In the time of the old covenant, the sabbath was highly revered. Now under the gospel the sabbath has been recast, now viewed as the Lord’s resurrection day. The sabbath formerly had pertained to the pedagogy and rudiments of the law. When the great master himself came and fulfilled them all for us, all that had prefigured his coming was transformed. The old sabbath was like a candle lit in the night before the rising and appearing of the sun.^[1]

The women were first to honor the risen Christ, the apostles first to suffer for him. The women were ready with spices; the apostles prepared for scourges. The women entered the tomb; the apostles would soon enter the dungeon. The women hastened to express their eulogy; the apostles embraced chains for his sake. The women poured oils; the apostles poured out their blood.

All the Gospels refer to the period when the heavens were just beginning to brighten in the east.^[1] This, of course, does not take place until the sunrise is at hand. For it is the brightness which is diffused by the rising sun that is familiarly designated by the name of the dawn. Mark does not contradict the other Evangelist who uses the phrase, When it was yet dark.^[2] For as the day breaks, what remains of the darkness passes away just in proportion as the sun continues to rise.

Upon this most sacred early morning hour is bestowed great dignity from the glory of the Lord’s victory over death. For it was in the earliest inception of that day that the women became attentive in doing their service to their Lord. Speaking mystically, the night was already beginning to grow toward an emerging dawn.^[1] He who is the author and superintendent of time rose from the dead during the final part of the night. The whole of the emerging day is thus made a festival, brightened by the light of his resurrection.

As to its being said in the gospel reading that holy women came to see the sepulcher on the evening which was growing on toward the dawn of Sunday, we should understand this thus: they started to come during the evening, but reached the sepulcher as the morning of Sunday was dawning; that is, they prepared the spices with which they wanted to anoint our Lord’s body on [Saturday] evening, but brought the spices that they had prepared in the evening to the sepulcher in the morning. Matthew, for the sake of brevity, wrote this more obscurely;^[1] but the other evangelists^[2] show more distinctly the order in which it was done. After our Lord had been buried on Friday, the women went away from the tomb and prepared spices and ointments for as long as it was permitted them to work. They then refrained from activity on the sabbath, in accord with they commandment,^[3] as Luke clearly reports.^[4] When the sabbath was over, as evening was coming on, the time for working had returned. Being resolute in their devotion, they bought the spices that they had not prepared [earlier] (as Mark records it) so that they might come and anoint him.^[5]

Is it from the door of the sepulcher, or of your own hearts? From the tomb, or from your own eyes? You whose heart is shut, whose eyes are closed, are unable to discover the glory of the open grave. Pour then your oil, if you wish to see that glory, not on the body of the Lord, but on the eyes of your hearts. By the light of faith you will then see that which through the deficiency of faith now lies hidden in darkness.^[1]

Our Lord and redeemer revealed the glory of his resurrection to his disciples gradually and over a period of time, undoubtedly because so great was the virtue of the miracle that the weak hearts of mortals could not grasp [the significance of] this all at once. Thus, he had regard for the frailty of those seeking him. To those who came first to the tomb, both the women who were aflame with love for him and the men, he showed the stone rolled back.^[1] Since his body had been carried away, he showed them the linen cloths^[2] in which it had been wrapped lying there alone. Then, to the women who were searching eagerly, who were confused in their minds about what they had found out about him, he showed a vision of angels^[3] who disclosed evidences of the fact that he had risen again. Thus, with the report of his resurrection already accomplished, going ahead of him, the Lord of hosts and the king of glory^[4] himself at length appeared and made clear with what great might he had overcome the death he had temporarily tasted.

Neither the stone nor the bolts of the tomb could hold Christ a captive;

Death lies conquered by him, he has trampled on hell’s fiery chasm.

With him a throng of saints ascended to heavenly regions,

And to many he showed himself, letting them see and touch him.^[1] SCENES ^[1]

[The angel] rolled back the stone not to throw open a way for our Lord to come forth, but to provide evidence to people that he had already come forth. As the virgin’s womb was closed, so the sepulcher was closed, yet he entered the world through her closed womb, and so he left the world through the closed sepulcher.

