In sanctum pascha sermo 7

Yesterday, brothers, we spoke some things concerning the date of the holy Pascha, and since some doubt seemed to arise, we indicated in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that long before we were ignorant neither of the doubt nor of the date, and concerning these matters enough was said, if indeed you retain the force of what was spoken in memory. We were eager to speak today the cause of the delay, and since such a narrative requires the contemplation of the entire place pertaining to the Pascha, we wish, if the Lord also wishes, to take up the subject and, with all the power we have, to expound the contemplations of the mystery. And since there is much attack from opponents who are ignorant of the nature of the truth, and heretics appear having broken away, and Jews profess to celebrate Pascha, but the mystery belongs to Christians alone and the celebration of the mystery is established among us with precision, I wish to mention briefly all those things and to strip away the confusion from our mystery, and thus to speak the meaning of each time, as the only-begotten son of God may grant. For we have often observed some saying: How is it that the nativity of the Savior is celebrated on a fixed day (for it occurs, as we all know, on the eighth day before the Kalends of January according to the Romans), and the Theophany likewise (for that too is celebrated on a fixed day, the thirteenth of the fourth month according to the Asians), and likewise when we perform the memory of martyrs we fit the commemoration to a fixed day, but concerning the Pascha the account is not so?

That the mystery is not of one day nor simply coinciding, but of many appointed times, which we take up with understanding, gathering them together into the place for the unfolding of the contemplation. For we observe also the first month, this truly first month of the first time, which is recognized at the vernal equinox—for he who observes the first month must see the first time, on account of which it is also called the first month; and again, he who takes up the first time must see the beginning of the first time, which is none other than the vernal equinox, as I will show in what follows—. Since, then, we observe both the first time and the equinox, and after this also the fourteenth of the moon, and together with this the three-day period, that is, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and it is impossible for the Pascha to be celebrated if any one of these times is lacking, for this reason we cannot take up one fixed day for the mystery of the Pascha, but, gathering together all these appointed times, we complete the contemplation of the saving passion.

I wish, therefore, before stating the mystical cause of the equinox and of the fourteenth day of the moon, which also contributes to the mystery, and again the cause of the three days fitting the end of the mystery, first to state the custom of the Jews outside and of those who irrationally drag it along, and then in this way to judge the purity of the ecclesiastical mystery; for heretics also cling to this, even if erroneously. For the Jews do not keep a single appointed day for the celebration of Passover, but also the first month, as they think, according to the sun, and the fourteenth day of the moon. For instance, if the fourteenth day of the moon among them should fall when the first month has not yet begun, they postpone this fourteenth day and, making an intercalary thirtieth day of the moon, they take another fourteenth day because of the first solar month, so that when the concurrence of the first time and the fourteenth day of the moon occurs, they may seem to fulfill the intention. Therefore, brother, you see that the Jews also strive for this, and we have this in common with them, that we do not seek a single day for the celebration but many times.

The fourteenth is a heresy: those who celebrate Pascha with the Jews have themselves suffered the same as them. The Novatians seem to imitate our practices in a different way, for they too are enslaved to the term of the Jews and pursue the first month, as they consider it, and the fourteenth day according to the moon among them, but they do not stop there; rather, when they have reached these, they also come to the three-day period, even if most improperly and not in accordance with ecclesiastical harmony, as will be shown. There is another heresy, that of the Montanists, which ostensibly rejects celebrating with the Jews, but has in this also departed from the Church to its own peril; for it keeps the fourteenth day of the first month, that is, the seventh month according to the Asians, but not the fourteenth day of the moon, having taken this ordinance from somewhere unknown to me. For the only-begotten son of God suffered in the Pascha of the Jews, when the moon was on the fourteenth day in the first month, on this fourteenth day in the Pascha of the Jews; whence then has this ill-named heresy taken the fourteenth day from the solar month and not from the lunar month, unless clearly from the deceiving demon? Nevertheless, even this, though it has fallen away from the ecclesiastical number, still comes from there to the three-day period. And let this be dismissed; but since I have taught that every heresy hastens, as it were, to bring together the terms more or less, I wish now first to refute the Jews, and then to set forth the causes of the gathering of Christians.

