In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, greetings on this feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God.
On this Summer Pascha, we celebrate the falling-asleep and resurrection of the Theotokos as the firstborn of the children of Adam and Eve, truly risen in body and soul, and assumed into the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.
As the Hodegetria, ‘she who shows the way’, the Virgin is glorified in the totality of the resurrection, going physically as well as spiritually before the faithful-departed of every generation into the radiant eternity of the Eighth Day, which shall have no end.
Despite the heavenly nature of this feast, we are sometimes so earth-bound as we look at the plashchanitsa and icon.
Though mindful of the Lord taking His Mother – body and soul – into heaven, and though rejoicing at the empty tomb in Gethsemane, we often fail to reflect on the celestial joy of the glorious reception of the Mother of God into heaven.
In his poetic homily for the feast, Mar Jacob of Serugh reminds us that it is not only the company of the apostles that gathers at the Dormition of the Mother of God, but also the whole throng of the angelic hosts, who rejoice at her translation from death to life.
“Ranks and companies, also choirs of the sons of light; a clamour of watchers and a multitude of burning flames.
Fiery seraphim with wings closely covered by flames, with legions and their heavenly divisions.
Mighty cherubim who were yoked beneath his throne are moved by wonder to give praise with their Hosannas.
Followers of Gabriel, a glowing fiery multitude, and variously transformed in their natures.
Followers of Michael full of movement in their dissent, feasting, rejoicing, making merry this day with their Alleluias.
Heaven and the air of glory were filled with celestial beings, who journeyed and came down to the place of earth.”
Mar Jacob then turns to the saints of the Old Testament – the patriarchs, prophets, judges, kings and righteous ones who are not only the forefathers of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, through whom the Saviour was clothed in the flesh of Adam in His Incarnation.
By the victory of the Cross, Christ harrowed hell and stripped it of the righteous held by the chains and shackles of death, but it was only in spirit that their exodus led them from death life, and from the depths of Hades to the heights of heaven.
As they behold the full realisation of the resurrection, which they still await, Mar Jacob paints a poetic picture of their rejoicing as they see their daughter according to the flesh enter Heaven in that very flesh that has been received from them as her forebears.
“On this day Adam rejoices and Eve his wife, because their daughter rests in the place where they are gathered.
On this day the righteous Noah and Abraham rejoiced that their daughter has visited them in their dwelling-place.
On this day Jacob, the honourable old man, rejoices that the daughter who sprouted from his root has called him into life.
On this day the twelve just sons of the lame one rejoiced greatly and are glad in that she visited them.
On this day let also Judah rejoiced greatly, for behold the daughter who has given life, went forth from his loins.
On this day let Joseph rejoice in the great Moses, for one young maiden has called all mankind to life.
On this day let Aaron rejoice in Eliezar and all the tribes of the sons of Levi with their priesthood.
On this day let David the renowned forefather rejoice, because the daughter who was from him, has placed a glorious crown on his head.
On this day let Samuel rejoice with Jeremiah, because the daughter of Judah dropped dew on their bones.
Come Ezekiel, trained in prophetic revelation, if the thing that has occurred is described in your prophecy.
On this day let also Isaiah the prophet rejoice, because she whom he prophesied, behold she visits him in the place of the dead.
On this day all the prophets lifted their heads from their graves, because they saw the light which shone forth on them.
They saw that death is disquieted and flees from within them; and that the gates of heaven and the depths of the earth are opened again.”
Despite their greatness, these Old Testament saints only encountered God in veiled-appearances, types and shadows, with the Lord telling Moses, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”
In the harrowing of hell they spiritually beheld the Lord, whose body rested in the sepulchre even as He descended in soul to liberate their souls from death. In his Ascension, they – abiding in heaven awaiting the physical resurrection – beheld Him in His glorified flesh.
In their earthly sojourn, they had prophetically looked forward through the centuries to the virgin-mother, the rod of the root of Jesse, who would bear Immanuel – God with us.
In the glory of the Dormition and Assumption they welcomed their daughter, whose childhood entrance into the Holy of Holies of the Temple foreshadowed this day, when she entered the eternal sanctuary on high, following her Son’s translation of glorified human-nature to the right hand of the Father in his Ascension.
Though the forefathers, like all of the departed other than the Theotokos, must await the fulness of the resurrection, they rejoiced with the bodiless powers of heaven as they witnessed her Assumption as the fulfilment of the promise that they await.
With the passing of the centuries, new generations of the faithful are added to the synaxis of angels and humans who celebrate the heavenly translation of the Mother of Life, who leads us from death to life, and our own aspiration to the glorious reality of the Dormition and Assumption demands that we look to the example of the Mother of God in our hope to follow her heavenward-journey.
Striving to embrace the simplicity, humility, purity and God-centred obedience of her life, and imitating her by bowing before the Lord’s will each day, we must constantly echo her words, “Be it unto me according to Thy word”, whilst obeying her command at the marriage of Cana, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”
Just as her selfless life always pointed to the Saviour, so that she reflected Him as the moon reflects the light of the sun, His teachings and life-in-Him must be the existential reality and narrative of our lives, reflected and realised in each thought, word and deed.
If we are prepared to follow her example, the Theotokos already shows us the way from death to life, and from all that is earthly, temporal and transitory to the eternal glory of heaven, where the saints rejoice – radiant in the resurrection of Christ for all eternity.
Striving to emulate the Mother of God, and to follow her, let us struggle to mount the heights of heaven, rejoicing in the words of Mar Jacob “that death is disquieted and flees… and that the gates of heaven and the depths of the earth are opened again.”
From the land comes the joy of harvest, from the vineyard fruits that give food, and from the Scriptures teaching that gives life. The land has one season for the harvest, and the vineyard has one season for the vintage, but the Scripture when read always overflows with teaching that gives life. The land when it has been harvested lies fallow and the vineyard when the grapes have been picked is unproductive, but when Scripture is harvested the grapes of those who expound it are not lacking in it. It is picked every day and the grape clusters of the hope in it are never exhausted. Let us then draw near to this land and enjoy its life-giving furrows; and let us harvest from it grapes of life, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to his Disciples, ‘There are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of man coming in his glory’.[1]
‘And after six days he took Simon Peter and James and John his brother to a very high mountain and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white like light’.[2] Men whom he said would not taste death until they saw the image of his coming, are those whom he took and led up the mountain and showed them how he was going to come on the last day in the glory of his divinity and in the body of his humanity.
He led them up the mountain to show them who the Son is and whose he is. Because when he asked them, ‘Whom do men say the Son of man is?’[3] They said to him, some Elias, others Jeremias, or one of the Prophets. This is why he leads them up the mountain and shows them that he is not Elias, but the God of Elias; again, that he is not Jeremias, but the one who sanctified Jeremias in his mother’s womb;[4] not one of the Prophets, but the Lord of the Prophets, who also sent them. And he shows them that he is the maker of heaven and earth, and that he is Lord of living and dead. For he gave orders to heaven and brought down Elias, and made a sign to the earth and raised up Moses.
He led them up the mountain to show them that he is the Son of God, born from the Father before the ages and in the last times incarnate from the Virgin, as he knows how, born ineffably and without seed, preserving her virginity incorrupt; for wherever God wills it, the order of nature is overcome.[5] For God the Word dwelt in the Virgin’s womb, and the fire of his divinity did not consume the members of the Virgin’s body, but protected them carefully by its nine month presence. He dwelt in the Virgin’s womb, not abhorring the unpleasant smell of nature, and God incarnate came forth from her to save us.
