"While the first Adam was filled with countless curses, this person by contrast with him is filled with every blessing. The former heard the words, "You are cursed in your works," and the one after him again, "Cursed is the one who does not adhere to what is written in this book," and "Cursed is the one hanged on a tree." Do you see the number of curses? Christ in becoming a curse freed you from these. As he humbled himself to exalt you, and died to render you immortal, so too he became a curse to fill you with blessing. What could match this blessing, when through a curse you regaled with blessing? Not that he himself stood in need of blessing, of course, but rather that he gives it to you. You see, just as when I say that he was humbled I imply not change but that considerateness of the Incarnation, so to when I say he was blessed I do not imply that he needed blessing but again I demonstrate the considerateness of the Incarnation. It was human nature, therefore, that was blessed. Christ, in fact, raised from the dead dies no more, and is not subject to a curse; rather, even before this he was not subject, but took on the curse so as to free you from it."
Hill, Robert Charles. John Chrysostom's Commentary on the Psalms Volume 1. Brookline: Holy Orthodox Press, 1998. Page 265
No comments:
Post a Comment