St Athanasius the Great LETTERS, Part I, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

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Page 99

7. But to us it came: there came too the solemn day, in which we ought to call to the feast with a trumpet [4100] , and separate ourselves to the Lord with thanksgiving, considering it as our own festival [4101] . For we are bound to celebrate it, not to ourselves but to the Lord; and to rejoice, not in ourselves but in the Lord, who bore our griefs and said, 'My soul is sorrowful unto death [4102] .' For the heathen, and all those who are strangers to our faith, keep feasts according to their own wills, and have no peace, since they commit evil against God. But the saints, as they live to the Lord also keep the feast to Him, saying, 'I will rejoice in Thy salvation,' and, 'my soul shall be joyful in the Lord.' The commandment is common to them, 'Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord [4103] '--so that they also may be gathered together, to sing that common and festal Psalm, 'Come, let us rejoice [4104] ,' not in ourselves, but, 'in the Lord.'

8. For thus the patriarch Abraham rejoiced not to see his own day, but that of the Lord; and thus looking forward 'he saw it, and was glad [4105] .' And when he was tried, by faith he offered up Isaac, and sacrificed his only-begotten son--he who had received the promises. And, in offering his son, he worshipped the Son of God. And, being restrained from sacrificing Isaac, he saw the Messiah in the ram [4106] , which was offered up instead as a sacrifice to God. The patriarch was tried, through Isaac, not however that he was sacrificed, but He who was pointed out in Isaiah; 'He shall be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers he shall be speechless [4107] ;' but He took away the sin of the world. And on this account [Abraham] was restrained from laying his hand on the lad, lest the Jews, taking occasion from the sacrifice of Isaac, should reject the prophetic declarations concerning our Saviour, even all of them, but more especially those uttered by the Psalmist; 'Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not; a body Thou hast prepared Me [4108] ;' and should refer all such things as these to the son of Abraham.

[4100] Cf. Letter i. S. Cyril, Hom. i. de Festis Pasch. vol. v. pt. 2, p. 6.

[4101] The Passover is no longer to be a feast of the Jews: it is to be celebrated by Christians as a festival of the Lord. Vid. S:2. n. 10.

[4102] Matt. xxvi. 38.

[4103] Ps. ix. 14, xxxv. 9; Ib. xxxiii. 1.

[4104] Ps. xcv. 1.

[4105] John viii. 56; Heb. xi. 17.

[4106] Gen. xxii. 15. The Syriac, here rendered by 'ram,' is the usual word for sheep, common gender. It is the same word that is used directly after in the quotation from Isaiah, and rendered 'lamb.'

[4107] Is. liii. 7.

[4108] Ps. xl. 6.

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