The Resurrection of Lazarus

I love the place of the Church, this spiritual banquet of mine that brings us together; for the gathering of the Church is indeed a feast for God, where we are filled with a mystical cup and fed with the living bread of the Lamb.

Since the King of the angels has dwelt upon the earth, banquets and luxuries have been gathered together for the faithful, and the mourning of nature has been turned into the anticipation of mourning from the times beginning with the advent of the Savior.

For nature, immediately receiving the light of the Lord, was joy from early songs and overflowing leaps; it was fitting to send forth precursors of grace, in which the fetuses played, rejoicing with their mothers: 'For the fetus leapt in her womb in exultation' (Luke 1:44).

On the bridal couch the Virgin took root to give birth, heaven called from above through a star the Magi, the earth was full of angels rejoicing with those on earth, the demons sent away what they held, and diseases released the bodies.

From here the paralytic ran away, from there the blind stood up seeing, here the leper cleansed his leprosy, there the lake dried up the flow of much blood, this one who was a stammerer became fluent, and another, toward the recovery of hearing, recovered the speaking of words that were previously broken and he plucked short.

And what need is there to speak of the barren woman at the feasts who drank wine, or of those coming out from the tombs, the dead; 'Young man,' he says, 'I say to you, rise' (Luke 7:14).

The tomb released even Lazarus, but thus called, he hastened as if swaddled to display a course, having filled the fourth day in the tomb, much moreover of the entrails having been devoured by worms, and the harmony of the whole body having been torn apart, the tomb possessed the stench of corruption.

But the fragrance of life alleviated the putrefaction of the entrails, and the tomb became like a womb for the one lying there; and just as when sown in a womb and not in a tomb, Lazarus the old and new man was drawn forth, newly formed.

O, what a new miracle! A man was brought forth to us for life from the tomb, as if an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes within the burial wrappings.

For the voice of the Master, having been known to the dead with the swaddling clothes, drew him from the tomb, saying, 'Lazarus, come forth outside.'

And at the word, quickly, the dead was gathered together, the limbs running toward one another in the tomb: the eye returned to its proper order, the nose filled its region, the cheeks fell into their former shape, the throat was drawn together with the shoulders and the head, the hands were arranged in a pair toward motion, the joints came together in harmony, the bites of teeth were set in order, the nerves were loosed from their bonds, and the nature of the bones was put on, being extended along with...