Sermons for Easter

Throughout the Season of Easter, we will post various sermons by the Saints, the Blessed, the Venerable or just popes, bishops and priests. These will cover all the serious subjects that are related to the spirit of Easter and is meaning and consequences for us. May they bring you much inspiration and grace, while helping you spend the season in a truly profitable and fruitful manner.

CONTENTS

1. Pope St. Gregory the Great THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
2. St. John Chrysostom CONFIDENCE IN THE VICTORIOUS CHRIST
3. Pope St. Leo the Great NO EASTER WITH THE CROSS OF CHRIST
4. Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen BY HOOK AND BY CROOK
5. St. Francis de Sales EASTER VIRTUES
6. St. Augustine of Hippo PEACE BE TO YOU
7.  St. Augustine of Hippo DAY OF LIGHT, LIFE, MERCY & FORGIVENESS
8.  St. Augustine of Hippo PASSOVER OF SUFFERING NOT OVER
9. St. Augustine of Hippo CONSEQUENCES OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION
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SERMON 1
Pope St. Gregory the Great
ON THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

Given to the People in the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the Holy Day of the Resurrection

1. It has been my custom, beloved brethren, to speak to you on many of the Gospel readings, by means of a sermon I had already dictated for you. But since I have been unable, because of the weakness of my throat, to read to you myself what I had prepared, I notice that some among you listen somewhat indifferently. So, contrary to my usual practice, I shall for the future make the effort during the sacred solemnities of the Mass to explain the Gospel, not through a sermon I have dictated, but by speaking directly to you myself.

So for the future it shall be the rule for me to speak to you in this way. For the words which are spoken directly to sluggish souls awaken them more readily than a sermon that is read to them; moving them by that touch as it were of authority, so that they listen with more attention. I am not, as I well know, competent to fulfill this office: but let your charity make good what my ignorance denies me. For I have in mind Him Who has said: “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 80:2).

We all have in mind a good work, and it will be perfected by His divine assistance (2 Timothy 3:17). And also, this great solemnity of the Sunday of the Resurrection gives us a fitting occasion for speaking to you: for it would indeed be unfitting that the tongue of our body should be silent in the praises that are clue this day; that day on which the Body of our Author rose again from the dead.

2. You have heard, Beloved, how the holy women who had followed the Lord came to His tomb, bringing with them sweet spices, so that with tender affection they might tend Him in death Whom they had loved in life. And this tells us something which we should observe in the life of our holy Church. And it is important we give attention to what here took place: to see what we mint do to imitate them. And we also, who believe in Him Who died, truly come with sweet spices to His tomb, when we come seeking the Lord, bringing with us the sweet odor of virtue, and the credit of good works.

But these women who came bringing sweet spices beheld angels. And this signifies that those souls who, because of their holy love, come seeking the Lord, bearing the sweet spices of virtue, shall also see the citizens of Heaven. 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? Because of this it is written in the Canticle of Canticles: “His left hand is under my head, and His right hand shall embrace me” (Canticles 2:6).

And so, since Our Redeemer has now passed over beyond the mortality of this present life, tightly 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. For the whiteness of his garments signifies the glory of our great Feast. Should we say ours, not His? That we may speak truly let us say that it is both ours and His. For this day of our Redeemer’s Resurrection is also our day of great joy; for it has restored us to immortality. It is also a day of joy for the angels: for restoring us to Heaven, it has filled up again the number of its citizens. On this our festival day, and His, an angel appeared, clothed in white robes, because they are rejoicing that because we are restored to Heaven the losses their heavenly home had suffered are now made good.

3. But let us hear what is said to the women who came? Be not affrighted! As though he said to them: Let them fear who love not the coming of the heavenly citizens. Let them fear who, steeped in bodily desires, have no hope of belonging to them. But you, why should you fear, meeting your own? Matthew also, describing the appearance of the Angel, says of him: “And his countenance was as lightning, and His clothing white as snow” (Matthew 28:3).

Lightning awakens dread and fear, the white radiance of snow is soothing. For Almighty God is both terrifying to sinners, and comforting to those who are good. Rightly then is the Angel, the Witness of the Resurrection, revealed to us with countenance like the lightning, and his garments white as snow: so that even by his appearance he might awaken fear in the reprobate, and bring consolation to the just.

And rightly also, for the same reason, there went before the Lord’s People in the desert, “a column of fire by night, and a column of smoke by day” (Exodus 13:21-22). For in fire there is fear; but in the cloud of smoke the comforting assurance of what we can see: day also meaning the life of the just, and night the life of sinners. Because of this Paul, speaking to converted sinners, says: “For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8). So a pillar of cloud was set before them by day, and a pillar of fire by night: because Almighty God shall appear mild of countenance to the just, but fearful to the wicked. Coming to judge us, He shall comfort the one by the mildness of His countenance, and terrify the other with the severity of His justice.

4. Now let us hear what the angel says. You seek Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, in the Latin tongue, is saving ; that is, Savior. Then however many were called Jesus, by name, not because of the reality it means. So the place is added, to make clear of what Jesus he is speaking―of Nazareth. And to this he adds the reason they seek Him: Who was crucified. And then he goes on: He is risen, he is not here. That He was not there was said only of His Bodily Presence; for nowhere is He absent in the power of His divinity. But go, he continues, tell His disciples and Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee .

Now we have to ask ourselves, why did he, speaking of the Disciples, single out Peter by name? But, had the Angel not referred to him in this way, Peter would never have dared to appear again among the Apostles. He is bidden then by name to come, so that he will not despair because of his denial of Christ. And here we must ask ourselves, why did Almighty God permit the one He had placed over the whole Church to be frightened by the voice of a maid servant, and even to deny Christ Himself? This we know was a great dispensation of the divine mercy, so that he who was to be the shepherd of the Church might learn, through his own fall, to have compassion on others. God therefore first shows him to himself, and then places him over others: to learn through his own weakness how to bear mercifully with the weakness of others.

5. And well did he say of Our Redeemer that: He goeth before you into Galilee; there you shall see Him, as He told you. For Galilee means, passing-over. And now our Redeemer has passed over from His suffering to His Resurrection, from death to life, from punishment to glory, from mortality to immortality. And, after His Resurrection, His Disciples first see Him in Galilee; as afterwards, filled with joy, we also shall see the glory of the Resurrection, if we now pass over from the ways of sin to the heights of holy living. He therefore Who is announced to us from the tomb is shown to us by crossing over: for He Whom we acknowledge in the denial of our flesh is seen in the passing over of our soul. Because of the solemnity of the day, we have gone briefly over these points in our explanation of the Gospel. Let us now speak in more detail of this same solemnity.

6. There are two lives; one of which we knew, the other we did not know of. The one is mortal, the other immortal; the one linked with human infirmity, the other to incorruption; one is marked for death, the other for resurrection. The Mediator between God and man, the Man Jesus Christ, came, and took upon Himself the one, and revealed to us the other. The one He endured by dying; the other He revealed when He rose from the dead. Had He then foretold to us, who knew His mortal life, the Resurrection of His Body, and had not visibly shown it to us, who would believe in His promises? So, becoming Man, He shows Himself in our flesh; of His own will He suffered death; by His own power He rose from the dead; and by this proof He showed us that which He promises as a reward.

But perhaps someone will say: Of course He rose: for being God He could not be held in death. So, to give light to our understanding, to strengthen our weakness, He willed to give us proof, and not of His Resurrection only. In that hour He died alone; but He did not rise alone from the dead. For it is written: “And many bodies of the saints that had slept arose” (Matthew 27:52). He has therefore taken away the argument of those who do not believe.