This term of the passion stands at the church: the spring equinox, the fourteenth according to the moon, and the three-day period of Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We need these things concerning the place, and thus it happens properly, not by innovation otherwise but according to the tradition of Moses himself, who kept the fourteenth according to the moon after the equinox. I have wise Hebrews as witnesses. For one must not now heed the folly of the Jews—they themselves have obliterated all the just things of the law—but it is fitting to hear the wise Hebrews who recount; and from them it is necessary to define the vote and to proclaim these as transgressors, while establishing our argument as sufficiently testified from that source as well. For the Jews have separated themselves from all good things; for instance, they also rejected the scriptures when the seventy-two wise men translated them. For so many ancient Jews were occupied with that history, chosen from the best by the best for the translation of the scriptures, which were still then in Hebrew characters and approved, and the interpretation was approved, and curses were imposed by all the Jews if anyone should alter the interpretation.

And these things we observe for these reasons, hearing Moses say, "Every word shall be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses," but no longer two, but we have gladly accepted the change on the testimony of seventy-two witnesses. But as long as the wise men of the Jews survived, the matters of the change were confirmed; but when the lawlessness against the Savior occurred, all the beauties among the Jews were extinguished. There is a prophet who proclaims, "Behold, the Lord Sabaoth will remove from Jerusalem and from Judea the strong man and the strong woman, the strength of bread and the strength of water, the giant and the strong man, and the warrior, and the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder, and the wise architect, and the intelligent hearer; and I will set young men as their rulers, and mockers will rule over them." This prophetic oracle overtook the multitude of the Jews; and in a desert of understanding, in a desert of a prophet pointing out what saves, they destroyed the traditions of their own wise men and despised the curses, and the just things of the law were thereafter endangered. So, just as they moved the scriptures and rejected the interpretation of those wise men, persuaded by the change of some one proselyte to the rejection of so many men and curses, so also they corrupted the term of Passover. We have wise Hebrew witnesses, such as Philo and Josephus and certain others, who in their own writings affirm that Passover cannot be accurately celebrated otherwise than after the spring equinox has arrived.

And these from the beginning define that such a sequence is to be observed with the fourteenth day of the moon according to the moon, as has often been said. And these, clearly, as all Jews know, came into being after the passion of the Savior, having lived much later in time, so that it is evident that the Savior also suffered at the Passover of the Jews after the equinox. You have, then, also from the testimony of the wise Jews that the Jews who are now rejected, from the beginning, after the equinox, on the fourteenth day of the moon, celebrated the Passover of the sheep. Let this stand for now, so that from this the matter at hand may be demonstrated. For the remaining Jews celebrate the Passover before the equinox indifferently, unless, when an intercalary month occurs, they are involuntarily extended beyond the equinox; this is not a matter of intention but simply of what happens. For instance, now in the present they celebrate before the equinox, and they are accused by the wise Jews of being transgressors of the †anointing†. 17 But we have the power of the mystery inviolate. For the time at which the Savior suffered is not unknown; for the records of the acts under Pilate also contain the date of the Passover. It is recorded, then, that the Savior suffered on the eighth day before the Kalends of April; this date, then, falls after the equinox, and has been apprehended by those who are precise. And hold this rule, so that you may see that Christ suffered on this date, and that, knowing this, you may always observe the Passover after the equinox, imitating Christ, and flee from the lawlessness of the heretics, and seek the reasons for the times.

