SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: How do we account for this?
SPEAKER_00: The great silence that covers the earth today.
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: Great silence and yet greater stillness.
SPEAKER_00: It is great silence, for the king sleeps.
SPEAKER_00: The earth feared and was still when God fell asleep in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: God died in the flesh, and hell trembled.
SPEAKER_00: God slumbered a short spell, and woke up out of hell those time past who had fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Where now are yesterday's commotions?
SPEAKER_00: Where are your cries, your clamorings against Christ, O you sinners?
SPEAKER_00: Where are the mobs, the riots, the troops, the weapons and the spears?
SPEAKER_00: Where are the kings?
SPEAKER_00: Where are the priests and the judges?
SPEAKER_00: Where are your torches and your swords and your shouts?
SPEAKER_00: Where are the crowds and its jeers?
SPEAKER_00: Where is the insolence and where are the guards?
SPEAKER_00: Truly the people imagined a vain and futile thing.
SPEAKER_00: They stumbled at Christ the cornerstone, and thereby they were broken.
SPEAKER_00: They crashed themselves against the solid rock, and their waves scattered into foam.
SPEAKER_00: They struck against the indestructible anvil, and were themselves shattered by it.
SPEAKER_00: They lifted up the rock high upon the tree, but it fell down and it crushed them.
SPEAKER_00: They bound the greater Samson, the greater son, and God, but he loosed the age old bonds, and he destroyed the spiritual Philistines and the transgressors.
SPEAKER_00: The divine Son has set beneath the earth, and brought about deep darkness for the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Today is salvation for those on earth, and those of ages past beneath the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Today is salvation for the world, both the seen and the unseen.
SPEAKER_00: Twofold is the Master's coming today, twofold the dispensation, because twofold is his love for mankind, twofold the descent, and likewise twofold the visitation unto men.
SPEAKER_00: First, from heaven to earth, and second, from earth into hell.
SPEAKER_00: God draws nigh, and hell's gates open their mouths wide.
SPEAKER_00: O you of times past who fell asleep, you may now rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: You that sit in darkness in the shadow of death receive the great light.
SPEAKER_00: The Master is with his slaves.
SPEAKER_00: God is with the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The life has come to be with the mortals, the guiltless to sit with the guilty, the unwaning light with those who are bound in darkness, the liberator with the captives, the one far above the heavens, has now come to be with those in the lowest depths of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: When Christ was on earth we believed in him, and now that Christ is among the dead, let us go down with him.
SPEAKER_00: Let us learn the mysteries there.
SPEAKER_00: Let us come to know the wonders of the hidden God beneath the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Let us learn how the gospel appeared to even those in Hades.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we make of it?
SPEAKER_00: Did God save all without exception when he appeared in hell?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But there too, just as here, only those who believed.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday he displayed the things of economy.
SPEAKER_00: Today those of sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday the things of infirmity.
SPEAKER_00: Today those of authority.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday the things of his humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Today those of his divinity.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday he was slapped.
SPEAKER_00: And today he strikes Hell's household with the thunderbolt of his Godhead.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday he was bound.
SPEAKER_00: Today he binds fast the tyrant with unbreakable bonds.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday he was condemned.
SPEAKER_00: Today he grants freedom even to the damned.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday Pilate's minions mocked him.
SPEAKER_00: Today Hell's servants shudder to see him.
SPEAKER_00: Come then and listen to the lofty tale of Christ's passion.
SPEAKER_00: Listen and praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Listen and glorify him.
SPEAKER_00: Listen and proclaim God's great wonders.
SPEAKER_00: How the law retreats, how grace flourishes, how the types and shadows and symbols have now passed away.
SPEAKER_00: How the truth is preached, how the shadows of darkness recede from the earth, how the sun fills the whole world, how the old covenant expires, and how the new covenant is established, how old things have passed away, and how new things blossom forth.
SPEAKER_00: Two people were present in Zion at the time of Christ's Passion, that of the Jews and that of the Gentiles, two kings, Pilate and Herod, two high priests, Annas and Caiaphas, that there might likewise be two Passovers, one that was ending, and Christ's that was just beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Two sacrifices were accomplished that evening, since two salvations were at work.
SPEAKER_00: One salvation of the living, and another for even the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews bound a lamb and slew it in sacrifice, while the Gentiles sacrificed God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: The one looked to the shadow, while the other ran to the Son and God.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews bound Christ and sent him away while the Gentiles eagerly took him in.
