Comforting the Lord as He Weeps: On Palm Sunday

The Holy Gospel, my beloved brethren, says this in its account of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem: And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it (Luke 19:41).

People’s hearts are all the same. If someone is weeping, what do we do? We approach him, ask him what he is weeping about, and try to comfort him in some way. Sometimes one becomes so sorry for the person in distress that one feels ready to give up one’s soul, if only his grief would be made lighter. Let us now approach the Lord, too, and ask: “Lord, about what are You weeping?”

About what, in fact, was the Lord weeping on the great day of His Entry into Jerusalem? The Lord is everywhere present. Not only the human heart, but even his hidden thoughts, cannot be hidden from His omniscient eyes. And looking upon the people with His eyes – which are said in Scripture to be one hundred times brighter than the sun, foreknowing all the ends of the universe – He foresaw the end of Jerusalem. He knew what was in store for this venerable and ancient city. He knew the inconstancy of the people and crowds that would meet Him rapturously, but soon demand His crucifixion. He saw with His eyes the many crosses around Jerusalem, upon which His crucifiers would be crucified. He saw the horrors awaiting the city during the invasion of the Emperor Titus in 70 A.D. This is why He wept for Jerusalem, foreseeing the horrors and destruction of the city as He gazed upon it.

But the Gospel tells us that today, too, the Lord is weeping. Why, then, is the Lord now weeping? For now He is not on earth, but in the Heavenly Jerusalem. Instead of a donkey, He sits upon the flaming Cherubim; instead of the earthly Jerusalem, He abides in ineffable glory at the right hand of God; and instead of the modest suite of the Apostles, He is surrounded by a countless multitude of bodiless spirits and heavenly beings. Then about what is the Lord now weeping?

He is weeping over how we grieve Him; over how we frequently renounce Him by our terrible deeds; over how thousands of unfaithful people are now shamefully denying Him and mocking Him. He is weeping, too, over how our hearts have become hardened, over how we are losing the truth and cruelly offending Him Who by His Divine Blood redeemed the entire human race.

When the Lord entered Jerusalem, the multitude spread their garments and cut down branches from trees, waving them as the children cried out: Hosanna to the Son of David (Matthew 21:8-9). What can we now do for the Lord, when He is in Heaven, to comfort Him? Now we, too, can spread our garments under the feet of Christ. Upon reaching home, let us open our wretched storehouses and offer at least some spare pay to a needy person. This pay will be our garment cast before the Lord, upon which He will tread when He comes in glory – for, according to His words, that which we do for one of the least of the brethren, we do for Him.

We can also take palm branches into our hands, waving them to greet the Lord. We all see that martyrs are depicted on icons with palm branches. This is a symbol of the victory over the passions and the flesh, a symbol with which the Lord has crowned them. Let us try to defeat something ugly in ourselves. Our age is one of resentment and extreme self-love. Therefore, if we now feel offended by anyone, let us forgive him. Let us restrain ourselves, compelling the passion of self-love to subside. Now a wide wave of fleshly passions has overflowed into the world, and nearly seven-tenths of the world is under the power of Satan and has been seized by the sin of fornication. We need to defeat these passions; we need to refrain from them; we need to overcome the callousness that accompanies them with at least small good deeds. And if we will defeat these evil habits, replacing them with good deeds, we will raise a palm branch to Christ. The Gospel says that the multitude cried out: “Hosanna!” And we, too, can cry out to the Lord “Hosanna!” – but not with our mouths, but with our hearts and our entire lives. What does “Hosanna” mean? It is a praise glorifying God, as the Apostle Paul says: And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him (Colossians 3:17). Let us do the same, crying out “Hosanna!” with our entire lives.

In order to do this we must have two vigilant guardians: the memory of death and the continual remembrance of God, for it is written in Scripture: Seek ye Me, and ye shall live; Remember thy end, and thou shalt never do amiss (Amos 5:4; Ecclesiasticus 7:36).

Thus, let us offer our pay as garments to the Lord and our victory over the passions as palm branches, keeping hold of the memory of death and the memory of God, and crying out to Him with our entire lives: “Hosanna!” And then we will comfort the Lord and our souls shall live unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Translated from the Russian.

Source-http://www.pravmir.com/comforting-the-lord-as-he-weeps-on-palm-sunday/

Great Friday. Christ on Golgotha (Saint Nikolaï Velimirović)

Christ on Golgotha! Our Saviour on the cross! The Righteous One suffering! He Who loves the whole of the human race, is being put to death by us humans! If people have a conscience, they should be ashamed! If they have a heart, they should lament! If they have a brain, they should understand!

The good Samaritan, Who saved mankind from the wounds inflicted by the robbers, has Himself fallen into their hands. Around the Lord there were seven types of evil-doers. The first is represented by Satan, the second by the elders and leaders of the Jewish people, the third Judas, the fourth Pilate, the fifth Barabbas, the sixth the unrepentant robber who was crucified with Him and finally, the seventh, the robber who repented. Let us reflect for a moment on this band of evil-doers, among whom hangs the Son of God, crucified, wounded and bloodied.

The first is Satan. It’s he who wishes to do the greatest harm to the human race. He’s the father of lies, the most evil of evil-doers. The temptations he employs to distress people and make them do evil are two in kind: he tempts them with comforts and distresses them with trials. At the beginning he tempted Our Lord on the Mount of Temptation with promises of comforts, power and wealth; now, at the end, he distress Him with torment, with the passion. When his first temptations failed miserably, he left the Lord and departed far from Him. But he didn’t abandon Him completely, though; he left merely for a time (Luke 4, 13).

That period had passed and he now presented himself once more. On this occasion he didn’t need to appear openly, in full view. This time he could work through people. He made use of the sons of darkness who, blinded by the glorious radiance of Christ, delivered Him into the hands of Satan. And he, in turn, used them as a weapon against Christ the Lord. And he was right there with them, in every tongue that blasphemed against Christ, in every mouth that spat on His most honourable face, in every hand that scourged Him and set the crown of thorns on His head, in every heart that burned with envy and hatred towards Him.

The second is a group of evil-doers, the elders of Israel and the political, religious and spiritual leaders. These were the Scribes and Pharisees, the Sadducees and the priests, headed by King Herod. Envy and fear drove them to commit this crime against the Lord. They were consumed with envy because the Lord was wiser, better and more powerful than them. They feared for their positions, for their authority, for their glory and their wealth, if the people were to side with Christ. This is why they shouted: “Do you see that you’re gaining nothing? Look, people are going after him” (John, 12, 19). This was because of their fear, their weakness and their envy.

