety of the heavenly angels, the one who provides for us desiring to lead [us] back to this through the passion, what else is he dealing with than the recapitulation of good things? Therefore he also takes up the times of creation for the correction, and you have a mystery to hear, a great one. For since these times with difficulty coincide according to the first manner into one and the same week (take note that that first week according to the creation, I say, had in it the equinox at the beginning, then the full moon existing according to the fourth day, and the sixth directly, in which man was molded; not that this can always happen according to one and the same week) — since it was difficult and hard to obtain in one week according to the first creation to gather these [deadlines] into one, so that the Savior needed the concurrence of these for the economy of the passion, so that he might show the proposed recapitulation; therefore, being often sought by the Jews to be killed, he fled, lest the concurrence of the times should be lost. And you have it in the Gospels, that the Jews wanted to seize him, and the Savior withdrew. And those who are ignorant of the mystery thought this was cowardice. But it was not cowardice, but a watching of the concurrence of the deadlines. But when the Son of God brought the times together, when he joined the week to the ancient creation, and the equinox and the full moon and the day of preparation, in which he had to suffer, when the renewal was shown to be concurrent, then he gives himself...
A to the passion. Lifting his eyes to B heaven, he said, "Father, the hour has come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee" (John 17:1). "And now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12:31). So the Only-begotten Son of God took care to gather together all those previous times in which the formed man had fallen, in order to repair him and to undergo the apostolic renewal of nature, for the reason that the concurrence of times was necessary for this matter. Therefore, at the passion, the equinox, as the head of time, is observed. For before that equinox, before there was a day, there were darknesses; and it would not have been worthy during that time of darkness to suffer and to repair the fall, because not even the first man was created in darkness. But after the equinox, the day is superior to the night. It was necessary, therefore, that the passion, which was brought about for the sake of restoration, should be exhibited in such a concurrence, in which the light of piety was destined to increase, while the darkness of impiety was being diminished. But the equinox was observed in the passion on account of the restoration of the first time; and the Preparation likewise, because the first man was formed on that day; it was necessary that on the day he was formed and had fallen, on the same day he should be amended. The Sabbath, truly, is deputed for rest, as Scripture says in these words: "And God rested from all his works on the seventh day, and hallowed it" (Gen. 2:2-3). Thus, therefore, the Lord, having once made the restoration, after having suffered on the Preparation and having finished all the works for the reparation of fallen man, rests on the seventh day, and remains in the heart of the earth, granting to those who were in the underworld the freedom born of the passion. And the Lord rests C now from all his works. Since the fall of man appeared from the transgression, the remaining work belonged to God, by which to bring him back. And because he had done this in the passion, and had renewed the man who had perished, he rested on the day of the paschal Sabbath from all his works, as no work remained that needed to be done for the operation of our salvation. But thus also, observing the equinox, and the Preparation, and the Sabbath according to the ancient order, he showed the light of the resurrection on the first of the Sabbaths, and that from the series of time. For it was to be again the first day of all time, which he had already long ago constituted, as at that time the light of sensible time, so consequently now the light of his spiritual resurrection.
But since he observed all these things in the first creation, namely, the full moon after the equinox, as we have said, from this another miracle arises, for the sake of which this was observed. For because darknesses were to occur in the passion of the Savior, and the Greeks, indeed, say that solar eclipses happen from the moon running underneath, lest anyone should attack religion by means of Greek art, the fourteenth day was assumed, so that when it was entirely full, and had risen diametrically opposed to the course of the sun, the miracle could by no means be obscured; when this seemed openly to be the avenging of such a crime, the recurrence to that art could not take place. On account of all these things, Christ in his passion observed those old signs of the times; and therefore we also observe them, that we may show and imitate those mystical meanings. But Christ, celebrating the true Pascha, that he might liberate everyone from the impending punishment, justly, as in a true and proper Pascha, gathered together all the aforementioned times in the week in the ancient manner, in order to perfect the restoration. But we, because the aforementioned times cannot always concur, toward the imitation of the true Pascha, gather those times as much as we can, granting that accurate D constitution of the times to the prototype Pascha of the Savior. Certainly, since the Only-begotten was once immolated, and that was for the economy of salvation; now no man is immolated, but the Savior in his passion, for the imitation of his own sacrifice, gives the bread and the cup, offering both body and blood by arcane names, and commanding us to celebrate the Pascha in this form.