SPEAKER_00: The one sacrificed an animal victim, while the other offered the body of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews made remembrance of their passing over from Egypt, while the Gentiles made proclamation of their deliverance from error.
SPEAKER_00: And where did these things take place?
SPEAKER_00: In Zion, the city of the great king, where he wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, that is the child of God, who is always known in the midst of two living things.
SPEAKER_00: He is acknowledged to be the life from life, engendering life in the midst of the Father and the Spirit, the two living beings, born in a manger in the midst of an angel and men, sent as a cornerstone in the midst of Jews and Gentiles, preached alike amidst the law and the prophets, seen on the mountaintop in the midst of Moses and Elijah, acknowledged to be God by the wise thief in the midst of two thieves, sitting as eternal judge in the midst of this life and of the next, and working today a twofold life and a twofold salvation in the midst of both the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Twofold life, I repeat, twofold birth, which is to say, rebirth.
SPEAKER_00: Listen then to the facts of the twofold birth and celebrate his wondrous twofold salvation.
SPEAKER_00: An angel announced the birth of Christ to Mary, Christ's mother, and an angel announced the rebirth of Christ from the tomb to Mary of Magdalene.
SPEAKER_00: By night was Christ born in Bethlehem, and again by night was he reborn from the dead in Zion.
SPEAKER_00: In a cave of stone was Christ born, and in a cave of stone was Christ reborn from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He received swaddling bands when he was born, and he is wrapped in swaddling bands here as well.
SPEAKER_00: He received myrrh at his birth, and he received myrrh and aloes at his burial.
SPEAKER_00: There Joseph, spouse of the blessed virgin, here Joseph of Arimathea.
SPEAKER_00: His birth was in Bethlehem, laid in a manger for his crib, while here, the place where he lays as is a manger, and was a crypt.
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds first preached the glad tidings of Christ's birth, and the shepherd of all men, Christ's disciples, first preached the glad tidings of Christ's rebirth from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: There the angel cried, Hail to the Virgin.
SPEAKER_00: And here the Christ, the angel of great counsel, cried out, All hail to the woman from Magdalene.
SPEAKER_00: Forty days after his first birth, Christ went up to the earthly Jerusalem to the temple as firstborn.
SPEAKER_00: And he brought a pair of turtle doves to God.
SPEAKER_00: And forty days after his rebirth from the dead, Christ ascends to the Jerusalem which is above, the heavenly city, whence he had never been parted, into the true holy of holies, as the incorrupt firstborn from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And he brought to God his father like the two unblemished turtle doves, us, our souls and our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: And God, the ancient of days, took him up in his arms, just like the aged Simeon into his uncircumcised bosom.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you hear these things as fables and as fairy tales, and not with faith, the unbroken seals of the tomb of Christ's lordly rebirth, these stand as your accusers.
SPEAKER_00: For just as Christ was born of a virgin while keeping sealed the bolts that opened the womb, that is her virginity.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's rebirth took place without breaking open the seals of the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Let us then listen to the sacred oracles concerning how Christ, the life, was laid in the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: When and by whom.
SPEAKER_00: When the evening came, there came also a rich man named Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: The same went in boldly unto Pilate and asked him for the body of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Mortal went unto mortal and asked to receive the God of mortals.
SPEAKER_00: Clay asked clay to receive the fashioner of all.
SPEAKER_00: Straw from straw seeks to carry off the heavenly fire.
SPEAKER_00: A tiny drop from a drop receives the whole ocean.
SPEAKER_00: Who has ever seen or heard of anything like this?
SPEAKER_00: Man grants to man the creator of men.
SPEAKER_00: A lawbreaker ventures to hand over the lawful legislator of laws.
SPEAKER_00: An unjust judge orders the burial of the judge of judges as one who is judged.
SPEAKER_00: When the evening came, there came the rich man Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: Rich indeed is Joseph, for he carried away the whole compound person of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Rich truly is Joseph, for he received the dual essence of Christ from Pilate.
SPEAKER_00: Truly rich is Joseph, for he was vouchsafe to carry off the priceless pearl.
SPEAKER_00: Rich indeed, for he bore off a sack full of treasure and treasure of divinity?
SPEAKER_00: How could he not be called rich, who acquired the life and salvation of the world into his arms?