It Is Finished! -Some thoughts on Great Friday

How much can be said in just a few words! It is finished! It is done, it is accomplished…

There is no doubt that these words were also spoken by the enemies of the Lord, our Saviour, when they, returning from the terrible Golgotha, frequently repeated these words with Satanic joy: It is finished! We have finally reached the goal we desired so ardently: Jesus of Nazareth, our implacable accuser, is no longer alive; no longer will we hear His powerful, fiery words, so unbearable to our conscience, always placing us in a shameful situation before these ignorant people who are ready to deify Him, to follow Him into the mountains and the deserts, to hunger with Him, only to listen and listen to Him endlessly! Yes! He is no more: now we have nothing to fear, now we are complete masters, leaders of the people, and the people will follow us like mute and obedient animals, while gradually forgetting Him, this man of Galilee, and His new teaching will disperse like a cloud, like smoke in the wind, and we will quietly live as we wish… It is finished: it is over, He will no longer follow us like a stern shadow, like an implacable Judge!

 Thus rejoiced the scribes and the Pharisees, the iniquitous Jewish high priests and the Sadducees, celebrating their victory over the Prophet from Galilee. But let us turn away from these proud members of the Jewish intelligentsia, depraved to the core, these opponents of God and murderers of Christ. Let our thoughts and hearts turn to the sacred Golgotha. Here is being accomplished the great mystery of our salvation. Here is being offered the precious Sacrifice of atonement for the whole of mankind. Here the Lamb of God, Who has taken upon Himself the sins of the entire world, is dying on the cross. There He is, crying out in indescribable anguish of torment on the cross: “I thirst!” There He is, being offered vinegar to drink. And now we hear from His divine lips those majestic, those eternally significant words: “It is finished!” It is finished! – He cried out in the knowledge of having fulfilled the great mission entrusted to Him by the Heavenly Father: “I have finished, Father, the work which Thou hast given Me to accomplish!” It is finished! – He proclaimed triumphantly, celebrating victory over hell and death. It is finished! 

Only this very morning, on this great day which is unique in the history of mankind, hell and death reigned powerfully over mankind, and now, in this sacred and mysterious hour when the Lord lowered His head, obedient to the will of the Heavenly Father, and gave up His spirit, hell is already moaning, death is already lying prostrated; the long-awaited hope of mankind has been fulfilled – the promised Reconciler of heaven and of sinful earth, of man begotten in iniquity and of the All-holy God has appeared and accomplished His mission; human frailty has been encompassed by divine love, and this love has canceled out all the debts of penitents, i.e. of sinners who thirst for salvation… Who, what mind – I am speaking not only of human mind, but of angelic also – what created mind is able to encompass and fathom the entire grandeur of our salvation, accomplished by the love of the Son of God?

O come and worship this holy sepulcher which conceals within itself the Source of our life, our eternal salvation, our boundless rapture! O come and worship this Source of life, the Life-giving Lord, and let us weep before Him, let us weep with tears of profound repentance of our sins, repentance without self-justification, in the simplicity of a loving heart weeping in the presence of a loving Father, Who loves us more tenderly than any mother on earth, Who nourishes us with His body and His blood, – let us weep with tears of firm and immutable repentance! Behold, all of this – these wounds from the nails, this pierced side, these wounds from the crown of thorns, this sepulcher – all of this is for the sake of man and his salvation! All of this is exclusively the work of God’s love, which involved God’s wisdom, and God’s omnipotence, and all of God’s perfection in this great work. And now this boundless Love speaks in our conscience: My people, My beloved vineyard! What more must I do for you? What have I not yet done? I waited for you to bring Me the fruits of good deeds, but you bring only the thorns of sin. How long will this last? How long will I suffer you? The span of your life is moving along, moving towards its end, yet you continue to stagnate in your habitual and beloved sins, you stagnate in them and your heart becomes conjoined with them more and more, your souls becomes coarser and coarser, your conscience sleeps, becomes earthen, your spirit turns into flesh.. There is a limit to everything: there is a limit even to God’s forbearance….

It is here, at our Saviour’s sepulcher, when our conscience is most easily awakened, when God’s forbearance and love for us, sinners, is revealed in its vast entirety – that now is the time to cry over our sins…

Brethren! Who among you has not yet repented? Who has not yet united with the Lord in the most holy sacrament of Communion? Hasten to do this immediately, open your sinful wounds before this sacred sepulcher, and tomorrow you can approach the Lord’s Chalice… The forthcoming bright feast of the Lord’s Resurrection brings shining joy to a believing heart. Now is the favorable time, now is the day of salvation!

O most-merciful Lord, crucified and laid in the sepulcher for us! You have disposed the heart of the wise thief who was crucified with You towards repentance, You have touched the hearts of those who returned from the terrible Golgotha beating their breast! Soften also our hearts and open our eyes to see the whole sinful abyss into which we have fallen, extend to us Your saving hand from Your sepulcher, and before we come to our end, grant us that we may here and now shed bitter tears of heartfelt remorse, never to return to the path of sin and eternal damnation! Amen.

Bishop Nikon (Rozhdestvenskiy)
Trinity Lessons, No. 165, 1913

Contemplation on the Man Bearing the Pitcher of Water

Saint Maximos the Confessor 

Question: In the Gospel, who is the man in the city bearing a pitcher of water? Why water, and why are the disciples told that they’ll meet him and are to follow him? Who’s the master of the house? Why don’t the Gospel writers mention his name? What is the large upper room where a table’s been laid and in which the dread mystery of the Last Supper takes place?

Answer:  It’s not only the name of the man to whom the two disciples were sent to prepare the Passover which isn’t mentioned in Scripture, but the name of the city, too. So, an initial attempt at interpretation might be that the city denotes the perceptible world and the man symbolizes the human race in general, to whom the disciples of God the Word are being sent. The law of the Old Testament and the law of the New are sent as precursors to prepare His mystical feast with the human race. The former, through asceticism, cleanses our nature of every stain; whereas the latter, through the mystagogy of contemplation, elevates the mind, with its cognitive power, away from the corporeal and towards visions related to what is spiritually intelligble.

An indication of this is that the disciples who were sent were Peter and John. Because Peter is a symbol of action, John of contemplation. This is why it’s appropriate that they’re met first by the man bearing the pitcher of water, who symbolizes all those who, passing through the stage of practical philosophy, bear upon their shoulders the virtues, just as, within the pitcher, and with the mortification of the earthly members of their body, they also bear the grace of the Holy Spirit which, through their faith, cleanses them of every taint.

After him, they encounter the master of the house who shows them to the upper room, where a table has been spread. He, again, symbolizes all those who, being in the stage of contemplation, have embellished their pure and elevated intellect with sublime concepts of knowledge and with dogmas, just as the upper room had been prepared, in order to welcome the great Word in a godly manner.