And let no one say: No man can hope that that will happen to him which the God-man proved to us in His Body; for here we learn that men did rise again with God, and we do not doubt that these were truly men. If then we are the members of our Redeemer, let us look forward to that which we know was fulfilled in our Head. Even if we should be diffident, we ought to hope that what we have heard of His worthier members will be fulfilled also in us His meanest members.

7. And here there comes to mind what the Jews, insulting the Crucified Son of God, cried out: “If He be the king of Israel, let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe Him!” Had He, yielding to their insults, then come down from the Cross, He would not have proved to us the power of patience. He waited for the little time left, He bore with their insults, He submitted to their mockery, He continued patient, and evoked our admiration; and He Who refused to descend from the Cross, rose again from the sepulcher. More did it matter so to rise from the sepulcher than to descend from the Cross. A far greater thing was it to overcome death by rising from the sepulcher, than to preserve life by descending from the Cross.

And when the Jews saw that despite their insults He would not descend from the Cross, and when they saw Him dying, they rejoiced; thinking they had overcome Him and caused His Name to be forgotten. But now through all the world His Name has grown in honor, because of the death whereby this faithless people thought they had caused Him to be forgotten. And He Whom they rejoiced over as slain, they grieved over when He was dead: for they know it was through death He had come to His glory.

The deeds of Samson, related in the Book of Judges, foreshadowed this Day (Judges 16:1-3). For when Samson went into Gaza, the city of the Philistines, they, learning he had come in, immediately surrounded the city and placed guards before the gates; and they rejoiced because they had Samuel in their power. What Samson did we know? At midnight he took the gates of the city, and carried them to the top of a hill outside. Whom does Samson symbolize, Beloved, in this, if not our Redeemer? What does Gaza symbolize, if not the gates of Hell? And what the Philistines, if not the perfidy of the Jews, who, seeing the Lord dead, and His Body in the sepulcher, placed guards before it; rejoicing that they had Him in their power, and that He, Whom the Author of life had glorified, was now enclosed by the gates of Hell: as they had rejoiced when they thought they had captured Samson in Gaza.

But in the middle of the night Samson, not only went forth from the city, but also carried off its gates, as our Redeemer, rising before day, not alone went forth free from Hell, but also destroyed the very gates of Hell. He took away the gates, and mounted with them to the top of a hill; for by His Resurrection He bore off the gates of Hell, and by His Ascension He mounted to the kingdom of Heaven.

Let us, Beloved, love with all our hearts this glorious Resurrection, which was first made known to us by a Figure, and then made known in deed; and for love of it let us be prepared to die. See how in the Resurrection of our Author we have come to know His ministering angels as our own fellow citizens. Let us hasten on to that great assembly of these fellow citizens. Let us, since we cannot see them face to face, join ourselves to them in heart and desire. Let us cross over from evildoing to virtue, that we may merit to see our Redeemer in Galilee. May Almighty God help us to that life which is our desire: He Who for us delivered His only Son to death, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who with Him reigns One with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON 2
St. John Chrysostom
ON CONFIDENCE IN THE VICTORIOUS CHRIST

In this Easter season, in which we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, here is a sermon preached by St. John Chrysostom (347-407) in the fourth century. Before reading his sermon, it may help you to know something about Chrysostom the man―one of the early Church Fathers, which will give you some background as you read through the sermon from St. John Chrysostom, who became known as the golden mouthed preacher.

Chrysostom excelled in the disciplines of rhetoric and law. However, not finding satisfaction in these studies, he pursued Christian asceticism. While living an ascetic life, he pursued God and almost ruined his health. It was a means God used to refine and prepare him for another kind of ministry.

Leaving a more monastic life, he moved to the city and adopted a less physically rigorous lifestyle and engaged in a more public ministry. Being recognized for his God-given gifts, Chrysostom was ordained a deacon in 381 and a priest in 386. His primary role as a priest was preaching. God used his earlier training, especially in rhetoric, to expound the Word of God will clarity and with power. Eventually in 398, Chrysostom was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople―a role in which he served until his death in 407. He was committed to reform, both the moral leniency of pastors/clergy and the moral corruptness of the city. This commitment of ministry and message, led to trials and difficulties for the nine years he served in this role. Toward the end of his life, he was exiled because he defied an imperial order. While in exile he died.

God had gifted Chrysostom greatly as a preacher of the Word of God. God also gave him an inner resolve of courage and conviction. He spoke truth boldly. As is often true, when he exercised his God-given gift of preaching, he found strength, concluding: “Preaching improves me! When I begin to speak―weariness disappears! When I begin to teach―fatigue too disappears!” But, as is also often the case, when one exercises those gifts of preaching truth, particularly when it is a call to reform―it may lead to trouble and tribulation. This is true for one of the early Church’s most gifted preachers.

In this preaching role, his rhetorical skills, amplified by his scholarship and piety, earned him a reputation as a biblical expositor second to none. Based on his published sermons, treatises and letters (600 sermons and 200 letters survive), later generations concluded the same, with leaders in the sixth century church referring to Chrysostom as “Chrysostomos”―meaning, “golden mouthed,” i.e. Chrysostom is the “golden mouthed preacher.”

Chrysostom’s theology was expressed primarily in his sermons and was neither systematic, precise, nor original. His sermons drew spiritual and moral applications from a literal and grammatical exegesis of the Scriptures. Chrysostom was also given the title Doctor of the Church, as he is considered one of the great early Church Fathers of the East―along with a few other Church Fathers of the East, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Athanasius. After that very brief overview of the St. John Chrysostom, here now is one of his Easter sermons.

CONFIDENCE IN THE VICTORIOUS CHRIST

“Are there any who are devout lovers of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Are there any who are grateful servants? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord! Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward! If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt and be afraid of being too late―for he, too, shall sustain no loss. And if any delayed until the ninth hour, let him not hesitate; but let him come too. And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour―let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.

“For the Lord is gracious and He receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, as well as to him that toiled from the first. To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows. He rewards the one and is generous to the other. He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor. The deed He honors and the intention He commends. He repays the deed and praises the effort.

“Come―all of you! Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord! Enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last―will receive alike your reward. You rich and you poor―dance and rejoice together! You who are sober and you who are slothful―celebrate the day! You who have kept the fast and you who have not―rejoice today! The Table is richly loaded―enjoy its royal banquet! The calf is a fatted one―let no one go away hungry! All of you enjoy the banquet and partake of the cup of Faith! All of you receive the riches of His goodness!

“Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep over his sins and mourn that he has fallen again and again―for pardon and forgiveness have risen from the grave! Let no one fear death―for the death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it. He destroyed Hell when He descended into its kingdom. He has put it into an uproar and angered it―by allowing it to taste of His flesh.

“Isaias foresaw and foretold all this when he said: ‘You, O Hell, have been troubled and angered by encountering Him below!’ Hell was in an uproar and angered because it was frustrated and done away with. It was in an uproar and angered because it was mocked. It was in an uproar and angered, because its power was destroyed. It was in an uproar and angered, because it is annihilated and reduced to nothing. It was in an uproar, for it was made captive. Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took Earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see. It took what was visible, and was overcome by the invisible.

“O death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, death is annihilated! Christ is risen and life is freed! Christ is risen, and the evil ones are cast down! Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice! Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead! For Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of those who had fallen asleep in death. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.”

