In the first place, [it] rightly signifies the passage into eternal life of all the faithful who follow the true Joshua, Christ the Lord and Saviour, by faith and obedience. For what else is this life of ours than a continual pilgrimage through the various solitudes of this world? And when at last, by the grace and help of God, we have finished it, we come—
(col. 458 — lower)
—we come to the banks of the Jordan, to the last time of life, to death itself. And is not this very [death] a kind of “crossing” [transitus]? Certainly [it] is so called by the French, among whom “to die” is trespasser, and the dead one trespassé — but the greatest crossing of all, as their superlative particle tres [“very / most”] indicates. And in our scriptures [too]? “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he should pass [transiret] out of this world to the Father” (John 13 v. 1). And most clearly, and most aptly to the matter in hand, JESUS himself said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, [that] he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but shall pass [transiet] from death to life” (John 5 v. 24).
(col. 459)
—and [John] 13 [v. 1]: “When he should pass out of this world.” &c. But the promised land itself bore the figure of the promised [things] of the heavens [made] to us, and of that eternal inheritance and rest — as the Prophet David teaches (Ps. 94 [95]), and the Apostle expounding him (Heb. 3 & 4). For [the Apostle] shows [that there] still remains for us an entering “into [the] rest” — which certainly is not that [rest] which had passed by before David, this [Psalm’s] writer; whether it be that in which God rested at the first founding of all things (Gen. 2 v. 2), or that into which that ancient Jesus [Joshua] led the Israelites — but another, which was foreshadowed by these rests. St. Jerome (on Eph. ch. 6): “[There] is to be sought the land which the Lord promises, and grants to those who shall have left spiritual Egypt; and [who], with all patience, shall have crossed the great and terrible deserts of this life, and shall have conquered great kings, whom the Lord strikes down, and shall have crossed into Judea, which flows with milk and honey; and [who], under Jesus the Leader — Jericho falling, and Ai laid waste (which is interpreted ‘a steep [precipice]’) — shall have come to Jerusalem; and [for whom] a temple is built under Solomon the peaceful King; and [who] shall possess the land which is prepared for the meek. For ‘Blessed [are] the meek, for they shall possess the land’ — which is truly the land of the living, the Psalmist also saying: ‘I believe [I shall] see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.’”
But at this very crossing of death the Jordan overflows — [how] shall we be able to cross? Behold the huge floods of temptations from Satan, who lies in wait most of all for this last time of life. Behold, from nature itself — which shudders at the dissolution of body and soul, [and] which is hindered and most vehemently disturbed by the force of sickness and the bitterness of the pains tearing our flesh — great masses of waves. And these, as it were natural [waves], those so many and so great adventitious [ones] increase, which arise from the melted snows of Lebanon and of the other mountains. But those snows are this world’s pleasures, honors, [and] riches — which appear white [gleaming] by the foolish admiration of men, and [yet] are cold, and fleeting. One rather warm breath of fortune, one little Zephyr-fever, one spring[-thaw], one irradiation of a hotter sun, dissolves all these. But thereafter, when one must die, [come] the various and vast whirlpools of cares and sorrows. And the greatest trouble and terror they bring, who are on the right [hand] of those crossing, and stand on the upper side. For [it] generally happens [that] death is harder and more resisted [by those] to whom [belong] these right-hand and prosperous [goods]. “O death,” says Ecclesiasticus (ch. 41 v. 1), “how bitter is thy memory to a man that has peace in his possessions — to a quiet man, and whose ways are directed in all things, and who is still able to take food!” But the lower and left[-hand] waters yield, as it were of their own accord, and make [it so] that a man passes hence to the heavenly [things] neither unwillingly, nor with much difficulty. And therefore [it] there follows: “O death, good is thy judgment to a needy man, and to him who is lessened in strength, [and] failing in age” [Sir 41:3–4]. Yet through both these waters one must cross; and [when there] is neither ford nor bridge of doctors, nor of natural [things] or medicines, nor of consolations — what [is] to be done? JESUS our [Leader] must open the way for us. Through the midst of the waves, with dry foot, if we will, he will lead us [across]; he will hold up [against] the falling-in of all the waters. And this by the work of his priests and Angels. To them he committed [the ark] of the divine books, and of the heavenly manna — that is—
(col. 460)
—[the ark] of all the sacraments, by which the weakness of souls, as by the best food, is propped up and refreshed: to these [priests and angels], indeed, he gave charge concerning us, “that we dash not our foot against a stone” [Ps 90/91:12]. These, by so great a power and grace granted to them, will check the roused assaults of all temptations and dangers; these will bring [it] to pass [that] we depart happily into that blessed region, without any stain [wetness] of crimes, [or] any moisture of old depravities. “See, brethren,” says the Apostle (Heb. 3 v. 12), “lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God: but exhort yourselves every day, while it is called ‘today,’ that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ — yet so, if we hold firm the beginning of his substance unto the end. While [it] is said: ‘Today, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in that provocation.’ For some, hearing, provoked [him] — but not all who set out from Egypt through Moses. But with whom was he angered forty years? Was [it] not with those who sinned, whose carcasses were laid low in the desert? And to whom did he swear [that] they should not enter into his rest, but to those who were unbelieving? And we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” And afterward (ch. 4 v. 11): “Let us hasten, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall into the same example of unbelief.”
Nay indeed, [it] behooves us to cross not alone, but to lead across with us a great multitude also of the Egyptians and of other peoples — as the Israelites did: namely, by exhorting others too, [and] by instructing, [and] admonishing [them] with words and deeds. “In all things,” says the same Apostle (2 Cor. 6), “let us show ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience,” &c., “by the arms of justice on the right hand and on the left; by glory and dishonor; by evil report and good report.”
But for so great a crossing — of so great moment, peril, and difficulty — [there] is need of good preparation. “To live,” says Seneca (in the book On the Brevity of Life ch. 7), “is to be learned one’s whole life.” Nay, one’s whole life [it] is to be learned — to die. Let us sanctify ourselves, let us get provisions [cibaria], let us follow the ark of the Lord, let us tread in the footprints of the priests, and, undaunted, with faith and great courage, let us go down into the channel of this Jordan. The power of God will be at hand, and the hand of the Angels. And indeed [it] is a point [moment] of time in which [it] is to be crossed. For suddenly these waters are divided, and [we] are hastily carried across. How little is this — to breathe forth the breath twice or thrice? How little the delay between this bank and the other — between “he wakes and he sleeps,” between “he lives and he [has] lived”? But on the tenth day of the first month [it] is to be crossed. As these few ten days stand to the whole year, so does this whole life of ours [stand] to eternity. Those [days] are only the beginning; but a beginning, nevertheless, in which [is] the simplest series of all numbers — from which, coupled and heaped together among themselves, innumerable and infinite sums are built. To this crossing, moreover, many other [things] can be applied from the [matters] above. But in these few [words] this [is] now sample enough — [though it] would not a little illustrate [it] that the words of Origen [do so]. “After the labors,” he says (hom. 4), “and the temptations which we shall have endured in the desert of this world; after the crossing of the Red Sea; after the streams of the Jordan — if we be worthy to enter the land of promise, with joy and exultation we shall arrive, following the priests of the Lord Christ and Saviour—
(col. 461)
—[following the priests] of our Saviour, to whom is glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.” [end of the Origen quotation, and of Q I]