the suffering christ 768 and willingly, regained for us the golden, heavenly, and eternal liberty. The entire bulk of all our chains broke down, when this heavenly Giant reached the earth to be freely bound. Quite pertinently, the Doctor [of the Church] Leo13 says, “Although the ferocious mob accomplished what it intended and rejoiced in the execution of its crime, nonetheless, greater was the strength of the One captured than those who arrested Him. For the blindness of the Jews obtained nothing, except to destroy themselves by their own impiety; Christ acted with such patience in order to free all by His Passion” (Sermon 6 on the Lord’s Passion).14 Behold, what an excellent deed this Orator sent from Heaven undertook for our liberty: As He was chained by the impious, He brought forth the race of man from Gehenna into freedom; hereafter, He left no one to be surrendered to the power of the ministers of Tartarus, unless one foolishly will have desired to return. Indeed, although, our humanity groans even now in the prisons of eternal death — it is not through any defect of the chains of Christ —but rather, on account of the intentional desire of the reprobates that they bring that death upon themselves. 4. But now, let us come to the matter itself, not [just] looking at it closely, but almost touching it with our hands. When under the leadership of Judas, the Praetorians were rushing with the other most wicked attendants of the Synagogue into the fateful garden, our Savior, “knowing all that was to befall [H]im, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’ They answered [H]im, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am [H]e.’ Judas, who betrayed [H]im, was standing with them. When [H]e said to them, ‘I am [H]e,’ they drew back and fell to the ground” (Jn 18:46). And that was the second time that it happened once again. Someone will interrupt here and cry out to me: O, how unfavorably our affairs proceed a second time! Liberty has been lost, while He, who crushed all the enemies onto the ground and 13 Cf. Capua, Fr. Di, Leone I, detto Magno, s. († 461), ECat VII, 1139. 14 Leo Magnus, Tractatus de Passione Domini, Feria Quarta (31 Martii 443): CChrL 138A, 333.
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