ON THE VICTORY OF THE CROSS
BY THE HUMBLE ROMANOS (5th Century)
The sword of flame no longer guards the gate of Eden,
For a strange bond came upon it: the wood of the Cross.
The sting of Death and the victory of Hades were nailed to it.
But you appeared, my Saviour, crying to those in Hades:
‘Be brought back Again to Paradise’.
Nailed to the form of the Cross
As truly a ransom for many
You redeemed us, Christ our God,
For by your precious blood in love for mankind
You snatched our souls from death.
You brought us back with you
Again to Paradise.
All things in heaven and earth rightly rejoice with Adam,
Because he has been called
Again to Paradise.
Three crosses Pilate fixed on Golgotha,
Two for the thieves and one for the Giver of life,
Whom Hades saw and said to those below,
‘My ministers and powers,
Who has fixed a nail in my heart?
A wooden lance has suddenly pierced me and I am being torn apart.
My insides are in pain, my belly in agony.
My senses make my spirit tremble,
And I am compelled to disgorge
Adam and Adam’s race, given me by a tree,
A tree is bringing them back
Again to Paradise’.
When he heard this the cunning serpent,
Ran crawling and cried, ‘Hades, what is it?
Why do you groan for no reason? Why produce these wailings?
This tree, at which you tremble,
I carpentered up there for Mary’s child.
I intimated it to the Jews for our advantage,
For it is a cross, to which I have nailed Christ
Wishing by a tree to do away with the second Adam.
So do not upset yourself. It will not plunder you.
Keep hold of those you have. Of those whom we rule
Not one escapes Again to Paradise.’
‘Away with you, come to your senses, Beliar’, cries Hades
‘Run, open your eyes, and see
The root of the tree inside my soul.
It has gone down to my depths,
To draw up Adam like iron.
Elissaios of old painted its image in prophecy
When he drew the axe head from the river.
With a light object the prophet dragged a heavy
Warning you, and teaching you
That by a tree Adam is to be brought up
From wretchedness Again to Paradise.’
‘Who gave you such an idea, Hades?
Whence now this cowardly fear, where once there was no fear,
Of a worthless tree, dry and barren
Made for the removal
Of malefactors and those who welcome bloodshed?
For Pilate discovered it, persuaded by my counsels.
And do you fear it, and reckon it powerful?
The universal executioner : will it in your view prove a saviour?
Who has misled you? Who has persuaded you
That he who fell by a tree is being raised by a tree,
And, that he may dwell there, is being called
Again to Paradise.’
‘You have suddenly lost your senses, you of old the cunning serpent.
All your wisdom has been swallowed up through the Cross
And you have been caught in your own snare.
Lift up your eyes and see
That you have fallen into the pit which you created.
Behold that tree, which you call dry and barren,
Bears fruit, having tasted which a thief
Has become heir to the good things of Eden.
For it has outdone the rod
Which led the people out of Egypt,
For it is bringing Adam back
Again to Paradise.’
‘Wretched Hades, cease this cowardly talk,
For these words of yours reveal your thoughts.
Were you afraid of a cross and of the crucified?
Not one of your words has shaken me,
For these deeds are part of my plan,
For I would again both open a grave and entomb Christ.
So you may enjoy your cowardice double,
From his tomb as well as from his cross.
But when I see you, I shall mock you.
For when Christ is buried I shall come to you and say,
“Who now is bringing Adam back
Again to Paradise?”’
Suddenly Hades began to call out to the devil—
The eyeless to the sightless, the blind to the blind—‘Look,
You are walking in darkness, feel around, lest you fall.
Consider what I tell you, hard of heart,
Because what you are doing has quenched the sun.
For the tree which you boast of has shaken the universe,
Has convulsed the earth, hidden the sky,
Rent the rocks together with the Veil,
And raised up those in the graves.
And the dead are shouting, “Hades, understand.
For Adam is running back
Again to Paradise.”’
‘Has the Nazarene’s tree been strong enough to scare you?’
Said the devil to Hades the destroyer,
‘Have you been slain by a cross, you who slay all?
Truly if a tree has scared you,
The crucifixion of Haman should have frightened you,
And that stake with which Jael did away with Sisera,
And the five crosses to which Jesus son of Navi
Once fixed the tyrants.
More than all let the plant in Eden
Scare you, because it led out
Adam, yet does not lead him back
Again to Paradise.’
‘Now is the moment for you to open your ears, Beliar.
Now the hour will show you the power of the cross
And the great authority of the crucified.