Finally, the house itself is permanent residence in godliness, to which the practical mind in pursuit of virtue is progressing. The lord of this permanent godliness, which is now its natural possession, is the intellect illumined by the divine light of mystical knowledge. This is why, together with the practical, the supernatural presence of the Word the Saviour is required at the feast.

The word ‘man’ is used only once in the narrative, even though it refers to two persons: the one who’s described as bearing a pitcher of water and the other who’s the master of the house. As I say, it’s used once to refer to two person, perhaps because the one nature which they have in common is divided into the practical and the contemplative, as far as godliness is concerned. The Word, Who unites them spiritually, takes them and manifests them as one.

Again, if we want to attribute what’s been said to each person individually, we won’t have strayed from the truth. Because the city is the soul of each of us, to which words concerning virtue and knowledge are constantly being sent, as were the disciples of the Word. The man bearing the pitcher of water is the patient manner and thought that keeps high on the shoulders of self-restraint the unaltered grace of faith which was granted at baptism. And the house is that state of the permanent acquisition of the virtues which has been constructed as it were from many and varied stones, that is unshakeable and bold thoughts and habits.

The upper room is the broad and spacious mind and the intellect’s ability for cognitive power, which has been bedecked with divine visions of mystical and arcane dogmas. And the master of the house is the intellect which opens wide and is adorned with the trappings of the house, which means virtue, with the height, beauty and breadth of spiritual knowledge, too. And it is to this that the Word offers Himself at a repast, having first sent His disciples, that is, the initial spiritual notions concerning nature and time.

Easter, then, is truly the coming of the Word to our human intellect, when He Who comes, in mystic manner, the Word of God, grants fulfilment to all those worthy of it, through the offer of participation in His own good things.

Σταυρός και Ανάσταση, Akritas Publications, pp. 84-7

Source-Pemptousia.com

To What Purpose this Waste?

 Fr Lev Gillet

Holy Wednesday faces us with the contrast between two figures, two states of the soul. It is devoted to the remembrance of two actions: the action of the woman who, at Bethany, came to pour a jar of precious ointment on Jesus’s head, and the actions of the disciple who betrayed his Master. These two actions are not without a certain link, for the same disciple had protested against the apparent prodigality of the woman.

After great compline on Tuesday evening, as on the two preceding days, the ‘Service of the Bridegroom is celebrated. The chants make several allusions to the ‘ungrateful disciple’ and the ‘adulterous woman’. However, the gospel at matins (John 12, 17-50) does not touch on this episode at Bethany. It tells how, during one of his last meetings with the crowd, Jesus asks of the Father: ‘Glorify thy name’. (What a model of filial prayer this brief phrase is for us – disinterested, adoring and loving!) A voice comes from heaven and says ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again’. Jesus’s Passion and the Resurrection will be this glorification. Some sentences from this gospel announce the Passion directly: ‘I say unto you, except a corn of wheat falls into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit…Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out; And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me’.

At the presanctified liturgy on Wednesday we continue reading from Ezekiel (2, 3-3 ,3): God commands the prophet to go amongst men fearlessly and to tell them the divinely spoken words he has heard. We also go on with the reading from Exodus (2, 11-22): Moses, having killed the Egyptian who struck an Israelite, flees into the country of Midian, and there he marries. The last of these readings, again, is from the book of Job (2, 1-10): Satan asks God’s permission to test Job in his flesh itself, but Job, even though covered with sores and despite his wife’s provocation, still refuses to curse God. The gospel (Matt. 26, 6-16) tells of the anointing at Bethany. A woman bearing precious ointment in an alabaster box, pours it on Jesus’s head. The disciples are indignant: ‘To what purpose this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor’. Jesus answers with praise for the woman’s deed: ‘For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured the ointment on my body, she did it for my burial’. Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, then goes to find the priests: ‘What will you ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?’ The priests covenant to give him thirty pieces of silver.

Jesus approved of the woman’s action, first because it was homage, rendered to him in anticipation of his death and burial, and then because it was an expression of great love which could for the short time of life he still had left, legitimately be shown him, whereas the poor would always be there. But can we find in these words of Jesus’s a clear directive for our own actions? It seems that we can. For one thing, Jesus blesses the woman’s prodigality because of certain very special circumstances: the fact of Jesus’s visible presence among men and of the near approach of his burial. But, now that these circumstances no longer exist, the duty is different. While we need not condemn offering riches and beauty to the service of God, it is above all through those members of the mystical body who suffer that we are able to honour its head. For it would be offensive to God if sumptuous churches were built while the poor were allowed to die of hunger.

The episode at Bethany, however, has a significance that goes further than the offering of a jar of ointment. It is not only through material goods that we can give generously to Jesus, but also by consecrating to him our intangible wealth: for example a life of prayer, an ascetic or contemplative life, or some costly sacrifice which seems useless. The world will protest, as did the disciples at Bethany: to what purpose this prodigality, this waste? Would not a normal life, devoted to the service of men, be much more use? And yet assessment of the ‘value of the loss’ remains the nerve of all religion that is truly alive. If we have the duty to do what we can in cases of real and obvious distress before concerning ourselves with cultural luxury, we have the right, in what concerns only ourselves, to pour invisible ointment on Jesus’s head – that is to say to ‘lose’ for his sake (but in reality to gain) the best of our life. Our heart is the first jar of ointment that we must break before him, for him.

The case of Judas is so terrible and obscure that we do not dare to try and explain it or enter into it. But let us keep in mind a sentence from the ‘Service of the Bridegroom’ for Holy Wednesday: ‘The ungrateful disciple whom thou hadst filled with Thy grace, has rejected it’. It is indeed possible to reject grace, even when one has been filled with it. And how many Christians are there who, during the course of their lives, have not said to their ruling passion – the flesh, money or pride: ‘I am ready to sell Jesus to you. Tell me what pleasures you will give me and I will deliver him to you’?

In many churches, the sacrament of unction is conferred during the afternoon or evening of Holy Wednesday to all believers who desire to receive spiritual or bodily relief.

Source: L’An de Grâce du Seigneur, translated from the French by Deborah Cowen.