SERMON 3
Pope St. Leo the Great
THERE CAN BE NO EASTER WITHOUT THE CROSS OF CHRIST

I. The Cross is not only the mystery of salvation, but an example to follow
The whole of the Easter mystery, dearly-beloved, has been brought before us in the Gospel narrative, and the ears of the mind have been so reached through the ear of flesh that none of you can fail to have a picture of the events: for the text of the Divinely-inspired story has clearly shown the treachery of the Lord Jesus Christ’s betrayal, the judgment by which He was condemned, the barbarity of His crucifixion, and glory of His resurrection. But a sermon is still required of us, that the priests’ exhortation may be added to the solemn reading of Holy Scripture, as I am sure you are with pious expectation demanding of us as your accustomed due. Because therefore there is no place for ignorance in faithful ears, the seed of the Word which consists of the preaching of the Gospel, ought to grow in the soil of your heart, so that, when choking thorns and thistles have been removed, the plants of holy thoughts and the buds of right desires may spring up freely into fruit. For the cross of Christ, which was set up for the salvation of mortals, is both a mystery and an example: a sacrament where by the Divine power takes effect, an example whereby man’s devotion is excited: for to those who are rescued from the prisoner’s yoke Redemption further procures the power of following the way of the cross by imitation. For if the world’s wisdom so prides itself in its error that every one follows the opinions and habits and whole manner of life of him whom he has chosen as his leader, how shall we share in the name of Christ save by being inseparably united to Him, Who is, as He Himself asserted, the Way, the Truth, and the Life John 14:6? The Way that is of holy living, the Truth of Divine doctrine, and the Life of eternal happiness.

II. Christ took our nature upon Him for our salvation
For when the whole body of mankind had fallen in our first parents, the merciful God purposed so to succor, through His only-begotten Jesus Christ, His creatures made after His image, that the restoration of our nature should not be effected apart from it, and that our new estate should be an advance upon our original position. Happy, if we had not fallen from that which God made us; but happier, if we remain that which He has re-made us. It was much to have received form from Christ; it is more to have a substance in Christ. For we were taken up into its own proper self by that Nature (which condescended to those limitations which loving-kindness dictated and which yet incurred no sort of change. We were taken up by that Nature), which destroyed not what was His in what was ours, nor what was ours in what was His; which made the person of the Godhead and of the Manhood so one in Itself that by co-ordination of weakness and power, the flesh could not be rendered inviolable through the Godhead, nor the Godhead passible through the flesh. We were taken up by that Nature, which did not break off the Branch from the common stock of our race, and yet excluded all taint of the sin which has passed upon all men. That is to say, weakness and mortality, which were not sin, but the penalty of sin, were undergone by the Redeemer of the World in the way of punishment, that they might be reckoned as the price of redemption. What therefore in all of us is the heritage of condemnation, is in Christ the mystery of godliness. For being free from debt, He gave Himself up to that most cruel creditor, and suffered the hands of Jews to be the devil’s agents in torturing His spotless flesh. Which flesh He willed to be subject to death, even up to His (speedy) resurrection, to this end, that believers in Him might find neither persecution intolerable, nor death terrible, by the remembrance that there was no more doubt about their sharing His glory than there was about His sharing their nature.

III. The presence of the risen and ascended Lord is still with us
And so, dearly-beloved, if we unhesitatingly believe with the heart what we profess with the mouth, in Christ we are crucified, we are dead, we are buried; on the very third day, too, we are raised. Hence the Apostle says, If you have risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting on God’s right hand: set your affections on things above, not on things on the Earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. For when Christ, your life, shall have appeared, then shall you also appear with Him in glory Colossians 3:1-4. But that the hearts of the faithful may know that they have that whereby to spurn the lusts of the world and be lifted to the wisdom that is above, the Lord promises us His presence, saying, “Lo! I am with you all the days, even till the end of the age” Matthew 28:20. For not in vain had the Holy Ghost said by Isaias: Behold! A virgin shall conceive and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, God with us. Jesus, therefore, fulfils the proper meaning of His name, and in ascending into the heavens does not forsake His adopted brethren, though He sits at the right hand of the Father, yet dwells in the whole body, and Himself from above strengthens them for patient waiting while He summons them upwards to His glory.

IV. We must have the same mind as was in Christ Jesus
We must not, therefore, indulge in folly amid vain pursuits, nor give way to fear in the midst of adversities. On the one side, no doubt, we are flattered by deceits, and on the other weighed down by troubles; but because the Earth is full of the mercy of the Lord , Christ’s victory is assuredly ours, that what He says may be fulfilled, Fear not, for I have overcome the world John 16:33. Whether, then, we fight against the ambition of the world, or against the lusts of the flesh, or against the darts of heresy, let us arm ourselves always with the Lord’s Cross.

For our Paschal feast will never end, if we abstain from the leaven of the old wickedness (in the sincerity of truth). For amid all the changes of this life which is full of various afflictions, we ought to remember the Apostle’s exhortation; whereby he instructs us, saying, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God counted it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man.

Wherefore God also exalted Him, and gave Him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven, of things on Earth, and of things below, and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father Philippians 2:5-11. If, he says, you understand the mystery of great godliness, and remember what the Only-begotten Son of God did for the salvation of mankind, have that mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Whose humility is not to be scorned by any of the rich, not to be thought shame of by any of the high-born. For no human happiness whatever can reach so great a height as to reckon it a source of shame to himself that God, abiding in the form of God, thought it not unworthy of Himself to take the form of a slave.

V. Only he who holds the truth on the Incarnation can keep Easter properly
Imitate what He wrought: love what He loved, and finding in you the Grace of God, love in Him your nature in return, since as He was not dispossessed of riches in poverty, lessened not glory in humility, lost not eternity in death, so do ye, too, treading in His footsteps, despise earthly things that you may gain heavenly: for the taking up of the cross means the slaying of lusts, the killing of vices, the turning away from vanity, and the renunciation of all error. For, though the Lord’s Passover can be kept by no immodest, self-indulgent, proud, or miserly person, yet none are held so far aloof from this festival as heretics, and especially those who have wrong views on the Incarnation of the Word, either disparaging what belongs to the Godhead or treating what is of the flesh as unreal. For the Son of God is true God, having from the Father all that the Father is, with no beginning in time, subject to no sort of change, undivided from the One God, not different from the Almighty, the eternal Only-begotten of the eternal Father; so that the faithful intellect believing in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost in the same essence of the one Godhead, neither divides the Unity by suggesting degrees of dignity, nor confounds the Trinity by merging the Persons in one. But it is not enough to know the Son of God in the Father’s nature only, unless we acknowledge Him in what is ours without withdrawal of what is His own. For that self-emptying, which He underwent for man’s restoration, was the dispensation of compassion, not the loss of power. For, though by the eternal purpose of God there was no other name under Heaven given to men whereby they must be saved Acts 4:12, the Invisible made His substance visible, the Intemporal temporal, the Impassible passible: not that power might sink into weakness, but that weakness might pass into indestructible power.

VI. A mystical application of the term Passover is given
For which reason the very feast which by us is named Pascha, among the Hebrews is called Phase, that is Pass-over, as the evangelist attests, saying, Before the feast of Pascha, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should pass out of this world unto the Father. But what was the nature in which He thus passed out unless it was ours, since the Father was in the Son and the Son in the Father inseparably? But because the Word and the Flesh is one Person, the Assumed is not separated from the Assuming nature, and the honor of being promoted is spoken of as accruing to Him that promotes, as the Apostle says in a passage we have already quoted, Wherefore also God exalted Him and gave Him a name which is above every name. Where the exaltation of His assumed Manhood is no doubt spoken of, so that He in Whose sufferings the Godhead remains indivisible is likewise coeternal in the glory of the Godhead. And to share in this unspeakable gift the Lord Himself was preparing a blessed passing over for His faithful ones, when on the very threshold of His Passion he interceded not only for His Apostles and disciples but also for the whole Church, saying, But not for these only I pray, but for those also who shall believe in Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You also, Father, art in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us John 17:20-21.

