64. The allegorical interpretation of Easter
TRANSLATION
the Law, but [it said this] because it was concerned to inculcate in us more vividly, by this association of words, the mystery which be¢tted it.
But without getting into a more subtle discussion, we can understand that each of us enacts the mystical celebrations of Easter on the day of our baptism, in that we escape spiritual annihilation through the sign of the precious blood, and pass over from spiritual darkness. But in the whole span of life as it advances, which we pass through in this pilgrimage, we should celebrate the seven days of the Unleavened
Bread, in which, as the Apostle teaches, we ought to keep the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.87 And because in baptism we seek to pass over, as it were, from the power of Satan to the portion alloted to the saints, it is necessary to cling to sincerity and truth. Likewise for the whole time of our pilgrimage, which unfolds in the sevenfold number of the days88
/456/ we are enjoined to pass over to better things by daily progress, just as we are known to eat unleavened bread in the Passover season, and in the days of Unleavened Bread to make a spiritual Passover.
64. THE ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF EASTER
The time when Easter is ordained to take place is, like the Paschal celebrations as a whole, redolent with sacred mystery. In the ¢rst place, we are careful to wait until after the equinox to celebrate the Lord's Passover, according to the decree of the Law, so that the feast-day on which the Mediator between God and man, having destroyed the power of darkness, opened the way of light for the world, might show its inner
[signi¢cance] by means of the order of time. And what the light of eternal beatitude promises us is most fully celebrated when the light of the Sun, progressing according to its yearly increase, wins its ¢rst victory over the shadow of night. So we pay heed to the ¢rst month of the year, which is also called the month of ¢rst-fruits, in which we celebrate Easter. For this is the month in which the world was fashioned and the ¢rst man installed in Paradise. Through the mystery of this feast we hope that we shall recover our primal robe and return once more to that ¢rst realm of supernal joy from which we departed into a far-o¡
87 I Corinthians 5.8.
88 For the comparison of seven days of the week to seven ages of human life and seven Ages of the world, see chs. 10 and 66.
THE RECKONING OF TIME
land. Of the glory of this kingdom the blessed Apostle Peter writes:
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new Earth, wherein dwellethrighteousness.89 And also John in his Apocalypse: Then said he that sat upon the throne, Lo, I make all things new.90
Then again, we observe Easter on the third week of the [¢rst month], which harmonizes in a most ¢tting fashion with the joys of our Lord's
Resurrection. For His most holy Resurrection took place on the third day and in the Third Age of the world ^ that is, when by the advent of divine grace the entire dispensation in His £esh, which was consummated through the glory of the Resurrection,was manifested to the world.91 For He deigned to illumine the First Age of the world by natural law through the patriarchs, the middle Age by the written Law through the Prophets, and the ¢nal Age by the gift of the spirit [charismate spiritali] through His own self.
But the revolution of the Moon also o¡ers us a most lovely /457/ image of the heavenly sacrament, for the Moon, made in a round shape, takes its light from the Sun (as we said above)92 and thus is always lit up on the half of its sphere which is turned towards the Sun, but always dark on the other half. From the ¢rst Moon to the ¢fteenth, its light increases
[on the side] toward the Earth, but it is eclipsed [on the side] toward the heavens; but from the ¢fteenth to the new Moon, the increase of its light gradually reverts from the earthward to the heavenward side. Without doubt, its revolution rightly signi¢es the mystery of our Easter rejoicing, in which we are taught to turn all the splendour of our mind away from visible delights and transitory partialities and to ¢x upon the light of heavenly grace alone, through contemplation. Or if it pleases us to interpret both aspects of its revolution in a positive sense, we can understand the light of the Moon, increasing before human view, to signify the grace of the virtues by which our Lord, appearing in the £esh, illumined the world.93 Concerning these virtues it is said: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men.94 Re-augmenting
89 II Peter 3.13.
90 Apocalypse 21.5.
91 Cf. Augustine, Ep. 55.5,CSEL 34 (1895):174.20^175.6, andVictor of Capua, De pascha 11 (300). Bede is alluding here to the tripartite scheme of the World-Ages: before the Law, under the Law, under grace.
