Resurrections And Births

Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te. Quaeritis, charissimi, quare beatus Paulus, cum de resurrectione loqueretur, hujus versiculi testimonio usus sit: quippe qui magis natali quam resurrectioni congruere videtur. Nos autem ipsam resurrectionem natale dicere non dubitamus, maxime quia a Salvatore eam dici regenerationem non ignoramus. Si enim regeneratio dicitur resurrectio prima, quae est animae, cur non regeneratio dicetur et secunda, quae est corporis? Resurrectio itaque Christi cum non possit esse nisi una, resurrectionum tamen nostrarum, quae duae sunt, primam significat, teste eodem Apostolo ubi ait: Quemadmodum Christus surrexit a mortuis per gloriam Patris, ita et nos in novitate vitae ambulemus. Secundam initiat, unde et dicitur primitiae dormientium Christus. Sunt itaque hominum tres quodammodo nativitates, duae resurrectiones. Nascimur enim homines de hominibus per homines carnaliter, caro de carne: quae nativitas ubi resurrectio dicatur, non occurrit. Renascimur de Deo dii per spiritum spiritualiter, ubi quod nascitur de spiritu, spiritus est; et haec est resurrectio prima, nativitas secunda: regenerabimur autem de corruptis incorruptibilis, de mortuis immortales, de terrae pulvere in coelestem qualitatem: quae est nativitas tertia, resurrectio secunda. Primam nativitatem ignoravit Christus, secundam suscepit de Virgine, tertiam de sepulcro. Quales enim renascimur de fonte, talis natus est Christus ex Virgine: qualis regeneratus est Christus de tumulo, tales renascemur in futuro. Et hic est status, ad quem factus est homo: nec antea erit homo consummatus, donec perficiatur in eo, ad quod fuit inchoatus. Tunc enim generatus proprie dicetur, cum fuerit pergeneratus; tunc factus, quando completus. Interim vero duabus primis nativitatibus generatur et fit, qui in tertia tantum generatus est, et factus. Unde in die resurrectionis suae congrue ac subtiliter dicitur genitus Christus, tanquam in die perfectionis et consummationis suae pergenitus. Unde et ipse dicit: Hodie et cras sanitates perficio, et tertia die consummor. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XLI, In Die Pascha Source: Migne PL 194.1827d-1828c

'The Lord said to me: 'You are my son, and today I begot you' 1 You wonder why, most beloved ones, that the blessed Paul made use of the witness of this verse when speaking of the resurrection, 2 since it seems more fitting for the nativity than the resurrection? But we do not doubt that the resurrection may be spoken of as a birth, especially because from the Saviour we are not ignorant that it may be spoken of as rebirth. For if the first resurrection, which is of the soul, is called a rebirth, why should it not be called the second rebirth which is of the body? Therefore when the resurrection of Christ could only be once, yet our first resurrection the Apostle speaks of when he says: 'As Christ rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, thus even we shall walk in new life.' 3 The second begins where it is said that Christ is the first fruits of those who sleep. 4 Thus there are three births for men, two resurrections. For we are born men from men and through man in the flesh, flesh from flesh, where a birth that might be called a resurrection does not occur. We are reborn spiritually from God as gods 5 through the spirit, where what is born from the spirit is spirit, 6 and this second birth is the first resurrection. But when we are reborn incorruptable from corruption, and immortal from mortality, and from the dust of the earth to a heavenly likeness, this is the third birth, the second resurrection. Christ did not know the first nativity, the second He took up from the Virgin, the third from the tomb. As we are reborn from the font, so Christ from the Virgin; as Christ was reborn from the tomb, so we shall be in the future. And this is the state for which man was made, who is not the consummate man until he shall be perfected in it, and for which he was begun. Then he is properly said to have been generated when he is produced, then made when he is complete. Meanwhile in the first two nativities he is being generated and being made, who in the third alone has been generated and has been made. Whence on the day of the resurrection it is appropiately and subtly said that Christ is born, as on the day of perfection and production of His consummation. Whence even He says: 'Today and tomorrow I accomplish my healing and on the third day reach my consummation.' 7 Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 41, On Easter 1 Ps 2.7 2 Acts 13. 28-33 3 Rom 6.4 4 1 Cor 15.20 5 cf Ps 81.6 6 Jn 3.6 7 cf Lk 13.32