Mark tells us that the women entered the sepulcher, and there saw a young man sitting on the right side, covered with a long white garment, and that they were frightened.^[1] In Matthew’s version, the stone was already rolled away from the sepulcher and the angel was sitting upon it.^[2] The explanation may be that Matthew has simply said nothing about the angel whom they saw when they entered into the sepulcher, and that Mark has said nothing about the one whom they saw sitting outside upon the stone. In this way they would have seen two angels, and have assumed two separate angelic reports.

What we have learned about this, according to a description related by those of our contemporaries who have been in Jerusalem who, upon their return, left a written record for us of what they saw there: It was a vaulted chamber, hollowed out of rock. Its height was such that a person standing in the middle could touch the summit with his hand. Its entrance faced east, and the great stone about which the gospel tells us was placed over it. To the right as one enters was the place that was specially prepared as a resting place for the Lord’s body, seven feet in length, about two feet above the rest of the floor. The opening was not made like that of ordinary sepulchers, from above, but entirely from the side, from which the body could be placed inside.

Why a young man?^[1] The resurrection of the dead, as the apostle declares, will be unto the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ,^[2] that is, in the season of youth, which needs no further development and which is free from all defect, complete in every respect, having fullness of strength.

And let us also take note of what it means that the angel is seen sitting on the right side. For what does the left side mean but this present life; and the right hand side, if not life eternal? . . . And so, since our redeemer has now passed over beyond the mortality of this present life, rightly does the angel, who had come to announce his entry into eternal life, sit at the right side. And he came clothed in white: for he was announcing the joy of this our present solemnity.

It was fitting that the herald of his resurrection is reported to have been sitting,^[1] so that by sitting he might prefigure him who, having triumphed over the author of death, would ascend to his seat in his everlasting kingdom. . . . Sitting on a throne is the act of a king, and standing at a place of sacrifice is that of a high priest. Because our redeemer deigned to become for us at the same time both a king and a priest—a priest to cleanse us thoroughly from our sins by being a sacrificial offering in his passion, a king to bestow on us an everlasting kingdom. The angels who proclaim his resurrection appeared while sitting in order to signify that he had gone to seek his seat^[2] in the heavenly kingdom after having overcome death. They appeared also standing^[3] to show that he also intercedes for us in the mysteries of his Father as a high priest.

When we worship the likeness of the priceless and life-giving cross, we know that it is made out of a tree. We are not honoring the tree as such (God forbid), but the likeness as a symbol of Christ. For he said to his disciples, admonishing them, Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven,^[1] meaning the cross. And so also the angel of the resurrection said to the woman, You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified.^[2] And the apostle said, We preach Christ crucified.^[3] For there are many named Jesus and many who may claim to be the Christ, but we worship the one crucified. He does not say pierced but crucified. It behooves us, then, to worship the sign of Christ. For wherever the sign may be, there also will he be. But it does not behoove us to worship the material of which the image of the cross is composed, even though it is gold or precious stones.

The resurrection in which we believe is that which has already been demonstrated in the resurrection of our Lord. For it is he that raised Lazarus after he had been in the grave four days,^[1] and Jairus’ daughter,^[2] and the widow’s son.^[3] It is he that raised himself by the command of the Father in the space of three days, who is the pledge of our resurrection. For he says: I am the resurrection and the life.^[4] Now the very One who brought Jonah^[5] alive and unhurt out of the belly of the whale in the space of three days, and who brought the three children out of the furnace of Babylon and Daniel out of the mouth of the lions,^[6] does not lack power to raise us up also.

He died, but he vanquished death; in himself he put an end to what we feared; he took it upon himself and he vanquished it, as a mighty hunter he captured and slew the lion.^[1] Where is death? Seek it in Christ, for it exists no longer; but it did exist and now it is dead. O life, O death of death! Be of good heart; it will die in us, also. What has taken place in our head will take place in his members; death will die in us also. But when? At the end of the world, at the resurrection of the dead in which we believe and concerning which we do not doubt.

