until now, points to the continuousness of his work, by which he holds together
Book IV 253 were commanded to observe the sabbath as a shadow of what was to come,22 to prefigure the spiritual rest which God was promising in a kind of secret code, on this model of his own rest, to the faithful doing their own good works. And the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered only at the precise time he willed, also under lined the mystery of this rest by his burial. lt was of course on the day of the sabbath that he rested in the tomb, and he had the whole of that day as a kind of holy vacation, after he had finished all his works on the sixth day, that is, Prepa ration Day,23 which they call the sixth of the sabbath, when what had been written about him was fulfilled on the very gibbet of the cross. This in fact was the actual word he used when he said: lt is finished; and bowing his head he surrendered his spirit (Jn 19:30).
So why should we be surprised ifGod wished to point forward to this day on which Christ would rest in the grave, and to this end rested from his works on one day, before proceeding from then on to work the unfolding of the ages, in order to verify these other words too: My Father is working until now?
Another way of reconciling God's resting with his continuous working
12, 22. God can also be understood to have rested from establishing different kinds of creatures, because he did not now establish any new kinds any more. But he rested like this in such a way as to continue from then on and up till now to operate the management of the things that were then set in place, not as though at least on that seventh day his power was withheld from the government ofheaven and earth and of all the things he had established; if that had been done, they would forthwith have collapsed into nothingness. It is the creator's power, after all, and the virtuosity, the skill and tenacity of the almighty, that causes every created thing to subsist. If this tenacious virtuosity ceased for one moment to rule and direct the things that have been created, their various species would at once cease to exist, and every nature would collapse into nothingness. It is not, you see, like a mason building houses; when he has finished he goes away, and his work goes on standing when he has stopped working on it and gone away. No, the world will not be able to go on standing for a single moment, ifGod with draws from it his controlling hand.
23. lndeed, the very expression employed by the Lord, My Father is working until now, points to the continuousness of his work, by which he holds together and manages the whole of creation. It could, you see, have been understood
22. See Heb 10:1. 23. He uses the word used in the Greek text, which was simply transliterated in the Latin versions, parasceve. My guess is that it was the usual word in Christian circles for what we call Good
Friday. 1 was in fact tempted to translate "on the sixth day, that is. Good Friday." The key word to this passage is "finished"; God finished, consummavit, his works on the sixth day; Christ said on the cross, as he died on the sixth day of the week, "1t is finished," consummatum est.