Second Oration: On Faith in the Resurrection
SECOND ORATION
On Faith in the Resurrection I n the preceding Book I indulged my longing some what, for I feared that the application of unduly severe remedies to a burning wound, as it were, might aggravate rather than lessen pain. At the same time, since I often addressed my brother and had him before my eyes, it was only proper to give natural emotion some outlet for a little while. Such emotion derives help from tears, is calmed by weeping, and is numbed by a heavy blow. For a soft and tender manner is of the essence of affection. It dis likes anything overbearing, harsh, or hard. On the contrary, patience is proved rather by enduring than by resisting.
(2) Hence, it was inevitable that a little while ago, on the day of death, a brother's mind should be distracted and wholly occupied. But now, since we are returning to the grave on the seventh day, a day symbolic of the future repose, it will be helpful to turn my mind from my brother for a short time and devote my attention to a general exhortation applicable to all. Thus, my thoughts and feelings will not be exclusively concerned with my brother. I shall not be over-
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come suddenly by strong emotion, nor shall I be so lacking in appreciation for such great love and merit as to desert him whom we love. And surely I myself would increase the an guish of such an intense sorrow if again today I should make his death the theme of my discourse.
(3) That is why, dear brethren, I have made up my mind to find comfort out of common experience, and not to deem what awaits each and all as something hard. There fore, death should not be regarded as a cause of grief, for, in the first place, death is common and is a debt which all must pay; secondly, it frees us from the calamities of this life; and finally, when under the appearance of sleep we obtain rest from the toils of this world, a stronger vigor is infused into us. What sorrow does not the gift of resurrection assuage!
What grief can find entrance into the soul of man who be lieves that nothing perishes through death, but rather that through speedy death itself more is preserved from possible destruction! Therefore, dear brethren, as is proper in a general address of exhortation, we shall also pay a tribute of affection to my brother. Nor shall we seem to wander too far from him, if through our hope in the resurrection and the sweetness of future glory he should live again for us even in our discourse today.
(4) So, let us begin by showing that we should not mourn over the death of relatives. What, indeed, is more ridiculous than to deplore as something special what everybody knows is prescribed for all? That is tantamount to exalting the mind above the human state, to refusing to accept the uni versal law, to rejecting the fellowship of nature, to having a puffed up and carnal mind, and to being ignorant of the limitation of the flesh itself. What is more ridiculous than not to know who you are and to be affecting what you are not?
What, too, is more lacking in foresight than to know what is going to happen, and, when it has happened, not to be able
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to endure it? Even nature acts to restrain us and by her own method of consolation draws us away from grieving of this kind. For what grief is so heavy, and what sorrow so bitter, as never to have intervals of alleviation? For nature has a way whereby men, no matter how great their distress, provided only that they be men, can turn their minds from sorrow for a little while at least.
(5) It is said that there have been certain peoples who mourned at the births of men and celebrated their deaths with rejoicing. And in this they showed foresight, for they thought that they should mourn for all who entered upon the sea of this life, while they judged that it was only proper to hold joyful obsequies for those who had escaped from the storms and waves of this world. We ourselves, too, forget the birthdays of the dead, and, instead, celebrate annually the day on which they died.1
(6) Therefore, according to nature, we ought not give way to deep grief, lest we should seem to arrogate to our selves some higher and exceptional nature or to refuse to accept the common law. For death is the equal lot of all, making no distinctions for the poor and no exception for the rich. Therefore, .although through one man's sin death has passed unto all men,2 accordingly, him whom we do not refuse to acknowledge as the father of the human race we cannot refuse to acknowledge also as the author of death.3
And just as we have death through one, so also through One we have the resurrection. Let us not refuse tribulation if we wish to gain the divine reward. For, as we read, Christ came 'to save what was lost,'4 and 'that he might be Lord
1 On this custom in the early Church, cf. H. Thurston, 'Natal Day,'
Catholic Encyclopedia x 709.
2 Cf. Rom. 5.12.
3 Cf. ibid.
4 Luke 14.9.
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both of the dead and of the living.'0 In Adam I fell, in Adam I was cast out of paradise, in Adam I died. How shall God call me back except He find me in Adam? For just as in Adam I am guilty of sin and owe a debt to death, so in Christ I am justified.5 6 If, then, death is a debt, we ought to endure its payment. But this topic must be reserved for treat ment later.
(7) It is now proposed to show that death ought not to cause too heavy a burden of sorrow, because nature itself re jects such grief. Thus, they say that the Lycians have a law which requires men who give way to grief to wear feminine apparel, because they deem display of grief in a man as soft and effeminate. It is incongruous that men whose duty it is to expose themselves to death for faith, religion, country, justice, and the pursuit of virtue should grieve bitterly over something which happens to another and which, if the situation should require it, is to be desired for themselves. For how can one avoid seeking escape from grief at his own lot when he is unreconcilable in his grief at the death of others? Put aside your sorrow, if you can; if you cannot, at least conceal it.
(8) Should we keep within ourselves or repress all grief?
Why should not reason rather than time lighten sadness?
Will not prudence alleviate better what the passage of time will blot out? Truly, in my opinion, it is nothing short of an act of impiety toward the memory of those whose loss we mourn to prefer to forget them rather than to have our sorrow allayed by consolation, or to recall them with a shudder rather than to remember them with love, to fear the recol lection of those whose likeness should be an object of delight, to despair rather than hope regarding the merits of the dead, and to consider our loved ones as being sentenced to punish5 Rom. 14.9.
6 Cf. Rom. 5.8,9.
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ment rather than as entering upon an immortality which is their due.
(9) But someone may remark: We have lost those whom we loved. Is not this the lot we have in common with the world itself and its elements? We cannot retain forever things entrusted to us for a time. So that the earth may become productive and bring forth fruits annually she groans under the plow, is beaten by violent rains, is shaken by storms, is bound fast by the cold and is baked by the sun. After she has clothed herself in her rich and varied flowers she is stripped and despoiled of her own adornment. What countless plunders does she experience! Yet she does not complain about the loss of crops born to be lost. Nor does she refuse to bear the next harvest, aware, though she is, that it must be taken away from her.
(10) The sky itself is not always aglitter with the twin kling spheres of the stars which adorn it like coronets. It does not always grown bright at dawn and become ruddy with the rays of the sun. But in constant alternation that most pleasing countenance, as it were, of the world is darkened by the damp chill of night. What is more delightful than light; what is more cheering than the sun? Yet they come to an end daily.
Still, their departure does not trouble us, because we assume that they will return. This teaches us what patience we should manifest in respect to our own lost ones. If the things above us pass away and do not cause us grief, why should we grieve when men pass away?
(11) Let our sorrow, then, be patient. Let that mod eration demanded in happy circumstances be present in misfortune. If excessive rejoicing is not proper, is excessive grief? Inordinate grief, or dread of death, is not a minor evil. How many has it driven to suicide by rope or blade! In this they evidence their own folly: not enduring, yet seeking
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death, and adopting as a remedy what they flee as an evil.
Since they could not endure and suffer what is consonant with their nature, they incur the opposite of their desire: everlasting separation from those whom they wished to follow. But such occurrences are rare. Though their folly drives men headlong, nature itself restrains them.
(12) It is common, indeed, for women to make a public spectacle of weeping,7 as if they were afraid that their misery might go unnoticed. They affect soiled garments, as though there were a feeling of grief in these. They wet their disheveled hair with filth. Finally, what seems to be the vogue in many localities, they rend their mantles, tear open their garments and make a public display of their nakedness, as though making a prostitute out of modesty itself because they have lost the rewards of their chastity. Thus they invite wanton eyes to lust after those naked limbs which, had they not been exposed, would not have been desired. And would that the sordid apparel concealed, not the bodies of such women, but their intentions. For, frequently under a veil of mourning, there lurks lasciviousness, and disorderly and repulsive dress is used as a cloak to hide the secret desires of wanton minds.
(13 A wife mourns the death of her husband with proper devotedness, not when she abandons her fidelity, but when she guards her modesty. She discharges her duty well when her deceased husband lives in her memory and affection. She who manifests that she is modest has not lost her husband.
She who has not changed her husband's name has not been made a widow. And you have not lost an heir who help the co-heir, but in place of a successor in perishable things you have obtained a sharer in eternal. You have someone who can take the place of the heir. Give to the poor what is due the heir, so that there may be not only a survivor of a father or a mother, but also of your own life as well. You leave
7 Cf. Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 3.26.62.
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more to your successor when his share is available, not for luxury in this life, but for the purchase of the things of heaven.
(14) But we long for our lost ones. There are two things especially which pain us: either, as in my own case, our longing for those whom we have lost, or the thought that they have been deprived of the pleasure of living and have been snatched away from enjoying the fruits of their toil. Love indeed arouses a tender feeling of pleasure which suddenly enkindles affection, thus leaving a mental disposition more capable of quieting than of dispelling pain. At the same time, since it appears proper to devotion to long for what has been lost, weakness increases under the guise of virtue.
(15) On what grounds do you argue that a wife ought to be more resigned after she has seen her husband off to a foreign country, either on a military or a diplomatic mission, or has learned that he has gone to sea on a commercial venture? Ought you not be as equally patient when you are left, not because of some chance decision or out of ambition for money, but because of nature's law? But you reply that for you hope of recovery is excluded. As if the hope for anyone's return were certain! Oftentimes, apprehensions are even more exhausting when the dread of danger is strong and constant. Again, it is a heavier burden to fear that something has happened than to endure what you know has really occurred. In the one case, apprehension mounts con tinually, while in the other an end of sorrow is being awaited.
(16) Have masters the right8 to transport their slaves wherever they wish, and God not? We must not look for a man's return, but we are permitted to follow one who has gone before us. Certainly, the span of life is so brief that it does not seem to have taken much from one who has gone before, nor to delay very long the one who remains.
8 Cf. 1 Tim. 6.1,2.
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(17) But, if you cannot soften your longing, does it not seem unbecoming to want the whole order of nature upset so that you may attain what you desire? When people are in love, their longing for one another is very ardent, yet they are controlled by a regard for necessity. If they grieve over having been forsaken, they do not usually mourn, but, having been cast aside, they feel embarrassed for falling in love too hastily. And so their patience in regret is more clearly re cognized.
(18) But what shall I say of those who think the dead are deprived of the sweetness of life? No true enjoyment is possible in the bitter experiences and sorrows of this life which are caused either by the infirmities of the body itself or by the unpleasant things which happen outside of it.
Anxious indeed, and forever in suspense even in desires for happier conditions, we are tossed about in a kind of un certainty, putting our hopes in doubtful things in place of sure, in unsatisfactory in place of favorable, in transitory in place of permanent, having no power in our wills and no constancy in our wishes. But, if anything happens contrary to our intention, we think we are ruined. We are more broken by the sufferings caused by adversity than we are made happy through the enjoyments of prosperity. What advantages, then, do the dead miss in being rescued rather from misfortunes?
(19) Good health, I believe, is more beneficial to us than poor health is harmful. Wealth affords more pleasure than poverty annoys us. The gift of children is more lovely than their loss is sorrowful. Youth is more joyful than old age is sad. How often a man becomes tired of his desires when once attained and repents of what he has longed for, so that he is sorry for having obtained what he feared he would not obtain! What homeland, what pleasures, can truly compensate for exiles and for all other bitter penalties? Even when
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pleasures are at our command, they become less attractive either because we are not disposed to enjoy them or because we fear to lose them.
