In quatriduanum Lazarum

On the Four-Day Lazarus, Ninth Homily. 1. Today, Lazarus, being raised from the dead, grants us the resolution of many and various scandals. For somehow this reading has given a handle to heretics and an occasion for contradiction to Jews, not from truth, heaven forbid, but from their malicious soul. Many of the heretics say that the Son is not like the Father. Why? Because, they say, Christ had need of prayer to raise Lazarus; for if he had not prayed, he would not have raised Lazarus. And how, they say, will he who prayed be like the one who received the supplication? For one prays, the other receives the prayer from the suppliant. They blaspheme, not understanding that the prayer was a matter of condescension and for the sake of the weakness of those present. For, tell me, who is greater, the one washing the feet, or the one whose feet are washed? Surely that one is greater whose feet are washed by the washer. But the Savior washed the feet of the traitor Judas; for he was among the disciples. Who then is greater, the traitor Judas or the Lord Christ, since Christ washed his feet? Heaven forbid. And what is more humble, to wash the feet or to pray? Surely, to wash the feet. Therefore, he who did not refuse to do the more humble thing, how would he have refused to do the more exalted? But everything was done for the weakness of the Jews present, as the discourse will show as it proceeds. But Jews also, taking from this an occasion for contradiction, say:

How do Christians have this man as God, the one who did not even know the place where the dead Lazarus lay? For the Savior said to Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, “Where have you placed him?” Do you see, they say, ignorance? Do you see weakness? The one who did not even know the place—is this God? But I will speak to them, not because it is so, but because I wish to put their objection to shame. He was ignorant, you say, O Jew, because he said, “Where have you placed him?” Then did not the Father also show ignorance in Paradise, not knowing where Adam was hidden? For he went about as if seeking him in Paradise, saying, “Adam, where are you?”—that is, “Where have you hidden yourself?” Why did he not earlier name the place where Adam spoke with God with boldness? “Adam, where are you?” And what did Adam say? “I heard your voice as you walked in Paradise, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself.” If you call this ignorance, O Jew, call that ignorance as well; for Christ said to Martha and Mary, “Where have you placed him?” Do you call this ignorance? What then do you say when you hear God saying to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” What do you say? If you call this ignorance, call that ignorance as well. Take also another proof from divine Scripture. God said to Abraham, “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has come to me. I will go down and see if their cry that comes to me is being fulfilled; if not, that I may know.” The one who knows all things before their generation, the God who examines hearts and kidneys, the one alone who knows the thoughts of men, said this.

So I will go down and see if they are being done according to the cry that comes to me; and if not, that I may know. If that is ignorance, then this too is ignorance. But neither the Father according to the Old Testament was ignorant, nor the Son according to the New Testament. What then is, "I will go down and see if they are being done according to the cry that comes to me; and if not, that I may know"? A report, he says, came to me. But I wish again to take a more precise experience through the things themselves, not because I am ignorant, but because I wish to teach men not to attend simply to words, nor, if someone says something against another, to believe readily; but first they must examine them accurately and learn through the things themselves, and thus believe. And for this reason he said in another Scripture: Do not believe every word. For nothing so overturns the life of men as quickly believing in some reports. This also the prophet David said in prophecy: The one who secretly slanders his neighbor, this one they drove out. See how there was no ignorance in the Savior when he said, "Where have you placed him," just as there was none in the Father when he said to Adam, "Where are you," or to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel," or, "I will go down and see if they are being done according to the cry that comes to me; and if not, that I may know." So then it is time now to array ourselves against those who say that Christ raised Lazarus through weakness, having prayed. Pay attention then, beloved, with all accuracy, I beg you.

Lazarus therefore died, and Jesus was not in those places, but in Galilee, and he said to his disciples: "Lazarus, our friend, has fallen asleep." And they, thinking that he was speaking about this sleep, say to him: "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be saved." Jesus says to them plainly: "Lazarus has died." So the Savior comes to Jerusalem, to the place where Lazarus lay, and the sister of Lazarus meets him, and says to him: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." "If you had been here." You are weak, O woman. The woman does not now understand that even when Christ was not present bodily, he was present by the authority of his divinity; but she measures the power of the teacher by his bodily presence. Martha says to him: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." "And now," she says, "I know that whatever you ask of God, he gives you." So the Savior, in response to her request, makes the prayer. For God did not need prayer to raise the dead. Did he not raise other dead? When he met a dead man being carried out at the gate, he only touched the bier and raised the dead. Did he need prayer then to raise the deceased? And again, at another time, he said only a word over the girl, "Talitha cumi," and immediately gave her back to her parents healthy. Did he need prayer then? And why do I speak of the teacher? His disciples raised the dead by word alone. Did not Peter raise Tabitha by word? Did not Paul perform many signs through his garments?

