In pretiosam et vivificam crucem

On the precious and life-giving cross; and on the words, "Are you the one who is coming, or shall we expect another?"; and on the blind and speechless man; and on the saying of the prophet Habakkuk, "Lord, I have heard your hearing and I was afraid." Well and wisely has the tongue that preceded us displayed the rays of the cross. It proclaimed the cross: simple in word, but great in power. It proclaimed the cross, at which unbelievers laugh and demons tremble. It proclaimed the cross, which the Jews set up and the world worshipped. It also showed its rays. For it posits virginity shining as rays of the cross; and it shone not simply, but revealed its beauty by providence. And hear how. The cross took the world fornicating and revealed it to all as chaste. The rays of the cross are not proclaimed by words, but are interpreted through deeds. The cross has no need of a persuasive tongue or an interpreting word, but of a grateful soul and works of righteousness. Since the cross was set up, drunkards fast; since the cross was set up, fornicators became heralds of piety and chastity; since the cross, tax collectors became evangelists, and persecutors were shown to be heralds of piety; since the cross was set up, paradise has been opened. And the prophetic word also brought forward the memory of the cross and its root. The root of the cross is virginity, the virgin who bore the suffering one; bearing not by the law of nature, but by the power and energy of the craftsman of nature. Do not, then, demand a husband for the virgin, since you will be demanded a wife for Adam.

If you say, "How did the Virgin give birth without a husband?" I will say to you in turn, "How did Eve come forth from Adam without a woman?" And why must I compare body to body? Who is this contentious Jew? Let him be ashamed, that while reading he understands nothing. Do you doubt how the Virgin gave birth? Let him explain how the rock gave forth water, having no underlying vein, no river spread beneath, no root of waters. But here is the marvel. This rock was dry and barren, and the rod was dry and barren. A barren rod, touching a barren rock, brought forth water. The power of the Most High overshadowed the Virgin; she herself, living with the immortal life, and touching living flesh—did she not bring forth fruit, as the rock brought forth water? But neither then did the rock bring forth water, nor the rod that struck it, but the power of God, which was beheld through them. The rock was only the visible thing. Rather, the visible thing was a rock, but the thing understood was Christ. Paul interprets that the rock was an image of Christ. "For they drank," he says, "from a spiritual rock that followed." And the rock was Christ. The rock bore the type of the Lord, the rod bore the type of the cross. And this history interprets the power of the cross. Moses struck the rock once and twice. If it obeys by the power of God, what need is there of a second blow? But if he strikes apart from the power of God, neither a second, nor a tenth, nor a hundredth blow can impose a fertile nature on a barren nature. If, then, the work is simply of God and without the mystery of the cross, the one blow would have sufficed, a nod would have sufficed, a word would have sufficed.

But to show how the grace of the cross is manifested and that Christ otherwise does not pour forth his beneficence except as seen through the cross, Moses struck once and twice, not in the same pattern, but tracing a cross. He struck once and twice. Why once and twice? So that even the inanimate nature might reverence the symbol of the cross. For if, in the absence of a king, an image of the king fills the place of the king—and rulers worship, sacred new moons are celebrated, rulers go out to meet, and peoples prostrate themselves, not looking at the plank but at the likeness of the king, not contemplated in its substance but transmitted in the depiction—if an image of a mortal king has such power, could the cross, the image of the immortal king, not, merely by appearing, split a rock and move heaven and the whole world? Or have you not heard how the blessed David questions creation? Since Moses struck the sea with a rod and with the same rod struck the rock, and performed every sign through the rod, David asks creation: "What is the matter with you, sea, that you fled, and with you, Jordan, that you turned back?" "What has happened," he says, "that the boundaries of nature have been changed? Why have the foundations of creation been shaken? What is the matter with you, sea, that you fled? For so many ages you remained in your form. Never did the flowing rivers drive you from the deep; you did not yield to so many currents, and now, what did you see that you were shamed? Why did you yield? Why did you dissolve the ordinance of the lawgiver who commanded you, 'You will go this far and not beyond'?" He set an eternal law for the sea, and it will not transgress.