I will now attempt to enumerate these in order by place, so as to demonstrate the harmony of the mystery with the ancient dispensation. Christ suffered after the equinox, and he suffered on a Friday, as we know and the scriptures have indicated, with the fourteenth day of the moon coinciding with the Friday. For he suffered at the Passover of the Jews; and the Passover of the Jews at that time brought together all the times relative to the Passion—the equinox preceding, the fourteenth day present, and Friday, Sabbath, and Sunday coordinated. Why did these things happen and for what reason? I must now speak and render the theory of each of the matters at hand, the argument not being improvised from my own tongue, but the argument being shown trustworthy from trustworthy facts. That the equinox precedes the truly first time is evident in the creation of God. For first we seek the month on account of the first time; and the first time must have its beginning in the first day and night arranged equally. For no other beginning suited the first time than the equality of these said elements; for it was necessary, when time and day and night were just coming into being, that the origins of these be shown defined in equality, and then that irregularity be permitted to motion; for if motion had irregularity, creation had to show equality. Nevertheless, I wish to demonstrate this from scripture: "In the beginning," it 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." This light first came into being when darkness had overtaken everything. "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light, and God separated between the light and between the darkness, and God called the light day and the darkness he called night." You have the first day and the first night. What then? How did he say that "God separated between the light and between the darkness," which he ordained into night? For the "between" creates the two extremes. Since everything that God created he created with a defined nature, it is reasonable that he also brought forth the first day and the first night with a defined and equal circumference; and having completed the measure, he saw that it was very well, and then, as I have already said, he left it to motion to produce the irregularity. If, then, the first standstill occurred in equality, the equinox is the beginning of the first time, as has been demonstrated. Then after the equinox, note what I say: on the fourth day the sun and moon come into being—the luminaries are outside the equinox—on the sixth day he forms man; and then on the seventh he rests from all his works, and on the following day, which is also the first, as the whole was now completed, he left it to be carried on in order. Pay attention; for with these things observed and your memory present, the interpretive discourse must succeed.

God made man in this way, and as a good God he made man so great and of such a kind. Do not look at his foolishness, but imagine his original state; for he made him "in his own image." And to show his nature vying with the stars, he indicates that he placed him naked in paradise, not needing clothing. For shame had not yet come together with his appearance, so that man would need covering, but scripture testifies that he made man "and placed him in paradise," and that they were naked "and were not ashamed," but just as the sun and moon take pride in their own nakedness, so too were these left to be adorned with their natural comeliness. Having therefore brought such great benefaction to him, having established him in luxurious living in paradise, having richly bestowed upon him his own graces, he also justly seeks his obedience and decreed that the grace be honored by obedience. And when he saw that it was impossible for him to preserve the gift unless he took refuge in and honored the God who gave it, he establishes a law as a guardian of his nature, so that by memory and aid of the lawgiver, as by good drugs, he might be preserved, and he promises immortality if the law is kept, but death if it is transgressed.

But while these things were so, what happened happened, and man, persuaded by the devil's envy to transgress the law, became corruptible and was cast out of paradise, and thereafter, having given himself over to a multitude, lived a brutish life and became a vessel of impiety and licentiousness. And for this reason the prophets cried out concerning both his former dignity and his subsequent unworthiness: "Man, being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts and became like them." These things being so, and nature being destroyed, the only-begotten son of God, with the Father's consent, wishing to lead man back and snatch him from the impending punishment, devised both a time and a manner for the help: a time, that he might opportunely apply the healing; a manner, that he himself might be suitable for the restoration through purification. And indeed, having become man while remaining God, he underwent the universal passion. I have often spoken about this sacrifice; I said many things previously, making demonstrations from the Jews themselves to Jews and from the Greeks themselves to Greeks, and an abominable

This sacrifice, which is both destructive of demons and of dangers and of enemies and of every shame, manifesting itself in the facts, so that I may not again, having taken up the discourse concerning those matters, hinder myself from the continuity of the argument before me. Since, therefore, the only-begotten son of God wished to procure resurrection for fallen man and to renew him and to restore him to his original state by his own passion, see what he does. Since he himself was the creator of the first man, he was also to be the healer of him when fallen, for the correction of the whole nature. He offers himself to the passion, and he takes the whole time for renewal which he also took for the creation, so that the end might appear in harmony with the beginning and the method of the creator the same. For he wished, since he had also set aside a most pure time for the formation of the first man, and this first time was defiled through the transgression, having been corrupted together with the transgressor and having rendered the subsequent age polluted, to take this same first time for the correction of man, so that by this purification through the passion he might also render the subsequent age purer from its beginning, so that he might show at once both the renewal of man and the purity of the age, and clearly demonstrate the corrector and creator of nature from the temporal symbols themselves. What, then, is the first time? What is the beginning of the first time?