VII. Only true believers can keep the Easter Festival
In this union they can have no share who deny that in the Son of God, Himself true God, man’s nature abides, assailing the health-giving mystery and shutting themselves out from the Easter festival. For, as they dissent from the Gospel and oppose or deny the creed, they cannot keep it with us, because although they dare to take to themselves the Christian name, yet they are repelled by every creature who has Christ for his Head: for you rightly exult and devoutly rejoice in this sacred season as those who, admitting no falsehood into the Truth, have no doubt about Christ’s Birth according to the flesh, His Passion and Death, and the Resurrection of His body: inasmuch as without any separation of the Godhead you acknowledge a Christ, Who was truly born of a Virgin’s womb, truly hung on the wood of the cross, truly laid in an earthly tomb, truly raised in glory, truly set on the right hand of the Father’s majesty; whence also, as the Apostle says, we look for a Savior our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall refashion the body of our humility to become conformed to the body of His glory Philippians 3:20-21. Who lives and reigns, etc.

SERMON 4
Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
BY HOOK AND BY CROOK

Sunday morning came, and it was one of calm, like the sleep of innocents, and the clear, benign air seemed almost as if it had been stirred by angels’ wings. Mary walked in the garden and someone near her spoke a word, and pronounced it longingly, wistfully, in that touching and unforgettable voice which had called her so many times: “Mary!”

And to this one and only word, she made an answer, a word and only one: “Rabboni!” And as she fell at His knees in the grass and clasped in her hands those bare feet, she saw two scars, two red-lined marks of nails — for Christ was now walking in the glory of His new Easter morn.

That was the first Easter Day. Centuries have whirled-away since that time, and on this new Easter Day as I turn from that garden to the altar, I behold placed over the tabernacle, on this Resurrection Day, the image, not of a Risen Savior, but the image of a dying one, to teach me that Christ lives over again in His Church, and that the Church, like Christ, not only lives, not only dies, but always rises from the dead. She is in love with death as a condition of birth; and with her, as with Christ, unless there is a Good Friday in her life, there will never be an Easter Sunday; unless there is the crown of thorns there will never be the halo of light; and unless there is the Cross there will never be the empty tomb.

In other words, every now and then the Church must be crucified by an unbelieving world and buried as dead, only to rise again. She never does anything but die, and for that peculiar reason she never does anything but live. Every now and then the very life seems to have gone out of her; she is palled with death; her blood seems to have been sapped out of her; her enemies seal the tomb, roll a stone in front of her grave, and say: “The Church will never rise again!” But somehow or other she does rise again.

At least a dozen times in history, the world has buried the Church and each time she has come to life again. . . .

It is a strange but certain fact that the Church is never so weak as when she is powerful with the world; never so poor as when she is rich with the riches of the world; never so foolish as when she is wise with the fancies of the world. She is strongest with Divine Help when she is weakest with human power, for like Peter she is given the miraculous draught of fishes when she admits by her own power she has labored all the night and taken nothing.

When her discipline, her spirit of saintliness, her zeal for Christ, her vigils, and her mortifications, become a thing of less importance, the world makes the fatal mistake of believing that her soul is dead and her faith is departed. Not so! The faith, even in those days of lesser prayer, is solid ― for it is the faith of the centuries, the faith of Jesus Christ. What may be weak is her discipline, her prayerfulness, and her saintliness, for these are of men, whereas her faith is of God. A renewal of spirit, then, will come not by changing her way of thinking, for that is divine, but her way of acting, for that is human.

But the world, failing to make this distinction between the Divine and the human in her, as it failed to make it in Christ, takes her for dead. To the world, her very life seems spent, her heart pierced, her body drained; in its eyes she is just as dead as the Master when taken down from the cross, and there is nothing left to do, but to lay her in the sepulcher.

There emerges, then, from her history one great and wonderful lesson and it is this: Christ rose from the dead, not because He is man, but because He is God. The Church rises from the sepulcher in which violent hands or passing errors would inter her, not because she is human, but because she is Divine. Nothing can rise from the dead except Divinity. The world should profit by experience and give up expecting the Church to die. If a bell had been tolled on a thousand different occasions and the funeral never took place, men would soon begin to regard the funeral as a joke. So it is with the Church. The notice of her execution has been posted but the execution has never taken place. Science killed her and still she was there. History interred her, but still she was alive. Modernism slew her, but still she lived.

Even civilizations are born, rise to greatness, then decline, suffer, and die; but they never rise again. But the Church does rise again; in fact she is constantly finding her way out of the grave because she had a Captain who found His way out of the grave. The world may expect her to become tired; to be weak when she becomes powerful; to become poor when she is rich; but the world need never expect her to die. The world should give up looking for the extinction of that which so many times has been vainly extinguished.

Like a mighty oak tree which has stood for twenty centuries she bears fresh green foliage for each new age, that the age may come and enjoy the refreshing benediction of its shade. The flowers that open their chalices of perfume this spring are not old things, but new things on an old root. Such is the Church. She is reborn to each new age, and hence is the only new thing in the world. . . .

She will go on dying and living again and in each recurring cycle of a Good Friday and an Easter Sunday her one aim in life will be to preach Christ and Him Crucified ... To bring the peace of Christ to the souls of our countrymen. There will be no weapons to make that peace an armed peace, but there will be two insignificant instruments used, which have been used from the beginning, and they will be the instruments Our Lord taught His Apostles to use, namely those of fishermen and shepherds.

I might say, therefore, we will go on “by hook and by crook” and the hook will be the hook of the fisherman, and the crook will be the crook of the shepherd; and with the hook we will catch souls for Christ, and with the crook we will keep them, even to the end of time; for as fishers of men and shepherds of souls we are committed to the high destiny of making Christ the King of human hearts, and with only the sign of Jonas the prophet, the fulfillment of that destiny can never be doubted, for if truth wins, Christ wins; if truth loses … Ah! But truth can’t lose!

SERMON 5
St. Francis de Sales
EASTER VIRTUES

Immense must have been the joy in Noe’s Ark when the dove, which had set out but a little while before as though to discover in what state the world lay, came back at last with a twig of olive in its mouth ― a sure sign that the waters had subsided, that God had restored to the world the happiness of His peace.

But think of the joy, the jubilation, the gaiety that enraptured the band of Apostles as they beheld the blessed manhood of the Redeemer, when He re-appeared among them after His resurrection! He brought the olive-branch of a holy and welcome peace: “Peace be upon you!” were the words that fell from His lips. He showed His followers the unquestionable marks and signs of man’s reconciliation with God: And He showed them His hands and His feet. Surely a great happiness flooded in upon their souls! The disciples saw the Lord and were glad.

This joy, however, was not the most important fruit of that blessed vision. Their wavering Faith was made firm, their dismayed Hope reassured, their waning Charity fanned into flame.

This is the theme of the address which I have set myself; but I cannot develop it properly, nor can you listen with profit, unless the Holy Spirit comes to our aid. Let us invoke Him, then ― lending worth to our prayers by availing ourselves of the blessed Virgin’s intercession. Hail Mary…

Meanwhile, Faith, Hope and Charity persist, all three; but the greatest of them all is Charity. Each of the soul’s three powers has its virtue:

Faith for the understanding, Hope for the memory, Charity for the will. Faith gives honor to the Father, by leaning on His almighty power; Hope gives honor to the Son, since it is based on our redemption; Charity gives honor to the Holy Spirit, because it embraces goodness and loves it dearly.

