Vigils Reading

THE FIRSTBORN OF THE DEAD

By Geoffrey of Auxerre5 ◊◊◊

He arose from the dead, the first fruits of those who sleep, so that death may no longer have dominion over him who is the first to pass through death to immortality. And he is the firstborn among many brethren, who, dead to the world and dead to sin, by adoption are born to God… By his godhead he is the only-begotten; in his humanity he deigned to become the firstborn, giving to those who receive him the power to become children of God that they may be heirs of God and joint heirs with himself…

He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. My brothers, we should listen closely to these words, and pay careful attention, because they concern the mystery of our redemption and of our welfare. We must diligently study four matters: the source, the work, the cause, and the means they commend. The source: God and man; the work: our cleansing from our sins; the cause: love; the means: by his own blood. The source’s divinity commends glory, his humanity increases our affection. His divinity draws our attentive souls upward; devout consideration of his humanity spreads to all people everywhere so that a person may communicate it to all his fellow humans for whom the God-man deigned to give himself up.

The work is the abolition of our sins, a work possible only to him. The greatest sinners used to say of it: ‘ Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ A difficult work, but of no little effect; a great work, and greatly needed for everyone touched by the stain of sin. Moreover, unless people receive complete forgiveness of their sins while still alive, so that after death they can be expiated by others, unforgiven faults and indelible stains will produce undying worms, so that the unquenchable fire can neither cleanse the stains nor destroy the worms…

During the first years of my conversion, a lay brother named Yves, who was very devout, lay dying at the monastery of Clairvaux. To a brother who was visiting him, one who is still alive today and can bear witness today, he said: ‘An angel of the Lord appeared to me, showing me his beautiful and joyful countenance as I lay here in my weakness. And he said, “You humans do well to desire the sight and presence of the Lord. If you knew how much he loves you, how much he wants you, with what longing he waits for you, you would hurry to him with far more fervent affection.”’ These were his last words, to which his serene summons, which immediately followed, bore sufficiently trustworthy testimony. But if you do not believe the word of an angel, or the words of a man soon to go to God, believe the works of the Lord, believe the condescension by which the Word became flesh for your sakes. God became a human for the sake of humans. Believe the bloodshed of the New Testament, believe him suffering, believe him dying and descending into hell, ‘for love is strong as death, and jealousy as hard as hell’. No greater human love exists than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends… So that you may realize how exceedingly he loves you, look, he gives a gift you can appreciate deeply, a gift he purchases with the great price of his blood, his death, his cross.

What a marvelous thing, beloved, if we can only keep thus firmly in mind the source, the work, the cause, and the means of our salvation, that this more than threefold cord may not be broken in us without difficulty. If only these thoughts can draw, can entice, can firmly fasten and indissolubly bind and inseparably bind us to our Saviour