805 discourse vi: the glorious cross Not at all, says Athanasius: “He raised [His] body on the cross” (these are words of the saintly Father), “yet He was not humiliated through this but remained glorious in Himself, producing such signs that revealed Him at that time not as a man but as the Word of God.”60 Let the King of glory hang and die on the gibbet of the Cross, [placed] between the thieves. Let Him entrust His spirit into the hands of the Father, and hand over His spirit. On His command, let the sun darken, the sky thunder, the earth shake, the rocks burst, hell quake violently, ghosts of the dead come forth from the tombs, the veil of the temple be torn, and all of nature be stuck dumb. Let the crowds, striking their chests, come back to their senses and return together to the city. And let the unmerciful centurion who drew from the side of the Crucified the light of faith and the river of redemption recognize as the Son of God the One whom he pierced through. May he further seal with his own death and blood the testimony of his faith and love for the Crucified.61 However, since it was on the Cross and nowhere else or at any other time, that He, Jesus Crucified did exercise such power — who would deny that this [power] was obtained through the Cross? Because it was not before His death but after His Resurrection, that He was glorified before His disciples, and that He, the most omnipotent, was [recognized as] King of Heaven and earth. As He said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to [M]e” (Mt 28:18). “And if He openly said this,” — this is the most remarkable astuteness of Athanasius of Sinai — “that the origin of glory is the Cross, through the death inflicted on the Cross; [it was] because, never before during His whole life, did He reveal His power more. This happened in order that already the cause of His glory may manifestly be revealed as the Cross.”62 60 The source of this quotation was not able to be found. 61 Tradition holds this centurion to be St. Longinus, who after his conversion later died a martyr. 62 Cf. Anastasius “Sinaita,” Oratio IV: De Passione et Impassibilitate Christi, III: PG 89, 1350: Sancti Anastasii, Patriarchae Antchiocheni, De Nostris Rectis Dogmatibus Veritatis, Orationes Quinque.
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