Homilia christologica in Lazarum

Let us listen, beloved; and again the sacred trumpet of the Gospels proclaims to the Church of God. And what does it add to the joy of the faithful? For let us make this the crown of the discourse and our guide to what follows. John says, the evangelist, the son of thunder, who drew the ineffable mysteries from the all-bearing field of wisdom, the heart of the Lord: “Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, the one who had died, whom he raised from the dead. So they made a dinner for him; and Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining with him.” Well does the disciple of truth bring forward again into the midst the one who shortly before had been bound in the prison of Hades, who had leaped forth and mocked the bonds of death with the trophies of death, released from the unwelcoming swaddling clothes, and, passing over all those feasting together, he enumerated this man by name. For the evangelist’s aim is not to adorn the one who is proclaimed through him by means of associations and banquets with illustrious persons, nor to describe pleasing things, but to make the wonder-worker known to all as God through his own deeds. And a deed of Christ it was, and the greatest of deeds, the raising of Lazarus, who had been dissolved and reduced to decay.

For this reason, it shows him dining with the Lord, and it publishes the miracle without fantasy to the world, and it makes a feast of the paradox of that splendid feast, in which Lazarus was set forth as an early-season gift, spiritual food for the banqueters, of that paradoxical dinner in which the pleasure of the belly was checked and the souls of those reclining were feasted, of that paradoxical joy in which he who had been made a table for corruption again became a table full of wonders for living men. For it was fitting for him who is abundantly supplied with everything and who pours forth goods from will as from an ever-flowing spring, having entered under the roof of the poor, to add riches to the needy, just as at Cana in Galilee he provided the unwrought wine-service, and to bring that absolute one opportunely into the midst and to open up for his children a paradise of all delights, feasting and being feasted, in which no odor of corruption appeared—for it partook of incorruptible fragrance through the divine calling—nor was any mutilation of limbs shown, for the craftsman who had shaped it by his command was present; nor was there anything small or great that characterizes alteration in those brought down, but the image was whole, complete from every side, and beautiful down to the last hair. Fittingly, therefore, it nurtures that joy, I mean from the all-virtuous, pure love of the hosts, and from the miracles of the God who was shown to be without need.

For he knew clearly that this especially tends to delight the divine eye, if the one being benefited is the savior, as he had heard from him that "my food is to do the will of the one who sent me," and the will of the Father and the Son is the salvation of men. The salvation of men is faith in him who is always glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the highest, as it says in the Gospels: "This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life." 6 Longing for our salvation, he has cried out elsewhere, saying: "I came to cast fire upon the earth," the one who wills mercy, the one who thirsts to be thirsted for, the one who swore against himself "not to wish the death of the sinner as much as his turning back and living." The savior came to cast fire upon the earth which he fashioned with his own hands and sanctified with the divine breath. The savior came to cast fire upon it and to rekindle its free will, with which it was honored by him from the beginning, which the inventor of evil and deceit removed from it and enslaved in passions of dishonor.

The savior came to cast fire upon her, that illuminating fire, the life-giving fire, the fire of divine knowledge, the fire that consumes the thorns of impiety, that increases the seeds of piety, that cuts off and uproots things contrary to nature, and that plants and cultivates things according to nature, so that just as man voluntarily was carried away by deception and spontaneously drew upon himself the foretold death from disobedience, so again, having shaken off his stupor, he might recognize what is necessary and be reconciled to God through confession and inclination toward him. This divine and illuminating fire the Lord kindled and stoked for the salvation of the Jews also in Lazarus, providing them with a perception worthy of belief for their salvation. For signs are always given to the unbelievers, not to the believers, as an occasion for salvation. For when they were contradicting and fighting against the truth, through his divinely powerful works he manifested himself incontrovertibly as God, as he himself says somewhere: "If you do not believe me, believe my works, that you may know that the Father is in me and I in the Father"—that is, as the radiance of the sun is in the sun and as the sun is in a ray, indivisibly and unalterably, because of the consubstantiality and self-same power; and elsewhere: "He who has seen me has seen the Father"—just as the tree is recognized in its fruit; and elsewhere: "I and the Father are one"—showing the equality of honor and power. But let us return to the matter at hand.

8 "They made him a dinner, it says, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him," very magnificently for the true confirmation of the resurrection of the saved one, which was without illusion. For in this way the Lord himself after his own saving resurrection used to show himself to his genuine disciples, taking and eating before their eyes according to the law of human nature. For this reason also now, the one who by the Lord's command conquered the law of nature and death, this man dined with the Lord; the risen one rejoiced together with the one who raised him; the clay reclined with the potter; the one who escaped the darkness celebrated with the light; the one who leaped in bonds rejoiced in courage with the one who looses the fettered; the one who, in the very reins of death, I mean the swaddling clothes, vigorously deceived Hades with a whirring sound, feasted together with the Lord who raised him. 9 But I will say to you: Open for us, O divine head, John, your sacred tablets; for we are unable to grasp the vast depth of the miracle. Yes, it says, Lazarus reclined with Jesus, the old and new man, whom he called from corruption through a living and all-powerful word into life; the newly-formed one reclined as if with a nurse with the one who displayed a new birth of men by command; for it is the law for the offspring of the Jews to recline with women who have given birth, filled with joy. "For the woman, when she gives birth, has grief because her hour has come; but when she has borne the child, she no longer remembers the distress because of the joy that a human being has been born into the world.

