Letter 3009: Ad Felicem episcopum de pascha

IX To Bishop Felix, on Easter The seasons gleam, marked out by their flowering serenity, and the gate of heaven stands open with the sky's greater light. The orbit of heaven draws the fire-spewing sun higher, the sun which, wandering, goes forth from the waters of Ocean and enters them again. Surveying the flowing elements with its armed rays, it stretches out the day across the world though the night is still brief. The shining heavens display their unclouded countenance, and the bright stars attest to their own gladness. The favoring earth pours forth her little gifts in varied yield, now that the year has duly returned its springtime riches. The soft violet-beds paint the meadow purple, the fields grow green with grasses and the grass glitters with its tresses. Little by little the starry lights of the flowers come up, and the tinted blades of grass smile upon their own eyes. The seed once laid down, the milky crop leaps up from the fields, promising the farmer that hunger can be overcome. With its stem cut back, the vine-shoot weeps its own joys: from which it may grant pure wine, for now the vine yields only water. Rising with tender down from the bark of its mother, the swelling bud prepares its bosom for the birth. In the time of winter, with the tresses of its leaves torn away, the grove now greens again and restores its leafy roofs: myrtle, willow, fir, hazel, osier, elm, maple, each pleasant tree applauds with its own foliage. Here the bee, leaving the hives, about to build its honeycombs, hums among the flowers and snatches honey upon its leg. The birds are called back to their songs, which, their music shut up, lay all too sluggish and mute in the winter cold. Here the nightingale tunes her instruments to her own reeds, and the breeze grows sweeter as the melody echoes back. Behold, the grace of the world reborn bears witness that all gifts have returned together with their Lord. For now that Christ triumphs after the gloomy realms of Tartarus, on every side the grove favors him with foliage, the meadows with flowers. The laws of the underworld being overthrown, light, sky, fields, and sea duly praise God as he passes above the stars; he who had been crucified. Behold, God reigns through all things, and all created things offer prayer to their Creator. Hail, festal day, venerable through all the ages, on which God conquered the underworld and holds the stars, nobility of the year, glory of the months, weapon of the days, splendor of the hours, cherishing the moments and the instants. Here the forest applauds you with its foliage, here the field with its ears of grain, here the vine gives thanks with its silent shoot. If now the thickets resound for you with the whisper of birds, among these I, the least sparrow, sing for love. O Christ, salvation of all things, good Creator and Redeemer, only offspring from the godhead of the Father, flowing unutterably from the heart of your parent, the Word that subsists and is able to penetrate, equal, harmonious, companion, coeval with the Father, the prince through whom the world took its beginning: you hang up the heavens, you heap together the lands, you pour out the seas, and whatever dwells in those places flourishes by your governance. Seeing that the human race had sunk into the deep, in order to rescue man you also were made man; for indeed you did not wish merely to be born in the body, but the flesh which was born endured also to die: you, the author of life and of the world, suffer the rites of a funeral, and you enter the road of death by giving the help of salvation. The gloomy chains of the law of the underworld gave way, and chaos was terrified to be pressed by the face of light; the shadows perish, put to flight by the brightness of Christ, and the thick mantles of foul night fall away. But render now your promised faith, I pray, O kindly power: the third day's light has returned, arise, my buried one. It is not fitting that your limbs be covered by a humble tomb, nor that worthless stones press down the world's ransom-price. It is unworthy that, for him within whose fist all things are enclosed, a stone with a barring rock should cover one shut in. Take away the linens, I pray, leave the napkins in the tomb: you are enough for us, and without you nothing is. Loose the chained shades of the underworld's prison, and call back upward whatever has fallen to the depths. Render your face again, that the ages may see the light, render the day which fled from us when you were dying. But clearly you have fulfilled all, returning, O holy victor, to the world: Tartarus lies crushed and holds not its own rights; the underworld, insatiably opening its hollow throats, which always snatched away, becomes your prey, O God: you rescue an innumerable people from the prison of death, and, set free, it follows where its own author goes; the savage beast trembling vomits forth the people it had swallowed, and the Lamb draws the sheep out of the wolf's jaw. From here, seeking the tomb again, after Tartarus, the flesh resumed, as a warrior you carry back ample trophies to the heavens: those whom the penal chaos held, it has now given back in you, and those whom death would have sought, these a new life holds. O holy King, behold, a great part of your triumph shines forth, when the holy baptismal waters bless the pure souls: a white-robed army comes forth from the gleaming waters, and purges the old sin in the new stream; the white garment also marks the shining souls, and from the snow-white flock the shepherd has his joys. To this reward is added Felix, a priest and partner, who wishes to give his Lord double talents. Drawing toward better things those who wandered in pagan error, lest the beast snatch them away, he fortifies the sheepfold of God. Those whom harmful Eve had earlier infected, these he now gives back to the Church, fed at her breast, her milk, her bosom. By tending the rustic hearts with gentle discourse: by the gift of Felix, a crop born from the bramble. A harsh people, living on the rock almost in the manner of wild beasts: with you healing them, holy one, the beast gives back a sheep. A harvest of abundance, destined to remain with you through the ages with a hundredfold return, you fill the granaries with grain. May this people, unstained, be quickened in your arms, and may you bear a pure pledge to the stars for God. May one crown be granted you from yourself by the One on high, may another, won from your people, flourish.