Christ descended into hell to liberate its captives. In one instant he destroyed all record of our ancient debt incurred under the law, in order to lead us to heaven where there is no death but only eternal life and righteousness. By the baptism which you, the newly enlightened, have just received, you now share in these blessings. Your initiation into the life of grace is the pledge of your resurrection. Your baptism is the promise of the life of heaven. By your immersion you imitated the burial of the Lord, but when you came out of the water you were conscious only of the reality of the resurrection. . . . The grace of the Spirit works in a mysterious way in the font, and the outward appearance must not obscure the wonder of it. Although water serves as the instrument, it is grace which gives rebirth. Grace transforms all who are placed in the font as the seed is transformed in the womb. It refashions all who go down into the water as metal is recast in a furnace. It reveals to them the mysteries of immortality; it seals them with the pledge of resurrection. These wonderful mysteries are symbolized for you, the newly enlightened, even in the garments you wear. See how you are clothed in the outward signs of these blessings. The radiant brightness of your robe stands for incorruptibility. The white band encircling your head like a diadem proclaims your liberty. In your hand you hold the sign of your victory over the devil. Christ is showing you that you have risen from the dead. He does this now in a symbolic way, but soon he will reveal the full reality if we keep the garment of faith undefiled and do not let sin extinguish the lamp of grace. If we preserve the crown of the Spirit, the Lord will call from heaven in a voice of tremendous majesty, yet full of tenderness: Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world. To him be glory and power for ever, through endless ages, amen.

The day of preparation, then, comprises the suffering death, the Sabbath embraces the burial, the Lord’s day contains the resurrection.

This is the day which the Lord has made: let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing.^[1] Why should we do so? Because the sun is no longer darkened; instead everything is bathed in light. Because the veil of the temple is no longer rent; instead the Church is recognized. Because we no longer hold palm branches; instead we carry the newly enlightened. . . . This is the day in the truest sense: the day of triumph, the day custom consecrates to the resurrection, the day on which we adorn ourselves with grace, the day on which we partake of the spiritual lamb. This is the day on which milk is given to those born again, and on which God’s plan for the poor is realized. Let us keep it with gladness and rejoicing, not by running off to the taverns, but by hastening to the martyrs’ shrines; not by esteeming drunkenness, but by loving temperance; not by dancing in the marketplace, but by singing psalms at home. . . . This is the day on which Adam was set free and Eve delivered from her affliction. It is the day on which cruel death shuddered, the strength of hard stones was shattered and destroyed, the bars of tombs were broken and set aside. It is the day on which the bodies of people long dead were restored to their former life and the laws of the underworld, hitherto ever powerful and immutable, were repealed. It is the day on which the heavens were opened at the rising of Christ the Lord, and on which, for the good of the human race, the flourishing and fruitful tree of the resurrection sent forth branches all over the world, as if the world were a garden. It is the day on which the lilies of the newly enlightened sprang up, the streams that sustained sinners ran dry, the strength of the devil drained away and demonic armies were scattered.

The sacredness of the Lord’s Day is apparent from the holy Scripture. This was the first day of the world. On this day the elements of the creation were formed. On this day the angels were created. On this day Christ rose from the dead. On this day the Holy Ghost came down from heaven on the apostles. On this same day the manna in the wilderness was first given.

A woman^[1] first tasted death, but in Magdalene woman first saw the resurrection, that woman might not bear the perpetual guilt of transgression among men.

It was also a woman who first announced to the disciples that the Lord had come forth from the confinement of the grave,^[1] so that where sin abounded grace might more abound.^[2]

It seems as if some impediment to recognition had been effected in the eyes of those who beheld him; and when it is plainly said elsewhere: He appeared to them in another shape^[1]—obviously in his own body with another appearance—some effect was produced which acted as an impediment to prevent them, that is, their eyes were subjected to a delay in recognition.

Their eyes were obstructed, that they should not recognize him until the breaking of the bread. And thus, in accordance with the state of their minds, which were still ignorant of the truth (that the Christ would die and rise again), their eyes were similarly hindered. It was not that the truth himself was misleading them, but rather that they were themselves unable to perceive the truth.^[1]

Jesus appeared; he was visible to their eyes, yet he was not recognized. The master walked with them on the way; in fact, he was the way on which they were not yet walking; but he found that they had wandered some distance from the way. For when he was with them before his passion, he had foretold all—that he would suffer, that he would die, that he would rise again on the third day—he had predicted all; but his death was as a loss of memory for them. They were so disturbed when they saw him hanging on the cross that they forgot his teaching, did not look for his resurrection, and failed to keep his promises in mind.

