Saint Maximus, Bishop of Turin in Italy – Sermon on the Cross and on the Lord’s Resurrection.

Sermon 38. A Sequel on the Cross and on the Lord’s Resurrection{1}.

1. Yesterday we said that the cross of the Lord has brought salvation to the human race, and it is true; for His suffering is our redemption and His death is our life. He bore all these evils so that we might know every good thing; He wished cruelty to be wreaked upon Himself so that mercy might be ours; He so desired our good that He was severe with Himself. He removed the wounds of the human race by His cross and destroyed them all in His suffering so that nothing more would ever hurt us.

2. Great, therefore, is the sacrament of the cross{2}. And if we understand aright, by this sign the world itself is also saved. For, when sailors cleave the sea, the first thing they do is erect the mast and unfurl the sail, and the waters are broken by the cross of the Lord that has been made; and, safe because of this sign of the Lord, they seek the port of salvation and escape the danger of death. For the sail hanging on the mast is a kind of figure of the sacrament – as if it were Christ lifted up on the cross{3}. Confident in the coming mystery, then, people disregard the stormy winds and fix their minds on voyaging. But the Church is unable to stand without the cross, just as a ship is imperiled without a mast. For at once the devil disturbs the one and winds bring the other into danger. But where the sign of the cross is erected the wickedness of the devil is immediately repelled and the stormy wind is calmed{4}.

3. But the good farmer also, when he prepares to turn the soil in order to plant life-sustaining foods, undertakes to do this by nothing other than the sign of the cross. For when he sets the share beam on the plough, attaches the earthboard, and puts on the plowhandle, he imitates the form of the cross, for its very construction is a kind of likeness of the Lord’s suffering{5}. Heaven, too, is itself arranged in the form of this sign, for since it is divided into four parts – namely, east, west, south, and north – it consists in four quarters like the cross{6}. Even a person’s bearing, when he raises his hands, describes a cross; therefore we are ordered to pray with uplifted hands{7} so that by the very stance of our body we might confess the Lord’s suffering{8}. Then our prayer is heard more quickly, when Christ, whom the mind speaks, is also imitated by the body. Holy Moses is an example of this as well: when he was waging war against Amalek he overcame him neither by arms nor by the sword but by his hands uplifted to God. For thus you see it written: When Moses lifted his hands Israel conquered, but when he lowered his hands Amalek regained his strength{9}. By this sign of the Lord, then, the sea is cleaved, the earth is cultivated, heaven is ruled, and human beings are preserved unhurt. By this sign of the Lord, I say, hell is unlocked. For by it the man, the Lord Jesus, who was carrying that cross and who was buried in the earth, caused to spring up all the dead whom it held – when the earth was broken by it, so to speak, and ploughed up.

4. But let us see what happens to the Lord’s body itself after it is taken down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea, a righteous man, as the Evangelist says, took it and buried it in his new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid{10}. Blessed, therefore, is the body of the Lord Christ, which in birth comes forth from a virgin’s womb and in death is placed in the grave of a righteous man! Clearly blessed is this body, which virginity brought forth and righteousness held! Joseph’s grave held it incorrupt, just as Mary’s womb preserved Him unharmed. In the one He is not touched by a man’s impurity, in the other He is not hurt by death’s corruption; in every aspect holiness is conferred upon that blessed body, and in every aspect virginity. A new womb conceived Him and a new grave enclosed Him. The Lord’s is the womb, then, and it is virginal, and virginal is the sepulcher. Or should I not rather say that the sepulcher itself is a womb? There is in fact no small similarity. For just as the Lord came forth alive from His mother’s womb, so also He rose alive from Joseph’s sepulcher; and just as then He was born from the womb in order to preach, so also now He has been reborn from the sepulcher in order to evangelize. But the latter birth is more glorious than the former. For the former begot a mortal body, whereas the latter brought forth an immortal one; after the former birth He descends to hell, whereas after the latter He returns to the heavens. The latter birth is clearly more religious than the former. For the former kept the Lord of the whole world locked in the womb for nine months, whereas the latter held Him in the bowels of the grave for only three days; the former offered hope to all more slowly, whereas the latter raised up salvation for all more speedily{11}.

 

The Sermons of St. Maximus of Turin, trans. by B. Ramsey, New York 1989, p. 92-94.

 

1 The present sermon seems to follow on the preceding one: cf. Sermon 37 n. 1. For §4 cf. also Sermon 78.2.

2 On the term “sacrament” here and later in the sermon cf. Sermon 3 n. 3.

3 On the parallel between cross and mast cf. Sermon 37 n. 5.

4 On the power of the sign of the cross over the devil cf. Athanasius, Antonii 35, 53, 80 and ACW 10.110-11 n. 53. On the protective power of the sign of the cross in general cf. F. J. Dölger, “Beiträge zur Geschichte des Kreuzzeichens VI: 11: Tutela salutis,” JAC 6 (1963) 7-18.

5 The parallel between cross and plow dates at least to Justin, 1 Apol. 55. On the symbolism of the plow cf. J. Daniélou, Primitive Christian Symbols, tr. D. Attwater (London 1964) 89-101, esp. 97.

6 The idea that the image of the cross may be found in the arrangement of the universe is suggested in Eph. 3:18 and in Justin, 1 Apol. 60, and it is developed in Irenaeus, Demonstr. 34. Thereafter it is found with some frequency. Cf. Dölger, “Beiträge zur Geschichte des Kreuzzeichens IX: 37: Die kreuzformige Ausbreitung des Logos im Weltall. Das Kreuz der Feldmesser und die Ausbreitung der Weltseele in Chi-Form,” JAC 10 (1967) 23-29.

7 Cf. 1 Tim. 2.8.

8 That the prayer stance of the Christian is reminiscent of Christ on the cross is mentioned already in Tertullian, De orat. 14.

9 Exod. 17.11. Moses’ outstretched arms, often used by the Fathers as a type of the cross, appear as such in the first half of the second century in Ep. Barn. 12; Justin, Dial. c. Tryph. 90.

10 Cf. Luke 23.50-53.

11 Mary’s womb and the sepulcher are briefly compared in Augustine, Defide et symbolo 5.11 and De Trin. 4.5.9, while Origen links Christ’s virginal conception and His burial in C. Celsum 2.69. For other comparisons in Maximus made to Mary’s detriment, as it were, cf. Sermon 13A n. 1.

27.09.2024