Homily on the Holy Sabbath (St. John of Damascus)

Homily on the Holy Sabbath 

Discourse 4

By St. John of Damascus

“Who can speak of the mighty works of the Lord and make His praises heard?” (Ps. 105:2). Who can describe the vast sea of His goodness? Who can express His boundless love for His servants? Who can speak of His condescension, which surpasses all understanding? Who can describe His compassion toward us and the unspeakable care that flows from it?

There is no one — even if he speaks the tongues of angels and of men, even if he has gathered within himself all human knowledge. For though the spirit is willing, the tongue is weak to speak and the mind dim to comprehend. Truly great is the mystery of the divine economy: the mind cannot contain it, but only faith can receive it — and it requires purity of soul, accompanied by fear of God and longing for Him.

For it is not possible to attain purification of the soul in any other way than through divine fear and love. Nor is it possible to receive divine illumination unless the faculty of the soul’s vision is first purified. For the divine is inaccessible to the profane, and only those who are pure in heart will see God, as Christ, who is Truth itself, said (Matt. 5:8).

Likewise, at the Theophany granted long ago to Moses in the burning bush, he is first commanded to remove his sandals, and only then to approach the symbol he beheld (Ex. 3:2). The removal of the sandals signifies the casting off of dead and earthly-minded thoughts (Gregory, Oration II on Pascha). And again, when Mount Sinai was enveloped in smoke during the giving of the Law, not all ascended, but the ascent was regulated according to each one’s purification. If, then, even in the symbols purification from every stain was required, how pure and God-like must those be who are to approach the true and original realities?

Let us therefore purify ourselves, brethren, from every earthly mindset, every care, and every worldly distraction, so that we may receive the radiant flashes of the divine Word in full light, and nourish our souls with the spiritual bread, the food of the angels. And entering into the inner sanctuary, let us understand with purity the divine sufferings of the impassible One, which are for the salvation of the whole world.

Today the mystery hidden from the ages is revealed; today the fulfillment of the divine economy reaches its end; today the crown of the incarnation of the divine Word is set; today the abyss of divine love is made manifest to all. For God the Word so loved the world that, by the good pleasure of the Father, He descended to become incarnate (John 3:16), that the immaterial One might take upon Himself the weight of material flesh, and, having accepted suffering for the sake of the one who by nature suffers, and having become subject to suffering through His death, might clothe us who are subject to suffering with impassibility.

From this come hunger and thirst, sleep and weariness, sorrow and anguish and fear — that is, the natural blameless experiences of life. From this come the Cross and suffering and death, all belonging to our nature. These are the natural and blameless passions of my composite nature. For He did not refuse to experience them, so that, once they were stirred in Him and brought under His dominion, they might also become subject to us.

Christ is on the Cross — let us gather and become partakers of His sufferings, that we may also become partakers of His glory (cf. 1 Cor. 2:7; 2 Pet. 1:4). Christ is among the dead — let us die to sin, so that we may live in righteousness. Christ is wrapped in swaddling bands and in clean linen — let us cast off the bindings of sin and be clothed in divine radiance. Christ is laid in a new tomb — let us cleanse ourselves from the old leaven and become a new dough, that we may become a dwelling place for Christ (1 Cor. 5:7).

Christ is in Hades; let us descend with Him into the humility that lifts us on high, so that we may rise with Him, be exalted with Him, and be glorified with Him, always seeing God and being seen by Him. Receive freedom, you who have awaited it for ages; you who are imprisoned, come out of the prison; you who were in darkness, come into the light (Isa. 49:9); you who are captives, be set free (Isa. 41:1); you who are blind, see again. Awake, Adam, you who sleep, and rise from the dead.

For Christ has been revealed — our resurrection (Eph. 5:14). But, if you will, let us begin our discourse from earlier things, for in this way it will become clearer and more persuasive, proceeding along a smooth path. Pray that the divine illumination of the Holy Spirit be given to me; for without Him the wise become foolish, while with Him even the unlearned become wiser than the wisest.

God is the cause of all and Himself comes from nothing, and therefore He is unbegotten. He has within Himself the Word, a hypostatic Word, co-eternal, begotten from Him without division and beyond time, who is never separated from the Father. He is perfect God, alike in all things to Him who begot Him, except that He is begotten; alike in essence and in power, in will and in energy, in kingship and in lordship. He is not without cause, for He comes from the Father. He has no temporal beginning, for there was never a time when the Father existed without the Son.

For the Father is Father of the Son, and He would not be Father if the Son did not exist — He who has His being together with the Father and is begotten from Him without separation, who remains in Him without departing, who is the wisdom of Him who begot Him and His hypostatic power, God by nature, consubstantial with the Father, and who is not known apart from the Spirit.

For the Holy Spirit also proceeds from the Father and is equal in power, having the same purpose, the same energies, and the same authority — co-eternal, hypostatic, proceeding from the Father not by generation but by procession. This manner of existence is distinct, divine, and incomprehensible. He is alike in all things to the Father and the Son — good, sovereign, Lord, creator, God by nature, consubstantial with the Father and the Son — co-reigning, co-glorified, and worshiped together with Them by all creation.