In some copies, and especially in the Greek codices, it is written according to Mark at the end of his Gospel: At length Jesus appeared to the eleven as they were at table.^[1]

As he showed them real hands and a real side,^[1] so he really ate with his disciples;^[2] really walked with Cleophas;^[3] conversed with men with a real tongue;^[4] really reclined at supper;^[5] with real hands took bread, blessed and broke it, and was offering it to them.^[6] . . . Do not put the power of the Lord on a level with the tricks of magicians, so that he may appear to have been what he was not, and may be thought to have eaten without teeth, walked without feet, broken bread without hands, spoken without a tongue, and showed a side which had no ribs.

He appeared in the breaking of bread to those who, supposing that he was a stranger, invited him to share their table.^[1] He will also be present to us when we willingly bestow whatever goods we can on strangers and poor people.^[2] And he will be present to us in the breaking of bread, when we partake with a chaste and simple conscience in the sacrament of his body, the living bread.^[3]

The Lord Jesus himself chided his disciples, his earliest followers who remained close to him, because they did not believe that he was now alive, but grieved over him as dead.^[1] They were the fathers of the faith, but they were not yet fully believers. They did not yet believe, although they were made teachers so that the whole world might believe what they were destined to preach and what they were going to die for. They did not yet believe that he, whom they had seen raising others from the dead, had himself arisen. Deservedly, then, were they rebuked.

He also showed himself on one final occasion to the eleven as they sat at table together^[1]—that is, on the fortieth day itself. He was now on the point of leaving them and ascending into heaven.^[2] He was minded on that memorable day especially to reprove them for their refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen, until they had seen him themselves. For when they would preach the gospel after his ascension, the nations themselves would be ready to believe what they did not see. . . . If, therefore, they were charged to preach that those who do not believe will be condemned, when they themselves had not believed what they had just seen, was it not fitting that they should themselves first be thus reproved for their own refusal to believe those to whom the Lord had shown himself at an earlier stage until they should have seen him with their own eyes?

A band of twelve men went forth from Jerusalem, and they were common men, not trained in speaking, but by the power of God they testified to every race of humankind.

Then in this same way the apostles went out to found churches in every city possible. It is from these apostolic churches that all the subsequent churches, one after the other, derived the rule of faith and the seeds of doctrine. Even to today they continue to derive from the apostles that which is necessary in order that they be churches. Indeed, it is for this reason only that they are able to deem themselves as apostolic, as being the offspring of apostolic churches. As in science, every genus reverts to its original for its classification, so with the apostolic church. However many or great these churches may be, they comprise but one primitive church, founded by the apostles, from which they all spring. In this way all are primitive. All are apostolic. They all are one, by means of their unbroken unity, peaceful communion, title of descent, and bond of hospitality. These are privileges that no other rule directs than the one tradition of the same mystery.

He willed that the apostles as spiritual progenitors of the new humanity would be sent by his Son into the entire world,^[1] so that all human sufferers might come to the knowledge of their creator. Insofar as any choose to follow him, they have One whom they now address in their prayers as Father,^[2] instead of God. His providence has run and at present runs its course not only among individuals but also through whole cities and states, whose overthrow he predicted by the words of the prophets. His providence indeed runs its course through the whole cosmos itself.

The command to the apostles to be witnesses to him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth^[1] was not addressed exclusively to those to whom it was immediately spoken. They alone would not be the only ones who would carry such an enormous task to completion. Similarly he seems to be speaking to the apostles very personally when he says: Behold I am with you even to the end of the world,^[2] yet who does not know that he made this promise to the universal church which will last from now even to the consummation of the world by successive births and deaths?

The ecumenically received faith is taught in the creed and committed to memory in a form of the utmost possible brevity, so as to frame an expression in few words of that which was intended to be explained at large afterwards to persons in a state of formation and advancement in knowledge of God.

We know that the dead who die in the Lord are blessed,^[1] and they have no concern with what they would have done if they had lived a longer time.^[2] We know that those who believe in the Lord from their own heart do this of their own will and free choice. We who now believe act rightly when we pray to God for those who refuse to believe, and pray that they themselves may in time freely will to believe.

