De tridui inter mortem et resurrectionem domini nostri Jesu

Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, On the Three-Day Period of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If there is any blessing of the patriarchs that has its certainty from the divine Spirit, if any good of the spiritual legislation is hoped for through promise to those who succeed, if any prefiguration of the truth through historical enigmas is believed to exist, if any prophetic voice proclaims things beyond nature, all those things are the present grace. And just as, according to the spectacle set before our eyes, one light, gathered from countless torches, shines around our vision, so all the blessing of Christ, shining like a torch by itself, produces for us this great light, which is compounded from many and varied rays of scripture; for it is possible to take from each of the divinely inspired examples what is suitable for the present sacred season. You seek the blessing of Abraham; you have what you seek, looking at the present things. Do you see the stars of the sky? I mean these stars that have just now risen for us from the Spirit and have suddenly made the church a sky, whose soul's flashing grace is signified by the rays of the torches. And one who says this will not err from the truth, that those born to Abraham from promise are truly his children, likened to the stars of the sky. Do you admire the lofty Moses, who encompassed the whole creation of God by the power of his knowledge?

Behold for you the blessed sabbath of the first creation; recognize through that sabbath this sabbath, the day of rest which God blessed above the other days. For on this day the only-begotten God truly rested from all his works through the economy of death, having sabbath-kept with the flesh and having returned again to what he was through the resurrection, he raised up with himself all that lay prostrate, becoming life and resurrection and rising and dawn and day for those in darkness and the shadow of death. The history of the kindred blessing is also full for you: the father of that beloved Isaac not sparing him, and the only-begotten becoming an offering and a sacrifice, and the lamb being slaughtered in his place. For it is possible to see in the history the whole mystery of piety. The lamb is suspended from the wood, held by the horns, while the only-begotten bears upon himself the wood of the whole burnt offering. Do you see how the one who bears all things by the word of his power, the same one also bears the burden of our wood and is taken up by the wood, bearing as God and being borne as a lamb? Thus the great mystery of the Holy Spirit is typologically apportioned to both, to the beloved son and to the sheep admitted along with him, so that in the sheep the mystery of death is shown, and in the only-begotten the life that is not interrupted by death.

If you wish, you may also take Moses himself, tracing the cross with the outstretching of his hands and overthrowing the Amalekite by this posture, and it is possible for you to see in truth the type and the Amalek falling before the cross. You also have Isaiah, contributing no small grace to you for the present matter; for from him you were previously taught about the unwedded mother, the fatherless flesh, the painless birth, the undefiled offspring, the prophet speaking thus: Behold, the virgin will conceive in her womb and will bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is "God with us." That the birth was without pain, first let reason itself teach you: since every pleasure is conjoined with pain, it is entirely necessary, in the case of things considered as conjoined, that if one is not present, neither is the other. Therefore, where pleasure of birth did not preside, necessarily pain did not follow. And then the wording of the prophet also confirms the account, being as follows: Before the pain of the birth pangs came, she escaped and bore a male, or as another translator says, Before she was in labor, she bore. From this virgin mother, he says, a Child was born to us, a son, and was given to us, whose beginning was made upon his shoulder, and his name is called Angel of Great Counsel, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Ruler, Prince of Peace, Father of the Age to Come.

This child, this son, was led as a sheep to slaughter and as a lamb voiceless before its shearer, or rather, as Jeremiah says, this is the innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, this is the bread into which the enemies of both bread and wood thrust the wood. Or rather, let us take the most naked and manifest of all from prophecy, through which the mystery is clearly prefigured, I mean Jonah, who descends impassibly into the whale and emerges from the whale without passion, who in three days and as many nights within the whale's entrails prefigured the Lord's sojourn in Hades.

These and such things you must seek out and select from each scripture; for you see all those things through the present, and in the present brightness the whole law hangs and the prophets, as the gospel says somewhere, and every divinely inspired word and law is recapitulated in this grace according to Paul's voice. For this is both the end of the gloomy things and the beginning of the good things, something like this: Death reigned from Adam, having taken its beginning from the destructive power (but even up to Moses himself the evil power persisted, the law having blunted none of death's evil dominion); the kingdom of life came and the power of death was dissolved, and there came another birth, a different life, another form of life, a transformation of our very nature. What is the birth?

