The Savior’s Tomb and the Maker of the World

And now, victorious and mighty Constantine, in this discourse whose noble theme is the glory of the Almighty King, let me lay before you some of the mysteries of his sacred truth. I do not presume to instruct you, for you have been taught by God yourself. Nor do I mean to disclose to you those secret wonders which he himself revealed and unfolded to your sight long ago, not through any human agent but through our common Savior and the frequent light of his divine presence. My hope is rather to lead the unlearned to the light, and to set out the causes and motives of your devout deeds before those who do not know them. It is true that your noble efforts for the daily worship and honor of the Supreme God throughout the inhabited world are praised by everyone. But consider the monuments of gratitude to your Savior and Preserver that you have dedicated in our own province of Palestine, and in that city from which, as from a fountainhead, the saving Word has gone out to all humankind. Consider the sacred buildings and consecrated temples that you have raised as trophies of his victory over death, and those lofty and noble structures, imperial monuments of an imperial spirit, that you have built in honor of the everlasting memory of the Savior’s tomb. The reason for these things, I say, is not equally plain to all. [a] Those who are enlightened in heavenly knowledge by the power of the divine Spirit understand the reason well. They rightly admire and bless you for the counsel and resolve that Heaven itself inspired. The ignorant and the spiritually blind, on the other hand, openly mock and scorn these plans. They think it a strange and unworthy thing indeed that so mighty a prince should waste his zeal on the graves and monuments of the dead. Such a person might say: “Would it not be better to cherish the rites made sacred by ancient custom, and to seek the favor of the gods and heroes who are worshiped in every province, instead of rejecting and disowning them because they were subject to the misfortunes that befall human beings? Surely they may claim the same honors as he who himself suffered. Or, if they are to be rejected because they were not free from the sorrows of humanity, the same verdict would rightly be passed on him.” So, with a self-important frown, he might give voice in pompous language to the wisdom he imagines he has.

Filled with compassion for this ignorance, the gracious Word of our most generous Father freely invites not only such a person but all who are on the path of error to receive instruction in divine knowledge. He has provided the means of such instruction throughout the world, in every country and village, in farmed and desert lands alike, and in every city. As a gracious Savior and Physician of the soul, he calls the Greek and the barbarian, the wise and the unlearned, the rich and the poor, the servant and his master, the subject and his lord, the ungodly, the profane, the ignorant, the evildoer and the blasphemer, all alike, to come near and hurry to receive his heavenly cure. So in time past he had plainly announced to all the pardon of their former wrongdoing, saying: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” And again: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” And he adds the reason, saying: “For those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick.” And again: “I do not desire the death of a sinner, but rather that he should repent.” [b] So only those who are themselves instructed in divine things, and who understand the motives of the zeal that produced these works, can appreciate the more than human impulse that guided our emperor. Only they can admire his devotion to God, and believe that his care for the memorial of our Savior’s resurrection is a desire given from above, truly inspired by that Sovereign whose faithful servant and minister for good he counts it his proudest boast to be.

Fully confident of your approval, then, most mighty emperor, I wish at this time to proclaim to all the reasons and motives of your devout works. I wish to stand as the interpreter of your plans, and to explain the counsels of a soul devoted to the love of God. I propose to teach everyone what all who care to understand ought to know: the principles on which our Savior God uses his power; the reasons why he who existed beforehand as the Governor of all things at last came down to us from heaven; and the reasons why he took on our nature and submitted even to the power of death. I will declare the causes of the immortal life that followed, and of his resurrection from the dead. And once more I will bring forward convincing proofs and arguments, for the sake of those who still need such testimony. And now let me begin my appointed task.

There are those who transfer the worship owed to the God who formed and rules the world to the works of his hands. They hold the sun and moon, or other parts of this material order, and even the elements themselves, earth, water, air and fire, in equal honor with the Creator of them all. They give the name of gods to things that would never have existed, or even had a name, except in obedience to the Word of God who made the world. Such people, in my judgment, are like those who overlook the master hand that gives a royal palace its magnificence. Lost in wonder at its roofs and walls, at the paintings of varied beauty and color that adorn them, and at its gilded ceilings and sculptures, they give these things the praise for a skill that belongs to the artist whose work they are. They ought instead to trace the cause of their wonder not to these visible objects but to the architect himself, and to admit that the proofs of skill are plain to see, but that the skill belongs to him alone who made them what they are. Again, we might well compare them to children who admire the seven-stringed lyre but pay no attention to the one who invented it or knows how to play it; or to people who forget the brave warrior and crown his spear and shield with the wreath of victory; or, lastly, to those who hold the squares and streets, the public buildings, temples and gymnasiums of a great royal city in the same honor as its founder, forgetting that their admiration is owed not to lifeless stones but to the one whose wisdom planned and carried out these mighty works.

