Flying

Sed quid putamus, fratres, quomodo tunc repente de terris ad coelos evolare poterit, qui nunc exercitio et usu quotidiano volitare non didicerit? Si quaeris quo doctore, quo duce, numquid non Christus sicut aquila provocabat hodei ad volandum pullos suos, quando super eos volitabat, cum scilicet, videntibus illis elevaretur, diuque sequerentur oculis euntem in coelum? Poterat utique repente in ictu oculi, ex oculis eorum rapi, et ubi vellet, consitiui. Sed plane, sicut aquila provocans ad volandum pullos suos, et super eos volitans, et corda sursum levare post se nitebatur pollicebatur exemplo corporis sui: sicut Apostolus ait, aeterni, conscius mysterii, quia et nos bajluis nibibus rapiemur obviam Christo redeunti. Ipse quidem ascenit super Cherubim, et volvavit super pennas ventorum, id est, supergressus est virtutes Angelorum: tuae tamen condescendens infirmitati, expandet alas suas, et assumet te, atque portabit in humeris suis, si modo pullus degener non existas, ut a terra levari, et aura puriore perfruit non extimescas. Guerricus Ignaciensis, In Die Ascensionis Domini Sermo Source: Migne PL 185.156b-c

But what are we to think, brothers, how then shall a man be able to fly off suddenly from earth to heaven to whom now by daily custom and use flight is not given? If you seek some teacher, or some leader, shall it not be Christ who today like the eagle exhorts his little ones to fly when He hovers over them, when, that is, He is lifted up over those watching, and for a time their eyes follow him going into heaven? 1 And then He was able suddenly, and in the blink of an eye, to be taken from their eyes, and to be established where He wished. But certainly, as the eagle exhorts its young to fly by hovering over them, so He was able to teach with the example of His body that we should strive to lift up our hearts on high after Him, as the Apostle, conscious of eternal mysteries, says that even we shall be seized up in the cloud with Christ when He returns. 2 He who ascended over the Cherubim and flew on the wings of the wind, 3 that is, He who ascended over the powers of the angels, yet coming down to your infirmity, shall stretch out His wings, and He shall take you up and carry you on His shoulders, if you are not a degenerate offspring, so that you may be lifted off the earth, and you shall not fear to enjoy the purer air. Guerric of Igny, From a Sermon on the Ascension of the Lord 1 Deut 32.11, Acts 1.9-10 2 1 Thes 4.16 3 Ps 17.11

Glory And Suffering

Si igitur, ut dicere coeperam, hodierna processio simul et passio considerentur, ibi plane videtur Jesus sublimis et gloriosus, hic humilis et aerumnosus. In processione namque cogitatur in honore regis; in passione spectatur in poena latronis. Ibi circumdant eum gloria et honor; hic non est ei species neque decor. Ibi gaudium hominum et gloria plebis; hic opprobrium hominum et abjectio plebis. Ibi acclamatur ei: Hosanna filio David benedictus qui venit rex Israel; hic inclamatur reus mortis; subsannaturque quod e fecerit regem Israel,Ibi cum ramis palmarum ei occurritur; hic alapis palmarum in faciem caeditur, et arundine percutitur caput. Ibi praeconiis sublimatur; hic saturatur opprobriis. Ibi certatim ei via sternitur vestimentis alienis; hic exuitur propriis.Ibi tanquam rex justus et salvator suscipitur in Jerusalem; hic tanquam reus et seductor damnatus ejicitur de Jerusalem. Ibi in asino stipatus obsequiis; hic pendet in ligno crucis caesus flagellis, confossus plagis, et desertus a suis. Ecce plus quam Job hic, cui tam repente, tam vehementer omnia semel in contrarium Deus vertit. Sufferentiam Job audistis, finem Domini vidistis, ait Jacobus apostolus. Ac si diceret: Sufferentia Job fuit usque a reditum substantiae; sufferentia Domini usque ad exitum vitae. Job quidem patienter damna sustinuit, sed mox in terra sua duplicia suscepit; Christus ut erat repletus miseriis, et inebriatus amaritudinibus, e mundo migravit. Itaque plus quam Job hic, qui de summa, ut putabatur, repente semelque dejectus felicitate, in extrema atque gavissima finem sortitus est calamitate. Et haec, inquit, passus sum absque iniqutiate manus meae, cum habarem mundas ad Deum preces, etiam pro crucifixoribus, ut eis ignosceret. Guerricus Ignaciensis, In Dominica Palmarum, Sermo III, De Duplici specie qua Christus proponitur spectandus Source: Migne PL 185.135a-d

If, then, as I had begun to say, today's procession and the Passion should be considered together, it seems that first Jesus is sublime and glorious and then humble and wretched. For in the procession He is reckoned to have the honour of a king, in the Passion is seen the punishment of a criminal. First He is surrounded by glory and honour, then He has no beauty or allure. First is the joy of men and the glory of the people, then the disgrace of men and shame of the people. First they acclaim him with, 'Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes, the king of Israel,' then the guilt of death cries forth and He is mocked that He would make Himself the king of Israel. First He was met with palm branches, then with palms He is struck in the face and cut with reeds. First He is proclaimed by heralds, then He is showered with insults. First others cover the way with vestments Him, then His garments are stripped from Him. First He is received into Jerusalem as a righteous king and saviour, then He is condemned as a criminal and a corruptor and cast out of Jerusalem. First He is set on a donkey by servants, then He hangs on a wooden cross, scourged with the whip, bruised with blows, forsaken by His own. Behold, there is more here than Job, who God so suddenly and so forcibly overthrew God. You have heard of the suffering of Job, you seen the end of the Lord, as James says. 1 As if someone were to say, 'Job suffered until his substance was restored, and the suffering of the Lord was even to the loss of life. Job patiently endured his losses, but soon on the earth received twofold, Christ was filled with misery, and wracked with bitterness, and departed the world.' Thus there is more than Job here, who from the heights, as was thought, was suddenly cast down from happiness and set in ruin until the final and burdensome end. 'And these things,' Job says, 'I have suffered without wickedness on my hands, when I have offered pure prayers to God,' 2 indeed for those who tormented him, so that he might forgive them. Guerric of Igny, from the Second Sermon on Palm Sunday, On The Two Appearances by which Christ is set forth to be seen 1 James 5.11 2 Job 16.18

