Homily 21

Pronounced before the people

in the basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

the holy day of Easter

April 15, 591

The resurrection

Saint Gregory innovates in this Homily: for the first time, he improvises without any previously dictated text. Thinking that his direct word will have more impact on the crowd, he launches with confidence, despite his lack of physical strength, because he knows that God will help him. His plan is simple, and he will take it very often in the paschal cycle. He begins by commenting on the text of the Gospel of the day, emphasizing its allegorical meaning, and then focuses on the meditation of the mystery celebrated.

I- (1-5) The preacher insists on the paschal joy, marked by the white garment of the angel that appears to the holy women. Our feast is also the feast of angels: by bringing us back to Heaven, she completed their number. Do not be afraid, said the angel: If God is frightening to sinners, He is sweet to the righteous. The women who have come to the tomb are sent to inform Pierre, and Gregory gives the reason for this express mention of Peter. The apostles will see Jesus in Galilee: this name of place is rich with spiritual indications, which the pope emphasizes.

II- (6-7) He then speaks of the mystery of the resurrection of the flesh, which the Lord wanted to reveal to us in his Resurrection. The speaker explains why it is now impossible for us to doubt, and shows how Samson, who escaped from Gaza with the gates of the city on his back, is a very telling figure of the resurrected Christ. Let us, then, love this feast, which opens to us the entrance of Heaven, concludes the saint, and let us hurry to the Homeland.

Mc 16, 1-7

At that time, Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James, and Salome bought herbs to go and embalm Jesus. And on the first day of the week, early in the morning, they came to the tomb, the sun already rising. They said to each other, "Who will roll us the stone that closes the door of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled to one side. She was very tall. Then entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right, dressed in a white robe, and they were seized with fear. He said to them, "Do not be afraid. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified; he is risen, he is not here. Here is the place where we put it. But go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you in Galilee. That's where you'll see him, as he told you. "

In many of my Gospel commentaries, dear brothers, I have a habit of speaking to you with a dictated text [in advance]; but when the poor state of my stomach prevents me from reading myself what I have dictated, I see some of you who listen less willingly. So I want to force myself to depart from this habit, and you comment on the passage of the Holy Gospel read during the Mass by talking directly with you instead of going through a dictated text. May our word be received as it comes, for the tone of a direct conversation awakens sleeping hearts better than that of a sermon read: it shakes them, so to speak, with a hand full of solicitude, in order to draw them some sleep.

It is true that I do not see how I will be able to suffice for this task; but if my strength betrays me because of my physical incapacity, my charity will help them. Indeed, I know who said, "Open your mouth, and I will fill it." (Ps 81, 11). Let us apply ourselves to wanting this good work, and the help of God will bring it to completion. The very importance of this Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord gives us the audacity to speak, for it would be truly unworthy that the very day that the flesh of his Creator raised up, our tongue of flesh would be silent about the praise it should render.

2. You have heard it, dear brothers: the holy women who had followed the Lord came to the tomb with spices, and drawn by their devotion, they continue to serve, even after his death, the one they loved during his life. Is not their conduct the sign of what is to be accomplished in the holy Church? For we must listen to the story of their actions by meditating on what we must do, in our turn, to imitate them. So we, too, who believe in him who died, if we are filled with a perfume of virtues and we seek the Lord with a reputation for good works, it is as if we go to his tomb with aromatics.

These women who come with their spices see angels, for the souls who, moved by holy desires, walk towards the Lord with the perfumes of their virtues see the inhabitants of the city from above. We need to notice what it means to see the angel sitting on the right. What symbolizes the left, if not the present life, and the right, if not eternal life? This is why it is written in the Song of Songs, "His left arm is under my head, and his right embraces me" (Ct 2, 6). Since our Redeemer had freed himself from the corruption of the present life, it was natural for the angel who came to announce his eternal life to be seated on the right. He appeared dressed in a white dress, because he announced the joys of our feast. The shine of his garment is the sign of the splendor of our solemnity. Should we call it our solemnity or his? But to speak more exactly, let's call it both hers and ours. The Resurrection of our Redeemer was our feast, because it brought us back to immortality; it was also the feast of the angels, since in making us return to Heaven, she completed their number. An angel appeared in white clothing on this day, which is also his feast and our feast, because while the Lord's Resurrection brings us back to Heaven, it repairs the losses suffered by the heavenly homeland.

