What the Saints Prayed For

This, then, is what all the saints wished for; this is what they prayed for. This is what they longed to see with their eyes, in proportion as they were wise in heart and mind. And so the prophet Isaiah says: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!” And Habakkuk too, declaring the very thing the other was wishing for, says: “When the years draw near, you will show yourself; when the times come, you will be revealed. God will come from Teman,” or, “God will come from the south.” David also: “God will come openly.” And again: “You who sit above the cherubim, show yourself.” [a]

Some proclaimed the coming he presented to the world; others prayed for it. They did so in different forms, but all with equal longing. They understood, up to a certain point, how great a thing they were praying for: that God, dwelling in God and remaining in the form and the bosom of God, would “empty himself” and take the form of a servant; that he would submit to enduring all the bitterness and insults of his suffering, and undergo punishment for his goodness; and, what is hardest and most disgraceful of all, that he would meet death at the hands of the very people for whom he would die. So all the saints, understanding this up to a certain point—up to a certain point, I say, for no one can understand how vast it is—prayed with one voice and, so to speak, by common consent for the coming of God. For they knew that the hope of all people lay in it, and that the salvation of all was bound up with it. For no one could set prisoners loose except one who was himself free from chains, and no one could release sinners except one who was himself without sin. For no one can ever set anyone free unless he is himself free in the very respect in which the other is freed by him.

And so, when death had passed upon all, all were in need of life, so that, having died in Adam, they might live in Christ. For though there were many saints, many chosen ones, and even friends of God, none of them could ever have been saved by their own power, had they not been saved by the coming of the Lord and his redemption.