He led them up the mountain to show them the glory of the godhead and to make known to them that he is the redeemer of Israel, as he had shown through the Prophets, and they should not be scandalised in him when they saw his voluntary sufferings, which as man he was about to suffer for us. For they knew him as a man, but did not know that he was God. They knew him as son of Mary, going about with them in the world[6], and he made known to them on the mountain that he was Son of God and God. They saw that he ate and drank, toiled and rested, dozed and slept, things which did not accord with his divine nature, but only with his humanity, and so he took them to the mountain that the Father might call him Son[7] and show that he is truly his Son and that he is God.
He led them up the mountain and showed them his kingship before his passion, and his power before his death, and his glory before his disgrace, and his honour before his dishonour, so that, when he was arrested and crucified by the Jews, they might know that he was not crucified through weakness, but willingly by his good pleasure for the salvation of the world.
He led them up the mountain and showed the glory of his divinity before the resurrection, so that when he rose from the dead in the glory of his divine nature, they might know that it was not because of his harsh toil that he accepted glory, as if he lacked it, but it was his before the ages with the Father and together with the Father, as he said as he was coming to his voluntary passion,[8] ‘Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world existed’.[9]
And so on the mountain he showed his Apostles the glory of his divinity, concealed and hidden by his humanity. For they saw his face bright as lightning and his garments white as light. They saw two suns; one in the sky, as usual, and one unusually; one visible in the firmament and lighting the world, and one, his face, visible to them alone. His garments white as light showed that the glory of his divinity flooded from his whole body, and his light shone from all his members. For his flesh did not shine with splendour from without, like Moses,[10] but the glory of his divinity flooded from him. His light dawned and was drawn together in him. Nor did depart somewhere else and leave him, because it did come from another place and adorn him, nor was it for his use. And he did not display the whole depth of his glory, but only as much as the limits of their eyes could encompass.[11]
‘And there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him’.[12] And the words that they said to him were such as these: they were thanking him that their words and those of all their fellow Prophets had been fulfilled by his coming. They offered him worship for the salvation which he had wrought for the world for the human race; and that he had fulfilled in reality the mystery they had only sketched. There was joy for the Prophets and the Apostles by this ascent of the mountain. The Prophets rejoiced when they saw his humanity, which they had not known. The Apostles also rejoiced when they saw the glory of his divinity, which they had not known, and heard the voice of the Father bearing witness to his Son; and through this they recognised his incarnation, which was concealed from them. And the witness of the three was sealed by the Father’s voice and by Moses and Elias, who stood by him like servants, and they looked to one another: the Prophets to the Apostles and the Apostles to the Prophets. There the authors of the old covenant saw the authors of the new. Holy Moses saw Simon the sanctified; the steward of the Father saw the administrator of the Son. The former divided the sea for the people to walk in the middle of the waves; the latter raised a tent for the building of the Church. The virgin of the old covenant saw the virgin of the new:[13] [Elias and John;] the one who mounted on the chariot of fire and the one who leaned on the breast of the flame. And the mountain became a type of the Church, and on it Jesus united the two covenants, which the Church received, and made known to us that he is the giver of the two. The one received his mysteries; the other revealed the glory of his works.
Simon said, “It is good for us to be here, Lord”.[14] “Simon, what are you saying? If we remain here, who fulfils the word of the Prophets? Who seals the sayings of the heralds? Who brings to perfection the mysteries of the just? If we remain here, in whom are the words, ‘They dug my hands and my feet’[15] fulfilled? To whom do the words, ‘They parted my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing’[16] apply? To whom does, ‘They gave me gall as my food, and with vinegar they quenched my thirst’[17] relate? Who confirms, ‘Free among the dead?’[18] If we remain here, who will tear up the record of Adam’s debt?[19] And who will pay his debt in full? And who will restore to him the garment of glory?[20]If we remain here, how will all that I have said to you come to pass? How will the Church be built?[21] How will you take the keys of the kingdom of heaven from me?[22] What will you bind? What will you loose? If we remain here, everything that was said through the Prophets will come to nothing.”
He then said, “Let us make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elias”.[23] Simon was sent to build the Church in the world, and he is making tents on the mountain; for he was still looking at Jesus in human terms, and placed him with Moses and Elias. And besides this he showed him that he did not need his tent, for it was he who had made for his fathers a tent of cloud in the desert for forty years.[24]“For while he was still speaking, a cloud of light overshadowed them”. [25] “Do you see a tent made without toil, Simon? A tent that prevents heat and contains no darkness? A tent that blazes and shines?”[26]
And while the Disciples were marvelling, out of the cloud a voice was heard from the Father, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him.”[27] At the voice of the Father, Moses returned to his place and Elias returned to his country, and the Apostles fell on their faces to the ground, and Jesus stood alone, because the voice was fulfilled in him alone. The Prophets left and the Apostles fell to the ground, because the Father’s voice in witness, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him”, was not fulfilled in them. The Father taught them that Moses’ dispensation was fulfilled, and that they should listen to the Son, “For Moses, as a servant, spoke what he was ordered to, and he proclaimed what he had been told, and so did all the Prophets, until the one to whom it belongs has come,[28] that is Jesus, who is Son, not servant, Lord and not slave, who is master and not subject, lawgiver and not subject to the law. By divine nature, ‘This is my beloved Son’”. On the mountain the Father made known to the Apostles what was hidden from them. The One Who Is[29] reveals the One Who Is. The Father makes known the Son.
At that voice the Apostles fell on their faces to the ground; for there was a fearsome thunder, so that the earth shook at his voice, and they fell to the ground.[30] It showed them that the Father had drawn near; and the Son called them with his voice and raised them up.[31] For as the voice of the Father had thrown them down, so too the voice of the Son, raised them up by the strength of his divinity, which dwelt in his flesh and was united in it without change, both remain indivisibly and unconfusedly in one hypostasis and one person. He did not, like Moses, become resplendent from without, but as God he blazed with glory. For Moses was anointed with splendour by the appearance of his face, while Jesus in his whole body blazed, like the sun with its rays, with the glory of his divinity.
And the Father cried out, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him”. The Son was not separated from the glory of the godhead, for the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit are one nature, one power and once essence and one kingship. And he cried out to one with a simple name[32] and with fearsome glory. And Mary called him ‘son’, not separated from the glory of his divinity by his human nature; for he is one, God who appeared in a body to the world. His glory revealed the divine nature that was from the Father, and his body revealed his human nature that was from Mary; both natures coming together and being united in one hypostasis. Only begotten from the Father, and only begotten from Mary. And anyone who parts him will be parted from his kingdom, and anyone who confounds his natures will perish from his life. May anyone who denies that Mary gave birth to God not see the glory of his divinity; and anyone who denies that he bore a sinless body will be cast out from salvation and from the life that has been given through his body.
