Now the holy rays of the light of Christ shine forth, the pure stars of the pure Spirit rise, the heavenly treasures of glory and divinity lie open.
In this splendour the long dark night has been swallowed up and the dreary shadows of death have vanished.
For us who believe in him a glorious day has dawned, a long unending day, the mystical Passover symbolically celebrated by the Law and effectually accomplished by Christ, a wonderful Passover, a miracle of divine virtue, a work of divine power.
This is the true festival and the everlasting memorial, the day upon which freedom from suffering comes from suffering, immortality from death, life from the tomb, healing from a wound, Resurrection from the fall, and Ascension into heaven from the descent into hell.
To show that he had power over death Christ had exercised his royal authority to loose death’s bonds even during his lifetime, as for example when he gave the commands, Lazarus, come out and Arise, my child.
For the same reason he surrendered himself completely to death, so that in him that gluttonous beast with his insatiable appetite would die completely.
Since death’s power comes from sin, it searched everywhere in his sinless body for its accustomed food, for sensuality, pride, disobedience or, in a word, for that ancient sin which was its original sustenance.
In him, however, it found nothing to feed on and so, being entirely closed in upon itself and destroyed for lack of nourishment, death became its own death.
Many of the just, proclaiming the Good News and prophesying, were awaiting him who was to become by his Resurrection the firstborn from the dead.
And so, to save all members of the human race, whether they lived before the Law, under the Law, or after his own coming, Christ dwelt three days beneath the earth.
After his Resurrection it was the women who were the first to see him, for as a woman brought the first sin into the world, so a woman first announced the news of life to the world.
Thus they heard the holy words, Women, rejoice; for sadness was to be swallowed up by the joy of the Resurrection.
When Christ had clothed himself completely in the humanity created in God’s image and transformed into the heavenly man the old man he had put on, the image united to himself ascended with him into heaven.
At the sign of the great mystery of human nature now ascending with God the angelic powers cried out with joy, commanding the hosts of heaven: Lift up your gates, you princes, be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall enter.
Saint Hippolytus of Rome (c.170-c.236) [attrib.]: Paschal Homily (SC 27:116-118, 184-190); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Easter Monday, Year 2.