Not from blood nor from the will of a man nor from the will of the flesh, but from God it came to be. How is this? I will clearly set forth the grace for you through the word: this offspring is conceived through faith, is brought to light through the regeneration of baptism, its nurse is the church, its breast the teachings, its food the bread from above, its coming of age the lofty life, its marriage the cohabitation with wisdom, its children the hopes, its house the kingdom, its inheritance and wealth the delight in paradise, and its end, instead of death, is eternal life in the blessedness reserved for the worthy. The great Zechariah also sees this beginning of the change toward the good and is uncertain about the calling of the name, what one should properly address the present grace as; for after recounting the other wonders concerning the passion, he also says this about that time: "It is not day and it is not night," by which he indicates that it cannot be called day since there is no sun, and it is not night since there is no darkness; for God called the darkness night, as Moses says. Since, then, in time it is night but in light it is day, for this reason the prophet says: "And it is not day and it is not night." If, therefore, according to the prophet's word, this time is neither day nor night, then the present grace is and is called something else besides these. Do you wish me to say what I have in mind? This is the day that the Lord made, different from the days made at the beginning of creation by which time is measured; this is the beginning of another creation.

For on this day God makes a new heaven and a new earth, as the prophet says. What heaven? The firmament of faith in Christ. What earth? The good heart, I say, as the Lord said, the earth that drinks the rain coming upon it and ripens the abundant ear of grain. In this creation the sun is the pure life, the stars are the virtues, the air is the transparent polity, the sea is the depth of the wealth of wisdom and knowledge, the grass and shoots are good teaching and divine doctrines, which the people of the pasture, that is, the flock of God, graze upon, and the fruit-bearing trees are the practice of the commandments. In this creation is also made the true man, who comes to be according to the image and likeness of God. Do you see of what sort of world this day, which the Lord made, becomes the beginning, concerning which the prophet says that it is neither a day like other days nor a night like other nights? And not yet has the word proclaimed the exceptional character of the present grace. This day loosed the birth-pangs of death, this day midwifed the firstborn of the dead, on this day the iron gates of death were shattered, on this day the bronze bars of Hades were crushed. Now the prison of death is opened, now release is proclaimed to the captives, now sight is given to the blind, now the rising from on high visits those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.

Would you also like to learn something about the three-day interval? It is enough to say that in so short a space of time the all-powerful wisdom, having entered the heart of the earth, sufficed to make foolish that great mind which dwelt in it; for the prophet thus names him, calling him a great mind and an Assyrian. Since the heart is a kind of hearth of the mind (for it is believed that the ruling principle is in it), for this reason the Lord enters the heart of the earth, which is the dwelling-place of that evil mind, in order to make his counsel foolish, as the prophecy says, and to seize the wise one in his own craftiness and turn his wise undertakings to the contrary. For since it was impossible for the ruler of darkness to approach the presence of light without mixture, unless he saw some portion of flesh in it, for this reason, when he saw the God-bearing flesh and also the miracles wrought through it by the divinity, he hoped that if he gained control of the flesh through death, he would also gain control of all the power in it. And for this reason, having gaped around the bait of the flesh, he was pierced by the hook of the divinity, and thus the dragon was drawn by the hook, as the one who foretold through himself the future says to Job: "You will draw the dragon with a hook." Let us hear from the voice of the prophet what things this heart of the earth devised against the whole, when it opened its mouth against the flesh of the Lord. What does Isaiah say to him, refuting his thoughts? "You said in your heart:

I shall go up to the heaven, I shall set my throne above the stars of the heaven, I shall sit on a high mountain, I shall go up above the clouds and I shall be like the Most High. These things the wicked heart devised by itself. And even before these, what the great mind in wickedness, the evil Assyrian, rehearsed to himself, let us hear again from the voice of Isaiah, what he said: By the strength of my hand I shall act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I shall remove the boundaries of nations and plunder their strength, and I shall shake inhabited cities and seize the whole inhabited world as a nest, and I shall lift it up like abandoned eggs, and there is none who will escape me or contradict me. With this hope he receives in himself the one who, out of love for humanity, sojourned among those below. But what happened to him instead of what he hoped for, the prophecy clearly narrates, telling of his passion: How did the morning star fall from heaven? How was he shattered upon the earth, for whom decay was spread beneath, whose covering becomes the garment of worms? And all the other things it recounts concerning his destruction, which it is possible for anyone who wishes to learn accurately from the writings themselves. But I must bring the discourse back to the point: for this reason the true wisdom enters this boastful heart of the earth, in order to destroy from it the great mind in wickedness, and that the darkness be illuminated, and that the mortal be swallowed up by life.