The facts themselves bear witness and his divine acts of power teach those who doubt that he is true God, and his sufferings show that he is true man.[33] And if those who are feeble in understanding are not fully assured, they will pay the penalty on his dread day. If he was not flesh, why was Mary introduced at all? And if he was not God, whom was Gabriel calling Lord? If he was not flesh, who was lying in the manger? And if he was not God, whom did the Angels come down and glorify? If he was not flesh, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes? And if he was not God, whom did the shepherds worship? If he was not flesh, whom did Joseph circumcise? And if he was not God, in whose honour did the star speed through the heavens? If he was not flesh, whom did Mary suckle? And if he was not God, to whom did the Magi offer gifts? If he was not flesh, whom did Symeon carry in his arms? And if he was not God, to whom did he say, “Let me depart in peace”?[34] If he was not flesh, whom did Joseph take and flee into Egypt? And if he was not God, in whom were words “Out of Egypt I have called my Son” fulfilled?[35] If he was not flesh, whom did John baptise? And if he was not God, to whom did the Father from heaven say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased”? If he was not flesh, who fasted and hungered in the desert? And if he was not God, whom did the Angels come down and serve? If he was not flesh, who was invited to the wedding in Cana of Galilee? And if he was not God, who turned the water into wine? If he was not flesh, in whose hands were the loaves? And if he was not God, who satisfied crowds and thousands in the desert, not counting women and children, from five loaves and two fishes? If he was not flesh, who fell asleep in the boat? And if he was not God, who rebuked the winds and the sea? If he was not flesh, with whom did Simon the Pharisee eat? And if he was not God, who pardoned the offences of the sinful woman? If he was not flesh, who sat by the well, worn out by the journey? And if he was not God, who gave living water to the woman of Samaria and reprehended her because she had had five husbands? If he was not flesh, who wore human garments? And if he was not God, who did acts of power and wonders?[36] If he was not flesh, who spat on the ground and made clay? And if he was not God, who through the clay compelled the eyes to see? If he was not flesh, who wept at Lazarus’ grave? And if he was not God, who by his command brought out one four days dead? If he was not flesh, who sat on the foal? And if he was not God, whom did the crowds go out to meet with glory? If he was not flesh, whom did the Jews arrest? And if he was not God, who gave an order to the earth and threw them onto their faces.[37] If he was not flesh, who was struck with a blow? And if he was not God, who cured the ear that had been cut off by Peter and restored it to its place? If he was not flesh, who received spittings on his face? And if he was not God, who breathed the Holy Spirit into the faces of his Apostles? If he was not flesh, who stood before Pilate at the judgement seat? And if he was not God, who made Pilate’s wife afraid by a dream? If he was not flesh, whose garments did the soldiers strip off and divide? And if he was not God, how was the sun darkened at the cross? If he was not flesh, who was hung on the cross? And if he was not God, who shook the earth from its foundations? If he was not flesh, whose hands and feet were transfixed by nails? And if he was not God, how was the veil of the temple rent, the rocks broken and the graves opened? If he was not flesh, who cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me”? And if he was not God, who said “Father, forgive them”? If he was not flesh, who was hung on a cross with the thieves? And if he was not God, how did he say to the thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”? If he was not flesh, to whom did they offer vinegar and gall? And if he was not God, on hearing whose voice did Hades tremble? If he was not flesh, whose side did the lance pierce, and blood and water came out? And if he was not God, who smashed to gates of Hades and tear apart it bonds? And at whose command did the imprisoned dead come out? If he was not flesh, whom did the Apostles see in the upper room? And if he was not God, how did he enter when the doors were shut? If he was not flesh, the marks of the nails and the lance in whose hands and side did Thomas handle? And if he was not God, to whom did he cry out, “My Lord and my God”? If he was not flesh, who ate by the sea of Tiberias? And if he was not God, at whose command was the net filled? If he was not flesh, whom did the Apostles and Angels see being taken up into heaven? And if he was not God, to whom was heaven opened, whom did the Powers worship in fear and whom did the Father invite to “Sit at my right hand”. As David said, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, etc.” If he was not God and man, our salvation is a lie, and the words of the Prophets are lies.
But the Prophets spoke the truth, and their testimonies were not lies. The Holy Spirit spoke through them what they had been commanded. So too John the pure, who leant on the breast of flame,[38] reinforcing the voices of the Prophets, speaking of God in Gospels, taught us when he said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him nothing that was made, was made. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.[39] God the Word from God and only begotten Son from the Father, consubstantial with the Father; the One who is from the One who is, preeternal Word, ineffably born, without a mother, from the Father before all the ages. The same is born, without a father, in the last times from a daughter of man, from Mary the virgin, as God incarnate, bearing flesh from her, and becoming man, which he was not, while remaining God, which he was, that he might save the world. And he is the Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten from the Father, and only begotten from a mother.
I confess[40] the same to be perfect God and perfect man, acknowledged in the two natures united hypostatically, or in person, indivisibly, unconfusedly and unchangeably; having put on flesh that is animated by a rational and intelligent soul, in all things becoming passible like us, sin alone excepted. He is both earthly and heavenly, temporary and eternal, starting and without beginning, timeless and subject to time, created and uncreated, passible and impassible, God and man, perfect in both, one in two and in two one. One person of the Father, one person of the Son, and one person of the Holy Spirit. One godhead, one power, one kingship in three persons or hypostases. So we glorify the Holy Unity in Trinity, and the Holy Trinity in Unity. In this the Father cried out, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him”.
All this the holy Catholic Church of God has received. In this Holy Trinity it baptises for eternal life. Into this Trinity it sanctifies with equal honour, confesses it without separation, without division; worships it without error, confesses and glorifies it. To this Unity in three persons belong glory, thanksgiving, honour, might, majesty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
[1] Matt. 16:28, but quoted from memory. The biblical text has ‘in his kingdom’. This saying is regularly linked to the Transfiguration, which follows immediately, by the Fathers. St John Chrysostom, in his commentary on this verse, says,
[2] Matt. 17:1-2. The reading ‘very’, rather than ‘apart’, is that of D. ‘Simon’ is not in the text of the Gospel.
[3] Matt. 16:13.
[4] Jer. 1:5.
[5] This sentence is frequent in the liturgical texts. In the second Kathisma for Christmas Matins it is given as a quotation, “But as it is written: ‘where God so wills the order of nature is overcome.’” But what is the source? It occurs in inauthentic texts attributed to St Athanasios and St John Chrysostom and in St John Damascene’s Sacra Parallela. Athanasios Quaestiones aliae [spur.], Response 19 [PG 28:792, ll. 15-16]. Cf. Sermon on the Natvity [Sp.], [PG 28: 960, l.28]. Chrysostom On the Nativity [dub.], [PG 56: 385, l. 33]. John Damascene Sacra Parallela, [PG 95:1265, l.19]. In the first passage from Athanasios the text appears to be a citation.
[6] Cf. Baruch 3:38, one of the key ’incarnation’ texts from the Old Testament.
[7] Matt. 17:5.
[8] This phrase forms the opening of the Dismissal for the first half of Holy Week in the Byzantine rite.
[9] John 17:5. Again the citation is free, omitting ‘with yourself’ after ‘Father’. This is odd, since the somewhat awkward repetition in the original would seem to be the explanation of the curious repetition in the previous sentence, ‘with[syn] the Father and together with [meta] the Father’. The former is the preposition used of the Holy Spirit in the Creed. There is also an echo of Philippians 3:6-8.
[10] Cf. Exodus 34:29-34.
[11] This idea is a feature of the liturgical texts for the feast and is found in St John Chrysostom’s commentary on this passage.
[12] Matt. 17:3.
[13] The same idea is found in St John Damascene’s homily on the feast, ‘Today the virgin of the old proclaims to the virgin of the new the good tidings of the Lord, the virgin born from a Virgin’. He does not name Elias and John, and it is more than likely that the words ‘Elias and John’ in the present text are a gloss that should be deleted, especially since the next sentence makes the references quite clear.
[14] Matt. 17:4.
[15] Psalm 21:17.
[16] Psalm 21:19.
[17] Psalm 68:22.
[18] Psalm 87:5.
[19] Cf. Colossians 2:14.
[20] Adam’s ‘garment of glory’ is a theme of Jewish exegesis and is found in the Syriac texts
[21] Cf. Matt. 16:18.
[22] Cf. Matt. 16:19.
[23] Matt. 17:4.
[24] Cf. Exodus 40:34-38, “Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting”.
[25] Matt. 17:5.
[26] It is not clear whether these questions, as in the previous paragraph, are the imaginary words of Christ. I think it is likely and have therefore put them in quotation marks.
[27] Matt. 17:5.