Thus also our Lord, about to raise Lazarus from Hades, wept, the compassionate one, and was moved with pity, seeing human nature perishing and looking sorrowful together with those who had assembled, but he rebuked invisibly the death that held him, and having called out visibly to the one held, he accomplished the great sign of his own power, manifesting the pledge of the general resurrection. For this reason he reclined together with the one who had been made, rejoicing, as one who had confirmed through his works that he is "our life and resurrection"; for this had been proclaimed beforehand somewhere by him through the prophet: "I will rejoice in doing good to them." At this miracle and at their own feast, the honored female disciples of the Savior and sisters of the risen one served, the one providing the hospitality, the other the offerings of love for God. For Martha was in some way hospitable like Abraham, charitable like Job, and a confessor of Christ like Peter, having the loving door of hospitality opened to every comer; hence not unnoticed, nor in ignorance, as Lot once did, did she entertain angels, but with good knowledge and disposition she received the creator and lord of angels under her roof. And Martha was such and so great and in such circumstances.

Her sister Mary also, "taking a pound of precious ointment of pure nard, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment." The holy women, breathing the ointment of piety, filled the house with the fragrance of ointment, Martha through her confession, and Mary through her service. Martha is a second Peter; for grace also breathed upon her, and for this reason she poured forth the faith of the chief apostle. She heard, "he who believes in me, even if he dies, shall live," she recognized the giver of life, and using a well-aimed utterance, she cried out, "I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world." For it was necessary that the female nature should recognize and confess the Creator and God. First Peter confesses, taught by God; second Martha proclaims, initiated by God; third John theologically declares in tablets, with divine mind and uniquely. Peter and Martha: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God;" John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Pay attention, beloved, to the illumination of truth, flee the darkness of error. "You are," he says, "the Christ"—not a mere Christ, a man, but the Son of the living God, the Word who became flesh, unchanged for us, the only Son of the living God, the Word who became flesh.

You are not one of the Jewish christs, not one of the Jewish and spurious christs, but you, according to Paul, "the one Lord, the blessed one for all eternity, amen;" you alone are Christ and the only-begotten son of the living God. "We have beheld," says the evangelist, "his glory, glory as of an only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." You are the firstborn and the only-begotten and alone with the Holy Spirit, consubstantial and co-honored and of equal power with the one who begot you, without beginning and coeternal with God the Father. You are the Christ, not one of the invisible and ministering powers created by you, but naturally the son of the living God. "For it was not an ambassador nor an angel," he says, "but the Lord himself, as Isaiah said, saved us, saved them;" so the angels are not christs. You are the Christ, that is, not a human Christ, but a divine Christ, God incarnate, not a deified human, but one who anointed his own and voluntary incarnation with his own divinity, on account of which it is said: "your name is poured-out ointment," and "we shall run to the scent of your ointments." You are the Christ worshipped by all creation, as one Lord and God, as one Son, as one Master with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Let us bring the discourse back to the most excellent brotherhood of the pious and faithful brethren. O harmony of the friends and genuine servants.

of Christ Jesus, one of the uncreated and consubstantial Trinity. Behold the unbreakable cord of the threefold love; nothing tore them from the love of the teacher and master—not the disbelief of the Jews, not the disobedience of the Pharisees, not the barking of the Sadducees, not the scandals of the priests—but once grafted as a fruitful olive tree onto the faith, they remained fruitful, unshaken and unmoved by every assault, recognizing Christ as God, confessing the Son of God as God and man indivisibly and without confusion, proclaiming Emmanuel. And then Martha said to him: "I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God." This Lazarus confirmed within himself, having been buried with this faith and hope; for while he was still alive and joining in supplication, his sisters besought the omnipresent one on his behalf, saying: "Lord, see the one whom you love is ill." And Mary, through her actions, manifested a piety in harmony with her sister's confession and her brother's faith.

For taking the myrrh, she did not anoint a lifeless stone in the house of God, as Jacob did with the stone that appeared to him when he was fleeing from Esau, but she anointed the living temple united with the uncreated and creator of all God, the temple from the God-bearing virgin, preserving not only a likeness of the kinship with Jacob in such matters, as a true daughter, but also surpassing the patriarch by far in faith and deed. Inasmuch as he typified the shadow, while she touched and worshipped the truth itself. Jacob appears to have done this twice, both when fleeing the envy prepared for murder, and when returning after the divine vision at Bethel. But not even thus is he equal to the daughter's piety in this respect; for he learned to anoint nothing more than a stone as a type of the cornerstone, while she not only touched and anointed the holy, living, and God-built temple of the uncreated and eternal God, but also, worshipping the God undividedly present in it together with it and through it, she confessed one undivided Lord, perceiving the invisible glory in the visible comeliness, and discerning in the tangible flesh the intangible and untouchable God the Word.