This is what we worship: the Father, begetter of the Son, unbegotten because He comes from no one; the Son, begotten of the Father, since He is born from Him; the Holy Spirit, of God the Father, because He proceeds from Him. He is also called the Spirit of the Son, because He is revealed and given through Him to creation, but He does not receive His existence from Him.

There is one God, because there is one divinity, one power, one essence, one will, one energy — undivided in divided and distinct hypostases, that is, in the properties of existence. For only the Father has unbegottenness, only the Son is begotten from the Father without beginning and beyond time yet eternally, and only the Spirit proceeds without time and eternally. One Trinity — simple, uncompounded — an infinite essence, incomprehensible light, boundless power, an ocean of goodness: one God glorified indivisibly in three perfect hypostases.

He created the angels out of nothing, heaven and earth and all that they contain: the ethereal fire and the abyss of waters, the air — the treasury of breath — and the wholly transparent vehicle of light, a second pole resting upon the waters, the boundary between the waters above and the abyss, to which He also gave the name “heaven” (Gen. 1:7); the shining sun, the worker of the double course of day and night, which sets all aflame with its radiant brilliance.

The moon, which illumines the night and tempers the burning of the sun’s light; the stars, the adornment of the firmament; and all things upon the earth — the various kinds of flowers, useful in many ways, bearing seeds for the plants; the fruit-bearing trees, the most beautiful ornaments of the earth.

The many kinds of animals: the great and wondrous sea creatures that swim; the various reptiles; the winged birds, born from the waters yet flying in the air and living upon the earth; as well as other animals from the earth — untamed beasts and herds of domesticated creatures. All together they are a testimony to His greatness and a provision for the one who would be created according to the divine image — man.

Last of all, He made, as it were, a king — the much-spoken-of creature, man — whom He honored with His own hand, forming his body from the earth and creating his soul through the divine and life-giving breath* (by which is meant the Holy Spirit, life-giving, creative, perfecting, and sanctifying all things), not pre-existing and then entering the body (far be the absurdity and error of Origen’s babbling), but brought into being from non-existence within our composite nature.

This man, then — the one formed according to His image, endowed with mind and reason, bearing the breath of life — He made a participant in His grace and a citizen of the Paradise He planted in the East. For “Eden,” as the Hebrews call it, means delight. He granted him a blessed life, full of every good, free from care, at rest — where all pain, sorrow, and sighing fled away. Like another angel upon the earth, he praised God who had formed him, filled with divine thoughts, and through all creation was led to its Creator, for whose sake he had been made. If one were to say, I think, that this is the Tree of Life — whole and complete, undivided, granting participation in the good as a kind of spiritual elevation — he would not be mistaken.

But the inventor of evil, the father of lies — the serpent, the devil, the creator of envy — could not endure to see man rejoicing in such abundance of blessings. So he attacks him, seeking to deprive him of these goods. He feigns goodwill, but overthrows him through deception and casts him down like a corpse, more pitiable than any corpse. And consider what the bait was.

What is the highest of all? What alone is above all? Clearly, it is God — the One beyond all and the cause of all. What, then, is more desirable than God? Nothing at all. By deceiving man through this desire, he persuades him to taste of the Tree of Knowledge, first plundering the simplicity of the woman. For it is in the nature of evil to take on the appearance of good — it cloaks its ugliness in virtue. The all-knowing One forbade the greedy tasting of this tree for Adam’s benefit.

For He said: “You shall eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, nor even touch it; for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16; 3:3). If you wish to understand this also as a tree planted for the testing and proving of obedience and disobedience — and therefore called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, or the tree that grants discernment to those who partake of it — you will not err.

The tasting of this tree was harmful before maturity. For when he tasted, he perceived that he was naked, sought to cover himself, and became anxious and preoccupied with care for his body, abandoning the contemplation of the divine. Thus he is stripped of grace, clothed in corruption, turns toward the earth, becomes an exile from Paradise, and is condemned to sweat, toil, and death. Death is not the fruit of the tree (Wis. 1:13), for God did not make death; rather, transgression brings death. From this, sin took occasion, enslaved me, the miserable one, and produced in me every kind of evil — like salt seasoning and making food palatable, it hands me over to death.

What then? Did the One who is by nature compassionate — the One who gave us being and granted us well-being — overlook His own creature, so honored and beloved, suffering so greatly? Not at all. Rather, to use the words of the Apostle (Heb. 1:1), “God, who in former times spoke to the fathers in many ways through the prophets, in these last days has spoken to us through His Son,” the Only-begotten and consubstantial One, whom He sent into the world to restore fallen man to his original blessedness.

