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In sanctum pascha (sermo 6) [Sp.]

1.1 The holy rays of Christ's light are now shining and pure luminaries of the pure Spirit are rising, and heavenly treasures of glory and divinity have been opened; the long and dim night has been swallowed up and the unseen darkness has been consumed in it and the unsmiling shadow of death has been overshadowed. Life has been spread over all things and all things are full of insatiable light, the dawn of dawns holds sway over the universe and the great Christ, before the morning star and the luminaries, immortal and abundant, blooms for all things above the sun. 1.2 And for this reason a long and eternal and unquenchable bright day has its citizenship among us, all who have believed in him, the mystical Pascha, celebrated typologically through the law, but fulfilled in actuality through Christ, the wonderful Pascha, a wonder, the work of divine virtue and power, truly a feast and an eternal memorial, from passion, impassibility, from death, immortality, from deadness, life, from a wound, healing, from a fall, resurrection, from descent, ascent. 1.3 Thus God works great things, thus from impossibilities He creates paradoxes, so that it might be known that for Him alone all things that He wills are possible.

2.1 Let Egypt, therefore, proclaim the types and the law the images

of the truth interpret beforehand, an angel proclaiming the great advent of the great king, where the Egyptian crowd of the firstborn may die, but the mystical blood may save Israel. All these things are a shadow of the things to come, but among us are the forms of the images and the fulfillments of the types and instead of the shadow, the very precision and confirmation of the truth. 2.2 For this reason the law went before, signifying in a type the forms of the truth, and the type came to be, but the truth was found; there a lamb from the flock, here a lamb from the heavens, there the sign of blood and the small protection of the whole, here the Word <and> the chalice full of divine blood and spirit, there a sheep from the flock, here the shepherd himself instead of the sheep.

3.1 How then do the works not proclaim the universal salvation of all things, of which

even the types alone are salvific? 3.2 Let the heavens of heavens celebrate, therefore, as the divine spirit cries out, recounting the glory of God, being the first to receive the paternal dawnings of the divine spirit; and let the angels and archangels of the heavens also celebrate, and let all the super-celestial people and host celebrate, seeing the commander of the army above arriving in the world in bodily form; let the choirs of the stars also celebrate, announcing him who rises before the morning star, let the air also celebrate, measured in unmeasurable depths and breadths, let the salt water of the sea also celebrate, honored by holy footsteps and treads, let the earth also celebrate, bathed in divine blood, and let every human soul celebrate, being revived for the new regeneration through the resurrection. 3.3 This is the Pascha, the common festival of all things, the sending of the paternal will to the world, the divine rising of Christ upon the earth, the eternal feast of angels and archangels, the immortal life of the whole world, the death-bringing blow to death, the incorruptible food of men, and the heavenly soul of all things, the sacred rite of heaven and earth, prophesying old and new mysteries, seen visibly on earth, but understood in the heavens.

4.1 For this reason, concurring with those the new and old things with sacred knowledge

initiated, as we have therefore managed to say in brief, such is that of the Pascha

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In sanctum pascha (sermo 6) [Sp.]

1.1 Ἱεραὶ μὲν ἤδη φωτὸς αὐγάζουσι Χριστοῦ ἀκτῖνες καὶ καθαροὶ καθαροῦ πνεύματος ἀνατέλλουσι φωστῆρες, οὐράνιοι δὲ δόξης καὶ θεότητος ἀνεῴγασι θησαυροί· νὺξ ἡ πολλὴ καὶ ἀμαυρὰ κατεπόθη καὶ τὸ ἀφανὲς σκότος ἐν αὐτῷ ἀνηλώθη καὶ ἡ ἀμειδῆ θανάτου συνεσκιάσθη σκιά. Ζωὴ τοῖς ὅλοις ἐφηπλώθη καὶ φωτὸς ἀπλήστου τὰ ὅλα γέμει, ἀνατολαὶ ἀνα τολῶν ἐπέχουσι τὸ πᾶν καὶ ὁ πρὸ ἑωσφόρου καὶ φωστήρων, ἀθάνατος καὶ πολύς, ἐπανθεῖ μέγας Χριστὸς τοῖς ὅλοις ὑπὲρ ἥλιον. 1.2 Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μακρὰ καὶ αἰώνιος καὶ ἄσβεστος ἡμῖν ἐμπολιτεύεται πᾶσι τοῖς πεπιστευκόσιν αὐτῷ λαμπρὰ ἡμέρα, πάσχα τὸ μυστικόν, τυπικῶς μὲν διὰ νόμου λειτουργούμενον, ἐνεργῶς δὲ διὰ Χριστοῦ πληρώμενον, πάσχα τὸ θαυμαστόν, θάμβος θείας ἀρετῆς καὶ δυνάμεως ἔργον, ἀληθῶς ἑορτὴ καὶ μνημόσυνον αἰώνιον, ἐκ πάθους ἀπάθεια, ἐκ θανάτου ἀθανασία, ἐκ νεκρότητος ζωή, ἐκ πληγῆς ἴασις, ἐκ πτώσεως ἀνάστασις, ἐκ καθόδου ἀνάβασις. 1.3 Οὕτως Θεὸς ἐργάζεται μεγάλα, οὕτως ἐκ τῶν ἀδυνάτων δημιουργεῖ τὰ παράδοξα, ἵνα γνωσθῇ ὅτι μόνῳ ὅσα θέλει πάντα ἔξεστιν αὐτῷ.