Is it, my brethren, because we do not have these signs that you do not believe? These were needed at the church’s beginning. The new faith needed to be nourished by miracles to grow. When we plant a vineyard, we must water the plants till we see they have begun to grow in the earth, and when they have once taken root we cease to water them constantly. . . . But true life cannot be obtained by means of these outward signs by those who perform them. For although corporeal works of this kind sometimes do proclaim an inner holiness of life, they do not bring it about.

With good reason did he say to all of us together, when we became fully aware of those gifts that were given from him by the Spirit: And these signs will accompany those who believe; in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.^[1] These gifts were first bestowed on us the apostles when we were about to preach the gospel to every creature. Later they of necessity were afforded to others who had by the apostles come to believe. These gifts were not given for the advantage of those who perform them, but for the conviction of the unbelievers, that those whom the word did not persuade, the power of signs might put to shame.

See, God sent apostles, and sent prophets and teachers, gave the gift of healings, which as we have found are given by the Holy Spirit, and God gave many kinds of tongues. But yet all are not apostles, all are not prophets, all are not teachers. Not all, says he, have the gift of healings, nor do all, says he, speak with tongues.^[1] For the whole range of divine gifts cannot exist in each particular individual. Each, according to his capacity, receives that which he either desires or deserves.

As the Father gives the gift of healings, so too does the Son give; as the Father gives the gift of tongues, so too has the Son also granted it.

There is something to be said of these signs and powers of a more veiled nature.^[1] The holy church is even now doing spiritually, every day, what she then did through the apostles corporately. For when priests, by the grace of exorcism, lay hands on believers and forbid evil spirits to inhabit their minds, what are they doing but casting out demons? And any believers whatever who henceforth abandon the profanity of the old life, and utter holy mysteries, and rehearse, as best they can, the praise and power of their maker, what are they doing but speaking in new tongues? Moreover, when by their good exhortations they remove evil from the hearts of others, are they not taking up serpents? Aren’t these miracles the greater because they are spiritual, because they are the means not of raising up bodies but souls? These signs then, beloved, you do if you will.^[2]

For what else are hearing, reading and copiously depositing things in the memory, than several stages of drinking in thoughts? The Lord, however, foretold concerning his faithful followers, that even if they should drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them.^[1] And thus it happens that they who read with judgment, and bestow their approval on whatever is commendable according to the rule of faith,^[2] and disapprove of things which ought to be repudiated, even if they commit to their memory heretical statements which are declared to be worthy of disapproval, they receive no harm from the poisonous and depraved nature of these sentences.

The Church was redeemed at the price of Christ’s blood. Jew or Greek, it makes no difference; but if he believes, he must circumcise himself from his sins [in baptism, Col 2:11–12] so that he can be saved . . . for no one ascends into the kingdom of heaven except through the sacrament of baptism. . . . “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”.

Be contented with one baptism alone, that which is into the death of the Lord [Rom 6:3; Col 2:12–13]. . . . [H]e that will not be baptized out of contempt will be condemned as an unbeliever, and reproached as ungrateful and foolish. For the Lord says: “Except a man be baptized of water and of the Spirit, he shall by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven” [Jn 3:5]. And again: “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned” [Mk 16:16].

Not even the baptism of a public confession and blood can profit a heretic to salvation, because there is no salvation out of the Church.

Let men of this kind, who are aiders and favorers of heretics, know first, that those catechumens hold the sound faith and truth of the Church, and advance from the divine camp to do battle with the devil, with a full and sincere acknowledgment of God the Father, and of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit; then, that they are not deprived of the sacrament of baptism who are baptized with the most glorious and greatest baptism of blood, about which the Lord said that he had “another baptism to be baptized with”.

If a man does not receive baptism, he has not salvation; except only martyrs, who even without the water receive the kingdom. For when the Savior, in redeeming the world by his cross, was pierced in the side, he shed blood and water; that men, living in times of peace, might be baptized in water, and, in times of persecution, in their own blood. For martyrdom the Savior is wont to call a baptism, saying, Can you drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? [Mk 10:38] . . . For you go down into the water, bearing your sins, but the invocation of grace, having sealed your soul, suffers you not afterwards to be swallowed up by the terrible dragon. Having gone down dead in sins, you come up quickened in righteousness.

In three ways are sins remitted in the Church; by baptism, by prayer, by the greater humility of penance; yet God does not remit sins except to the baptized. The very sins that he remits first, he remits only to the baptized.