And what happens? O the greatness of goodness! The unmingled are mingled; the supernatural takes on natural existence. “What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man” (Isa. 64:4; 1 Cor. 2:9), we now see, hear, speak of, and believe. What is this? The Son of God, and God, becomes the Son of man — the mediator between God and men. Without losing what He is as God, remaining unchangeable, He did not merely appear to be human. For He is true, and all deceit is wholly foreign to the divine good will. Rather, He truly became man in nature, without change or confusion, in order truly to grant salvation to our nature.

He is therefore perfect God, for “in Him dwells bodily all the fullness of the Godhead” (Col. 2:9); and perfect man, in order to save the whole man — for what is not assumed is not healed. He is one and the same, in two perfect natures, without any division separating one from the other.

According to His hypostasis, He is united with His own flesh; according to His nature, He is consubstantial with the Father and the Spirit as God, and with us as man — having become of the same stock and nature, possessing the whole essence of the first Adam: that from which man is made and of which he consists — that is, a mortal body and a rational, noetic, immortal soul, endowed with free will, capable of willing and acting. For a living being lacking any of these is not a man.

From the Holy Virgin He took flesh animated by a rational and noetic soul; united with it in His hypostasis and conceived, He became God incarnate — one Son and Christ and Lord — and made her who bore Him the Theotokos.

If He were not one in hypostasis, how could “the Word become flesh”? By this the Holy Spirit signifies not that the Word was changed into flesh (John 1:14), but that He was united to flesh hypostatically. Or how does it say, “the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18)? The One seen as man declares Him; and if He were not also God, how could it be believed that He is in the bosom of the Father? Or how does He say, “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3:13)?

He had not yet ascended bodily into heaven — indeed, even after the Resurrection He said, “I have not yet ascended to My Father” (John 20:17). Or how is it that “He who descended is the same who ascended” (Eph. 4:10)? He descended according to His divinity — not locally, but by condescension — and ascended bodily, being one and the same God and man. Or how does He who speaks and appears as man say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30)? For it is not possible for a mere man to say such things unless He is God, consubstantial with the Father.

And if He were not composed of two natures, how could He at once be mortal and immortal, created and uncreated, visible and invisible, perfect God and perfect man? These are not properties of a single nature. For the created is not by nature the same as the uncreated, nor the mortal as the immortal, nor the visible as the invisible, nor the divine as the human.

But how could Christ be of a composite nature, if the Father and the Spirit are considered to have a simple nature? How would He be consubstantial with the Father and with us according to the same nature, unless one were to say that the Father is also consubstantial with us — which is more absurd than anything conceivable? And how does He Himself say, “He who has seen Me has seen My Father” (John 14:9), and elsewhere, “Why do you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth?” (John 8:40)? For whoever sees Him as merely man has not seen God the Father.

If, again, we claim that He has only one energy, where shall we place His bodily walking, the breaking of bread, spoken speech, and similar things — acts that are not energies of the divine nature but of the human? For these were not appearances, but were truly done as natural operations.

And if, with regard to His human nature, we consider Him devoid of a natural and free will, where shall we place the natural inclination toward food and the rest—sleep, drink, and the like? For these, moved by natural law, lead the irrational soul to their necessary fulfillment. That is why appetite is accompanied by an impulse toward action; nature drives irrational beings, and for this reason they are not responsible and are not subject to punishment.

But those who possess reason, through their free movement, rather guide nature, having the power either to follow or restrain desire. For will is a natural, rational, and free desire. I say these things for those who preserve the order of nature; for those who, through carelessness, rush into what is contrary to nature are led by nature rather than leading it, having acquired the habits of the passions as a kind of tyranny.

And by what will shall we say that when He entered a house, wishing that no one should know, He could not escape notice (Mark 7:24)? For the divine will is clearly omnipotent, while the human is evidently weak and limited. And again, how - setting aside His own will — did He pray that the will of the Father be done? To which nature does prayer belong? Clearly to the created nature. Therefore, the will that is set aside is that of the human nature. Thus Christ is one — Son and Lord — with two perfect natures and their natural properties; undivided and unconfused, He wills and acts the operations of each nature in communion with the other, according to the unconfused interpenetration of His natures — He who is one of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, who for our sake became also the Son of man.

For since death came through a man, it was necessary that through a man also the resurrection be given (1 Cor. 15:21). Since a rational soul with free will committed the transgression, it was also necessary that a rational soul with a natural and free will accomplish obedience to the Creator, and that salvation be restored by those very things through which death cast life out — so that death might not suppose that man is forever subject to tyranny.

What, then, is the result? Having enticed man with the hope of becoming like God, he himself is deceived by the veil of the flesh; and when death tasted the sinless body, it became sick and vomited up, wretched as it was, all the food it had swallowed. For the Word of God, who created us, took on all our properties for our sake and experienced all our sufferings, like us yet without sin (Heb. 4:15); He fulfilled the law and was shown to be the only sinless one among men (and therefore not subject to death). Having made known the power of His divine nature through His miracles, He then comes voluntarily, for our sake, to the saving Passion of the whole world and offers Himself, becoming for us a curse (Gal. 3:13) — not that He was a curse, but rather blessing and sanctification — yet taking upon Himself our curse, He is crucified for us, dies, and is buried.