3. Listen to what the angel said to women when they arrive: "Do not be afraid." It's as if he were clearly saying, "They may well fear, those who do not like the coming of the inhabitants of the cited from above; they may tremble, those who are stifled by the desires of the flesh and despair of joining their society. But you, why tremble? You see there those who live in the same city as you. "

This is why Matthew describes the apparition of the angel: "His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow" (Mt 28: 3). The lightning evokes fright and fear, but the whiteness of the snow, a caressing sweetness. Now the almighty God is both frightening for sinners and gentle for the righteous; It is therefore fitting that the angel, witness of the Resurrection, showed himself with a lightning-like face and a white coat, so that even his appearance terrified the reprobate and reassured the saints. The same reason explains that the people walking in the desert were preceded at night by a pillar of fire, and the day by a pillar of cloud (see Ex 13, 21-22). Because the fire provokes fear, but the cloud is sweet to look at. The day is the life of the just; at night, the life of the sinner. So Paul declares to converted sinners, "You were once darkness, but you are now light in the Lord" (Eph 5: 8). The pillar, therefore, was manifested in the form of a cloud, and the night in the form of fire, because the Almighty God appears at once sweet to the just and frightening to the wicked; when he comes to judge, he reassures the first by the gentleness of his gentleness, while he terrifies the latter by the rigor of his justice.

4. Now listen to what the angel adds: "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth." The word "Jesus" goes to Latin by salutaris, "the savior," that is, "the Savior." Many, at that time, could bear the name of Jesus, not in its deepest sense, but as a simple name. This is why the angel adds his place of origin to clarify what Jesus is: "Nazareth"; and he immediately indicates his characteristic: "who was crucified". He then goes on: "He is risen, he is not here." The expression "He is not here" means his bodily presence, for there is no place where he is not by his presence of majesty.

"But go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you in Galilee." We must ask ourselves why, after having mentioned the disciples, the angel still designates Peter by name. But if the angel had not mentioned the name of the one who had denied his Master, he would not have dared to come among the disciples. He was therefore called by name, lest he should despair because of his denial. We must consider here why the almighty God allowed the one whom he had decided to put at the head of the whole Church to tremble at the voice of a servant and deny her God. We know that it was by a disposition of the great goodness of God, that the one who should be the Shepherd of the Church learn by his own fault how he should have pity on others. God revealed Peter to himself before putting him at the head of others, so that the experience of his own weakness would make him know with what mercy he should bear the weaknesses of others.

5. It is fitting that our Redeemer says: "He is going before you in Galilee. This is where you will see him, as he has told you. "Galileo means" passage completed ". Yes, our Redeemer had now passed from the Passion to the Resurrection, from death to life, from punishment to glory, from a state corruptible to incorruptibility. And it was in Galilee, after the Resurrection, that his disciples saw him first, because we will not see the glory of his resurrection with joy until we pass from our vices to the summits of virtue. Thus, the one who is announced in the tomb then appears at the "passage" [in Galilee], since the one known by mortifying his flesh, we see it at the moment of the passage of the soul [in the other world].

Here, dear brothers, we have only gone through the commentary of the gospel read on this solemn day of celebration, but we would be happy to tell you something more particular about the feast itself. .