Source-Pemptousia.com

A LITURGICAL EXPLANATION OF HOLY WEEK-by Rev. Alexander Schmemann

A LITURGICAL EXPLANATION OF HOLY WEEK
The Very Rev. Alexander Schmemann

LAZARUS SATURDAY

The Beginning of the Cross: Saturday of Lazarus "Having fulfilled Forty Days... we ask to see the Holy Week of Thy Passion."With these words sung at Vespers of Friday, Lent comes to its end and we enter into the annual commemoration of Christ's suffering, death and Resurrection. It begins on the Saturday of Lazarus. The double feast of Lazarus' resurrection and the Entrance of the Lord to Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) is described in liturgical texts as the "beginning of the Cross" and is to be understood therefore, within the context of the Holy Week. The common Troparion of these days explicitly affirms that by raising Lazarus from the dead Christ confirmed the truth of general resurrection. It is highly significant that we are led into the darkness of the Cross by one of the twelve major feasts of the Church. Light and joy shine not only at the end of Holy Week but also at its beginning; they illumine darkness itself, reveal its ultimate meaning.
All those familiar with Orthodox worship know the peculiar, almost paradoxical character of Lazarus Saturday services. It is a Sunday, i.e., a Resurrection, service on a Saturday, a day usually devoted to the liturgical commemoration of the dead. And the joy which permeates these services stresses one central theme: the forthcoming victory of Christ over Hades. Hades is the Biblical term for Death in its universal power, for that unescapable darkness and destruction that swallows all life and poisons with its shadow the whole world. But now -- with Lazarus' resurrection -- "death begins to tremble." For there the decisive duel between Life and Death begins and it gives us the key to the entire liturgical mystery of Pascha. In the early church Lazarus Saturday was called "announcement of Pascha", it announces and anticipates, indeed, the wonderful light and peace of the next Saturday - the Great and Holy Saturday, the day of the Lifegiving Tomb.

Lazarus, the Friend of Jesus 

Let us first of all understand that Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, personifies the whole mankind and also each man, and Bethany, the home of Lazarus the Man, is the symbol of the whole world as a home of man. For each man was created friend of God and called to this Divine friendship: the knowledge of God, the communion with Him,the sharing of life with Him. “In Him was life and the life was the light of men.” (John1:4) And yet this Friend whom God loves, whom in love He has created, i.e. called to life, is destroyed and annihilated by a power which God has not created: death. God encounters in His own world a power which destroys His work and annihilates His design. The world is but lamentation and sorrow, tears and death. How is this possible?
How did this happen? These are the questions implied in John’s slow and detailed narrative of Jesus’ coming to the grave of His friend. And once there, “Jesus wept.”(John 11:35) Why does He weep if He knows that in a moment He will call Lazarus back to life? Byzantine hymnographers fail to grasp the true meaning of these tears.
They ascribe them to His human nature, whereas the power of resurrection belongs to God in Him. But the Orthodox Church teaches that all actions of Christ are “theandric,”i.e., both Divine and human, are actions of the one and same God-Man. But then His very tears are Divine. Jesus weeps because He contemplates the triumph of death and
destruction in the world created by God.

The Legal Aspects of the Saviour’s Trial

The Lord Jesus Christ was tried according to two legal systems: the Judaic system, which was considered to be the fairest (being built upon the principle of handing out punishment equal to guilt, as had been originally established in the law given by God to Moses – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth), and the Roman system, which contained the most superior legal enactments and which lies at the base of modern jurisprudence.

And according to these two systems the Saviour was condemned.

Did this mean that the law pronounced a death sentence over itself when it condemned to death by crucifixion the very incarnation of Truth and Justice?

This would have been true had the Saviour’s trial been legal. However, both trials suffered from gross judicial errors.

The Judaic trial of the Saviour
 

After the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus, many Jews came to believe in Christ’s divine power. “Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said: ‘What do we do? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.’ And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them: ‘Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not’… Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put Him to death” (John 11:47-50, 53).

The Jewish leaders feverishly sought the means to accomplish their intent. Falling into the sinful passion of avarice, one of Christ’s disciples, Judas Iscariot, offered to betray his Divine Teacher to them for 30 pieces of silver. In the evening of Thursday, after the Mystic Supper, Judas accomplished this betrayal. Christ was seized.
 

Jewish law forbad making an arrest in the evening or at night. As an exception, a nighttime arrest was allowed when the threat existed that a criminal would commit a new crime during the night, or that he would flee. But even then the trial could begin only on the morning of the following day. (In the Acts of the Apostles we see that for this reason the incarcerated apostles were kept in prison until the morning.)

St Gregory Palamas on Palm Sunday

The sermon below was delivered by St Gregory Palamas on Palm Sunday of a year between 1347 and 1359, in a church in the city of Thessalonike

“In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee,” said God through Isaiah (Isaiah 49.8). It is good today to speak these words of the apostle to your charity: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6.2). “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us work the works of light. Let us walk honestly as in the da” (Romans 13.12-13). The commemoration of Christ’s saving passion is at hand, and the new, great spiritual Passover, which is the reward for dispassion and the prelude of the world to come. Lazarus proclaims it in advance by coming back from the depths of Hades and rising from the dead on the fourth day just by the voice and command of God, who has power over life and death (John 11.1-45). By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, children and simple people sing praises in advance to the Redeemer from death, who brings souls up from Hades and gives souls and bodies eternal life.

“What man is he that desireth life and to see good days? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile: depart from evil and do good” (Psalm 34.12-14; compare 1 Peter 3.10-11). Evil means gluttony, drunkenness and dissolute living. Evil means love of money, being greedy for gain, and injustice. Evil means vainglory, arrogance and pride. Let everyone turn aside from such vices and do those things which are good. What are they? Self-control, fasting, chastity, righteousness, almsgiving, forbearance, love, humility. That by so doing we may worthily partake of the Lam of God who was sacrificed for our sake, and so receive the earnest of incorruption, and keep it as an assurance of the inheritance promised to us in heaven. Is it hard to do what is good, and are the virtues more difficult than the vices? That is certainly not how I see it. The drunken, self-indulgent person subjects himself because of this to more sufferings than someone who restrains himself; the licentious person suffers more than someone chaste; someone striving to become rich more than someone who lives in contentment with what he has; the person seeking to surround himself with glory than someone who passes life in obscurity. Since, however, the virtues seem more difficult to us because of our love of comfort, let us force ourselves. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,” it says, “and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11.12).

All of us, eminent and lowly, governors and governed, rich and poor, need diligence and attention to drive these evil passions away from our souls, and introduce the whole range of virtues in their stead. Farmers, shoemakers, builders, tailors, weavers, and in general all those who earn their living by their own effort and the work of their hands, provided they throw out of their souls the desire for riches, glory and pleasure, are truly blessed. These are the poor to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs. It was on their account that the Lord said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5.3). The poor in spirit are those whose spirits, or souls, are free from boasting, love of glory and fondness for pleasure, and therefore either choose to be poor in external things as well or else courageously bear involuntary poverty. Those who are rich and comfortable, and enjoy fleeting glory, and in general all who long to be like them, will yield to more harmful passions and fall into other worse traps of the devil, which are more difficult to deal with. When someone becomes rich, he does not lay aside his desire for riches, but increases it, grasping at more than he did before. In the same way, pleasure lovers, power seekers, the dissolute and the debauched increase their desires rather than renouncing them. Rulers and eminent men increase their power so as to commit greater injustices and sin.