For Scripture says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree” (Deut. 21:23), and “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19), God said to Adam. He becomes a curse for our sake, so that we might receive the blessing. For it says: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:12), to those who believe in Him.

O the greatness of the wonder! “He who shepherds Israel” (Ps. 79:1), as the pre-eternal God, is delivered to death as a man by the hand of Israel. “He who leads Israel like a flock” (Ps. 79:1) is led to slaughter as a blameless lamb, and He sets forth the wood of life against the tree of tasting; and by tasting gall mixed with vinegar, He expels the sickness that afflicted human nature through sweet food. “He who sits upon the Cherubim” (Ps. 79:2), as God, hangs upon the Cross as one condemned — He who is the life of men, whom the killers of God did not believe, because they saw Him hanging upon the wood.

For “they closed their eyes and were dull of hearing” (Isa. 6:9–10). He who with His hands fashioned man stretched out His pure hands all day long to a disobedient and contrary people (Isa. 65:2), and commits His soul into the hands of the Father (Luke 23:46). His side is pierced with a spear (John 19:34) — He who created Eve from the side of Adam (Gen. 2:22) — and there flows forth divine blood and water, a drink of immortality and a baptism of regeneration. Therefore the sun was ashamed, unable to behold the noetic Sun of righteousness being mocked.

The earth trembled as it was sprinkled with the Master’s blood, casting off the defilement of idolatrous blood and leaping with joy at its purification. The dead came forth from their tombs, foreshadowing the rising of Him who became dead for our sake. The sun was darkened and then shone again, marking the three days of the Lord. The veil of the temple was torn, clearly proclaiming the entrance into the Holy of Holies and the revelation of what was hidden. For the thief was about to walk in Paradise, and the man whom they were killing as a criminal would be believed as God, and all creation would worship Him.

For He is truly God; and His earthly body, formed of dust, would be raised above the heavens and would sit with God; and at last the knowledge of the holy, blessed, and ever-praised Trinity would shine forth.

He who breathed into Adam the breath of life and made him a living soul (Gen. 2:7) is now placed in the tomb, dead and without breath. He who condemned man for turning to the earth (Gen. 3:19) is numbered among those forgotten in the earth. The bronze gates are shattered (Ps. 106:16), the iron bars are bent; the everlasting doors are torn from their hinges, their guardian trembles, and the foundations of the world are laid bare. He who is free from sin is reckoned among the dead and lies wrapped in burial cloths — He who loosed the grave-clothes of Lazarus (John 11:44) — in order to free from bonds the man who had been made dead by sin and tightly bound in its coils, and to release him.

Now the King of glory (Ps. 23:7) has descended to the tyrant, the Mighty One in battle (Ps. 23:8), whose goings forth are from the end of heaven — He who ran His course like a giant. He engages him as a seemingly weak man and binds the strong one like a small bird, for his guards prove powerless before the self-acting divinity; and He plunders his goods (Matt. 12:29), justly bringing up what that one had unjustly dragged down.

Now the Word descends to the dragon, Leviathan the apostate (Isa. 27:1) — for Leviathan is interpreted as dragon — “the great mind of the Assyrians,” that is, the opposing powers, whose dwelling is in the heart of the earth (Isa. 19:3). He draws him out with the hook of divinity (Job 41:1), hidden within the body as a worm is hidden; and those whom he had swallowed so miserably, He compels him to vomit forth, sending away empty the one who boasted in his riches (cf. Luke 11:22).

The Child who is born and given to us (Isa. 9:6), descending into the den of serpents, strangles, destroys, and annihilates the arrogant and proud one. Now Hades has become heaven; the depths overflow with light (Isa. 9:2), and the darkness that once pursued men is itself driven away (Isa. 9:2), and the blind receive their sight. For upon those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, a rising dawn from on high has shone (Luke 1:78–79). These things the prophets, patriarchs, and righteous ones prefigured and foretold clearly.

“The righteous is bound as one difficult to deal with.”**

For those who plundered the people of the Lord and disturbed the paths they walked devised destruction against themselves. “Woe to their soul! Evils shall come upon them according to their deeds,” says Isaiah. But for us, His action halts pain and heals suffering. “I gave My back to scourging and My face to blows” (Isa. 50:6), and I endured the shame of spitting — says He who speaks through the mouth of Isaiah.

Therefore the work of My hands shall not be put to shame nor dishonored. For I did not consider My equality with God something to be seized, but being God, consubstantial with the Father, I emptied Myself and accepted the humiliation of death, since thus it pleased the Father (Phil. 2:5–8). For I will what He wills, since by nature I am co-willing with Him and a sharer in the divinity.

And I, the Most High, am exalted, and in Me humanity is glorified — for thus I fulfill the Father’s love — so that, justified by My blood and reconciled to My Father through My death, they may live in life, and the sheep whom I shepherd may find rest under My wings.

