Sermon 117 on 1 Cor. 15:45-50
THE HOLY Apostle today recounts that two men gave an origin to the human race, namely, Adam and Christ. They are two men alike in body, but different in worth; truly similar in the structure of their members, but truly dissimilar in their own beginnings. “The first man, Adam,” the text says, “became a living soul; the last Adam became a lifegiving spirit.” That first one was made by this last One, from whom he got his soul to be alive. This last One was fashioned by His very Self, that He alone might not await life from another, but give it to all men. The first one was molded from the cheapest earth; the last One came forth from the Virgin’s precious womb. In the case of the former, earth is changed into flesh; in that of the latter, flesh itself is raised up to God.
Why should I say more? This last is the Adam who placed His own image in the first one when He made him. That is why He both plays the same role as the former and receives his name, in order not to let perish, as far as He was concerned, that which He had made to His own image. The first Adam, and the last Adam. That first one has a beginning; this last One has no limit. For, in truth, this last One is Himself first, as He says: “I am the first, and I am the last” (Is. 48.12). “I am the first,’ that is, without a beginning; “I am the last,” assuredly without an end.
“But it is not the spiritual that comes first,” the text says, “but the physical and then the spiritual.” Surely the earth exists before the fruit, but it is not as precious as the fruit. The earth exacts groans and toil, but the fruit gives substance and life. The Prophet rightly glories over such fruit: “Our earth has yielded her fruit” (Ps. 84.18). What fruit? Clearly, that of which he says elsewhere: “Of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy throne” (Ps. 131.11).
“The first man,” the text continues, “was of the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven, heavenly.” Where are they who think that the Virgin’s conception and giving birth to her child are to be likened to those of other women (e.g. Cerinthus, Ebion, and the Carpocratians)? For, this latter case is one of the earth, and the Virgin’s is one from heaven. The one is a case of divine power; the other of human weakness. The one case occurs in a body subject to passion; the other in the tranquility of the divine Spirit and the peace of the human body. The blood was still, and the flesh astonished; her members were put at rest, and her entire womb was quiescent during the visit of the Heavenly One, until the Author of flesh could take on His garment of flesh, and until He, who was not merely to restore the earth to man but also to give him heaven, could become a heavenly Man. The Virgin conceives, the Virgin brings forth her child, and she remains a virgin. Consequently, her body is conscious of strength, not pain. By her child-bearing she receives an increase of her integrity, and suffers no harm to her modesty. She is, rather, the witness of her motherhood who suffered none of its customary pains. The new mother marvels at her having a part in heavenly mysteries. Well does she understand that the birth of her Son has nothing which ordinarily occurs among men. If the Magus through His gift acknowledges that God is thus being born, and makes his acknowledgment while he is adoring, think what a Christian ought to feel and believe!
But, let us hear what follows: “As was the earthy man, such are the earthy; and as is the heavenly man, such also are the heavenly.” How will it be possible for those who were not born thus as heavenly men to be found heavenly men? Not through their remaining what they were born, but by continuing to be what they were when reborn. Brethren, that is why the heavenly Spirit by a mysterious injection of His light fecundates the womb of the virginal Mother. He desired to bring forth as heavenly beings those whom an origin from an ancestral stock of earth had brought forth as earthy men, in a wretched state. He wanted to bring them to the likeness of their Creator. So, let us who have already been reborn, and reformed at the image of our Creator, fulfill what the Apostle commands.
“Therefore, even as we have borne the likeness of the earthy, let us bear also the likeness of the heavenly.” Let it be granted that all this was a necessity: that we, formed from earth, could not produce heavenly fruits; that, born from concupiscence, we could not avoid concupiscence; that we, born from the powerful attractions of the flesh, had to carry the base load of its attractions; that we, accepted into this world for our home, were captives to its evils. Yes, let us who have been reborn to the likeness of our Lord (as we mentioned), whom a Virgin conceived, and the Spirit enlivened, and modesty carried, and integrity brought to birth, and innocence nourished, and sanctity taught, and virtue trained, and God adopted as His sons—let us bear the image of our Creator in a perfect reproduction. Let it be a reproduction not of that majesty in which He is unique, but of that innocence, simplicity, meekness, patience, humility, mercy, and peacefulness by which He deigned to become and to be one with us. May the bothersome itch of vices cease, and the fatal allurements of sins be overcome, and damnable rage, the source of crimes, be checked. May all the fog of worldly display be dispelled from our senses. May all the illusion of worldly desire be cast out of our minds. May we desire Christ’s poverty which stores its everlasting riches in heaven. May we preserve complete holiness of soul and body, that we may bear and enhance our Creator’s image in ourselves, in regard not to its size, but to our way of acting.
The Apostle confirms what we have said by his words: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood can obtain no part in the kingdom of God.” See how he preaches the resurrection of the body. There, the spirit will possess the flesh, not the flesh the spirit, as the next words make clear: “Neither shall corruption have any part in incorruption.” You see that not the flesh perishes, but the principle of corruption; not the man, but his fault; not the person, but his sin; in order that the man living in God and before Him alone may rejoice over arriving at the end of his sins.
We should devote a complete sermon to the resurrection, brethren. It is not right for us to speak only in passing, and that at the end of our sermon, about that which sends us into the endless ages and everlasting life.
Saint Peter Chrysologus: Selected Sermons and Saint Valerian: Homilies, The Fathers of the Church Vol. 17, translated by George E. Ganss (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1953), pp.199-202. Available for purchase at Eighth Day Books.
