In sanctum pascha sermo 4

On the Same Subject, Sermon 4. The Jews celebrate Passover as a remembrance of deliverance from Egypt, an escape from the death of the firstborn. It is called Passover for this reason, because it is a passing over of death; this is what the word signifies in the Hebrew tongue. But we celebrate Passover, not a partial escape from death, as they do, nor a liberation from temporary slavery, but a complete redemption from death, a complete release from the slavery of the devil. The death of the firstborn passed over them when they sacrificed the typic sheep and anointed the doorposts with its blood; but the death from the first-formed man passes over us, unable to hold those who have received the sacrifice of the divine sheep and are fortified by faith in the saving blood. For them, the sheep was from the earth; for us, from heaven, having become according to the type of Abraham, when he had a god-sent sheep to offer for his son; but now truly a god-sent sheep from heaven, offered for us, so that we might no longer be held by death, because of Christ, who is unconquered by death. For God sent the Son as Savior of the world, it says; and, I have come down from heaven, it says. And the Baptist bears witness about him, saying, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. For an irrational sheep did not remove sin; therefore it did not remove the death that came from sin; but the most rational sheep dissolved sin, having destroyed death along with it. And it leads us out not from Egypt into Judea, but into an eternal possession from a perishing world.

It is at once a sheep and a shepherd leading the sheep. For he says, "I will go before, leading them to eternal life." For the Jews, the beginning of months is the sacrifice of the sheep and the exodus from Egypt; for us, the beginning of life is the passion of the Lord and the departure from the world together with Christ. For we live when we die to the world; we are reborn into God when we renounce our birth on earth. The sheep is undivided, eaten in one house, the spiritual Church, and not found elsewhere; just as the physical Jews were commanded not to carry the meat of the sheep out of the house. Christ is a sheep because of his gentleness, but along the ascending path, a goat, whose likeness was then sacrificed. Unleavened bread was for those eating the Passover; for us, it is communion with Christ with a new, fresh, and most simple mind, just as the unleavened bread is a new and simple dough. The bitter herbs eaten after the Passover then signified our afflictions, through which we share in the sufferings of Christ. For affliction is bitter, even if the fruit from it is sweet. No bone of the sheep was broken, and the law commanded this as a prefiguration of Christ, as the Gospel explains, that no one broke the holy legs of the Lord, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "No bone of his shall be broken." The meat was eaten at night and not left over for the day, because the death of Christ is remembered in the present age, but in the future age life appears.

The form of those who eat the Passover is a girded loin, sandals on the feet, staffs in the hands. The whole form is that of travelers, prepared for a journey, eager to depart. For us, the intention of the soul is a journey, setting out for a departure from the world. For this reason, the souls are trim and tightly bound on all sides, fleeing the cares of life, ready for the divine journey, so as to run to heaven. For our citizenship is in the heavens, it says. And we have taken up a staff, by which we are supported, faith and hope in Christ. And a lamp is also lit for us in our souls, just as for them the physical one. The lamp of our souls is the law of Christ: "For your law is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my paths." And the Lord himself says concerning these things: "Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning, and you like men awaiting their lord." It remains to see who those eating the Passover are. No one uncircumcised eats the Passover, but even if a foreigner or a slave bought with silver, he is circumcised. For no one can become a partaker of Christ without circumcising human superfluities, nor without being cleansed from the fleshly pollutions which we have inherited through birth from our fathers.

For this was the type of bodily circumcision. Hence it was said by the prophet Jeremiah that your hardness of heart had been circumcised. Let us therefore hasten to the blessed communion of Christ; let us become pure of worldly evils for this reason, that we may be sanctified by spiritual goods. Let no one turn back to the world, but let all hasten so that we may not remain under the slavery of the ruler of this age, but may pass over into the freedom that is with Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen.