08b - The Incarnation & Redemption (Part 3)

The Incarnation and Redemption.

(Part 3) Time, Eternity, and Redemption

Greek philosophy did not know and was in no way prepared to admit any passage from time into eternity, the temporal seemed to be eo ipso transitory. That which is happening can never become everlasting. What is born must inevitably die. Only what is unborn or unoriginated can persist. Everything that had a beginning will have an end. Only that which had no beginning can be permanent, or “eternal.” Therefore, for a Greek philosopher to admit future immortality meant at once to presuppose an eternal pre-existence. Thus the whole meaning of the historical process is a kind of descent from eternity into time. The destiny of man depends upon his innate germs rather than upon his creative achievements. For a Greek, time was simply a lower or reduced mode of existence. Strictly speaking, in time nothing is produced or achieved nor is there anything to be produced or achieved. The “eternal” and invariable realities are merely, as it were, “projected” into a lower sphere. In this sense Plato called time a “mobile image of eternity” (Timaeus 37d: είκών κινητόν τινά αιώνος ποιησαι). Plato had in view astronomical time, i.e. the rotation of the heavens. No real progress is visualized. On the contrary, time “imitates” eternity and “rolls on according to the laws of number” (38a, b), just in order to become like the eternal as much as possible. Time is just this permanent reiteration of itself. The basic idea is reflection, not accomplishment.⁷³ For everything which is worth existing really does exist in the most perfect manner before all time, in a static invariability of the timeless, and there is nothing to add to this perfected fullness.⁷⁴ Consequently, all that is happening is to be utterly transient. All is perfect and complete, and nothing to be perfected or completed. And therefore the burden of time, this rotation of beginnings and ends, is meaningless and tiresome. There is no sense of creative duty in the Greek, mind. The impassibility or even indifference of the sage seem to be the climax of perfection. The sage is not concerned with or disturbed by all these vicissitudes of the temporal order. He knows that everything is happening according to eternal and inviolable laws or measures. He learns amid the tumult of events to contemplate the invariable and eternal harmony of the Cosmos. The ancient philosopher out of time dreams of eternity. He dreams of the escape from this world to another, immovable, impassive, and permanent. Hence the sense of fate which was so typical before Christ. It was a climax and a limit of ancient philosophy. The temporal perspective of ancient philosophy is for ever closed and limited. Yet the Cosmos is eternal, there will be no end of cosmic “revolutions.” The Cosmos is a periodical being, like a clock. The highest symbol of life is a recurrent circle. As Aristotle put it, “the circle is a perfect thing,” and the circle only, not any straight line.⁷⁵ “This also explains the common saying that human affairs form a circle, and that there is a circle in all other things that have a natural movement, both coming into being and passing away. This is because all other things are discriminated by time, and end and begin as though conforming to a cycle; for even time itself is thought to be a circle.”⁷⁶ The whole conception is obviously based on astronomical experience. Indeed, celestial movements are periodical and recurrent. The whole course of rotation is accomplished in a certain period [the “Great Year,” μέγας ένιαυτός]. And then comes a repetition, a new circle or cycle. There is no continuous progress in time, but rather “eternal returns,” a cyclophoria.⁷⁷ The Pythagoreans seem to have been the first to profess clearly an exact repetition. Eudemus refers to this Pythagorean conception. “If we are to believe the Pythagoreans, then in a certain time I shall again be reading to you, with the same rod in my hands, and all of you, even as at this moment, will be sitting in front of me, and in the same way everything else will come again.”⁷⁸ With Aristotle this periodical conception of the Universe took a strict scientific shape and was elaborated into a coherent system of Physics.⁷⁹ Later this idea of periodical returns was again taken up by the Stoics. The early Stoics professed a periodical dissolution (έκ-πύρωσις) and palingenesis of all things, and then every minute detail will be exactly reproduced. There will be again a Socrates, the son of Sophroniscos and Phenareti, and he will be married to a Xanthippe, and will be again betrayed by an Anytus and a Meletes.⁸⁰ The same idea we find in Cleanthes and Chrysippus, in Poseidonius and Marcus Aurelius and all the others. This return was what the Stoics called the “universal restoration,” an άπτοκατάστασις των πάντων. And it was obviously an astronomical term.⁸¹ There will be certainly some difference, but obviously no progress whatever. And on a circle all positions are indeed relative. It is a kind of a cosmic perpetuum mobile. All individual existences are hopelessly involved in this perpetual cosmic rotation, in these cosmic rhythms and “astral courses” [this was precisely what the Greeks used to call “destiny” and “fate,” ή ειμαρμένη; vis positionis astroruni]. It is to be kept in mind that this exact repetition of worlds does not imply necessarily any continuity of individual existences, any survival or perseverance of the individuals, any individual immortality. The Universe itself is always numerically the same, and its laws are immutable and invariable, and each next world will exactly resemble the previous one in all particulars. But, strictly speaking, no individual survival is required for that. The same causes will inevitably produce the same effects. Nothing really new can ever happen. There is a continuity in the Cosmos, but hardly any true continuity of individuals.

Such was at least the view of Aristotle and the Aristotelians, and of some Stoics.⁸² This periodical idea was kept by the Neoplatonists as well.⁸³ It was a miserable caricature of the resurrection. The permanence of these rotations, this nightmare of invariable cosmic predestination, a real imprisonment of every being, make this theory dull and frightening. There is no real history. “Cyclic motion and the transmigration of souls is not history,” remarks Lossev wittily. “It was a history built up on the pattern of astronomy, it was indeed itself a kind of astronomy.”⁸⁴ The very feeling or apprehension of time is radically changed in Christianity. Time begins and ends, but in time human destiny is accomplished. Time itself is essentially unique, and never comes back. And the General Resurrection is the final limit of this unique time, of this unique destiny of the whole creation. In Greek philosophy a cycle was the symbol of time, or rotation. In Christian philosophy time is symbolized rather by a line, a beam, or an arrow. But the difference is deeper still. From a Christian point of view, time is neither an infinite rotation, nor an infinite progression, which never reaches its goal [“die schlechte Unend-lichkeit” in Hegelian terminology, or άπειρον of the Greek philosophers]. Time is not merely a sequence of moments, nor is it an abstract form of multiplicity. Time is vectorial and finite. The temporal order is organized from within. The concreteness of purpose binds, from within, the stream of events into an organic whole. Events are precisely events, and not merely passing happenings. The temporal order is not the realm of privation, as it was for the Greek mind. It is more than just a stream. It is a creative process, in which what was brought to existence from nothingness, by the Divine will, is ascending towards its ultimate consummation, when the Divine purpose will be fulfilled, on the last day.⁸⁵ And the center of history is the Incarnation and the victory of the Incarnate Lord over death and sin. St. Augustine pointed out this change, which has been brought about by Christianity, in this admirable phrase: “viam rectam sequentes, quae nobis est Christus, eo duce it Salvatore, a vano etinepto imporium circuitu iter fidem mentemque avertamus.”⁸⁶ St. Gregory of Nyssa describes the vectoriality of history in this way. “When mankind attains to its fullness, then, without fail, this flowing motion of nature will cease, having reached its necessary end; and this life will be replaced by another mode of existence, distinct from the present, which consists in birth and destruction. When our nature, in due order, fulfils the course of time, then, without fail, this flowing motion, created by the succession of generations, will come to an end. The filling of the Universe will make any further advance or increase impossible, and then the whole plenitude of souls will return from the dispersed and formless state to an assembled one, and the very elements will be reunited in the self-same combination.”⁸⁹ This end and this goal is the General Resurrection. St. Gregory speaks of inner fulfillment of history. Time will come to an end. For sooner or later things will be accomplished. Seeds will mature and shoot forth. The resurrection of the dead is the one and unique destiny of the whole world, of the whole Cosmos, One for all and each, an universal and catholic balance. There is nothing naturalistic about this conception. The power of God will raise the dead. It will be the new and final revelation of God, of the Divine might and glory. The General Resurrection is the consummation of the Resurrection of Our Lord, the consummation of His victory over death and corruption. And beyond historical time there will be the future Kingdom, “the life of the age to come.” We are still in via, in the age of hope and expectation. Even the Saints in heaven still “await the resurrection of the dead.” The ultimate consummation will come for the whole human race at once.⁹⁰ Then, at the close, for the whole creation the “Blessed Sabbath,” that very “day of rest,” the mysterious “Seventh day of creation,” will be inaugurated for ever. The expected is as yet inconceivable. “It is not yet made manifest what we shall be” (1 John 3:2). But the pledge is given. Christ is risen.

High Priest and Redeemer In the Epistle to the Hebrews the redeeming work of Our Lord is depicted as the ministry of the High Priest. Christ comes into the world to accomplish the Will of God. Through the eternal Spirit He offers His own self to God, offers His blood for the remission of human sins, and this He accomplishes through the Passion. By His blood, as the blood of the New Testament, of the New Covenant, He enters heaven and enters within the very Holy of Holies, behind the veil. After the suffering of death He is crowned with glory and honor, and sits on the right hand of God the Father for ever. The sacrificial offering begins on earth and is consummated in heaven, where Christ presented and is still presenting us to God, as the eternal High Priest - “High Priest of the good things to come” (άρχιερευς των μελλόντων αγαθών) as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, as the minister of the true tabernacle and sanctuary of God. In brief, as the Mediator of the New Covenant. Through the death of Christ is revealed Life Everlasting, “the powers of the age to come” are disclosed and shown forth (δυνάμεις τε μέλλοντος αιώνος). In the blood of Jesus is revealed the new and living way, the way into that eternal Sabbath, when God rests from His mighty deeds.

Thus the death of the Cross is a sacrificial offering. And to offer a sacrifice does not mean only to surrender. Even from a merely moral point of view, the whole significance of sacrifice is not the denial itself, but the sacrificial power of love. The sacrifice is not merely an offering, but rather a dedication, a consecration to God. The effective power of sacrifice is love (1 Corinthians 13:3). But the offering of the sacrifice is more than the evidence of love, it is also a sacramental action, a liturgical office, or even a mystery. The offering of the sacrifice of the Cross is the sacrifice of love indeed, “as Christ also hath loved us, and given Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2). But this love was not only sympathy or compassion and mercy towards the fallen and heavy-laden. Christ gives Himself not only “for the remission of sins,” but also for our glorification. He gives Himself not only for sinful humanity, but also for the Church: to cleanse and to hallow her, to make her holy, glorious and spotless (Ephesians 5:25). The power of a sacrificial offering is in its cleansing and hallowing effect. And the power of the sacrifice of the Cross is that the Cross is the path of glory. On the Cross the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him (John 13:31) Here is the fullness of the sacrifice. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26). The death of the Cross was effective, not as a death of an Innocent One, but as the death of the Incarnate Lord. “We needed an Incarnate God; God put to death, that we might live” - to use a bold phrase of St. Gregory of Nazianzus.⁹¹ This is the “dreadful and most glorious mystery” of the Cross. On Golgotha the Incarnate Lord celebrates the Holy Service, in ara crucis, and offers in sacrifice His own human nature, which from its conception “in the Virgin’s womb” was assumed into the indivisible unity of His Hypostasis, and in this assumption was restored to all its original sinlessness and purity. In Christ there is no human hypostasis. His personality is Divine, yet incarnate. There is the all-complete fullness of human nature, “the whole human nature,” and therefore Christ is the “perfect man,” as the Council of Chalcedon said. But there was no human hypostasis. And consequently on the Cross it was not a man that died. “For He who suffered was not common man, but God made man, fighting the contest of endurance,” says St. Cyril of Jerusalem.⁹² It may be properly said that God dies on the Cross, but in His own humanity. “He who dwelleth in the highest is reckoned among the dead, and in the little grave findeth lodging.”⁹³ This is the voluntary death of One who is Himself Life Eternal, who is in very truth the Resurrection and the Life. A human death indeed but obviously death within the hypostasis of the Word, the Incarnate Word. And thence a resurrecting death.

“I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:49-50). Fire - the Holy Spirit - descending from on high in fiery tongues in the “dreadful and unsearchable mystery of Pentecost.” This was baptism by the Spirit. And Baptism, this is the death on the Cross itself and the shedding of blood, “the baptism of martyrdom and blood, with which Christ Himself also was baptized,” as St. Gregory of Nazianzus suggested.⁹⁴ The death on the Cross as a baptism by blood is the very essence of the redeeming mystery of the Cross. Baptism is a cleansing. And the Baptism of the Cross is, as it were, the cleansing of human nature, which is travelling the path of restoration in the Hypostasis of the Incarnate Word. This is a washing of human nature in the outpoured sacrificial blood of the Divine Lamb. And first of all, a washing of the body: not only a washing away of sins, but a washing away of human infirmities and of mortality itself. It is the cleansing in preparation for the coming resurrection: a cleansing of all human nature, of all humanity in the person of its new and mystical First-born, in the “Second Adam.” This is the baptism by blood of the whole Church. “Thou hast purchased Thy Church by the power of Thy Cross.” And the whole Body ought to be and must be baptized with the baptism of the Cross. “The cup that I drink, you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized” (Mark 10:39; Matthew 20:23).⁹⁵

Further, the death of the Cross is the cleansing of the whole world. It is the baptism by blood of all creation, the cleansing of the Cosmos through the cleansing of the Microcosm. “A purification not for a small part of man’s world, not for a short time, but for the whole Universe and through eternity,” to quote St. Gregory of Nazianzus again.⁹⁶ Therefore all creation mysteriously partakes in the mortal Passion of the Incarnate Master and Lord. “All creation changed its face in terror when it beheld Thee hanging on the Cross, Ο Christ… The sun was darkened and of earth the foundations were shaken: All things suffered in sympathy with Thee, Who hadst created all things.”⁹⁷ This was not co-suffering of compassion or pity, but rather co-suffering of awe and trembling. “The foundations of the earth were set in trembling by the terror of Thy might,” co-suffering in the joyous apprehension of the great mystery of the resurrecting death. “For by the blood of Thy Son is the earth blessed.” “Many indeed are the miracles of that time,” says St. Gregory of Nazianzus, “God crucified, the sun darkened and rekindled again; for it was fitting that with the Creator the creatures should co-suffer. The veil rent in twain. Blood and water shed from His side, blood because He was man, and water because He was higher than man. The earth quaked, rocks were rent for the sake of the Rock. The dead rose up for a pledge of the final and general resurrection. The miracles before the grave and at the grave - who will worthily sing? But none is like the miracle of my salvation. A few drops of blood recreate the whole world and become to us what rennet is to milk, binding us together and compressing us in unity.”⁹⁸ The death of the Cross is a sacrament, it has not only a moral, but also a sacramental and liturgical meaning. It is the Passover of the New Testament. And its sacramental significance is revealed at the Last Supper. It may seem rather strange that the Eucharist should precede Calvary, and that in the Upper Room the Savior Himself should give His Body and His Blood to the disciples. “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). However, the Last Supper was not merely a prophetic rite, just as the Eucharist is no mere symbolic remembrance. It is a true sacrament. For Christ who performs both is the High Priest of the New Testament. The Eucharist is the sacrament of the Crucifixion, the broken Body and the Blood outpoured. And along with this it is also the sacrament of the transfiguration, the mysterious and sacramental “conversion” of the flesh into the glorious spiritual food (μεταβολή). The broken Body, dying, yet, in death itself, rising again. For the Lord went voluntarily to the Cross, the Cross of shame and glory. St. Gregory of Nyssa gives the following explanation. “Christ does not wait for the constraint of treachery, nor does He await the thieving attack of the Jews, or the lawless judgment of Pilate, that their evil might be the fount and source of the general salvation of men. Of His own economy He anticipates their transgressions by means of a hierurgic rite, ineffable and unusual. He brings His own Self as an offering and sacrifice for us, being at once the Priest and the Lamb of God, that ‘taketh’ the sins of the world. By offering His Body as food, He clearly showed that the sacrificial offering of the Lamb had already been accomplished. For the sacrificial body would not have been suitable for food if it were still animated. And so, when He gave the disciples the Body to eat and the Blood to drink, then by free will and the power of the sacrament His Body had already ineffably and invisibly been offered in sacrifice, and His soul, together with the Divine power united with it, was in those places whither the power of Him who so ordained transported it.”⁹⁹ In other words, the voluntary separation of the soul from the body, the sacramental agony, so to say, of the Incarnate, was, as it were, already begun. And the Blood, freely shed in the salvation of all, becomes a “medicine of incorruption,” a medicine of immortality and life.¹⁰⁰ The Lord died on the Cross. This was a true death. Yet not wholly like ours, simply because this was the death of the Lord, the death of the Incarnate Word, death within the indivisible Hypostasis of the Word made man. And again, it was a voluntary death, since in the undefiled human nature, free from original sin, which was assumed by the Word in the Incarnation, there was no inherent necessity of death. And the free “taking up” by the Lord of the sin of the world did not constitute for Him any ultimate necessity to die. Death was accepted only by the desire of the redeeming Love. His death was not the “wages of sin.”¹⁰¹ And the main point is that this was a death within the Hypostasis of the Word, the death of the “enhypostasized” humanity. Death in general is a separation, and in the death of the Lord His most precious body and soul were separated indeed. But the one hypostasis of the Word Incarnate was not divided, the “Hypostatic union” was not broken or destroyed. In other words, though separated in death, the soul and the body remained still united through the Divinity of the Word, from which neither was ever estranged. This does not alter the ontological character of death, but changes its meaning. This was an “incorrupt death,” and therefore corruption and death were overcome in it, and in it begins the resurrection. The very death of the Incarnate reveals the resurrection of human nature. And the Cross is manifested to be life-giving, the new tree of life, “by which the lamentation of death has been consumed.”¹⁰² The Church bears witness to this on Good Saturday with special emphasis. “Although Christ died as man, and His holy soul was separated from His most pure body,” says St. John Damascene, “His Divinity remained both with the soul and the body, continued inseparable from either. And thus the one hypostasis was not divided into two hypostases, for from the beginning both body and soul had their being with the hypostasis of the Word. Although at the hour of death body and soul were separated from each other, yet each of them was preserved, having the one hypostasis of the Word.

Therefore the one hypostasis of the Word was also the hypostasis of the body and of the soul. For neither the body nor the soul ever received any proper hypostasis, other than that of the Word. The Hypostasis then of the Word is ever one, and there were never two hypostases of the Word. Accordingly the Hypostasis of Christ is ever one. And though the soul is separated from the body in space, yet they remain hypostatically united through the Word.”¹⁰³

There are two aspects of the mystery of the Cross. It is at once a mystery of sorrow and a mystery of joy, a mystery of shame and of glory. It is a mystery of sorrow and mortal anguish, a mystery of desertion, of humiliation and shame. “Today the Master of Creation and the Lord of Glory is nailed upon the Cross, is beaten upon the shoulders, and receives spittings and wounds, indignities and bufferings in the face.”¹⁰⁴ The God-man languishes and suffers at Gethsemane and on Calvary until the mystery of death is accomplished. Before Him are revealed all the hatred and blindness of the world, all the obstinacy and foolishness of evil, the coldness of hearts, all the helplessness and pettiness of the disciples, all the “righteousness” of human pseudo-freedom. And He covers everything with His all-forgiving, sorrowful, compassionate and co-suffering love, and prays for those who crucify Him, for verily they do not know what they are doing. “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee?” (Micah 6:3) - paraphrased and applied to Our Lord in the Office of Good Friday, Matins, Antiphon XII, Troparion). The salvation of the world is accomplished in these sufferings and sorrows, “by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). And the Church guards us against every docetic underestimate of the reality and fullness of these sufferings ίνα μη κενωθη ό σταυρός του Χρίστου” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Yet the Church guards us also against the opposite exaggeration, against all kenotic overemphasis. For the day of the shameful Crucifixion, when Our Lord was numbered among the thieves, is the day of glory. “Today we keep the feast, for Our Lord is nailed upon the Cross,” in the sharp phrase of St. John Chrysostom.¹⁰⁵ And the tree of the Cross is an “ever-glorious tree,” the very Tree of Life, “by which corruption is destroyed,” “by which the lamentation of death is abolished.” The Cross is the “seal of salvation,” a sign of power and victory. Not just a symbol, but the very power of salvation, “the foundation of salvation,” as Chrysostom says - ύπόθεσος της σωτηρίας. The Cross is the sign of the Kingdom. “I call Him King, because I see Him crucified, for it is appropriate for a King to die for His subjects.” This again is St. John Chrysostom. The Church keeps the days of the Cross and cherishes them as solemnities - not only as a triumph of humility and love, but also as a victory of immortality and life. “As the life of the creation does the Church greet Thy Cross, Ο Lord.”¹⁰⁶ For the death of Christ is itself the victory over death, the destruction of death, the abolition of mortality and corruption, “Thou diest and quickenest me.” And the death of the Cross is a victory over death not only because it was followed or crowned by the Resurrection. The Resurrection only reveals and sets forth the victory achieved on the Cross. The Resurrection is accomplished in the very falling asleep of the God-man. And the power of the Resurrection is precisely the “power of the Cross,” “the unconquerable and indestructible and Divine power of the honorable and life-giving Cross,”¹⁰⁷ the power of the voluntary Passion and death of the God-man. As St. Gregory of Nazianzus puts it: “He lays down His life, but He has power to take it again; and the veil is rent, for the mysterious doors of Heaven are opened; the rocks are cleft, the dead rise… He dies, but He gives life, and by His death destroys death. He is buried, but He rises again. He goes down into Hell, but He brings up the souls.”¹⁰⁸ On the Cross the Lord “restores us to original blessedness,” and “by the Cross comes joy to the whole world.” On the Cross the Lord not only suffers and languishes, but rests, “having fallen asleep, as Thou wert dead.”¹⁰⁹ And He gives rest to man too, restores and renews him, “and resting on the tree, Thou hast given me rest, one who was overburdened with the burden of sins.” From the Cross Christ sheds immortality upon men. By his burial in the grave He opens the gates of death, and renews corrupted human nature. “Every action and every miracle of Christ are most divine and marvellous,” says St. John Damascene, “but the most marvellous of all is His honorable Cross. For no other thing has subdued death, expiated the sin of the first parents, despoiled Hades, bestowed the resurrection, granted power to us of condemning death itself, prepared the return to original blessedness, opened the gates of Paradise, given our nature a seat at the right hand of God, and made us the children of God, save the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The death of Christ on the Cross clothed us with the hypostatic Wisdom and Power of God.”¹¹⁰ The mystery of the resurrecting Cross is commemorated especially on Good Saturday. As it is explained in the Synaxarion of that day, “on Great and Holy Saturday do we celebrate the divine-bodily burial of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His descent into Hell, by which being called from corruption, our race passed to life eternal.” This is not only the eve of salvation. It is the very day of our salvation. “This is the blessed Sabbath, this is the day of rest, whereon the Only Begotten Son of God has rested from all His deeds.”¹¹¹ This is the day of the Descent into Hell. And the Descent into Hell is already the Resurrection.¹¹² The great “three days of death” (triduum mortis) are the mysterious sacramental days of the Resurrection. In His flesh the Lord is resting in the grave, and His flesh is not abandoned by His Divinity. “Though Thy Temple was destroyed in the hour of the Passion, yet even then one was the Hypostasis of Thy Divinity and Thy flesh.”¹¹³ The Lord’s flesh does not suffer corruption, it remains incorruptible even in death itself, i.e. alive, as though it had never died, for it abides in the very bosom of Life, in the Hypostasis of the Word. As it is phrased in one of the hymns, “Thou hast tasted of death, but hast not known corruption.¹¹⁴ St. John Damascene suggested that the word “corruption” (φθορά) has a double meaning. First, it means “all passive states of man” (τά πάθη) such as hunger, thirst, weariness, the nailing, death itself - that is, the separation of soul and body. In this sense we say that the Lord’s body was liable to corruption (φθαρτόν) until the Resurrection. But corruption also means the complete decomposition of the body and its destruction. This is corruption in the proper sense - or rather “destruction” (διαφθορά) - but the body of the Lord did not experience this mode of corruption at all, it remained even in death “incorrupt.” That is to say, it never became a corpse.¹¹⁵ And in this incorruption the Body has been transfigured into a state of glory. The soul of Christ descends into Hell, also unseparated from the Divinity, “even in Hell in the soul, as God,” - the “deified soul” of Christ, as St. John of Damascus suggests, ψυχή τεθεωμένη.¹¹⁶ This descent into Hell means first of all the entry or penetration into the realm of death, into the realm of mortality and corruption. And in this sense it is simply a synonym of death itself.¹¹⁷ It is hardly possible to identify that Hell, or Hades, or the “subterranean abodes” to which the Lord descended, with the “hell” of sufferings for the sinners and the wicked. In all its objective reality the hell of sufferings and torments is certainly a spiritual mode of existence, determined by the personal character of each soul. And it is not only something to come, but to a great extent is already constituted for an obstinate sinner by the very fact of his perversion and apostasy. The wicked are actually in hell, in darkness and desolation. In any case one cannot imagine that the souls of the unrepentant sinners, and the Prophets of the Old Dispensation, who spake by the Holy Spirit and preached the coming Messiah, and St. John the Baptist himself, were in the same “hell.” Our Lord descended into the darkness of death. Hell, or Hades, is just the darkness and shadow of death, rather a place of mortal anguish than a place of penal torments, a dark “sheol,” a place of hopeless disembodiment and disincarnation, which was only scantily and dimly fore-illuminated by the slanting rays of the not-yet-risen Sun, by the hope and expectation yet unfulfilled. Because of the Fall and Original Sin, all mankind fell into mortality and corruption. And even the highest righteousness under the Law could save man neither from the inevitability of empirical death, nor that helplessness and powerlessness beyond the grave, which depended upon the impossibility of a natural resurrection, upon the lack of power to restore the broken wholeness of human existence. That was, as it were, a kind of ontological infirmity of the soul, which, in the separation of death, had lost the faculty of being the true “entelechia” of its own body, the helplessness of fallen and wounded nature. And in this sense, all descended “into hell,” into infernal darkness, as it were, into the very Kingdom of Satan, the prince of death and the spirit of negation; and they were all under his power, though the righteous ones did not partake of evil or demoniac perversion, since they were confined in death by the grip of ontological powerlessness, not because of their personal perversion. They were really the “spirits in prison.”¹¹⁸ And it was into this prison, into this Hell, that the Lord and Savior descended. Amid the darkness of pale death shines the unquenchable light of Life, and Life Divine. This destroys Hell and destroys mortality. “Though Thou didst descend into the grave, Ο Merciful One, yet didst Thou destroy the power of Hell.”¹¹⁹ In this sense Hell has been simply abolished, “and there is not one dead in the grave.” For “he received earth, and yet met heaven.” Death is overcome by Life. “When Thou didst descend into death, Ο Life Eternal, then Thou didst slay Hell by the flash of Thy Divinity.”¹²⁰ The descent of Christ into Hell is the manifestation of Life amid the hopelessness of death, it is victory over death. And by no means is it the “taking upon” Himself by Christ of the “hellish torments of God-forsakenness.”¹²¹ The Lord descended into Hell as the Victor, Christus Victor, as the Master of Life. He descended in His glory, not in humiliation, although through humiliation. But even death He assumed voluntarily and with authority. “It was not from any natural weakness of the Word that dwelt in it that the body had died, but in order that in it death might be done away by the power of the Savior,” says St. Athanasius.¹²² The Lord descended into Hell to announce the good tidings and to preach to those souls who were held and imprisoned there (1 Peter 3:19 : ?? ? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ????????? ????????? ???????? and 1 Peter 4:6 : νεκροις εύηγγελίσθη), by the power of His appearance and preaching, to set them free, to show them their deliverance.¹²³ In other words, the descent into Hell is the resurrection of the “whole Adam.” Since “Hell groans below” and “is afflicted,” by His descent Christ “shatters the bonds eternal,” and raises the whole human race.¹²⁴ He destroys death itself, “the hold of death is broken and the power of Satan is destroyed.”¹²⁵ This is the triumph of the Resurrection. “And the iron gates didst Thou crush, and Thou didst lead us out of darkness and the shadow of death, and our chains didst Thou break.”¹²⁶ “And Thou hast laid waste the abode of death by Thy death today and illuminated everything by Thy light of the Resurrection.” Thus Death itself is transmuted into Resurrection. “I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. And I have the keys of death and of Hades” (Revelation 1:17-18).

Continued in Part 4 Notes and References

73. Cf. A. E. Taylor’s Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1928), ad locum, p. 184 ff., and the Excursus IV, “The concept of Time in the Timaeus,” p. 678-691; see also A. E. Taylor, Plato, p. 446 ff. and A. Rivaud, Introduction to his Edition of the Timaeus (Paris, 1925); cf. also an interesting comparison of the two mentalities by L. Labertonniere, Le realisme Chretien et Videalisme grec (Paris, 1904), and the book by J. Guitton, Le temps et I’eternite chez Plotin et St. Augustin (Paris, 1933).

74. See Aristotle, De gen. et corr. 11.11, 337b 35: “for what is of necessity coincides with what it always, since that which ’must be’ cannot possibly ’not-be’; hence a thing is eternal, if its ’being’ is necessary; and if it is eternal, its ’being’ is necessary; and if the ’coming-to-be’ of a thing is therefore necessary, its ’coming-to-be’ is eternal; and if eternal, necessary”; τό γαρ εξ ανάγκης και αεί άμα . . . και ει ή γένεσις τοίνυν έξ ανάγκης, άΐδιος ή γένεσις τούτου, και ει άΐδιος, έξ ανάγκης. The argument is quite clear. If there is really a reason for a thing, cur potius sit quam non sit, there can be no reason whatever, why this thing should have not been from eternity, since otherwise the reason for its existence would not have been sufficient, i.e., necessary or eternal. Cf. De part. anim. I.I, 639b 23; De gen. anim. II.l, 73lb 24; Physic. III.4, 203b 30; see A. Mansion, Introduction a la Physique Aristotelienne (Louvain, 1913), p. 169 ss.

75. Aristotle, De Caelo 1.2, 269a 29: “the circle is a perfect thing (κύκλος των τελείων), which cannot be said of any straight line; not of any infinite line: for if it were perfect, it would have a limit and an end; nor of any finite line: for in every case there is something beyond it, since any finite line can be extended.”

76. Aristotle, Physica IV.14, 223b 29; cf. De gen. et corr. 11.11, 338a 3: “it follows that the coming-to-be of anything, if it is absolutely necessary, must be cyclical, i.e., must return upon itself.” διό ανάγκη κύκλω εΐναι; 1.14: απλώς έν τω κύκλω άρα κινήσει καΐ γενέσει εστί τό έξ ανάγκης; Probl. XVII.3, 986a 25: “Just as the course of the firmament and of each of the stars is a circle, why should not also the coming-to-be and the decay of perishable things be of such a kind that the same things again come into being and decay? This agrees with the saying that ’human life is a circle’.” And so we should ourselves be “prior,” and one might suppose the arrangement of the series to be such that it returns back in a circle to the point from which it began and thus secures continuity and identity of composition. If then human life is a circle, and a circle has neither beginning nor end, we should not be “prior” to those who lived in the time of Troy, nor they “prior” to us by being nearer to the beginning.” On the circular movement in Aristotle see O. Hamelin, Le Systeme d’Aristote, 2 ed. (Paris, 1931), p. 366 ss.; J. Chevalier, La Notion du Necessaire chez Aristote et chez ses predecesseurs, particulihement chez Platon (Paris, 1915), p. 160 s., 180 s.; R. Mugnier, La Theorie du Premier Noteur et Vevolution de la Pensee Aristotelienee (Paris, 1930), p. 24 ss.

77. See P. Duhem, Le Systeme du Monde, Histoire des Doctrines Cosmo-logiques de Platon a Copernic, tl (Paris, 1914), p. 65 ss., La Grande Annee, La periodicite du monde selon les philosophes antiques’, p. 275-296, La Grande Annee chez les Grecs et les Latins, apres Aristote; t. II (1914), p. 447 ss., Les peres de Ifiglise et la Annee. Cf. Hans Meyer, Zur Lehre von der ewigen Wiederkunft oiler Dinge, in Vest gab e A. Ehrhard (Bonn, 1911), s. 359 ff.

78. Eudem. Physic. Ill, frg. 51, ap. Simplic, In Physic. IV. 12, 732.27 Diels: ει δέ τις πιστεύσεις τοΐς Πυθαγορείοις, ώστε πάλιν τά αυτά αριθμώ, καγο μυθολογήσω το ράβδουν εχω ύμΐν καθημέ-νοις, ούτω και τά άλλα πάντα ,μοίως εξει κτλ. Cf. Origen, Contra Celsum, V.21, Koetschau 22: τών yap αστέρων κατά τινας περιόδους τεταγμένς τους αυτούς σχηματισμούς και σχέσεις προς αλλήλους λαμβανόντων, πάντα τά έπί γης ομοίως εχειν φασί: τοΐς δτε το αυτό σχήμα τς σχέσεως τών αστέρων περιεΐχεν ό κόσμος* ανάγκη τοίνυν κατά τούτον τον λόγον τών αστέρων έκ μακράς περιόδου έλθόντων επί την αυτήν σχέσιν προς αλλήλους, οποίαν εΐχον έπί Σωκράτους, πάλιν Σωκράτη γενέσθαι έκ τών αυτών και τά αυτά λαβείν κτλ. This idea of the periodical succession of worlds seems to have been traditional in Greek philosophy. See Eusebius of Caesa-rea, Praep. Evang. 1.8, M.G. XXI, 56, and Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokra-tiker, 1.16, on Anaximandros: εξ απείρου αιώνος ένακυκλουμένων πάντων αυτών [Eusebius’ authority in this chapter is Pseudo-Plutarch’s Stromata}. Simplicius, In Physic. VIII.I, 1121.13 sq. Diels, mentions also Anaximenes, Heraclitus and Diogenes, as well as the Stoics; all of them believed that the Cosmos was eternal (άε^ μεν φασιν εΐναι κόσμον), but periodically changed and renewed άλλοτε άλλον γινόμενον κατά τινάς χρόνων περιόδους; cf. Simplic, In De Caelo, 1.10, 294.4-6 Heiberg.

79. P. Duhem, I, p. 275: “alors survient Aristote, qui rattache logiquement ce croyance a son systeme rationnel de Physique. . ., la vie du Monde sublunaire est, toute entire, une vie periodique”; cf. p. 164 s.: “Les mouvements locaux des corps celestes sont periodiques; au bout d’un certain temps, ces corps reviendront aus positions qu’ils occupent aujourd-hui; or periodicita des mouvements locaux des etres incorruptibles entraine necessaire-ment la periodicite des effets dont ces mouvements sont causes, c’est-a-dire des transformations produites en la matiere corruptible; les generations, done, et les corruptions qui se produisent aujourd’hut se sont deja produites une infinite de fois dans le passe; elles se reproduiront, dans Vavenir, une infinite de fois, .. . la vie dit I’Univers entiere sera une vie periodique.”

80. Tatianus, Adv. Graecos, c. 5, Arnim 1.32, 109: τον Ζήνωνα διά της έκπυρώσεως άποψαινόμενον άνίστασθαι πάλιν τους αυτούς έπί τοΐς αύτοΐς, λέγω δέ “Ανητον και μελέτη ν έπί τώ κατηγορεΐν; Stob. Ed. I, 171.2 W., Arnim II. 596, 183, on Zeno, Cleantes and Chry-sippos: τήν ούσίαν μεταβάλλειν οΐον εις σπέρμα τό πυρ, και πάλιν έκ τούτου τοιαύτην άποτελεΐσθαι τήν διακόσμησιν, οία πρότερον ήν; cf. Origen, Contra Celsum, V.20, p. 21 Koetschau: ουτοι δι’ οι άνδρες φασί τη έξης περιόδω τοιαύτα εσεσθαι, και Σωκράτη ν μέν πάλιν Σωφρονίσκου υίόν και ’Αθήναιον εσεσθαι, και τήν Φαιναρέτην γημαμένην Σωφρονίσκω πάλιν αυτόν γεννήσειν. Καν μή όνομάζωσιν οδν τό της αναστάσεως όνομα τό πράγμα γε δηλουσιν δτι Σωκράτης από σπερμάτων άρξάμενος άναστήσεται τών Σωφρονίσκου και εν τη υστέρα Φαιναρέτης διαπλασθήσεται και αναστραφείς Άθήνησι φιλοσοφήσει, κτλ.

81. Cf. Oapke, s.v. άποκατάστασις in Kittel’s Worterbuchy I, s. 389: “Vor allem wird άποκατάστασις terminus technicus fur die Wie-derherstellung des kosmischen Zyklus.” See Lact. Div. Instit. VII.23, Arnim 11.623, 189: Chrysippus . . . in libris yuos de providentis scripsit haec intulit: καΐ ή μας μετά το τελευτήσοα πάλιν περιόδων τινών είλημμένων χρόνου εις δ νυν εσμεν κατά στη σε σθ α ι σχήμα; Nemesius, De natura homin., cap. 38, Arnim 11.625, 190: τών αστέρων ομοίως πάλιν φερομένων, εκαστον εν τή πρότερα περιόδω γινόμενον άπαραλλάκτως άποτελεΐσθαι: εσεσθαι γαρ πάλιν Σωκράτη και Πλάτωνα κατ’ εκαστον τών ανθρώπων συν τοις αύτοΐς και ψίλοις καΐ πολίταις . . . και πασαν πόλιν και κώμην και άγρον ομοίως άποκαθίστα-σθαι κτλ.

82. Heraclitus and Empedocles did not believe in any numerical persistence of individuals. Things do perish altogether, and in the next world will be merely reproduced, but not the same, rather as similars. See Simpl. In Dt Caelo, 1.10, 307.14 Heiberg: φθειρούμενον δέ και πάλιν γινόμενον; 295, 4: Εμπεδοκλής το γινόμενον ού’τ αυτόν τω φθαρέντι φησίν, ει μή, άρα κατ’ εΐδος. For Aristotle no individual identity existed in the sublunar world, changeable and corruptible. In the successive periods there will be no numerical identity, as in the celestial sphere, but only a similarity, a continuity of species; from Aristotelian Physics this idea was inherited by the later schools. See Aristotle, De gen. et corr. II.II, 338b 16: ανάγκη τω εΐδει, αριθμώ δέ μή άνα-κάμπτειν; Probl. XVII.3, 796a 27: “to demand that those who are coming into being should be numerically identical is foolish, but one would rather accept the theory of the identity of the species,” τω εΐδει; cf. also Eudemus ap. Simpl., In Physic. V.4, 886 Diels: διό τω εΐδει εν τούτο ρητέον, και ου τω αριθμώ. See Ο. Hamelin, op. cit., p. 402; Mugnier, op. cit., p. 26 ss. It is not quite clear to what extent the Stoics did admit an individual immortality. Alexander of Aphrodisias suggests a positive answer, In Analyt. prior., 180.39 Wallies, Arnim 11.624, 189: πάλιν πόντα ταύτα έν τω κόσμω γίνεσθαι κατ* αριθμόν. Cicero, Tuse. 1.32, gives another information: Stoici diu mansuros aiunt animos, semper negant” \ in any case they do not survive the έκπύρωσις; see L. Stein, Die Psychologie der Stoa, I (Berlin, 1886), s. 144 f., and Zeller, III.I, 582 f. Scmeckel, Die Philosophie des mittleren Stoa (Berlin, 1902), s. 250 and Anm. 3 contests this view. In any case, Origen had to deal with a Stoic teaching that rejected a numerical identity of the recurrent individuals. “Not the same Socrates, but somebody fully alike,” ίνα μή Σω κράτη ς πάλιν γένηται, άλλ’ απαράλλακτος τις τω Σωκράτη, γάμησων άπαράλλακτόν τίνα Ξανθίππη, και κατηγορηθησάμενος ύπό απαράλλακτων Άνήτω και Μελήτω; Contra Celsum, IV.68, Koetschau 338, and Arnim 11.626, 190. Origen objected that in this case the world itself would not have to be the same always, but also only απαράλλακτος Μτερος έτέρω. But obviously he misses the point: for the Stoics, just because the Cosmos is always the same (ή αυτή τάξις άπ’ αρχής μέχρι τέλος), every particular has to be repeated in the same shape, but nothing more is required for the uniformity of the whole.

83. Plotinus, IV.6.12; V.7.1-3. Cf. Guitton, op. cit., 55: “Plotin applique a toute existence ce schema circulaire . . ., le cycle mythique est pour lui le type d’existence.” See also Proclus, Institutio theologica, prop. 54, 55, 199, ed. Dodds, p. 52, 54, 174 and notes ad loca.

84. Lossev, Symbolism, p. 643. Cf. Guitton, op. cit., p. 359-360: “Les Grecs se representaient la presence de Veternal dans le temps sous la forme de retour cyclique. Inversement, Us imaginaient volontiers que le temps se poursuivait dans V eternel et que la vie presente n’etait qu’un episode du drame de I’ame: ainsi voulaient les mythes. . . ici la pensee chretienne est decisive. . . Les dmes n’ont pas d’histoire avant leur venue. Leur origine, c’est leur naissance; apres la mort la liberte est abolie avec le temps et Vhistoire cesse. Le temps mythique est condemne. Les destinies se jouent une fois peur toutes. . . . Le temps cyclique est condamne. . . .”

85. Cf. my article, “L’idee de la Creation dans la Philosophic Chretienne,” Logos, Revue Internationale de la pensee orthodoxe, I (Bucharest, 1926). See the article on creation contained in this volume.

86. St. Augustine, De civitate Dei, XII.20; cf. Nemesius, De hominis natura, c. 38, M.G. XL, c. 761: εις οπταξ γαρ τά της αναστάσεως, και ου κατά περίοδον εσεσθαι, τά του Χρίστου δοξάζει λογία.

89. St. Gregory of Nyssa, De anima et resurrectione, M.G. XLVI.

90. There is only one exception. “The grave and death were not able to hold back the Theotokos, who is ever-watchful in prayers” [Kontakion on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin]. The resurrection has already been actualized in full for the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, by virtue of her intimate and unique union with Him Whom she bore.

91. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. XLV, in 5. Pascha, 28, M.G. XXXVI, c, 661: έδεήθημεν θεού σαρκομένου καΐ νεκρουμένου.

92. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. XIII, 6, M.G. XXXIII, 780; cf. St. Basil, in Psalms 48:1-14; Psalms 4:1-8; M.G. XXIX, 440.

93. Office of Good Saturday, Canon, at Matins, Irmos IX, Hapgood, Service Book, p. 222.

94. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. 39, 17, M.G. XXXVI, 356, cf. Carmina 1.1, ser. 11,4, ves.24-92, M.G. XXXVII, c. 762.

95. It is hardly possible to agree with the interpretation suggested by J. H. Bernard, “A Study of St. Mark X.38, 39” Journal of Theol. Studies, XXVIII (1927), pp. 262-274. The “cup of sufferings” does include death as well. And it is very doubtful whether we can interpret the verb βατττίζεσθαι as meaning merely “to be overwhelmed” [sc. with the floods of misfortune}, so as to reduce the meaning of the Lord’s saying only to this: “You will be overwhelmed by the same flood of tribulation by which I am being overwhelmed.”

96. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. 45, 13; M.G. XXXVI, c. 640; cf. 24, c. 656; as well Orat. 4, 68; M.G. XXXV, c. 589.

97. Matins of the Good Friday, stikhira idiomela, Hapgood, op. cit., p. 216.

98. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. 45, 29, M.G. XXXVI, c. 661, 664; cf. Carmina, 1.1, ser. 1, vs. 77-80, XXXVII, c. 462-463: “And He gave to mortals a twofold purification; one of the Eternal Spirit, and by it He cleansed in me the old stain, which comes from the flesh; and the other of our blood, for I call mine the blood Christ, My God, has poured, the redemption of the original infirmities and the salvation of the world.” Cf. the interesting explanation why the Lord suffered in the open air, in St Athanasius, De incarnatione, -25, M.G. XXV, c. 170: “for being lifted up on the Cross, the Lord cleansed the air of the malignity both of the devil and of demons of all kinds.” The same idea occurs in St. John Chrysostom, in Crucem et latronem, M.G. XLIX, c. 408-409: “in order to cleanse all her defilement”; the Lord suffered not in the temple but in an open place, for this was the universal sacrifice, offered for the whole world.

99. St. Gregory of Nyssa, In Resurrectionem, or. I, M.G. XLVI, Colossians 612.

100. The whole question of the relation between the Last Suvper and the Crucifixion was studied by M. de la Taille, Mysterium Fidei (Paris, 1921), Catholic Faith in the Holy Eucharist, ed. by Fr. Lattey, Cambridge Catholic Summer Schol, 1922; Esquisse du Mystere de la Foi suivi de quelques eclaircissements (Paris, 1923); The Mystery of Faith and Human Opinion contrasted and defined (London: Sheed and Ward, 1930). Fr. de la Taille insists that the Last Supper and the Crucifixion were one Sacrifice, and the Last Supper was a sacramental and sacerdotal action, a liturgy, a sacred rite, by which Christ pledged Himself to death in the sight of His Father and of men. It was a sacramental offering and presentation. The sacrifice of Redemption, the sacrifice of His Passion and Death, was offered in the Upper Room.

101. It is sometimes suggested that, death being the common law of human nature, Christ had to die simply because He was truly man. And His obedience was consummated in that He submitted Himself to the Divine decree of common human mortality. See, for instance, P. Galtier, “Obeissant jusqu’a la mort,” Revue de VAscetique et de la Mystique I (1920, Toulouse), pp. 113-149 [Patristic documentation]. This argument is not at all convincing. Everything depends here upon our anthropological presuppositions.

102. Stikhira on the 3rd Sunday of Lent, Vespers.

103. St. John of Damascus, de fide orth., 111.27, M.G. XCIV, c. 1907; cf. Homil in M. Sabbat. 29, M.G. XCVI, c. 632. This is not a subtle speculation, but a logical implication of the strict Chalcedonian dogma. An established Christological terminology is presupposed, and specially the doctrine of the “enhypostasia” of the human nature in the Word, first formulated by Leontius of Byzantium and then developed by St. Maximus the Confessor. Earlier writers sometimes failed to present this idea of the preservation of both human elements in an unbroken unity with the Word with complete clearness. See K. Baehr, Die Lehre der Kirche vom Tode Jesu in den erst en drei Jahrhunderten (Sulzbach, 1834) ; G. Jouassard, L’abandon du Christ par Son Pere durant sa Passion d’apres la tradition patristique (Lyon, 1923) [thesis]; “L’abandon du Christ d’apres St. Augustin,” Revue des sciences relig., IV, 1925, pp. 310-326; L’abandon du Christ au Croix dans la tradition grecque des IV et V siecles, ibid., V, 1925, pp. 609-633; J. Lebon, “Une ancienne opinion sur la condition du corps du Christ dans la mort,” Revue de Vhistoire eccl. (XXIII, 1927), pp. 5-03, 209-241; E. Schiltz, Le probleme theologique du corps du Christ dans la mort, Divus Thomas [Plaisance], 1935. See Excursus III, Verba derelictionis.

104. Third Sunday in Lent, Matins, Adoration of the Cross.

105. St. John Chrysostorn, in Crucem et latronem, hi, M.G. XLIX, c. 399.

106. Tuesday of the 4th week of Lent, siedalen.

107. Prayer in Lent at Great Compline.

108. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or at. 41, ed. Mason, pp. 105-106.

109. Exapostillarion at Easter Matins.

110. St. John Damascene, de fide orth. IV, 11, M.G. XCIV, c. 1128-1129; cf. St. Ignatius, Smyrn. 5; Lightfoot, 303; St. Irenaeus, adv. haeres. 11.20.3: per passionem mortem destruxit. .. vitam autem manifestavit, et ostendit veritatem et incorruptionem donavit, Harvey 1.393; M.G. VII.778, c. 1135; V.23.2: venit ad passionem pridie ante sabbatum, quae est sexta conditionis dies, in qua homo plasmatus est, secundum plasmationem ei earn quae est a morte, per suam passionem donans, Harvey, 11.389. Earlier in St. Justin, Apol. I, 63, Otto I, 174. Cf. St. Cyril of Alexandria, in Hebr. II.14, M.G. LXXIV, c. 965: “the death of Christ is, as it were, the root of life.” Also St. Augustine, in loann. tr. XII, 19, 11: ipsa morte liberavit nos a morte; morte occisus mortem occidit. . . mortem suscepit et mortem suspendit in cruce . . ., in morte Christi mors mortua est, quia vita mortua occidit mortem, plenitudo vitae deglutivit mortem, M.L. XXXV, c 1489-1490.

111. Vespers of Good Saturday.

112. In Byzantine iconography, from the late 7th century the Resurrection of Christ was invariably represented as the Descent into Hell, from which the Lord leads Adam and others. It meant the destruction of the bonds of death. The iconography depended directly upon liturgical texts and rites and was a pictorial interpretation of the same experience. A certain influence of the apocryphal literature is obvious, particularly that of the Evangelium Nicodemi and of Pseudo Epiphanius’ Homily of Good Saturday [M.G. XLIII, 440-464]. A survey of monuments and their liturgical parallels is given by N. V. Pokrovsky, The Gospel in the Monuments of Iconography, especially Byzantine and Russian, Acts of the VHIth Archeological Congress in Moscow 1890, v.I, p. 398f; G. Rushforth, The Descent into Hell in Byzantine Art, Papers of the British School at Rome, I (1902), p. Il4f. Cf. G. Millet, Recherches sur Viconographie de Evangile aux XIV, XV et XVI siecles d’apres les monuments de Mistre, de la Macedoine et de Mont Athos (Bibliotheque des ecoles frangaises d’Athenes et de Rome, fasc. 109, Paris 1916), p. 396 ss. Millet states plainly, that nViconographie primitive du Crucifiement montrait non point Jesus souffrant sur la Croix, mats Dieu triumphant par son sacrifice volontaire. Elle s’attachait non au drame humain, mats au dogme” [396]. See also Pokrovsky, p. 314 ff. and especially J. Reil, Die altchristliche Bildzyklen des Lebens Jesu, Ficker*s Studien, N. F. Hf. 10, 1910, p. WQ ff. Reil says of the early representations on sarkophagi “Es findet sich keine Leidenszene, in der Christus als Leidender dargestellt ist. Es erscheint immer stets als einer, der fiber dem Leiden steht... Die Verspottung selbst sieht wie eine Verherrlichung, die Dornkronung wie ein Siegerkronung aus” [21-22]. The emotional and dramatic motives make their first appearance in Byzantine art not earlier than the late Xlth century, in the West still later, only after the spreading of the Franciscan ideas and ideals; see Millet, pp. 399-400, 555ss, and O. Schonewul, Die Darstellung Christi, Ficker’s Studien, N. P., Hf. 9, 1909.

113. Matins of Good Saturday, 6th song, First Troparion.

114. Second Sunday after Easter, Matins, Canon, 4th Song of Solomon 1:1-17 st troparion; cf. the synaxarion of Good Saturday: “For the Lord’s body suffered the corruption, that is, the separation of the soul from the body. But in no wise did it undergo that sort of corruption (διαφθορά), which is the complete destruction of the flesh and decomposition.”

115. St. John of Damascus, de fide orth., 111.28, M.G. XCIV, c. 1097, 11900. This distinction of the two meanings of “corruption” had a special importance after the so-called “Aphtharto-docetic” controversy. But it was clearly made even by Origen, In Ps. XV, 10, M.G. XII, c. 1216. A vindication of Julian of Halicarnassus on the charge of heresy was attempted by R. Draguet, Julien d’Halicarnasse et sa controverse avec Severe d’Antioche sur Vincorruptibilite du corps de Jesus-Christ (Louvain, 1924) ; cf., however, M. Jugie, Julien d’Halicarnasse et Severe d’Antioche, £chos dfOrient, XXIV (1925), p. 129-162, and his earlier article, La controverse galanite et la passibilite du corps de Jesus Christ, in the Dictionnaire de la theologie cath., v.VI (1920), pp. 1002-1023. The main problem is what the real meaning of the Passion and death of Our Lord Isaiah 116. St. John Damascene, de fide orth., 111.29, M.G. XCIV, 1101. Cf. Epiphanius, Panarion, haer. XX, 2; ed. Holl, 1.230; haer. XLIX, 52, M.G. XLII, c. 287-305-308; St. Cyril of Alexandria de incarn. Unigeniti, M.G. LXXV, c. 1216: ψυχή δέ θεία; St. Augustine, de Symbolo ad catech. sermo alius, c. VII, 7, M.L. XL, c. 658: totus ergo Filius apud Patrem, totus in Cruce, totus in inferno, totus in Paradiso que et latronem introduxit.

117. It was clearly stated by Rufinus, Comm. in Symbolum Apostolorum, c. 18, M.L. XXI, Colossians 356. Sciendum sane est quod in Ecclesiae Romanae symbolono, habetur additum, fdescendit ad inferno”: sed neque in Orientis ecclesiis habetur hie sermo; vis tamen verbi eadem videtur esse in eo, quod “sepultus” dicitur\ see St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. IV, 11, M.G. XXXIII, 469.

118. 1 Peter 3:19 : φυλακή, Vulg. I career, i.e. a place of confinement; under guard; Calvin suggested: “rather a watch-tower,” lnst. II.16.97]; Acts 2:24 : τω θανάτω variant of Acts 2:31 : εις αδην obviously with reference to Psalms 16:19. “Hades” means here “death,” nothing more. For the whole history of this term in Christian usage see G. L. Prestige, “Hades in the Greek Fathers,” Journal of Theol. Studies, XXIV (July, 1927), pp. 476-485. In liturgical texts, in any case, “Hell” or “Hades” denotes always this hopelessness of mortal dissolution.

119. Easter-kontakion, Hapgood, 230: cf. St. John Damascene, de fide orth. III.27: “for just as darkness is dissolved on the introduction of light, so is death repulsed on the assault of Life, and for all comes life and for the destroyer destruction,” M.G. XCIV (1907); also 111.28, c. 1100.

110. Vespers of Good Friday, troparion. Used as well as the Sunday troparion of the 2nd tone. This is also the main idea of the “Catechetical oration,” ascribed to St. John Chrysostom appointed to be read at Easter Matins. Cf. St. John Damascene, de fide orth., III.29, M.G. XCIV, c. 1101: J. N. Karmiris in his book proves quite convincingly that the whole tradition of the Church was always unanimous on the victorious and triumphant character of the Descent into Hell. See Origen, in 1 Kings, horn. 2, M.G. XII, 120: εις τά χωρία έκεΐνα ούχ ως δούλος τών έκεΐ, αλλ9 ώς XII, 1020: κατελήλυθεν εις τά χωρία έκεΐνα ούχ ώς δούλος των έκεΐ, αλλ9 ώς δεσπότης παλαίσιον; in Cant., l.II, M.G. XIII, 184: et ipse in morte fuerit voluntarie, et non ut nos necessitate peccati; solus est enim qui fuit inter moruos litber; St. John Damasc, in M. Sabbat, 31, M.G. XCVI, 633: έν νεκροΐς μεν fjv, αλλά ζών, ώς ελεύθερος.

121. This idea was brought forward with great emphasis by Calvin and shared by some other Reformed theologians, but at once was resented and vigorously repudiated by a great number of both Reformed and Catholic divines, as a “new, unheard-of heresy.” Calvin put a great stress on that article of the Apostles Creed. “Mox tamen jiet, tanti interesse ad redemptionis nostrae summam, ut ea praeterita multum ex mortis Christi jructu depereat.” “Nihil actum eart, si corporea tantum morte defunctus fuisset Christus: sed operae simul pretium erat, ut divinae ultionis severitate sentiret: quo ex irae ipsius intercederet, et satisjacteret just ο judicio. Unde enim eum opportuit cum inferorum copiis aeternaeque mortis horrore, quasi consertis manibus, luctari. .. sed alius majus et excellentius jretium fuisse, quod diros in anima cruciatus damnati ac perdiii hominis pertulerit. . . quantulum enim fuisset, secure et quasi per lusum prodire ad subeundam mortem .. . Et sane nisi poenae fuisset particeps anima, corporibus tantum fuisset Redemptor.” loannis Calvini, Institutio christianae raligionis, ed A. Tholuck, Berolini (1834), l.II, c. 16, 8-12, pp. 332-337; English translation by Henry Beveridge, Calvin Translation Society (Edinburgh, 1845), v.88, pp. 57-62: “The omission of it greatly detracts from the benefit of Christ’s death. . . . Nothing had been done if Christ had only endured corporeal death. In order to interpose between us and God’s anger and satisfy His righteous judgement it was necessary that He should feel the weight of Divine vengeance. Whence also it was necessary that He should engage, as it were, at close quarters with the powers of hell and horrors of eternal death. . . . He bore in His soul the tortures of condemned and ruined man.. .. How small a matter had it been to come forth securely and, as it were, in sport to undergo death. . . . And certainly had not His soul shared in the punishment, He would have been a Redeemer of bodies only.” See also the French redaction (1539), Jean Calvin, Institution de la religion chretienne, ed. Pannier, II, 107-108: “Ce n’estoit rien si Jesus Christ se fust seulement acquite d’une mort corporelle, mats il falloit aussi qui il sentist la severite du Jugement de Dieu, a fin d’interceder, et comme s’opposer que son ire ne tombast sur nous, en satisfaisant a icelle. Pour ce faire, il estoit expedient qu’il bataillast, comme main a main, a Vencontre des puyssances d’Enfer et de I’horreur de la mort eternelle. . .. Mais nous disons qu’il a soustenu la pesanteur de la vengeance de Dieu, en tant qu’il a este frappe et afflige de sa main et a experimente tous les signes que Dieu monstre aux pecheurs, en se courrouceant contre eulx et les punissant.” This interpretation obviously depends upon the penal conception of Atonement, it stands and falls with it. As a matter of fact, a somewhat similar interpretation of the Descent into Hell was suggested before Calvin by Nicolas of Cusa. 122St. Athanasius, de Incarnatione, 26, M.G. XXV, Colossians 141.

123. Cf. St. Cyril of Alexandria, de recta jide ad Theodos., 22, M.G. LXXVI, c. 1165, horn, pasch. VII, M.G. LXXVII, c. 352; St. John Chrysostom, horn, in Matthew 26:1-75; Matthew 3:1-17, M.G. LVII: “How are the gates of brass wiped away and the iron doors destroyed? Through His body....” Then for the first time was an immortal body shown and it did destroy the power of death: τότε γαρ πρώτον έδείχθη σώμα άθάνατον, και διαλύον του θανάτου την τυραννίδα. It manifested that the power of death is broken, του θανάτου δείκνυσε τήν ίσχύν άνημμένην; St. John Damascene, de fide orth. Ill, 29, M.G. XCIV, c. 110. Of the Western Fathers see St. Augustine, Ephesians 164, ad Euodium, 12, 13, 16, 21, M.L. XXXIII, c. 714, 715, 716. An excellent presentation of Orthodox doctrine of the Descent into Hell was given by J. N. Karmiris, Ή είς “Αδου κάθοδος του Χρίστου έξ απόψεως ορθοδόξου (Athens, 1939), ρ. 156; cf. J. Dietelmair, Historia dogmatis de descensu Christi ad inferos litteraria (Altorfii, 1762); H. Quillet, s. voce, in the Diet, de la theol. cath., t. IV; K. Gschwind, Die Niederfahrt Christi in die Unterwelt, Neutestamentliche Abhandlungen (1911); F. Cabrol and A. de Meester, s. voce, in the Diet. d’Archeologie char, et de liturgie, t. IV, 1916; C. Schmidt, Gesprache Jesu mit seinen Jungern nach der Auferstehung, Texte und Untersuchungen, XLIII (1919), Excursus II, Der Descensus ad inferos in der alien Kirche, s.453-576; J. Kroll, Gott und Holle, Studien der Bibliothek Warburg, XX (1932); K. Prumm, Die Darstellungen des Hadesfahrtes des Herrn in der Literatur der alien Kirche, Kritische Bemerkungen zum ersten Kapitel des Werkes von ]. Kroll, Scholastik X (1935); J. Chaine, s. voce [Vigoureux], Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplement, t. II (1934), c. 395ss. The Patristic conception of a ransom paid to the devil needs a special investigation in connection with the doctrine of the Descent into Hell. But it seems that in most cases the Devil stands simply for Death. The best dossier and analysis of Patristic texts and references is given by J. Riviere, Le dogme de la Redemption, Essai d’etude historique (Paris, 1905), the whole chapter, “La question de droit des demons,” p. 373 [there is an English translation, London, 1911}; and again in his own books: Le dogme de la Redemption, Etudes critiques et documents (Louvain, 1931). Here is Riviere’s conclusion. “Des lors, dire que le Christ s’est livre au demon pour prix de noire rachat ne serait-ct pas tous simplement une maniere metaphorique d’enseigner qu’Il s’est livre a la mort pour notre salut?” {Revue des sciences religieusts, X, p. 621}. See Excursus IV, Descensus ad injerna.

124. Easter Canon, 6th song, Irmos, Hapgood 230.

125. Easter Vespers.

126. Monday of Easter week, Theotokaria, 4th Song of Solomon 8:1-14c - The Incarnation & Redemption (Part 4) The Incarnation and Redemption.

(Part 4) The Crucifixion,
Resurrection, and Redemption In the death of the Savior the powerlessness of death over Him was revealed. In the fullness of His human nature Our Lord was mortal, since even in the original and spotless human nature a “potentia mortis” was inherent. The Lord was killed and died. But death did not hold Him. “It was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24). St. John Chrysostom commented: “He Himself permitted it. ... Death itself in holding Him had pangs as in travail, and was sore bested … and He so rose as never to die.¹²⁷ He is Life Everlasting, and by the very fact of His death He destroys death. His very descent into Hell, into the realm of death, is the mighty manifestation of Life. By the descent into Hell He quickens death itself. By the Resurrection the powerlessness of death is manifested. The soul of Christ, separated in death, filled with Divine power, is again united with its body, which remained incorruptible throughout the mortal separation, in which it did not suffer any physical decomposition. In the death of the Lord it is manifest that His most pure body was not susceptible to corruption, that it was free from that mortality into which the original human nature had been involved through sin and Fall. In the first Adam the inherent potentiality of death by disobedience was disclosed and actualized. In the second Adam the potentiality of immortality by purity and obedience was sublimated and actualized into the impossibility of death. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). The whole fabric of human nature in Christ proved to be stable and strong. The disembodiment of the soul was not consummated into a rupture. Even in the common death of man, as St. Gregory of Nyssa pointed out, the separation of soul and body is never absolute; a certain connection is still there. In the death of Christ this connection proved to be not only a “connection of knowledge”; His soul never ceased to be the “vital power” of the body. Thus His death in all its reality, as a true separation and disembodiment, was like a sleep. “Then was man’s death shown to be but a sleep,” as St. John Damascene says.¹²⁸ The reality of death is not yet abolished, but its powerlessness is revealed. The Lord really and truly died. But in His death in an eminent measure the “dynamis of the resurrection” was manifest, which is latent but inherent in every death. To His death the glorious simile of the kernel of wheat can be applied to its full extent. (John 12:24). And in His death the glory of God is manifest. “I have both glorified it and will glorify again” (John 12:28). In the body of the Incarnate One this interim between death and resurrection is fore-shortened. “It is sown in dishonor: it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness: it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body: it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:43-44). In the death of the Incarnate One this mysterious growth of the seed was accomplished in three days - “triduum mortis.”

“He suffered not the temple of His body to remain long dead, but just having shown it dead by the contact of death, straightway raised it on the third day, and raised with it also the sign of victory over death, that is, the incorruption and impassibility manifested in the body.” In these words St. Athanasius brings forward the victorious and resurrecting character of the death of Christ.¹²⁹ In this mysterious “triduum mortis,” the body of Our Lord has been transfigured into a body of glory, and has been clothed in power and light. The seed matures. The Lord rises from the dead, as a Bridegroom comes forth from the chamber. This was accomplished by the power of God, as the general resurrection will, in the last day, be accomplished by the power of God. And in the Resurrection the Incarnation is completed, a victorious manifestation of Life within human nature, a grafting of immortality into the human composition. The Resurrection of Christ was a victory, not over his death only, but over death in general. “We celebrate the death of Death, the downfall of Hell, and the beginning of a life new and everlasting.”¹³⁰ In His Resurrection the whole of humanity, all human nature, is co-resurrected with Christ, “the human race is clothed in incorruption.”¹³¹ Co-resurrected not indeed in the sense that all are raised from the grave. Men do still die; but the hopelessness of dying is abolished. Death is rendered powerless, and to all human nature is given the power or “potentia” of resurrection. St. Paul made this quite clear: “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen… For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised” (1 Corinthians 15:13; 1 Corinthians 15:16). St. Paul meant to say that the Resurrection of Christ would become meaningless if it were not a universal accomplishment, if the whole Body were not implicitly “pre-resurrected” with the Head. And faith in Christ itself would lose any sense and become empty and vain; there would be nothing to believe in. “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Apart from the hope of the General Resurrection, belief in Christ would be in vain and to no purpose; it would only be vainglory. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). And in this lies the victory of life.¹³² “It is true, we still die as before,” says St. John Chrysostom, “but we do not remain in death; and this is not to die… The power and very reality of death is just this, that a dead man has no possibility of returning to life… But if after death he is to be quickened and moreover to be given a better life, then this is no longer death, but a falling asleep.”¹³³ The same conception is found in St. Athanasius. The “condemnation of death” is abolished. “Corruption ceasing and being put away by the grace of Resurrection, we are henceforth dissolved for a time only, according to our bodies’ mortal nature; like seeds cast into the earth, we do not perish, but sown in the earth we shall rise again, death being brought to nought by the grace of the Savior.”¹³⁴ This was a healing and a renewing of nature, and therefore there is here a certain compulsion; all will rise, and all will be restored to the fullness of their natural being, yet transformed. From henceforth every disembodiment is but temporary. The dark vale of Hades is abolished by the power of the life-giving Cross.

St. Gregory of Nyssa strongly emphasizes the organic interdependence between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The Resurrection is not only a consequence, but a fruit of the death on the Cross. St. Gregory stresses two points especially: the unity of the Divine Hypostasis, in which the soul and body of Christ are linked together even in their mortal separation; and the utter sinlessness of the Lord. And he proceeds: “When our nature, following its proper course, had even in Him been advanced to the separation of soul and body, He knitted together again the disconnected elements, cementing them together, as it were, with a cement of His Divine power, and recombining what was severed in a union never to be broken. And this is the Resurrection, namely the return, after they have been dissolved, of those elements that have been before linked together, into an indissoluble union through a mutual incorporation; in order that thus the primal grace which invested humanity might be recalled, and we restored to everlasting life, when the vice that had been mixed up with our kind has evaporated through our dissolution… For as the principle of death took its rise in one person and passed on in succession through the whole of human kind, in like manner the principle of the Resurrection extends from one person to the whole of humanity… For when, in that concrete humanity which He had taken to Himself, the soul after the dissolution returned to the body, then this uniting of the several portions passes, as by a new principle, in equal force upon the whole human race. This then is the mystery of God’s plan with regard to His death and His resurrection from the dead.”¹³⁵ In another place St. Gregory explains his meaning by the analogy of the broken reed, cloven in twain. Whoever puts the broken parts together, starting from any one end, then also, of necessity, puts together the other end, “and the whole broken reed is completely rejointed.” Thus then in Christ the union of soul and body, again restored, brings to reunion “the whole human nature, divided by death into two parts,” since the hope of resurrection establishes the connection between the separated parts. In Adam our nature was split or dissected into two through sin. Yet in Christ this split is healed completely. This then is the abolition of death, or rather of mortality. In other words, it is the potential and dynamic restoration of the fullness and wholeness of human existence. It is a recreation of the whole human race, a “new creation” (ή καινή κτίσις),¹³⁶ a new revelation of Divine love and Divine power, the consummation of creation.

One has to distinguish most carefully between the healing of nature and the healing of the will. Nature is healed and restored with a certain compulsion, by the mighty power of God’s omnipotent and invincible grace. One may even say, by some “violence of grace.” The wholeness is in a way forced upon human nature. For in Christ all human nature (the “seed of Adam”) is fully and completely cured from unwholeness and mortality. This restoration will be actualized and revealed to its full extent in the General Resurrection, the resurrection of all, both of the righteous and of the wicked. No one, so far as nature is concerned, can escape Christ’s kingly rule, can alienate himself from the invincible power of the resurrection. But the will of man cannot be cured in the same invincible manner; for the whole meaning of the healing of the will is in its free conversion. The will of man must turn itself to God; there must be a free and spontaneous response of love and adoration. The will of man can be healed only in freedom, in the “mystery of freedom.” Only by this spontaneous and free effort does man enter into that new and eternal life which is revealed in Christ Jesus. A spiritual regeneration can be wrought only in perfect freedom, in an obedience of love, by a self-consecration and self-dedication to God. This distinction was stressed with great insistence in the remarkable treatise by Nicolas Cabasilas on The Life in Christ. Resurrection is a “rectification of nature” (ή άνάστασις φύσεως έστιν έπανόρθωσις) and this God grants freely. But the Kingdom of Heaven, and the beatific vision, and union with Christ, presume the desire (τρυψή έστιν της θελήσεως), and therefore are available only for those who have longed for them, and loved, and desired. Immortality will be given to all, just as all can enjoy the Divine providence. It does not depend upon our will whether we shall rise after death or not, just as it is not by our will that we are born. Christ’s death and resurrection brings immortality and incorruption to all in the same manner, because all have the same nature as the Man Christ Jesus. But nobody can be compelled to desire. Thus Resurrection is a gift common to all, but blessedness will be given only to some.¹³⁷ And again, the path of life is the path of renunciation, of mortification, of self-sacrifice and self-oblation. One has to die to oneself in order to live in Christ. Each one must personally and freely associate himself with Christ, the Lord, the Savior, and the Redeemer, in the confession of faith, in the choice of love, in the mystical oath of allegiance. Each one has to renounce himself, to “lose his soul” for Christ’s sake, to take up his cross, and to follow after Him. The Christian struggle is the “following” after Christ, following the path of His Passion and Cross, even unto death, but first of all, following in love. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren… Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 3:16; John 4:10). He who does not die with Christ cannot live with Him. “Unless of our own free choice we accept to die unto His passion, His life is not in us,” says St. Ignatius.¹³⁸ This is no mere ascetical or moral rule, not merely a discipline. This is the ontological law of spiritual existence, even the law of life itself.

Baptismal Symbolism
And Redemptive Reality The Christian life is initiated with a new birth, by water and the Spirit. First, repentance is required, “ή μετάνοια,” an inner change, intimate and resolute. The symbolism of Holy Baptism is complex and manifold. Baptism must be performed in the name of the Holy Trinity; and the Trinitarian invocation is unanimously regarded as the most necessary condition of the validity and efficacy of the sacrament. Yet above all, baptism is the putting on of Christ (Galatians 3:27), and an incorporation into His Body (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Trinitarian invocation is required because outside the Trinitarian faith it is impossible to know Christ, to recognize in Jesus the Incarnate Lord, “One of the Holy Trinity.” The symbolism of baptism is above all a symbolism of death and resurrection, of Christ’s death and resurrection. “Know ye not, that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). It can be said that baptism is a sacramental resurrection in Christ, a rising up with Him and in Him to a new and eternal life: “Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12) - συνταφέντες αύτώ έν τω βαπτίσματι, έν ω και συνηγέρθητε δια της πίστεως της ενεργείας του θεού του έγείραντος αυτόν έκ νεκρών. Co-resurrected with Him precisely through burial: “for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him” (2 Timothy 2:11). For in baptism the believer becomes a member of Christ, grafted into His Body, “rooted and built up in Him” (Colossians 2:7). Thereby the grace of the Resurrection is shed abroad on all. Before it is consummated in the General Resurrection, Life Eternal is manifested in the spiritual rebirth of believers, granted and accomplished in baptism, and the union with the Risen Lord is the initiation of the resurrection and of the Life to come. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord… Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might also be made manifest in our body… Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise us by Jesus, and shall present us with you… For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven … not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 4:10; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 2 Corinthians 5:1-2). We are changed, not only will be changed. Baptismal regeneration and ascesis are joined together: the Death with Christ and resurrection are already operative within believers. The resurrection is operative not only as a return to life, but also as a lifting up or sublimation into the glory. This is not only a manifestation of the power and glory of God, but also a transfiguration of man, in so far as he is dying with Christ. In dying with Him, man also lives. All will rise, but only to the faithful believer is the resurrection to be a true “resurrection unto life.” He comes not into judgment, but passes from death to life [John 5:24-29; John 8:51~}. Only in communion with God and through life in Christ does the restoration of human wholeness gain meaning. To those in total darkness, who have deliberately confined themselves “outside God,” outside the Light Divine, the Resurrection itself must seem rather unnecessary and unmotivated. But it will come, as a “resurrection to judgment” (John 5:29; εις άνάστασιν κρίσεως). And in this will be completed the mystery and the tragedy of human freedom.

Here indeed we are on the threshold of the inconceivable and incomprehensible. The “apokatastasis” of nature does not abolish free will. The will must be moved from within by love. St. Gregory of Nyssa had a clear understanding of this. He anticipated a kind of universal “conversio” of souls in the after-life, when the Truth of God will be revealed and manifested with some compelling and ultimate evidence. Just at that point the limitations of the Hellenistic mind are obvious. Evidence to it seemed to be the decisive reason or motive for the will, as if “sin” were merely “ignorance.”¹³⁹ The Hellenistic mind had to pass through the long and hard experience of asceticism, of ascetic self-examination and self-control, in order to free itself from this intellectualistic naivete and illusion, and discover a dark abyss in the fallen soul. Only in St. Maximus the Confessor, after some centuries of ascetic preparation, do we find a new, remodelled and deepened interpretation of the “apokatastasis.” All nature, the whole Cosmos, will be restituted. But the dead souls will still be insensitive to the very revelation of Light. The Light Divine will shine to all, but those who have deliberately spent their lives here on earth in fleshly desires, “against nature,” will be unable to apprehend or enjoy this eternal bliss. The Light is the Word which illuminates the natural minds of the faithful; but to others it is a burning fire of the judgment (τη καύσει της κρίσεως). He punishes those who, through love of the flesh, cling to the nocturnal darkness of this life. St. Maximus admitted an “apokatastasis” in the sense of a restitution of all beings to an integrity of nature, of a universal manifestation of the Divine Life, which will be apprehended by every one; but it does not mean that all will equally participate in this revelation of the Good. St. Maximus draws a clear distinction between an έπίγνωσις and a μέθεξις. The divine gifts are dispensed in proportion to the capacities of men. The fullness of natural powers will be restored in all, and God will be in all, indeed; but only in the Saints will He be present with grace δια την χάριν. In the wicked He will be present without grace, νεκράν την χάριν. No grace will be bestowed upon the wicked, because the ultimate union with God requires the determination of the will. The wicked will be separated from God by their lack of a resolute purpose of good. We have here the same duality of nature and will. In the resurrection the whole of creation will be restored. But sin and evil are rooted in the will. The Hellenistic mind concluded therefrom that evil is unstable and by itself must disappear inevitably. For nothing can be perpetual, unless it be rooted in a Divine decree. Evil cannot be but transitory. The Christian inference is the opposite indeed. There is some strange inertia and obstinacy of the will, and this obstinacy may remain uncured even in the universal restoration. God never does any violence to man, and the communion with God cannot be forced upon or imposed upon the obstinate. As St. Maximus puts it, “the Spirit does not produce an undesired resolve, but it transforms a chosen purpose into theosis.”¹⁴⁰ For sin and evil come not from an external impurity, but from an internal failure, from the perversion of the will. Consequently, sin is overcome only by inner conversion and change, and repentance is sealed by grace in the sacraments.¹⁴¹

Physical death among mankind is not abrogated by the Resurrection of Christ. Death is rendered powerless, indeed; mortality is overcome by the hope and pledge of the coming resurrection. And yet each must justify that resurrection for himself. This can be done only in a free communion with the Lord. The immortality of nature, the permanence of existence, must be actualized into the life in the Spirit. The fullness of life is not merely an endless existence. In baptism we are initiated into this very resurrection of life, which will be consummated in the last day.

St. Paul speaks of a “likeness” unto the death of Christ, τω όμοιώματι του θανάτου αύτου (Romans 6:3), but this “likeness” means more than a resemblance. It is more than a mere sign or recollection. The meaning of this “likeness” for St. Paul himself was that in each of us Christ can and must be “formed” (Galatians 4:19). Christ is the Head, all believers are His members, and His life is actualized in them. All are called and every one is capable of believing, and of being quickened by faith and baptism to live in Him. Baptism is a regeneration, άναγέννησις, a new, spiritual, and charismatic birth. As Cabasilas says, Baptism is the cause of a beatific life in Christ, not merely of life.¹⁴² St. Cyril of Jerusalem lucidly explains the true reality of all baptismal symbolism. It is true, he says, that in the baptismal font we die and are buried only “in imitation,” only “symbolically” (δια συμβόλου). We do not rise from a real grave (ούδ’ αληθώς έτάφημεν) and yet, “if the imitation is in an image, the salvation is in very truth,” έν άληθεία δε ή σωτηρία. Christ was really crucified and buried, and actually rose from the grave. The Greek word used is οντως. It is more and stronger than simply αληθώς - “in very truth”; it emphasizes the supernatural character of the death and resurrection of Our Lord. Hence He gave us this chance, by “imitative” sharing of His Passion to acquire “salvation in reality” (τη μιμήσει των παθημάτων αυτού κοινά χήσαντες). It is not only an “imitation,” but rather a participation, or a similitude. “Christ was crucified and buried in reality, but to you it is given to be crucified, buried, and raised with Him in similitude” (έν ομοιώματι).¹⁴³ It should be kept in mind that St. Cyril mentions not only the death, but also the burial. This means that in baptism man descends “sacra-mentally” into the darkness of death, and yet with the Risen Lord rises again and crosses over from death to life. “And the image is completed all upon you, for you are the image of Christ,” concludes St. Cyril. In other words, all are held together by and in Christ, hence the very possibility of a sacramental “resemblance.”¹⁴⁴

St. Gregory of Nyssa dwells on the same point. There are two aspects in baptism. Baptism is a birth and a death. Natural birth is the beginning of a mortal existence, which begins and ends in corruption. Another, a new birth, had to be discovered, which would initiate into eternal life. In baptism “the presence of a Divine power transforms what is born with a corruptible nature into a state of incorrup-tion.”¹⁴⁵ It is transformed through following and imitating; and thus what was foreshown by the Lord is realized. Only by following after Christ can one pass through the labyrinth of life and come out of it. “For I call the inescapable guard of death, in which sorrowing mankind is imprisoned, a labyrinth” (την άδιέξοδον του θανάτου φρουράν). Christ escaped from this after the three days of death. In the baptismal font “the imitation of all that He has done is accomplished.” Death is “represented” in the element of water, and as Christ rose again to life, so also the newly-baptized, united with Him in bodily nature, “doth imitate the resurrection on the third day.” This is just an “imitation,” and not “identity.” In baptism man is not actually raised, but only freed from natural evil and the inescapability of death. In him the “continuity of vice” is cut off. He is not resurrected, for he does not die, he remains in this life. Baptism only foreshadows the resurrection. In baptism we anticipate the grace of the final resurrection. Baptism is a “homiomatic resurrection” to use the phrase of one Russian scholar. Yet in baptism the resurrection is in a way already initiated. Baptism is the start, αρχή, and the resurrection is the end and consummation, πέρας ... and all that will take place in the great Resurrection already has its beginnings and causes in baptism. St. Gregory does not mean that resurrection which consists only in a remolding of our composition. Human nature advances towards that goal by a kind of necessity. He speaks of the fullness of the resurrection, of a “restoration to a blessed and divine state, set free from all shame and sorrow.” It is an apokatastasis, a true “resurrection unto life.”¹⁴⁶

It must be pointed out that St. Gregory specially emphasized the need of keeping and holding fast the baptismal grace, for in baptism it is not only nature but also the will that is transformed and transfigured, remaining free throughout. If the soul is not cleansed and purified in the free exercise of will, baptism proves to be fruitless; the transfiguration is not actualized; the new life is not yet consummated. This does not subordinate baptismal grace to human license. Grace does indeed descend. But it can never be forced upon any one who is free and made in the image of God, it must be responded to and corroborated by the synergism of love and will. Grace does not quicken and enliven the closed and obstinate souls, the really “dead souls.” Response and co-operation are required.¹⁴⁷ That is just because baptism is a sacramental dying with Christ, a participation in His voluntary death, in His sacrificial Love and this can be accomplished only in freedom. Thus in baptism the death of Christ on the Cross is reflected or portrayed as in a living and sacramental image. Baptism is at once a death and a birth, a burial and a “bath of regeneration,” “a time of death and a time of birth,” to quote St. Cyril of Jerusalem.¹⁴⁸ The Eucharist and Redemption In the Early Church the rite of Christian initiation was not divided. Three of the sacraments belong together: Baptism, the Holy Chrism (Confirmation), and the Eucharist. The Initiation described by St. Cyril, and later on by Cabasilas, included all three.

Sacraments are instituted in order to enable man to participate in Christ’s redeeming death and thereby to gain the grace of His resurrection. This was Cabasilas’ main idea. “We are baptized in order to die by His death and to rise by His resurrection. We are anointed with the chrism that we may partake of His kingly anointment of the deification. And when we are fed with the most sacred Bread and do drink the most Divine Cup, we do partake of the same flesh and the same blood Our Lord has assumed, and so we are united with Him, Who was for us incarnate, and died, and rose again… Baptism is a birth, and Chrism is the cause of acts and movements, and the Bread of life and Cup of thanksgiving are the true food and the true drink.¹⁴⁹ In the whole sacramental and devotional life of the Church, the Cross and the Resurrection are “imitated” and reflected in manifold symbols and rites. All the symbolism is realistic. These symbols do not merely remind us of something in the past. Through these sacred symbols, the ultimate Reality is in very truth disclosed and conveyed. All this hieratic symbolism culminates in the august mystery of the Holy Altar. The Eucharist is the heart of the Church, the Sacrament of Redemption in an eminent sense. It is more than an “imitatio.” It is Reality itself, veiled and disclosed in the Sacrament.

It is “the perfect and final Sacrament,” says Cabasilas, “and one cannot go further, and there is nothing to be added.” It is the “limit of life” - ζωής τό πέρας. “After the Eucharist there is nothing more to long for, but we have to stay here and learn how we can preserve this treasure to the end.”¹⁵⁰ The Eucharist is the Last Supper itself, again and again enacted, but not repeated for every new celebration does not only represent, but truly is the same “Mystical Supper” which was celebrated for the first time by the Divine High Priest Himself, “in the night in which He was given up or rather gave Himself for the life of the world.” The true Celebrant of each Liturgy is Our Lord Himself. This was stressed with great power by St. John Chrysostom on various occasions. “Believe, therefore, that even now it is that Supper, at which He Himself sat down. For this one is in no respect different from that one. For neither doth man make this one and Himself that one, but both this and that are His own work. When therefore thou seest the priest delivering it unto thee, account not that it is the priest that does so, but that it is Christ’s hand that is stretched out.”¹⁵¹ And again in hom. 82, 5, Col. F.44: “He that then did these things at that Supper, this same now also works them. We hold the rank of ministers. He who sanctifieth and changeth them is the Same. This table is the same as that, and hath nothing less. For it is not that Christ wrought that, and man this, but He doth this too. This is that Upper Chamber, where they were then.”¹⁵² And “Christ now also is present, He who adorned that table is He who now also adorns this… The priest stands fulfilling a figure, but the power and grace are of God.”¹⁵³

All this is of primary importance. The Last Supper was an offering of the sacrifice of the Cross. The offering is still continued. Christ is still acting as the High Priest in His Church. The Mystery is all the same. The Sacrifice is one. The Table is one. The priest is the same. And not one Lamb is slain, or offered this day, and another of old; not one here, and another somewhere else. But the same always and everywhere. One very Lamb of God, “who ‘taketh’ the sins of the world,” even the Lord Jesus. The Eucharist is a sacrifice, not because Jesus is slain again, but because the same Body and the same sacrificial Blood are actually here on the Altar, offered and presented. And the Altar is actually the Holy Grave, in which the Heavenly Master is falling asleep. Nicolas Cabasilas put this in these words: “In offering and sacrificing Himself once for all, He did not cease from His priesthood, but He exercises this perpetual ministry for us, in which He is our advocate with God for ever, for which reason it is said of Him, Thou art a priest for ever.”¹⁵⁴ The resurrecting power and significance of Christ’s death are made manifest in full in the Eucharist. The Lamb is slain, the Body broken, the Blood shed, and yet it is a celestial food, and “the medicine of immortality and the antidote that we should not die but live forever in Jesus Christ,” to use the famous phrase of St. Ignatius.¹⁵⁵ It is “the heavenly Bread and the Cup of life.” This tremendous Sacrament is for the faithful the very “Betrothal of the Life Eternal.” Because Christ’s Death itself was the Victory and the Resurrection, this Victory and this Triumph do we observe and celebrate in the Sacrament of the Altar. Eucharist means thanksgiving. It is a hymn rather than a prayer. It is the service of triumphant joy, the continuous Easter, the kingly feast of the Lord of Life and glory. “And so the whole celebration of the Mystery is one image of the whole economy of our Lord,” says Cabasilas.¹⁵⁶ The Holy Eucharist is the climax of our aspirations. The beginning and the end are here linked together: the reminiscences of the Gospels and the prophecies of the Revelation, i.e. the fullness of the New Testament. The Eucharist is a sacramental anticipation, a foretaste of the Resurrection, an “image of the Resurrection” (ό τύπος της αναπαύσεως; the phrase is from the consecration prayer of St. Basil). The sacramental life of believers is the building up of the Church. Through the sacraments, and in them, the new life of Christ is extended to and bestowed upon the members of His Body. Through the sacraments the Redemption is appropriated and disclosed. One may add: In the sacraments is consummated the Incarnation, the true reunion of man with God in Christ.

Ο Christ, Passover great and most Holy! Ο Wisdom, Word, and Power of God! Vouchsafe that we may more perfectly partake of Thee in the days of Thine everlasting Kingdom. (Easter Hymn, recited by the priest at every celebration.) Notes and References

127. St. John Chrysostom, in Acta Apost. horn. VII, M.G. LX, c. 57: και αυτό ώδινε κατέχων αυτόν ό θάνατος, και τα δεινά ένέπασχεν; Chrysostom has in view the words of Acts: τάς ώδΐνας του θανάτου [Acts 2:24}; cf. Psalms 17:5-6. Strack-Billerbeck, ad Acta 11.24: “Stricke des Todes,” or “Weben des Todes” [2:617-618]. Cf. in the Liturgy of St. Basil, the Prayer of Consecration: και κατελθών δια του σταυρού εις τον “Αδην, ίνα πλήρωση έαυτου τά πάντα, ^λυσε τάς όδύνας του θανάτου’ και άναστάς τη τρίτη ήμερα, καΐ όδοποιήσας πάση σαρκί την εκ νεκρών άνάστασιν, καθότι ουκ fjv δυνατόν κρατεΐ-σθαι ύπό της φθοράς τον άρχηγόν της ζως, έγένετο απαρχή των κεκοιμημένων, πρωτότοκος εκ τών νεκρών, ίνα ή αυτός τά πάντα έν πάσι πρωτεύων.

128. Office for the Burial of a Priest, Stikhira idiomela by St. John of Damascus, Hapgood, p. 415.

129. St. Athanasius, De incarn. 26, M.G. XXV, c. 141; cf. St. John Chrysostom in loann. h. 85, [al. 84], 2: “By all means He shows that this is a sort of new death, for everything was in the power of the dying One and death did not come to His body until He so desired,” κοινόν τόν θάνατον τούτον δντα, M.G. LIX, c. 462.

130. Easter Canon, 2nd Song of Solomon 2:1-17 nd Troparion, Hapgood p. 231.

131. Sunday Matins, siedalen of the 3rd tone.

132. “Christ is first-born from the dead.” Colossians 1:18. Born, as it were, from the grave. Resurrection is a new mysterious birth into full immortality, into a new and perpetual, i.e. “eternal,” life. And death itself issues into a birth. “The first that shall rise from the dead.” Acts 26:23 : “The first begotten of the dead.” Revelation 1:5. Cf. J. Chaine, Diet. d.l. Bible, Suppl, t.II, p. 418: “La resurrection est comparee a un enfantement de la part du scheol. Jesus est le premier parmi les hommes qui soit sorti du sein de I’Hades.”

133. St. John Chrysostom, in Hebr. h. 17, 2, M.G. LXIII, c. 129.

134. St. Athanasius, De incarn. 21, M.G. XXV, c. 132.

135. St. Gregory of Nyssa, Or at. catech., c. 16, Srawley, 70-72: πάλιν προς τήν άρρηκτον Γνώσιν το διασχισθέν συναρμόσας . . . οίον άπό τινός αρχής εις πασαν άνθρωπίνην φύσιν τη δυνάμει κατά το Ισον έκ τοΟ διακριθέντος έναντι διαβαίνει. Cf. adv. Apollinarium, cap. 17, M.G. XLV, 1153, 1156: “Death is but the separation of soul and body, but He, who has united both soul and body in Himself, did not separate Himself from either.... Being simple and uncomposed, He was not divided, when body and soul were separated; on the contrary, He rather accomplishes their union, and by His own indivisibility does bring even the separated into unity, τω γαρ καθ* εαυτόν άδιαιρέτω και τό διηρημένον εις ενωσιν άγει. The Only Begotten God Himself raises the human nature united with Him, first separating the soul from the body, and then co-uniting them again, and so the common salvation of nature is achieved.”

136. St. Gregory of Nyssa, adv. Apollin, c. 55, M.G. XLV, c. 1257, 1260.

137. Nicolas Cabasilas, De vita in Christo, 11.86-96, ed. Gass, Die Mystik des Nicolaus Cabasilas (1849), pp. 46-48. Gass’s edition is reproduced in M.G. CL. A French translation by S. Broussaleux has been recently published by “Irenikon.”

138. St. Ignatius, Magnes 5, Lightfoot p. 117-118. The language of Ignatius is molded on that of St. Paul; comp. Romans 6:5; Romans 6:8 :If, 29; 2 Corinthians 4:10, Php 3:10, 2 Timothy 2:11 (Lightfoot, ad locum.) 139. St. Maximus, Quaest. ad Thalassium, qu. 39, Schol. 3, M.G. XC.393.

140. St. Maximus, Quaest. ad Thalass. 6, M.G. XC, c. 280; cf. St. Irenaeus, Adv. haereses, IV.31.I, M.G. VII, c. 1105: ούτω καΐ ό θεός αυτός μέν οίος τε ή ν παρασχεΐν άπ’ αρχής τω άνθρώπω τό τέ-λειον, ό δέ άνθρωπος αδύνατος λαβείν αυτό’ νήπιον γαρ fjv; cf. 1607: έκεΐνος δέ άρτι γεγονώς, αδύνατος fjv λαδεΐν αυτό, ή και λαδών χωρήσαι, ή καΐ χωρήσας κατασχεΐν.

141. On the whole question of “universal salvation” see E. P. Pusey’s still unantiquated pamphlet: What is of Faith as to Everlasting Punishment? 1879, 1880. Andreas of Caesarea, in his Commentary on Revelation, gives an interesting terminological summary. (See the whole of chapter 62, ad XX.5, 6, on the “first resurrection” and the “second death,” M.G. CVI, c. 412-413; cf. also ch. 59, ad XIX, 21, c. 406.) There are two kinds of life and two kinds of death, and therefore two kinds of resurrection too. The first life is that of the fallen man, “temporary and fleshly” (πρόσκαιρος και σαρκική). The second life is Life eternal, which is promised to the saints in the age to come. The first death is the separation of the soul and body, a death “of the flesh” (ό της σαρκός) and for a time only (πρόσκαιρος), up to the second resurrection. The “second death” is the “eternal” condemnation, which is prepared for the sinners in the age to come, eternal torments and confinement in Gehenna (ό της είς γεένναν εκπομπής). Again, the “first resurrection” is a spiritual regeneration, a “quickening from the deadly deeds,” and the second and ultimate resurrection is that of the bodies, which are to be relieved out of corruption and transformed into incorruption. Πρώτος τοίνυν ό σωματικός θάνατος, τη ανθρωπινή παρακοή δοθείς έπιτιμίαν ό δεύτερος, ή αιώνιος κό-λασις; πρώτη δέ άνάστασις ή έκ νεκρών £ργων ζωοποίησις* δευτέρα δέ ή έκ φθοράς τών σωμάτων είς άψθαρσίαν μεταποίησις.

142. Ν. Cabasilas, De vita in Christo, 11.95, Gass 48.

143. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystag. II. 4-5, 7, M.G. XXXIII, c. 1080-1081, 1084; cf. 8II.2, c. 1089. See also St. Basil, de Spiritu S. 55, M.G. XXXII, c. 126, 129- 144. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Myst. III.l, M.G. XXXIII, c. 1088.

145. St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. cat., 33, Srawley 123, 126.

146. St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. catech, 35, Srawley 129-130.

147. St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. cat. , Srawley 159-164; cf. Orat. 1 in S. Pascha, M.G. XLVI, c. 604 s.; de propos. sec. Deum, M.G. XLV, c. 289. This was the reason St. Gregory so vigorously attacked those who used to postpone baptism till the later period of life. The benefit of baptism is thereby diminished, since not enough time is left to actualize the baptismal grace by the creative effort of a godly life (M.G. XVI, c. 416-432). On the other hand, St. Gregory admits that the benefits of baptism will sooner or later be extended to and appropriated by everyone, i.e. that “baptism” in some form will be administered to all men. This idea is organically connected with the doctrine of “apokatastasis” and of the healing character of the whole after-life up to the final consummation. Hence the idea of a plurality of baptisms; and the last baptism will be that of fire, which nobody can escape. Similar ideas are to be found in St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oral. 39, 19, M.G. XXXVI, c. 357; repeated by St. John Damascene, de fide orth., IV.3, M.G. XCIV, c. 1124-1125.

148. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystag. II, 4, M.G. XXXIII, r. 1081. Cf. N. Cabasilas, De vita in Christo, II, 10.

149. N. Cabasilas, De vita in Christo, II.3, 4, 6, Gass 28-29.

150. N. Cavasilas, De vita in Christo, IV. 1, 4, 15, Gass 81, 82, 84-85.

151. St. John Chrysostom, in Matt. horn. 50, 3, M.G. LVIII, c. 50f.

152. Ibidem, horn. 82, 5, Colossians 744.

153. De proditione Judae, 1.6, M.G. XLIX, c. 380.

154. Nicolas Cabasilas, Explanatio dip. liturgiae, c. 23, M.G. CL, c. On the “sacramental” remembrance and representation of Christ’s death in the Eucharist, see Odo Casel, Das Mysteriengeddchniss der Messliturgie im Lichte der Tradition, Jahrbucher fur die Liturgiewissenschaft, VI (1925), s. 113-204. “Das Geddchtniss selbst besteht in der nach Vorbild des letzten Abendmahles gestalteten rituellen Be ge bung des Erlosungswerkes. Dies Geddchtniss ist zugleich das Opfer. Es ist nicht subjektives Sicherinnern, sondern objektive Wirklichkeit unter dem Ritus, mit anderen Worten Symbol, Gleichnissbild, Mysterium. Die Anamnese stem pelt also die ganze heilige Handlung zum realen Geddchtniss: der Erlosungstod wird unterdem Schleier der Ritus Wirklichkeit [130]. .. .Dies Mysterium enthdlt so konkrete Wirklichkeit, dass es vollstdndig mit der Tat identifiziert wird, dies es mystisch darstellt; so sehr dass man von der symbolischen Darstellung im Mysterium auf die Geschichtlichkeit der Tat zuruckschliessen kann. Es ist also auf beiden Seiten diesselbe eine Tat; nur ist sie im zweiten Falle unter symbolen verbergen. Das Mysterium bringt genau so die Erlosung, wie jene erste Heilstat; ja es est die Erlosung [153]. . . .Nicht das historische Ereignis hebt sich wieder aus der Vergangenheit hervor; Christus stirbt nicht wieder historisch-real; aber die Heilstat wird sakramental, in mysterio, in Sacramento, gegenwdrtig und dadurch fur die Heilsuchenden zugdnglich [174]. . . . Die historisch vorgangene Passion wird sakramental gegenwdrtig [186].” Casel provides a copious Patristic documentation. One may consult his other essays as well. Cf. Darwell Stone, The Eucharistic Sacrifice (1920), and A. Vonier, A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist (1925).

155. St. Ignatius, Ephes. XX.2, Lightfoot, 8F.

156. N. Cabasilas, Expos, liturglas, c. 16, M.G. CL, 404. See Bp. Aulen’s article in The Ministry and Sacraments, ed. Headlam and Dunkerley (1937). “Now, in the act of commemoration we look back to the historical events and the Sacrifice as we see them in the right light, in the light of the Resurrection. Therefore in celebrating the Lord’s death we are not performing a funeral service, not yet a mere memorial of a martyrdom; the Sacrament is not only a Sacrament of suffering Love, but also of victorious Love. We praise and magnify the living ’Kyrios’ who comes to us in His holy Supper.”