Equinox, brother, as we have shown, demands equal divisions of day and night, and the vernal equinox, whence the season of spring, from the very sequence of the history. For Moses records that on the third day God commanded the flowers and trees and herbs to come into being, and these are symbols of spring, agreeing with the artful way and order of God creating all things. Since, then, the first creation of man occurred after the equinox on the sixth day of the equinox—for man was created on Friday—and the full moon itself was also created after the equinox on the fourth day, but a fall from sin of man occurred, therefore his correction and renewal takes place at the same time as his creation, bringing together the equinox and the fourteenth day after the equinox and the sixth day, so that through all these times he might show the resurrection of the sufferer and the renewal and recapitulation of nature. For this reason the apostle, indicating this recapitulation as being accomplished by God, said: "Having made known to us in all wisdom and prudence the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he set forth in himself for the economy of the fullness of the times, to recapitulate all things in Christ, both those in the heavens and those on earth." Do you see how he speaks of a recapitulation of things on earth with things heavenly? And when a fall of man occurred and a separation from the piety of the heavenly angels, what else does he, providing to lead us back through the passion to this union, accomplish but a recapitulation of goods?

Therefore he also takes up the times of creation for the purpose of correction, and you are about to hear a very great mystery. For since these times coincide with difficulty, in the first manner, into one and the same week—pay attention, for that first week, I mean the one according to creation, had within itself the equinox at the beginning, then the full moon established on the fourth day, and immediately the sixth day, on which man was formed; but this cannot always happen in one and the same week—since it was difficult and hard to achieve in a single week, according to the first creation, to bring together these appointed times under one, and the savior needed the concurrence of these for the economy of the passion, in order to show the intended recapitulation, for this reason, though often sought by the Jews to be put to death, he escaped, as long as the concurrence of the times had not yet fallen into place. And you have in the Gospels that the Jews wanted to seize him, and the savior withdrew. And the ignorant considered this mystery to be cowardice; but it was not cowardice, but a watchful observance of the concurrence of the appointed times. When, however, the son of God brought the times together, when he fitted the week to the ancient creation, and the equinox, the full moon, and the preparation on which he was to suffer, and in suffering the renewal was to be shown, all coincided, then he gave himself over to the passion, and raising his eyes to heaven said: "Father, the hour has come; glorify your son, so that your son may glorify you," and to the disciples.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Thus it has been a matter of concern for the only-begotten Son of God to gather together all the first times, in which man, having been formed, fell, for the purpose of his correction, and to undergo the apostolic renewal of nature, the very conjunction of the appointed times being necessary for the matter. For this reason, at the Passion, the equinox is preserved as a kind of summit of time; for before this equinox, before day came, there was darkness, and it was not fitting to celebrate Passover in the place of darkness and to correct the fall, because the first man was not formed in darkness but after the light, after the equinox, and because until the spring equinox darkness prevails over light, but after the equinox day thereafter prevails over night, increasing, while night decreases. Therefore it was necessary that the Passion, which occurs for the purpose of correction, be manifested in such a state, in which the light of piety was to increase, while the darkness of impiety decreased.

The equinox has been preserved for the passion because of the recapitulation of the first time, and the preparation likewise, since the first man was formed on this day and it was necessary that, on the day on which he was formed and fell, he should also be set right. But scripture has taken the sabbath as a day of rest, speaking thus: "And God rested from all his works on the seventh day and sanctified it." Thus also the Lord, having once accomplished the recapitulation, having suffered on the preparation and completed the works of correction for the fallen man, rests on the seventh day and remains in the heart of the earth, having henceforth bestowed upon those in Hades the freedom from the passion. And that the Lord now rests from all works, since the fall of man from the transgression was seen, there remained again a work for God, which he was about to accomplish in order to bring back; having done this through the passion and having recovered the lost man whom he saved, he rested from all works on the day of the sabbath of the Passover, no work still remaining to be done for our salvation.