[28] Cf. Gen. 49:10. This verse presents many problems, of both text and interpretation. Many mss have the finite verb, as here. And this is the almost unanimous reading of the Fathers. Modern critical editions of the lxx prefer the participle, which is the reading of the great uncials.
[29] Exodus 3:14.
[30] Matt. 17:6.
[31] Matt. 17:7.
[32] i.e. ‘Son’.
[33] The following list of contrasting pairs of sentences to highlight the two natures of Christ is like a number of similar ones in the Fathers. In Greek there is one towards the end of St Gregory the Divine’s third Theological Oration, On The Son; another in St Cyril of Jerusalem’s fourth Catechetical Lecture. In Latin St Leo the Great has similar passages both in his Tome to Patriarch Flavian (Letter 28) and in his letter to the Monks of Palestine (Letter 124). In Syriac the list in Narsai’s seventeenth Homily, An Exposition of the Mysteries, most closely resembles the one in our text both in length and rhetorical form. Since the allusions to the Gospels are clear, I have not overloaded the translation with a list of references in the footnotes.
[34] In the liturgical tradition Symeon addresses his prayer the Infant in his arms.
[35] The chronology of the events surrounding Christ’s nativity implied by the order in this list is interesting.
[36] At first sight this ‘couplet’ is curious. All the others can be easily linked to specific incidents in the Gospels, whereas this one seems quite general, and the modern Greek translator gives no reference. It is, I believe, a reference to the healing of the woman with a haemorrhage, Matt. 9:20-22, where the Gospel mentions Jesus’ clothing, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made whole”.
[37] This goes some way beyond what the text says.
[38] That Christ’s body is one ‘of flame’ is a feature of St Romanos’ Kontakion 30, On the Apostle Thomas, though the references here are to the risen Christ.
[39] John 1:1-3, 14.
[40] This confession of faith uses strongly Chalcedonian in language is unlikely, to say the least, to have been written by St Ephrem, who died some eighty years earlier.
Greetings, as we celebrate the Appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in 1579, when, after the devastating fire which destroyed much of the city, the Most Holy Mother of God revealed the location of her wondrous icon in the ashes of a ruined house.
We should rejoice in the fact that the All-Merciful Lord chose a child to be the herald of the good-tidings of the Wonder-Working Icon; that the Mother of God revealed the treasure of her icon not to a cleric, a monastic, a state officer, or an educated or respected dignitary, but rather to a nine-year-old, whose mind was not filled with worldly ‘learning’, facts, knowledge and theories; but, a girl blessed with a child’s simplicity and trust, and a heart and soul overflowing with faith and the fear of God.
This reminds us that spiritual encounter and true gnosis is not simply dependent on learning and education – important though they may be – but that knowledge and faith begin with God in Divine Revelation, and that faith is the gift of God, not the achievement of man.
For the young Matrona, Faith was learned from Church services; from the readings and hymns of the seasons of the year, with its feasts and fasts; from the sacred icons, and the stories narrated and saints memorialised in them; from hearing the lives of the saints which even the illiterate knew by heart; by experiencing, listening and seeing; in short by PARTICIPATION and EXPERIENCE.
But, in addition to this, this feast reminds us of the importance of REVELATION and Matrona’s part in the events of this feast is solely because God and the Mother of God freely chose her, to be the recipient.
“God is the Lord, and has revealed Himself to us.” We believe this, but we so often take such an anthropocentric approach to faith that we forget that God is the source of both faith and knowledge. We begin to see the process starting with us, with our bookshelves, reading, study and catechism classes, and the revelatory aspect of faith fades. Put simply, we begin to understand faith back-to-front. Faith begins with revelation, so faith and knowledge necessarily begin with God.
In our daily services we pray: “Blessed are Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes. Blessed are Thou, O Master, grant me understanding of Thy statutes. Blessed are Thou, O Holy One, grant me understanding of Thy statutes.”
This is nothing less than a prayer for Divine Revelation, and for God to grant us the gift of understanding what He has revealed to us.
This revelation is part of our personal relationship with the Living God, and though we may read and study dogmatics and theological treatises, spiritual-understanding is ultimately a gift from God – Who, if He so wishes can totally bypass all of the usual channels and mechanics of learning.
We read and hear the stories of God-Bearing ascetics whom others presumed to be highly educated, as they ably expounded the teachings of the dogmatic and ascetical Fathers, and great swathes of the Philokalia. Those who knew the ascetics explained the truth – that these men had not been schooled, were sometimes illiterate, and had never possessed, let alone read a book. Rather, through asceticism and pure prayer, they acquired the Mind of Christ, and in that Mind and through the Divine Encounter, Truth was opened and revealed to them.
What do we sing in the Beatitudes, the third antiphon of the Liturgy? “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God”… the pure in heart, not the learned, educated and knowledgeable.
God does not need university degrees and accolades of higher education, but purity and openness to faith. This is how the fishermen were made most-wise, and became theologians who knew (rather than knew about) the Incarnate-God, who revealed Himself to them in the purity of their hearts and minds.
The Lord reveals Himself to the pure in heart, and no matter how educated we are, without striving for that purity we can have no experiential knowledge of God: no personal encounter, but can only know about Him, rather than knowing Him. For those of great sanctity, their purity is enough, and within it, God may reveal all things.
As we celebrate Divine Revelation in this feast, how ironic it was that the authorities scoffed at the child chosen by the Mother of God, so that Matrona and her mother had to dig themselves to find the sacred treasure; how those in authority looked down on a mere child, refusing to believe her and dismissing her claim; and how they insulted God in not considering the possibility that He might chose a mere child as the herald of revelation.
But through all of this, God and the Theotokos teach us a salutary lesson by choosing a child.
What does Christ tell us? “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
This is the upside-down-ness of the Gospel at work, yet so many people are still far from grasping this.
The example of the child, Matrona should encourage us to struggle to preserve child-like innocence and trust in God in our Christian lives; recognising that God is the source of knowledge and Faith, no matter how much or how hard we read and study, and that although it is important for us to deepen our knowledge of Faith, true knowledge and understanding are ultimately a gift of God, and not the fruit of learning.
Revelation does not depend upon our intellectual abilities, depth of learning or theological knowledge. We remain powerless and reliant on God, the Source of all wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
For our catechumens, still learning and perhaps with gaps in knowledge; for our newly baptised, at the beginning of the journey of Faith; for those who feel that others are for more knowledgeable or educated than them – this feast is a challenge and an encouragement.
Trust in God as the source of knowledge and Truth, and work with Him to acquire true knowledge. Be active in seeking to learn His statutes, but by trusting in Him and not in your own ability.
And as we strive for the understanding of the Law of God, let us heed the Paschal Canon’s words, “Let us purify our senses and we shall behold Christ, radiant with inaccessible light of the Resurrection, and shall hear Him saying clearly, “Rejoice!” As we sing the triumphant hymns!”
Let us – with our busy, complicated, worrisome and temptation-clouded lives – strive for child-like purity, simplicity and trust, so that we may not only seek Him, but have Him reveal His truth unto us, and by becoming like little children, enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
Mosaic in the crypt of the Church on the Blood, above the spot on which the Imperial Family were martyred.
It was great blessing to celebrate the Holy Royal Martyrs today, and in so doing, we looked beyond the bloody-horror and violence of their martyrdom to appreciate the priceless treasure that God has granted to the Orthodox people by calling the Imperial Family to enter the mystery of Golgotha, and to drink from the cup of suffering and martyrdom, as they were conformed to the image of the Saviour, as we heard in the Apostle reading from St Paul’s letter to the Romans:
“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestine to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8: 29-30)
As God lovers, He called the Royal-Martyrs “according to His purpose”, and in their suffering for that Divine purpose – contrary to the wisdom of the world – they were conformed to the image of Christ, the Suffering Servant, pouring out Himself for His people, until He was without beauty or comeliness.