That is why it is difficult for a ruler to be saved or for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. “How can ye believe,” it says, “which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” (John 5.44). But if any of you are well off, or eminent or rulers, do not be dismayed. You can, if you wish, seek the glory of God and exert force on yourselves to stop the impetus towards becoming worse, to practice great virtues and to drive away great evils, not just from yourselves, but from many other people, even against their will. Not only can you act honestly and chastely yourselves, but there are many ways in which you can prevent those who want to be unjust and licentious from doing so. Not only can you show yourselves obedient to Christ’s Gospel and His teachings, but you can also bring those who are minded to disobey into subjection to Christ’s Church and its leaders according to Christ. This you are able to do, not just by means of the power and authority allotted to you by God, but by becoming an example of all that is good to those below you. For subjects become like their rulers.

Everyone needs diligence, force and attention, but not to the same extent. Those exalted in honour, wealth and power, and those who concern themselves with words and the acquisition of wisdom by means of them, even if they wish to be saved, are in need of greater force and diligence, since they are less obedient by nature. Exactly this can be clearly seen in the reading from Christ’s Gospel yesterday and today. The miracle performed on Lazarus openly proved the one who did it to be God. But whereas the people were convinced and believed, the rulers at that time, that is to say, the scribes and Pharisees, were so far from being persuaded that they raged against Him even more, and resolved in their madness to hand Him over to death, although everything He had said and done plainly declared Him to be the Lord of life and death. No one can say that the fact that the Lord lifted up His eyes at that time and said, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,” was an obstacle to their regarding Him as equal to the Father, since He went on to say, “I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they might believe that thou hast sent me” (John 11.41-42). So that they might know He was God and came from the Father, and also that He did not work miracles in opposition to God, but in accordance with God’s purpose, He lifted up His eyes to God in front of everybody and spoke to Him in words which make it clear that He who was speaking on earth was equal to the heavenly Father on high. In the beginning when man was to be formed, there was a Counsel beforehand. So now also, in the case of Lazarus, when a man was to be formed anew, there was a Counsel first. When man was to be created the Father said to the Son, “Let us make man” (Genesis 1.26), the Son listened to the Father, and man was brought into being. Now, by contrast, the Father listened to the Son speaking, and Lazarus was brought to life.

Notice that the Father and the Son are of equal honour and have the same will. The words are in the form of a prayer for the sake of the crowd standing by, but they are not the words of prayer but of lordship and absolute authority. “Lazarus come forth” (John 11.43). And at one the man who had been dead four days stood before Him alive. Did this come about by the command of the life-giver or His prayer? He cried with a loud voice, again on account of the bystanders, since He could have raised him not only by using His normal voice, but just by His will alone. In the same way, He could have done it from afar and with the stone in place. But instead He came to the grave and spoke to those present, who took away the stone and smelt the stench. Then He cried with a loud voice. He raised him in this manner so that by means of their sight (for they saw Him standing at the grave), their sense of smell (for they were aware of the stench of the man four days dead), their sense of touch (for they used their own hands to take away the stone beforehand from the grave, and afterwards to loose the grave-clothes from his body and the napkin from his face), and their hearing (for the Lord’s voice reached the ears of all), they all might understand and believe that it was He who called everything from non-being into being, who upheld all things by the word of His power, and who in the beginning by His word alone made everything that exists out of nothing.

The simple people believed Him in every respect, and did not keep their faith quiet, but began to preach His divinity by deeds and words. After the raising of Lazarus on the fourth day, the Lord found an ass, and, when His disciples had made it ready, as the evangelist Matthew tells us (Matthew 21.1-11), He sat upon it and entered Jerusalem, as had been foretold in Zechariah’s prophecy: “Do not fear, O daughter of Zion: behold thy king cometh unto thee: he is just and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9.9; Matthew 21.5). The prophet shows by these words that this king in the prophecy is the only true king of Zion. “Your king,” he says, “does not arouse fear in those who see him. Nor is he an oppressor or an evildoer accompanied by shield-bearers and spear men, trailing behind him a host of foot-soldiers and cavalry, passing his life in greed for gain, demanding taxes and tributes, and unpleasant and harmful labours and services. By contrast, His banner is humility, poverty and lowliness, and He enters mounted upon an ass, without any human pretensions at all. He is the only righteous King who righteously saves. He is meek, and meekness is His distinctive work.” The Lord said of Himself, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11.29).

So the King who had raised Lazarus from the dead entered Jerusalem sitting upon an ass. Everyone, children, men, old people, immediately spread their garments in the way. They took palm-branches, which are symbols of victory, and went to meet Him as the life-giver and victor over death. They fell at His feet and escorted Him in procession, singing together, not just outside but also inside the precincts of the Temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21.9). “Hosanna” is a song of praise directed to God, which means, “Save us.” The additional words “in the highest” show that He is not only praised on earth, nor only by men, but also by the heavenly angels on high.

The people not only sang His praises and called Him God, but they subsequently opposed the scribes and Pharisees’ evil purpose against God and their murderous allegations. For the latter were mad enough to say of Him, “This man is not of God, and since he doeth many miracles, if we let him thus alone and do not put him to death, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation” (compare John 9.16 and 11.47-48). But what did the people say? “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh” (Mark 11.9-10). By saying, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” they showed that He was from God the Father and that He came in the name of the Father. As the Lord said of Himself, “I came in the name of my Father” (compare John 5.43) and I proceeded forth and came from God” (John 8.42). On the other hand, by saying, “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh,” they showed that this was the kingdom in which, according to prophecy, the Gentiles too, and indeed the Romans, were to believe. For this king was not just Israel’s hope, but also the expectation of the Gentiles, according to Jacob’s prophecy: “Binding his foal unto the vine,” where “foal” refers to the Jewish people who were subject to Him, “and his ass’s colt unto the branch of the vine” (Genesis 49.11). The branch of the vine is the Lord’s disciples, for the Lord said to them, “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15.5). By this branch, the Lord binds to Himself His “ass’s colt,” namely the New Israel of the Gentiles, who become sons of Abraham by grace. If, asked the people, this kingdom in which we have put our faith is the hope of the Gentiles too, why should we fear the Romans?