6. Of the two lives that existed, we knew one and did not know the other. One is a mortal life, the other an immortal life; one is corruptible, the other incorruptible; one belongs to death, the other to the resurrection. Yet here comes the Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ made man (1 Tm 2: 5), who assumed the first and revealed the second. He led one to the end in dying, and revealed the other by resurrecting. Life mortal, we know it; if he had promised us the resurrection of the flesh without making us see it, who would have believed in his promises? Therefore, having become man, he appeared in the flesh, deigned to die of his own free will, resurrected by his own power, and revealed through his example what he promised us as a reward.

But someone may say, "He, rightly, is risen: he could not be held back by death, since he was God." So our Redeemer did not contented with the example of his Resurrection to instruct our ignorance and strengthen our weakness. Alone to die, at that time he was not alone, however, to be resuscitated. It is written in fact, "The bodies of many of the saints who slept there rose again" (Mt 27:52). All the arguments of disbelief are thus eliminated. To dispel the objection that a man can not hope for him what the Man-God showed us in his flesh, here we learn that with God, men also resuscitated, which we do not doubt they were mere men. If we are the members of our Redeemer, let us be assured of seeing what is evident in our head. And if we feel very miserable, the last of the members of Christ, we must hope [anyway] to see what we have learned about its most eminent members fulfilled in us.

7. But now I remember the insult that the Jews cast to the crucified Son of God: "If he is the king of Israel, let him come down from his cross, and we will believe in him." Mt 27:42). Had he then come down from the cross, yielding to those who insulted him, he would not have shown us the strength of patience; but he preferred to wait a little, to endure the insults, to accept that one makes fun of him, to keep patience, and to postpone the moment to give rise to admiration; and he, who would not go down from the cross, got up from the tomb. To rise from the tomb was more than to descend from the cross; to destroy death by resuscitating was more than keeping one's life while descending [from the cross]. However, when the Jews found that despite their insults, he did not come down from the cross, when they saw him die, they believed that they had overcome him and rejoiced as if they had erased his name. But now this death, by which the crowd of unbelievers thought they had erased his name, exalted this name throughout the universe. And he whom the crowd rejoiced to see mortally struck, she regrets that he is dead, because she knows that by the torture, he has attained glory.

All this is well represented in the book of Judges by the acts of Samson (see Jg 16: 1-3): he had entered Gaza, the city of the Philistines; The latter, having very quickly learned of his entrance, immediately blocked the town with posts of soldiers and sent guards; already, they were delighted to have captured Samson the colossus. But we know what Samson did. In the middle of the night, he removed the gates of the city and reached the top of a mountain. In doing so, from whom, dear brothers, from whom was Samson the figure, if not of our Redeemer? What is the city of Gaza, if not hell? And what do the Philistines represent, if not the unbelief of the Jews? When they saw the dead Lord, and his body already laid in the tomb, they immediately dispatched the guards, and just as if they had taken Samson into Gaza, they rejoiced to have made captive in the hell prison the one who had manifested himself as the Author of life. But Samson did not just go out in the middle of the night, he also took the gates out of the city: our Redeemer, resurrecting before daylight, did not just go out of hell, but he also destroyed the doors. He removed the gates and went to the top of a mountain, taking the gates of the prison of hell through his resurrection and entering through his ascension into the kingdom of heaven.

This resurrection, announced in a figure before being manifested in act, let us love glory, dear brothers, with all our spirit, and die for his love. At the Resurrection of our Creator, we recognize as fellow-citizens the angels, his servants, who live in the same city as us. Let us hasten to the solemn feast to which the inhabitants of this city are crowded. Let us join to them by desire and thought, since we can not yet by vision. Let us pass from vices to virtues, to deserve to see our Redeemer in Galilee. May almighty God help us to desire life, who, for us, has delivered to death his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, being God, lives and reigns with him in the unity of God. Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

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1 In Latin, sinister (left) also means unfavorable, bad (hence the French term "sinister").

2 St. Augustine makes the same play on words in his commentary on the Gospel according to St. John: Piscis assus, Christus is gone.