In the Gospel for the feast, we heard,
“If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:18-20)
The world vision promoted by Lenin (returned to Russia at the expense of the Western powers) and his fellow Bolsheviks, was at odds of the world represented by the Royal Martyrs: of Christian Monarchy defending and promoting the Church and Faith; of society built upon the precepts of the Gospel; of national life in which the Church, Divine Services, and Christian Tradition was shaped by the rhythms and routines of the fasts and feasts, and the seasons of the Christian year.
As a visible embodiment of Orthodox authority, Christian governance and sacral-kingship, the Royal Martyrs were an impossible threat to the Marxist-Leninist vision, the Royal Martyrs and had to be destroyed – by lies, deception and hate, and ultimately by the violence to which these gave license.
For Orthodox Christians the resultant false ‘histories’ and mythologies necessary to dehumanise the Royal Martyrs, to justify unspeakable violence, and to desensitise the Russian people and the wider world to the horrors of the Ipatiev House and the Four Brothers Mine are an irrelevance and distraction from the glorious works of grace wrought by God through His saints.
In the 1990’s, after aCcross had been set up on the site of the Ipatiev House, it was illumined by a heavenly light, as the clouds opened and rotated above the Cross, and no snow fell within the large circle of light which fell upon the ground around the site of the martyrdom. In the same decade, a former guard of the “Museum of the Workers’ Revenge” in the Ipatiev House signed an affidavit describing how she would hear beautiful church-singing from the basement room of execution, and that light shone from beneath the door during the night.
In on November 7 1997, the anniversary of the Revolution, an icon of the Tsar-Martyr began to weep myrrh, and the following May, during a procession to mark the Tsar’s birtday, another icon began to weep myrrh during a procession. At this time. of course, the Moscow Patriarchate had yet to canonise the Royal Martyrs. Our Russian Orthodox Church Church Outside of Russia had already done so in 1981.
Through the prayers of the Royal Martyrs, the godless have been brought to Faith; hardened hearts have been softened; the young have been delivered from depression, despair and destructive lives; addicts have been delivered from alcohol and drugs; childless women have been granted children; students have received help in studies; soldiers and refugees have been delivered fom capture and great dangers; families have been reconciled and healed; the sick and infirm have received healing – such as a blind child who received sight after his face was covered with a towel that had absorbed the myrrh from a myrrh-weeping icon of the Tsar.
We encounter the sanctity, rightness, and righteousness of the Royal Martyrs in these miracles, and to those of Faith, the lies and salacious stories bandied in the newspapers in America, Britain, and the Russia ‘proletarian-press’ on the eve of the revolution, seem two-dimensional, flimsy and ridiculous compared to the miracles through which Almighty God has glorified the Royal-Martyrs ever since their martyrdom.
To return to the Apostle, “…whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified” – and despite the lies the world invented and wrote about them, God has glorified the Royal Martyrs through countless miracles and outpourings of grace.
Through earthly suffering, they were translated to heavenly glory and, as the Russian Empire and the wider world was gripped by the satanic plague of Bolshevism and Revolution, the All-Merciful Lord raised up the Royal Martyrs as intercessors and as spiritual warriors whose intercessions and merciful care for their land would resurrect the Russian Orthodox Church and people.
For the faithful, the countless miracles and wonders of the Royal Martyrs should dissolve the propaganda, myths and lies invented, not only by communists, but also by the western powers who sought the destruction of the dynasty as part of the destruction of Russia as a world- power at the beginning of the 20th century – the same powers who wished to see a defeated and humiliated Russia carved up into ‘zones of influence’ distributed between themselves.
And, as we read of the events surrounding the end of the House of Romanov, and the passion and sufferings of the Royal Martyrs, we should not worry ourselves with imagined alternative outcomes; ‘what-ifs’ – imagining how things could have been different though a White Army Victory or escape form the Urals; or rueing over the lack of rescue by royal relatives.
The lives of various holy men and women make it clear that the death of the Imperial Family was their calling – their sacrificial-vocation – to ultimately play their own metaphysical and spiritual part in the deliverance and salvation of Russia from the darkness and evil which it was entering. “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Romans 8:36-37) For the Royal Martyrs, there suffering was not only for the sake of Christ, but for the sake of Russia.
It is widely believed that their fate had been revealed to St Seraphim of Sarov, who recorded this in a letter shortly before his death in 1833, sealing it with five wax seals and addressing it “to the fourth sovereign who will arrive in Sarov, and as yet is not known”. At the canonisation of St Seraphim in 1903, the letter was given to the Tsar, who wept bitterly on reading it, but kept the contents a secret.
In Diveyevo, on their return from the canonisation, the Tsar and Tsarina visited Blessed Pasha of Sarov, who told the Tsar, “Your Highness, come down from the throne yourself.”
Before her death she had her cell-attendants physically support her to make prostrations before the Tsar’s portrait, and when they asked her “Why, Mamashenka, do you pray so to the Tsar?” she replied “Silly ones. He will be higher than all the Tsars.” Shortly before her death in 1915, having already called him a martyr, Blessed Pasha kissed the feet of his portrait, saying, “My dear one is already near the end.”
The following year, in 1916, the Eldress Maria Mikhailovna of the Novgorod-Desyarina monastery greeted the visiting Empress with the words, “Here comes the martyr, Tsaritsa Alexandra!” And, in May the same year, a startets in the Sarov Hermitage, related a vision to the celebrated writer, Sergei Nilus:
“At a time of his profound sorrow over the sufferings of the Royal Family, when he was praying for them with tears, he fell asleep during his prayers. He saw himself in Tsarskoe Selo, and over the Alexander Palace there stood a bright, radiant pillar that reached up to heaven. Then the elder went up to the palace, where he saw a wondrous vision. The Emperor was sitting at a desk, occupied with writing. Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was sitting at another small table reading books. Close by, the Empress and her daughters were sitting and doing handiwork, and among them was the radiant Elder, St. Seraphim, the Wonderworker of Sarov, giving them spiritual instruction and consolation. When Elder Seraphim saw the archimandrite he went up to him and said, ‘Don’t be too grieved. Father, don’t be despondent; God will not abandon His chosen and beloved children. He has the power to snatch them away from evildoers, but He desires for them, not earthly happiness, but heavenly. It is easier for the Lord to send legions of angels to destroy all their enemies than it is for us to speak a word, but He only takes away their enemies’ reason, so that they destroy themselves. The Lord has sent me for a while to console, strengthen and protect the Royal sufferers, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and they have need of our heavenly assistance in difficult moments of sorrow. Look at the resplendent light that emanates from the faces of the Royal sufferers — this is a sign that they are under God’s special care, as righteous ones. Just as, from the beginning of the world, the righteous have been vilified, wronged and slandered by iniquitous people — followers of the first liar and deceiver, the devil; so also have these righteous Royal sufferers been vilified, humiliated, slandered and wronged by evil people, instigated by the same universal evildoer who rose up against the righteous ones and against our Creator and God Himself, Christ, the Giver of life. Look at the face of the Empress and you will see that the light emanating from her face is brighter than the others — this is a sign that she has borne more slanders and false accusations than anyone, from followers of the universal slanderer.’ This vision made such a powerful impression on the archimandrite that when he related it he could not restrain his tears.”
