The Fourteenth Festal Letter, for Easter 342

The gladness of our feast, my brothers and sisters, is always near at hand, and never fails those who wish to celebrate it. For the Word is near, who is all things on our behalf, our Lord Jesus Christ. He promised that his dwelling with us would last forever, and on the strength of that promise he cried out, saying, “See, I am with you all the days of the world.” For as he is the Shepherd, and the High Priest, and the Way, and the Door, and everything at once to us, so again he is shown to us as the Feast and the Holy Day, as the blessed apostle says: “Our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed.” He was the one who was expected. He made a light shine at the prayer of the psalmist, who said, “My Joy, deliver me from those who surround me.” This is indeed true rejoicing, this is a true feast: deliverance from wickedness. A person reaches it by wholly taking up an upright way of life, and by being approved in his mind for godly submission to God. For in this way the saints, all their lives long, were like people rejoicing at a feast. One found rest in prayer to God, like blessed David, who rose in the night, not once but seven times. Another gave glory in songs of praise, like great Moses, who sang a song of praise for the victory over Pharaoh and those slave drivers. Others offered worship with unceasing diligence, like great Samuel and blessed Elijah. They have finished their course, and now keep the feast in heaven. They rejoice in what they once learned through shadows, and from the types they recognize the truth. [a]

But what sprinklings will we use now, as we celebrate the feast? Who will be our guide as we hurry to this festival? No one can do it, my beloved, except the one you will name with me, our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the Way.” For it is he who, as the blessed John says, “takes away the sin of the world.” He purifies our souls, as Jeremiah the prophet says somewhere, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask, and look for the good path, and you will find in it cleansing for your souls.” In the old days the blood of goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who were unclean, were fit only to purify the flesh; but now, through the grace of God the Word, every person is thoroughly cleansed. Following him, we may even here, as on the threshold of the Jerusalem which is above, think beforehand about the feast which is eternal. So too the blessed apostles, who together followed the Savior who was their Leader, have now become teachers of a like grace, saying, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” For following the Lord, and keeping the feast which is the Lord’s, is not accomplished by words only, but by deeds, since every enactment of a law and every command calls for its own particular performance. Great Moses, when he gave out the holy laws, made the people promise to practice them, so that, having promised, they might not neglect them and be accused as liars. In the same way the celebration of the feast of the Passover raises no question and calls for no reply; when the word is given, the doing of it follows. For he says, “And the children of Israel shall keep the Passover,” meaning that the commandment should be carried out readily, while the command itself would help in carrying it out. But on these matters I have confidence in your wisdom and in your care for instruction. We have touched on points like these often, and in various letters. [d]

But now I wish to remind you, and myself with you, of what is most necessary of all: that the command would have us come to the paschal feast not in an unholy way and unprepared, but with sacramental and doctrinal rites and prescribed observances. So indeed we learn from the history: “A man who is of another nation, or bought with money, or uncircumcised, shall not eat the Passover.” Nor should it be eaten in just “any” house; rather, he commands that it be done in haste, since before this we groaned and were saddened by slavery to Pharaoh and by the orders of the slave drivers. For when the children of Israel acted in this way in former times, they were counted worthy to receive the type, which existed for the sake of this feast; the feast is not now brought in for the sake of the type. So too the Word of God, when he longed for this, said to his disciples, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.” Now that is a wonderful account. At that time a person might have seen them dressed with their belts fastened as if for a procession or a dance, going out with staffs and sandals and unleavened bread. These things, which happened earlier in shadows, were types. But now the Truth is near us, “the image of the invisible God,” our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light. Instead of a staff, he is our scepter; instead of unleavened bread, he is the bread which came down from heaven; instead of sandals, he has provided us with the readiness of the gospel; and, to put it briefly, by all these he has guided us to his Father. And if enemies afflict us and persecute us, he again, in place of Moses, will encourage us with better words, saying, “Take heart; I have overcome the evil one.” And if, after we have crossed the Red Sea, heat should trouble us again, or some bitterness of the waters befall us, even there the Lord will appear to us again, giving us a share of his sweetness and of his life-giving fountain, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” [f]

Why then do we linger, and why do we delay, and not come to the feast with all eagerness and diligence, trusting that it is Jesus who calls us? He is all things for us, and was burdened in ten thousand ways for our salvation. He hungered and thirsted for us, though he gives us food and drink in his saving gifts. For this is his glory, this is the miracle of his divinity, that he exchanged our sufferings for his happiness. Being life, he died so that he might make us alive. Being the Word, he became flesh, so that he might instruct the flesh in the Word. And being the fountain of life, he thirsted our thirst, so that by it he might urge us to the feast, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” In that time Moses proclaimed the beginning of the feast, saying, “This month is the beginning of months for you.” But the Lord, who came down at the end of the ages, proclaimed a different day. It was not as though he would abolish the law, far from it, but so that he might establish the law and be the end of the law. “For Christ is the end of the law to everyone who believes in righteousness,” and as the blessed Paul says, “Do we then make the law void through faith? Far from it! Rather, we establish the law.” Now these things astonished even the officers sent by the Jews, so that in their wonder they said to the Pharisees, “No one ever spoke like this.” What was it, then, that astonished those officers, or what so moved the men as to make them marvel? It was nothing but the boldness and authority of our Savior. For when prophets and scribes studied the Scriptures in the old days, they saw that what they read did not refer to themselves but to others. Moses, for example, says, “The Lord will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me; listen to him in all that he commands you.” Isaiah again says, “See, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel.” And others prophesied about the Lord in different and various ways. But the Lord prophesied these things of himself and of no one else; he limited them all to himself, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me”: not to any other person, but to “me.” A person may indeed hear about my coming from those others, but from now on he must not drink from others, but from me. [h]

So let us too, when we come to the feast, no longer come as to old shadows, for they have been fulfilled, nor as to common feasts. Let us hurry as to the Lord, who is himself the feast, not looking on it as an indulgence and pleasure of the belly, but as a display of virtue. For the feasts of the pagans are full of greed and utter laziness, since they think they are celebrating a feast when they are idle; and when they feast, they do the works of destruction. But our feasts consist in the exercise of virtue and the practice of self-control, as the prophetic word bears witness somewhere, saying, “The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, will be to the house of Judah for gladness, and rejoicing, and for pleasant feasts.” Since, then, this opportunity for exercise is set before us, and such a day as this has come, and the prophetic voice has gone out that the feast is to be celebrated, let us give all diligence to this good proclamation. Like those who compete on the racecourse, let us vie with one another in keeping the purity of the fast: by watchfulness in prayers, by study of the Scriptures, by giving to the poor; and let us be at peace with our enemies. Let us bind up those who are scattered abroad, banish pride, and return to humility, being at peace with everyone and urging the brothers on to love. So also the blessed Paul was often occupied in fastings and in keeping watch, and was willing to be accursed for his brothers. Blessed David again, having humbled himself by fastings, spoke boldly, saying, “O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is any wrongdoing in my hands, if I have repaid those who did evil to me, then let me fall from my enemies as an empty man.” If we do these things, we will conquer death and receive a pledge of the kingdom of heaven. [i]

We begin the holy Easter feast on the 10th of Pharmuthi, the 5th of April, and cease from the holy fasts on the 15th of the same month Pharmuthi, the 10th of April, on the evening of the seventh day. And let us keep the holy feast on the 16th of the same month Pharmuthi, the 11th of April, adding the days one by one until holy Pentecost. Passing on to it, as through a succession of feasts, let us keep the festival to the Spirit, who is near us even now, in Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory and dominion to the Father forever and ever. Amen. The fifteenth and sixteenth letters are missing. [k]