Vigils Reading – Easter Saturday

THE LEAVENING OF

MORTALITY AND INIQUITY

From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx

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He who is the creator, made himself a creature. He who was Lord, made

himself a servant. He who was rich, made himself poor. He who was great, made

himself little. And the Word was made flesh. He was bread and he fed the

angels. But he did not feed us. We were, however, so weak that in no way could

we taste that bread in all its purity. We had within us a corrosive leaven that

robbed us of our pristine strength. We had become so unlike that pure and

untainted bread that we could not taste it at all. This leavening which we had

within us was twofold. We had within us the leavening of mortality and we had

within us the leavening of iniquity…

We are mortals and sinners; he is immortal and just. How were we to

come together? He saw this, he who is caring and merciful. Because we could

not ascend to him, he came down to us. He took upon himself one part of our

leavening and so adapted himself to our weakness. He did not take to himself

the whole leaven that was in us, but a certain part of it. If he had taken on the

whole of it he would be as we are and he would not be able to help us. If he had

taken none of it he would be so distant from us that we would not be able in any

way to approach him. And so we would remain forever in our wretchedness…

The leavening of our mortality therefore he accepted, and abode in the purity of

his justice, so that he would be the sort of being who could come down to us and

yet remain the sort of being to whom we ought to ascend…

To this leavening of mortality belongs hunger, thirst, sorrow, misery. All

of this our Lord took on himself. He chose to take on this leavening, but he was

not obliged to remain in ferment. First he showed this leavening in himself

through a wondrous compassion and then he purged himself of this leaven

through a wondrous charity…

We ought to know that our iniquity is the cause of our mortality. And

therefore when we are fully purged of iniquity we will doubtless also be purged

of mortality… Our iniquity is twofold. It comes from the nature in which we

were born and from the evil which we later brought to it. From both of these the

Lord purges us. He offered for us a sacrifice – his own blood – and through this

sacrifice we are purged. And therefore what we suffer now from the corruption

of our nature is no longer iniquity but infirmity.

From the corruption of our nature come the impulses of concupiscence

which we suffer unwillingly. From this come the impulses of lust, anger, pride,

ambition. But if we do not consent to them, God does not impute them to us,

because the pure sacrifice was offered to offset the corruption of our nature… By

the workings of his compassion in us in baptism we are purged of all sins, both

those which came from nature and those which we added voluntarily.