SPEAKER_00: How can we not call Joseph rich, who received as a gift the nourisher and master of all life, that is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And truly and rightly was it called the evening, for the Son of righteousness had now set into the grave.
SPEAKER_00: And there came the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple secretly for fear of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And there came also Nicodemus, who once came to Jesus earlier by another night.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, hidden mystery of mysteries, two secret disciples come to hide away Jesus secretly into the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Teaching by their hiding the hidden mystery of God, hid boldly in the grave, each one outdoing the other in their zeal for God.
SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus, magnemonious, is providing the myrrh and the aloes.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph, meritorious for his boldness and daring before Pilate.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Joseph, casting off all fear, went boldly unto Pilate and asked the body of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When he went in, he dealt very shrewdly so as to achieve his aim.
SPEAKER_00: Hence he did not use pompous and high-sounding words when he stood before Pilate, lest he provoke him to be angry and be denied his request.
SPEAKER_00: Neither did he say, Give me the body of Jesus, who just a short while ago darkened the sun, rent the rocks, made the earth to quake, opened the graves, and rent and twained the veil of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: No, nothing of this sort was said to Pilate.
SPEAKER_00: What then did Joseph use?
SPEAKER_00: What did he ask of?
SPEAKER_00: A small request.
SPEAKER_00: O Judge, says he, I am come to ask a small favor of you.
SPEAKER_00: Give me the body of the dead man to bury, Jesus of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Give me Jesus the pauper, Jesus the wanderer, Jesus hanging naked, Jesus the commoner, son of a carpenter, Jesus the prisoner, Jesus bereft of shelter, the stranger, the unknown among strangers, who lies hanging, scorned by all and hated.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger, for what use to you is the corpse of a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger, for he has come here from a far country to save strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Give me the stranger, for he has come down into darkness to draw up us strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger, for he alone is truly a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger whose country is unknown and inaccessible to us strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger whose father is unknown to us strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger whose place and manners are unknown to us strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger who lived a strange life amidst us true strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Give me the Nazarene.
SPEAKER_00: Give me the stranger whose birth is unknown to us strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this voluntary stranger who has nowhere to lay his head.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger who was a stranger in a strange land and was born homeless in a manger.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger who from this same manger fled Herod as a stranger.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this stranger who from infancy lived in Egypt as a stranger, having neither a city nor a village, nor a house, nor lodging, nor family, dwelling in foreign parts with his mother, while yet possessing all things.
SPEAKER_00: Give me, O governor, this man crucified and naked, that I may cover him who covered my nature's nakedness.
SPEAKER_00: Give me this man at once dead and at once God, that I may cover him who has covered my sins.
SPEAKER_00: Give me to bury this dead man who buried my sin in the Jordan by his baptism.
SPEAKER_00: I beseech you, O Pilate, for a dead man, wronged by all, betrayed by a friend, sold by his disciple, persecuted by his brethren, beaten by his own servants.
SPEAKER_00: I entreat you for a dead man, condemned by those he healed, abandoned by those he loved, deprived of his own mother.
SPEAKER_00: I beg you, O Pilate, for a dead man hanging on a tree, seeing he has on earth no father at his side, neither any friend, nor disciple, no kinsman to bury him.
SPEAKER_00: But he is alone in the world, the only begotten of the only father, himself God, and no other is alone.
SPEAKER_00: When Joseph had spoken these blessed things to Pilate, Pilate commanded to give him the all holy body of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then he went to Golgotha and took down God from the cross and laid him upon the earth, God naked in the flesh, yet henceforth naked no more.
SPEAKER_00: And so he who draws all men up above is seen here lying below.
SPEAKER_00: The life and breath of all is for a time here bereft of his own breath.
SPEAKER_00: The creator of the many-eyed angels is seen devoid of sight.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection of all men is laid down to rest.
SPEAKER_00: God who raises the dead is dead in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: The thunder of God's word is silent in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He who holds the earth in the hollows of his hands is carried about by the hands of mere men.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: Laudable is your purpose, but even more soul your soul's boldness.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not tremble, Joseph, to carry in your arms him who causes the cherubim to tremble?
SPEAKER_00: With what fear do you strip off the covering of the divine flesh?
SPEAKER_00: Or with what reverence do you steady your trembling gaze to look upon and uncover the fleshly nature of God, who is above all nature?
SPEAKER_00: Tell me, O Joseph, do you dare to bury him towards the east as one dead, Jesus who is himself the east sunrise?
