Suffering Christ new file

lieve that Christ inclined His sacred head (shortly) before ex- haling His mighty and divine spirit, in order to lure fearful death by this nod (of the head), and, having enticed it, to suf- focate (it) by dying. For just as the death of Christ is medicine for us, so it is poison to death. Because death already smelled it out and trembled to come near to the One already greatly worn out and half-alive through (His) sufferings. For what, death was saying to itself, will I do with this mouthful? Shall I swallow it? I’d be afraid lest I burst in half, and I have to give up everything I have eaten up until now. What death feared was what completely took hold of it. For as it gave its own venom to Christ, with His head lowered, it itself astonishingly perished, having been breathed upon by Him. We ought to listen here to (St. John) Chrysostom who perceptively explains in these words, what has just come to our attention: “Just like those who take food but cannot keep it (down), they vomit together with it not only that food but what they have eaten before. Thus it happened in the death of Christ. Since death accepted the body, which it was not able to digest, it actually vomited what it had swallowed. Since it had swallowed Christ, it was suffering and was tortured until it spewed Him forth.” Allow me to join to the words of such a great orator a bit of history; seeing that I deliver these words to the Poles, I will render the present subject matter clearer through a Pole’s deed. At the base of Wavel Hill, on which the citadel of Krakow is placed, to this day exists a cave, commonly called the Dragon’s cave. Among writers of Polish history, also the Bishop of War- mia 1 , records that this beast – called a dragon by our writers, 1 Marcin Kromer or Martin Cromer (1512 – 23 March 1589) was Prince- Bishop of Warmia (Ermland), a cartographer, diplomat, and historian in Poland and later in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was personal secretary to two Kings of Poland, Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus. In 1533–37, he worked at the Royal Chancellery in Krakow. Thereafter, he went to Italy, where he studied law for two years. Returning to Poland in 1540, he became secretary to Archbishop Peter Gamrat. As the latter’s personal advisor, he was also his envoy and representative to Rome, where he spent two years until 1544. He then became a canon in Kraków. In 1545, upon the death of his mentor, Kromer accepted the latter’s post as personal secretary to Poland’s D ISCOURSE VII 73