(20) But let us suppose that the whole course of a man's life can continue unharmed, free from grief, and enjoying pleasures without interruption. What satisfaction can the soul obtain, enclosed within the walls of a body such as ours, and confined within the narrow compass of our limbs? If our flesh shuns a prison, if it loathes everything which denies it the power of free movement—and, as we know, it apparently tries to reach beyond itself with its limited senses of seeing and hearing—how much more is our soul filled with eager desire to escape from its bodily prison !9 When it is free, it has a motion like the air, and we know not whither it goes or whence it comes.10
(21) We know, however, that the soul survives the body and that, once it is freed from the shackles on its own faculties, it beholds in clear vision what previously, when dwelling in the body, it did not see. We can verify this fact through the experience which comes to men in sleep. When their bodies are, as it were, buried in sleep, their souls, being at peace, rise to higher things and relate to the body their visions of distant and even heavenly things. Therefore, if the death of our flesh frees us from the miseries of this world, it is certainly no evil, since it restores freedom and excludes pain.
(22) Here, accordingly, we must discuss the point that death is not an evil, since it is a refuge from all miseries and evils, a safe and secure anchorage, and a haven of rest. For what adversity do we not experience in this life? What storms and tempests do we not endure? By what troubles are we not disturbed? Whose merits are spared?
(23) The holy patriarch Israel, as a fugitive from his 9 Cf. Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 1.49.118.
10 Cf. John 3.8.
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country, brother, and parents, exchanged his home for exile,11 mourned over the violation of his daughter,12 the murder of his son-in-law,13 and suffered famine.14 After he died, he lost his grave, for, lest he should rest even in death, he begged that his bones be translated.15
(24) Holy Joseph experienced the enmity of his brothers, the snares of the envious, the obsequiousness of servants, the orders of merchants,16 the wantonness of his mistress, the stupid ignorance of her husband, and the miseries of im prisonment.17
(25) Holy David lost two sons. One was guilty of incest;18 the other, of fratricide.19 To have had them caused him shame; to have lost them brought him grief. He also lost a third, a child whom he loved. He wept over him while he was still alive, but he did not long for him after he died. For so we read20 that, when the boy fell sick, David besought the Lord for him and fasted and lay upon sackcloth, and, al though the elders approached him and tried to make him get up from the ground, he resolved neither to rise nor to eat.
After he learned that the boy was dead, however, he arose from the ground, bathed upon the spot, anointed himself, changed clothing, worshiped the Lord, and took food.21 Since this seemed strange to his servants, he answered that, while the child was still alive, he had rightly fasted and wept, be cause he justly thought that God might pity him, and was certain that He who could restore the dead to life could surely
11 Cf. Gen. 28.5ff.
12 Cf. Gen 34.2.
13 Cf. Gen. 34.30.
14 Cf. Gen. 42.2.
15 Cf. Gen. 48.30; 49.29.
16 Cf. Gen. 37.4ff.
17 Cf. Gen. 39.12ff.
18 Cf. 2 Kings 13.14.
19 Cf. 2 Kings 13.28.29.
20 Cf. 2 Kings 12.15ff.
21 Cf. 2 Kings 12.20.
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preserve the life of one still living. But now that the child was dead, why should he fast, since he could not bring him back from death and restore him to life. 'I shall go to him rather;' he said, 'but he shall not return to me.'22
(26) What greater consolation to a mourner! What a true judgment from a wise man! What wonderful wisdom exhibited by a servant! Hence, no one should protest that some misfortune has befallen him and complain that he has been afflicted contrary to his merit. For who are you to pro claim your merit beforehand? Why do you desire to anticipate your Judge? Why do you snatch the verdict from the mouth of Him who is going to pronounce it? This was permitted not even to the saints, and never was it attempted by the saints with impunity. David confesses in one of his psalms that he was scourged on this account: 'Behold these are sin ners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches. Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent. And I have been scourged all the day; and my accuser has come in the mornings.'23
(27) Peter, also, though filled with loyal devotion, but not yet fully conscious of our weakness, had rashly assured our Lord: 'I will lay down my life for thee.'24 Before the cock crowed thrice, his presumption was put to the test.20
Let Peter's trial be a salutary lesson for us so that we may learn not to disregard the weakness of the flesh, lest by so doing we should be tempted. If Peter was tempted, who should presume or who should assert that he cannot be, also?
And, unquestionably, Peter was tempted for our sake, so that the temptation would not be exposed to failure in a stronger man than he, and that through him we might learn how to persevere under persecutions and, even if we should be
22 2 Kings 12.23.
23 Ps. 72.12-14 (Sepuagint) .
24 John 13.37.
25 Cf. John 18.27.
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tempted by our desire to save our lives, to overcome the stings of temptation by tears of patience.
(28) On the other hand, that same David, lest the dif ference in his conduct may perhaps trouble any one who follows Scripture closely, this same David, I repeat, who had not wept for his innocent son, wept for the parricide when he was killed. Accordingly, he broke out in lamentation and cried: 'My son Absalom, my son Absalom, who will grant me death in thy place?'26 Therefore, not only is Absalom wept for, the parricide is wept for, Amnon is wept for, too/7
Not only is the incestuous son wept for, but he is also avenged.
Absalom saddened David by his contempt and revolt, and the murder of Amnon caused his brother's exile. The wicked son is wept for, but not the child whom he loved so much. Why is this? What is the reason for this? Prudent men are char acterized by serious deliberation and the wise see their judg ments confirmed. As a wise man, he is quite steady in his rea soning, for, in spite of marked differences in facts and actions, a consistency based on prudence and on a single faith is in evidence. David wept over the death of two of his sons, but he decided that he ought not weep for the dead child. He believed that those two were lost to him forever, but he hoped that the child would rise again.
(29) But more on the resurrection later. Let us now re turn to the point under discussion. We have already shown that even holy men, without any regard for their merits, have suffered many severe tribulations along with their heavy toils in this world. Hence, David, returning to himself, says later: 'Remember, Lord, that we are dust, and man, his days are like grass';28 and elsewhere: 'Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow.'29 What, indeed, is more
26 2 Kings 18.33 (Septuagint).
27 Cf. 2 Kings 13.36.
28 Ps. 102.15.
29 Ps. 143.4.
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miserable than we human beings who are cast into this life, as it were, stripped and naked, with fragile bodies, deceitful hearts, and weak minds, anxious with respect to cares, indolent toward work, and prone to pleasure?
(30) Not to be born, therefore, is by far the best, ac cording to the saying of Solomon. For those, also, who seemed to themselves to be superior in philosophy have followed him30. 'And I praised all the departed who have already died rather than the living, as many as are living up to now. And happier than them both is he that is not yet born, nor hath seen the evil work that is done under the sun. And I saw all the labor and all the excellence of this work, that a man be comes envied by his neighbor, and this too is vanity and pre sumption of spirit.'31
(31) Who said this but the very man who asked for and obtained wisdom to know the arrangement of the world, the power of the elements, the revolutions of the year, the dis positions of the stars, the natures of living creatures, the rage of wild beasts, the force of the winds, and to understand the thoughts of men?32 How, then, could mortal matters escape the knowledge of a man from whom heavenly things were not hidden? The man who found out the thought of the woman claiming the child of another as her own,33 the man who, although he had not investigated and studied the nature of living things, knew them under the inspiration of divine grace,34 could he err or lie concerning the state of his own nature which he knew through his own personal ex perience?
30 St. Ambrose is alluding to a widespread view in Christian antiquity that all the books of the Old Testament assigned to Solomon actually went back to him and, therefore, antedated the great Greek philo sophers and influenced their teachings.
31 Eccle. 4.2-4 (Septuagint).
32 Cf. Wisd. 7.7,17-20.
33 Cf. 3 Kings 3.16-27.
34 Cf. Wisd. 7.20; 3 Kings 4.29,33.
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(32) But even if Solomon alone gave formal expression to this feeling, he was not the only one who had it. He had read the words of holy Job: 'Let the day perish wherein I was born,'35 and he had learned that being born is the be ginning of all evils. Consequently, he desired the day on which he was born to perish, so that the origin of his troubles might be taken away, and he desired the day of his birth to perish, so that he might receive the day of the resurrection.36
Again, Solomon had heard his father say: 'O Lord, make me know my end. And what is the number of my days? that I may know what is wanting to me.'37 For David knew that what is perfect cannot be comprehended here, and so he hastened toward the things to come. For now we know in part, and understand in part. But then we shall be able to com prehend what is perfect, when, not the shadow, but the reality of the majesty and eternity of God shall begin to shine and to reveal itself unveiled before our eyes.38
(33) No one, however, would hasten to the end, unless he were fleeing the disadvantages of this life. And, therefore, even David explained why he hastened to the end, when he said: 'Behold thou hast made my days old: and my substance is as nothing before thee. And indeed all things are vanity: every man living.'39 Why, then, do we put off fleeing from vanity? Or why do we wish to be troubled to no purpose in this world, accumulating money and not knowing for what heir we gather it? Let us pray that tribulations be removed from us, that we be taken out of this foolish world, that our pilgrimage may be shortened, and that we may return to our true country and natural home. For upon this earth we are strangers and foreigners.40 We must return to the place
35 Job 3.3.
36 Cf. Job 19.25.
37 Ps. 38.5.
38 Cf. 1 Cor. 13.9-12.
39 Ps. 38.6 (Septuagint) .
40 Cf. Eph. 2.19.
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from which we descended. We must beg and beseech, not in lukewarm fashion, but most earnestly, to be delivered from the deceit and wickedness of babblers.41 David, who knew the remedy, bemoaned that his stay upon earth was prolonged and lamented that he had to dwell among the unjust and sinners.42 What shall I do, who am both a sinner and know not the remedy?
(34) Jeremias, likewise, laments that he was born, and in these words: 'Woe is me, my mother, why has thou borne me a man of contention in all the earth. I have not helped anyone, nor has anyone helped me: my strength has failed.'43
If, then, holy men shun life, men whose life, though useful to us, is judged useless to themselves, what ought we to do, who are not able even to profit others, and who know that, as borrowed money becomes difficult to pay as interest mounts, so this life of ours becomes more heavily burdened daily by its debt of sin.
(35) 'I die daily,'44 says the Apostle. That, certainly, is superior to the attitude of those who said that meditation on death is true wisdom. For they only praised the contemplation of death, while Paul practiced the actual experience of dying.
Moreover, they were concerned for themselves alone, but Paul, perfect though he was, died, not for his own weakness, but for ours. And what is meditation upon death except a kind of separation of body and soul, since death itself is de fined as nothing else than the separation of body and soul?
This at least is the common opinion.
(36) According to the Scriptures, however, we learn that there are three kinds of death.45 The first is when we die to sin and live unto God.46 Blessed, then, is that death which, fleeing
41 Cf. Eccli. 19.5.
42 Cf. Ps. 119.5.
43 Cf. Jer. 15.10 (Septuagint) .
44 1 Cor. 15.31.
45 Cf. Rom. 6.10.
46 Cf. also, -St. Ambrose, De bono mortis 9, and Expos, in Lucam. 7.35.
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sin and devoted to God, separates us from what is mortal and consecrates us to Him who is immortal. The second is the soul's liberation from the bonds of the body and its de parture from this life. By this death the patriarch Abraham and the patriarch David died, when they were buried with their fathers. The third kind of death is that of which it is said: 'Leave the dead to bury their own dead.'47 In that death not only does the flesh die, but the soul dies, also, 'For the soul that sinneth, the same shall die.'48 For it dies to the Lord, not through natural infirmity but through the sickness caused by guilt. This type of death is not the release from this life, but is the fall resulting from sin.