and evil shall pass into non-existence when the ultimate enemy is destroyed, which is death. This the three-day limit of time has accomplished for you. Is the grace slow? Has such a great good been achieved through a long period? Do you wish to know the surpassing power of what has been accomplished in so short a time? Count for me all the generations of men between the first entry of evils and the dissolution, how many men in each generation, numbered in how many tens of thousands. Is it possible for the multitude to be grasped by number, those with whose successions evil expanded and the evil wealth of wickedness, being divided among each individual, became greater through each? And thus evil, multiplying, passed through with the ever-succeeding generations, poured out in multitude to infinity, until, having advanced to the utmost measure of evil, it took possession of the whole human nature, the prophet having declared universally thus: All turned aside together, they were corrupted, and there was nothing among existing things that was not an instrument of evil. Therefore, such a heap of evil, gathered from the foundation of the world until the economy of the Lord's passion, the one who dispersed it in three days has made for you a small demonstration of the surpassing power, or is it not stronger than all the wonder-workings in the histories?

Just as the wonder of Samson is magnified not only in overcoming the lion but in handling it effortlessly and tearing apart such a beast with bare and unarmed hands as if in play, so too the Lord’s annihilation of such great evil without any toil is a greater demonstration of the excess of his power. It is not the immeasurable torrents of waters falling from above into the abyss, nor the abysses swelling beyond their own bounds and flooding the land with the seas, nor the whole inhabited world sinking like a ship with all hands into the deep, nor mountains becoming submerged and the peaks of mountains underwater, nor, as in the likeness of Sodom, the rains of flame purging the corrupt with fire, nor anything else of that sort, but a simple and incomprehensible presence, the mere arrival of life and light to those sitting in the darkness and shadow of death, that has effected the complete eclipse and annihilation of both darkness and death. Shall I add something further to what has been said? Evil sprouted in the serpent; the woman was overcome by the dragon’s temptation; thereafter the man was overcome by the woman. Through three, evil had its genesis. Why does the memory of these things look to me? It is possible to discern a certain order of the good through the order in evil. I see these three receptacles of evil: first, that in which it first arose; second, that into which it flowed; third, that in which it subsequently came to be.

Since, then, in these three, evil had overflowed—I mean the diabolical nature, the race of women, and the multitude of men—for this reason, accordingly, in three days the disease is obliterated, one day being assigned for the healing of each kind that had fallen ill in evil: in one day the men are cleansed of the disease, on the second the race of women is healed, on the last the final enemy, death, is abolished, and together with it the principalities, authorities, and powers of the opposing forces that surround it vanish along with their leader. Do not be surprised if the creation of the good is distributed over intervals of time; for even at the first genesis of the world, the divine power was not too weak to perfect all beings in an instant, but nevertheless it includes temporal intervals in the creation of beings, so that one part of creation was completed on the first day, another on the second, and so on in order, until all beings were finished, God having fitted together the whole creation in specified days. So also here, according to his ineffable word of wisdom, in three days evil is expelled from beings—from men, from women, and from the race

of serpents, in which the nature of evil first had its genesis. But concerning the cause of the number of days, we have conjectured these things; whether rightly or not, we will leave to the judgment of the hearers, for the discourse is not a declaration but an exercise and inquiry. But if you seek to see precisely the term of these days in the passion (for the number falls short not a little, if you count the time from the ninth hour of the Preparation, from which he entrusted his spirit to his father's hands), wait a little, and the discourse will perhaps provide you clarity on this matter. What, then, is the discourse? Look up to the majesty of the divine power, and you will not be ignorant of what is sought in this place; remember the Lord's declaration, what the one who holds sway over the whole declares about himself, how by autocratic authority and not by necessity of nature he separates the soul from the body, in which he says that "No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of myself; I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again." Let this stand for me, and what is sought is clarified.