SPEAKER_00: Or did you use your fingers to shut the eyes of Jesus, who with his immaculate finger opened the eyes of the blind?
SPEAKER_00: Do you cover the mouth of him who opened the mouth of the mute?
SPEAKER_00: And do you wrap up the hands of him who stretched out the hands that were withered?
SPEAKER_00: Do you bind up the feet of him who made the lame feet to walk?
SPEAKER_00: Do you carry him with a mat who commanded the paralytic man, take up your mat and walk?
SPEAKER_00: Do you pour out myrrh upon the heavenly myrrh who poured himself out and sanctified the whole world?
SPEAKER_00: Do you dare to wipe dry the still bleeding side of Jesus, who has God healed the woman with the issue of blood?
SPEAKER_00: Do you wash with water the body of God, who washes all men and grants them every cleansing?
SPEAKER_00: What lamps can you light, O Joseph, for the true light, which lights every man?
SPEAKER_00: What funeral dirge can you sing for him who is ceasethly praised by all the hosts of heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Do you shed tears for him as though dead?
SPEAKER_00: He who wept and raised up Lazarus?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you make lamentation for him who gives joy to all and puts an end to the sorrows of Eve, our mother?
SPEAKER_00: Joseph, did you cling to him like the prophet Elijah did to the dead boy?
SPEAKER_00: Mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, and hands to hands.
SPEAKER_00: How is it, O blessed hands of Joseph, that you tended and handled Jesus' still bleeding hands and feet?
SPEAKER_00: I bless your hands, O Joseph, which drew near the gash on God's side, even before Saint Thomas, the faithless believer and commendable inquisitor.
SPEAKER_00: I bless your mouth, O Joseph, insatiably sated by and joined to the mouth of Jesus, whence it was filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I bless your eyes, which were pressed to the eyes of Jesus, where they received the true light.
SPEAKER_00: I bless your face which touched the face of God.
SPEAKER_00: I bless your shoulders which bore the bearer of all things.
SPEAKER_00: I bless your head, which came so close to Jesus, who is the head of us all.
SPEAKER_00: I bless both Joseph and Nicodemus, for they acted as the cherubim before even the cherubim did, bearing aloft God in their midst.
SPEAKER_00: They became themselves like the divine ministers before even the sixth winged seraphim dared to, covering and reverencing God, not with wings, but with a winding sheet.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph and Nicodemus bear upon their shoulders him who before whom the cherubim tremble, just as all the bodiless ranks together bear him.
SPEAKER_00: For where Joseph and Nicodemus are, is not the whole divine assembly of angels together gathered with them as well.
SPEAKER_00: For does not heaven form his funeral train, the cherubim go before, and the seraphim run alongside, the thrones together bear him, the sixth wing cover him, the many eyes are afflighted to see Jesus sightless in the flesh, the powers likewise enshroud him, while the principalities sing their hymns.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed all the ranks of angels tremble, astonished and astounded, and they inquire among themselves, saying, What is this dreadful matter, fearful and frightful in this manner?
SPEAKER_00: What is this grand and acceptable spectacle?
SPEAKER_00: The invisible God, who is above us, the bodiless, is seen below as a man among men, naked and lifeless.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph and Nicodemus fearlessly give burial to him upon whom did not go out.
SPEAKER_00: They attend him with reverent fear.
SPEAKER_00: When ask the angels, did he descend, who never left the heights?
SPEAKER_00: And how did he go out from us who is ever within?
SPEAKER_00: How did he come to earth who fills all things?
SPEAKER_00: How did he depart unnoticed by all, who as God is ever with the Father on high?
SPEAKER_00: He who has never appeared to us at any time has now appeared to men as both man and as man's friend.
SPEAKER_00: How is the invisible seen?
SPEAKER_00: How is the immaterial incarnate?
SPEAKER_00: How did the passionless suffer the passion?
SPEAKER_00: How was the judge brought to the judgment?
SPEAKER_00: How did the life taste death?
SPEAKER_00: How is the uncontainable contained in a tomb?
SPEAKER_00: How does he dwell in a grave who never left the Father's throne?
SPEAKER_00: How does he enter the door of a cave?
SPEAKER_00: Who opened not the gates of heaven, yet opened the gates of paradise, who broke not the doors of the virgin's womb, yet will shatter the gates of hell?
SPEAKER_00: Who opened not the doors before Thomas, yet opened the gates of the kingdom to men, who kept unopened the doors and seals of his own tomb?
SPEAKER_00: How is he now numbered among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: Who is free among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: How does the unwaning light appear in darkness and the shadow of death?
SPEAKER_00: Where does he go now?
SPEAKER_00: To where does he descend?
SPEAKER_00: He who cannot be held by death?
SPEAKER_00: And for what reason?
SPEAKER_00: What is the manner?
SPEAKER_00: What is the purpose of this descent into hell?
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps he goes down even now to bring up Adam, our condemned fellow servant.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, surely, he goes to seek the first formed man like a lost sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Doubtless he wishes to visit even those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
SPEAKER_00: Doubtless he goes to loose them from the bonds and the chains of captivity that bind Adam, our fellow prisoner, and Eve, he who is at once their son and their God.
SPEAKER_00: So then let us descend with him.
SPEAKER_00: Let us assemble with him.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hasten.
SPEAKER_00: Let us skip.
SPEAKER_00: Let us escort him.
SPEAKER_00: Let us raise a shout.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hurry that we may see God's reconciliation with men.
SPEAKER_00: And the gracious master release the condemned.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, the natural friend of man goes to bring out with his great might and authority the prisoners from angels past who dwell in the tombs, whom the harsh and indomitable tyrant tyrannizes, having spitefully seized and stolen them from God, and filled his infernal lair with those who once dwelt above.
SPEAKER_00: And there you will find Adam, the prisoner, the first enchained, and the first to be sentenced to death, lower down than all the rest.
SPEAKER_00: There too is Abel, the first slain, and first righteous shepherd, prototype of the unjust slaughter of Christ, the true shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: There too is Noah, the type of Christ, builder of the great ark, which is the church, who saved all the beastly nations from the flood of ungodliness by the dove of the Holy Spirit, and expelled from her the dark diabolic raven.
SPEAKER_00: There too is Abraham, our father, Christ's forefather, the sacrificer, who with unslain victim in unstained knife offered God propitious sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: There is Isaac in bonds, who was bound of old by Abraham as a type of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There is Jacob, our father, grieving in Hades below, who once grieved over Joseph above.
SPEAKER_00: There is Joseph, once again a prisoner, who was cast into prison in Egypt, as a type of Christ, the imprisoned potentate.
SPEAKER_00: There is Moses, our teacher, in darkness below, as once in a basket, he was in darkness above.
SPEAKER_00: There too is Daniel, once again in a den of hell below, who was once in a den of lions above.
SPEAKER_00: There is Jeremiah the prophet, as in a pit of mire, in the pit of hell and the decay of death.
SPEAKER_00: There the all-devouring belly of hell, there you will find Jonah, the type of Christ, the eternal and pre-eternal Jonah, who lives forever and forever and forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: There is David, our Father, God's forefather, of whom Christ was descended according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: But why speak of David and Jonah and Solomon?
SPEAKER_00: There too is the illustrious Saint John the Baptist himself, greater than all the prophets, who heralds Christ's coming to all those in Hades, once again, just as he did, even in the darkness of his mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: The twofold forerunner, the preacher to both the living and the dead, who was sent from Herod's prison to Hades' prison, the common prison of those fallen asleep since the world began, the common prison of both the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
SPEAKER_00: This is Hades.
SPEAKER_00: From thence all the prophets and the righteous secretly sent up ceaseless supplications to God, and there they are asking for deliverance from the most dismal place, from the dark and dreary domination of the enemy, and the endless, impenetrable black of night.
SPEAKER_00: And so we hear the voice of the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: One of them said to God, From the belly of hell comes my cry, O hear my voice.
SPEAKER_00: While another has said, Out of the depths have I cried unto you, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice.
SPEAKER_00: And another has said, Shine your face that we may be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And another, you that sit upon the cherubim, shine forth, and another, stir up your might and come to us and save us, and another, let your tender mercies quickly overtake us, for we are brought very low.
SPEAKER_00: And another prophet has said, Deliver my soul from the nethermost hell, and yet another, Lord, bring my soul out of hell, and another, abandon not my soul to Hades, and another, raise up my life from the corruption, O my Lord and my God.