Let us bring these things to mind — we who have not seen — and let us believe, hearing those who proclaim peace. For to us is revealed the arm of God, His all-creating power (Isa. 53:1). If we understand these things, we shall be glorified, even exceedingly glorified, reflecting in our lowliness (1 Cor. 13:12) the glory of the Lord, and perceiving within our uncomely appearance the beauty that is beyond understanding.

For though He suffered in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4). Though we see Him hanging upon the tree, deprived of beauty and glory more than all the sons of men, yet He is the radiance of glory, at whose sight the earth was ashamed and mourned. He bore my sins upon the Cross, endured our wounds, suffered pain for us, and bore blows and afflictions — the price of our peace.

For since we, like sheep, went astray, turning away from the path of the Lord and following our own way, out of compassion He was delivered up for our sins. He does not quarrel, nor cry out, leaving us an example, and He is led for our sake to death without protest, like a lamb. “You shall see your life hanging before your eyes,” says Moses, “and you shall not believe your life” (Deut. 28:66). The God-bearing David — or rather, through David, the Lord of David — proclaiming beforehand His Passion and His life-giving burial, said: “They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots” (Ps. 21:18).

He who clothed the forefathers of the human race with garments of skin now willingly strips Himself for the Crucifixion, so that, stripping us of our mortality, He might clothe us with the beauty of incorruption; and He distributes His garment by lot to the soldiers. For He was about, when departing from mortals, to send forth to the nations the disciples He Himself had chosen, and to become Himself the garment of the faithful. For it is said: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).

Noah, when he was shut up in the ark and by the wood saved the seeds of the second world, becoming again the beginning of the human race, prefigured Christ, who was voluntarily buried, who cleansed sin by the mingled blood and water that flowed from His side, and who by the wood of the Cross saved our whole race and became the leader and guide of a common life and a new polity.

Abraham, the great patriarch (Gen. 22:1), leading Isaac to the burnt offering — he who had been given by promise and in whom the promises were made — clearly proclaimed beforehand the sacrifice of the Lord. And Isaac indeed was granted back alive to his father by God, while a ram, caught by its horns in a thicket of Sabek, took the place of the victim. And thus the double mystery, of the ram and of Isaac, became a true type of Christ our God.

For Christ is double and composite — God and man in the same Person — for as to His nature He remained the impassible Son of God and God; yet as man, who became beyond man, He offered Himself to the Father for the sake of the world, like the unseen victim in the thicket of Sabek, that is, on the wood of remission. For “Sabek” is interpreted as remission.

For what purpose were the three measures of the hidden fine flour made (Gen. 18:6)? Do they not clearly signify the three-day burial of the Bread of Life? And what does the pit of Joseph and afterward his imprisonment signify (Gen. 37; 39)? Do they not plainly show the tomb and the guard set over it? “They laid me,” he says, “in the lowest pit, in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Ps. 87:6). And what again did Moses, the God-seer and lawgiver, symbolize? Hidden in the basket, was he not delivered over to death and then saved from it by the king’s daughter (Ex. 2:1)?

So also Christ is hidden in the tomb, becomes dead in the flesh, and by His divinity — which reigns over all creation — He is restored again to life. Is it not the same Moses who struck the sea with his rod, and by the double stroke — vertical and horizontal — did he not foreshadow the form of the Cross (Ex. 14)? And descending into the depths, did he not show the descent of the Savior into Hades, and slay the persecutor Pharaoh while saving Israel? For Christ also slew death and saves all who believe in Him. And by the stretching out of his hands, putting the Amalekites to flight (Ex. 17:11) and making Israel victorious, he prefigures the very mystery of the Savior.

I am struck with wonder at the strange mystery of the manna (Ex. 16). Just as it could be preserved only on the Sabbath, so also Jesus, my God — who for me became man, all sweetness and all desire — at the close of Friday is laid in the tomb. And did not the Lord Himself declare Jonah to be a type? For He says: “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the sea creature three days and three nights, so must the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40).

But someone may say: if He willingly endured death on Friday and rose on the first day of the week, how are the three nights in the heart of the earth fulfilled? Yet the divine Moses tells us that “God called the light day, and the darkness He called night” (Gen. 1:5). When, therefore, the Lord was hung upon the honorable Cross, darkness came over the whole earth (Matt. 27:45) — not because a cloud covered the sun, nor because the moon’s body intervened like a barrier (as those skilled in such matters say happens in eclipses), but because the whole earth was plunged into darkness — darker even than the palpable darkness of the Egyptian plague.

For the very source of the sun’s illuminating power had failed. All creation had to mourn the bodily death of its Creator. Therefore the prophet says: “The sun shall set at noon, and the light shall grow dark in the daytime” (Amos 8:9). And another prophet says: “On that day there shall be no light… it shall be neither day nor night, but toward evening there shall be light” (Zech. 14:6–7).