Thus, having preserved both the equinox and the preparation and the sabbath according to the ancient sequence for the passion, he displays the light of the resurrection on "the first day of the sabbaths," and this in accordance with the continuity of time; for this was again the first day of all time, which he then established as the beginning of sensible light and now, consistently, as the ancient beginning of the intelligible light of the resurrection. Having preserved all these things according to the first creation, and having also preserved the full moon, as we said, at that time after the equinox, it also has another wonder of its own, on account of which it has been preserved. For since darkness was to occur at the passion of the Savior, and the Greeks say that solar eclipses occur by the interposition of the moon, so that no one might evade the divine sign by means of Greek science, the fourteenth day of the lunar month has been taken, so that, with the moon being full, as it were in breadth, at the passion and rising opposite to the course of the sun at the diametrical point, the wonder might appear unshadowed, with retribution for the sacrilege being manifested, not science. For all these reasons Christ preserved the ancient times for the new passion; for this reason, therefore, we also preserve all the times, tending the imitation as an indication of the mysterious reasonings. But the Savior, accomplishing the true Passover for the sake of delivering all from the impending retribution, fittingly, as for a true and genuine Passover, gathered together all the aforementioned times with precision in the week according to the ancient pattern, so that he might accurately accomplish the recapitulation.

We, however, since the dates cannot always coincide in this way, making an imitation of the true pascha as far as possible, gather the imitation of the times around the place, yielding the exact arrangement of the times to the original pascha of the savior. Hence, once the only-begotten was sacrificed and sufficed for the economy, a lamb is no longer sacrificed, but the savior, being present at the passion, gives bread and a cup as an imitation of the most lordly sacrifice, performing the one as his own body and the other as blood through ineffable invocations, and commanding that the pascha be made in these types. Consequently, in accordance with the imitation, we also gather the times in imitation as far as possible, assembling the equinox and the fourteenth of the moon and the three-day period around the place, the fourteenth necessarily falling within the week, as the ancient practice showed, and the three-day period itself, and the equinox around the time of pascha, as it coincides. The savior, having displayed the most lordly pascha, rendered it an averting of the evils hanging over us—demons and idolatry and every corruption—and worked our nature free for the recovery of blessedness. But since he commanded, being present at the times and the passion, that we also, imitating him, do this with the symbols he gave, saying:

Do this in remembrance of me." Fittingly, each year, at the same remembrance after the equinox, for the salvation of us all, the repulsion of impending evils, and the reception of heavenly graces, imitating the Savior, we celebrate the Pascha with the utmost brightness of the whole world. For this reason we have cast off the ignorance of the heretics and the practice of the Jews concerning the mystery of Pascha, always taking the equinox for this purpose and seeking the fourteenth day after the equinox, and thus the Preparation, the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day named after the Lord, as has often been said, because the Lord himself observed these appointed times to indicate the enigma of the sheep, which the Law called Pascha, accomplished in him, being timely introduced in its place. See now, brother, the necessity of the matter for the demonstration of the truth. Moses commanded that the sheep be sacrificed on the fourteenth day of the moon in the first month, which the prophets proclaimed as a type of the Savior, whence they also applied it to the Savior himself and said: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb voiceless before its shearer; by his wound we were healed." Therefore, seeing him, the Forerunner John cried out: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Since it was fitting that, the reality having come, the type should cease, Christ sought no other appointed time than that of the sacrifice of the sheep, so as to demonstrate the substitution. For this reason he joins all the times, as I said, and the fourteenth coincides with the Preparation.

And, since the law commands that the sheep be slaughtered "toward evening" and "in the middle of the evening hours," the Savior observes both the day and the hour of the slaughter: the day being Friday, on which man was created, and the hour being the ninth, and around that ninth hour he expires on the cross. For "toward evening" is said to be from the seventh hour after the sixth, and "in the middle of the evening hours," if one begins from the seventh, the center of the ninth is completed, at which the wise among the Hebrews record the sheep is sacrificed. Therefore, at this hour of the slaughter of the sheep on Friday, the Savior, having given up his spirit, both demonstrated the substitution of the type and clearly made the recapitulation through the harmony of the times. And so great was the necessity of the substitution that, although it was the feast of Passover, the Jews were unable to postpone the pollution in honor of the feast, which others would have done, but having once willingly rushed to the murder, they received the punishment mingled with their impulse, as they did not know, for the most manifest revelation of the substitution.