Placing their hope in God, the Royal Martyrs accepted the portion He allotted them, and accepting their cup of suffering, they lived in a spiritual and prayerful captivity, reassured of the love of God through their Faith and relationship with Him, reflecting the sentiments of the Apostle: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Romans 8:35-37)
Peace and trust in God shine through this realisation, and can be seen in royal correspondence, such as in the letter that the Empress wrote to Colonel A.V. Syroboyarsky from detention in Tsarskoe Selo, in 1917,:
“Everything can be endured if you feel His (God’s) presence and love and if you believe in Him steadfastly in everything. Severe trials are helpful – they prepare us for the other life, for the distant journey.
It is easier to bear one’s own sufferings than to see the woe of others without it being possible to help them…
One must ever thank God for all that He gives, and even if He took it away, then perhaps, when one endures without a murmur, all will be even brighter. One must always hope…
You see, we have not lost our faith, and I hope we never will. It alone provides strength, the streadfastness of spirit, to endure all. And one must be grateful for everything, for it could be much worse…Isn’t that so?”
If we, as Christian people can reflect this spiritual fortitude, constant hope in God and immense Faith, refusing to lose our trust in His love, then that love will flow into the world with a joy that shocks and challenges evil, violence and cruelty with the mind of Christ, so that we can join with the Apostle Paul, with the Royal Martyrs and all the saints in confessing “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)
Emulating the Royal Martyrs in Faith, let us put aside earthly cares, knowing that all things are in the hands of God, and that whatever may happen to us in life, His love remains immeasurable and immovable; His inscrutable will always seeks what is needful for us in the eternal scheme of His providence and wisdom, rather than according to the fickle standards and measures of success in the world; and that in all things He seeks our transformation to reflect His image and likeness and to be with Him in the endless blessedness of the Kingdom – not a temporary and passing Kingdom of this world, but the endless glory of the age to come.
Let us abandon ourselves into His hands, with the faith, hope, humility and spiritual-courage of the Royal Martyrs.
In St John the Forerunner, today’s feast celebrated a unique figure.
As the seal of the prophets of the Old Covenant and the herald of the Messiah and His New Covenant, he looks back to the Judaic world of the Old Testament and forward to the new age of Faith, manifest in the life of Christ, the preaching of the Gospel and the foundation of the Church as the New Israel.
St John stood on a boundary between the old and the new, as a wild and challenging figure, living in a manner similar to some of his Jewish contemporaries living an ascetical lifestyle, but is unique in the mission and meaning of that unconventional life: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ”
He was not an easy figure, but challenging, unabashed in his preaching, saying things that some did not want to hear. To recall this today is striking at a time of crisis in eastern Europe, when voices ‘in the wilderness’ are silent, and Church leaders fail to speak in the spirit of the Forerunner and call Herod to account.
As we celebrate his Nativity, we might well ask, where is the spirit of the Forerunner, not only in the Church, but also in our own lives and communities?
When Christianity becomes respectable and institutionalised, the flame is dying, and the lukewarmness of user-friendly, easy faith is an ersatz imitation of the challenging edginess that Christianity should always have for us.
When the zeal of Faith becomes dissolved in middle-class ‘niceness’ and suburban respectability, when Christianity should have ‘bite’ and challenge us all to be ‘spiritual activists’ struggling to storm the Kingdom of Heaven, we are far from the spiritual zeal of the Forerunner.
This does not mean that we should be catapulted into political-activism and placard-carrying protest, but rather that we should personally embody the radical message of the Gospel, which is counter-cultural in the materialistic and anthropocentric darkness of the current age, gripped by the idols of self, wealth, health, ‘efficiency’ (reflected in the normalisation of abortion, euthanasia, surveillance, government erosion of freedom of expression etc.), let alone the moral and spiritual bankruptcy of those who rule and make such major decisions in the world.
Faith must have a voice in this darkness as traditional Christians are labelled bigots, reactionaries and medievalists by both secularists and self-proclaimed ‘Christians’ who have willingly and gladly embraced the agendas, causes and -isms of the fallen world, as authentic Christianity is forced into the shadows, and the warm, but deadly glow of a vague and ambiguous ‘religious’ universalism replaces Christ-the Cornerstone.
As the Forerunner’s life and death teach us, this voice has a cost – possibly a very great cost.
This was the cost paid by the martyrs, among whom we hold both St John and his righteous father Zacharias, who was “murdered between the Temple and the altar.” St Gabriel Ugrebadze paid this cost by being incarcerated by the Soviets and injected with chemicals. St Maria of Paris paid this cost by being arrested by the Nazis and incarcerated in Ravensbruck, where she met her death in the gas-chamber; the martyred Father Daniel Sysoev paid this price when he was slain in his own temple by Islamists.
Even as Christians claiming the fullness of the Faith in a Church which rejects compromise, and the dangers of modernism, today’s feast is a challenge to each of us, but as we celebrate the Forerunners memory, are we ready and would we be prepared to pay the price for being a voice in the current wilderness preaching the Truth of Faith – Truth which may be dangerous and costly ?
This is a challenge for each of us – perhaps an uncomfortable one for most of us – but a challenge we must embrace.
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art in all places, and fillest all things, Treasury of good things, and Giver of life, come, and dwell in us, and cleanse us from every impurity; and save our souls, O good One.
Dear brothers and sisters, с праздником! Happy Feast!
Greetings to you all on this feast of Pentecost when we celebrate the sending-down of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles with the physical manifestation of God’s power.
The Acts of the Apostles described this descent of the Holy Spirit as being as or like a rushing wind, and flames of fire.
This is as close as the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke could come to describing the descent of the Holy Spirit in human language, as ultimately, this outpouring was beyond the descriptive capability of human language.
Just as Ezekiel had to resort to using as and like to describe an attempted approximation of his vision of God on the heavenly chariot-throne; as Daniel had to do likewise in describing the Ancient of Days; as St John the Theologian did in describing his vision of the Son of Man – so St Luke can only look for the nearest earthly things to describe the experience of the apostles on the day of Pentecost.
Nearly two thousand years later, in celebrating the feast, in our services we return to the wonderful prayer “O Heavenly King…” calling upon the same Holy Spirit that descended upon the apostles “as of a rushing mighty wind” and in “cloven tongues like as of fire” to come and abide in us, and if it were not for our baptismal union with Christ, this request would be daring to the point of audacity.
How can we humans – mere creatures – address the Holy Spirit thus: the same Holy Spirit that we encounter in the dramatic events of today’s Gospel?
Of course, in prayer, we ask God for many things – for mercy, for protection, for the healing of the sick, the relief of the suffering, and for the repsose of the departed, for jobs, material necessities, and many other things… but we now go much further than these prayerfull requests.
We have called the Holy Spirit Heavenly King, yet we His servants and creatures ask the “Comforter, the Spirit of Truth” to come and dwell in us – for the Paraclete to actually stay and abide within us fallen and weak human beings – hardly palatial dwellings for the Heavenly King – and to “cleanse us of all impurity and save our souls.”
We can only understand the boldness and even the possibility of this audacious request through the grace, calling and promise of our baptism and chrismation, by which we have already been cleansed, enlightened and sealed by the operation of the Holy Spirit (no matter what we have done since that spiritual rebirth), having been set aside for God as we were anointed with holy chrism in “The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit”.
When the Saviour ascended, He promised to send another Comforter, and this came to pass on the day of Pentecost – but this outpouring of the Spirit is not one that only anointed the apostles and the newly founded apostolic Church, but one which is continually poured forth upon the individual members of the Body of Christ: especially in the Holy Mysteries of the Church, which the Saviour has given us.
The Holy Spirit not only recreates us in the Holy Mysteries, but initiates us into the Christian mystery and leads us to Christ, through Whom we are brought to the Father
In our Christian lives, we may not see dramatic signs as on the day of Pentecost, but Christ’s promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit neither ceases nor fails, and it is through the quiet working of the Holy Spirit in our community and individual lives that the gift of Pentecost continues.