Within this darkness, the divine and all-holy soul, separated from the sacred and life-giving body, visited the depths of the earth — this being reckoned as night. Then, after the darkness, a day was again brought forth by the Creator, as the sun returned to its usual course. Therefore the prophet foretold that light would come toward evening. Then came the night before the Sabbath, then the Sabbath itself, then the day before the first of the week, and finally the radiant and light-bearing day of Sunday, on which the uncreated Light rose bodily from the tomb, like a bridegroom in the beauty of the Resurrection. Thus the end of the Sabbaths — what the Evangelist calls “late on the Sabbath” — becomes the beginning of the first day of the week. In this way three days and three nights are clearly reckoned. But let us return to the point from which we made this digression.

He dies and descends into the earth — He who formed man from the earth — and His life is taken from the earth. For He lays aside the earthly things — not the body itself, but the properties of the body: sleep, toil, hunger, thirst, division, and corruption. For these entered into our life through disobedience. And His burial takes place in peace, which He accomplished for us through the Cross and the tomb, having united what was divided and having subdued rebellious man to his Creator.

For this reason, the wicked — rather than being buried like Him — were delivered over to destruction. The Jews, after the devastation of the Temple and the city, were led away captive by their enemies and never returned to their own land, because divine help had abandoned them after that word of the Lord: “Behold, your house is left to you desolate” (Matt. 23:38). And the demons, once their tyrannical and arrogant authority — wrongly exercised against us — was taken away, became subject to even worse passions.

But He inherited the spoil of the wicked — that is, the dead of the ages — freeing those who were held under the yoke of sin. By being numbered among the lawless, He planted righteousness; while the seed of the disobedient was led to destruction, their feasts were turned into mourning, and instead of hymns there resounded lamentations. But for us light has shone out of darkness; from the tomb came life; and from Hades spring forth resurrection, joy, gladness, and exultation.

It is not out of place, using the words of the Gospel, to draw out the riches hidden within them. The disciples, who by the grace of the Spirit recounted the divine things and in whom Christ Himself speaks, say: “When evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, an honorable counselor, a good and righteous man, who himself also was a disciple of Jesus and was waiting for the Kingdom of God.” “He had not consented to their decision and deed, but for fear of the Jews he remained hidden. Yet he took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus” (Matt. 27:57; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:50–52).

O blessed man, worthy of remembrance! Truly the Lord says: “Every tree is known by its fruit” (Matt. 7:16–17). Because he was good and righteous, he did not agree with their thoughts and actions. Truly he was that blessed man of whom the God-speaking David says (Ps. 1:1): for “he did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of corrupt judges” against the Lord and against His Christ, sharing in the designs of lawless men (Ps. 2:1). He did not say, “Take Him and crucify Him” (John 19:15), nor did he cry out with the wretched, bringing upon himself and his descendants the guilt of innocent and divine blood.

But his will was in the law of the Lord, and in that law he meditated day and night, watering his mind with the God-flowing streams of the Spirit. He became a disciple of the good Teacher and faithfully followed His steps. O man rich in purpose! O wise merchant, who with earthly wealth gained the heavenly and hid within himself the treasure of life!

“And Pilate,” it says, “marveled that He was already dead” (Mark 15:44). He marveled that Life had died, that He who is the giver of breath to all had given up His spirit. Yes, Pilate, He has died — but willingly. For “He has authority to lay down His life, and He has authority to take it again” (John 10:18). Yes, He died in order to plunder death, to give life to those bound in chains, to become the firstborn from the dead and to pour forth resurrection upon the dead, so that “life might swallow up mortality” (2 Cor. 5:4).

So he grants the body to Joseph. O boldness beyond restraint! O courage born of faith and divine longing! The disciples, though they had received divine gifts, shrink back and hide for fear, but you desire to take the dead body and quickly imitate your Leader and Lord. For by your will you gave yourself over to danger. You could not bear to see the holy body of the Lord — united in one hypostasis with divinity — left naked. You touched the divine coal, which even the Seraphim could not touch in its mere type.

O blessed hands and most fortunate palms, which held the divine body and wrapped it in a clean shroud with precious myrrh! For it says, “Thus the Jews are accustomed to prepare for burial. And there was in the place where He was crucified a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. There they laid Jesus, because of the Preparation of the Jews, for the tomb was nearby” (John 19:40–42); it was hewn out of rock, and a great stone was rolled to the door, and he departed (Matt. 27:60).

It is called the Preparation, as a preparation for the rest of the Sabbath. The Sabbath required cessation from work, and God had ordained for the Hebrews to engage in no labor. But for us, the divine Passion became a preparation for rest from sin and from its evil works. Thus He is wrapped in a clean shroud — the only pure and undefiled One — He who fills heaven with clouds and “covers Himself with light as with a garment” (Ps. 103:2), who has heaven as His throne and the earth as His footstool, who fills and bounds the universe, the only uncircumscribed God — He is bodily enclosed within the tomb.

In heaven the powers worship Him as God together with the Father and the Spirit, while as man He lies in the tomb bodily, remaining with His soul in the depths of Hades, granting the thief entrance into Paradise, and always possessing His indescribable divinity. For although His sacred soul was separated from His life-giving and pure body, yet from the moment of the conception of the Word in the womb of the holy Virgin and Theotokos Mary, the hypostatic union of the two natures — soul and body — remained unbroken, and the divinity of the Word remained inseparable.