Faith sets the bliss of Heaven before us, showing us God’s revelation; Hope leads us to expect it, reminding us of God’s promises; Charity puts us in possession of it, helping us to love God.

They are necessary, all these virtues, but only meanwhile. In Heaven Charity alone remains. Faith finds no entrance there, for all things are visible. There is even less need of Hope, for every longing is satisfied. Charity alone finds a place there, to love God always, everywhere, in everything. Elias, we are told, let fall his mantle as he was carried up to Heaven. The mantle of Faith and the veil of Hope have no place in that paradise on high; they remain on Earth where there is need of them.

Our Lord taught three chief lessons, no more, while He was on Earth: the way to believe, the way to Hope, the way to love. He taught them well; but He provided His Apostles with a refresher course throughout the forty days after His resurrection ― especially on the occasion of that appearance which is set before us today.

To begin with, the disciples were assembled in the upper room, where they locked the doors for fear of the Jews. The Savior entered, greeted them, showed them His hands and feet. Why did He do this?

Firstly, He wanted to uphold their Faith. How shaken it was! Poor Magdalene went looking for Him among the dead to embalm Him, and thought He had been carried away. As for the Apostles, when they heard of the women’s encounter with the angel, and his message, to their minds the story seemed madness, and they could not believe it.

The two pilgrims on the road to Emmaus said: We had hoped. The great Apostle Thomas exclaimed: You will never make me believe. So, to support this Faith ― which was on the point of breaking down ― Jesus came to say: Peace be upon you, and show them His body.

What place, though, could there be for Faith, when they saw and touched? Their senses were like billeting officers who provide lodgings for others, but do not stay themselves. They deposited Faith in the hearts of the Apostles ― just as they do in our own – but after that they no longer served any useful function. For once Faith is present, the work of the senses is finished ― just as a needle has served its purpose once it has drawn a thread through material.

Which articles of Faith are strengthened by this appearance of our blessed Lord? The material identity of our risen bodies: Once more my skin shall clothe me, and in my flesh I shall have sight of God, who is my Savior. Be assured that it is myself. A firm belief in this wonderful article will make good Christians of us. We should readily jump to the right conclusion: Never shall we defile these bodies of ours for we shall rise again, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds. Surely we can believe that these same bodies of ours will be restored to us at the first notes of the trumpet. Only if Christ has not risen is all our Faith a delusion.

The quality of our risen bodies. The body will follow the movements of the soul in much the same way as the clothes we wear follow the movements of our limbs. The soul is weighed down by a mortal body in this life; but after the general resurrection the soul will render the body lightsome. David could not stir when he was clad in Saul’s armor: it is the body’s weight in this life which hinders the soul’s activities. The Apostles thought that they were seeing an apparition. To Mary Magdalene, Christ was a gardener: to the two pilgrims, He was a pilgrim; to the fishermen, He was a fisherman. Sometimes He is seen, sometimes He enters through locked doors. What is sown a natural body, rises a spiritual body like the eagle which, according to the Rabbis, plunges into the sea when it has scorched its feathers to have its plumage restored; otherwise, it will fly no more.

Listen to St Paul: What can be the use of being baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise again? Why should anyone be baptized for them? Why do we, for that matter, face peril hour after hour? I swear to you, brethren, by all the pride I take in you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that death is daily at my side. When I fought against beasts at Ephesus with all my strength, of what use was it, if the dead do not rise again? Let us eat and drink, since we must die tomorrow.

Secondly, our Lord appeared to reassure their Hope. How weak it was! We had hoped. They were afraid; Hope is incompatible with fear. They mourned and wept, says St Mark. It is a terrible misfortune to lose sight of God. Away from Him, we become timid, lose our strength. The Apostles and Magdalene were in this plight. The poor canoe of the Apostles, without Hope, was like a ship in the throes of storm and tempest which, without helmsman or pilot, breaks in pieces wherever it is hurled by the wind ― never silly dove so lost her wits as this Ephraim. We should never on any account lose, Hope but we should most certainly weep if ever we have the misfortune to be cut off from God. “O God, my whole soul longs for thee, as a deer for running water; my whole soul thirsts for God, the strong, the living God; shall I never again make my pilgrimage into God’s presence?”

But our Lord came to bring relief to that room besieged by fear: Look at my hands and my feet. “If you are in need of strength,” He was saying to them, “here are my hands to lift you up. If you long to be of good heart, here is mine to give you courage. If you must hide like the dove, here is the crannied wall in which to find safety. If you are sick with fear, here is the remedy: And death is swallowed up in victory. If you are prisoners, here is your release ― my work of your redemption.” Indeed, why should we ever be afraid? See where He comes, we should say to ourselves, looking in through each window in turn, peering through every chink.

Thirdly, our Lord’s appearance revived their Charity. It was as if He were saying to them (and to us) in the words of Isaias: “What, can a woman forget her child that is still unweaned, pity no longer the son she bore in her womb? Let her forget; I will not be forgetful of thee. Why, I have cut thy image on the palms of my hands.”

He took our misfortunes upon himself, and ennobled them; He took our distress to His heart ― He showed them His side. So let us return Him love for love. If not, the gentle Savior who now shows us His wounds in proof of His love, will one day appear as a stern judge to show them in wrathful condemnation. Doesn’t this remind you of those pictures which portray a woman on the right and a corpse on the left, or on the right a lamb and on the left a lion? Aren’t you reminded of the bee? Though a honey-making insect, it can sting most painfully. “Then look, you scoffers,” He will say, “you who delight in banter, shameless and brazen-faced, look at my hands, etc.” They will look upon the man whom they have pierced … and He shall bring lamentation to all the tribes of the Earth.

Grant, good Jesus, that we may accept the peace which you offer, that we may look upon your wounds. While Faith, Hope and Charity persist, grant that rooted in Faith, buoyed up by Hope and aglow with love, we may look forward, blessed in our Hope, to the day when there will be a new dawn of glory.

Grant that in that day, as we stand on your right hand, we may behold in you a Lamb ― not the lion which you appear to those who stand upon your left. May clear vision then replace our Faith, possession our Hope, and may our imperfect love give place to that perfect love which will be our eternal joy. Amen.

SERMON 6
St. Augustine of Hippo
PEACE BE TO YOU!

Jesus stood in the midst of them, and saith to them: "Peace be to you!"

I. The Heresy of the Manicheans. The Lord, as you have heard, appeared to His Disciples after His Resurrection, and greeted them, saying: Peace be to you! This is indeed peace, and the salutation of Salvation; for salutation receives its name from salvation. And what better than that Salvation Itself should greet mankind?

For Christ is our Salvation. For He is our Salvation Who was wounded for us, and fastened with nails to the Wood, and taken down from the Wood, and laid in the sepulcher. But He rose from the sepulcher; and though His wounds were healed the scars remained. For this He judged expedient for His Disciples: that He should keep His scars to heal the wounds of their soul.

What wounds are these? The wounds of their unbelief. For He appeared before their eyes, showing them a true body; and they believed they saw a spirit. No light wound of the soul this. And they who continued in this wounded state have caused a malignant heresy. And do not let m think that because they were healed so quickly that the Disciples were not wounded.

Let your Charity consider how had they remained in this wounded state, thinking that His buried Body had not risen, and that a spirit in the likeness of a body deceived their human eyes, had they remained in this belief, rather, had they remained in this unbelief, we should be grieving, not for their wounds, but for their death!

The Hesitation of the Disciples. But what is the Lord Jesus saying? Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? If thoughts arise in your hearts the thoughts are from the Earth. It is good for man, not that thoughts should rise up in his heart, but that his heart should rise up: whither the Apostle would raise the hearts of the faithful to whom he said: If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the Earth. For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4).

