About the Mystery of Easter

In the presented work, St. Ambrose of Milan reveals the deep meaning of the sacrament of Easter, connecting it with the key events of Sacred history and the saving plan of God. The treatise consists of 5 chapters. In chapter 1, the saint explores the spiritual meaning of the word “Easter”, relying on the apostolic testimony (1 Cor. 5:7). He emphasizes that the joy of Easter stems from the very suffering of the Savior, through which believers become worthy to participate in the bliss of the Lord. In Chapter 2, the author contemplates Easter time as the beginning of a new creation: the awakening of nature in the spring is interpreted as an image of the divine creation of the world. Chapter 3 is devoted to the theme of the Fall: the saint reveals how man, called to be the ruler of creation, lost grace due to pride and envy. Chapter 4 sets out the dogma of the Incarnation and the descent of Christ into hell. The saint shows how God, having taken on human flesh, crushed the power of the devil, destroyed the gates of hell and gave believers hope of resurrection. Through the comparison of Adam and Christ, the logic of salvation is revealed: death entered through the first man, and life through the second (“The first man is from the earth, earthly; the second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47)). Chapter 5 exalts the dignity of the Paschal sacrament as a source of renewal for the Church and every believer. The saint describes how through Easter people are reborn in the baptismal font, receive a new generation of faith and join in heavenly glory. Contents Chapter 1. Where did the sacred name of Easter come from? Chapter 2. About the importance of Easter time. Chapter 3. About how man, appointed to be the ruler of earthly creatures, lost the mercy of the Creator, and so on. Chapter 4. How God, having taken human flesh and put the body to death, descended into hell, and, having crushed the faiths and gates of hell, freed those bound there from the jaws of the devil Chapter 5. On the high dignity of the Paschal sacrament and day Chapter 1. Where did the sacred name of Easter come from? The sacrament of Easter brings to all believers in Christ, reborn by faith, the annually returning joy and glory of the bliss of faith, although its sacred name comes from the suffering of the Savior himself, as can be seen from the words of the blessed Apostle: “For our Passover for us Christ was devoured” (1 Cor. 5:7). Therefore, Christ, having accepted the human body, dedicated himself, in the sacrament of Easter, to suffering, so that everyone who through faith received participation in this gift could rightly be considered worthy of participation in the bliss of the Lord. Chapter 2. The importance of Easter time With Easter the year truly begins, the first month begins, the plants are reborn again, and, after the night of the terrible winter, the pleasantness of the primeval spring is resumed. At this time, I think, God, the Creator of the visible and invisible, having established the earth and suspended the sky, illuminated the day with the rays of sunlight, gave radiance to the moon for the consolation of the night, adorned the hanging vault of the sky with the brilliance of shining stars, confined the sea within the known boundaries of the shores, forbade the desire of a deep and noisy wave to transgress the appointed limits, and adorned the appearance of the earth with wooded hills and high mountains, so that the level the surface of the earth, hiding far from the sight of the eyes, makes the beauty of the fields pleasant for mortals. Chapter 3. About how man, appointed to be the ruler of earthly creation, lost the mercy of the Creator, and so on. Man, whom God deigned to create in a special way, received the appointment to be the ruler of earthly creatures so that he himself would obey the Divine decrees and fulfill the will of only the One who, out of nothing, made him ruler over so many creatures. But at the very beginning, having desired, not out of ignorance, but out of envy, to become, contrary to his nature, higher than what he was created by the grace of God, he lost the grace that the love of the Creator gave him. And the criminal for lusting after what the devil deceived him with, immediately being condemned to death, extended it to his descendants, so that in this case the Divine saying was completely fulfilled: “Through envy the devil brought death into the world” (Wis. 2:24). Thus, due to the Fall, the devil received the power of death over all sinners, and took possession of all those who had departed from God, binding them with the bonds of sin, and imprisoning them in the dungeon of stinking Tartarus. Chapter 4. How God, having taken on human flesh and put the body to death, descended into hell, and, having crushed the faiths and gates of hell, freed those bound there from the jaws of the devil Grieving over their destruction, God, according to divine vision, did not send a Prophet, not a slave, and not an invisible Angel, but, having accepted true human flesh, He Himself came and dwelt with man in order to give mortals an example of holy life, and by the example of His death and His resurrection to show eternal life to the temporary ones who believe in Him. For just as unbelief and idolatry closed the entrance to heaven, so treachery cast the treacherous into the abyss of hell, where the devil reigned over them through death, torturing them until the coming of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, until He, having united the being of human flesh with God, put the blameless body to death. Christ, not involved in sin, descended into the underworld of Tartarus, crushed the faiths and gates of hell, and, destroying the dominion of death, called souls bound by sin from the jaws of the devil to life, and - the Divine triumph is inscribed in the eternal letters of Scripture, saying: “Where is the sting of death? where is the victory" (1 Cor. 15:55)? Discussing this bliss of restored salvation, Paul says: just as through Adam death entered into this world, so through Christ salvation was restored to the world (1 Cor. 15:22), and in another place: “the first man is from the earth with a ring; the second man is from heaven is heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:47), and adds: “as if he had put on the image of the ring,” i.e., the old sinful man, “let us put on the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49), i.e., may we receive the salvation of man accepted, redeemed, renewed and purified in Christ; because the same Apostle says that the “firstfruits”, that is, the author of resurrection and life, is “Christ, then” - “Christ’s” (1 Cor. 15:23), that is, those who, imitating His purity in life, will achieve the hope of His resurrection in order to receive with Him the promised heavenly glory, as the Lord Himself says in the Gospel. For whoever, He says, follows Me will not perish, “but will pass from death to life” (John 5:24). Thus, the suffering of the Savior is the salvation of human life. For this is why He wanted to die for us, so that we, believing in Him, would live forever; For this reason, He wanted to be for a time what we are, so that we, having received the eternity He promised, would remain with Him forever. Chapter 5. On the high dignity of the Paschal sacrament and day Such, I say, is the grace of the heavenly sacraments! Such is the gift of Easter! Such is the longed-for pleasure of the year! This is the beginning of the birth of things! Hence, babies born in the animal bath of the Holy Church, being reborn, play with childish simplicity in the depths of an innocent conscience. From here, pure fathers and chaste mothers receive a new countless generation by faith. From here, under the tree of faith, from the womb of the immaculate source, the beauty of the lamps shines. From here (people) are sanctified by the gift of heavenly merit, and are saturated with the solemn celebration of the heavenly sacrament. From here people, forming one people, like brothers raised in the bosom of the blessed Church, honoring the essentially one Divinity and the triune name of power (et virtutis triunum nomen), sing with the Prophet the song of the annual festival: “This day, which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad on it” (Psalm 118:24). What day, I say, is this? The same one that the ruler of life brought to us, the source of light, the originator of enlightenment, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who said about himself: “I am day; whoever walks in days will not be stumbled” (John. 11:9), that is, whoever follows Christ in everything will follow in His footsteps to the throne of eternal light, just as He himself, while still in the body, prayed for us to the Father, saying: “Father, I will, that where I am, even these, that is, those who have believed in Me, will be with Me” (John 17:24): “As You are in I, and I in You, so may these also be in us” (John 17:21). - Behold, I say, a day of joy and gladness, on which, having achieved the promised perfect glory, we, a truly holy people, even in this age, like the Angels, sing with the Prophet to the Lord the sacrament of future praise: “This day, which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24), - the Lord, that is, the author of restoration, redemption, and eternal life, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, reigning without beginning and without end in the Father with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto ages of ages. 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