Numerous Advents

Christi nascentis diem anniversarim exspectamus; qui nobis in proximo videndus, Domino annuente, promittur. Hoc sane gaudium nostrum tale videtur exigre Scriptura, ut spiritum noster levans se super se, Christo venienti quodammodo occurere gestiat: et desiderio se extendens in anteriora, impatiensque morarum, jam videre contendat futura. Ego namque non solum ad secundum adventum, sed etiam ad primum arbitror pertinere, quod tot locis Scripturarum i monemur occurrere. Quomodo, inquis? Quia videlicet sicut secundo adventui occurremus motu et exsultatione corporisl sic et primo occurrndum est affectu et exsultatione cordis. Scitis enim quia resumptis in resurrectione corporis novis, secundum doctrinam Apostoli, rapiemur in nubibus obviam Christo in aera, et sic semper cum Domino erimus. Sic nec modo desunt nubes, quae spiritus nostros, si nimis non fuerint pigri terraeque affixi, sublevabunt ad altiora; et sic cum Domino erimus, vel hora dimidia. Agnoscit, ni fallor, experientia vestra quod loquor, cum aliquando vocem dederunt nubes, id est, sonerunt in Ecclesia prophetarum, vel apostolorum voces, ad quam sublimia sensus vestri, quasi vehiculo nubis, fuerint subvecti; et eo usque nonnunquam excesserint, ut gloriam Domini quantulumcunque mererentur speculari. Tunc, ni fallor, vobis innotuit veritas illius sermonis, qum Dominus de illa nube pluit, quam quotidie ponit ascensum vobis: Sacrificium laudis honorificabit me: et illic iter, quo ostendam illi salutare Dei. Ita ergo sit, ut ante adventum suum Dominus veniat ad vos, et antequam mundo generaliter adveniat, familiariter invisat vos. Non vos, inquit, relinquam orphanos: vado, et veniam ad vos. Et quidem pro merito cujusque, vel studio, creber est ad unumquemque iste Domini adventus, hoc tempore medio inter adventum primum et novissimum, conformans nos adventui primo, et praeparans novissimo. Ad hoc nempe venit modo in nos, ne primo adventu frustra venerit ad nos, vel ne in novissimo veniat iratus adversus nos. Hoc siquidem adventu satagit reformare sensum superbiae nostrae, configuratum sensui humilitatis suae, quam primo veniens exhibuit; ut perinde reformet corpus humilitatis nostrae, configuratum corpori claritatis suae, quam denuo rediens exhibebit. Prorsus optandus omnibus votis, et expetendus studiis adventus iste familiaris, qui nobis gratiam impertiat adventus primi, et gloriam promittat novissimi. Guerricus Ignaciensis, De Adventu Domini, Sermo II Source: Migne PL 185.15d-16d

We are waiting for the anniversary of the day of the Christ's birth, which soon we shall see, which was promised with the Lord's approval. It seems that Scripture would have us joyful, so that our spirits are lifted up, eager to hurry to the approaching Christ, and while reaching out to what is to come its desire is impatient with the delay, and seems in dispute with what is to be. I think that all the passages in Scripture which exhort us to hurry, refer not only to the first advent but even to the second. How is this, you ask? Because as at the second coming we shall run with all eagerness and joy in the body, so even at the first we should run with all happiness and exultation of heart. You know that at the resurrection, with the putting on of the new body, according to the teaching of the Apostle, we shall be taken up into the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord, 1 but even now there is no lack of clouds which will carry off our spirits to the heights if we are not sluggish and bound up in worldly things, and so we we will be with the Lord, if for half an hour. If I do not err, your own experience knows what I am speaking about, when sometimes the clouds thunder, that is, when in the Church the prophets or the apostles give forth their voices, and your minds are swept up to high things, as transported on clouds, and not a few have gone further, so that they have merited to look a little on the glory of the Lord. Then, if I do not err, the truth of the word is made known to you, which the Lord rains down from the cloud that he appoints to raise us up every day. 'The sacrifice of praise shall give me honour, and there is the path by which I shall show forth the salvation of God.' 2 Therefore it may be that the Lord will come to you before His advent, and before He comes to the whole world, He will come to you in particular. 'I shall not leave you orphans,' He said, 'but I go and I shall come to you.' 3 And whether for merit or for zeal, the advent of the Lord to us is not uncommon in the time between the first and the second advent, conforming us to the first and preparing us for the last. For certainly He comes to us now, lest it is in vain that He came to us in His first advent, and lest He comes against us in anger in the last. In this middle advent He comes to reform our proud minds and to shape us to the sense of His humility which He showed in His first coming, so that He may reform the body of our humility into the likeness of His own glorified body, which He shall show when He returns again. 4 The wish of all our prayers and the striving of our zeal should be this personal advent of His, which bestows on us the grace of the first advent and promises the glory of the last. Guerric of Igny, from the Second Sermon on the Advent Of the Lord 1 Thes 4.16 2 Ps 76.18, 103.3, 49.23 3 Jn 14.18 4 Phil 3.21