For the invisible God’s glory was not diminished in their eyes by his conformation to us, nor was the magnificent authority of God insulted in their eyes by the lowliness of his reclining together with them, nor did the weak covering of flesh reduce the judgment of their mind toward the inaccessible preeminence, nor did their love emboldened toward his condescension blunt the fear and trembling of his unendurable power, but, guided by the visible signs toward the invisible might, they marveled exceedingly at the paradoxical nature of his voluntary poverty, and, illuminated in their understanding by the words accomplished beyond reason and the wonders, and instructed in the authoritative lordship, they shuddered more intensely at the philanthropic incarnation, and, observing the stream of healings granted through the touch of his garments’ hems, they worshipped the God who, unhindered, was active and pouring forth assistance from his own treasury, and, contemplating the resurrection of the dead, they were exceedingly astonished at the sojourn of death among mortals. Hence, blending fear with affection, they clung to insatiable desire, and, having grasped the service of the one and same God, united in the union of perfect man, the like-minded and like-faithed women, each for herself, one ministered the human things because of his condescension to us, the other offered as a pleasing offering her zeal, most fragrant and pleasing to God, pouring myrrh as upon an altar onto his life-bearing temple. And this she did not casually but diligently, kissing it, and with the natural covering

impressing the sanctity, placed a crown of glory upon her own head, not composed of perishable and earthly matter, but flashing with the radiances of divine splendor. If, then, according to Moses, "everyone who touches the altar shall be sanctified," what might one say about her who touched the Lord himself, the altar, with what words shall we adorn the concord of these siblings? Indeed, their deeds surpass all praise. It is enough for you, Martha, that Christ's confession is a crown of glory; it is enough for you, Lazarus, to be called a friend of Christ for an abundance of glory; it is sufficient for you, Mary, the verdict from God. "For Mary," it is said, "chose the good portion, which will not be taken from her." Mary the peace-loving, the singular bee, who flits through the meadows of divine contemplations, who became a sojourner and emigrant from the turbid life and arrived at the undisturbed and peaceful life befitting the divine. "Where there is a gentle breeze and there the Lord," according to the oracle of Elijah; from which springs knowledge of divine and human matters, as it is written: "Be still and know that I am God." The pure dove, who gently folded her wings and came to rest in the calm and blessed harbor of tranquility, through whom were initiated the things desired by prophets and righteous ones. Jacob, fleeing a turbulent spear, attained God in due season, and anointed a memorial pillar, as has often been said.

And Mary, having been separated far from the mixed and tumultuous thoughts that somehow roughen the most translucent chamber of the mind and intellect, heard the beatitudes of God unclouded, and was deemed worthy to grasp the ungraspable through flesh. But the Jew in his blindness leaps upon the word and says: Do not blaspheme, Christian, for it is written: "No one will see my face and live, says the Lord." On the contrary, O foolish one, it is written in your own law that Jacob said: "I saw God face to face, and my soul was saved;" for the vision is the life of man. And since these things are so, I will neither invalidate your word nor leave mine without witness; for it is impossible and unattainable to comprehend the essence of God, but it is easy for God to be made known to men by the one who can do all things and who manifests himself to the worthy as he wishes, for it is written: "I multiplied visions and was likened in the hands of the prophets." Therefore Jacob saw God, and he did not lie; but he saw as the one who appeared deigned to be seen; for God knows how to manifest himself as he wishes, and there is nothing that hinders or separates him from his purpose, even if not even the highest can bear his extreme glory. Thus also Mary saw God become man without change, and she poured forth a libation of fragrance upon his holy and co-worshipped temple, that is, herself upon herself; for the union is indivisible, the mystery of piety is unconfused, and the confession into the one Lord of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is undivided.

But you, O beloved, do not be astonished to hear something strange and discordant from those who are strangers to the truth; for they are brothers of the blind and traitor Judas, who foolishly blamed such a God-pleasing intention at the supper. But what is the impartial verdict against this? It convicts Judas as a thief, but accepts her as a lover of God, and proclaims the act as a benefaction, and opposes those who bring charges, and says these things also through Matthew the Evangelist: "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for me." And I counterbalance the love of such a work with eternal remembrance; "for wherever this gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed in the whole world, what she did will also be spoken for her memorial." And the harvest of Mary is worthy of the sowing, and the fruit is worthy of the good intention; she hastened to fulfill the scripture, she was anticipated by the crowning divine grace; she learned what is sung in the prophets, she also recognized the timely fulfillment of the prophecy; she heard Solomon singing that "where the king is in his reclining, nard gave forth its fragrance"; and she understood the king of kings and lord of lords foretold by the servant of the king; hence, without any delay, she carried out the learning in deed, and having brought the preordained things to the one who has no need, she carried off the glorious and unerring verdict.

with which may it be granted to all of us to know and worship one and the same Lord, who before the ages was coeternally and co-unoriginately, ineffably and unflowingly born from the Father, that is, from the uncreated substance, and in the last times was incarnate from the immaculate Virgin unchangeably and without confusion, beyond thought and reason, and to obtain from him blessedness in mercy and endless life, because to him belongs glory together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for the ageless ages of ages. Amen.