Those who were childlike in innocence but not in intelligence were inspired by the Holy Spirit to offer up to the Lord a faultlessly perfect hymn, and bore witness that, as God, He had brought Lazarus back to life after he had been dead for four days. When the scribes and Pharisees, on the other hand, “saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the Temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were sore displeased and said unto the Lord, Hearest thou what they say?” (Matthew 21.15-16). In fact, it would have been more appropriate for the Lord to put the same question to them, “Can you not see, or hear or understand?” To refute those who were complaining that He tolerated songs of praise that were fitting for God alone, He replied, “Yes, I hear those who, invisibly enlightened by Myself, declare such things about me. But these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. Have you never read the prophecy that, ‘Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise’?” (Psalm 8.2; Matthew 21.16). This was another amazing fact, that simple, uneducated children should speak perfectly of the divinity of God made man for our sake, and that their voices should take up the angelic hymn. At the Lord’s birth the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth” (Luke 21.4), and now at the time of His entry into Jerusalem the children offered up the same hymn, “Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21.29).

Let us all, young and old, rulers and subjects, be childlike in innocence, that God may empower us to make a public show of the trophies, and carry aloft the symbols of victory, not just of victory over the evil passions, but over visible and invisible enemies, and may we find the grace of the word to help in time of need (compare Hebrews 4.16). The young colt which the Lord deigned to ride for our sake prefigured, although it was only one, the Gentiles’ obedience to Him and we, governors and governed alike, are all Gentiles come from them.

In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, nor Greek, nor Jew, but all, according to the holy apostle, are one (Galatians 3.28). In the same way, in Him there is neither ruler nor subject, but by His grace we are all one in faith in Him, and belong to one body, His Church, whose head He is. By the grace of the all-holy Spirit we have all drunk of the one Spirit, and have all received on e baptism. We all have one hope and one God, who is above all, and through all, and in us all (Ephesians 4.6). So let us love one another. Let us bear with one another, seeing that we are members one of another. As the Lord Himself said, the sign that we are His disciples is love. When He departed from this world, the fatherly inheritance He left us was love, and the last prayer He gave us when He ascended to His Father was about love for one another (John 13.33-35).

Let us strive to attain to this fatherly prayer and let us not lose the inheritance He left us nor the sign He gave us, lest we should also lose our sonship, our blessing and our discipleship. If that happens, we shall fall away from the promised hope and be shut out of the spiritual bridechamber. Before His saving passion, when the Lord entered the earthly Jerusalem, not just the people, but also the true rulers of the Gentiles, the Lord’s apostles, spread their garments in His way. In the same manner, let us all, rulers as well as subjects, lay down our natural garments before Him, by making our flesh and its impulses subject to the spirit, that we may be made worthy not only to see and worship Christ’s saving passion and holy resurrection, but to enjoy communion with Him. “For if,” says the apostle, “we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6.5).

To which may we all attain by the grace and love towards mankind of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom belong all glory, honour and worship, together with His Father without beginning and the life-giving Spirit, now and for ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann -Saturday of Lazarus

The joy that permeates and enlightens the service of Lazarus Saturday stresses one major theme: the forthcoming victory of Christ over Hades. "Hades" is the Biblical term for Death and its universal power, for inescapable darkness that swallows all life and with its shadow poisons the whole world. But now — with Lazarus’ resurrection — "death begins to tremble." A decisive duel between Life and Death begins giving us the key to the entire liturgical mystery of Pascha. Already in the fourth century Lazarus’ Saturday was called the "announcement of Pascha." For, indeed, it announces and anticipates the wonderful light and peace of the next — The Great — Saturday, the day of life-giving Tomb.

Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, personifies the whole of mankind and also each man, as Bethany — the home of Lazarus, — stands for the whole world — the home of man. For each man was created as a friend of God and was called to this friendship: the knowledge of God, the communion with Him, the sharing of life with Him: "in Him was Life and the Life was the light of men" (John 1:4). And yet this Friend, whom Jesus loves, whom He has created in love, is destroyed, annihilated by a power which God has not created: death. In His own world, the fruit of His love, wisdom and beauty, God encounters a power that destroys His work and annihilates His design. The world is but lamentation and sorrow, complaint and revolt. How is this possible? How did this happen? These are the questions implied in John’s slow and detailed narrative of Jesus’ progression towards the grave of His friend. And once there, Jesus wept, says the Gospel (John 11:35). Why did He weep if He knew that moments later He would call Lazarus back to life? Byzantine hymnographers fail to grasp the true meaning of these tears. "As man Thou weepest, and as God Thou raisest the one in the grave..." They arrange the actions of Christ according to His two natures: the Divine and the human. But the Orthodox Church teaches that all the actions of Christ are both Divine and human, are actions of the one and same person, the Incarnate Son of God. He who weeps is not only man but also God, and He who calls Lazarus out of the grave is not God alone but also man. And He weeps because He contemplates the miserable state of the world, created by God, and the miserable state of man, the king of creation... "It stinketh," say the Jews trying to prevent Jesus from approaching the corps, and this "it stinketh" can be applied to the whole of creation. God is Life and He called the man into this Divine reality of life and "he stinketh." At the grave of Lazarus Jesus encounters Death — the power of sin and destruction, of hatred and despair. He meets the enemy of God. And we who follow Him are now introduced into the very heart of this hour of Jesus, the hour, which He so often mentioned. The forthcoming darkness of the Cross, its necessity, its universal meaning, all this is given in the shortest verse of the Gospel — "and Jesus wept."

We understand now that it is because He wept, i.e., loved His friend Lazarus and had pity on him, that He had the power of restoring life to him. The power of Resurrection is not a Divine "power in itself’," but the power of love, or rather, love as power. God is Love, and it is love that creates life; it is love that weeps at the grave and it is, therefore, love that restores life... This is the meaning of these Divine tears. They are tears of love and, therefore, in them is the power of life. Love, which is the foundation of life and its source, is at work again recreating, redeeming, restoring the darkened life of man: "Lazarus, come forth!" And this is why Lazarus Saturday is the real beginning of both: the Cross, as the supreme sacrifice of love, and the Common Resurrection, as the ultimate triumph of love.

"Christ — the Joy, Truth, Light and the Life of all and the resurrection of the world, in His love appeared to those on earth and was the image of Resurrection, granting to all Divine forgiveness."

Archpriest Alexander Schmemann

The Christian Way, 1961

Easter On Mount Athos - ΠΑΣΧΑ ΣΤΟ ΑΓΙΟ ΟΡΟΣ

EASTER SUNDAY, A Sacred Pascha -ΑΓΙΟΝ ΠΑΣΧΑ Πάσχα Iερόν

Easter Sunday A Sacred Pascha.. The Stichera of Pascha-First Plagal Mode Chanted by"Choir of Vatopaidi Monastery, Mount Athos. ΑΓΙΟΝ ΠΑΣΧΑ Πάσχα ιερόν.. Τά Στιχηρά τού Πάσχα,Ηχος πλάγιος τού α΄ Ψάλλει Χορός Βατοπαιδινών Πατέρων ΑΓΙΟΝ ΟΡΟΣ.

