Pseudo-Augustine: The Biting and Slaying of Hell (Sermon CLX)

 Introduction

It was long a tradition for unknown writers to sign a famous author's names to their works; sometimes, the work was half by the purported author anyway.  The homily translated below is nominally attributed to St. Augustine, but scholars reject it as spurious.  Some pieces of it can be traced to other writers: a large portion of §1 is copied from St. Gregory the Great's Homilies on the Gospels XXII.6 (PL76:1177B-D).  The editor of the Latin text claims portions of §§2-3 are taken, respectively, from the homilies on Pascha and on the Ascension by a certain Eusebius, but I have not yet located the source.  

Sermon CLX

On Pascha II

The Biting and Slaying of Hell

 

1. The Passion or resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, beloved brethren, all of the volumes of the Old Testament spoke of beforehand in many ways, so that, even through the mouth of David the prophet, the Holy Spirit clearly shows this, saying, A God of vengeance is the Lord, the God of vengeance acts to free (Ps 94:1). For He alone acts to free, He Who shows us today what He did. For He acts to free, about which there were many prophecies beforehand, since He became like a man without help, free among the dead (Ps 88:4-5). But do you want to know what He did? Hear what He did. Without any necessity, but by His own will, He permitted Himself to be hanged on the wood, He did not forbid nails to pierce His body, He allowed the putting of His soul to death, He rested His flesh in the sepulchre, and, His soul accompanying Him, He descended into hell. Through this, the elect, who, although they were in the bosom of tranquility, were yet held in the cloisters of hell, were led back to the pleasant plains of paradise. What He said before His Passion, the Lord fulfilled in His resurrection: If I am raised up, He said, from the earth, I will draw all unto Me (Jn 12:32). For He drew all, He Who left none of His elect in hell: He took all away, namely, the elect. For the Lord, arising, did not bring to pardon the unfaithful and those given over to eternal tortures due to their crimes, but he snatched from the cloisters of hell those whom He recognized as His own in faith and acts. Wherefore it is rightly said by Hosea too: I will be your death, O death; I will be your bite, hell (Hos 13:14). For what we slay, we act so that it will not be at all; but, out of that which we bite, we take out a part and we leave a part: therefore, since, among His elect, He completely slew death, there was the death of death; but, since He took a part out of hell and left a part, He did not completely slay, but bit, hell. Therefore He says, I will be your death, O death, as if He openly said, “Since I will completely destroy you in My elect.” I will be your bite, hell, “since, taking away My own, I will cut you into parts.” For, at that time, our Lord Jesus Christ tied up that prince of darkness and death, troubled his legions, shattered the iron bars of hell’s gates, loosed all of the just, who had been tightly held by original sin, called the captives back to pristine liberty, infused with splendid light those blinded by the darkness of sins.

2. Behold, you have heard described how our defender, the Lord of vengeance, acted to free. For, after He was exalted, that is, hung on the Cross by the Jews—so that I might briefly smush everything together—immediately, when He handed over His spirit, His soul, united to his divinity, descended into hell’s depths. And when, like some splendid and terrible despoiler, He reached the end of the darkness, the impious and Tartarean legions, spying Him, terrified and trembling, began to inquire, saying, “Who is this one, terrible and flashing with snowy splendor? Never has our Tartarus received such a one, never has the world vomited such a one into our cavern. He is an invader, not a debtor; He is an demander, not a pleader; we see a judge, not a supplicant. He comes to command, not to succumb, to rip out, not to remain. Why did our porters sleep when this warrior vexed our cloisters? If he were guilty, he would not be so powerful. If any sin had darkened him, never would our Tartarus have scattered at his shining. If he is God, why did he come? If man, how does he presume so? If God, what is he doing in a sepulchre? If man, why does he loose sinners? Did he make a pact with our author, or, perhaps, fight and conquer him, and so ascend to our kingdoms? Certainly he is dead, certainly he is conquered. Our fighter was ridiculed; he didn’t know that this one would obtain the overthrow of hell, that Cross deceiving our joy, giving birth to our damnation. Through wood, we were made rich, through wood, we were overthrown; that power, always formidable to the people, perishes. No living one has entered here, no one has terrified the torturers, never has a joyful light appeared in this filthy and black place, always blinded by fog. Or perhaps the sun has come over from the world? But neither heaven nor stars appear to us, and yet hell shines. We cannot defend the custody of our prison against him. Badly did we enter the contest; we didn’t know how to darken such a light, and, moreover, we are terrified of our downfall.