(37) One type of death, then, is spiritual, a second natural, and a third penal. But natural death and penal death are not identical. For the Lord did not give death as a penalty, but as a remedy. Hence, when Adam sinned, one thing was prescribed as a punishment, and another as a remedy. The punishment is contained in the words: 'Because you have listened to your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which alone I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed be the ground in your work; in toil shalt you eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shalt eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, out of which you were taken.'49
(38) Here we have freedom from punishment, for these words contain the penalty decreed against the thorns of this life, the cares of the world, and the pleasures of riches which shut out the Word.50 Death has been given as a remedy, as an end of evils. For God did not say: 'Because you listened to your wife, you shall return to the ground.' This would
47 Matt. 8.22.
48 Ezech. 18.4.
49 Gen. 3.17-19.
50 Cf. Luke 8.12.
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have been a penal sentence, as is this: 'Cursed be the ground.
Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you.' But He said:
'In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground.' You see that death is rather the limit of our punishment, because by it the course of this life ended.
(39) Therefore, death, far from being an evil, is even a good. Accordingly, it is sought as a good, for it is written:
'Men will seek death and will not find it.'51 For they will seek it who will begin to say to the mountains: 'Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us.'52 And the soul also that sins will seek it. The rich man lying in hell, who wishes to have his tongue cooled by the finger of Lazarus, he, too, seeks it.53
(40) So we see that this kind of death is an advantage, while this life is a punishment. Hence, Paul says: 'For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.'54 What is Christ but the death of the body, the spirit of life? Therefore, let us die to gether with Him, that we may live with Him. Let us have daily a kind of experience in and longing for death, so that, by that separation from bodily desires which we have men tioned, our soul may learn to withdraw itself and, having placed itself on high, as it were, whither earthly lusts cannot approach and attach it to themselves, it may assume the likeness of death, lest it incur the penalty of death. For the law of the flesh wars against the law of the mind and sub jects it to the law of error, just as the Apostle revealed when he said: 'I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me prisoner in the law of sin.'55 We are all attacked, and we all know this, but we are not all delivered. And, therefore, I am an unhappy man un less I shall seek the remedy.56
51 Apoc. 9.6.
52 Luke 23.30.
53 Cf. Luke 16.24.
54 Phil. 1.21.
55 Rom. 7.23.
56 Cf. Rom. 7.24.
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(41) But what remedy? 'Who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our
Lord.'57 We have a physician: let us follow his remedy. Our remedy is the grace of Christ, and the body of death is our body. Let us, therefore, be exiled from the body lest we be exiles from Christ.58 Even if we are in the body, let us not follow what is of the body. Let us not neglect the rights of nature, but let us desire rather the gifts of grace. For to de part and to be with Christ is by far the better; yet to stay on in the flesh is necessary for your sake.'09
(42) But it is not necessary for all, Lord Jesus. It is not so for me, who am of no use to anyone. For to me, to die is a gain, so that I may sin no more. To die is a gain for me, who in this very book wherein I am attempting to console others
I am driven by a powerful impulse into longing for my lost brother, since it does not allow me to forget him. Now I love him more and long for him more intensely than ever. I long for him when I speak, I long for him when I read again what I have composed. And therefore I think this must be written primarily in order that I may never free myself from remembering him. What I am doing is not contrary to Scripture, namely, that I should grieve more patiently, but long more ardently.
(43) You, my brother, have taken from me all fear of death, and would that my soul might die in your soul! That is what Balaam desired as the greatest of goods for himself, when endowed with the spirit of prophecy he said: 'Let my soul die in the souls of the just, and let my seed become like their seed.'60 And truly he desired this according to prophecy.
For he who had seen the birth of Christ saw also His triumph, saw His death, and saw in Him the everlasting resurrection of 57 Rom. 7.24,25.
58 Cf. 2 Cor. 5.6,8.
59 Phil. 1.23.24.
60 Num. 23.10 (Septuagint).
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mankind. Consequently, since he was to rise again, he had no fear of death. Let, then, my soul not die in sin, nor admit sin into itself. But let it die in the soul of the just man, that it may receive his justice. Accordingly, he who dies in Christ be comes through baptism a sharer in His grace.61
(44) Death, therefore, is not to be dreaded. It is not bitter to the needy, nor especially grievous to the rich, nor op pressive to the old, nor cowardly for the brave, nor eternal to the faithful, nor unexpected to the wise. How many have made their lives immortal solely by the renown of their deaths!
How many have been ashamed to live and have found it a benefit for them to die! We have learned that often by one man's death great nations have been freed, and that by the death of a general hostile armies have been put to flight, which, while he lived, he had not been able to conquer.
(45) By the death of the martyrs, religion has been de fended, the faith spread, and the Church strengthened. The dead have been victorious, and the persecutors have been vanquished. Accordingly, we celebrate the deaths of those of whose lives we know nothing. So, too, David in prophecy re joiced at the departure of his own soul, saying: 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints.'62 He held death in more esteem than life. The death itself of the martyrs is the prize of life. Furthermore, even the hatreds of enemies are dissolved by death.
(46) Are further illustrations required? By the death of One the world was redeemed. For, had Christ so willed, He had it in His power not to die.63 But He did not think death should be shunned as though it were a cowardly thing, and He could not have saved us in a better way than by dying.64
Hence, His death is the life of all. We sign ourselves with the 61 Cf. John 3.5.
62 Ps. 115.15.
63 Cf. John 10.18.
64 Cf. John 15.13.
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sign of His death, when we pray we announce His death, when we offer the Sacrifice we proclaim His death. His death is a victory, His death is a mystery, His death is an annual feast of the world. What more need we say of His death after we show by the divine example that death alone has gained immortality and death itself has redeemed itself? Death, then, should not be lamented, since it is the source of salvation for all. Death must not be shunned, for the Son of God neither disdained nor shunned it. The order of nature must not be destroyed. Exceptions cannot be made for individuals in what is common to all.
(47) Death, in fact, was not in nature, but it became a part of nature. God did not establish death in the beginning, but gave it as a remedy. Let us then consider it, lest it seem the opposite. For, if death is good, why is it written that 'God made not death? but by the evil of men death came into the world'?65 Death was really not necessary to the divine plan, since for those placed in paradise a continual succession of all good things flowed forth. But after the transgression of Adam and man's condemnation to long labors and unbearable sorrow, his life became wretched. Consequently, an end had to be established for evils, so that death might restore what life had lost. For, unless grace should breathe upon it, im mortality would be rather a burden than an advantage.
(48) If we consider the matter carefully, this death is not that of our nature but of evil, for our nature remains, but evil dies. That which was rises again, and would that, as it is free from sinning, so it may be without former guilt! But this itself, is a proof that there is no death of our nature, namely, that we shall be the same as we were. Hence, we shall either pay the penalty for our sins, or we shall obtain a reward for our good deeds. For the same nature will rise
65 Wisd. 1.13; 2.24. The Septuagint and Vulgate have 'by the evil of the devil' in place of St. Ambrose's 'by the evil of men.'
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again, all the more distinguished for having completed its service to death. Accordingly, 'the dead in Christ will rise up first. Then we who live, who survive, shall be caught up to gether with them in clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord.'60 The dead will be first, and the living will be second; the dead with Jesus, and the living through Jesus. For the dead, life will be sweeter after rest. But while the shortening of their life on earth will be welcome to the living, they will have no knowledge of the remedy.
(49) There is nothing, therefore, which we should fear in death, nothing over which we should grieve. Let the life which was received be returned to nature when she requests it, or let it be sacrificed to the call of duty which is concerned with the practice of religion or virtue. No one, moreover, has ever wished that he should remain in his present state. Such a promise is thought to have been made to John, but this is not true. We adhere strictly to his words, and base our position on them. In his own Gospel he asserts that he never received any promise that he would not die,67 lest anyone through his example might be filled with a vain hope. But, if such a wish is presumptuous, how much more presumptuous is it to grieve beyond measure over something that has not happened be yond measure?
(50) The pagans usually console themselves either by the thought that death is a common calamity, or by a re cognition of the rights of nature, or by a belief in the im mortality of the soul. I wish that their opinions were consistent, and that they did not convert the unfortunate soul into many ridiculous monstrosities and forms. What, therefore, ought we to do, whose reward is the resurrection? While many cannot deny this gift, they refuse to believe. Therefore, let us establish our faith in the resurrection, not by some one argument only, but in as many ways as possible.
66 1 Thess. 4.16,17.
67 Cf. John 21.23 and St. Ambrose In Ps. 108 20.12.
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(51) All things are accepted as true, either on the basis of experience, or reason, or concrete example, or because it is fitting that they are as they are, and each of these factors supports our belief. Experience teaches us that we move; reason, that whatever moves us must be considered as be longing to another power; example, that the land has pro duced crops, and consequently we assume that it will continue to do so; fitness, because even where we do not count on a return for our efforts, yet we do not believe that it is fitting to abandon the practice of virtue.
(52) One argument, therefore, strengthens another. Be lief in the resurrection, however, is based most clearly on three main arguments, and these include the rest. These are: reason, universal example, and the testimony furnished by the fact that many have risen. Reason is clear. For, since our life as such functions through a union of body and soul, and since the resurrection entails the reward of good conduct and the punishment of evil, it is necessary that the body rise again, since its conduct is to be weighed. For how shall the soul be called to judgment without the body, since it must render an account of its companionship with the body?
(53) Rising again is a common attribute of all life, but it is difficult to believe this, because it does not result from our merit but is a gift of God. The first argument for belief in the resurrection, therefore, is the activities of the world, and the state of all things; the series of generations, successive changes and alternations, the risings and settings of constel lations, the daily endings of day and night, and their recur ring rebirths, as it were, daily. No other explanation, further more, can be found for the productive capacity of this earth unless it be admitted that the divine economy replaces by the dew of night the same amount of moisture, so necessary for all growing things, which is absorbed by the daily heat of the
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sun. And what shall I say about the fruits? Do they not seem to die when they fall and to rise again when they grow green again? What has been sown rises again, and what has died rises again, and assumes again the same class and species as before. The earth first gave back her fruits, and in these our nature first sought the pattern of the resurrection.
(54) Why should we doubt that body will rise again from body? Grain is sown, grain comes up again. The fruit falls to earth, the fruit forms again. But the grain decks itself with blossoms and is clothed with a husk. 'And this mortal body must put on immortality, and this corruptible body must put on incorruption.'68 The blossom of the resurrection is im mortality; the blossom of the resurrection is incorruption.
What is richer than everlasting rest? What is a source of greater gain and satisfaction than perpetual security? Here is the manifold fruit, the harvest, whereby man's nature waxes more vigorous and productive after death.
(55) But some may wonder how decayed bodies can become sound again, scattered members brought together, and destroyed parts be restored.69 Yet no one wonders how seeds softened and broken by the dampness and weight of the earth grow and become green again. Such seeds, of course, are rotted and dissolved by contact with the earth. But when the generative moisture of the soil imparts life to the buried and hidden seeds by a kind of life-giving heat, they emit the animating force, as it were, of the growing plant. Then, gradually, nature rears from the stalk the tender life of the growing ear and, like a careful mother, wraps it in a sheath as a protection against its being nipped at this immature stage by the frost or scorched by the sun when the kernels are emerging, as it were, from babyhood. Later, nature usually surrounds the fully developed ear with a fence of beard, so 68 I Cor. 15.53.
69 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.35,36.
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the rain cannot beat it to pieces, the wind scatter it, or small birds devour it.
(56) Why, therefore, should we wonder whether the earth will restore human beings which she has received, since she gives new life to, rears, clothes, protects, and defends whatever seeds are sown in her? So all doubts should be dropped whether the dependable earth, which restores with compound interest, as it were, the seed entrusted to her, will also return her deposit of mankind. Need I mention the various kinds of trees which grow from the planted seed?
When their fruit has ripened and fallen with repeated fecundity, they produce a new crop similar in all respects to the old. And certain kinds of trees restore themselves and have many renewed periods of life, so that they outlast the very centuries. We see a grape decay and a vine shoot forth.