The cause of the full moon in relation to the passion is also preserved for you, because, since the sun was about to be darkened from the sixth hour to the ninth on account of such an outrage committed against the Savior and to turn back its own rays like eyes, so as not to see the outrage, the full moon was appointed for the passion, so that a solar eclipse by the moon's interposition might not be supposed by the Greeks, but that, with the moon so far removed from the sun, the darkness "from the sixth hour" occurring at the Savior's passion, according to the gospel account, must necessarily be acknowledged to have happened on account of the sufferer. And a prophet, anticipating from above, cried out beforehand; for Amos says: "And on that day, says the Lord, the sun will set at noon and the light will grow dark in the day." And since this day was to be divided between light and darkness, another prophet, Zechariah, says: "And on that day there will be no light, and that day will be known to the Lord; and it will be neither day nor night; toward evening there will be light," and he makes the whole day ambiguous by the partial succession of darkness and light. And since the prophet cried out that the sun would be darkened at noon, and some were sometimes about to disbelieve whether this truly happened at the Savior's passion or not, there is a great sign now visible before your eyes, so that, seeing the restoration from the sign, you might be freed from the question. What then follows today? So that the Lord's voice might be shown, threatening the Jews, Amos, setting forth the passion of the Savior, the beloved of God, and opposing their lawlessness, says:

The sun will set at noon and will darken the light by day, and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into a dirge, and I will put sackcloth upon every loin and baldness upon every head, and I will set them as the mourning for a beloved one and those with them as a day of grief." For he has placed signs of the sun setting at noon: the transformation of feasts into mourning and of songs into a dirge, and God said he would do all these things for the sake of his own beloved; for such mourning, he says, will there be, and such necessity of justice, as will correspond to the worth of the beloved who was insulted. Observe then: if, from the time the Savior suffered, the calamities did not follow, if their feasts were not turned into mourning, if their songs were not turned into a dirge, the sun did not set at noon; but if you perceive the great wonder, that Christ was crucified on the feast of Passover, and that justice for this reason changed the feasts into mourning, with the Romans attacking and all the Jews fleeing as if into a common snare, Jerusalem, and in the very feasts themselves, as the history says, being consumed by sword and fire and famine and unending wails, so that, with them being constrained by so many evils, the transformation of both the feasts into mourning and the songs into a dirge manifestly came to pass, it is clear that, since these things came to pass before our eyes, the sun set at noon; for this is what the words signify. For the war consumed the Jews in mourning for a period of two years and extended the mourning of Judea up to the present day. For where is the temple? where is the priesthood? where is the kingdom? where is the base of operations?

Where is the city of the law? All is gone, all has been extinguished, all has been uprooted from its foundations and, with the setting of the sun, has turned into mourning. Since these things were done for the sake of great mysteries at the time of the Saviour’s suffering, for this reason we too, at each Passover, try to renew the significance of the mystery and gather together the appointed times as best we can. And we include the fourteenth day, not only for the other considerations already mentioned and those not mentioned, but also because the sun set at noon, so that the darkness might appear to be the work not of Greek art but of justice, as has often been said—not produced by the interposition of the moon, but by the moon rising opposite the sun’s course at the diametrical point and moving in such a way, as one might say, so that the fourteenth day might be an eternal sign for all of the miracle that occurred. We also include Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the reasons stated earlier, and we complete the whole contemplation of the mystery by the concurrence of the appointed times. We reject the folly of the Jews and the madness of the heretics who do not welcome this manner, and we set forth a complete character of the recapitulation of all things in the sacred celebration of Passover. For in all these appointed times of Christ’s suffering, it is necessary that we too, as far as possible, celebrate Passover in the same way; and if any of these is lacking, the imitation limps dangerously.

Since you have heard enough about these matters, it would now be necessary to state also the reason why the extension of Pascha occurs at present, which I promised at the beginning of my discourse. We have said, brother, that for the Passion one must take into account the vernal equinox, the fourteenth day of the moon (not before the equinox), Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If ever it happens that the fourteenth day of the moon falls before the equinox, we invalidate that one and seek another that ought to occur after the equinox, and in this case an intercalary month intervenes for the generation of the fourteenth day after the equinox. Now, brother, for this Pascha before us, the fourteenth day falls two days before the equinox and is invalid; therefore we seek to complete the lunar month and to take the following fourteenth day, so that in this we may accomplish the Passion in imitation of the Savior. Thus we require an intercalary month.