 TEXT IN ENGLISH: 

Verse:Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered, and let them that hate Him flee before His face, A sacred Pascha hath been shown forth to us today; a new and holy Pascha,a mystic Pascha,an all-venerable Pascha,a Pascha that is Christ the Redeemer; a spotless Pascha,a great Pascha, a Pascha of the faithful, a Pascha that hath opened unto us the gates of Paradise, a Pascha that doth hallow all the faithful. Verse:As smoke vanisheth,so let them vanish: as wax melteth before the fire. Come from that scene,O women,bearers of good tidings, and say to Sion: Receive from us the tidings of joy, of the Resurrection of Christ. Exult,dance,and be glad,O Jerusalem. for thou hast seen Christ the King as a bridegroom come forth from the tomb. Verse:So let sinners perish at the presence of God, and let the righteous be glad. The myrrh-bearing women at deep dawn drew nigh to the tomb of the Giver of life;they found an Angel sitting upon the stone, and he, addressing them,in this manner say's: Why seek ye the Living among the dead? Why mourn ye the Incorruptible amid corruption? Go, proclaim it unto His disciples. Verse:This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad therein. Pascha of delight,Pascha,the Lord's Pascha,an all-venerable Pascha hath dawned for us,a Pascha whereon let us embrace one another with joy. O Pascha,ransom from sorrow! Today Christ hath shone forth from the tomb as from a bridal chamber,and hath filled the women with joy, saying; "Proclaim it unto the Apostles".

Saint Gregory Palamas on Great and Holy Saturday

The following are excerpts from a sermon given by Saint Gregory Palamas to a church congregation in Thessalonica on Great and Holy Saturday some year from 1347 to 1359

The pre-eternal, uncircumscribed and almighty Logos and omnipotent Son of God could clearly have saved man from mortality and servitude to the devil without Himself becoming man. He upholds all things by the word of His power and everything is subject to His divine authority (compare Hebrews 1.3). According to Job, He can do everything and nothing is impossible for Him (compare Job 42.2 LXX). The strength of a created being cannot withstand the power of the Creator, and nothing is more pwerful than the Almighty. But the incarnation of the Logos of God was the method of deliverance most in keeping with our nature and weakness, and most appropriate for Him who carried it out, for this method had justice on its side, and God does not act without justice. As the Psalmist and Prophet says, “God is righteous and loveth righteousness” (compare Psalm 11.7), “and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (Psalm 92.15). Man was justly abandoned by God in the beginning as he had first abandoned God. He had voluntarily approached the originator of evil, obeyed him when he treacherously advised the opposite of what God had commanded, and was justly given over to him. In this way, through the evil one’s envy and the good Lord’s just consent, death became twofold, for he brought about not just physical but also eternal death.

Christ clearly had to make immortal not only the human nature which existed in Him, but the human race, and to guide it towards participating in that true life which in due course procures eternal life for the body as well, just as the soul’s state of death in due course brought about the death of the body too. That this plan for salvation should be made manifest, and that Christ’s way of life should be put before us to emulate, was highly necessary and beneficial. At one time God appeared visibly before man and the good angels that they might imitate Him. Later, when we had cast ourselves down and fallen away from this vision, God came down to us from on high in His surpassing love for mankind, without in any way giving up His divinity, and by living among us set Himself before us as the pattern of the way back to life.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and love of God (compare Romans 11.33)! In His wisdom, power and love for mankind God knew how to transform incomparably for the better the falls resulting from our self-willed waywardness. If the Son of God had not come down from heaven we should have had no hope of going up to heaven. If He had not become incarnate, suffered in the flesh, risen and ascended for our sake, we should not have known God’s surpassing love for us. If He had not taken flesh and endured the passion while we were still ungodly, we should not have desisted from the pride which so often lifts us up and drags us down. Now that we have been exalted without contributing anything, we stay humble, and as we regard with understanding the greatness of God’s promise and benevolence we grow in humility, from which comes salvation.

A sacrifice was needed to reconcile the Father on high with us and to sanctify us, since we had been soiled by fellowship with the evil one. There had to be a sacrifice which both cleansed and was clean, and a purified, sinless priest. We needed a resurrection not just of our souls but of our bodies, and a resurrection for those to come after us. This liberation and resurrection, and also the ascension and the everlasting heavenly order, not only had to be bestowed upon us but also confirmed. And all this was necessary not just for those alive at the time and those to come, but also for people born since the beginning of time. In Hades there were far more of such people than there were people to be born later, and far more were to believe and be saved at once. I think that is why Christ came at the end of the ages. He had to preach the gospel to those in Hades (compare 1 Peter 3.19), to reveal His great plan for salvation to them and to give them complete freedom from the demons who held them captive, as well as sanctification and promises for the future. It was clearly necessary for Christ to descend into Hades, but all these things were done with justice, without which God does not act.

In addition to what we have mentioned, the deceiver had to be justly deceived and to lose the riches he had seized and deceitfully acquired. For evil had taken control through cunning, and the originator of evil continually boasted of this fact. The devil would not have ceased from boasting if he had been subdued by God’s sovereign power and not pulled down from his authority by justice and wisdom. Since everybody turns aside to evil in deed or word or thought, or in two or all of these, we defile the purity given by God to human nature, and need to be sanctified. Sanctification is accomplished by each person’s offering and sacrifice of firstfruits, but as the firstfruits have to be pure, we are not able to offer such a sacrifice to God. This is why Christ was revealed, who alone is undefiled and presented Himself as an offering and a sacrifice of firstfruits to the Father for our sake, that all we who look towards Him, believe in Him and attach ourselves to Him through obedience will appear through Him before the face of God, obtain forgiveness and be sanctified. The Lord referred to this in the Gospels, saying, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17.19). Not only did the offering have to be pure and sinless but so did the high priest who offered it. As the apostle says, “Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7.26).

For such reasons as these the Logos of God was made flesh and dwelt among us, appearing on earth and living with men. He took upon Himself our human flesh, which was subject to suffering and death, even though it was completely pure, and He used it in His divine wisdom as a bait to hook the serpent, the originator of evil, through the Cross, and set free the whole human race which he had enslaved. When a tyrant falls, all those he tyrannized are liberated. This is what the Lord Himself said in the Gospels, that the strong man was bound and his goods spoiled (compare Matthew 12.29). His possessions were taken as spoil by Christ, and were set free, justified, filled with light and endowed with divine gifts. As David sings, “Thou hast ascended on high,” up on to the Cross, or, if you wish, up to heaven, “thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast given gifts to men” (Ephesians 4.8; compare Psalm 68.18).