92 Ch. 6.
93 Augustine, Ep. 55.8 (178.9^20).
94 Luke 2.52.
TRANSLATION
towards the heavenward side, the Moon denotes the glory of His Resurrection and Ascension, a glory which in itself has arrived at perfection, but which does not cease to increase in the soul of the faithful by discrete increments of its light until the end of time. Our Lord, rising from the dead, ¢rst showed Himself to one or two, but then to more, sometimes seven, sometimes eleven, sometimes twelve, sometimes to more than
¢fty brethren, and in the end to all the disciples together. To those who saw that He was about to ascend into heaven, He commanded that they be witnesses to His dispensation in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth.95 And indeed the Moon, as it increases in our sight, gradually recedes from the Sun, and when it increases on the side of the heavens, it returns in the direction of the Sun by equal stages. For this is what He Himself said: I went forth from the Father, and came into the world; now I leave the world again and go to the Father.96 And the Psalm says of Him: His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it.97 Therefore the Moon, through the increase of its light which unfolds before our sight as it moves away from the Sun, signi¢es the doctrine and virtues of our Lord and Saviour /458/ while He was in the £esh up to the time of His Passion.
However, when in returning to the Sun it gradually regains the face of heaven invisible to us, [the Moon] manifests the miracle of His Resurrection and subsequent glory, and so the Moon is deemed suitable for the joys of the Easter o¡ering from the ¢fteenth day onwards.
To these indicators of the Paschal season, derived from the observation of the Law, we, the heirs of the New Testament, have added
Sunday, which Scripture called ''one'' or ''the ¢rst of the sabbath''. Not without good reason: excellent by reason of the creation of the ¢rst light, and eminent because of the triumph of the Lord's Resurrection, it also remains ever desirable to us because of our own resurrection. Moreover, the seven days of the Moon, namely from the ¢fteenth to the twenty-¢rst, through which this Sunday runs in natural order, openly proclaim the universality of the Church, which throughout all the world is redeemed by the Paschal mysteries. For Scripture often denotes universality by the number seven.98 Thus what the prophet says ^ Seven
95 Acts 1.8.
96 John 16.28.
97 Psalm 19.6 (18.7).
98 Augustine, Ep. 55.5 (175.2^6).
THE RECKONING OF TIME
times a day shall I praise thee99 ^ can best be understood as His praise is always in my mouth.100 John bears witness that it particularly symbolizes the complete perfection of the catholic Church when, writing to the seven Churches of Asia, he unfolds the mysteries of the universal
Church throughout the world.101 Hence in all the exhortations which he writes to each of the seven [Churches], he takes pains to interweave this phrase: Let him who has ears hear what the Spirit says to the Churches,102 proving plainly that what the Spirit says to each one individually, it says to all the Churches.
No less does the Easter season o¡er us a moral meaning; in the word ''Passover'', that we may daily make a spiritual passage over from vice to virtue; and also in the ''month of ¢rst-fruits'', in which the mature fruit by its arrival proclaims that the old is ¢nished, that we may by driving out the old man and his deeds,103 be renewed in the spirit of our mind and put on the new man, created according to God in justice, holiness and truth.104 Invigorated, as it were, by the variety of diverse virtues, and shaded by their leaves as by the shadow of a pleasant tree, /459/ let us sprout forth at the full Moon like happy and fruitful ¢elds of corn, that we may be separated from the darkness of sin as we bear the perfect splendour of faith and understanding, and that when that same lunar light turns back to the heavenward side (which commences at the ¢fteenth Moon), we may be made humble in all things in the same measure as we are great, each one saying with the Apostle, By the grace of God I am what I am.105 Truly, because the grace of this supernal gift was openly poured out in the Third Age of the world, by the most lovely logic of symbolism, the light of the Moon in its third week, which hitherto had increased towards the Earth, now begins to increase towards the heavens.106 At Easter we are enjoined to observe this in a lovely manner, so that we, never forgetting the grace we have received, may remember to give thanks to Him who gives the gift, by obedience in every step of our spiritual passage. Again the Moon, increasing towards
99 Psalm 119.164 (118.164).
100 Psalm 34.1 (33.2).
101 Cf. Bede, Explanatio Apocalypsis 1.4 (134C).
102 Apocalypse 2.3.
103 Colossians 3.9.
104 Ephesians 4.24.
105 I Corinthians 15.10.
106 Cf. Augustine, Ep. 55.5 (see n. 91 above).