Learn also this even more astonishing thing: the shadow of the apostles raised the dead. For they carried, it says, on beds those who were ill, so that if even the shadow of Peter fell upon any of them, they immediately arose. What then? The shadow of the disciples raised the dead, and the teacher needed a prayer to raise the dead? But the Savior makes the prayer because of the woman's weakness; for she says to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died; and now I know that whatever you ask of God, God gives you." You asked for a prayer, I give a prayer. The spring lies there; for example, if someone brings a vessel, it fills it; if it is large, it receives much; if it is small, it receives little. So this woman asked for a prayer, and the Savior gives a prayer. Another said, "I am not worthy for you to enter under my roof, but only, let it be so, speak a word, and my child will be healed"; and the Savior said to him, "According to your faith, let it be so." Another said, "Come, heal my daughter"; and

He said to him, "I will follow you." So the healing of the physician is applied according to the choices of men. Another woman again touched the fringe of his garment secretly, and secretly she reaped the healing; each one as he believed also received the healing. This one says, "I know that whatever you ask of the Father, the Father gives you." And since Martha asked for a prayer, the Savior gives a prayer, not because he himself is in need of prayer, but accommodating the weakness of the woman, and in order to show that he is not opposed to God, but that whatever he himself does, this also the Father does. God originally formed man; the creation was of both: "Let us make," he says, "man according to our image and likeness." Again he wished to bring the robber into paradise, and immediately he spoke a word, and brought the robber into paradise, and he had no need of prayer, although Christ had barred all those after Adam from that entrance; for he placed the flaming sword to guard paradise. But by his own authority Christ opened paradise and brought the robber in. "Master, are you bringing a robber into paradise? Your Father expelled Adam from paradise for sin alone, and you bring in the robber, who is liable for countless evils and countless lawless acts? And do you simply bring him into paradise for one utterance?" Yes; for neither did that happen without me, nor this without my Father; but both this is mine and that is my Father's. For I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.

And that you may see that the raising of the dead man was not a work of prayer, listen to the prayer. For what does he say? "I thank you, Father, that you have heard me." What then? Is this a form of prayer, a type of supplication? "I thank you that you have heard me." But I, he says, knew that you always hear me. If then you know, O Lord, that the Father always hears you, why do you still trouble him about things you know? I, he says, know that the Father always hears me, but I said it for the sake of the surrounding crowd, so that all might know that you sent me. Did he pray for the dead man? Did he entreat that Lazarus rise? Did he say, "Father, command death to obey"? Did he say, "Father, command Hades not to close its gates but to willingly give up the dead man"? But I said it for the sake of this surrounding crowd, he says, so that all might know that you sent me. Therefore, what is happening is not a sign, but a catechesis of those present. You see how the prayer was not for the dead man, but for the unbelievers present, so that they might know, he says, that you sent me. And how, he says, are we to know that he sent you?

Attend, I beseech you, with all exactness. Behold, he says, with my own authority I call the dead man; behold, by my own power I command death; I call the Father "Father"; I call also Lazarus from the tomb. If the first is not true, let not this happen; but if the Father is truly Father, let the dead man also obey for the instruction of those present. For what did Christ say? "Lazarus, come forth." When the prayer occurred, the dead man did not rise; but when he said, "Lazarus, come forth," then the dead man rose. O tyranny of death! O tyranny of that power which holds the soul! O Hades, a prayer has occurred, and you do not release the dead man? No, he says. Why? Because I was not commanded. I am a prisoner there, holding the one under my charge; unless I am commanded, he says, I do not release; for the prayer, he says, did not occur for my sake, but for the unbelievers present. For I, unless I am commanded, do not release the one under my charge; I await the voice, so that I may release the soul. "Lazarus, come forth.

The dead man heard the master's command and immediately dissolved the laws of death. Let the heretics be ashamed and perish from the face of the earth. For the argument has shown that the prayer was not made for the sake of the dead man's resurrection, but because of the weakness of the unbelievers then present. Lazarus, come out. And why did he call the dead man by name? Why? So that, not directing his voice loosely toward the dead, he might raise all those in the tombs; for this reason he says, Lazarus, come out. For the present I summon you alone from the crowd, so that through the part I may also demonstrate the power of what is to come; for I, who have raised one, raise the world. For I am the resurrection and the life. Lazarus, come out. And the dead man came out bound in graveclothes. O marvelous things: he who loosed the soul from the bonds of death, who burst the gates of Hades, who shattered bronze gates and iron bars, and freed the soul from the bonds of death—could he not also loose the graveclothes of the dead man? Yes, he could; but he orders the Jews to loose the graveclothes, which they themselves had tightened when burying him, so that they might recognize the marks of their own bonds, so that by experience they might learn from what they did that this is Lazarus, whom they buried, and that Christ is the one who came into the world by the Father's good will, having authority over life and death. To him be glory and power, together with your Father who has no beginning and your all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.