Christ overturned the devil through suffering and His flesh which He offered as a sacrifice to God the Father, as a pure and altogether holy victim—how great is His gift!—and recnciled God to our human race. He underwent the passion according to the Father’s will and became for us, who were destroyed through disobedience and saved through obedience, an example of how obedient we should be. He showed that death was far more precious than the devil’s immortality, because it procured life that was truly immortal, life that will not be subject to the second and eternal death, but stays with Christ in the heavenly dwellings. When Christ had risen from the dead on the third day and had shown Himself alive to His disciples, He ascended into heaven. He remained immortal and bestowed on us, with complete assurance, resurrection, immortality and truly blessed, eternal, incorruptible life in heaven. By means of the one death and resurrection of His flesh, He healed our twofold death and freed us from our double captivity of soul and body.

The Lord has given us rebirth through divine baptism and sealed us with the grace of the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption (compare Ephesians 4.30), but He has allowed us still to have a body which is mortal and passible. Although He has cast out the teacher of evil from the treasure houses of our soul, yet He allows him to attack from without. This is so that anybody who has been renewed in accordance with the new covenant, that is to say, the gospel of Christ, who lives in good works and repentance, despises the delights of this life, endures suffering and is trained in the enemy’s assaults, can be made ready to receive immortality and the incorruptible good things to come in the new age.

May we too attain to this through the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sake was made man, suffered, was buried, rose from the dead, took our fallen human nature up to heaven and honoured it by sitting on the Father’s right hand. To our Lord Jesus Christ belong glory, honour, and worship, together with His Father without beginning and the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The translation from which these excerpts are taken is Saint Gregory Palamas: The Homilies

Elder Petroniu-On Holy and Great Wednesday

 

By Elder Petroniu Tanase

The last Liturgy of Holy Wednesday is the closing and culmination of the entire period of Great Lent. It reveals what marvelous works can be done and how many pitfalls and temptations we invite when it is absent from our lives.

The twofold events of the day are: the sinful woman and His disciple Judas, the destroyer of repentance. The sinful woman is found to be in a worse situation due to her moral fall in debauchery, yet Judas is in a more honorable seat: he is a disciple of the Master.

The repentance of the sinful woman elevates her and makes her a myrrhbearer, yet the avarice of Judas lowers him to the most horrible of falls. It makes him a traitor of his Teacher and in the end drives him to hang himself. The change in these two situations fills our hearts with fear and anxiety for our salvation, but at the same time with trust and hope in the great power of repentance.

Let us more thoroughly examine these two situations.

The Scribes and Pharisees in particular, and the Hebrew people generally, had faith that as a people they were chosen, and as observers of the Law they were automatically destined to be heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Savior on numerous occasions showed that their faith was incorrect.

This is expressed in the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee: a sinner and a righteous one with positions and works in their life, suddenly change their positions due to the contrasts of their soul. Farmers of the vineyard, as another Parable says, initially trusted the master of the vineyard, but then they heard the stern decision of the Lord: "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit" (Matt. 21:43).

The disciple Judas and the prostitute who are remembered on Holy Wednesday express these things even more fully. The disciple knows his Lord better than anyone. For years he has lived with Him, he has seen miracles, he has heard so many wondrous teachings, and with all these things he became a servant of avarice and brought his soul down to eternal perdition.

Contrary to this, the woman alienated due to her sins, presented with great repentance only her tears and the very costly myrrh. She becomes a myrrhbearer and appropriately prepares the Lord for burial, and this deed of hers is always proclaimed throughout the world in remembrance (Mk. 14:9).

This Matins service always sets before us these two situations: the disciple and the sinful woman. Change came from the repentance of the prostitute and the fall of Judas due to his avarice.

"The harlot approached Thee, O Lover of mankind, pouring out on Thy feet costly perfume mixed with tears; and at Thy command she was redeemed from the stench of her sins. But the ungrateful disciple, though he was touched by Thy grace, rejected it and defiled himself with mire, selling Thee for love of money." (Kathisma of Holy Wednesday)

The nun Kassiani in her famous Doxastikon of the Aposticha expresses the anguish of her soul and the wailing of the prostitute at the feet of the Lord.

The immortal teaching arising from the events of this day should under no circumstance be forgotten by us. That which happens with Israel and the Scribes and Pharisees, the same can happen with the New Israel, the Christians, and its sacred Liturgizers, the priests and monks. The fact that we are a chosen people, or Christians, or priests, etc., does not alone lead us to salvation, but rather our response to the invitation of the inner life, repentance and humility. This is why the Holy Fathers continually say it is better to be a humble sinner rather than a proud righteous man.

At the end of the Fast the commemoration of the prostitute and the betrayal of Judas has a singular explanation. We are approaching Holy Pascha, after a long period of preparation and many labors. Let us not be restless and unresponsive. One carelessness can devastate the entire reward of our soul, as happened with the passion of avarice in Judas.

At the same time the one loaded with sins and alienated from God has hope for salvation. A sincere repentance and renunciation of evil from the depths of the heart can make one worthy of forgiveness, as happened with this mornings "sinful and impure fallen woman".

Therefore with fear and hope, let us work out our salvation. With fear, owing to the illness and unworthiness of our human nature, and with hope because of the power of repentance, which rectifies us with the boundless compassion of God, before which no sin can resist. Judas could also have been forgiven, had he repented. This is made certain by the sinful woman, who poured out many tears and was redeemed from the stench of her passions.

This is also seen in the other disciple, Peter, who after his triple denial cried bitter tears, and was forgiven by the Lord like the prostitute.

Holy Wednesday is a dark and sad day, owing to the consultation of Judas to sell Jesus and the decision of the Scribes and Pharisees for His murder, as the troparion for the prophecy in the Trithekti of the day says: "Today the evil Sanhedrin has assembled, and devised vain things against Him. Today Judas places around his neck the noose. Caiaphas confesses He came to suffer for us all. Our Redeemer, Christ God, glory to Thee."

For this treacherous deed of the disciple and the Jewish people, who denied the Messiah they so waited for, the Church mourns every Wednesday of the year with fasting and prayer. This is because the sin of selling and denying the Master did not disappear with the death of Judas, but continues throughout the centuries and is also claimed by Christians. Because they, like the Jewish people, were made worthy of the great gift of the Master, the redemption of our sins and honorable discipleship, yet we sell the Master for infamous money and the futile pursuits of our current century.

Lord, redeem our souls from such iniquity!

Source: From the book by the same ΟΙ ΠΥΛΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΜΕΤΑΝΟΙΑΣ: ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΟΙ ΣΤΟΧΑΣΜΟΙ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΠΕΡΙΟΔΟ ΤΟΥ ΤΡΙΩΔΙΟY (Ὑπό Ἀδελφῶν Ἱερᾶς Μονῆς Ὁσίου Γρηγορίου 2003). Translated by John Sanidopoulos.