The same Holy Spirit which descended upon the upper room on the day of Pentecost has descended upon the baptismal waters in which the new members of our community have been immersed over the last half-year, and was equally the sanctifier of the waters of our own baptism: the Holy Spirit who makes each of us a new creation, in Christ.
The same Comforter sanctified the holy chrism with which each of us received in “The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” after baptism. Though we may nor experience supernatural signs, this sealing is our own personal Pentecost, in which we receive the same gift and outpouring that the apostles received in the upper room.
During the consecration at the Divine Liturgy, we pray, “O Lord, Who at the third hour didst send down Thy Most Holy Spirit upon Thine apostles: take Him not away from us, O Good One, but renew Him in us who pray to Thee…” that through the same Holy Spirit, the Holy Gifts may become the very Body and Blood of the Saviour, who promised the Holy Spirit to His disciples.
In the Mystery of Holy Unction, the same Holy Spirit, sanctifies the ‘oil of gladness’, with which we are anointed for the “healing of soul and body”, becoming not only a sign or a symbol, but the spiritual means by which we receive Grace and healing.
The same Holy Spirit works in Holy Matrimony to join husband and wife as one flesh, uniting them in prayer and Faith, transforming them in a new relationship with one another, with God, and with the Church. Through the Grace of the Holy Spirit, they are called to grow together in love, leading one another to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Through confession and the mystery of repentance, the same Holy Spirit transforms, cleanses and purifies the human heart, as the gift of God’s forgiveness and Grace restores and renews His image in each of us, who were clothed in Christ in the Mystery of Baptism.
Through the operation of the Holy Spirit, this repentance is not simply a remedial act of spiritual reorientation or correction after we have sinned and fallen, but the entire way of Christian-living, leading to our transformation and transfiguration, in which the human heart and mind are illuminated and raised up to God.
Through the laying-on of hands by the bishops, as successors of the apostles, and by the operation of the same Holy Spirit, the life of the Church is preserved by the ordination of its ministers to Holy Orders – as bishops, priests and deacons.
Thus, through each of these Holy Mysteries, the Holy Spirit that descended on the apostles on the day of Pentecost, continues to work in the Church and in each of us, quietly, in what is for most of us is a hidden but nevertheless real way.
This presence requires neither signs nor wonders as a mark of validity or authenticity, and whilst the gifts of the Spirit spoken of in the New Testament include supernatural and miraculous charisms that we continue to see in the lives of the saints, the fruits of the Holy Spirit of which St Paul the Apostle speaks are the simple characteristics of a Christian life: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
But, for the fruits of the Holy Spirit to grow and strengthen within us, we need to be active in the podvig of Christian living – labouring to make ourselves worthy receptacles of God’s grace, and worthy temples of the Holy Spirit.
When addressing the Church in Ephesus, St Paul wrote, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” It is by walking in the manner worthy of our calling that the fruits of the Holy Spirit will multiply in us, with such an overflowing abundance that they benefit all around us, united with one another in the bond of peace of which the apostle speaks.
Let each of us labour as individuals, and together as Christ’s Church, to cultivate spiritual lives in which the quiet indwelling of the Holy Spirit transforms us by Divine Grace.
Embracing the holiness and goodness to which God calls us, we must each be oriented to Him, in lives in accordance with the precepts of the Gospel, saturated with prayer, in simplicity, moderation and sobriety, lived in the Church and as the Church – as the community of faith sanctified and confirmed on the feast of Pentecost. And, in all of this, let us support, sustain and help one another, as fellow strugglers and co-workers for the Holy Spirit.
With love in Christ – Hieromonk Mark
“All of us, my friends, participate in this effect of the life-giving goodness of the Holy Spirit in various experiences of our spiritual rebirth, renewal and sanctification. The means by which the Holy Spirit is communicated to us are fervent prayer and the Church sacraments. Our whole life, my friends, from beginning to end is accompanied by the great gifts of the Holy Spirit; and yet, in all its actions it must consist and be lived under the influence of the blessing, sanctifying and life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit.
Call on the Holy Spirit – always keep your hearts pure so as not to drive away the Holy Spirit from them but to attract Him.”
Dear Fathers and Mothers; dear brothers and sisters; dear friends – Christ is Risen! Христос воскресе! Hristos a înviat! Χριστός ἀνέστη!
Celebrating the radiant and bright Resurrection of our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in the early hours of the morning, we proclaimed Him as the Light shining in the darkness in the prologue of St John’s Gospel, and this afternoon, the vesperal Gospel reading saw the Risen Lord coming to His disciples.
Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side.
The Risen Lord does not wait for any doors to be opened, but rather passes through the very barrier standing between Him and his disciples. The things of the world – barriers, obstacles, physical limits – are no obstacle to the Risen Saviour who comes into the midst of His followers and offers them the greeting of peace.
He wishes them shalom in the fear, confusion, and uncertainty of their lives, shaken and shattered by the torture and horror of the Cross and Passion; seeing the Saviour suffer and die an ignominious death and placed lifeless in a new tomb.
In an instant, He dispels darkness, changing their very existence in the moment that He passes through the wood of the door that had been locked and barred out of fear.
And, for us in these dark and painful times, full of fears, worries, suffering and darkness, He comes to us to say to us, “Peace be with you.”
This peace – this shalom – is not just an absence of war, conflict, pain, fear and uncertainty – but is real, positive and qualitative: a gift of the Holy Spirit manifested in love, harmony, reconciliation and unity – reflecting God Himself.
A heavy, locked and barred door may not stand between us and the Risen Lord, but for us, the fears, pain, anguish, suspicion, intolerance and emotions that may hold and control us may be far more impregnable if we are unwilling to let His peace penetrate everything that forms a barrier between us and God.
He will not force His way in, or force His peace upon us, but rather offers it to each of us as a gift that may cleanse, heal, and unite – but only if we will let it enter our lives.
Only then, when we put aside fear, division and suspicion can this peace penetrate our hearts, so that the Risen Lord may become for each of us the Light that shone in the darkness; only then can He banish darkness from our hearts and lives; only then can He take us by our wrists and pluck us from the shadows and darkness and lead us into the radiance of the Resurrection.
The choice is ours.
Do we shut out the Risen Lord by the movements of our hearts and minds; by militating against His peace by our conversations, agendas, obsessions, and ideologies; and if we bar Him from entering our lives, then how will experience the continuation of the vesperal Gospel?
Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
If we are unwilling to let Him through the barriers, how can we expect to experience the joy of the Resurrection? How can we then expect to receive the Holy Spirit if our closed and barricaded lives cannot even let in the Risen Saviour and the peace which He wishes to give us?
Sometimes, when the unknown-outside is fraught with risk and danger, it takes courage to pull down the defences and barricades, or to open the door, but that is what we need to do so that the Lord may enter and bring us peace, light and renewal in the glory of the resurrection.
We can’t have it both ways. To know that He is truly risen, then we need to let Him in and to live as Christian people, proclaiming and realising the Gospel. He has shattered the bars and gates of death and hell, but for the Resurrection to transform our lives, we need to open ourselves to its power.
Having encountered the power of the Risen Lord, we can then “Go quickly and proclaim to the world that the Lord is risen, and hath put death to death; for He is the Son of God, who saveth the race of man.”
With the Archangel’s voice we cry to thee, O most-pure one: Rejoice, thou who art full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Поздравление с Благовещением!
Greetings to you all, as we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, joining with the Archangel Gabriel in saluting the Mother of God, as we say, “Rejoice, thou who art full of grace” .