For He who administers all things by His own lordly authority does not await the necessity arising from betrayal, nor the brigand-like attack of the Jews, nor the lawless judgment of Pilate, so that their wickedness might become the origin and cause of the common salvation of mankind. Instead, He anticipates the assault by His economy, in the ineffable manner of the sacred rite, invisible to men, and offers Himself as an oblation and sacrifice on our behalf, being both priest and Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. When did this happen? When He made His body edible and His blood drinkable for those present. For it is evident to all that a sheep would not be eaten by a man unless slaughter preceded the eating. Therefore, He who gave His own body to the disciples for food clearly indicates that the sacrifice of the Lamb had already been completed. For the body of the victim would not be suitable for eating if it were still animate. Thus, when He provided the disciples to eat of His body and drink of His blood, already, in a hidden manner, by the authority of the one administering the mystery, ineffably and invisibly, the body had been sacrificed, and the soul was in those places where the authority of the administrator had deposited it, traversing that region in the heart, together with the divine power mingled with it.

Therefore, from the time when the sacrifice was offered to God by the great high priest who ineffably and invisibly sacrificed his own lamb for the common sin, anyone counting the time of the truth's sojourn in the heart from that point will not err. For it was evening when that sacred and holy body was consumed, and the night that preceded the Preparation succeeded that evening. Then the day of the Preparation, divided by the interposed night, is reckoned as one night and two days. For if God called the darkness night, and in three hours darkness came over the whole inhabited world, this is the night innovated in the middle of the day, which encloses through itself the two segments of the days: the one from dawn to the sixth hour, and the other from the ninth hour to evening, so that up to this point there are two nights and two days. Then the night before the Sabbath and after it the day of the Sabbath: you have the three days and three nights. Seek for me then the hour of the resurrection, and you will find the truth in what has been said. When then did this happen? "Late on the Sabbath," Matthew cries out. This for you is the hour of the resurrection according to the clarity of the Gospel; this is the limit of the Lord's sojourn in the heart. For when evening had already become deep (and the beginning of that night was the evening, which is succeeded by the first day of the week), then the earthquake occurs, then the angel shining in garments rolls away the stone of the tomb. And the women, having risen a little early, when the light of day was already dawning, as also

of the earth, they record the resurrection as already having occurred, for they recognized the miracle but were not taught the hour. For the angel told them that he had risen, but did not add the time to the statement. But the great Matthew alone of all the evangelists indicated the time precisely, saying that the hour of the resurrection was the evening of the Sabbath. If these things are so, our appointed period stands, the time being measured from the evening after the fifth day to the evening of the Sabbath, including the intercalary night, as has been said, which breaks the Preparation into two days and one night. For it was necessary that in the case of the Lord, in the exercise of his power over the age, the works should not be necessarily extended according to the fixed measures of time, but that the measures of time should be innovated according to the need of the works, and that the measures of time should be devised as shorter, since the divine power accomplishes the activity of good things more swiftly, so that the time is counted as neither less than three days and as many nights, because the mystical and ineffable word demands this number, nor does the divine power, in its swiftness of action, wait for the customary intervals of days and nights and thus be hindered. For he who had the authority both to place the soul in himself and to take it up when he wished also had the authority, as maker of the ages, not to be a slave to time through his works, but to make time according to his works. But the discourse has not yet touched upon the greatest of the points.

It is natural for the more inquisitive to ask how, at the same time, the Lord gives himself to three—to the heart of the earth, to paradise with the thief, and to the Father’s hands. For to the Pharisees he says, “As Jonah was in the belly of the whale, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for the three-day interval of time”; to the thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise”; and to the Father, “I entrust my spirit into your hands.” For one would not say that paradise is in the subterranean regions, nor the subterranean regions in paradise, so that he could be in both at once, nor that these are called the Father’s hand. But this, perhaps, is not even worthy of inquiry for those who reason piously; for he who is everywhere by divine power is present to all and absent from none. I, however, know another account concerning this, which I have learned, and which I will set forth briefly for you who wish it. When the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, so that the new man might be constituted in her—the one called “new” because he was created according to God, not according to human custom, so as to become a vessel of God not made by hands—

For the Most High does not dwell in hand-made things, I mean in those constructed by men. Then, when she builds the house of wisdom for herself and the form is molded within, as if by the stamp of the shadow of power, then the divine power is mingled with both that constitute human nature—I mean soul and body—having mixed itself appropriately with each. For it was necessary that, since these two had been killed through disobedience (for the death of the soul was alienation from true life, and that of the body was corruption and dissolution), death should be expelled from both by the admixture of life. Therefore, when the divinity was mixed appropriately with each of the human parts, the marks of the superior nature were evident through both: the body signified the divinity in it by effecting cures through touch, while the soul manifested the divine power by that mighty will. For just as sensation by touch is proper to the body, so motion by choice is proper to the soul. The leper approaches, his body already wasted and corrupted. How does the cure occur in his case from the Lord?