Thus even in His death the hypostasis of Christ remained one, and within the hypostasis of God the Word both soul and body subsisted, and after death they still had the same hypostasis. Therefore “every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10–11).

But why do they place Him in a new tomb, where no one had yet been laid? I think it was so that it might not be thought that the resurrection was that of some previously dead person. For those who envied their salvation were ready for evil and eager for unbelief. Therefore, that the Resurrection of the Lord might be wholly clear and manifest, He alone is buried in a new and empty tomb — He, the spiritual Rock of life, from whom the ungrateful drank when it followed them. The cornerstone, not cut by human hands, is covered in hewn stone. For fragile souls, inclined toward pleasures, cannot bear to receive the divine word, whereas those more steadfast are disposed with courage toward virtue.

“On the next day,” it says, “which followed the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said…” (Matt. 27:62). Again the council of lawlessness assembled — those who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to them, those who devoured the vineyard of the Lord, that is, the people of Israel, and along with the servants violently slew the heir, the Son. For they did not understand that He would be heir of all creation, because He was man. “For had they understood, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8).

And what do they say to Pilate? “Lord, we remember that deceiver said, while He was still alive: After three days I will rise” (Matt. 27:63). Behold the usual lawlessness of the ungodly. The deceived servant of sin they call “lord,” while the Savior and Lord of all, the true Truth, “the wisdom and power of the Father” (1 Cor. 1:24), the true Light that enlightens every man coming into the world, they call “a deceiver.”

Why do you say “while He was still alive”? Does He not live after death, He who is the cause of life for all who live and of existence for all who exist? He was indeed among the dead, yet alive as free. Have you not heard the Lord say through the Prophet Jonah: “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4)? For deception will be destroyed when the Lord rises on the third day from the tomb, and in its place righteousness and truth will be planted.

“Command therefore,” they say, “that the tomb be made secure until the third day” (Matt. 27:64). Why, wretches, do you trouble yourselves in vain? Why do you fear where there is nothing to fear? A seal will not restrain the Uncontainable. If the seals of the pit did not prevent Habakkuk’s entry nor alter the course of Daniel, the prophet and servant of God (Dan. Bel and the Dragon 32–38), how will seals hold back the Lord of all? But wickedness is truly blind and easily strays from the path. “Lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away and say to the people, He has risen from the dead; and the last deception will be worse than the first” (Matt. 27:64).

Who steals a dead man, foolish ones? Grave robbers may steal the garments of the dead — but who has ever stolen a corpse? And if He does not rise and His prophecy of resurrection is proven false, why would His disciples take Him? For every dead man is forgotten among mortals (Ps. 30:12). If He were a deceiver, would He not be forgotten even more? And why would they bring upon themselves death, sufferings, and countless evils — as indeed they did — for the sake of stealing a dead deceiver? Truly you reveal your own deception by what you say.

But Pilate said to them: “You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard (Matt. 27:65–66). Pilate avoids further dealings with the God-killers, knowing he found no fault in Him and laying all the guilt upon them. “Secure the tomb as you wish,” he says. “Let there be no excuse left to you concerning the Resurrection — I have given you the seal and the guard. If, as you say, His predictions prove false, you will have your justification and your fabricated accusations. Now the matter stands on a razor’s edge. ‘Now is the judgment of this world’ (John 12:31), as He Himself said. For if He rises and is lifted up from the earth, you rulers will be cast out, and He will draw all to Himself.” Such are the words implied by Pilate. But the shameless and ungrateful Jews rush like dogs to the tomb, seal the stone, and set a guard. Thus He lies dead in the tomb, guarded by soldiers and seals — He who built and sealed the abyss, He who set the sand as a boundary for the sea — He rests like a lion, sleeps like a lion’s cub (Gen. 49:9), like a king guarded while he sleeps. Who will awaken Him? “Now I will arise,” says the Lord (Ps. 11:6), “now I will be exalted, now I will be glorified — you shall see and understand.”

But the women, inflamed with fervent love for the Teacher, seeing all these things clearly and desiring intensely to risk themselves for the sake of the Lord, surpassed the courage of the apostles, refusing to yield. Thus “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Rom. 5:20). It was fitting that those who had served death should also serve the Resurrection.

Why, then, do the apostles hide? The faithful witnesses of the divine economy had to be preserved, so that they might become heralds to the nations, having been eyewitnesses and ministers of the divine mysteries.

And why was Peter allowed to fall into denial, though he was zealous and a strict guardian of what is good? He was destined to take up the helm of the Church. Therefore, that he might be compassionate toward those who return from transgression, he was providentially allowed to fall, learning from his own failure to forgive others.

But the women, filled with the myrrh of divine grace and drawn by their longing toward Christ — the poured-out Myrrh — who emptied Himself divinely for our renewal, who anointed and was anointed in the flesh (for He who anoints and He who is anointed are one Person and one hypostasis) — pursuing Him with love and following swiftly the fragrance of His myrrh, they again buy spices and hasten to the tomb. Therefore they are the first to behold the Resurrection, the righteous Judge measuring out to them grace according to their zeal.