IX Ad Felicem episcopum de pascha Tempora florigero rutilant distincta sereno et maiore poli lumine porta patet, altius ignivomum solem caeli orbita ducit, qui vagus Oceanas exit et intrat aquas; armatis radiis elementa liquentia lustrans adhuc nocte brevi tendit in orbe diem. splendida sincerum producunt aethera vultum laetitiamque suam sidera clara probant. terra favens vario fundit munuscula fetu, cum bene vernales reddidit annus opes: mollia purpureum pingunt violaria campum, prata virent herbis et micat herba comis. paulatim subeunt stellantia lumina florum arridentque oculis gramina tincta suis. semine deposito lactans seges exilit arvis, spondens agricolae vincere posse famem. caudice desecto lacrimat sua gaudia palmes: unde merum tribuat, dat modo vitis aquam. cortice de matris tenera lanugine surgens praeparat ad partum turgida gemma sinum. tempore sub hiemis foliorum crine revulso iam reparat viridans frondea tecta nemus: myrta salix abies corylus siler ulmus acernus plaudit quaeque suis arbor amoena comis. construitura favos apes hinc alvearia linquens floribus instrepitans poplite mella rapit. ad cantus revocatur aves, quae carmine clauso pigrior hiberno frigore muta fuit. hinc filomela suis adtemperat organa cannis fitque repercusso dulcior aura melo. ecce renascentis testatur gratia mundi omnia cum domino dona redisse suo. namque triumphanti post tristia Tartara Christo undique fronde nemus, gramina flore favent. legibus inferni oppressis super astra meantem laudant rite deum lux polus arva fretum; qui crucifixus erat. deus ecce per omnia regnat, dantque creatori cuncta creata precem. salve, festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo, qua deus infernum vicit et astra tenet, nobilitas anni, mensum decus, arma dierum, horarum splendor, scripula, puncta fovens. hinc tibi silva comis plaudit, hinc campus aristis, hinc grates tacito palmite vitis agit. si tibi nunc avium resonant virgulta susurro, has inter minimus passer amore cano. Christe, salus rerum, bone conditor atque redemptor, unica progenies ex deitate patris, inrecitabiliter manans de corde parentis, verbum subsistens et penetrare potens, aequalis concors socius, cum patre coaevus, quo sumpsit mundus principe principium: aethera suspendis, sola congeris, aequora fundis, quaeque locis habitant quo moderante vigent, qui genus humanum cernens mersisse profundo, ut hominem eriperes es quoque factus homo; nec voluisti etenim tantum te corpore nasci, sed caro quae nasci, pertulit atque mori: funeris exequias pateris vitae auctor et orbis, intras mortis iter dando salutis opem. tristia cesserunt infernae vincula legis expavitque chaos luminis ore premi; depereunt tenebrae Christi fulgore fugatae et tetrae noctis pallia crassa cadunt. pollicitam sed redde fidem, precor, alma potestas: tertia lux rediit, surge, sepulte meus. non decet, ut humili tumulo tua membra tegantur, neu pretium mundi vilia saxa premant. indignum est, cuius clauduntur cuncta pugillo, ut tegat inclusum rupe vetante lapis. lintea tolle, precor, sudaria linque sepulchro : tu satis es nobis et sine te nihil est. solve catenatas inferni carceris umbras et revoca sursum quidquid ad ima ruit. redde tuam faciem, videant ut saecula lumen, redde diem qui nos te moriente fugit. sed plane inplesti remeans, pie victor, ad orbem: Tartara pressa iacent nec sua iura tenent; inferus insaturabiliter cava guttura pandens, qui rapuit semper, fit tua praeda, deus: eripis innumerum populum de carcere mortis et sequitur liber quo suus auctor adit; evomit absorptam trepide fera belua plebem et de fauce lupi subtrahit agnus oves. hinc tumulum repetens, post Tartara carne resumpta, belliger ad caelos ampla tropaea refers: quos habuit poenale chaos, iam reddidit in te, et quos mors peteret, hos nova vita tenet. rex sacer, ecce tui radiat pars magna triumphi, cum puras animas sancta lavacra beant: candidus egreditur nitidis exercitus undis atque vetus vitium purgat in amne novo; fulgentes animas vestis quoque candida signat et grege de niveo gaudia pastor habet, additur hac Felix consors mercede sacerdos, qui dare vult domino dupla talenta suo. ad meliora trahens gentili errore vagantes, bestia ne raperet, munit ovile dei. quos prius Evva nocens infecerat, hos modo reddit ecclesiae pastos ubere , lacte, sinu. mitibus alloquiis agrestia corda colendo: munere Felicis de vepre nata seges. aspera gens, saxo vivens quasi more ferino: te medicante. sacer, belua reddit ovem. centeno reditu tecum mansura per aevum messis abundantis horrea fruge reples. inmaculata tuis plebs haec vegetetur in ulnis, atque deo purum pignus ad astra feras. una corona tibi de te tribuatur ab alto. altera de populo vernet adepta tuo.