For you the cross is folly, But for all creation it is seen as a throne,
Nailed on which Jesus, as though seated,
Hears the thief crying to him,
“Lord, remember me in your kingdom”,
And answers as from a tribunal,
“Today, poor beggar, you will reign with me.
For with me you will go in
Again to Paradise.”’
When he heard this, the all-resourceful dragon,
He began to wilt, and what he had heard he saw,
A thief witnessing to Christ crucified.
And so, astounded at this
He strikes his breast and argues,
‘He speaks to a thief, yet does not answer his accusers?
To Pilate he never deigned so much as a word,
Now he addresses a murderer, saying, “Come, live in pleasure”?
What is this? Who has seen
On the cross words or deeds from the thief
By means of which he is taking
This man to Paradise?’
A second time the demon raised the same cry
Calling out, ‘Hades, receive me. My recourse is to you,
For I submit to your views, I who did not believe them.
I saw the tree at which you shuddered
Crimsoned with blood and water.
And I shuddered, not, I tell you, at the blood, but at the water.
For the former shows the slaughter of Jesus,
But the latter, his life, because life has gushed
From his side. For it was not the first
But the second Adam who made Eve,
The mother of all living, bud
With words like these the wholly wicked one
Grudgingly admitted that he had fallen along with Hades.
And so, of course, together they bewail their fall,
‘What’, he says, ‘is this to which we have brought ourselves?
How have we fallen by this tree?
For our destruction its stock was rooted in the earth.
We grafted to it bitter shoots.
The sweetness in it we did not transform’.
‘Alas, my comrade’. ‘Alas, my companion’.
‘As we have fallen together. So let us grieve,
For Adam is going back
Again to Paradise.’
O how did we not remember the types of this tree!
For of old they were shown forth in many and various ways
In the saved and in the lost.
By a tree Noah was saved,
But the whole world, unbelieving, was destroyed.
Moses was glorified through one when he took a staff as a sceptre,
But Egypt, with the plagues that came from it,
Was drowned as though fallen into deep wells.
What it has now done, the Cross showed forth
Of old in image. How then can we not weep?
For Adam is going
Again to Paradise.’
‘Wait, wretched Hades’, said the demon with a groan,
‘Quiet, be patient, lay hand on mouth,
For I hear a voice revealing joy.
A sound has reached me bringing good tidings,
A rustle of words like the leaves of the Cross.
For Christ at the point of death cried out, “Father, forgive them”.
But he grieved me when he then said
That “the lawless know not what they do”.
But we know that it is the Lord
Of glory who is suffering and that he wishes
To bring Adam back
Again to Paradise.’
‘Did not the Master by the tree he showed to Moses,
Which once sweetened the water at Mara,
Teach what it was and what its root?
Then he did not say, for it was not his will.
But now he has made it clear to all.
For see, all things have been made pleasant, but we have been embittered.
A cross which was thrust into the earth
Has sprouted from our root, which became sweet.
That which formerly bred thorns
Now like a vine of Sorec has put out branches
Which are transplanted
Again to Paradise.’
‘Now therefore, Hades, groan and I will harmonise with your wails.
Let us lament as we see the tree which we planted
Transformed into a holy trunk,
Beneath which have sheltered
And will nest in its branches
Thieves, murderers, and publicans and harlots, that they may reap
Sweet fruit from the supposedly arid.
For as to a plant of life they cling to the Cross.
Pressed against it and swimming,
Through it they escape and are brought for anchorage
As to a fair haven
Again to Paradise.’
‘Swear then, tyrant, finally to crucify no one.’
‘And you, Tartarus, make a firm decision to slay no one.’
‘We have had our experience, let us draw in our hand.
May what we have undergone become for us
Knowledge for the future.
Let neither of us henceforth tyrannise against the race of Adam,
For it has been sealed by the Cross, like a treasure
Containing an unravished pearl in a corruptible vessel,
Which a thief, well-suited to his trade,
Ravished on the cross. For stealing he was nailed up,
And for thieving he was called
Again to Paradise.’
Most high and glorious, God of fathers and of youths,
Your willing outrage has become our honour.
For in your Cross we all boast.
To it let us nail our hearts,
That on it we may hang our instruments
And sing to you, the Lord of all, from the songs of Sion.
The ship from Tharsis once upon a time
Brought gold to Solomon, as it is written.
To us your Tree gives back
Every day and moment wealth beyond price,
For it brings us all
Again to Paradise.