The Ascent from Hades and the Triad of Faith, Hope, and Love

Supplications through which God will be heard to accomplish the ascent from Hades and the firm one toward eternal life, and the support in this life through joy, brightness, and hymns to God, such as it was in the Psalm 'I cried to you' (Ps 39:2), 'and heal me' (Ps 39:3), 'and you brought up my soul from Hades' (Ps 39:3), 'you saved me from those descending into the pit' (Ps 39:4), and the following: in which clearly the things of Adam are referred to himself. And saying that he brings the resurrection to completion, 'that my glory may sing to you and not be overcome' (Ps 39:4).

For regarding the salvation of all things, the actions of Christ are extended, neither having happened through him alone nor standing in him alone. Therefore Paul says, 'If the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised' (1 Cor 15:13). For if the end for the sake of which the resurrection of Christ was an event were not certain, then the mystery of death—the dissolution and the ascent of souls from Hades—would be fearful, even while the true hopes toward God exist; concerning this hope Paul speaks, joining to it faith and bringing forth love toward the one so greatly endowed with grace and extending the good things into eternity. 'These three remain,' he says, 'faith, hope, love' (1 Cor 13:13).

In this he says the blessed man makes hope in God and seeks the eternal things, not being enticed by those things appearing to be for a short time, nor deviating into a falsehood from the truly good. For everything that men think to provide for themselves is a falsehood, but only that which is from God is true, which he indeed demonstrated through the whole economy of mankind, having first exposed all human things and then bringing forth the good from himself as complete.

Saying 'myself,' he reveals the Church, and he presents us, the suppliants, asking for mercy, so that we may remain in grace; and the petition for mercy is powerful, for it is said to go not toward men but toward him. For in this way we become those from God, because Christ is in our place, the one receiving the good toward us, just as he says, 'And I will make a covenant for you, just as my Father made for me' (Heb 13:20).

For no power exists for the salvation of Christ's church except that from God (Ps 39:14), since neither weapons, nor money, nor walls of enclosures, nor the holding of the earth, nor anything of this kind is among us, as it is among the Jews; so that a wonder, and nothing less than the other wonders, is that unarmed and unprepared men, being fought against by ten thousand nations, remain both staying and resting. Just as the wonder of the bush was that it was burning and not consumed, and this is an imprint of Christ, conquering through suffering. For the suffering church, not being destroyed, carries all within itself the examples of wisdom and the manifest signs of heavenly help.

To these ends, he says, the church shall proceed (Ps 39:18), having been impoverished before and having come through much poverty from the world, and having become rich by what is from You and having been glorified by the help from You which it asks not to be delayed. And because of the asking, it is not delayed, just as it is said, 'The one coming will come and will not delay' (Heb 10:37). This also is joined to the same hypothesis. For the face of the Savior, and the memory of the passion, and the foretaste of the resurrection, and of the return to heaven (Ps 40:1). Just now, therefore, it was saying, 'I am poor and needy' (Ps 40:1); it would follow as if it were being said by him as an exception into himself.

Even if, and that especially regarding all those in the world who are impoverished through righteousness, understanding is good (Ps 40:2), but understanding in the rich is to consider such needy ones as such; but the one truly rich is the one who, knowing and understanding us as poor, is truly blessed; for all blessedness follows the knowledge of God (Ps 40:2). Again, the one suffering on behalf of men says the sins of men's own selves, and he seeks the mercy upon us regarding these things on his own behalf (Ps 40:5), he who releases the contempt of those who are ignorant toward him, manifesting the glory, on himself according to his own power, but on us according to the grace of Christ (Ps 40:5).

This, he says, was through haste (Ps 40:6), previously in the thought of the invisible, and later in the thought of the visible Jews, to cast out the true king, having reckoned that he would come into possession of the inheritance that was not previously theirs; therefore they were also saying, 'Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours' (Ps 40:6). They hurry, he says, to kill the righteous man (Ps 40:9), not knowing that his death is a sleep, becoming toward a resurrection, and not a removal of life, but an introduction into a transition to heaven, according to the saying, 'Life was removed from the earth' (Ps 40:10).