In what glory? The glory of the Resurrection. In what glory? Listen to the Apostle speaking of this body: It is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory (1 Corinthians 15:43). The Apostles were unwilling to give this glory to their Master, their Christ, their Lord; they had not begun to believe He could raise His Body from the dead; they did not believe even their own eyes, and when they saw His Body they supposed it was a spirit they saw. Yet we believe those who preach Him to us, though they do not show Him. And they did not believe Christ, showing Himself to them.

A grievous wound: let the remedy of the scars appear! Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, where I was fastened by nails. Handle, and see. You see, and you do not see! Handle, and see! See what? That a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have! And when he had said this, so it is written, he showed them his hands and feet.

III. How they were persuaded to believe. And while they were yet hesitant and wondering for joy. They were now joyful, yet their hesitation remained. For something had taken place which was incredible; yet it had taken place. Is it incredible now that the body of Christ has risen from the tomb? The whole healed world believes it: and he who believes not remains unhealed. Then it was incredible: and they were brought to believe not alone through their eyes, but through their hands, so that Faith might enter their heart by way of their senses, so that the Faith thus entering their heart might be preached throughout the world, to those who would neither see nor touch Him, and yet without hesitation would believe in Him.

Have you here, He says, anything to eat? How much the Good Builder adds to the edifice of our Faith? He suffered no hunger, yet He asked for food. And He ate for the occasion, not because of need. And then the Apostles acknowledge that His Body is real; and the world acknowledges it from their preaching.

IV. Against the Manicheans. If by chance there are heretics who still believe in their hearts that Christ showed Himself to their eyes, but not the true Body of Christ, let them now put that belief aside, and let the Gospel persuade them. We reprove them for thinking this: He will condemn them if they continue to think it. Who are you who do not believe that a body laid in the tomb could not rise again? If you are a Manichean, you do not believe He was crucified, because you do not believe He was born; you then proclaim that all that He showed was false.

He showed what was false; you however say only what is true? You do not lie with your tongue; but He lied with His Body? Then you consider that He appeared to men’s eyes what He was not; that He was a spirit, not a body. Listen to Him: He loves you, do not have Him damn you. Listen to Him speaking. See! He is addressing you, you unhappy one, He is speaking to you! What has troubled you, and why do thoughts arise in your heart? See! He is saying, my hands and feet. Handle, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have. The Truth said this; and He was deceiving us? It was a body, it was flesh; what had been buried appeared. Let hesitation end; let it give way to becoming praise.

Christ awakens Faith. He shows Himself then to His Disciples. What is He, Himself? The Head of the Church. The Church that was to be throughout the world He foresaw; the Disciples did not yet see it. He showed them its Head; He promised them the Body. For He now adds what is to follow: These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you. What does this mean: While I was yet with you? Was He not with them while He was speaking to them?

What then does this mean: While I was yet with you? While I was with you as mortal man, which I am no longer. I was with you when I was about to die. What does with you mean? I Who was to die was with you who were to die. Now I am with you no longer; for I shall die no more, with those who are to die. It is this, then, which I spoke to you. What?

V. That all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning me. I said to you that all things must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds. Come then, Lord! Use Thy keys, open that we may understand! Behold you tell us all things, and you are not believed! You are supposed to be a spirit; you are handled, you are touched, and they still hesitate who touch you! You instruct them from the Scriptures, and yet they do not understand. Their hearts are closed; open them and enter there. He does this: Then he opened their minds. Open, O Lord, open the heart that still doubts concerning Christ! Open his mind who believes that Christ was a spirit: Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures.

The Future Church is promised to all nations. Christ is distinguished from the Apostles: The Church from us.

And he said to them. What did He say? Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary. What was necessary? For Christ to suffer, and rise again from the dead, the third day. This they have seen. They have seen Him suffering; they have seen Him hanging on the Cross, they were seeing Him in their midst after His Resurrection from the dead, living. What therefore was it they did not see? His Body; that is, the Church. They saw Him; Her they did not see. They saw the Bridegroom; the Bride lay still concealed. Let Her also come forth. Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, the third day. This is the Bridegroom.

VI. What of the Bride? And that penance and remission of sin should be preached in his name, unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. The Disciples had not yet seen this: they did not yet see the Church among all the nations; beginning from Jerusalem. The Head they had seen: concerning the Body they believed the Head. Because of what they had seen they believed what they had not yet seen. And we are like them. We see something they saw not; and there is something they saw that we do not see. What do we see that they did not see? The Church throughout the nations. What do we not see which they saw? Christ in the Flesh. And as they saw Him, and believed in His Body, so we see His Body, and believe in Its Head.

May what we have both seen help each of us! Christ seen in the Flesh helps them: so that they believe in the Church to come. The Church Visible helps us: so that we believe Christ arose from the dead. Their Faith was made full; ours also is made full. Their Faith was made full seeing the Head; ours seeing the Body. The Whole Christ became known to them; and so has He become known to us. But He was not wholly seen by them; nor is He wholly seen by us. By them the Head was seen, the Body believed; by us the Body is seen, the Head believed. Yet to no one is Christ wanting. He is complete in all; though His Body is still incomplete.

They believed, and through them many believed in Jerusalem; Judea believed, Samaria believed. Let members be added; let the building be raised upon the foundations: For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid: which is Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 3:11). Let the Jews rage! Let them be filled with jealousy. Let Stephen be stoned. Let Saul hold the garments of those who stone him: Saul the future Apostle Paul! Let Stephen be put to death; let the Church in Jerusalem suffer persecution. And from there let the burning brands go forth, and increase, and flame out! For in a manner the brands were kindled in the Church at Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit: where they had but one heart and one soul for God (Acts 4:32). And when Stephen was stoned the whole Body suffered persecution: the brands were scattered, and the world caught fire.

VII. Saul is changed into a Preacher of the Gospel. Then following after these happenings, the raging Saul receives letters from the Chief Priests, and, burning with fury, breathing slaughter, thirsting for blood, he begins his journey, to seize as many as he can and bring them bound to punishment, and sate himself with the blood he has shed. But where is God? Where is Christ? Where is He Who crowned Stephen? Where but in Heaven? May He now look down on Saul, and laugh at him as he rages, and call to him from the heavens: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? I am in Heaven: you are on Earth: yet you are persecuting Me! My Head you do not touch: but you are crushing My members. Why are you doing this? What do you gain? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad (Acts 9:5). Kick as you will: you but torment yourself. So put aside your rage; take hold of your sanity. Put aside your evil purpose: look for good counsel.

At the words he was thrown to the ground. Who was thrown to the ground? The persecutor. See! At a word he is laid low. Why are you on this journey? Whom do you rage against? Those you pursued you will now follow; for those you persecuted you will now suffer persecution. He rises up a preacher who was thrown down a persecutor. He has heard the voice of the Lord. He was blinded: but only in the body, that his soul might receive light. He was led to Ananias; he was instructed in many things. He was baptized; and came forth an Apostle. Speak now: preach, preach Christ, spread the Gospel, O good ram! So long a wolf! Behold him; take note of him who once raged cruelly! But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).

Spread the Gospel: spread with your tongue what you have conceived in your heart. Let the Gentiles hear you! Let the Gentiles believe! Let the Gentiles blossom forth! Let the Spouse be born to the Lord, empurpled with the blood of martyrs! And from her how many come? How many members adhere to the Head, and now hold fast to Him, and believe? They were baptized, and yet others shall be baptized, and after us yet others shall come!

