Eusebius Gallicanus, Homily 12, De Pascha 1 – English translation

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and as ever I celebrate Sunday by leaving the computer turned off.  At the moment I have a pile of Latin sermons before me; the homilies of Eusebius of Emesa, Eusebius of Alexandria and Eusebius Gallicanus before me.

I thought that we might celebrate Easter by translating a previously untranslated Easter homily into English.  A quick search reveals that “Eusebius Gallicanus” includes 12 Easter homilies, the first in two versions.  Here is a quick machine-translated version of the first of those.  It’s plainly just a fragment; but no matter.

1. Rejoice, O heaven, and be glad, O earth. This day has shone forth more brightly from the tomb than it ever gleamed from the sun. Let hell exult because it is broken; let it rejoice because it is visited; let it triumph because after long ages it has seen an unknown light and has drawn breath in the darkness of deep night.

O beautiful light, you who shone forth from the radiant summit of heaven, and amidst the purple streams have clothed those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death with sudden brightness! Immediately the grating of stiff chains is loosed; the shattered bonds of the condemned have fallen; the torturers, their minds struck dumb, are astonished; at once the impious workshop trembled when it saw Christ in its very abodes.

2. “Who then,” they say, “is this terrible one, gleaming with snow-white splendour? Never has our Tartarus received such a one; never has the world vomited forth such a one into our caverns. This one is an invader, not a debtor; an exactor, not a sinner. We see a judge, not a suppliant: he comes to command, not to submit; to rescue, not to remain. Where now did the gatekeepers sleep while this warrior assailed our strongholds? If he were guilty, he would not be so proud; if any offenses darkened him, he would never scatter our Tartarus with his radiance. If he is God, why has he come? If a man, why has he presumed? If God, what is he doing in the tomb? If a man, why does he release captives? Has he perhaps made a pact with our author? Or has he attacked him and conquered him, and so crossed over into our realm? Surely he was dead, surely he was mocked. Our champion did not know what destruction this one would bring upon hell. That cross, which deceived our joys and gave birth to our losses—by wood we were enriched, by wood we are overthrown! That power, always dreaded by the peoples, perishes.”

“No living person has ever entered here; no one has ever terrified the executioners. Never in this dwelling, blinded as it is by perpetual darkness, has a pleasant light appeared. Has the sun perhaps departed from the world? But neither heaven nor the stars obey us, and yet hell is shining. We cannot defend the prison’s custody against him. We have been poorly invaded; we could not darken the light; moreover, we fear for our own destruction.”

The Latin, from CCSL 101, modifiied to restore the “v” and “j” so that it is more readable to normal people (!):

DE PASCHA, I

1. Exsulta caelum, et laetare terra. Dies iste amplius ex sepulcro radiavit, quam de sole refulsit. Ovet inferus quia resolutus est, gaudeat quia visitatus est, resultet quia ignotam lucem post saecula longa vidit et in profundae noctis caligine respiravit.

O pulchra lux quae de candido caeli fastigio promicasti, et inter fluenta purpurea sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis subita claritate vestisti! Soluit confestim stridorem rigen­tium catenarum: dirupta cecidere vincula damnatorum, Attonitae mentis obstupuere tortores; simul impia officina contremuit, cum Christum in suis sedibus vidit.

2. “Quisnam” inquiunt “est iste terribilis et niveo splendore coruscus? Numquam noster talem excepit tartarus; numquam in nostra cavema talem evomuit mundus. Invasor iste, non debitor; exactor est, non peccator. Judicem videmus, non supplicem: venit iubere, non succumbere; eripere, non manere. Ubi iam janitores dormierunt, cum iste bellator claustra vexabat? Hic, si reus esset, superbus non esset; si eum aliqua delicta fuscarent, numquam nostros tartaros suo dissiparet fulgore. Si deus, ut quid venit? Si homo, quid praesumpsit? Si deus, quid in sepulcro facit? Si homo, qua­re captivos soluit? Numquidnam iste cum auctore nostro composuit? aut forte aggressus et ipsum vicit, et sic ad nos­tra regna transcendit? Certe mortuus erat, certe illusus erat. Proeliator noster nescivit quam hic stragem procuraret inferno. Crux illa fallens gaudia nostra, parturiens damna nostra; per lignum ditati sumus, per lignum evertimur! Perit potestas illa, semper populis formidata”.

“Nullus hic vivus intravit, nemo carnifices terruit. Numquam in hac habitatione et nigra semper caligine caecata, jucundum lumen apparuit. Aut forte sol de mundo migravit? Sed nec caelum nobis astraque parent*, et tamen inferus lucet. Defen­dere contra ipsum carceris nostri custodiam non valemus. Male intrati sumus, lumen obtenebrare nequiuimus, insuper et de nostro interitu formidamus”.

Happy Easter!