Section CLXII

And they pertain to all in such a way that not even one moment of time has passed since the most wretched transgression of Adam which was empty of the benefits of the reparation that was at last to be fulfilled and consummated. “For,” writes Leo¹,

because, according to the inscrutable purpose of the wisdom of God, in the last days² the Word was made flesh, it does not therefore follow that the birth of the salvific Virgin profited only the generations of the final time and did not also pour itself back into preceding ages. Absolutely all antiquity of those worshiping the true God, every number of the saints in the prior ages, lived and was pleasing in this faith; and neither for the patriarchs, nor for the prophets, nor for absolutely any of the saints was there salvation and justification except in the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as it was awaited, promised by many oracles and signs of the prophets, so it was also presented by the gift and work itself.

For³:

figures preceded so that the effect might follow; and with the advent of the things announced, the offices of the messengers were ended, the reconciliation of the human race being so ordered that the salvation which is in Christ was lacking to no ages under the same justification. And the rationale of the delays profited to this end: that those things which were believed for a long time before they occurred might be honored without hesitation. For since the virtue of faith consists in those things⁴ which are not subjected to sight, heavenly doctrine dealt more indulgently with us, whom it deferred unto these times of the world, so that, for facility of understanding, we might employ many more prophets and witnesses than our predecessors.

It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish accurately and diligently: a)—

—when reparation was first completed and when it began to unfold its power; and then b) what difference of condition ought to be established between men who passed their mortal life before or after the mystery of reparation was completed.

As regards the former, the answer is readily at hand: reparation was not completed in the work itself before the fullness of times had arrived; nevertheless, in no ages were those benefits lacking of which perfect and absolute reparation was the fountain and most abundant origin. But as regards the latter, it must be held that more indulgently indeed was it done, and is it still done, with those who lived and will live after the fullness of times; nevertheless, the safeguards necessary for obtaining salvation were also present to those who had completed the course of mortal life in the ages which had previously passed.

Leo explains all these things remarkably when, having aroused⁵ his hearers to the promised understanding of faith and admonished them not to be content to know the order of the deed unless they also inspect the very rationale of the piety expended upon them, so that human nature, by knowing how much it is loved by its author, may love him more, he immediately adds⁶:

God had no cause for having mercy upon us except in his own goodness; and the second generation of men is more wonderful than their first condition, because it is a greater thing that in the last ages God repaired that which had perished than that in the beginning he made that which was not. Therefore no merits of the preceding saints received by themselves the liberty of natural innocence which we lost through the transgression of our first parents, because the sentence pronounced against the transgressors bound every offspring of the captive posterity, and no one was exempt from condemnation because no one was free from guilt. But the redemption of the Savior, destroying the work of the devil and breaking the bonds of sin, so disposed the mystery of his great piety that the predetermined fullness of the generations would indeed run unto the consummation of the world, but the renewal of origin through the justification of an undiscriminating faith would pertain to all past ages. For the Incarnation of the Word and the slaying and resurrection of Christ were made—

“—the salvation of all the faithful; and the blood of the one just man bestowed this upon us who believe that it was poured out for the reconciliation of the world, which it conferred upon the fathers who similarly believed it was to be poured out.”

Therefore, in another sermon again, having first explained in these words⁷ both the amplitude and the necessity of the Incarnation:

In order, therefore, that we might be called back from original bonds and worldly errors unto eternal beatitude, he himself descended to us, to whom we could not ascend. For although a love of truth was inherent in many⁸, nevertheless the variety of uncertain opinions was deceived by the craftiness of deceiving demons, and human ignorance was drawn by knowledge falsely so called into diverse and conflicting judgments. But for removing this mockery, by which captive minds served the proud devil, legal doctrine did not suffice, nor could our nature be repaired by prophetic exhortations alone; but the truth of redemption had to be added to moral institutes, and the origin corrupted from the beginning had to be reborn from new beginnings. A victim had to be offered for those to be reconciled which would both share in our race and be alien to our contamination, so that this purpose of God, by which it pleased him that the sin of the world be destroyed in the nativity and Passion of Jesus Christ, might pertain to the ages of all generations, and that mysteries varied according to the rationale of times might not disturb us but rather confirm us, since the faith by which we live was diverse in no age.

With no delay interposed⁹, he adds:

Therefore let the complaints of those cease who, opposing the divine economies with impious murmuring, complain of the lateness of the Lord’s nativity, as though that which was accomplished in the last age of the world had not been expended upon preceding times. For the Incarnation¹⁰ of the Word conferred, while it was to be done, that which it conferred when accomplished; and the mystery of human salvation never ceased in any antiquity. What the apostles preached, this the prophets announced; nor—

“—was that fulfilled late which was always believed. But the wisdom and benignity of God, by this delay of the salvific work, made us more capacious of his calling, so that what had been announced beforehand by many signs, many voices, and many mysteries through so many ages would not be ambiguous in these days of the Gospel; and the nativity of the Savior, which was to exceed all miracles and every measure of human understanding, would beget in us a faith the more constant, the more ancient and frequent the preaching of it had preceded. Therefore God did not take counsel for human affairs by a new counsel, nor provide for them with a late compassion, but from the foundation of the world he instituted one and the same cause of salvation for all. For the grace of God, by which the universality of the saints has always been justified, was increased when Christ was born, not begun; and this mystery of great piety, by which the whole world has now been filled, was nevertheless powerful even in its significations, so that those who believed it promised attained no less than those who received it when given.”

Therefore the reparation of the human race obtained by the blood of Christ excels and shines especially by a twofold endowment: first, by universality of persons, by which it embraces all and each of men; and then by universality of times, by which it so encompassed all ages that it did not pass over even one empty of its graces. Nor can we judge that those ascended to the promised understanding of faith who either a) do not distinguish the work itself of completed redemption from its power; or b) circumscribe by the same boundaries both the work and its power; or c) judge that the delay of completed and consummated redemption is to be attributed not to wisdom and benignity but to severity and justice. For although the Only-begotten came into the world only in the last times, underwent death, and consummated the very work of reparation by his poured-out blood, nevertheless its power passed over no ages and deprived none of its gifts. And although the nativity and death of the Repairer can perhaps be called late, nevertheless the mercy of him who repairs neither can nor ought to be called or believed late. For from the foundation of the world he instituted one and the same cause of salvation for all. Just as it belonged to mercy never to deny the necessary aids to anyone, so it belonged to wisdom and—

—benignity to educate and advance the human family by certain steps, as it were, and to lead it to a certain summit, as it were, of perfection. The institutor and reformer of men accomplished this by delaying the work of reparation; for the grace of God by which the universality of the saints has always been justified was increased, not begun, when Christ was born.