Then, I say, at the end of the world the stones will adhere to the foundation, living stones, holy stones, so that the whole edifice may be built up from that Church, yes, from this very Church which now sings the new canticle, while the house is a-building; for so has it the psalm thus named: When the House was Built after the Captivity. And what does it say? Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle; sing to the Lord all the Earth (Psalm 95:1).

How great a House! And when will it sing the new canticle? While it is being built. And when will it be dedicated? At the end of the world. Its foundations have already been dedicated: because He ascending into Heaven dieth no more. When we also have risen, and shall die no more, then shall we be dedicated.

Turning then to the Lord our God, the Father Almighty, let us as best we can give thanks with all our hearts, beseeching Him that in His Goodness He will mercifully hear our prayers, and by His grace drive evil from our thoughts and actions, increase our Faith, guide our minds, grant m His holy inspirations, and bring us to joy without end, through His Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

SERMON 7
St. Augustine of Hippo
A DAY OF LIGHT, LIFE, MERCY AND FORGIVENESS

Sermon 21:
First Sermon for Easter

§1. A dazzling light shines for us today because the Good Thief has entered into heaven in the footsteps of the King of kings, the multitudes of the dead have risen from the grave, and the conscience of the living has triumphed.

Contemplate the Church; see the throngs of the elect, the legions of angels, and the armies of the faithful gathered around the precious altar of the Lord. The vast assembly brims with joy because the Lord of the angels has risen, the dead have left the netherworld and become alive again, people have emerged from the source of living water purified and wholly renewed.

In his goodness, God has taken care to raise the dead and renew the old man in us, as Scripture states: “The old order has passed, and the new has begun.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Hence, we all cry out, “This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice in it and thrill with gladness!” (Psalm 117:24).

How did the dead rejoice on stepping out from their graves? They sang the new hymn about their new life. How did the reborn throb with happiness on coming forth from the sacred waters? They sang Alleluia as they received that priceless grace.

Let us all say, “This is the day of light, the day of bread,” so that we may never again be subjected to hunger or to darkness. Instead, let us take our fill of the bread of grace rather than the murk of barbarous nations, for today the host of angels rejoices with us. Let no one ever again desire earthly bread, for, today, there is risen “the living bread which came down from heaven.” (John 6:51). Today, the chains of hell have burst asunder. May the chains of each and every sin do likewise.

§2. May our holy mother the Church superabound with joy in the person of all her children. Come, O Lord, and say: “Peace be with you. No longer be afraid.” (Luke 24:36). Then we shall enjoy a profound sense of security, for, in celebrating your law, we shall possess eternal light in all matters, and declare: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for you are with me, Lord.” (Psalm 22:4).

Yes, be with us, O Lord, so that we need no longer fear the shadow of death but, instead, may rejoice eternally in Christ Jesus our Lord suffering, resurrecting and ascending into heaven. Through him, may we bestir ourselves and convert to the Lord.

The Lord was born, and the world was renewed; he suffered, and mankind was saved; he rose from the tomb, and hell moaned and groaned; he ascended into heaven, and his Father’s throne quivered for joy. While the Savior was suffering, the dead were rising and the living were exulting; when he resurrected, the captives felt their chains slip off, and the angels could not contain their bliss; when he ascended into heaven, the celestial spirits were enraptured—and the Apostles were downcast, but “their grief was transmuted into happiness” (John 16:20), dispelling the clouds which had prevented them from seeing the truth.

And so it is with us. After our dark night of struggling, gladsome light radiates upon us from the splendor of God our Savior. As the psalmist sang, “You changed my mourning into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me in gladness.” (Psalm 29:12).

§3. Jesus’ death tore the Temple veil in two, from top to bottom; it broke open the hardest of hearts, shrouded nature in darkness, and suffused our faces with spiritual light so that “we might contemplate the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces.” (2 Corinthians 3:18). A mystical veil had wrapped the Old Law, but was torn as “the night ended and day was dawning.” (Romans 13:12). For, behold, “this is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice in it and be glad.” (Psalm 117:24).

Every single day is of God’s making, but this one was stamped with his blood. If the dead who rose from their graves exulted, how much more should this happy day make us vibrant with joy. They walked about the holy city of Jerusalem, but we shall go to our holy mother the Church; they gathered at the banquet of the saints, but we shall partake of the table of God’s mysteries.

May the throngs of angels share in our joy and our banquet as we offer our gifts, lift up our hearts, and strike up this hymn of bliss on our lyres: “I will go to the altar of God—to God, my joy and my delight.” (Psalm 43:4). Our sins are forgiven, and our chains shattered because it is God himself who delights our soul. Let us, then, say anew, “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice in it and glow with happiness!”

§4. May no one be saddened if he feels pressured to celebrate life rather than maintain his “dignity.” However plain his clothing, all that matters is that he should shine forth due to his qualities of mind and heart. That way, he will possess the loveliest glory: the glory of finding joy, not in some garment, but in the sacredness of this great day. Indeed, we are bidden to rejoice “in this day,” not in our outfits.

This day brings no black clouds, because it first has dispelled them. It comprises no darkness, because it has driven all darkness away. It has nothing to do with calumny or innuendo, because on the cross it canceled our liability to punishment. Because of our Redeemer’s innocence, he merited salvation for us, the calumniator fled, the “accuser,” the “father of lies” lost his case.

So this is a day of mercy, a day of forgiveness and deliverance. The living throb with joy, and the dead experience ineffable relief. Boundless, free, rapturous and radiant, this day is like “a thousand years in the presence of God” (Psalm 84:4)., for it is truly “the day God has made.”

Whoever perseveres in loving God his whole life long will merit the grace of delighting eternally in this day—this day on which the saints will sing songs of bliss, be flooded with every sort of splendor, and share in their Savior’s joy as they proclaim and re-echo in chorus: “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us exult and thrill with joy!”

SERMON 8
St. Augustine of Hippo
THE "PASSOVER" OF SUFFERING IS NEVER REALLY OVER

Sermon 30:
Tenth Sermon for Easter

§1. My brothers, some maintain that the word Pasch derives from the Greek and signifies “suffering.” That is wrong. * Pasch means “Passover,” for Scripture assigns it no other meaning, and this definition is retained in Latin also. Now, the word Pasch, or Passover, refers to God’s passing through Egypt and, in a single night, slaying every first-born in the entire country (Exodus 11:4–6).

But our Pasch — or Passover —commemorates the Savior’s passing from death over to life, and from the netherworld into Heaven by His resurrection. And what a great, awe-inspiring Passover that was, since He thereby destroyed the very death to which He had voluntarily subjected Himself, and since He had also predicted His victory, saying: “No one takes My life from Me, but I lay it down of My own choosing. I have the power to lay it down, and the power to take it up again!” (John 10:18).

Let us adore this fathomless decree of God’s providence and mercy, for, in submitting Jesus’ body to a death which He did not deserve, the Father willed to rescue us from the death which our sins had all too justly earned.

§2. Unbelievers often ask why Our Lord had to die for mankind―since a mere word, a mere command from Him, could have saved us. To them it is certainly a crucial question―but, with God’s grace, I hope to answer it in a few words.

In the beginning, man sinned by violating God’s precept; and, in accordance with the law of sin, he was condemned to death—as was only just, since, by freely consenting to temptation, he had willingly made himself a slave to his enemy. By itself, the inevitability of death sufficed to remind him of his total servitude. As is written, “Death reigned from Adam on” (Romans 5:14).