But just as we have observed that, if the fourteenth of the moon falls before the equinox, we require not that one but the one after the equinox fittingly, so again, when the fourteenth of the moon coincides with the Lord's day, we do not celebrate that Lord's day as the Resurrection, but we need the following Lord's day, because the fourteenth is of the Passion—for in this day Christ suffered, with Friday coinciding, and just as we do not recognize Friday as the Resurrection, neither do we recognize the fourteenth that is conjoined with it—and the Lord's day that ought to be defined for the Resurrection is ordained to be free of a day of the Passion. If, therefore, the number of the Passion, the fourteenth, falls together with it, we leave this one and pursue the next as free of the Passion. For since we have before us the imitation concerning the Savior in respect to the Passion and the Resurrection, we always preserve the Lord's day, which we are about to define for the Resurrection, free of the Passion, as the Master did, taking the Passion on the days before this one. Since you have observed this, now pay attention to what I say. Two days ago now, as I said, the fourteenth of the moon falls before the equinox; we are obliged to pass over this one and to accept the fourteenth after this one as after the equinox; but this fitting one again

The fourteenth of the seventh month coincides with the twenty-sixth, since it also falls on a Sunday. Since, then, the fourteenth falls on that very Sunday, we transfer the feast of the Resurrection to the following Sunday, finding it free from the paschal number, and thus, by joining a 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 extension. 53 If anyone wishes to object concerning the twenty-sixth of the seventh month that the fourteenth now coincides with that very Sunday, let him go to examine the refutation, if he wishes, and take the wise among the Greeks as witnesses to this, that the whole of that Sunday and the night after it until near the following Monday the fourteenth occupies. And let no one say that Easter has never occurred with such an extension. For this we have many witnesses who remember. Moreover, "never" truly never suits knowledge, but the reason of knowledge is always sought, and often it happens quickly, often more quickly, and again more slowly, and no knowledgeable person attends to the irregularity of times but to the harmony of reasons. How many times, do you think, in former times was it said, "It has never happened," and the art prevails? And what is the difference? For those who make accusations admit that Easter has often occurred on the twenty-ninth of the seventh month. So then it is a matter of three or four days, which they hesitate to concede to the knowledge. Where, then, is the difficulty from the paradoxical extension?

But they are amazed that Easter occurs so irregularly, at least as far as time is concerned. But this is not a wonder for the learned. Have you seen, brother, how poetic meters or tragic verses are some short, some shorter, and some more extended? The ignorant are utterly amazed at these, as if they were simply arranged so; but the craftsman who knows the harmony of meters understands the regularity of the art, even if the appearance of the verses seems irregular. For example, brother, now the Resurrection occurs on the second of the eighth month, but in the coming year it occurs on the seventeenth of the seventh month, and again in the following year on the ninth of the seventh month, and then in the third year the Resurrection will be recognized on the twenty-ninth of the same month, and no one is harmed by this, no one is grieved by this, but each seeks the harmony of the art and rejoices in the reasoning of the science. For the whole aim is that the fourteenth of the moon not occur before the vernal equinox, and that the Sunday designated for the Resurrection be free of the fourteenth, on account of which questions arise for those who do not accurately compute the reckoning. For the fourteenth must occur in the week before the designated Resurrection, but if it falls within the breadth of the week, ease of discovery is opened up; if it falls on a Sunday, then there is need of precise attention; for those who do not investigate sometimes produce the error that it is not the fourteenth but the fifteenth of the moon, which indeed has happened in the present case.

We therefore ought to stand firm and recognize that even now the extension occurs harmoniously. We ought to recognize these things, and before the coming week let the mind be pure and let it know that this is the first of the seven weeks that must be fasted. We, for our part, have fulfilled the word of promise in this matter, provided that the power of what has been said remains in memory. May God grant that all the mysteries be preserved in your hearts, and that you be in Christ, with whom glory is offered to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.