[alt-version omitted]
We gather by imitation, as much as we can, collecting the equinox, the fourteenth day, and the triduum; the fourteenth night of necessity in the week, as the ancient custom teaches, and the triduum itself; but the equinox about the time of Pascha, at which we are gathered. The Savior, indeed, who exhibited the most true Pascha, which would avert the evil impudence, the demons, idolatry, and all destruction, made our nature free for the attainment of blessedness. But since he was close to death and to those times, he commanded that we should imitate the very same thing in the symbols given by him, saying, "Do this for my commemoration" (Luke 22:19); and thus, by right, we do this every year after the equinox, for the salvation of us all, that we might avert the impending evils, and be partakers of the heavenly grace, imitating the Savior, we perform the Pascha with joy and publicly. For this reason, we cast off the ignorance of the heretics and also of the Jews concerning the mystery of the Pascha; and we always assume the equinox for that purpose, and we seek the fourteenth day which happens after the equinox, and the Preparation, the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day, which is so called by the Lord, as has been said often, because the Lord himself observed these times, to show that the enigma of the lamb which was immolated according to the law in the Pascha was introduced at the right moment. For see, brother, how necessary a thing it was for the demonstration of the truth. Moses commanded that in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the moon, the lamb should be immolated, which the prophets were shouting was a figure of the Savior; wherefore they compared him to the Savior, and said, "As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer he is voiceless" (Isa. 53:7). "By his stripes we were healed" (Isa. 53:5). Therefore, seeing him, the forerunner John was crying out, "Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Since, therefore, it was fulfilled, the figure ceased; Christ did not seek another defined time than the slaughter of the lamb, so that he might show that another had been brought in its place. Therefore he gathers all the times, as I said, and he concurs with the Preparation on the fourteenth day of the moon, and the law commanding the lamb to be slaughtered after the evening and between the evening hours, and the Savior observes the day and the hour of the slaughter: the day, the Preparation, in which man was created; the hour, indeed, the ninth; and about that ninth hour he expired on the cross. For they say that the evening is led from the seventh hour after the sixth; for that, "Between the evenings" (Lev. 23:5), if it starts from the seventh, will have the ninth as the perfect center, in which the wise Hebrews say the lamb is slaughtered. In this, therefore, the hour of the slaughter of the lamb on the Preparation, the Savior, when he gave up his spirit, introduced the truth in place of the enigma, and made the restoration clear through the concourse of times. And so necessary was that introduction, that in the solemnity of the Pascha the Jews could not defer that crime to the honor of the festival, which surely others would have done; but once they were rushing of their own accord to the slaughter, they held the judgment which would assist their impetus, nor did they feel reverence, so that that introduction (in place of the lamb) might be made manifest. Furthermore, the ratio of the full moon is preserved for you, which was in the passion. For because the sun was to be obscured on account of so great a crime against the Savior from the sixth until the ninth hour, that it might turn away its rays as if they were its eyes, lest it should see so great a crime, the full moon was determined in the passion, lest the Greeks should believe that the eclipse of the sun had happened through the concurrence of the moon. But since it was so far distant from the sun, it is necessary to confess that the darknesses were introduced by him who suffered from the sixth hour according to the voice of the Gospels, which darknesses happened in the passion of the Savior, just as he himself had once shouted prophetically: for Amos says, "And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, the sun shall set at midday, and the light shall be obscured in the day" (Amos 8:9). And because it was intended that that day should be divided into light and darkness, Zacharias, another prophet, says again, "And it shall be, in that day there shall not be light; and that day is known to the Lord; it is not day nor night; and at the evening there shall be light" (Zech. 14:6-7). And he makes all that time uncertain through the succession of darkness and light. And since the prophet was crying out, "The sun shall be obscured at midday," and indeed at some time they were going to doubt whether this had truly happened to the Savior, or not; now before your eyes there is a great sign, which, seeing the restoration, you solve the question. What then follows?
AToday, so that the Lord’s voice may be manifested, Amos speaks, threatening the Jews, putting forward the passion of the Savior, God’s beloved, and setting their lawlessness against it: "The sun shall set at noon, and the light shall darken in the day; and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and I will bring sackcloth upon every loin, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for a beloved, and those with him as a day of sorrow." For he established the setting of the sun at noon as signs, the turning of works into mourning and of songs into lamentation; and God says He will do all these things for the sake of His own beloved. For such mourning, he says, there will be, and such necessity of justice, as shall correspond to the dignity of the beloved who was insulted. See, therefore, whether the sufferings do not follow from the time the Savior suffered; whether their feasts were not turned into mourning; whether their songs were not turned into lamentation; and whether the sun did not set at noon. But if you observe the great miracle—that Christ was crucified B at the feast of the Passover, and that justice for this reason turned their feasts into mourning, with the Romans invading, and all the Jews fleeing, as if into a common snare, namely Jerusalem, and even at those very feasts, as history says, being consumed by sword and fire and useless wailings, as they were surrounded by so many evils—it is clear that, these things having come to pass before our eyes, the sun set at noon. For this is what the things spoken imply. For two years of time the war consumed the Jews in mourning, and even to this day the mourning of Judea has extended. For where is the temple? Where is the priesthood? Where is the kingdom? Where is the rushing? Where is the city of the law? All are gone, all are perished, all have been taken from the foundations; when the sun set, it turned into mourning. Since, therefore, these things were done for the sake of great mysteries when the Savior suffered, for this reason we also, at each Passover, trying to renew the significance of the mystery, collect the appointed dates to the best of our ability, and we take also the fourteenth day, not only because of those other things—the things spoken and the things not spoken—but also because of the sun setting at noon, so that it may appear that the darkness was not a work of Greek art, but of justice, as was often said, not by the moon passing under, but rising in diameter to the solar path, and thus moving, as one might say, so that the fourteenth day might be an eternal sign to all of the miracle that occurred.
C 5. We also take the preparation, the Sabbath, and the Sunday because of the aforementioned causes, and by the meeting of the appointed dates we perform the whole theory of the mystery, and we reject the madness of the Jews and the fury of the heretics who do not approve of this way, and we put forward the complete character of the recapitulation of all things at the holy rite of the Passover. For in all these appointed dates, Christ having suffered, it is necessary for us also to do the Passover in like manner, as much as we are able, and if anything of these is lacking, the imitation limps perilously. Since, therefore, you have heard sufficiently about these things, it would be necessary henceforth to say also the cause for which the display of the Passover is currently taking place, which I promised when I began the discourse. We have said, brother, that at the Passion [we need] the spring equinox and the fourteenth day according to the moon, not [before the equinox]—and the Sabbath, and the Sunday to be included. If, therefore, it ever happens that the fourteenth day according to the moon falls before the equinox, we invalidate that one and seek another that ought to occur after the equinox; and it happens in this case that an intercalary month falls into the generation of the fourteenth day after the equinox. But now, brother, for this Passover set before us, the fourteenth day falls two days before the equinox, and it becomes invalid. Wherefore we seek to complete the month of the moon and to take the coming fourteenth day, so that in it we may accomplish the month of the Savior. We have need, therefore, of an intercalary month. But just as we saw that if the fourteenth day according to the moon falls before the equinox, we do not need that one, but fittingly [need] the one after the equinox, so again, the fourteenth day according to the moon having come together with the Sunday, we do not hold this Sunday as the resurrection [Sunday], but we have need of the following Sunday, because the fourteenth day is of the passion; for on this day Christ suffered, the preparation having come together with it. And just as we do not know the preparation as the resurrection [day], so neither [do we know] the fourteenth day that comes together with it; but the Sunday that ought to be defined by the resurrection is set to be pure from the passion day. If, therefore, the passionate number of the fourteenth day falls upon it, leaving this one aside, we pursue the following one as being pure from the passion. For since the imitation concerning the Savior in the passion and the resurrection is set before us, we always keep the Sunday, which we are about to define for the resurrection, free from the passion, as the Lord was, taking the passion on the days before it. Since you have seen this, attend next to what I say. Before two days [the fourteenth day] falls, as I said, according to the moon of the equinox D. We have a necessity to let this one pass, and to expect the one after this as the fourteenth day after the equinox. But this very fitting fourteenth day again coincides with the twenty-sixth of the seventh month, because it also falls on a Sunday. Since, therefore, the fourteenth day also coincides with the Sunday, we transfer the feast of the resurrection to the following Sunday, found to be free from the passionate number; and thus, adding the week to the twenty-sixth of the seventh month, we celebrate the resurrection on the second of the eighth month. And this is the cause of the delay. But if anyone should wish to contradict concerning the twenty-sixth of the seventh month—now this Sunday happens to be the fourteenth day of the month—let him be sent to examine the contradiction, if he wishes, and taking also the wise men of the Greeks as witnesses for this, that the fourteenth day occupies that Sunday and this one and the night after it until near the following Monday. And let no one say that the Passover has never occurred with such a delay. And of this we have many witnesses as reminders. Then, too, what has never happened does not truly never befit science, but the reason of the science is always sought; and often it happens quickly, often more quickly, and again more slowly, and no man of science attends to the unevenness of the times, but to the harmony of the reasons. How many times do you think it was said in previous times, "It has never happened," and yet the skill holds? And what is it that varies? For those who complain acknowledge that the Passover has often happened on the twenty-ninth of the seventh month. It is left, therefore, concerning three or four days, which they are reluctant to yield to science. Where, then, is the problem from the paradox of the delay? But they wonder that the Passover happens so unevenly, as far as the time is concerned. But this is not a wonder to men of science. You have seen, brother, poetical compositions or tragic ones, how some are verses, others are longer, and others are extended further. These the ignorant certainly wonder at, as being simply arranged; but the craftsman, knowing the measure of harmony, knows the evenness of the art, even if the appearance of the lines seems uneven. Directly, therefore, brother, now the resurrection [Sunday] happens on the second of the eighth month, but in the coming [year] it happens on the seventeenth of the seventh month, and again in the next on the ninth of the seventh month, and again on the third year, the resurrection will be known on the twenty-ninth of the month; and no one is harmed by these, no one is grieved by these, but each [seeks] the harmony