If, then, you received such a law, why do you split the stream? What is the matter with you? For what has happened? What have you seen? What have you suffered? What is the matter with you, sea, that you fled, and with you, Jordan, that you turned backward? And you, mountains, that you leaped like rams, and you, hills, like lambs of sheep? The inanimate thing was asked and it obeys and answers: "From the face of the Lord." Of which? For what face did you see in the sea? What face did you see in the rock? You saw Moses and a rod. A face did not appear. Nor did the scripture say, as is customary, that the Lord appeared in the sea and the Egyptians saw and were afraid; but Moses was there holding the rod. And creation says: "From the face of the Lord the earth was shaken. From the face of the Lord." Of which? Of the one who turned the rock into pools of water. It calls the rod the face of the Lord, because it bore the image of the crucified one. That the rod of Moses is an image of our Savior, hear the prophet David describing in another type: "The Lord said to my lord: Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a footstool under your feet. The Lord will send you a rod of power from Zion, and rule in the midst of your enemies." Do you see that that rod was an image of the rod of power? When it says "rod of power," it speaks of the token of a royal rod. The rod of righteousness is the rod of your kingdom. "Rod of power," that is, a powerful kingdom. Powerful for what? Because it accomplishes opposites through opposites: through suffering it grants us impassibility. Through death it bestows immortality. Through the cross it crucifies the demons.

Through the manifestation of the rod, he triumphed over the phalanx of demons. Naturally, then, it is a rod of power, prevailing not from its followers but from its enemies, from the adversaries it overcomes. The earth was shaken at the presence of the Lord, who turned the rock into pools of water. Oh, the ingratitude of the heretics! The rock, beholding the rod, felt shame. The rock saw an image of the cross and felt shame; heretics saw the Savior himself and did not blush. The rock, beholding an image of the cross, brought forth what it did not possess; heretics saw the Savior and denied what they had received. That one brought forth what it did not have; these deny what they received. They received faith and denied faith; they received illumination and denied the power of that illumination. But let us come to the physician of our souls, who both instructs us by word and fortifies our city with his own relics—I mean John the Baptist, who washed us today with the word of repentance. Let us see him, as he sends to the Savior, instructing us in the truth. For today, as was read to your ears, John the Baptist sent to our Lord Jesus Christ, saying, “Are you the one who is coming, or do we await another?” This hesitation seems somehow contrary to the prophet’s declaration. For the phrase “Are you the one who is coming, or do we await another?” appears, in its wording, to belong not to one who has already believed, but to one who is still inquiring. Let the prophet and forerunner be questioned, then: “If you are still inquiring, how did you bear witness? Why did you say at the baptism?

Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Why did you say, "He stands in your midst, whom you do not know"? And, "He who comes from above is over all"? How did you address the Savior, saying, "Lord, I have need to be baptized by you"? Is it not your voice: "I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize in water told me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove and remaining on him, that is he'"? Even if the testimony of the Father confirmed you, and the sight convinced you, and you proclaimed, and those who heard believed, why do you set aside your former knowledge and assume a guise of ignorance? The prophet is not ignorant; he does not ignore the master whom he worshiped in the womb. He does not ignore the benefactor, whom he also indicated through the leap. He does not contradict his own words; rather, he strengthens the opinions of the disciples. For since he was in prison—for it is written that John, being in prison, sent to Jesus—since he was in prison, cast there by Herod because of his reproof of licentiousness, as a prophet he saw that the contests had come to an end and that he was about to depart from the world and run to his own judge, and a great crowd of disciples surrounded him, and many Jews thronged around him, wishing not to leave the flock deserted and wishing to present those taught by him to the true teacher, he does not send to him with the confidence and confession that were his own. Therefore he did not say, "Since I am departing from the body, go to Christ.