A graft is inserted and a tree is reborn. Is there a divine providence for renewing trees and no concern for men? He who has given these things for man's use has not allowed them to perish. Will He allow man to perish whom He has made to His own image?
(57) But it appears incredible to you that the dead should live again. 'Senseless man, what thou thyself sowest is not brought to life, unless it dies.'70 Sow any dried seed you please, and it comes to life again. But, you reply, seed has a vital fluid in it. Yet our body has its blood, and it has its moisture. That is the vital fluid in us. Therefore, the argument advanced by those who deny that a dry shoot revives, and try to employ this alleged fact to the prejudice of the flesh, is,
I think, to be rejected, since all flesh comes from clay. Clay comes from moisture, and moisture is from the earth. Ac cordingly, many plants grow even when there is no rainfall and the soil is dry and sandy, since the earth itself provides enough moisture. So, we cannot assume that the earth, which 70 1 Cor. 15.36.
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is wont to restore all other kinds of life, will fail in this function as regards mankind. Hence, it is clear that we must not doubt what is more in accord with nature than against it. For it is as natural that all things living should rise again as it is un natural that they should perish.
(58) Now we come to a point which frequently disturbs the pagans. How is it possible for the earth to restore those whom either the sea has swallowed up or wild beasts have torn limb from limb or devoured? This objection leads strictly to the conclusion that there is doubt, not regarding belief in the resurrection, but in respect to a part of mankind. For, granted that the bodies of those torn to pieces will not rise again, the rest shall. The resurrection as a fact is not to be rejected because of an exceptional situation. Yet, since all things earthly return and crumble into the earth, I wonder how there can be any doubt even concerning the instances noted.71 For the most part, the sea itself also casts up on neighboring shores whatever human bodies it has swallowed.
And if this were not so, it surely would not be difficult for God to join what has been scattered, and to unite again what has been dispersed. Could it be maintained for a moment that God, whom the universe and the silent elements obey and nature serves, did not perform a greater miracle in giving life to clay than in joining it together?
(59) There is a bird in Arabia called the phoenix. After it dies, it comes back to life, restored by the renovating fluid in its own flesh. Shall we believe that men alone are not restored to life again? Now, from the many oral and author itative reports written on this matter,72 we know that the bird
71 Cf. Eccle. 3.20.
72 The story of the phoenix was introduced into Western literature by Hesiod and particularly by Herodotus. It was widely believed to be true, although questioned in part by Pliny the Elder and others. The story naturally had a special appeal for Christians, and the phoenix be came a common symbol of immortality in Christian literature and art. The phoenix theme received its most elaborate treatment in the
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in question has a fixed life span of five hundred years, and that when by a sort of natural premonition it knows that the end of life is at hand, it provides itself with a casket of frankincense and myrrh and other perfumes, and, when its preparations and its appointed period are completed, it enters the casket and dies. Presently, a worm comes forth from its moisture, gradually grows birdlike in form, assumes a bird's habits, and, borne aloft on the oarage of its wings, faithfully takes up again the duties of its renewed life. For it carries the box or tomb of its body or cradle of its resurrection, in which in departing from life it dies and after dying rises again, from Ethiopia to Lycaonia. Thus, through the resur rection of the phoenix the inhabitants of those regions know that five hundred years have elapsed. Therefore, for that bird the five-hundredth year is that of its resurrection, and, for us, the thousandth year.73 His resurrections occur within the period of this world, but our resurrection will come at the consummation of the world. Many are also of the opinion that this bird sets fire to its own funeral pyre and rises again from its embers and ashes.
(60) Perhaps, however, a more thorough investigation of nature will give us a more solid foundation for our belief.
Let us, then, turn our thoughts back to the origin and be ginning of human procreation. You are men and women and are not ignorant of what pertains to human nature. But if some are so, do you imagine that we are born from nothing?
From what tiny beginnings do we grow so large. And if I am not more plainspoken, you understand what I mean or, poem, De ave phoenice, ascribed to Lactantius. For the Latin text of this work, accompanied by a good introduction and translation, see J. W. Duff and A. M. DufF, Minor Latin Poets (Loeb Classical
Library, London and Cambridge, Mass. 1935), pp. 643-665.
73 Hardly an allusion here to the millenial reign of Christ. The term 'thousandth' is used rather to signify completeness, the fulfillment of time. See F. H. Dudden, The Life afnd Times of St. Ambrose (Oxford
1935) II 668.
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rather, what I do not wish to say. Whence comes this head and this wonderful countenance fashioned for various func tions and uses? We see the work, but we do not see its maker.
How explain the origin of this erect figure, dignified posture, capacity for action, quickness of mind, and ability to walk erect? We are certainly ignorant of the tools of nature, but the effects of their work are evident. You, too, were once a seed and your body is the seed of that which shall rise again.
Listen to Paul and learn that you are such a seed: 'What is sown in corruption shall rise in incorruption, what is sown in dishonor shall rise in glory. What is sown in weakness shall rise in power. What is sown a natural body shall rise a spiritual body.'74 So you are sown as are all other things. Why, then, do you wonder whether you will rise again like the rest?
You believe the first fact because you see it; you do not be lieve the second because you do not see it. 'Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.'75
(61) Yet, before the proper season arrives, not even that first fact is believed. For not every season is suitable for seeds to grow. Wheat is sown at one time, and it comes up at another. At one time, the vine is grafted; at another, shoots begin to grow, foliage becomes luxuriant, and the grape takes form. At one time, the olive tree is planted; at another, as though heavy with child and burdened with a progeny of berries, it is bent low under the abundance of its own fruit.
But before the proper time arrives for each its production is restricted, nor does the tree or plant which bears have the time of bearing within its own power. At one season, we see the mother of all exhibiting an unsightly appearance; at an other, bare of crops; at another, fresh with blossoms; at an other, brown and withered. If she had her own way, the earth would like to dress herself up in season and out, and never
74 1 Cor. 15.42-44.
75 John 20.29.
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lay aside the golden garments of her fields of grain, or the fresh green-tinted attire of her meadows, instead of being in want of herself and without benefit from the gains of her own produce which she has transferred to others.
(62) Therefore, if you will not believe in our resur rection through faith, if you will not believe through parallel examples, you are going to believe it through experience. For, just as the end of the year is a fitting time for the ripening of many other products, such as those of the vine and the olive and the various fruits, so for us, also, the consummation of the world, like the end of the year, has set a fitting time for our rising again. And it is well that the resurrection of the dead occurs at the consummation of the world, since we are thus protected from falling back, after the resurrection, into this evil age. Christ suffered to deliver us from this evil world, so that the temptations of this world might not again overthrow us. For being reborn would cause us harm, if we should be reborn to a life of sin.
(63) Consequently, we have both a reason and a time for the resurrection. We find a reason in the fact that nature in all its productions remains consistent with itself and does not show inconsistency in the case of mankind alone. We have a time, in that all things are produced at the end of the year. For the seasons of the world make up one year. And why is it strange that the year is one when the day is one?
For on one day the Lord hired laborers for His vineyard, saying: 'Why do you stand here, all day idle?'76
(64) The causes of the origins of all things are seeds.
That the human body is a seed has been stated as a fact by the Apostle of the Gentiles.77 Whenever seed is sown, there fore, there is present a basic substance or cause for rising again. But even if there were not such a substance or cause,
76 Matt. 20.6.
77 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.42.
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who would fancy it difficult for God to make a man anew whence or how He might wish? For He ordered the world to come into existence out of no matter or substance, and the world was made. Look up at the heavens, look at the earth.
Whence have come the fiery stars; whence, the ball and rays of the sun? Whence, the globe of the moon? Whence, the mountain peaks, hard rocks, and woods teeming with foliage? Whence, the widely diffused air, • and the waters poured into and spread over the earth? Now, if, as David says, God made all things out of nothing, 'For he spoke and they were made: he commanded and they were created,'78 how can we doubt whether what has been can be born again, when we see that that has been given existence which did not exist before.
(65) It is a strange fact that pagan philosophers, although not believing in the resurrection, nevertheless, for fear the race should perish, provide for this contingency with an in dulgent kindness, as it were. Therefore, they say that souls pass and enter into other bodies in order that the world may not perish.79 But let them tell us which is the more difficult, for souls to migrate or to return, to go back to their old abodes or to seek new ones.
(66) But let them doubt who have not been taught. For us, however, who have read the Law, the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Gospel, it is forbidden to doubt. For who can doubt, when he reads: 'And at that time shall all thy people be saved, that is written in the book. And many of those that sleep in the graves of the earth shall rise at one opening, some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach and everlasting confusion. And they that understand shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and of the just
78 Ps. 148.5.
79 Transmigration was a typical doctrine of Pythagoreanism and Orphism and thence passed into Platonism. Vergil reflects a compound of ideas on the subject in Aeneid 6.713A.
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many shall be as stars for all eternity.'80 Well, therefore, has the Prophet spoken of the rest of those who sleep, for thus we are given to understand that death is not eternal, but, like sleep, it is entered upon for a time and then, at an ap pointed time, is put aside. He has shown, too, that the course of the life which is to be after death will be better than that which before death is passed in pain and sorrow. For the life after death is compared to the stars, while our life here is condemned to misery.
(67) Why should I need to bring in what is written in another place: 'You will raise me up and I will praise you?'81
Or that other passage in which holy Job, after experiencing the miseries of this life and overcoming every adversity by his virtuous patience, anticipated the compensation for his present evils afforded by the resurrection, when he said: 'You will raise up this body of mine which has suffered many evils'?82
Isaias, too, proclaiming the resurrection to the people, says that he is the announcer of the Lord's message. For we read:
'For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and they shall say in the day.'83 What the mouth of the Lord stated, therefore, that the people should say, is set forth later on, where it is written: 'Because of our fear, O Lord, we have conceived and have brought forth the Spirit of Thy salvation, which Thou hath poured forth upon the earth. They that inhabit the earth shall fall, they shall rise that are in the graves. For the dew which is from Thee is health for them, but the land of the wicked shall perish. Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until the anger of God pass away.'84
(68) How well did he signify that the chambers are the 80 Cf. Dan. 12.1-3 (Septuagint) .
81 Ps. 17.49,50 (freely quoted).
82 lob 19.15 (Septuagint) .
83 Isa. 25.8,9.
84 Isa. 26.18-21 (Septuagint).
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tombs of the dead, in which we are hidden for a little while, the better to be able to pass to the judgment of God, which will claim the right of just anger according to the extent of our wickedness. Therefore, he who is hidden and rests is still alive, but, as it were, withdrawing and departing from our midst. Thus, he escapes the misery of being entangled more tightly in the snares of this world. Through the voice of the Prophets heaven speaks and gives assurance that the joy of the resurrection is reserved for the dead and that health will be restored to their dissolved bodies by divine dew. Dew is a well-chosen sign, for by it all the living seeds of the earth are made to grow. Why marvel, then, if the ashes and embers of our disintegrated body also grow vigorous through the richness of dew from heaven, and, upon receiving the lifegiving moisture, our members are again connected and assume their former appearance?
(69) Again, in minute detail the holy Prophet Ezechiel teaches83 and describes how strength will be restored to our dry bones, feeling return, and motion be added; how, with the return of sinews, the whole structure of the human body will grow strong, and how the driest bones will be clothed with restored flesh, and the openings of the veins and the streams of the blood will be concealed by a veil of skin drawn tautly over them. At the very words of the Prophet, as we read, the crop of human bodies seems to rise up again to life, and one may see the wide expanses of the fields sprouting with a novel kind of growth.
(70) It is established that seed of one sort cannot become another kind of plant, much less produce issue so essentially different as men springing from serpents and flesh from teeth, although wise men of old believed that a harvest of armed men bristled up from the teeth of the hydra sown at Thebes.
How much more credible it is, indeed, that whatever has 85 Cf. below, Ch. 71.
