Christ's death as sleep and the soul's longing for God

They hurry, he says, to put the righteous man to death, not knowing that his death is a sleep, becoming toward a resurrection, and not a removal of life but a transition introducing him into heaven, according to the saying, “His life was taken from the earth” (Isaiah 53:8) (Psalm 41:8; Psalm 41:9).

The resurrection, he says, will dissolve the conspiracy of the enemies against us and the betrayal of friends (Psalm 41:9). For already a disciple has risen up against me—one deemed worthy of peace from me, counted among those entrusted to me, and sharing my food—but he was exposed as a serpent, wanting to seize my heel. The Lord himself remembered this as spoken about him, saying, “But so that the Scripture may be fulfilled, the one who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18) (Psalm 41:9).

We hear of innocence especially in the case of Christ—the purity from all evil that the Creator sought among human beings, who were made for this purpose: to be worthy of their Maker and to remain in what is good, since all the works of God are exceedingly good (Sirach 39:16). Yet when he sought it, he found it in none of Adam’s descendants, but only in the one who was from Adam according to the flesh and had not displayed the marks of Adam’s transgression, but possessed the divine form remaining even with the fleshly covering. This is what the heavenly voice testifies: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

The permanence and eternal confirmation before God is that which is in heaven, which was also foretold in the fifteenth psalm after the resurrection in the words, “You will fill me with joy in your presence” (Psalm 15 [16]) (Psalm 41:12). For he ascended into heaven to appear before the face of God on our behalf, bringing in himself what had been separated and alienated from the beginning (Psalm 42:2).

From this the discerning person—whom the inscription summons—can understand that humanity came to be outside the face of God, so that through God it might seek restoration to the face of God. Rightly, then, does he seek the strong one, having fallen into weakness according to the words, “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak” (Psalm 6:2) (Psalm 42:2). Hence it is necessary to have fallen into the present weakness. For not loving to endure by his own small strength, nor being able to do so, he seeks not to be left without true strength (Psalm 42:2).

Those who have utterly forgotten the return to God, he says, consider the seeking of God to be vain and reproach those who do it. I was brought to tears, living with the most unpleasant grief instead of sweet food, according to what is said in Lamentations: “He fed me with ashes” (Lamentations 3:16). I did not abandon my desire because of the separation and the reproach, but I was grieved because righteousness was being reproached. Necessarily, then, the harassment of the wicked and the reproaches come, since the tears that come from these are not harmful to the righteous. For upon these rests the blessing: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). And immediately comes the comfort (Psalm 42:5).

Do not let present things grieve you, he says, O soul, nor let them trouble you. But let hope in God console you, because we will obtain the good things worthy of thanksgiving and will have salvation at his appearing—which, according to Paul, is to await the appearing of the Lord and his kingdom. These things are intelligible concerning the future and the promises according to the law, and they reach higher, to what was said afterward by Paul [The text is damaged here.]: the better thing is to depart and be with Christ (Psalm 42:5). What follows is a narrative of the things that still grieve.

Separation from the one desired melts the soul that desires. I am separated from God, he says as long as he does not yet see paradise, his own foundation from the beginning, but still dwells in the land of Jordan and Mount Hermon—very small compared to that one—and is troubled as if by storms of winds and crashing waves, with calamities rushing upon him one after another like torrents (Psalm 42:7).

He teaches that the good things belong to the coming age, calling it the day in which God has promised to establish his mercy, according to what is said in Psalm 89: “Fill us in the morning with your mercy” (Psalm 89:14 [90:14]) (Psalm 42:8). But the present time, he says, is for gladness, when it is night and darkness, the conversation with God through hymns and the stretching out in prayer.