It is just as absurd for those who look on this universe with the natural eye to credit its origin to the sun or moon or any other heavenly body. Let them rather admit that these are themselves the works of a higher wisdom. Let them remember the Maker and Framer of them all, and give him praise and honor above all created things. Better still, let the very sight of these things inspire them to set themselves wholeheartedly to glorify and worship the one who is invisible to mortal eyes now but is perceived by the clear and unclouded vision of the soul: the supremely sovereign Word of God. Take the example of the human body. No one has ever called the eyes or head, the hands or feet, or the other members of a wise and learned man wise, still less his outer clothing. No one calls a philosopher’s furniture and household utensils wise. Every reasonable person admires instead that invisible and hidden power, the man’s own mind. How much more, then, is our admiration owed not to the visible machinery of the universe, material as it is and made of these very same elements, but to the invisible Word who shaped and arranged it all! He is the only Son of God. The Maker of all things, who far surpasses all being, begot him from himself and appointed him Lord and Governor of this universe.

For perishable bodies, and the rational spirits that God had created, could not approach the Supreme God, because of the immeasurable distance between them and his perfections. For he is unbegotten, above and beyond all creation, beyond words, inaccessible, unapproachable, dwelling, as his holy word assures us, in the light that no one can enter. They, on the other hand, were created from nothing, and are infinitely far removed from his unbegotten essence. So the all-gracious and Almighty God has rightly placed, as it were, an intermediate Power between himself and them: the divine almighty power of his only Son, the Word. This Power is in perfect nearness and closest union with the Father; it abides in him and shares his secret counsels. Yet in the fullness of grace it has stooped, as it were, to conform itself to those who are so far removed from the supreme majesty of God. How else, without offense to his own holiness, could he who is far above and beyond all things unite himself to perishable, bodily matter? So the divine Word, joining himself in this way to the universe and taking its reins, as it were, into his hands, turns and steers it like a skillful charioteer, according to his own will and pleasure. [f]

The proof of these claims is plain. Suppose that the parts of the world we call elements, earth, water, air and fire, which are clearly without intelligence, exist of themselves. Suppose they have one common substance, which those skilled in natural science call the great receptacle, mother and nurse of all things, and suppose that this substance is itself utterly without shape or figure, without soul or reason. Where, then, shall we say it got its present form and beauty? To what shall we credit the distinction of the elements, or the union of things contrary in their very nature? Who has commanded the liquid water to hold up the heavy element of earth? Who has turned the waters back from their downward course and carried them aloft in clouds? Who has bound the force of fire, made it lie hidden in wood, and made it combine with substances most contrary to itself? Who has mixed the cold air with heat, and so reconciled the hostility of opposing principles? Who has devised the unbroken succession of the human race, and given it, as it were, an endless span? Who has shaped the male and female form, fitted them to each other in perfect harmony, and given every living creature one common principle of reproduction? Who changes the nature of the fluid and perishable seed, which in itself has no reason, and gives it the power to bring forth life? Who at this very moment is working these and ten thousand effects more wonderful still, beyond all wonder, and by an invisible influence keeps producing them all, day by day and hour by hour? [h] Surely the wonder-working and truly almighty Word of God may rightly be held to be the active cause of all these things. That Word spreads himself through all creation, filling height and depth with bodiless energy and holding the length and breadth of the universe in his mighty grasp. He has bound together this whole system and set it in order. Out of its unreasoning and formless matter he has made for himself an instrument of perfect harmony, whose finely balanced strings and notes he plays with all-wise and unerring skill. It is he who governs the sun and moon and the other lights of heaven by laws beyond explaining, and directs their motions for the service of the whole universe.

It is this Word of God who has stooped to the earth on which we live, and created the many kinds of animals and the lovely varieties of the plant world. It is this same Word who has gone down into the depths of the sea, given their being to the race of fish, and produced the countless forms of life that live there. It is he who shapes the child in the womb and, in nature’s workshop, gives it the principle of life. By him the fluid and heavy moisture is raised on high, and then, sweetened by a purifying change, comes down to the earth in measured amounts, and at set seasons in fuller supply. Like a skillful farmer, he waters the land fully, tempers the moist and the dry in just proportion, and varies the whole with brilliant flowers, with sights of every kind of beauty, with pleasant fragrance, with fruits in changing variety, and with countless pleasures for human taste. But why do I dare attempt a hopeless task, to recount the mighty works of the Word of God and describe an energy that surpasses mortal thought? Some, indeed, have called him the Nature of the universe, others the World-Soul, and others Fate. Still others have declared him to be the Most High God himself, strangely confusing things that are as different as can be. They bring the supreme and unbegotten Power who is Lord of all down to this earth, unite him to a perishable and material body, and assign him a middle place between the irrational animals and rational mortals on the one hand, and the immortal beings on the other. [i]