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been sown rises again in its own nature, that crops do not differ from their seed, that soft things do not spring from hard or vice versa, that poison does not become blood, but that flesh is restored from flesh, bone from bone, blood from blood, and humor from humor? Can you, you pagans, deny a restoration of nature, then, when you maintain your belief in metamorphosis? Since you believe in idle fables, how can you not believe the word of God, the Gospels, the Prophets?
(71) But let us hear the words of the Prophet himself:
'The hand of the Lord was upon me, and the Lord brought me forth in the spirit: and set me down in the midst of a plain, and this was full of human bones. And he led me about through them on every side: now there were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were exceeding dry. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live? And I answered: O Lord God, thou knowest. And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I shall send the spirit of life into you. And I will give you sinews, and I will cause flesh to grow over you, and I will cover you with skin; and I will give you my Spirit and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as he had com manded me; and as I prophesied all these things, behold there was a great movement of the earth/86
(72) Now, notice how he shows that there is hearing and movement in the bones before the spirit of life is again in fused into them. For, above, the dry bones are commanded to hear, as if they were endowed with a sense of hearing, and here it is indicated by the Prophet that each bone went to its proper joint, for we read: 'And the bones came together each one to its joint. And I saw, and behold the sinews and 86 Ezech. 37.1-7 (Septuagint) .
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the flesh came up upon them: and the skin was stretched out over them, but there was no spirit in them.'87
(73) Great is the favor shown us by the Lord in making use of a Prophet as a witness of the future resurrection, in order that we, too, should see it through his eyes. For all could not have been employed as witnesses, but we are all witnesses in one. For a lie does not suit a holy man, nor error befit so great a Prophet.
(74) Nor should it seem improbable that bones, at God's command, should again enter their bodily structure. Actually, we have countless examples in which physical nature has obeyed the commands of heaven. When the earth was ordered to bring forth vegetation, it did so.88 When Moses struck the rock with a rod, water for a thirsting people gushed out, and the hard rocks poured forth streams through God's mercy for those parched by the heat.89 What else did the rod changed into a serpent90 signify than that, should God so will, animate beings can be produced from inanimate? If bones come together when bidden, is that conceivably less credible than streams turning back or the sea fleeing? For so the Prophet testifies: 'The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back.'91 Nor can there be any doubt about the certainty of the facts concerning the destruction of the Egyptians and the preservation of the people of Moses. The waters of the sea were held back, yet, at the same time, surrounding the He brews. They then poured back and brought death upon the Egyptians, so that they destroyed one people and saved the other.92 What, too, do we find in the Gospel itself? Did not our Lord show there that the sea grew calm at His word, that 87 Ezech. 37.7,8.
88 Cf. Gen. 1.11.
89 Cf. Num. 20.11.
90 Cf. Exod. 4.3.
91 Ps. 113.3.
92 Cf. Exod. 14.22ff.
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the storm clouds of heaven were scattered, that the blasts of the winds subsided, and that the dumb elements obeyed Him and the shores were quieted?93
(75) But let us consider these matters in further detail, so that we can see how the dead will be restored by the spirit of life, how those lying in their graves will arise, and the sepul chres be opened. 'And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit,
O Son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord:
Come, spirit, from the four winds of heaven, and blow upon these dead, and let them live. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great multitude. And the Lord said to me: Son of man: These bones are all the house of Israel. They say: our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we shall be cut off. Therefore, prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall open your sepulchres, and shall bring you, my people, out of your graves.
And will put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will set you down upon your own land: and you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken and I will do it, saith the Lord.'94
(76) We note how contact with the vital spirit is again resumed and we learn how the graves will open and the dead will arise. Or should we wonder that the sepulchres of the dead are unsealed at the bidding of the Lord, when the entire earth to its utmost limits is shaken by a single peal of thunder, when the sea overflows its bounds, and then checks the course of its waves? Hence, he who has believed 'that in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet'—
93 Cf. Matt. 8.26,27.
94 Ezech. 37.9-14.
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for the trumpet shall sound—that the dead shall rise again,9® shall be caught up amongst the first in the clouds to meet
Christ in the air.96 He who has not believed shall be forsaken, and by his disbelief he shall bring upon himself his own condemnation.
(77) The Lord shows also in the Gospel, to come to specific instances, how a person will rise again. He not only quickened Lazarus, He quickened the faith of all. For if a per son believes, as he reads, his spirit, which was dead, also is quickened with that same Lazarus. For, when the Lord went to the sepulchre and loudly cried out: 'Lazarus, come forth,'97 what other meaning is there in this except that He wished to give visible proof, to exemplify our future resurrection?
Why did He cry out loudly? Was it because He was not used to working through the Spirit, or because He was not wont to command in silence? No, He intended rather to emphasize the Scriptural statement 'that in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead shall rise again in corruptible.'98 For the lifting of His voice corresponds to the peal of trumpets. When He cried out: 'Lazarus come forth,' why did He add the specific name, except, perhaps, lest one might be raised instead of another, or lest the resurrection might seem to be accidental rather than something com manded?
(78) The dead man, therefore, heard and came forth from the tomb. He was bound hand and foot with bandages, and his face was covered with a cloth.99 Imagine, if you can, how he picks his way with eyes closed, moves forward with his feet tied, and makes progress without taking separate steps.
Although the bands remained, they did not hold him back.
95 1 Cor. 15.52.
96 Cf. 1 Thess. 4.16.
97 John 11.44.
98 1 Cor. 15.52.
99 Cf. John 11.44.
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Although his eyes were covered, they saw. Accordingly, he who arose walked, and left his sepulchre, and had sight. For, where the power of a divine command was operating, nature had no need of its own functions, and, as if in a kind of trance, no longer followed its own course, but obeyed the divine will. The bonds of death were broken before those of the tomb. Walking was practiced before it was prepared for.
(79) If anyone is astonished at this, let him inquire who gave the command and his astonishment will cease. It was
Jesus Christ, the Power of God, the Life, the Light, the Resur rection of the dead. The Power lifted up a man lying in the grave; the Life made him walk; the Light dispelled the dark ness and restored his sight; the Resurrection renewed the gift of life.
(80) Perhaps you are concerned by the fact that Jesus took away the stone and loosened the bands,100 and you are worried that there will be no one to take away the stone from your grave. As if He who could restore life could not remove a stone, or that He who made a bound man walk could not break bonds, or that He who shed light upon covered eyes could not uncover a face, or that He who could renew nature could not split a rock! But in order that they who refused to believe in their hearts might at least believe their eyes, they removed the stone, they saw the corpse, they smelled the stench, they broke the bands. They could not deny that he was dead whom they saw rising again. They saw the marks of death and the proofs of life. What wonder if, as they worked, they had a change of heart in the process, and, as they heard, they at least believed their ears! What wonder if, as they looked, they were forced to believe their eyes, and, as they broke the bonds, they loosened the shackles of their minds!
What wonder if, as Lazarus was being unbound, the people 100 Cf. John 11.41,44.
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were set free, and, as they allowed him to go off, they them selves returned to God! Therefore, many who had come to Mary, seeing what was done, believed.101
(81) Nor was this the only instance our Lord Jesus Christ afforded us, but he raised others, also, that we might believe at least on the basis of more numerous examples. Moved by the tears of a widowed mother, He raised up a young man.
Approaching and touching the stretcher, He said: 'Young man, I say to thee, arise. And he who was dead, sat pp, and began to speak.'102 The moment he heard, he sat up and spoke. The gift of power, then, is one thing, and the order of nature another.
(82) And what shall I say about the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, at whose death the people were mourning and the flute players were playing their music? In the belief that she was indeed dead, solemn funeral services were being performed. The spirit returned immediately at the voice of the Lord, she arose with revived body, and she par took of food to furnish proof that she was alive.103
(83) And why should we wonder that a soul is restored at the word of God, and flesh returns to bones, when we re call that a dead person was restored to life by physical contact with the body of a Prophet?104 Elias prayed and restored a dead child to life.105 Peter, in the name of Christ, bade
Tabitha rise and walk.106 The poor rejoiced that she was re stored to them and believed on account of the food she gave them. Shall we still not believe at the risk of our salvation?
They purchased the resurrection of another by their tears.
Shall we doubt that ours was purchased by the Passion of Christ? When He gave up His spirit to show that He had
101 Cf. John 11.45.
102 Luke 7.14,15.
103 Cf. Mark 5.38-43.
104 Cf. 4 Kings 4.34; 13.2.
105 Cf. 3 Kings 17.21-23.
106 Cf. Acts 9.36-41.
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died for our resurrection, He exemplified the course of the resurrection itself. For, as soon as He again cried out with a loud voice and gave up His spirit, the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose, and, coming forth out of the tombs after His Resurrection, they came into the holy city and appeared to many.107
(84) If these things occurred when He gave up His spirit, why should we think them incredible when He returns for the judgment, especially since this earlier resurrection is a proof of that future resurrection, a pattern of the reality to come?
Indeed, it is less a pattern than it is the truth itself. Who, then, at our Lord's Passion, opened the graves and assisted the dead to rise and showed them how to find their way to the holy city? If there was no one, it was certainly Divine Power working in the bodies of the dead. Does one seek human aid when he clearly sees the work of God?
(85) God has no need of human assistance. God com manded the heavens to come into existence, and it was done.
He decided to create the earth, and it was created.108 Who carried the stones upon his shoulders? Who paid the cost?
Who helped Him at the work? These thing were done in a moment. Do you want to know how quickly? 'He spoke and they were made.'109 If the material universe sprang into being at a word, why should not the dead also rise again at a word?
Although they are dead, yet they once were alive, they had the sense of feeling and knowing, and they had the power of acting. Furthermore, there is the greatest difference between not being capable of life and remaining lifeless. The Devil said: 'Command this stone to become a loaf of bread.'110
When he confesses that, at God's command, material nature 107 Cf. Matt. 27.50-53.
108 Cf. Gen. 1.6ff.
109 Ps. 148.5.
110 Luke 4.3.
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can be transformed, do you not believe that, at God's com mand, nature can be made anew?
(86) Philosophers discuss the course of the sun and the system of the heavens, and there are some who think that they should be believed although they are ignorant of what they are discussing. For they have neither visited the heavens, nor measured the sky, nor visually examined the universe. And none of them was with God in the beginning, and none has said of God: 'When he prepared the heavens, I was present.
I was fashioning with him. I was the one at whom he re joiced.'111 If, therefore, such men are believed, why is not God believed, who says: 'For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make to stand before me, saith the Lord: so shall your name stand and your seed. And there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath: and all flesh shall come before my face, to adore in Jerusalem, saith the Lord God. And they shall go out and see the limbs of men who have transgressed against me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they shall be a loathsome sight to all flesh.'112
(87) If heaven and earth are renewed, how can we doubt the possibility of man's renewal, for whom heaven and earth were made? If the transgressor is kept for punishment, why should not the just man be preserved for glory? If the worm of sinners does not die, how shall the flesh of the just perish? For the resurrection, as the very form of the word indicates, is this: What has fallen shall rise again, what has died shall live again.
(88) It is in full accord with the nature and course of justice that, since body and soul possess activity in common, the body carrying out what the mind has planned, both should come into judgment and both be committed to 111 Prov. 8.27,30 (Septuagint) .
112 Isa. 66.22-24 (Septuagint).
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punishment or preserved together for glory. For it would seem almost absurd that, whereas the law of the mind strives against the law of the flesh and under pressure of the sin dwelling in man, often does what is odious to it, the mind, guilty only through another's fault, should be subject to punishment, while the flesh, the author of the evil, should obtain rest. Since the mind has not sinned alone, it should not be punished alone; since with the aid of grace it has not fought alone, it should not alone gain glory.