The teacher is sufficient. For testimony easily falls under suspicion. But see the remarkable thing: as a prophet, so that he might both avoid the suspicion of testimony and present the very activity of truth. He sends the disciples to Jesus, having understood—or rather, as a prophet, having seen—that at the time when the disciples were going, the Savior was found performing miracles, so that, becoming spectators of the miracles, they might in form observe, but in truth receive the Savior of the world. For it is one thing to testify in word, another to present the truth of deeds. "Go," he says, "ask him and say: John the Baptist says," hinting that I have not forgotten the things of the baptism; I know whom I baptized, the redeemer of the world, I who am in need of redemption. "John the Baptist says: Are you the one who is coming, or do we await another?" The disciples came and walked at the door of truth; they went to learn, and the miracles were found teaching. For the evangelist says: "At that hour Jesus healed many diseases, cast out many demons, and performed many cures. At that hour." Which hour? The one in which John sent. For as a prophet he fitted the sending of the disciples to the time of the miracles. Then those sent declare the intention of the sender, or rather they speak in the very words: "John the Baptist sent us, saying: Are you the one who is coming, or do we await another?" The Savior says: "Go, tell John what you see and hear." He does not say this sending to John, but corrects their understanding.

Go and tell John what you see and hear. There is no need of words. There is need of eyes as witnesses and of a tongue testifying to what has been seen by sight. And what shall we say? The blind see and the lame walk. Say these things, say them with that tongue; say them to yourselves in your mind. Report to the one who has no need of words. Report to yourselves what you know through the deeds. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, the poor are evangelized. And blessed is whoever is not scandalized by me. Pay close attention. He did not say: Blessed is John if he is not scandalized—for he did not know any such divided notion of the prophet—but, Blessed is whoever is not scandalized by me. That is to say, blessed are you, if you are not scandalized. What does "Do not be scandalized" mean? He says, you are blessed if you do not look at the visible body and from it deny the divinity, but instead learn from the miracles the God who is active in the body. And he says God is active in the body, not as he was active in the prophets, nor as he was active in the apostles, but active as dwelling in and united with and taking up into himself the form of Adam, that is, the humanity.

The blind see. And what is this in response to the question, “Are you the one who is coming?” For they did not say, “What do you do? What are you doing? What signs do you show?” When asked, “Are you the one who is coming?” he shows something else: that these are the signs of the one who is coming. And how is it clear that these are the signs of the one who is coming? Because they often disbelieve me, and looking at the body and being scandalized, they will question Isaiah, who proclaimed these wonders before these wonders. For listen to what Isaiah says: “Take courage, hands that are relaxed, and knees that are paralyzed; be comforted, you who are faint-hearted in mind; take courage, do not fear. Behold our God, behold the Lord comes with strength.” And what does the one who is coming do? He opens the eyes of the blind. “Then,” he says, “the eyes of the blind will be opened.” Go and tell John, the blind see; then the eyes of the blind will be opened. Compare the prophetic word with the evangelical word, so that you may see the prophet John and the forerunner speaking in harmony with Isaiah. “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened”; “the blind see”; “the deaf hear, and the ears of the deaf will hear”; “the lame walk, then the lame will leap like a deer”; “and the tongue of the speech-impaired will be clear.” And when did he make the tongue of the speech-impaired clear? A man possessed by a demon, deaf and mute, was once brought to the Lord, and what happened? Taking him aside and spitting, he touched his tongue. Why does he, who does everything by word, spit? He used spittle three times, this instrument. You find him using this remedy in three miracles.