The soul wills and the body is touched, and through both the affliction flees; for, it says, the leprosy left him immediately. Again, he does not wish to dismiss those who attended him in the desert by the many thousands fasting, but with his hands he breaks the loaves. Do you see how through both the divinity accompanying each is made public, both by the body that acts and by the impulse of the will that occurs in the soul? And why should I go through all the miracles accomplished in like manner, occupying the discourse with things already evident? But for the sake of what I have mentioned, I will also move to that.

How is the Lord at the same time both in Hades and in paradise? One solution to this question is that nothing is impassable for God, in whom all things are constituted; another is that to which the discourse now looks, that when God transformed the whole human being into the divine nature through the mixture with himself at the time of the economy according to the passion, the part once mingled did not withdraw (for the gifts of God are irrevocable), but the divinity voluntarily separated the soul from the body, and showed itself remaining in both; for through the body, in which it did not receive the corruption from death, it destroyed the one who held the power of death, and through the soul it paved the way for the thief to enter paradise. And both are accomplished at the same time, the divinity achieving the good through both, through the incorruptibility of the body the dissolution of death, and through the soul hastening to its own hearth the return of men to paradise.

Since the human compound is twofold, while the nature of the divinity is simple and uniform, at the time of the separation of the body from the soul, the indivisible is not split apart with the composite; rather, the opposite occurs: for by the unity of the divine nature, which is equally present in both, the separated parts are again united to each other. And thus death occurs from the division of what was conjoined, while resurrection occurs from the union of what was divided. But if you ask how he who is in paradise presents himself to the hands of the Father, the lofty Isaiah will interpret for you what is sought concerning these matters; for he spoke in the person of God concerning the heavenly Jerusalem, which we believe to be none other than paradise, that "I have drawn your walls on my hands." If, then, Jerusalem, which is paradise, is circumscribed on the hands of the Father, clearly he who is in paradise dwells entirely in the paternal palms, in which the divine city has its circumscription. And so much for these matters; but as for what we hear from the Jews, who vehemently denounce the doctrine, it would be worthwhile to add briefly to the discourse: for they say that in the discourse on Passover, it was legislated by Moses for the Jews to observe the fourteenth day of the lunar cycle and the seven days of unleavened bread, and to make a dish of the herb of bitter greens for the unleavened bread.

If, then, the observance of the fourteenth day is a matter of concern to you, the Jew says, let the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread also be observed together with it; but if these are worthy of being overlooked, what is the zeal concerning that? For it is not the case that the same lawgiver judges one thing to be just and beneficial to the soul, and another to be useless and rejectable, so that it is necessary either that all things prescribed concerning the Passover be accomplished by you, or that you be bound by none. What then do we say? Let us recall the one who commanded us not to fear the reproach of men and not to be defeated by their disparagement; for we know both the soul-beneficial observance of the unleavened bread and the benefit of the bitter herbs and the usefulness of the fourteenth day. And the argument is this, which we will examine briefly: the law which has the shadow of future goods looks to one primary purpose, namely, how through the various commandments the man might be purified from the evil mixed into his nature. This is accomplished in circumcision, in the Sabbath, in the observance of foods, in the varied animal sacrifice, in the individual observances of the law. And it would be lengthy for us to set forth in detail the things enigmatically indicated by the law for the purification of life concerning each.

Just as, then, through circumcision accomplished spiritually, nature lays aside the passible, removing the fleshly life, and through the sabbath observance it is taught inactivity in evil, and the animal sacrifice slaughters the passions, and the prescribed distinction concerning unclean foods advises you of alienation from the defiling and unclean life, so also this feast of yours points to that feast for which the soul is prepared through the unleavened bread, being purified in seven days from the eating of leavened food, the enigma of which is this: the number of seven days indicates to you this transient time, which revolves in weeks, in which it is necessary through diligence that no remnant of yesterday's evil be preserved for the present day, so that the mixture of stale evil might not cause some astringency and sourness to today's dough. "Let the sun not set upon your anger," says the apostle, who commands us to feast not in old leaven nor in leaven of evil and wickedness, but in unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And what we have learned concerning one form of evil, we are taught analogously concerning the remaining forms of evil. The bitter herb expels the slack and dissolute in life, and introduces the continent, hardened, and difficult-to-perceive life, since all discipline seems to be not of joy but of pain for the present.