(89) Unless I am mistaken, the reason is full and ade quate, but I do not demand a reason from Christ. If I am convinced by reason, I deny faith. Abraham believed God.113
Let us also believe, so that we who are the heirs of his race may likewise be heirs of his faith. David, too, believed, and so he spoke.114 Let us also believe, so that we can speak in the knowledge that 'he who raised up Jesus, will raise us up also with Jesus.'113 For God, who never deceives, promised this.
The Truth, too, promised this in His Gospel when He said:
'Now this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of what he has given me, but that I should raise it up on the last day.'116 And He did not consider it sufficient to have said this once, but He expressly repeated it also in what follows: 'For this is the will of my Father who sent me, that whoever beholds the Son, and believes in him, shall have everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day.'117
(90) Who said this? It was He, of course, who, when He died, raised up many bodies of the departed. If we do not believe God, shall we not even believe evidence? Shall we not believe what He promised when He actually ac complished even what He did not promise? Why would He
113 Cf. Gen. 15.6.
114 Cf. Ps. 115.10.
115 2 Cor. 4.14.
117 John 6.40.
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have died, unless He also had a reason for rising again? For, since God could not die, Wisdom could not die. Yet what had not died could not rise again. So our mortal flesh was as sumed, which could die, so that, while that died which was wont to die, that which had died might rise again. For the resurrection was not possible save through man. 'For since by a man came death, by a man also comes resurrection of the dead.'118
(91) Therefore, man arose, because man died. Man was raised up again, but it was God who raised him. Then He was man according to the flesh; now, God is in all.119 Now we no longer know Christ according to the flesh,120 but we have the grace of His flesh, so that we know Him as the first fruits of those who rest,121 the firstborn from the dead.122
Unquestionably, the first fruits are of the same species and nature as the rest of the fruits. The first fruits are offered to God to beg a richer increase, as a holy gift for all gifts, and a kind of libation, as it were, from restored nature. Christ, then, is the first fruits of those who rest. But is He the first fruits of His own who rest, and who, freed from death, as it were, are held in a kind of sweet slumber, or is He the first fruits of all the dead? On the contrary, 'For, as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made to live.'123 Therefore, as the first fruits of death were in Adam, so also the first fruits of the resurrection are in Christ.
(92) All men will arise again, but let no just man be come discouraged and be troubled at the common lot of resurrection, since he awaits the chief reward for his virtue.
All, indeed, shall rise, 'but,' as the Apostle adds, 'each in his 118 1 Cor. 15.28.
119 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.28.
120 Cf. 2 Cor. 5.16.
121 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.20.
122 Cf. Col. 1.18.
123 1 Cor. 15.22.
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own turn.'124 The fruit of the divine mercy is common to all, but the order of merit differs. The day gives light to all, the sun warms all, and the rain in bountiful showers makes fruitful the fields of all.
(93) We are all born, and we shall all rise again; but in the state both of living and of living again there will be a difference in grace and condition. 'In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.'125 Yes, even in death some rest, and some live. Rest is good, but life is better. And so the Apostle arouses the man who is at rest to life, saying: 'Awake, sleeper, and arise from among the dead, and Christ will enlighten thee.'126
Therefore, he is aroused that he may live, that, like Paul, he can say 'that we who live, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.'127 Here, he is not speaking of the common manner of life and the breath we all enjoy, but of the merit of the resurrection. For, after saying: 'And the dead in Christ will rise up first,' he adds: 'And we who live, who survive, shall be caught up together with them in clouds to meet Christ in the air.'128
(94) Paul died, certainly, and by his noble sufferings he exchanged the life of the body for immortal glory. Was he mistaken, then, in writing that while yet alive he would be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ? For we read this of Henoch and of Elias.129 But you, too, will be caught up in the spirit. Behold the chariot of Elias, and the fires! Even if they are not seen, they are ready, that the just man may ascend, the innocent be transported, and that your life may not know death. Accordingly, the Apostles did not 124 1 Cor. 15.23.
125 1 Cor. 15.53.
126 Eph. 5.14.
127 1 Thess. 4.15.
128 1 Thess. 4.17.
129 Cf. Gen. 5.24; 4 Kings 2.11.
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know death. And, therefore, it also was said: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, many of those standing here will not taste death, till they have seen the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.'130
For he lives, who does not have in him what can die, who does not have some shoe or bond from Egypt, but put off such before laying aside the service of this body. So not Henoch alone lives, since not he alone was caught up.
Paul, too, was caught up to meet Christ.
(95) The patriarchs also live. For, unless the dead were living, God would in no wise be called the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 'For He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.'131 And we, too, shall live, if we have the will to imitate the deeds and conduct of our fathers. We wonder at the rewards of the patriarchs: let us imitate their submissiveness. We proclaim the grace which they received: let us follow their obedience; let us not, enticed by our appetites, fall into the snares of the world. Let us seize our present opportunity, let us cleave to the com mandment of the Law, the mercy of our calling, and the desire of suffering. The patriarchs went forth from their own land: let us go forth in our resolve from the dictatorship of the body;132 let us go forth in resolve as they in exile. But they did not regard as exile what was undertaken out of devotion to God, or required by necessity. They changed their native land for another: let us change earth for heaven. Theirs was a change in dwelling: let ours be a change in spirit. Wisdom showed them the heavens bright with stars:133 let It brighten the eyes of our soul. Thus the type agrees with truth, and truth with the type.
(96) Abraham, who was glad to receive strangers, faithful to God and tireless in His service, and prompt in fulfilling his
ISO Matt. 16.28.
131 Luke 20.38.
132 Cf.l Peter 2.11.
133 Cf. Gen. 15.5.
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duty, saw the Trinity typified.134 He added religious devotion to hospitality, for, although he beheld Three, he adored
One, and, while keeping a distinction of the Persons, yet he called One, Lord, thus giving honor to the Three but signifying one Power. For, not knowledge, but grace, spoke in him.
And he believed better what he had not learned than we who have been taught. No one had falsified the type of truth, and, therefore, he saw Three, but worshiped their unity. He brought out three measures of meal, but slaughtered one calf,13a believing one sacrifice was sufficient, but a threefold offering; one victim, but a threefold gift. Furthermore, in the account of the four kings,136 who does not understand that Abraham subjected to himself the elements of material nature and all earthly things in prefiguration of the Lord's Passion?
He was loyal in war, and was not grasping in victory,137 for he preferred to be enriched with the gifts of God, not of men.
(97) As an old man he believed that he could beget a son,138 and as a father he judged that he could sacrifice him.
And his paternal love did not cause him to hesitate when reverence for God aided his aged hand,139 for he knew that his son would be more pleasing to God as a sacrifice than as alive and unharmed.140 Therefore, he brought his beloved son to be sacrificed, and him whom he had begotten so late he offered without delay. Nor was he held back by being addessed as father, when his son called him 'father' and he answered 'my son.'141 Names, indeed, are tender assurances of love, but thfe commands of God are worthy of even greater love. And so, while both felt mutual compassion in their hearts, there was no faltering in resolution. The hand of a 134 Cf. Gen. 18.Iff.
135 Cf. Gen. 18.6,7.
136 Cf. Gen. 14.1ff.
137 Cf. Gen. 14.23.
138 Cf. Gen. 15.6.
139 Cf. Gen. 22.10.
140 Cf. Gen. 22.2.
141 Cf. Gen. 22.7.
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father lifted the knife over his own son, and, lest the sentence fail of execution, in his paternal love he was in the act of striking the blow. He was afraid the stroke would miss, that his right hand would weaken. He felt as a father would, but he did not shrink from his duty .to God. He was hurrying to obey, even as he heard God's voice.142 Therefore, let us, too, put God before all those whom we love, whether father, or brothers, or mother, so that He can keep safe our loved ones for us, just as in Abraham's case we see the generous Rewarder rather than the servant.
(98) The father, indeed, offered his son, but God was ap peased not with blood but with religious obedience. In place of the body, God showed the ram in the bush,143 that He might restore the son to his father and yet that a victim should not be lacking to the priest. Consequently, neither was Abraham stained with the blood of his own son, nor was
God deprived of a victim. When the Prophet saw the ram, he did not assume a boastful attitude, he did not persist ob stinately in his resolve, but took the ram in place of the boy.
His conduct shows all the more how piously he offered the son whom he received back so gladly. If you, likewise, make an offering to God, you do not lose it. But we are selfish.
God sacrificed His only-begotten Son for us,144 but we refuse ours. Abraham saw this and recognized the mystery, that our salvation would be on a tree.145 And it did not escape his notice that in one and the same sacrifice there was one thing which seemed to be offered and another which could be slain.
(99) Let us imitate Abraham's devotion to God, let us imitate Isaac's goodness, let us imitate his purity. Isaac was certainly a good and virtuous man, devoted to God, and 142 Cf. Gen. 22.11,12.
143 Cf. Gen. 22.13.
144 Cf. Rom. 8.32.
145 I.e., on the Cross.
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faithful to his wife. He did not return evil for evil. He yielded to those who drove him out, but he received them again when they were sorry, being neither harsh to insolence nor obdurate to kindness. When he went away from others, he fled to avoid strife. When he received them again, he readily forgave them, and he was exceptionally kind when he par doned. Men sought to associate with him, and he added a delightful feast.146
(100) In Jacob, also, let us imitate a type of Christ. Let there be in us some likeness of his action. If we imitate him, we shall have fellowship with him. He obeyed his mother, he yielded to his brother, he served his father-in-law, and he looked for his wages, not from a division, but from an in crease in the flock. And there was no avaricious division, where the portion was so lucrative.147 Nor was that sign of the ladder from earth to heaven for no purpose,148 for by that vision was made evident the future fellowship of men and angels through the Cross of Christ. And the thigh of Jacob was paralyzed, so that in his thigh he might recognize his lineal Heir and that the paralysis of his thigh might prophesy his Heir's Passion.149
(101) We see, then, that heaven is open to virtue and that this is not the prerogative of a few. 'For many will come from the east and the west,' the north and the south, 'and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,'150 as, with all agitation of mind removed, they give expression to the joy of eternal rest. Let us follow
Abraham in our conduct, so that he may receive us into his bosom and cherish us with loving embrace even as he did
Lazarus, the heir of his humility, and surrounded with his 146 Cf. Gen. 26.1-31.
147 Cf. Gen. 30.27-43.
148 Cf. Gen. 38.12.
149 Cf. Gen. 32.24.
150 Matt. 8.11.
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own virtues.101 For the generation of the holy patriarch ap proved by God cherishes us, not in a corporeal bosom, but in the garment, as it were, of our good deeds. 'Be not de ceived,' says St. Paul, 'God is not mocked.'152
(102) We realize how grave an offense it is not to believe in the resurrection of the dead. For, if we do not rise again,
Christ, then, died in vain and did not rise again.153 For, if He did not rise for us, He did not rise at all, because there was no reason why He should rise for Himself. The universe rose again in Him, the heaven rose again in Him, the earth rose again in Him. For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth.154 Furthermore, what need had He of resurrection who was not bound by the chains of death? For, even though He died as man, He was free even in hell itself.
(103) Do you wish to know how free? 'I am become as a man without help, free among the dead.'155 And well is
He called free who was able to raise Himself up, according to what is written: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'156 Well, too, is He called free who had come down to redeem others. He was made as a man, not in ap pearance merely, but actually fashioned as such, for He is man and who shall know Him?157 For, 'being made like unto men, and appearing in the form of a man, He humbled him self, becoming obedient to death,'158 so that precisely through that obedience we might see His glory, 'the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,' as St. John says.159 For thus the representation of Scripture is preserved, since the glory of the 151 Cf. Luke 16.22.
152 Gal. 6.7.
153 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.13-15.
