Vigils Reading

THE SALVATION

OF THE WORLD

From a sermon by the Venerable Bede

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Jesus said to the Apostles: “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ

to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, the third day: and that penance and

remission of sin should be preached in his name, unto all nations.”

So it was necessary that Christ suffer, and rise again; because it was

impossible for the world to be saved unless God came as one of us, Who,

appearing in our own nature, would teach us how to serve God, and Who,

submitting to death in his humanity, would triumph over it by divine power;

and thus awaken in those who believed in Him a contempt for death, and kindle

in them a certain hope of resurrection and of life everlasting.

For in what way could we be more truly encouraged to believe in the glory

to come, and to strive for eternal life, than by knowing that God Himself had

become a Sharer of our humanity and our mortality? In what other way could

we be more efficaciously appealed to, to suffer evils of every kind for the sake of

salvation, than by learning that our own Creator had undergone at the hands of

the impious infamy of every kind; and, even the sentence of death itself?

For what reason could we more fittingly accept the hope of resurrection,

than through remembering that we have been cleansed and sanctified by His

sacraments, and made one in His Body Who, tasting death on our behalf,

speedily offered us an example of rising from the dead?

It was then necessary that Christ should suffer, and rise again from the

dead the third day, and that, as He says, penance and the forgiveness of sin be

preached in His Name to all nations. For this it was necessary that first the

blood of Christ should be shed for the salvation of the world, and that afterwards

by His Resurrection and Ascension he should open to us the gates of heaven.