Therefore, the one who, throughout the entire week of this life, keeps the ever-present day unmixed with ancient evil and unleavened, making self-control the relish of life, separates himself from every dark admixture. For this is what the fourteenth day of the lunar course signifies. Since there are in all nine and twenty and a half days of the lunar course, during which the moon, from the new moon, through increase is perfected and then through decrease returns again in the cycle to the complete eclipse of its light, it is evident that half of the mentioned number is the fourteenth day and a little more. Therefore, when the moon happens to be in this phase, because it proceeds together according to its own course, it adds the missing portion to the night interval so that, having been filled with light, it mingles its own radiances with the rays of the day, so that neither at evening nor at dawn does any insertion of darkness interrupt the continuity of light, the radiance remaining undivided in the succession of the elements (for before the sun's ray has precisely set, the moon shines opposite the sun in a straight line diametrically and illuminates the underlying region with its own light; and again, before its entire circle has passed below the horizon, the radiance of day is mingled with the remnants of the lunar light), and thus on that day of the full moon, darkness is obliterated both at dawn and at evening, being brightened by the succession of the luminaries.

What therefore happens to the perceptible light on the fourteenth day—that it is throughout the whole night and day unreceptive of any admixture of darkness—this the spiritual law intends to become a symbol for those who celebrate spiritually, so that throughout the entire week of life they may make one luminous and unshadowed Pascha of the whole time of their life. This is the state of the Paschal ordinances for Christians. For this reason we look to the fourteenth day through this perceptible and material light, taking up the image of the immaterial and intelligible light, so that while we seem to seek the full moon providing us with its own radiance continuous throughout the whole night, in truth the observance is a law for us that the whole time measured by night and day should be continuously bright for us and unmixed with dark deeds.

And concerning these matters, so much. But what meanings the cross also contains, through which the mystery of the passion is perfected, who could easily clarify in speech? For were there not countless ways leading to death, through which it was possible for the economy of death on our behalf to be fulfilled? But from all these, this one was determined by him who determined the passion for himself with authority. For, he says, the Son of Man must—he did not say:

and what the Son of Man will suffer, as one might simply say in foretelling the future, but rather that which must necessarily come to pass according to some ineffable reason, it thus dogmatizes by the expression in saying: "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected, and be crucified, and on the third day rise." For consider with me the meaning of "must," through which it is found that the passion is dogmatized as necessarily occurring in no other way than through the cross. What then is the account concerning this? It belongs only to the great Paul, who was instructed by those ineffable utterances which he heard when initiated in the inner sanctuaries of paradise, and who clarified the mystery concerning this, as he partly intimated the hidden meaning through his words to the Ephesians, saying: "So that you may be able to comprehend, together with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the surpassing love of the knowledge of Christ, that you may be filled to the whole fullness of God." For not idly did that divine eye of the apostle contemplate the shape of the cross, but he showed clearly through this also that, having cast off all the scales of ignorance from his eyes, he sees purely the truth of beings itself.

For he saw that this shape, divided by four projections from the central intersection, signifies the power and providence of the one manifested in it, extending through all things; and for this reason he names each projection with distinct terms, calling depth that which goes downward from the center, and height that which is above, and breadth and length that which stretches out sideways on each side after the intersection, so that he calls that on one side of the center breadth, and that on the other length. By these terms he seems to me clearly to signify in his discourse that there is nothing among existing things which is not entirely held together by the divine nature—the supracelestial, the subterranean, and that which stretches out sideways to the limits of beings from all sides. For he indicates by height that which is above, by depth that which is subterranean, and by length and breadth the intermediate limits held by the power that governs the whole. Let the proof of what is said be through the things that occur in your soul in the conception of God. For look up to the heaven and contemplate the depths below with your reasoning, extend your thought to the sides and the extremities of the whole structure, and consider what is the power that holds these together, becoming like a bond of the whole; and you will see that spontaneously in your thought, in the conception of the divine power, the shape of the cross is engraved, descending from the heights to the depths and stretching crosswise to the limits of the extremities. This shape also the great David hymned in his own discourse, saying, "Where shall I go from your spirit, and from your face where shall I flee?