154 Cf. Apoc. 21.1.
155 Ps. 87.5.
156 John 2.19.
157 Cf. Isa. 53.3.
158 Phil. 2.7,8.
159 John 1.14.
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Only-begotten and the nature of perfect man are thus pre served in Christ.
(104) Therefore, He needed no helper. For, as He needed no aid when He made the world, neither did He need any when He redeemed it. No legate, no messenger, but the Lord Himself saved the world. 'He spoke and they were made.'160 The Lord Himself saved the world; He is every where because all things are through Him. For who could have helped Him by whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together?161 Who could have helped
Him who makes all things in an instant, and at the last trumpet raises the dead?162 At the last trumpet, not that He could not raise them at the first or the second; order is pre served, not that a difficulty be finally overcome, but that the proper number be completed.
(105) Since my discourse is drawing to a close, it is time now to say something about the nature of the trumpets, so that the trumpet may also be the sign of the completion of my ad dress. In the Apocalypse of St. John we read of seven trumpets which seven angels received.163 There, too, we read that when the seventh angel blew a trumpet, there was a loud voice from heaven, saying: 'The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.'164 The word trumpet also means a voice, for we read: 'For, behold, a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard, as it were, a trumpet speaking with me and saying: Come up hither and I will show thee the things which must come to pass.'165 We also read: 'Blow up the trumpet on the new moon,'166 and again, elsewhere:
'Praise him with sound of trumpet.'167
160 Ps. 32.9.
161 Cf. Col. 1.17.
162 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.52.
163 Cf. Apoc. 8.2.
164 Apoc, 11.15.
165 Apoc. 4.1.
166 Ps. 80.4.
167 Ps. 150.3.
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(106) We should, therefore, observe as carefully as pos sible the signification which the trumpets have, so as not to run the risk of looking upon this matter as an old wives' tale, and of thinking of it as unworthy of spiritual teaching and out of accord with the dignity of the Scripture. For when we read that our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of wickedness on high,168 we ought not to think of carnal weapons, of course, but such as are powerful before God.169 It is not enough that we see a trumpet or hear its sound, unless we understand the meaning of its sound.
For, if the trumpet gives forth an uncertain note, how shall anyone get ready for war?170 Hence we ought to know the meaning of the trumpet's sound, lest we should seem to be barbarians,171 when we either hear or speak of trumpets of this kind. And, therefore, when we speak of them, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will interpret their meaning for us.
(107) Let us consider what we have read in the Old Testament concerning trumpets, realizing that the festivals prescribed for the Jews by the Law are a shadow of cele brations above and heavenly feasts. For here is the shadow, and there is the truth.172 Let us endeavor to arrive at the truth by means of the shadow. Certainly, in another place the figure of truth has been presented in this fashion, for we read that God spoke to Moses, saying: 'Say to the children of Israel: the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a rest for you, a memorial of the blowing of trumpets, and you shall call it holy. You shall do no servile work therein, and you shall offer a holocaust to the Lord.
And in Numbers: 'The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: make thee two trumpets of beaten silver wherewith thou mayest
168 Cf. Eph. 6.12.
169 Cf. 2 Cor. 10.4.
170 Cf. 1 Cor. 14.8. , L 171 The barbarians employed horns and drums rather than trumpets.
172 Cf. Col. 2.16,17.
173 Lev. 23.24,25.
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call together the multitude and when the camp is to be re moved. And when thou shalt sound the trumpets among them, all the multitude shall gather unto thee to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant. If thou sound one trumpet, all the princes and leaders of Israel shall come to thee. And with the trumpet you shall blow a first signal, and they shall move the camp forward and shall establish themselves on the East. And with the trumpet you shall blow a second signal, and they shall move the camp forward, and shall estab lish themselves towards Libanus. And with the trumpet you shall blow a third signal, they shall move the camp forward which shall be established towards the North. They shall blow a signal with the trumpet in their moving forward. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall sound the trumpets: and this shall be an ordinance forever for your generations. If you go forth to war into your land against the enemies that fight against you, you shall sound a signal with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before the Lord and you shall have deliverance from your dead. And on the days of your joy and on your festival days, and on the first days of your months, sound the trumpets, and at your holocausts and at your peace offerings, and there shall be a remembrance of you before the Lord, saith the Lord.'174
(108) Shall we, then, think of festival days in terms of eating and drinking? On the contrary, let no one call us to account in respect to eating, 'For we know that the Law is spiritual.'170 'Let no one, therefore, call you to account for what you eat or drink or in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.'176 So let us seek the body of Christ which the voice of the Father from heaven, the last trumpet,
174 Num. 10.1-10 (Septuagint, but with some marked deviations) .
175 Rom. 7.14.
176 Col. 2.16,17.
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as it were, showed to you on that occasion when the Jews said that it thundered for Him.177 Let us seek, I repeat, the body of Christ which the last trumpet will again reveal to us,
For the Lord himself with cry of command, with voice of archangel, and with trumpet of God will descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ will rise up first.'178 For,
Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered to gether. 179 Wherever the Body of Christ is, there will be the truth.
(109) The seventh trumpet, then, seems to signify the weekly day of rest, which not only is computed in days and years and periods—and for this reason the jubilee number, too, is sacred—but also includes the seventieth year, when the people returned to Jerusalem after having been in captivity for seventy years. In hundreds also and in thousands, the ob servance of the sacred number is by no means neglected, for not without purpose has God said: 'And I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel whose knees have not been bowed before Baal.'180 Therefore, the shadow of future rest is represented in days, months, and years, the time of this world. That is why Moses gave the children of Israel a com mandment that in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, rest should be observed by all, a memorial of the blowing of trumpets, and that no servile work should be done, but sacrifice should be offered to God,181 because at the end of the week, the Sabbath of the world, as it were, spiritual, and not bodily, work will be required of us. For what belongs to the body is servile, because the flesh serves the spirit. In nocence makes a man free, but sin makes him a slave.
(110) It was necessary, therefore, that spiritual things 177 Cf. John 12.28,29.
178 1 Thess. 4.15.
179 Luke 17.37.
180 3 Kings 19.18.
181 Cf. Lev. 23.24,25.
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should be revealed as through a mirror and in an obscure manner. 'For, we see now through a mirror but then face to face.'182 Now we make war according to the flesh;183 then in spirit we shall behold the divine mysteries. Hence, let the character of the true law be expressed in our lives and actions, we who walk in the image of God, for the shadow of the Law has now passed away. The carnal Jews had the shadow, we have the likeness, and they who are to rise again will again have the reality. For we know that according to the Law there are these three: the shadow, the image, and the reality. The shadow is in the Law; the image is in the Gospel; the reality shall be in the Judgment. All things are Christ's, and all are in Him. We cannot see Him now according to reality, but we see Him in a kind of image of future things, of which we saw the shadow in the Law. Christ, therefore, is not the shadow but the image of God, not the mere image only, but the reality. And, therefore, the Law was through Moses because the shadow was through man, the image was through the Law, and the truth or reality through Jesus. For the Truth could not have proceeded from any other source save Truth.
(Ill) If anyone, therefore, desires to behold this image of God, he must love God so as to be loved by Him, no longer as a servant but as a friend who observes His com mandments, that he may enter the cloud where God is.184 Let him fashion for himself two spiritual trumpets of pure and beaten silver,185 that is, composed of and adorned with pre cious speech. And let them not emit harsh and raucous tones inspiring fear, but let them pour forth thanks in the highest to God in continuous exultation. By the call of such trumpets
182 1 Cor. 13.12.
183 Cf. 2 Cor. 10.3.
184 Cf. Exod. 24.15,16.
185 Cf. Num. 10.2.
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the dead are raised. They are aroused, of course, not by the sound of the metal but by the word of Truth. And perhaps these are the two trumpets whereby Paul, through the divine
Spirit, cried out, saying: 'I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, I will sing with the understanding also.'186 For the one without the other seems quite incapable of giving forth a perfect call.
(112) It is not every one's prerogative, however, to sound both trumpets, nor is it everyone's prerogative to call together the whole assembly; that privilege is granted to the priests and ministers of God who are the trumpeters.187 Thus, whoever hears the sound and follows it to where the glory of God is, and with early resolve hastens to the tabernacle of the testimony, will be able to see the works of God, and will merit for all his posterity that appointed and eternal home. When the grace of the Spirit and the energy of the soul act in unison, then, indeed, is the battle won and the enemy put to flight.
(113) These are also salutary trumpets, if we believe with the heart and confess with the mouth. 'For with the heart a man believes unto justice, and with the mouth con fession is made unto salvation.'188 Accordingly, with these twin trumpets we arrive at that holy land, namely, the grace of resurrection. So let them always sound together in harmony for us, that we may always hear the voice of God. Let the utterances of the Angels and Prophets arouse us and move us to hasten to higher things.
(114) David was considering this resolution in his heart when he said: 'For I shall go over into the place of the won derful tabernacle, even to the house of God: with the voice
186 1 Cor. 14.15.
187 Cf. Num. 10.8.
188 Rom. 10.10.
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of joy and praise; the noise of one feasting.'189 For not only are enemies vanquished by the sound of these trumpets, but without them there cannot be rejoicings, festivals, or new moons either. For no one, unless he drinks in the promises of the word of God and believes the resounding oracles of Scripture, can exult with joy or keep festivals or new moons, in which, freed from corporeal pleasure and worldly con cerns, he longs to fill himself with the light of Christ. And sacrifices themselves cannot be pleasing to Christ, unless vocal confession accompanies them. For at the oblation offered by the priest this usually moves the people to implore God's favor.
(115) Let us, therefore, be preachers of the Lord and let us praise Him with sound of trumpet.190 And not min imizing or despising the power of this instrument, let us con sider it as one of the things which can fill the ear of the mind and enter into the depths of our inmost consciousness. Let us not imagine that what suits the body is applicable to the Godhead. We must not measure the greatness of divine power bv standards of human strength nor inquire how or with what kind of a body anyone will rise again, or how separated parts will be united and lost elements restored. For all these things are accomplished by the divine will the moment they are decided upon. Nor do we look for a physical hearing of trumpets, since it will be the invisible power of the majesty of heaven which will be exercised. For with God to will is to do. And we need not inquire into the effort involved in rising again, but should rather seek its fruits. The resur rection will be accomplished more easily if, emptied of our sins, we attain the fullness of the spiritual mystery, and re newed flesh receives grace from the Spirit, and the soul obtains from Christ the brightness of eternal light.
189 Ps. 41.5,6.
190 Cf. Ps. 150.3.
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(116) These mysteries pertain not only to individuals, but also to the whole human race. For note that the order of grace is according to the figure of the Law. When the first trumpet sounds, it collects those from the East, as the leaders and the elect.191 When the second sounds, it gathers together those nearly on a par in merit who, being situated in the direction of Libanus, have abandoned the follies of the nations. When the third trumpet sounds, it summons souls who, as upon a sea, have been tossed about by the storms of this world and have been turned hither and thither by the waves of this life. When the fourth sounds, it calls those who in no way were able to soften the hardness of their hearts in accordance with the admonitions of God's word. That is why they are said to be toward the North, for, according to Solo mon, the north is a hard wind.192
(117) Therefore, although in a moment all are raised up again, all, however, are raised in the order of their merits.