SPEAKER_00: And having heard all of these pleas, the all-compassionate God determined to extend his love for mankind, not to those living in the day only, but afterwards also to those before his coming still held in Hades, sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore, just as God the word visited men in the flesh by means of soul-bearing flesh, so also did he appear to the bodiless souls in hell by means of his immaculate and God-bearing soul, bereft of body, but not of his divinity.
SPEAKER_00: Let us then make haste and journey in mind to hell, that we may see how there at last he masters with masterly might the most mighty master and tyrant, and with his brilliant lightning, as with a whole army effortlessly subdues the ranks of that immortal infantry.
SPEAKER_00: Christ the door, having first burnt open the exitless door in the midst, and shattered the woodless gates of bronze by the hard wood of the cross, by the nails having broken and sundered the age-old iron bars, by the bonds of his hands, having dissolved the indissoluble bonds like wax, and by the spear in his divine side having pierced through the fleshless heart of the tyrant.
SPEAKER_00: There he broke the strength of the bow, went on the bow of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He stretched out the sinews of his divine arms like bowstrings.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if you follow Christ in silence, you will presently see where he bound the tyrant, where he hung his head aloft, how he raised his dungeon and led out the prisoners, how he trampled the serpent and where he displayed his head, how he freed Adam and raised up our mother Eve, how he broke down the middle wall of division, where he condemned the cruel dragon, how he set up invincible trophies, where he put death to death, and how he spoiled corruption and restored man to his primal dignity.
SPEAKER_00: Accordingly, he who yesterday refused the aid of legions of angels in his economy, telling Peter, I could even now set before you more than twelve legions of angels.
SPEAKER_00: Today, with God befitting majesty as both warrior and master, he goes down by means of death to the depths of death and hell to oppose the tyrant of death, having with him immortal legions of bodiless soldiers and invisible orders, and not twelve only, but thousands of thousands and ten thousands of ten thousands, angels, archangels, powers, thrones, sixth winged seraphim, the many eyed cherubim, and all the hosts of heaven, escorting, attending, and hymning Christ as their own master and king.
SPEAKER_00: Not indeed do they go as fellow warriors, for what reinforcements could Christ Almighty need from them?
SPEAKER_00: But out of both their duty and longing to stand constantly by God their master, among them are loyal spearmen, keel, keen footmen and swift scepter bearers of the master's divine order, who at a mere gesture outrun one another with divine alacrity and zeal, at once putting deed into action at his command, and arraying themselves in triumph against the ranks of the enemy tyrants.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore they then descend, hastening and hurtling to follow after their God and master, towards the infernal subterranean habitations of those sleeping from past ages, hidden deep beneath the earth, to bring out the prisoners and those who had fallen asleep ever since the world began.
SPEAKER_00: Now then the luminous presence of the master's divine retinue had arrived at the walled off, sunless pitch black habitations of hell, with all its denge and all of its dungeons, caves and caverns, and there Saint Gabriel, the chief commander, went before them all, it being his custom to bring glad tidings of joy unto men, and as befit an archangel and general, issued to the hostile powers a mighty resounding and lion like command.
SPEAKER_00: He lifted up the shout of an archangel, saying this Lift up your gates, O you princes.
SPEAKER_00: And after him cried out Saint Michael in reply, and be you lifted up you everlasting gates, and therefore the virtues took up the cry, saying, Stand back, you lawless servants, and then the powers said with power, Be broken you unbreakable bonds, and another, be abashed you inimicable foes, and yet another, be affrighted, you lawless tyrants, and just as before the battle array of some terrible and invulnerable, all powerful, royal trophy-bearing army, a certain terror and trembling, panic and painful fear seized the enemies of an unconquerable king.
SPEAKER_00: And just so did it befall those in hell at Christ's unexpected coming to the netherworld, which occurred like a sudden lightning flash from above, blinding the eyes of the hostile powers of hell, as they heard certain thunderous voices bellowing, and angelic hosts commanding and saying, Lift up your gates, O you princes, lift it up your gates.
SPEAKER_00: Do not simply open them, but lift them up from the foundation, root them out and remove them that they may nevermore be shut.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your gates, O you princes, not as though the master here present is unable, for he is, even with the doors shut to enter in at his own bidding, but because as fugitives and slaves he relegates to you the task of raising, removing, shattering your own gates, on which account he commands not the common lot among you, but those reckoned among you to be princes, he says, Lift up your gates, O you princes, princes, and not any other sword among you, for if indeed until now you have wickedly exercised princedom over those sleeping from ages past, yet from henceforth you shall be their princes no longer, neither shall you be princes of any other, but of yourselves only, yet not even of yourselves, you would be princes, lift up your gates, for Christ the heavenly door is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Make way for him that rides into the dusky regions of hell.
