In postremum iudicium

A discourse on the fast of the final days. The first and middle contests of the most holy fast have been accomplished by the grace of God, and each according to his own power has culled the meadow of virtue. Today, however, this final peak of the contests has arrived, presenting more strenuous labors while weaving brilliant crowns. For the ends of every contest and every virtue are splendid. Therefore, those who are perfect also bring virtue to a perfect conclusion. Let the blessed David, then, say to this God-loving people the superscription of the divine scriptures: "For the end, do not destroy." The blessed David inscribed this prologue on many of his psalms: "For the end, do not destroy," that is, to what you have begun well, set a good end. The final peak of the contests presents brilliant struggles, not dissolved by toil but accomplished by desire. Toil by itself both wastes the flesh and does not benefit the soul; but desire both gives wings to the soul and renders the body lighter. For this reason we fast, brothers, not to wither the flesh, but to provide leisure for the soul, to lead it away from human concerns and teach it to contemplate divine things. For this reason we fast, to take up the bridle of temperance and, like the unruly leaps of a colt, to beat back the impulses of desire. For this reason we fast, to cut out also the things previously mentioned by the good teacher—I mean the many-headed evil, the serpent that has many heads.

Many are the heads of the serpent, the manifold vices. He said that the first vice is pride: for the beginning of pride is to depart from the Lord. Nothing is more abominable than pride; such an evil that it is hated even by the proud themselves. For what proud person endures seeing another proud person with a gentle eye, and, having it himself without shame, is disgusted when he sees it? Such is vice. It does not renounce its own work. The fornicator is ashamed to be called a fornicator, and what he takes pleasure in doing, he is ashamed to hear. The proud man hates his own passion and abhors the name. Therefore the prophet Isaiah, looking upon the coming of the Lord against every sin, specifically prepares it against the proud, saying: Behold, the day of the Lord Sabaoth arrives against every insolent and proud and haughty one. And then, likening pride to various elevations, see what he does. He calls the proud mountains and hills and cedars, and further on, walls and towers. And then, when he shows their height, he interprets their downfall. That Scripture denounces pride with so many names, hear the prophet saying: Behold, the day of the Lord Sabaoth arrives against every insolent and proud one and against every cedar of Lebanon, of the high and lofty, and against every oak tree of Bashan and against every high mountain and against every ship and against every spectacle of ships. And having enumerated cedars, trees of Bashan, mountains, hills, walls, towers, in order to show that he is not speaking about perceptible things, but denounces pride in men, he added:

And the height of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted on that day. See: And the height of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted on that day. He called pride a boundary, a hill, a wall, an unsafe tower, but as having only a lofty appearance. If we wished to examine accurately, he also called virtue in these men by these names. He called the virtue of a righteous man a wall and a tower, as God says to Jeremiah: Behold, I set you as an iron pillar and a bronze wall, and they will war against you and not be able. One wall is fortified by piety, another wall is raised up by pride; the one has the appearance of form, the other shines in power. For let this not pass by your attentive and eager-to-learn soul. Scripture is accustomed to use the same images for virtue and vice, not confusing the nature of things, but taking the proper sense for evil and assigning the proper sense to virtue. Divine Scripture also called the proud man a cedar of Lebanon: I saw the impious man exalted and raised up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold he was not, and I sought him, and his place was not found. Behold, the righteous man is again a cedar: The righteous man will flourish like a palm, will be multiplied like the cedar in Lebanon, he will not be raised up. The righteous were called mountains, not because of the height of pride, but because of the magnitude of virtue. His foundations are in the holy mountains. What mountains, in which the foundations were fixed? Hear Paul saying: You are the building of God, built upon.

Those are mountains, but they are luminous mountains. But see, the mountains of impiety are dark, concerning which the prophet says: Woe to those who stumble against dark mountains. He calls the deception of demons, the swelling of pride, dark mountains. He calls the apostles luminous mountains, through whom God flashed like lightning. For since the sun's rays for the most part first strike the peaks of mountains, and the beneficence of God, rising, first reaches the heights of virtues, he calls the righteous mountains, because just as those, having their nature from the earth, stand above the earth, so also the prophets and righteous, having their nature from men, have a way of life above man. Concerning these mountains the blessed David said: You shine wondrously from eternal mountains; for through the prophets the light of piety shone forth. But let us return to the subject at hand. How does Isaiah brand pride? And the height of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted on that day. But from this see again the magnitude of the theology of Christ; for nowhere does a prophet speak without breathing Christ; a prophet utters nothing apart from Christ. He hymns Him, and theologizes His Father; even if he mentions the Father, he makes the Son shine forth in theology; even if he proclaims the Son, he flashes forth the Father; even if he speaks of the Father, he proclaims the Spirit. The Trinity is inseparable, the kingdom is undivided.

What then does it say? "And the height of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted on that day." For the eyes of the Lord are high. But man is lowly, and the height of men shall be humbled. And then, having hidden them, they bring in their handmade idols, bringing them into caves and into the holes of the earth and into the crevices of the rocks, from fear of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he rises to shatter the earth. What fear of the Lord does he describe, and fleeing what Lord do they hide the idols? For these things have no need of interpretation, since the Scriptures bear witness: "And they shall hide their handmade idols, bringing them into caves and into the holes of the earth and into the crevices of the rocks, from before the fear of the Lord, when he rises to shatter the earth." That is, to judge the earth. And who is the judge? The Father judges no one; he has given all judgment to the Son. The blessed David agrees with these things, saying: "O God, give your judgment to the king.

But since there is need of irrefutable and unforced testimony against those who contradict, it is necessary to present sufficient and clear testimony so that the prophecy of Isaiah may be shown to refer to Christ. For just as the saying, "I live, says the Lord: every knee and every tongue will bow to me"—Paul, appearing, showed that the prophecy is taken as referring to Christ, saying, "Why do you judge your brother, or why do you despise your brother? For it is written: 'I live, says the Lord, that every knee will bow to me.'" And Paul's teaching resolved the doubt of those who contradict. So also today let the same witness come forward, showing who this Lord is from whose face and from the abundance of whose power men will hide the idols. Pay close attention. Repeat the words. They will hide their handmade idols, which their fingers made, and they will hide them in caves and in the holes of the earth and in the crevices of the rocks from the face of the fear of the Lord, when he rises to shatter the earth. So the blessed Paul says, writing to the Thessalonians: "We thank God, brothers, for all your affliction and the persecutions which you endure, as a sign of the just judgment of God, that you may be deemed worthy of his kingdom, for which you also suffer. Since it is just before God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to you who are afflicted, relief with us, on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes from heaven with the angels of his power in a flame of fire, giving vengeance to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of his son.

who will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he comes to be glorified among his saints. He used the same expressions, he brought forth the same prophecy, giving eyes to behold the beauty of theology and to know that one who is proclaimed by the prophets and hymned through the Gospels; for one and the same God is he who both ordered the first things well and clearly formed the new things, and the tongue that sang beforehand said that from above he came down for our sake in a form like ours, not insulting his pre-eternal dignity, but honoring the incarnate economy. Behold the beauty of his theology; for already I see the flashes of the cross, how it also displays flowers, flowers not withering, but producing a crown of righteousness. Always the grace of the cross shines; it is not circumscribed by time, not divided by feasts, not limited by a festival. Yet this commemoration has more of the subject. This cross became the sword that slew that serpent, which we mentioned a little while ago, concerning which Isaiah said: And the Lord God will bring the holy sword, the great and the mighty, against the serpent, the ancient dragon. And the Lord will bring his holy sword, the great and the mighty. What is the great sword? What is the mighty? The Holy Spirit. The Lord will bring his holy sword against the dragon and will slay the dragon. For through the Holy Spirit the demons were destroyed, as he himself says.

But if I in the spirit of God cast out the demons—do you see the sword cutting? But listen to Paul’s interpretation: Take up the breastplate of righteousness, take also the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The sword of the spirit is that which cuts off the dominion of the demons, that which removes the heads of the dragon, that which silences the wickedness of heretics. Let them respect the dignity of the spirit; let them fear the kingdom of the holy and worshipful spirit. They will consider how many are made gods today through the holy spirit; for from the holy spirit they receive the formation of deification. He who forms others into divinity—is he himself alien to divinity? Do you not know the power of the spirit? Do you not know its energy? Listen to Paul clearly and plainly setting forth the unity, or rather the identity of nature of the spirit and God. For since he himself often called it spirit of God, spirit of Christ, it is possible for heretics to understand the spirit not as an identity of nature, but as a relationship. And just as a man is called a man of God, having been made by God, so also spirit of God, given by God, as having its existence from God. See then Paul’s caution: For God has revealed to us through his spirit. For the spirit investigates everything, even the depths of God. For just as no one knows the things in a man except the spirit of the man that is in him, so also no one has known the things of God except the spirit that is from God. If it is alien to the substance of God, how does it know it? Pay attention to the sequence of the words.

Just as no one knows the things of a person except the person's own spirit within him, so also no one has known the things of God except the Spirit of God. And to secure this again, he adds: But we did not receive the spirit of the world, but the spirit from God. But see, beloved, the refutation. Wickedness adds. It says: From these very statements it is shown that it is far removed from divine dignity; it searches the depths of God. For the apostle added a complete resolution of the matters under inquiry. Thus, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Therefore it does not search. But if the word troubles you and "searches" brings down inexperience upon the Spirit, if you also see God searching, what do you do? If the word "to search" troubles your mind, if you see God, whom you confess, searching, do you then suppose a condition of ignorance? Listen then to Paul saying: And the spirit itself intercedes for us. Is it not concerning the Holy Spirit? For it has been said many times that the spirit called the heart. I mean something like this: A sacrifice to God of a crushed spirit, a crushed and humbled heart God will not despise. Moreover, Paul himself interprets that the spirit now calls the heart: The spirit itself intercedes for us with unutterable groans; and the one who searches hearts—of whom? Of men—searches the depths of God. God often speaks about himself in human words that lead away from divine understanding, seen in power, not measured by expression. God once says concerning the Jews:

If they hide themselves on the peak of Carmel, I will search them out from there and take them. But see what they say. They have found a strange name for the Spirit and, as if they were masters, they say, "We honor or do not honor." "We do not call the Spirit God, but a sanctifying power." Pay close attention, I beg you. "We do not call the Spirit God, but a sanctifying power," he says. Therefore, is it as being able to sanctify from itself, or as receiving from another and dispensing? What is this very thing, "sanctifying power"? Does it sanctify from its own authority and power, or does it borrow the power from God and give it? For if it sanctifies from its own power, it is God. But if it receives from God and transmits, it differs in nothing from us. For we also, men by nature through the grace of God, but priests by dignity and ordination from God, sanctify those being baptized; and it is not possible for anyone to obtain sanctification without the hands of a priest. Call the priest, then, a sanctifying power. But he is not a sanctifying power, but a servant of a sanctifying power. What, then, do you wish this name, "sanctifying power," to be? The Spirit. For is the Father not a sanctifying power? Do you dare to say that the Father is not a sanctifying power? Do you dare to say that the Son is not a sanctifying power? But if the Father sanctifies, the Son sanctifies, the Holy Spirit sanctifies, why do you not call each a sanctifying power?

But by a euphemistic word he cleverly conceals his wickedness. I will pass over this with a single brief statement. I wanted to learn why, in baptism, one who considers the Holy Spirit alien to the divinity includes it. They say that because mortal nature could not first reach the Father, it receives the Spirit as its first guide. First, they say, the soul is illuminated by the Holy Spirit; then it advances to knowledge of the Son; then from the Son it advances to the Father. Behold the strange degrees of wickedness. Both the Lord's own saying and the experience of the facts fight against them. For if this were so, one ought to be baptized not first in the name of the Father, so that I might first be deemed worthy of the lesser, then in the Son, so that I might reach the middle, and then from the Son proceed to the perfect. But as it is, I am baptized first in the name of the Father. Why? The Savior said, "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son." Why also the Son? Have you condemned the power of the Father and introduced another power? Is it not sufficient for him to sanctify by himself?

Either grant the Trinity power and one divinity, and baptism has grace; or if you divide the nature, you insult the divinity. Do you introduce the signature of a slave after the signature of a king? Do you introduce the lowliness of creation after the master's authority? What does the Holy Spirit have in common with the Father? To set free? If it is a slave, how does it set free? It ought to acknowledge a favor, if it is not deemed worthy of freedom itself. But let these things be for the refutation of blasphemy. Let Paul say here: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." But since we must also await the teaching from the Holy Spirit, so that the proclamation of piety may truly be sealed by the holy Trinity, let us stop the discourse at this point, secure our own understanding, and fortify ourselves with the orthodox faith, following in the footsteps of the prophets, with the strongholds of the apostles, so that the arrows of wickedness, which the Lord Jesus will render powerless, may have no place; to whom is the glory and the power now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.