If I ascend into the heaven (this is the height), if I descend into Hades (this is the depth), if I take up my wings at dawn (which is the rising of the sun—this is the breadth), or if I encamp at the limits of the sea (for thus he names the west—this is the length). Do you see how he depicts the shape of the cross through what is said? You are, he says, the one who goes through all things and becomes the bond of all things and encompasses all limits in yourself: you are above, you are below, in this limit your hand is, and in the other your right hand guides. For this reason also the great apostle, when all things are filled with faith and knowledge, says that the one who is beyond every name is worshipped in the name of Jesus Christ by the heavenly, the earthly, and the subterranean beings. Again, through these things he divides the worship of Christ according to the shape of the cross: for the supramundane order fulfills worship to the master in the upper part of the cross, the mundane in the middle parts, and the subterranean clings to the depth. This is also the iota according to my account, the one seen with the keraia, which is more enduring than the heavens and more stable than the earth and more lasting than the entire constitution of beings. Heaven and earth will pass away, and the shape of the whole world passes, but the iota from the law and the keraia do not pass. The vertical line descending from above to the depth is called iota, and the line drawn crosswise through the side is called keraia, as it is possible to learn this also from those who sail.

For the beam placed crosswise upon the mast, from which they also spread the sail, they call a yardarm, naming it from its shape. Therefore it seems to me that the divine voice of the Gospel looks to this, that that is the thing in which all things are constituted, more eternal than the things held together within it, which indicates its own preservative power of all beings as if through a riddle and a kind of mirror through the shape of the cross. For this reason it says that the Son of Man must not simply die, but be crucified, so that the cross may become for the more discerning a theologian, proclaiming through its shape the all-powerful authority of the one displayed upon it and who is all in all. Let us not pass over in silence, brothers, even that well-formed counselor Joseph of Arimathea, who, taking that undefiled and holy body as a gift, places around it a pure linen cloth and deposits it in a pure tomb. Let the work of that well-formed counselor be a law for us, that we too should deliberate likewise, when we receive that gift of the body, not to take it up with the soiled linen of our conscience nor to deposit it in a tomb of the heart stinking from dead bones and all uncleanness, but, as the apostle says, to test each one himself, so that the grace may not become a judgment for the one receiving it unworthily. But indeed, while speaking, I perceive myself being struck by the bright robe of the angel, and that sweet earthquake which rolls away the heavy stone of the human tomb shakes my heart with pleasure, through which the door of resurrection is opened to all.

Let us also run to the sight of the extraordinary spectacle (for the Sabbath has already passed), lest we fall behind the women. Let faith and conscience be the spices in our hands; for this is the fragrance of Christ. Let us no longer seek the living among the dead; for the Lord repels one who seeks him in that way, saying, “Do not touch me, but when I ascend to the Father, then it is permitted for you to touch me,” that is, no longer form in your faith the bodily and servile image, but worship the one who is in the glory of the Father and exists in the form of God and is the Word of God, not the form of the servant. Let us hear what the woman who anticipated the man through faith, having done this well, proclaims to us, so that by taking the lead in the good she may make amends for the cause of evil. What then is the woman’s gospel? Truly, not from men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ. “Listen,” she says, “to what the Lord has commanded us to tell you—you whom he also calls his brothers—that ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.’” O what beautiful and good tidings! He who became like us for our sake, so that by becoming our kinsman he might make us his brothers, brings forward the

his own man to the true Father, so that through him he might draw the whole kindred, that it might no longer be a reproach to those who served gods not gods by nature. Through being brought again to the living and true God, that those who followed the Son through adoption might not become outcasts and disinherited from the paternal inheritance, he who made himself the firstborn of the good creation among many brothers through the flesh drew the whole nature, of which he partook, through the flesh mingled with him. But since the unleavened bread before Easter has the bitter herb as its relish, let us see with what sweetening the bread after the resurrection is seasoned. You see Peter fishing, with a loaf and a honeycomb in the hands of the Lord. Understand into what the bitterness of life is transformed for you. Therefore, having risen ourselves from the fishing of words, let us now run to the bread, which the honeycomb of good hope sweetens in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is the glory and the power with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and always and to the ages of ages, amen.