And so, the first to rise are those who, through an early in fluence of piety, going forth before the rising dawn of faith, as it were, received the rays of the eternal Sun. I be lieve that this may be said rightly of the patriarchs in the course of the Old Testament, or of the Apostles under the Gospel. The second to rise are those who abandoned pagan rites and passed from sacrilegious error to embrace the teaching of the Church. So, then, the first came from the Fathers, and the second from the Gentiles, for the light of the faith had its origin from the former and, having been received by the latter, it will remain among them to the end of the world. The third and fourth groups to rise are those who are in the South and the North. Into these four is the earth divided, of these four is the year comprised, with these four is the universe filled, and from these four is the Church
191 Cf. above, Ch. 107.
192 Cf. Prov. 27.16 (Septuagint).
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gathered together. For all who are united with Holy Church and enrolled under the designation of the divine Name will obtain the privilege of the resurrection and the grace of eternal bliss. 'They will come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and will feast in the kingdom of God.'193
(118) Christ fills His world with copious lights, since 'His going out is from the end of heaven, and his circuit even to the end thereof; and there is no one who can hide himself from his heat.'194 Benignly He gives light to all, wishing not to repel the foolish but to correct them, and desiring not to exclude the hard of heart from the Church but to soften them. Hence, the Church in the Canticle of Canticles and Christ in the Gospel invite them, saying: 'Come to me, all you who labor, and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.'195
(119) And recognize also the voice of the Church in viting us when she says: 'Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow through my garden and let my ointments flow forth. Let my brother come down into his garden and eat the fruit of his apple trees.'196 For knowing even then, O
Holy Church, that from these also you would have fruitful works, you promised to your anointed One the fruit from such as these. It was you who first said that you were brought into the King's chamber, loving His breasts above wine.197
For you loved Him who loved you, you sought Him who nourished you, and you despised dangers for religion's sake.
(120) Then, O spouse, you are asked to come from Libanus, in the Lord's judgment still all fair and all blameless.
193 Luke 13.29.
194 Ps. 18.7.
195 Matt. 11.28,29.
196 Cant. 4.16; 5.1 (Septuagint).
197 Cf. Cant. 4.10 (Septuagint) .
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For it is written: 'Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is no blame in thee. Come hither from Libanus, my spouse, come hither from Libanus.'198
(121) Afterwards, no longer fearing rushing waters or violent torrents descending from Libanus, you call the north and south winds, and you desire them to blow upon your garden so that your ointments may flow forth upon others, and that you may, in them, offer to Christ the manifold fruits of your fertility.
(122) Therefore, 'Blessed is he who keeps the words of this prophesy'199 which has revealed the resurrection to us with the clearest testimony, saying: 'And I saw the dead, the great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and they opened the scrolls. And another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the scrolls, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead that were in them.'200 We must not, therefore, question how they will rise again whom hell casts up again and the sea restores.
(123) Let us hear also when the future reward of the just is promised. 'And I heard,' John says, 'a loud voice from the throne saying: Behold the dwelling of God with men, and he will dwell with them. And they will be his people; and God himself will be with them as their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. u (124) Please compare now and contrast this life with that, and choose, if you can, an unending existence of the body spent in toil, in the wretched misery of the marked
198 Cant. 4.7,8.
199 Apoc. 22.7.
200 Apoc. 20.12,13.
201 Apoc. 21.3,4.
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vicissitudes of life, in the satiety of fufilled desires, and in the aversion that follows pleasures. If God were willing to let such things last forever, would you choose them? For, if life in itself is to be fled from, that there may be an escape from troubles and rest from miseries, how much more should we look forward to that rest which will be succeeded by the eternal pleasure of the resurrection to come, and in which there will be no longer any succession of grave faults or allure ments to sin?
(125) Who is so patient in sorrow that he does not pray for death? Who is so firm in sickness that he does not wish to die rather than live as an invalid? Who is so brave in grief that he does not desire to have done with it even through his own death? Now, if we are dissatisfied while we live, although we know that a limit has been set for our life, how much more disgusted would we be with this life if we saw that the troubles of this body would be with us without end?
Who, then, would wish to be free from death? Or what would be more unendurable than a miserable immortality?
'If,' says St. Paul, 'with this life only in view we have had hope in Christ, we are of all men the most to be pitied.'202 He said this, not because to hope in Christ is miserable, but be cause Christ has prepared another life for those who hope in Him. For this life is liable to sin; the life above is reserved for our reward.
(126) How much dissatisfaction do we see that even the brief courses of our lives bring upon us! The boy longs to be a young man; the young man counts the years when he will be older; the mature man, ungrateful for the blessing of being in the prime of life, eagerly desires the honor associated with old age. Thus, to all there comes naturally a desire for change, simply because we become dissatisfied with what we now are.
Therefore, even the very things which we have wished for 202 1 Cor. 15.19.
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become wearisome to us upon their enjoyment, and what we have desired to obtain we reject upon its attainment.
(127) Consequently, holy men have not without reason lamented their prolonged sojourning here. David lamented it,"°° Jeremias lamented it,204 Elias lamented it.205 If we can believe wise men, even those in whom the divine Spirit spoke were hastening to better things. If we inquire into the judg ments of others in order to learn that all held a single view, what great men have not preferred death to sorrow; what great men have not preferred it to fear! Clearly, they judged the fear of death worse than death itself! So, when the de parture of the dying is longed for and the dread of the living is avoided, death is not feared for its evils but is preferred to the miseries of life.
(128) Well, then, let it be granted that the resurrection is to be perferred to this life. But what if the philosophers themselves have found a type of existence after death which will give us greater pleasure than rising again?206 Even those, indeed, who say souls are immortal do not mollify me, since they allow me only partial redemption. For what happiness can that be in which I have not entirely escaped? What life, if the work of God dies out in me? What justice, if death as the end of natural existence is common to saint and sinner?
What truth is that, that the soul, because it moves itself and 203 Cf. Ps. 119.5.
204 Cf. Jer. 20.16,17.
205 Cf. 3 Kings 19.4.
206 The problem of the immortality of the soul was much debated by the representatives of all the ancient schools of philosophy, and various answers were given to this question as well as to the related one concerning the condition or life of the soul after its separation from the body. Most of the common pagan views on these matters are discussed in Cicero's Tusculan Disputations 1, a work undoubtedly familiar to St. Ambrose. The philosophical proof of the soul's im mortality based on self motion which St. Ambrose mentions here is treated at length in Tusc. Disp. 1.53-54, Plato's Phaedrus being cited as an authority.
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is always in motion, should be considered immortal? What the state or activity of what we have in common with animals in our bodies is before the body exists is uncertain, and the truth cannot be gathered from contrary views, but would be destroyed.
(129) But can we accept the opinion of those who say that our souls, after they have departed from our bodies, enter the bodies of wild beasts and various other kinds of animals?207 The philosophers themselves, at any rate, usually explain that these are the ridiculous creations of poets, such as might be produced by the deceitful potions of Circe.208
They observe further that not so much they, who supposedly underwent such things, as the senses of those who invented these stories were turned by Circe's cup, as it were, into various beasts and monsters. For what is closer to the mar velous than to believe that men could possibly be changed into the form of beasts? How much more truly marvelous would it be that the soul which governs man should be able to assume the nature of beasts, so opposed to that of man kind, and, though capable of reason, pass into an irrational animal, than that the forms of bodies might have been changed! You yourselves who teach such things destroy what you teach. For you have entrusted these monstrous changes to magicians and their spells.
(130) The poets voice such ideas in sport and the philo sophers censure them. But what they believe to be mere fictions they hold to be true about the dead. The poets who invented such fictions did so, not, indeed, because they wanted to prove their own fable, but to ridicule the errors of the philosophers, who fancy that the same soul, which was wont to control anger by a meek and humble resolve, to be
207 There is a vivid discussion and strong repudiation of transmigration, for example, in Tertullian, De anima 28-S5. Cf. above, note 79. •
208 Cf. Homer, Odyssey 10.210ff.; Ovid, Metam. 14.Iff.
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patient, and to abstain from bloodshed, can now be inflamed with the mad violence of a lion, and, with ungovernable anger and unbridled rage, can thirst for blood and seek for slaughter; or that the same soul, which, by kinglike counsel, used to restrain the varied storms of popular outbreaks and to calm them with the voice of reason, can now endure to howl in pathless and desert places in the manner of wolves; or that the soul, which, groaning under an excessive burden, used to low in wretched complaint over the harsh labors of the plow, can now, being changed into human form, look for horns on her smooth brow;209 or that the soul, which once used to be carried swiftly up to the heights of heaven on the oarage of its wings,210 can no longer think of such flights and must grieve over the sluggishness caused by the weight of a human body.
(131) On this account, perhaps, you destroyed the famous Icarus,211 for the youth, led on by your arguments, possibly imagined that he was once a bird. In similar fashion, many old men also have been deceived and died in great grief because they foolishly believed swan fables,212 even imagining that by comforting themselves with sad strains they could change their gray hair into soft down.
(132) How incredible these things are! How disgusting!
How much more appropriate to believe in conformity with nature, to believe in conformity with the process observed in all kinds of fruits, to believe in confortmity with many actual examples, the oracles of the Prophets, and the heavenly promise of Christ! What is more excellent than to be con vinced that the work of God does not perish and that those made after the likeness and image of God cannot be changed into the forms of beasts! It is the soul, of course, and not the 209 Cf. Vergil, Eel. 6.51.
210 A Vergilian phrase; cf. Aeneid 1.301.
211 Cf. Ovid, Metam. 8.195ff.
212 Cf., e.g., the story of Cygnus in Ovid, Metam. 1.365-380.
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body, which is according to the image and likeness of God.
For how could man migrate, to whom all other living crea tures whatsoever are subject, if the better nature does not allow this? And if nature were to do so, grace would not.
(133) But I have seen enough, pagans, of what you think about yourselves. For it ought not seem so strange that you who worship beasts believe that you can be changed into beasts. I, however, would like to see you have a better opinion of your merits and be convinced that you are destined, not for mingling with the herds of the animal kingdom, but for association with angels.
(134) The soul has to depart from the tortuousness of this life and the defilements of the earthly body. It must hasten to those heavenly gatherings, although it is granted to the saints alone to reach them. There it shall sing praise to God. For in the lesson taken from the Prophet213 we hear of those singing praise to God to the accompaniment of their harps.214 'Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord
God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, O King of the ages. Who will not fear thee, O Lord, and magnify thy name? For thou only art holy: for all nations will come and worship before thee.'215 And it shall see thy marriage feast,
O Lord Jesus, wherein the bride is led from earthly to heavenly dwellings, as all sing in joyous accord, 'All flesh shall come to thee,'216 now no longer subject to the world but es poused to the Spirit, and shall look upon bridal chambers adorned with linen, roses, lilies, and garlands. For whom else are the nuptials so adorned? For they are adorned with the purple stripes of confessors,217the blood of martyrs, the lilies of virgins, and the crowns of priests.
213 I.e., St. John.
214 Cf. Apoc. 14.2.
215 Apoc. 15.3,4.
216 Ps. 64.3.
217 For the symbolism here, cf., also, St. Ambrose, Expos, in Lucam, 7.128.
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(135) Holy David desired this for himself above all else, that he might behold and see these things. Therefore, he says: 'One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; that I may see the delight of the Lord.'218
(136) It is a pleasure to believe this, and a delight to hope for it. Certainly, not to have believed it is a penalty, and to have hoped for it a grace. If, however, I am wrong in preferring to be associated after death with angels rather than with beasts, I am glad to be wrong in this, and I will never allow myself to be deprived of this opinion as long as I live.219
(137) For what comfort have I left save realization of the hope that I shall come to you, brother, very soon, and that the separation between us caused by your departure will not be a long one? And through your intercessions, I hope that I, who long for you, may obtain the favor of being called to you the more quickly. For everyone ought to desire for himself above all else that 'this corruptible body put on incorruption, and this mortal body put on immortality,'220 so that we who now succumb to death through the frailty of the body, being placed above nature, may no longer have even the possibility of fearing death.
218 Ps. 26.4.
219 In this statement St. Ambrose adopts the form and language of a passage in Cicero, De senectute 23.85.
220 Cf. 1 Cor. 15.53.