SPEAKER_00: Lord is his name, and to the Lord belongs the ways out from the gates of death.
SPEAKER_00: You indeed made the entryways of death, but he has come to make the ways leading out of it.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, lift up your gates, O you princes, lift them up and do not delay, lift them up and make haste, lift them up and don't you dare wait, for if you think to tarry, we shall command the same gates to be lifted without hand of themselves, saying, Be lifted up, O you everlasting gates.
SPEAKER_00: And no sooner had the hosts of heaven cried out, than at once the ancient gates were lifted up, and at once the chains and bars were broken, and at once the bolts fell away, and at once the foundations of the prison were shaken, at once the hostile forces took flight, one running into the other, another tripping over the other, one shouting as the other fled.
SPEAKER_00: For they were terrified, shaken, astonished, dismayed, bewildered, stunned, stupefied, confused, and they were left quivering.
SPEAKER_00: One stood with mouth agape, another hid his head between his knees, another was sprawled out face to the ground, another stood stiff as a corpse, another was seized with terror, another lay petrified and pale faced, while another fled further and deeper inside the pit of hell.
SPEAKER_00: There did Christ cleave with frenzy the heads of the mighty.
SPEAKER_00: There were they shaken by him.
SPEAKER_00: There did they gape open their mouths and say, Who is this King of Glory?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this great one who as such great numbers performs here such great wonders?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this King of Glory who works now in hell things never before done in hell?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this that brings out hence the prisoners of all the ages?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this that undoes and undoes our imperishable power and pride?
SPEAKER_00: Then the master forces shouted to them in reply, with joy, saying, Would you learn who is this King of Glory?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty and powerful and invincible in battle.
SPEAKER_00: This is he who thrusts you out and banished you from the vaults of heaven, O you miserable criminal tyrants.
SPEAKER_00: This is he who broke the heads of your dragons in the water of the Jordan.
SPEAKER_00: This is he who by the cross openly put you to scorn and shame, who triumphed over you and mortally wounded you.
SPEAKER_00: This is he who bound you in chains and cast you into the dark abyss.
SPEAKER_00: This is he who shall expel and destroy you in the eternal fire of Gehenna.
SPEAKER_00: So do not dally, do not tarry, but hurry, and send forth those whom until now you have cruelly swallowed up.
SPEAKER_00: For your dominion is now abolished, your tyranny is now ceased, your insolence is miserably quashed, your arrogance has been brought to an end, and your strength is trampled and destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: When the master's forces had said these things to the hostile forces, they pressed onward.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them dug up the foundation of the prison, others pursued the hostile powers that fled from the outer chambers further in.
SPEAKER_00: Others went about and searched through the crevices, the cells, and the caverns, while still others carried prisoners to the master from the various places of hell.
SPEAKER_00: Some shackled the tyrant, while others unshackled the prisoners of ages.
SPEAKER_00: Some gave orders, while others swiftly carried them out.
SPEAKER_00: Some ran before the master as he went further in, while others stood beside him as their God and their victorious king.
SPEAKER_00: While these things and even more besides were taking place in Hades and being noised abroad, and as everything was in an uproar and the great commotion, since the master's presence was about to reach the very nethermost and furthest regions.
SPEAKER_00: Then Adam, the first created, and the first imprisoned of all men, held fast in chains with great security, deeper down than all the rest.
SPEAKER_00: There Adam heard once again the master's footsteps coming towards him and the prisoners.
SPEAKER_00: And Adam, our father, he recognized their sound as walked about in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And he turned to all the prisoners who are with him, his children from all the former ages, and he said, I hear the sound of someone's footsteps coming towards us.
SPEAKER_00: And if he has truly deigned to come unto this place, I know that we are free of our chains.
SPEAKER_00: If we should truly see him here with us, I know that we will be delivered from hell.
SPEAKER_00: And as Adam spoke these things to his children, and others like them, to all his fellow condemned, the master entered into them, wielding the victorious weapon of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And upon seeing Adam the first formed, our Lord beat his breast in shock, and cried out to all those sleeping from times past.
SPEAKER_00: And Adam took up this Christ, this call, My Lord be with you all.