In the case of the man blind from birth, when he spat and made mud, and in the case of another blind man, he spat into his eyes, and in the case of the deaf and mute man, he spat into his ears. He used this remedy a third time, not because he needed it, but because he was setting forth a mystical matter, since from the beginning the devil harmed these senses. For the woman saw the tree, that it was beautiful, seeing with the eye and hearing from the serpent. By what part? By hearing, because the venom of the serpent ran against hearing, and through hearing it filled the entire reservoir of the soul, and the whole man was filled with venom, so that he not only had it but also gave it. Since they were filled with venom, they were also found bearing venom—for the venom of asps was under their lips—the bitterness of the serpent was imparted also to the man, and from the man it was given to others. Since, therefore, the venom of a serpent is the spittle of a serpent, he introduces the antidote as a counter-poison, venom with spittle. For it is said naturally that what the venom of a serpent is to a man, that the spittle of a man is to a serpent. But my spittle overcomes the sensible serpent, while that of the Lord overcomes the intelligible one. He spits into the ears, so as to wash away the venom; and he opens the tongue, saying, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” For what the devil closed by transgression, the Savior opened by philanthropy. As for the blind man, not the one from birth, but taking another outside the village and looking at him, it says, he groaned toward heaven, and having groaned, he spat upon the eyes of the blind man. Why does he groan and why does he spit? Why does he not command as one in authority? Why does he not heal as God?

Why does he look up to the sky and groan? He does not speak thus from his divinity, but the form and the utterance reveal Adam. For he put on Adam, the fallen one, and was called Adam because he took up the form of Adam. The first man Adam was for a living soul; the second Adam is for a life-giving spirit. He looked up and groaned from the face of humanity, all but proclaiming through the groan the violence of the devil and saying: Behold how the creation is insulted! Behold how the tyranny of the devil has stifled the instruments fashioned by me! He groaned, sympathizing with humanity thus fettered by the devil, thus held by the tyranny of the devil. He groaned; he showed compassion. Then he also shows the action. And he spits upon his eyes and lays on his hands. He spits, so as to wash away the poison. He lays on his hands, so as to reveal the creator. For otherwise formation does not occur except by the hand of God being laid on; but by a noetic hand. And David bears witness to this word, saying: You formed me and placed your hand upon me. He laid his hands on him, and he regained sight. And the Savior asks him: What do you see? And he says: I see men walking like trees. He had not yet regained sight clearly, but he saw a faint gleam. Jesus laid his hands on him a second time, and he regained sight clearly. Was the power too weak to disperse the entire mist at the first application? Why did the first laying on of hands show the light more dimly, but the second restored it clearly? So that he might interpret the mystery.

That the first formation was not able to see the truth clearly was not due to the weakness of the craftsman, but to the dullness of the mind. The second regeneration gave him the power to see clearly. For this reason Paul says to this darkened formation: You will be darkened because of your senseless heart. For claiming to be wise, they became foolish. It was not the formation that was darkened, but their senseless heart. The blessed David, preparing the vessel of knowledge for the divine word, says: Come to him and be enlightened. He laid on his hands, looked up, and says: I see, he says, men walking like trees, because of the vital power, since the formation is moving and being carried about. Why does he see them as trees? Because it also anticipates the season, and sheds and has a temporary use. After this he does not see them as trees, but sees men. The first formation was like a planted and uprooted plantation. The second regeneration shows the man pure, the same image. The image of God does not fall under death. For if the image dies, the prototype is insulted. Thus he showed trees through all, with the energy flashing forth.

And fittingly, to the one who asked, he responds in form with the truth. Say to John what you see and hear: the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised, the poor are evangelized. Where are the poor evangelized? Not even this did Isaiah pass over in silence: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for which reason he anointed me, he sent me to evangelize the poor. The question, then, is not one of ambiguity, but of confirming the disciples, who had their hearts divided, that they not be divided concerning the benefactor, but know the one who came, and that he came. But you seek who the one who came is; you seek whence he came; let us ask. The prophet Habakkuk says: God will come from Theman. What is Theman? In the Syrian and Hebrew tongue, it means the south. Since the prophet, as a prophet enlightened by the Holy Spirit, knew that from the southern regions, that is, from Palestine, the savior was about to appear to the world, he says: God will come from Theman, and the holy one from a thickly wooded mountain. From which thickly wooded mountain? He calls Mount Zion thickly wooded, because it was overshadowed by divine power. And the wonderful thing, I beg you. For from here arises a great question requiring a great solution. The blessed Habakkuk, interpreting the one who came and who the one coming is, and that he is God and a God not known of old, but existing before the ages, yet manifested at the end of the ages, the prophet was astonished: He received the energy of the Holy Spirit. And since he worshipped God, thinking that the God proclaimed by Moses was God and that the God from God was not—for simple faith was given in the beginning—

Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord is one. — Having measured the word by the letter, the prophets were disposed as worshipping God, but not confessing another God, a Son of God. What then is revealed to the prophet? That the God who is worshipped has a Word who is God, and that he is about to be manifested to the inhabited world and to appear to the cosmos, not coming into being at his presence, but existing before the ages and being made known at his advent. What then does the prophet say? Since he heard and was astonished that God is made known from God — a new proclamation, a new word, new in its discovery, not in its nature — for there is in you no recent God, nor will you worship a foreign God — his heart filled with fear, he begins through the sacred ode to hymn the divine presence. Lord, I have heard your hearing and I was afraid. Have you heard my hearing? For before this, had you not heard? Am I not the one who spoke on Mount Sinai? Did I not speak through Moses? Did I not proclaim through the prophets before you? Did David not proclaim? For Habakkuk came many generations after David. For after fourteen generations, this is the one who passed through Babylon. For from David to the Babylonian exile there are fourteen generations, as the text says. If then the prophet Habakkuk was at the time of the Babylonian captivity, and Moses and Samuel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Elijah and Elisha and the most eminent of the prophets everywhere proclaimed God. Lord God of Abraham, Lord God of Isaac, Lord God of Jacob, hearken today in the fire. Each of the prophets proclaimed God, and it was transmitted by hearing.

You, prophet, who came after many prophets, why do you interpret as something strange what has long been worn by custom, what is already held in conscience, what is already held in opinion, what already shines forth in the conscience of the faithful, and why do you say with trembling: "Lord, I have heard your hearing and I was afraid"? From where have you heard, or who announced it to you, O prophet? You were not rightly astonished, nor were you rightly afraid. For what is proclaimed has no fear, but produces the joy of truth, fills with gladness. But I, he says, know what I heard. From where did you hear? From the God speaking in me. For God does not speak to prophets from outside, but is heard from within by the echo of the prophet, and does he not resound from within? From where is this? Habakkuk himself testifies: "I will stand at my watch and hear what the Lord God will say to me." I beg you, since I have fallen into this subject, to listen with goodwill and patience, so that the meaning may not pass by simply, stripped of its proper contemplation. For it is necessary to inquire from what starting point the word of God came to be necessary. Let the prophet interpret the savior, or under what subject. For God does not speak idly without a subject matter. And when God demanded teaching, the prophet Habakkuk, having nothing concerning the matter at hand, neither to theologize about the savior at that time, but concerning the unevenness of affairs, appealing to God and showing that life is full of unevenness and injustice prevails and greed tyrannizes, appeals to God: "Lord, why did you show me toils and labors, to look upon the miseries of men?" As if someone says: "Why was I born?

Shall I become a witness of the evils of the world? For what evil have you seen, O prophet? A judgment has taken place before me, meaning they were not ashamed even before the eyes of a prophet. God says to him: Do you wonder that they do not blush before you? They take before me and are not harmed. A judgment has taken place before me, and the judge takes. The ruler asks, and the judge has spoken peaceful words, pleasing to his own soul, not according to the will of the law, but according to the desire of his own soul. Because of this, the verdict comes out distorted. Then he says to God: Overseer of the world, who spares all, do you remain silent while the righteous man is swallowed up by the impious, and do you make men like the fish of the sea devouring one another, who have no leader? When he had made these entreaties and shown these things, as a prophet he begins to speak after completing his speech: I will stand at my post and listen to what the Lord will speak in me and what I will answer to my reproach. Behold what kind of solution he gives to the questions. Having inquired about the irregularity of affairs, why does he overlook these things happening? I will stand at my post, he says. What is a post? The righteous man calls a post not speaking rashly. When someone, brother, is perplexed about the manner of affairs in life, he ought not to answer rashly. Does God not take thought for the world? Is he not concerned with what happens? Has he abandoned the inhabited world? Does he not oversee the earth? As David denounces the wicked, saying: They humiliated your people, Lord, and they maltreated your inheritance; they killed the widow and the orphan, and they murdered the stranger; and they said:

The Lord will not see, nor will the God of Jacob understand. They have voted against you, attributing to you a lack of providence. A fool said in his heart, "There is no God, nor does God exercise providence." But I, the prophet, even if I am distressed by the disorder, I do not act rashly. I will stand at my post, meaning, I do not abandon my post. What post? That of not speaking rashly, nor of pronouncing on matters from human reasoning, but of awaiting God's teaching. I will stand at my post. He calls "post" the act of saying nothing rashly. Place, Lord, a guard over my body, and I will stand at my post and hear what the Lord God will speak within me and what I will answer to my reproach. He did not say, "What will God answer?" but "What will I answer?" For through the same prophet come both the accusations and the resolution of the accusations. And the Lord said to me, speaking from within, not uttering from without: "Sit down and write clearly on a tablet, into a book, so that the reader may run clearly," meaning, distinct letters, clear, evident, so that the difficulty of reading does not hinder understanding, so that the reader may run clearly. What then shall I write? That the one who is coming will come and will not delay. Since you seek a just judge who investigates what is hidden by power, who seeks out sins; since you seek a judge who examines what happens, who immediately demands all that is unlawfully contrived, the judge will come. That the one who is coming will come and will not delay. And he does not say, "Behold, I will come," but "Behold, he will come." I seek you as judge. Who else will there be, other than you, who comes and judges? But if the one who is coming will come and will not delay.

The righteous one will live by faith, judging not by sight, but storing up the truth in faith. That the one who is coming will come. Which one who is coming? Are you the one who is coming, or are we expecting another? That the one who is coming will come. Write nothing else. The solution of all questions is the presence of Christ. The one who is coming will come. Where Christ is, a question is resolved; where Christ is, fear and timidity are resolved. Once the disciples were afraid on the sea, and he says: Take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid. The presence of Christ is the solution of all evils. The one who is coming will come and will not delay. The righteous one will live by faith. If you believe that the righteous judge is coming to render to each according to his action, and you do not deny, seeing the apparent slowness, but await the truth that does not lie, you will live by faith. The divine apostle takes up this word with reference to the Savior. For we do not discern these things ourselves, but we follow our holy fathers and teachers, who discerned thus concerning the Savior. For Paul, discoursing, says: Holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, preserve the beginning of the faith. And having said some other things in between, he adds: That soon the one who is coming will come and will not delay. The righteous one will live by faith. Then he explains further: If you shrink back, my soul is not pleased. But we, brothers, are not children of shrinking back, but of faith for the preservation of the soul.

The one who is coming will come; he will come without fail and will judge. Behold, our God renders judgment and will render it; he himself will come. Where the presence is, there also is the judgment—the glorious presence, the future one, when the angel will sound the trumpet and all who are in the tombs will rise. Having heard these things and having conversed with God, and having heard of another judge and master coming, the prophet immediately cries out, his mind filled with amazement, and then addresses the one proclaimed: "Lord, I have heard your voice and was afraid; I have considered your works and was astounded—how you will be known in the midst of two living beings." Many have thought that "in the midst of two living beings" means between one life of this age and the future life. Others again think it means between two peoples. But everywhere the secure point stands: between the first covenant and the second. For these are the rational living beings, giving life to us all. For the divine words have a life-giving power. "You will be known in the midst of two living beings." In the approach of the years you will be recognized; when the time is present you will be revealed. For you have not yet been recognized, but "in the approach of the years" means "around the fullness of the times you will then be made known, then you will be proclaimed." So I heard this and was afraid; I considered your works and was astounded. What works did you consider? That the maker of heaven and earth, until now, is hidden from the world. For he was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. "In the approach of the years you will be recognized; when the time is present you will be revealed." It did not say "you will be born"; it did not say "you will be fashioned," but "you will be known." In nature he is eternal.