Now, our God, though almighty, is also supreme truth. Therefore, while freeing us from Satan’s empire through sheer mercy, He nevertheless willed to satisfy all the requirements of justice. Accordingly, He listened not only to His omnipotence, but also to truth; and, unwilling to extort anything by force, He rejected violence. Though He had already regained His sovereignty over mankind, and it thus belonged to Him, He lowered Himself to the point of paying a ransom for the captives.

Something, my brothers, seemed to keep God from seizing, with no compensation whatsoever, the victim who had willingly placed himself under Satan’s yoke. Could not God have liberated man by a simple dictate? No. That would have satisfied His omnipotence, but not His justice. Man had to be rescued from Satan’s yoke, but all the requirements of justice had to be met. To accomplish that, God saved man―not by issuing a decree―but by buying him back.

Through an unfathomable mystery of justice and love, Our Lord really and truly became man, in order that man might redeem man, by making flesh suffer for flesh. He therefore came down in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that, by paying the wages of sin on the cross, He would have the right to destroy the sin of our flesh.

In the courts of this world, if a creditor demands more than his due, he thereby forfeits any right to repayment. In a way, this principle can be applied to Satan. He had a claim on man, but he exacted a God and thus lost his case. By asking too much, he risked getting nothing. Therefore, my brothers, was it not perfectly just that, having pounced on the Innocent One, he lost the guilty one? That, having prosecuted the Just One, he saw the criminal go free? For claiming what he had no right to, he lost what belonged to him in strict justice. The sin fell back on its author.

By raging against the One whom he could not subjugate, he lost the one whom he already possessed, and so failed to obtain what he was seeking. Having acquired the slave, he was now trying to lay his hands on the Lord. It was only right that, pursuing this double prey, he experienced a double loss. Indeed, the slave, realizing that he had been redeemed, escaped from him; and the Lord, by rising from the tomb, achieved the most glorious of triumphs.

§3. It is a true passing-over (Passover) that we celebrate today, because Christ Jesus puts death to flight and reappears in the fullness of life. Let us in turn strive to rise with Him. He came down to us precisely so that we might climb up to Him. By taking our humanity upon Himself, He raised it up to Heaven so that, through Faith and Hope, we might put aside our earthly pursuits and raise our minds to heavenly matters.

Just as our Savior descended into Limbo, in order to redeem us, so also He rose up to Heaven to draw us in His wake. As Scripture teaches, “Christ is the head of everyone” (1 Corinthians 11:3). Therefore, He is our head, too, and we are His body. Now, since our Head is in Heaven, let us strive to reunite the body to its Head.

That is why it is such a glorious thing for human beings to offer their sons and daughters to God―since He offered us His only Son. The father of numerous children may think he is doing a great deal by offering one of them to the Lord. Still, as I just said, God delivered up His only Son for us. We hesitate to consecrate our children to God―though, for our sake, He did not spare His only Son.

“How can we repay the Lord for all the good things He has showered upon us?” (Psalm 115:12). Even if we offered Him all of our children, would that be adequate thanks? For our sake, God delivered His Son up to death; but we give Him our children so that they may live.

Our Lord obeyed the will and the command of God His Father.

SERMON 9
St. Augustine of Hippo
THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION

Sermon 38: Sermon for the Easter Season

§1. The numerous and profound mysteries solemnly celebrated in this Easter season were contained in the books of Scripture kept in all the ancient dwellings and oldest archives of Israel. The wondrous economy of these mysteries, and the basis they furnished for authentic Faith and for religion pure and sincere—all this remained hidden, so to speak, beneath the veils of time, their sacredness shrouded in shadow.

Yet, despite those veils, the august and sublime image of the truth managed to shine through. Christ Jesus painted it on our minds, not with a palette of diverse earthly colors, but with distinct heavenly virtues protected under the shield of devotion and gleaming with all the splendor of gold. Those virtues are concentrated in the temple of his body as in their source. Radiating from his heart into ours, love becomes the fragrance which preserves our senses, and the principle which guides them.

There may be a resplendent angel presiding over sun and stars, rotating the Earth, sowing fertility, tempering spring and autumn, and dividing time into hours and days and months, but it is God who commands us to celebrate this great day with due solemnity.

§2. What new blessings our Savior’s passion has purchased for us, what lost treasures it has restored, no human tongue could ever tell nor memory compute.

In the Gospel he says: “No one puts a lamp under a basket, but up on a lampstand so it can give light to everyone in the house” (Matthew 5:15). Well, at its first appearance on Earth, and then in the passion, the light was placed on the lampstand of the cross. But at the second coming, it will arrive in all its splendor, and reign for ever from that sacred lampstand. Christ shines before the eyes of Gentile and Jew in order to form his Church from the reunion of them both.

He is our light; and although we wait for him to come again, we nonetheless believe he has already come. Though he came in lowliness to serve, he will return in majesty to rule. Though he came full of kindness, he will return to judge. Though he came amid suffering and pain, he will return to wield power. And though he came to heal our infirmities, he will come to uproot all vice.

Let no one imagine that in his second coming he will allow us to deny that he came once before. No, he will then be a fearsome judge for all who refused to recognize him as their savior. We know and we believe that Jesus Christ will come to judge each and every one of us. But, having come once as a doctor in order to save us, he will then come in order to reign as King of kings, as supreme, eternal Lord and Master.

§3. His crown, his sash and his shoes are enhanced with precious gems designating the patriarchs, the prophets and the apostles. The patriarchs compose the crown on his forehead, not to adorn it, but to be adorned by the Lord. It was of the patriarchs that St. Paul wrote: “… from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah, God, who is over all the blessed for ever” (Romans 9:5). His sash is formed by the prophets, whose teachings constitute the undoable knot of discipline. And his shoes represent the apostles, of whom Scripture says: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!” (Romans 10:15).

In this kingdom we also see the martyrs gleaming like priceless gems, the confessors like emeralds, the virgins like pearls, and the faithful like amethysts. Robed in the royal purple of his passion, Jesus, the eternal King, carries the scepter of empire, the seat of justice, the august throne of sovereign power.

Having suffered for those who believe, he will reign for his saints, and judge everyone who has rebelled against him. Just as nobody who wants to be healthy would turn against his doctor, so Faith makes us friends of our King, whereas disbelief would make us guilty and therefore subject to his justice.

§4. He whose origin is wholly celestial came down from Heaven and descended all the way to the netherworld in order to liberate mankind. And so it is that, after abasing himself unto death—and death on a cross—our risen Christ entered as victor into the splendors of Heaven. It is a mystery, but it is also a fact: a fact firmly believed and faithfully preached.

During the Savior’s passion, the sun refused to shine, day fled, the darkness grew deeper and deeper, night unfurled its hideous inky curtain over the entire face of the Earth, the stars bewailed this atrocious parricide, the moon joined the sun in mourning, and all of nature was appalled at the cruelty of the Jews.

In this combat of Christ against Satan, of an unarmed man against a fully armed foe, in this duel of David against Goliath, Jesus won the victory over his mighty and brutal adversary. Stripped of his garments, with his body nailed to the cross, this merely thirty-three year old Savior triumphed over the devil, not by the sword, but by the radiance of his cross.

He then descended to the netherworld and forced it to release his chosen ones. After his resurrection, he instructed his disciples. Notice that when teaching, he is reason itself; when judging, he is the law; delivering souls, he is grace; suffering, he is the Lamb; laid in the tomb, he is man; rising from it, he is God.

To us also he has promised resurrection and an eternal reward. To earthly men he gives heavenly things, and to mortals immortality; to corpses he gives living souls; to frail bodies, resurrection; to the dead, life; and to those he has regenerated, salvation.

My brothers, let us hold fast to this belief, so that we may merit to live eternally with our God and our Savior.

Pope Leo the Great (Leo I)