Caesarius of Arles, Sermon Eleven

Thanks for listening to the fourth episode of the Stromata. This week we're reading Sermon Eleven by Caesarius of Arles, a homily from the early Middle Ages exploring how Christ's suffering on the cross for our sake is a victory of justice and reason over power and might.

'Now, it is necessary for this to be believed to have been done in this way.  Christ the Lord without any guilt, without any blame, underwent a penal sentence; the innocent man is crucified without sin.  The Devil is made guilty by the death of an innocent man; the Devil is made guilty by bringing the cross upon a righteous man who owed nothing.  The death of Christ benefitted man: what Adam owed to God Christ paid by undergoing death, having been made without any doubt a sacrifice for the sin of men and for their race, just as the blessed Paul taught: “Christ,” he says, “loved us and handed himself over for us as an offering and sacrificial victim to God in a pleasing aroma.”'

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