SPEAKER_00: And Christ answered and said to Adam, and with your spirit, and then he took him by the hand and stood him up and said, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
SPEAKER_00: I am your God, who for your sake became your son, for your sake and your posterity, who now speak and with authority command the prisoners, go forth.
SPEAKER_00: And I say this to them that are in darkness, show yourselves, and this to them that weep, arise, and again I bid you, awake, O sleeper, for I did not make you to be held captive in hell.
SPEAKER_00: Arise from the dead, for I am the life of mortals, arise my creation, arise my form, made in my own image.
SPEAKER_00: Arise and let us go hence, for we are one single, inseparable person, you in me and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: For your sake I, your God, became your Son.
SPEAKER_00: For your sake, I, the Master, took upon me your servile form.
SPEAKER_00: For your sake, I that am far above the heavens came upon earth and went under the earth.
SPEAKER_00: For your sake who art a man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead.
SPEAKER_00: For your sake who was exiled from a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and in a garden was I crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, my face, which received spitting from wicked mouths, that I might restore to you your mouth and the breath of life.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, my cheeks which received blows, that I might set right your marred form according to its original image.
SPEAKER_00: Behold my back which received scourging, that I might loose the burden of your sins laid upon your back.
SPEAKER_00: Behold my hands which were nailed to the tree for good, on behalf of you who stretched forth your hand to the tree for evil.
SPEAKER_00: Behold my feet, which were pierced and nailed to the tree, on behalf of you who wickedly ran to the tree.
SPEAKER_00: On the sixth day your expulsion took place.
SPEAKER_00: So here on the sixth day I worked your restoration and opened paradise.
SPEAKER_00: I tasted gall for you, that I might heal you from the bitter pleasure of that sweet fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I tasted vinegar for you, that I might neutralize the acrid and unnatural cup of death.
SPEAKER_00: I accepted the sponge that I might blot out the handwriting of your sins.
SPEAKER_00: I accepted the reed that I might sign the release of the human race.
SPEAKER_00: I slept on the cross and was pierced in the side by a spear on behalf of you who did sleep in paradise and bring forth Eve from your side.
SPEAKER_00: My side has healed the pain of your side.
SPEAKER_00: My sleep shall draw you out of sleep in the grave.
SPEAKER_00: My spear has stopped the sword which turned every way against you.
SPEAKER_00: Arise then, let us go hence.
SPEAKER_00: I drove you from the land of paradise in the beginning, and I shall return you no what and I shall return you to paradise no more, but instead to a celestial throne.
SPEAKER_00: I barred you from the archetypical tree of life, but lo, I myself am the life.
SPEAKER_00: I am now wholly united to you forever.
SPEAKER_00: I placed Jerobim to keep you out of Eden as a slave, but now I make the cherubim to bow down before you as a god.
SPEAKER_00: You didst hide from God as one naked, but lo, now you are hidden within yourself, God.
SPEAKER_00: You were clothed in a shameful coat of skin, but I being God am clothed in the sanguine coat of your flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore arise, all of you, let us go hence, from decay to corruption, from death unto life.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, let us go hence from darkness to everlasting light.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, let us go hence from grief to joy.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, let us go hence from bondage to liberty, from prison to the Jerusalem above, from bonds to God, from straightness to the bliss of paradise, from earth, let us go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: For to this end I both died and rose again, that I might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore arise and let us go hence, for my heavenly Father awaits his lost sheep, the ninety and the nine sheep, the angels are waiting for the time when Adam, their fellow servant, should arise, when he should ascend and return to God.
SPEAKER_00: A cherubic throne is set, and those who bear it aloft are ready and waiting.
SPEAKER_00: The bride chamber, my love, is furnished, the choice of foods are made, the everlasting tabernacle and mansions are built, the treasuries of blessing are opened, the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages, the good things which I has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man.
SPEAKER_00: These are laid up for you and in store for mankind.
SPEAKER_00: And when the master had finished these sayings and others like them, Adam, who was united to him, arose with him, and Eve also arose together with him, and many bodies of the saints which slept from ages past arose, and they preached the Master's resurrection on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: The which let us who believe cheerfully greet, behold and embrace, dancing with the angels, celebrating with the archangels, glorifying Christ, who raised us up from corruption, to whom be glory and dominion, together with the beginningless Father, the all holy good and life giving Spirit, now and forever and forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.