On Saturday, we shall add to this greeting with the many salutations of the Akathist Hymn, and the hymns of the feast and laudations in the Akathist remind us that the Incarnation of the God-Man, on the day of the Annunciation was not a sudden or random event, but one ordained since the fall of the first father and first mother. The Virgin’s fiat, in which she bowed to the will of God was a moment of cosmic change, which would find its fruition in the victorious death and resurrection of the Saviour conceived at that moment.
After the fall of Adam and Eve, in the protoevangelium of the third chapter of Genesis, God says to the serpent-tempter, “Because you have done this… I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
The Church Fathers saw this as the prophecy of the Incarnation, in which the Second Eve would give birth to Christ, the New Adam who would crush Satan, hell and death beneath His feet, though He Himself would suffer torture and death on the Cross, as the devil struck at His heel, but to no avail.
In the events of the Annunciation and obedience of the Mother of God, the promise of salvation became an unfolding reality in time and space, as God clothed Himself in Adam, united to His fallen children as He joined humanity to His divinity in a perfect union.
In the compline hymns of the feast, we celebrate the remedy of the fall and the reversal of the tragedy of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, as we chant,
“Behold, our restoration hath now been revealed to us! God uniteth Himself to men in manner past recounting! Falsehood is dispelled by the voice of the archangel! For the Virgin receiveth joy, an earthly woman hath become heaven! The world is released from the primal curse! Let creation rejoice and chant aloud: O Lord, our Creator and Deliverer, glory be to Thee!”
In the first ode of the Akathist Canon we call the Mother of God “the vessel of joy, through which the curse of the first mother is annulled” and “the restoration of Adam and death of hell”, and in the first ikos of the Akathist we shall offer laudations to the Mother of God singing,
“Rejoice, thou through whom joy shall shine forth;
Rejoice, thou through whom the curse shall cease.
Rejoice, raising of fallen Adam;
Rejoice, redemption of the tears of Eve.”
We shall soon see the visual realisation of these words in the icon of Pascha, as the Saviour descends into Hades, and frees Adam and Eve, and all of their righteous seed from the captivity of death, opening the gates of eternal life through His life-giving death and resurrection. The place of the Mother of God in this is celebrated in the Akathist, as we sing,
Rejoice, for through thee, paradise was opened;
Rejoice, key of Christ’s Kingdom.
But this is not the earthly paradise, from whose gates the flaming seraph is turned aside by the obedience of the Mother of God, as she says, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy word”, but rather the heavenly paradise of the Heavenly Kingdom, itself.
This is why we celebrate this feast as “The beginning of our salvation and the manifestation of the eternal mystery.”
Why?
The next line of the troparion makes it clear – because “The Son of God becometh the Son of the Virgin…” and in so doing has united divinity and humanity, heaven and earth, creator and creation, or in the words of the aposticha,
“Those below are united to those above! Adam is restored, and Eve is freed from her primal grief! The tabernacle of our nature, mingled with divinity, hath become the temple of God! O the mystery! Incomprehensible is the image of His abasement, and ineffable the richness of His goodness!”
Celebrating this almost unthinkable and unimaginable wonder, let us heed the continuing words of the hymn, in awe and wonder for the Mother of God, who became an instrument of our salvation, as the Womb of the Divine Incarnation; the heavenly ladder by which God came down; the bridge leading from earth to heaven; and the opening of the doors of paradise:
“…let us cry out together with Gabriel to the Virgin: Rejoice, O joyous one, from whom Christ God, our salvation, is come, assuming our nature and elevating it in Himself! Him do thou entreat, that our souls be saved.”
At that time, Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
(Luke 19:1-10)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters,
On the Sunday of Zacchaeus, we yearly encounter the spectacle of Zacchaeus the publican and Roman-collaborator – despised and shunned by Jewish society – clambering into the branches of a tree, from whose height the whole perspective of his life was transformed.
A man who knew that he had power and control over the lives of the people whom he squeezed and plundered for the sake of his own purse, as well as that of the Roman occupiers, threw image and propriety to the wind, simply to see over the heads of those – and indeed everything – that stood between him and his encounter with Christ.
St Ephrem saw the tree that Zacchaeus climbed as the opposite of the Tree of Knowledge, for whereas Adam was guilty through his actions at that tree, the tree for Zacchaeus became a sign abd token of his innocence.
“The first fig tree of Adam will be forgotten, because of the last fig tree of the chief tax collector, and “the name of the guilty Adam will be forgotten because of the innocent Zacchaeus.”
St Ephrem the Syrian: Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron
Like the children of Palm Sunday, the tax-collector climbed amongst the leaves and branches to see the approach of the Saviour, in a childlike spectacle, but whereas the Feast of Palms marks the Saviour’s entrance into the Holy City, the events of the Sunday Gospel mark the entrance of the Saviour into the life and house of Zacchaeus, where he is welcomed by a heart and home that were changed by the salvific encounter.
Furthermore, the tree becomes a reference for the tree of Cross, and Blessed Augustine of Hippo calls upon us in our humility to climb the Cross, as Zacchaeus in simple humility, climbed into the boughs of the ‘sycamore’.
This Gospel calls us to stop worrying about what the world, society, colleagues, neighbours… even family think of us, so that in seemingly divine-folly and abandon we may try to gain a viewpoint and perspective of the Lord – doing whatever it takes to draw near to the Saviour, leaving the crowd behind, and not worrying about what anyone else thinks in order to encounter the Saviour, even to simply glimpse him for a moment.
As Zacchaeus forgets his own dignity and sacrifices his image to behave like a child rather than a wealthy Roman civil servant, willingly to make a laughable spectacle of himself, he puts aside the cares of the world, and by doing so receives the King of all, as we are called to do every time we chant the cherubic hymn.
To return to Blessed Augustine’s words on this Gospel:
“Zacchaeus climbed away from the crowd and saw Jesus without the crowd getting in his way. The crowd laughs at the lowly, to people walking the way of humility, who leave the wrongs they suffer in God’s hands and do not insist on getting back at their enemies.
The crowd laughs at the lowly and says, ‘You helpless, miserable clod, you cannot even stick up for yourself and get back what is your own.’ The crowd gets in the way and prevents Jesus from being seen. The crowd boasts and crows when it is able to get back what it owns. It blocks the sight of the one who said as he hung on the cross, ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing…’
He ignored the crowd that was getting in his way. He instead climbed a sycamore tree, a tree of ‘silly fruit.’ As the apostle says, ‘We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block indeed to the Jews, [now notice the sycamore] but folly to the Gentiles.’
Finally, the wise people of this world laugh at us about the cross of Christ and say, ‘What sort of minds do you people have, who worship a crucified God?’ What sort of minds do we have? They are certainly not your kind of mind. ‘The wisdom of this world is folly with God.’
No, we do not have your kind of mind. You call our minds foolish. Say what you like, but for our part, let us climb the sycamore tree and see Jesus. The reason you cannot see Jesus is that you are ashamed to climb the sycamore tree.
Let Zacchaeus grasp the sycamore tree, and let the humble person climb the cross. That is little enough, merely to climb it. We must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ, but we must fix it on our foreheads, where the seat of shame is. Above where all our blushes show is the place we must firmly fix that for which we should never blush.
As for you, I rather think you make fun of the sycamore, and yet that is what has enabled me to see Jesus. You make fun of the sycamore, because you are just a person, but ‘the foolishness of God is wiser than men.”
Like Zacchaeus, let us become fools in the eyes of the world, to gaze upon the face of the All-Merciful Saviour, and to embrace His way and Holy Wisdom which is folly to the proud and worldly.
Like Zacchaeus, let us find the humility and abandon to become a spectacle, whatever the world may think and say.
Like Zacchaeus, let us open the doors of our home and heart to the Saviour, so that He may say to each of us, “Today, salvation has come into this house.”