but in knowledge, new. When the time comes, you will be proclaimed, that is, you will be declared king. Then, having said this, he introduces the economy. "Our God will come from Theman," that is, from the south. "And the holy one from the mountain of thick forest." He calls the holy virgin and Theotokos a mountain of thick forest. Some also interpret this as Mount Zion. For it was overshadowed by divine power. "His virtue bent the heavens, and the earth is full of his understanding." He now begins to speak as to a friend and acquaintance. "You went out for the salvation of your people, to save your good ones. You mounted your horses upon the waters of the sea." What horses? The apostles. The sea is the world, as Isaiah says: "Woe to the multitude of many nations, like a surging sea, so shall you be troubled." "You mounted your horses upon the sea, stirring up many waters." The inhabited world was filled with disturbance. They heard a new proclamation, a strange king, a new legislation and teaching. They were so disturbed that when the blessed Paul came to Macedonia, the people in Macedonia cried out. Those who threw the inhabited world into confusion are also present here. Unbelief was disturbed; truth was established, to show that the same horses were both to disturb those who were astonished and to enlighten those who were sanctified. The one who said, "You mounted your horses upon the sea, stirring up many waters," the same one says in the same ode, "You will mount your horses, and your riding will be salvation." Having learned this, the prophet proclaims to the Jews: "Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I am doing a work in your days which you will not believe, not even if someone recounts it to you.'

Rather, thus: "See, you despisers, and look, and be annihilated, for thus says the Lord: Behold, I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe, not even if someone should explain it to you." He calls the work the economy of the Savior. What work, then, am I doing, that it is proclaimed by you but not believed? Paul again takes up this utterance well, and when disputing with Jews in Rome he says: "See, then, that what is written does not come upon you: 'See, you despisers, and look, and be annihilated, for I am working a work in your days, a work which you will not believe.'" But let these things suffice, so that I may also receive the teaching of the fathers; let the wounds of the sick be treated, let them approach the physician, the divine word that has received healing from God. The iron of the word knows both to cut the wound and to plug the cavities of the wound with the drugs of truth. For as in the case of those treating wounds, after the incision those dressings enter, and are inserted, so that they may give separation and not cause the sinews to contract, and by the packing the contraction of the evils is secured, so also God, when he opens up with the divine word, as with an iron the engraving, then with the divine commandments and divine teaching he packs them. The word is not mine. Listen to the prophet saying to those who have gone astray: "Take words with yourselves and say, 'Let us return to the Lord our God, for he has struck and will heal us; he will strike and pack and heal you.'" When? After two days. Why after two days? If it were entirely an act of God, it should have happened even in a single moment.

He will strike you and anoint you and heal you after two days. Since their greatest wound is the theomachy, the war against God, at the cross, the healing of those who crucified is the hope of the resurrection. The Savior rose after two days, on the third, and by rising from the dead he gave hope of salvation to all who repent. For from among those very crucifiers many tens of thousands believed, as Scripture says: Do you see, brother Paul, how many tens of thousands of the Jews who crucified believed? And after the cross, the God-fighters were healed by the power of the cross. Hence the prophet suggests the power of the resurrection, saying, Take words with yourselves, instead of, There is no need of a deed, no need to defend yourselves through actions, but through words. Since you sinned through words and a word led you into lawlessness, a word will heal you. Take words with yourselves and return to the Lord and say: Let us return to the Lord our God, because he has struck and will heal us, he will strike and anoint and heal us after two days. How and in what manner? On the third day we shall rise. But surely on the third day Christ rose, not the rest. Paul interprets: And he raised us up with him on the third day. We shall rise with him and live before him. To him is the glory and the power, together with the Father and the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.