2.1 Αἴγυπτος μὲν οὖν τοὺς τύπους προαναγγελλέτω καὶ νόμος τὰς εἰκόνας

τῆς ἀληθείας προερμηνευέτω, ἄγγελος κηρύττων μεγάλην μεγάλου βασιλέως ἐπιδημίαν, ἔνθα ὁ μὲν αἰγύπτιος ὄχλος τῶν πρωτοτόκων ἀποθνησκέτω, τὸν δὲ Ἰσραὴλ τὸ μυστικὸν αἷμα σωζέτω· πάντα ταῦτα τῶν μελλόν των σκιά, ἐν ἡμῖν δὲ τῶν εἰκόνων τὰ μορφώματα καὶ τῶν τύπων τὰ πληρώματα καὶ ἀντὶ τῆς σκιᾶς αὐτὴ ἡ ἀκρίβεια καὶ βεβαίωσις τῆς ἀληθείας. 2.2 ∆ιὰ τοῦτο προώδευε νόμος ἐν τύπῳ σημαίνων τῆς ἀληθείας τὰ μορφώματα, καὶ ὁ μὲν τύπος ἐγένετο, ἡ δὲ ἀλήθεια ηὑρίσκετο· ἀμνὸς ἐξ ἀγέλης ἐκεῖ, ἐνταῦθα ἀμνὸς ἐξ οὐρανῶν, αἵματος ἐκεῖ τὸ σημεῖον καὶ τὸ ὀλίγον τοῦ παντὸς φυλακτήριον, ἐνταῦθα ὁ λόγος <καὶ> ὁ κρατὴρ θείου γέμων αἵματός τε καὶ πνεύματος, πρόβατον ἐκ ποίμνης ἐκεῖ, ἐνταῦθα αὐτὸς ἀντὶ τοῦ προβάτου ὁ ποιμήν.

3.1 Πῶς οὖν οὐ τὴν καθόλου σωτηρίαν τῶν ὅλων ἐπαγγέλ λεται τὰ ἔργα, ὧν

καὶ μόνοι οἱ τύποι εἰσι σωτήριοι; 3.2 Ἑορ ταζέτωσαν μὲν οὖν οἱ οὐρανοὶ τῶν οὐρανῶν, ὡς τὸ θεῖον πνεῦ μα βοᾷ, δόξαν Θεοῦ διηγούμενοι, πρῶτοι τὰς πατρῴας τοῦ θείου πνεύματος ἀνατολὰς ὑποδεχόμενοι· ἑορταζέτωσαν δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι καὶ ἀρχάγγελοι τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἐπουράνιος δῆμος καὶ στρατὸς ἑορταζέτω τὸν ἀρχιστράτηγον τῆς ἄνω στρατιᾶς βλέπων ἐπὶ κόσμον σωματικῶς ἀφικνού μενον· ἑορταζέτωσαν καὶ οἱ τῶν ἀστέρων χοροὶ τὸν πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἀνατέλλοντα μηνύοντες, ἑορταζέτω καὶ ἀὴρ ἀμετρήτοις βάθεσι καὶ πλάτεσι μετρούμενος, ἑορταζέτω καὶ ἁλμυρὸν θαλάσσης ὕδωρ ἱεροῖς ἴχνεσι καὶ βάσεσι τετιμη μένον, ἑορταζέτω καὶ ἡ γῆ θείῳ λουσαμένη αἵματι, ἑορταζέτω καὶ πᾶσα ἀνθρωπίνη ψυχὴ εἰς τὴν καινὴν παλιγγενεσίαν δι' ἀναστάσεως ἀναψυχουμένη. 3.3 Τοῦτο τὸ πάσχα, κοινὴ τῶν ὅλων πανήγυρις, πατρικοῦ θελήματος ἐπὶ κόσμον ἀποστολή, Χριστοῦ περὶ γῆν ἔνθεος ἀνατολή, ἀγγέλων καὶ ἀρχαγγέλων ἀΐδιος ἑορτή, τοῦ παντὸς κόσμου ἡ ἀθάνατος ζωή, θανάτου θανατηφόρος πληγή, ἀνθρώπων ἡ ἄφθαρτος τροφή, καὶ τῶν ὅλων ἡ οὐράνιος ψυχή, οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ἱερὰ τελετή, παλαιὰ καὶ καινὰ προφητεύουσα μυστήρια, ἐν γῇ μὲν ὁρατῶς βλεπόμενα, ἐν οὐρανοῖς δὲ νοούμενα.

4.1 ∆ιὰ τοῦτο προσκυρούμενοι τοῖς τὰ καινὰ καὶ παλαιὰ μετὰ γνώσεως ἱερᾶς

μεμυημένοις, ὡς μὲν οὖν διὰ βραχέων ἐπορίσαμεν εἰπεῖν τοιάδε ἡ τοῦ πάσχα