| CREDO (continued)
(Taken from Notes Made at the Conferences of Dom Prosper Guéranger).
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, sub Pontio Pilato passus et sepultus est. Crucifixus. The Apostles’ Creed has the same expression; the Apostles were bent on saying that our Lord was crucified, not content with simply stating that He died; and this, because it was of high importance to signalise, to all, the Victory of the Cross, over Satan. As we were ruined by the wood, so God willed that our salvation also should be wrought by the wood, as we elsewhere sing: ipse lignum tunc notavit, damna ligni ut solveret. [Himself designated the wood to repair the damage done by the wood] Yes; it was fitting that the artifice of our enemy should be foiled by his own trick itself: et medelam ferret inde, hostis unde laeserat [and thence take the cure, whence the enemy had made the harm], and that the remedy should be drawn thence, whence the enemy had taken the poison. It is for this very reason, that the Apostles were careful to lay so much stress on the manner of Christ’s being put to death; and when first announcing the faith, to pagans, they at once spoke of the Cross. St. Paul writing to the Corinthians, tells them that, when he first came amongst them, he had not judged it meet to preach unto them anything else but Jesus, and Jesus crucified: Et enim judicavi me scire aliquid inter vos, nisi Jesum Christum et hunc crucifixum. (1 Cor. ii. 2). And previously, too, he had said to them: And we preach Christ Crucified: a scandal, indeed, to the Jews, and to the Gentiles foolishness: Judaeis quidem scandalum, Gentibus autem stultitiam. (1 Cor. i. 23).
Jesus Christ was crucified, and the Creed adds: pro nobis. In the same way as we say propter nos homines descendit de coelis, it was fitting that Holy Church should impress upon us, that, if our Lord was crucified, it was for us. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis: sub Pontio Pilato passus. The name of the Roman Governor is here mentioned also by the Apostles, because it marks a date.
Et sepultus est. Christ suffered; that is very true; but what is just as true also is, that He was buried, and it must needs so have been; for had He not been buried, how could that prophecy have been accomplished, wherein it was said that He should rise again on the third day? By this also was proved the reality of His Death, complete and not fictitious Death, - since burial took place, just as is practiced in the case of other men. |