3. “Wherefore is he so splendid, so strong, so brilliant, and so terrible? That world that was subject to us, and always offered tributes of the dead for our uses, never sent such a one to us, never destined such gifts for hell. Therefore, who is this, who so intrepidously enters our bounds, and not only does not respect our tortures, but even frees others from our chains? Perhaps he is the one of whom our prince spoke a little time ago, who, by his death, would receive power over the whole world? But if this is he, the sentence of our warrior is turned backwards, and, while he saw himself as having conquered, rather was he himself conquered and made prostrate. O our prince, is this the one about whose future death you always congratulated yourself? Is he the one by whose cross you thought the whole world would be subjected to you? Is he the one from whose death you promised such spoils for us? What is it that you’ve done? What is it that you wanted to do? Behold, now he has set all of your darkness to flight by his splendor, and he has shattered all your prisons, cast off the captives, loosed the bound, changed their sorrow into joy. Behold, those who were wont to sigh beneath our torments insult us, having received salvation, and now they not only fear nothing, but they even make threats. Never have captives thus been proud over death, nor at any time been able to be so joyous. Why did you want to lead this one here, he by whose coming all who before were despairing are returned to joy? No one now hears their usual bellowing, no groans resound. But the transaction of the redemption of the captive has been accomplished. O our prince, those riches of yours, which you first acquired through the loss of paradise, you have now lost through the Cross; all your joy perishes, your joys are turned into sorrow. While you hang Christ on the wood, you don’t know how many injuries you suffer in hell. Could you not foresee that you were leading the overthrower of your kingdom into death, without any charge? If you attend to the cause, you require a fault. Him in whom you found no evil, why did you lead him into our fatherland? You brought him free, and you lost all the damned.”

4. After these cries from the cruel infernal ministers, without any delay, at the command of our Lord and Savior, all the iron bars were broken, and, behold, at once innumerable peoples of the saints, who were held captive in death, swarming about the Savior’s knees, with tearful plea, demanded of Him, saying: “You have come, Redeemer of the world; You have come, Whom we, desiring, have daily hoped for; You have come, Whom the Law and Prophets announced to us would come; You have come, giving indulgence to the sinners of the world, living in flesh: loose the dead and captives of hell. You have come after long tears; pull us out, You Who alone suffered for us. Maker of the heavens, You deigned to enter hell; for our sighs called to You, long laments demanded You, wherefore there is hope for the hopeless, wherefore consolation for the tormented. In Your coming, our chains fell, night fled away. At the coming of life, death dies, nor does torturer nor beater remain. The prayers of the damned have succeeded: the Creator rules, not the invader. Chains are wrapped around the tyrant, and our torturer squirms with pain. Loose, Redeemer of the world, the dead and captives of hell. You have descended to hell for us; do not leave us when You return to the realms above. You placed the title of glory in the world; place the sign of victory in hell.”

5. No delay: after He heard the request and discussion of the innumerable captives, at once all the ancient just, at the Lord’s command, received the rights of power, and they immediately turned the torments against their torturers, with humble supplication, with ineffable joy, crying out to the Lord, and saying, “Ascend, Lord Jesus, having despoiled hell, and, having wrapped the author of death in chains, return joy to the world now. Let Your faithful rejoice in Your ascension, beholding the scars on Your body.” Christ did this, as it was said above. Having taken spoils in hell, alive, He departed from the sepulchre; He arose by His own power, and again dressed Himself in immaculate flesh. He appeared to His disciples, so to take doubt away from the unbelieving; He showed the wounds of the nails, so that He would leave no suspicion for the Manichees.¹ Publicly He ate and drank; afterwards, then, He appeared in the sight of many. He ascended into the heavens on a cloud, and set Himself in His seat at the right hand of the Father, from which the Word had never separated. Therefore, let the Christian people exalt, for whom Christ’s blood was shed. Let all rejoice in the Lord, we who solemnly celebrate the resurrection of the flesh in Christ. Let the whole Catholic Church through all the world be glad, since Christ the Lord both diminished nothing of His divinity and freed man whom He had made. Wherefore, exulting, with humble voice, let us supplicate Him, so that He might deign to take us, for whom He did these things, freed from the hand of hell, with Him, when He comes into the world: to Him is honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

1The Manichees (or Manicheans) believed that Jesus’ Passion, death, and Resurrection were only in appearance, not in reality, similar to the Docetists, who taught that Jesus’ body, as a whole, was merely an illusion and not real flesh.

 

Source: PL 39:2059-2061.

Translation ©2023 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.