Let us, then, become like the wise servants who await the coming of the master of the house. Whoever has received a talent, let him multiply it with all his strength, so that, as good servants and faithful stewards, we may attain the joy of the Lord. And I think that a “talent” is every gift granted to men by divine goodness. No one is entirely without divine gifts: one is suited to one virtue, another to more, another to fewer; one to higher and more excellent virtues, another to humbler ones.

God has given to each a measure of faith. “The mighty shall be examined according to their strength” (Wisdom 6:6), and “to whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48). The demand is made according to the measure given by God. And He who gives knows to whom He gives, and all things are “naked and open before His eyes” (Heb. 4:13).

Let us hasten, then, to multiply our talent with all the strength we have. Let him who received five return five more; let him who received two return two. Let the one who has received grace extend a hand of mercy in deed to those in need and weighed down by poverty; let another feed with the word those who are wasting away from spiritual hunger and parched by the heat of unbelief. Let us make friends by means of unrighteous wealth (Luke 16:9) and satisfy the poor, so that they, as bold intercessors, may speak on our behalf before the Dread Judgment.

Let us receive the homeless, clothe the naked, visit the sick, go eagerly to those in prison, stretch out our hand to those in distress and sorrow. Let us suffer with them, let us shed tears of compassion — for these will extinguish the unquenchable fire of Gehenna. If we do these things with a heart thirsting for Him, the Lord will also say to us: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you” (Matt. 25:34).

All of us who have been invited, let us put on the radiant wedding garment, so that we may take part in the divine wedding; and, having been deemed worthy of the calling, let us partake of the fatted calf and also eat of the Paschal Lamb. Let us drink of the new wine of the vine — now indeed the flesh of God from wheat and the blood of God from wine, which, by the invocation of the priest, is truly changed in an ineffable manner.

For He who promised us does not lie. Let us eat and drink with a pure conscience, and through these let us be purified sevenfold like gold, washing away counterfeit sin and inheriting incorruption. Let us be united with God and be deified; let participation in Him become our great delight — when the trumpet sounds and the dead are raised, when they sit in judgment on the day appointed by God to judge the world in righteousness.

When all things receive their proper restoration, with no further restoration remaining; when the fire will consume without annihilating the enemies, while the righteous are received into the dwellings prepared from before the ages and into the bosom of Abraham — indeed, into the bosom of the incarnate God the Word and Lord. When the land of the ungodly is overthrown and darkness and black flame receive them, which they themselves have nourished; when the undying worm will devour them and weeping will be joined with gnashing of teeth.

But the upright in heart, those with uncorrupted faith, will be received shining — radiant like the sun — into the land of the meek (Matt. 5:5); when the foolish virgins, in their folly, will be thrown into confusion, seeking at the wrong time what was needed at the proper time, trying to relight their extinguished lamps with foreign oil, and the bridal chamber will be shut to them, while from within resounds the harsh voice of the impartial Judge: “I do not know you” (Matt. 25:1–12).

Which is as if He said: I do not love you, because you did not love My brethren, nor show them signs of love, nor have compassion for them. Therefore “judgment will be without mercy for the one who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13). For nothing pleases Me, the friend of the suffering, so much as mercy. Nothing moves My heart so much as compassion. “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Hos. 6:6; Matt. 9:13). You did not open the door of mercy to those in need, and I will not open to you the entrance of My kingdom.

Such are the fruits of the foolish. But the wise virgins prepared themselves and were not troubled. Having filled their lamps with every virtue, having abundantly supplied them with the oil of mercy, and having kindled them with the illuminating flame of right faith, they went out joyfully to meet the Bridegroom in the middle of the night. They enter the bridal chamber and rejoice, united noetically with the Pure One, counted worthy to converse purely with the Pure.

And you, therefore — divine and holy flock of the great Shepherd and Priest and Sacrifice, chosen people, royal priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9), you who are adorned with the common name of Christian — as servants of Christ, remembering His sufferings and His words and deeds, let us keep His life-giving commandments. For He said: “Believe in God; believe also in Me” (John 14:1), and that “My Father will send you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father” (John 14:16). Believing, therefore, let us love Him with all our soul. For He says: “He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21).

Let us therefore hate His enemies. “Whoever does not confess Christ as the Son of God and Lord is antichrist” (1 John 4:3). If anyone says that Christ is a servant, let us stop our ears, knowing that he lies and the truth is not in him. Let us receive reproach for His sake as a crown of glory. For He says: “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (Matt. 5:11–12). Thus we shall avoid the folly of the foolish and become imitators of the wisdom of the wise virgins.

Let us also prepare for the Resurrection of the Lord from the dead. Let us not prepare what is merely for the nourishment of the belly. Let us not clothe the body with one garment upon another, nor pursue the luxury of perfumes — nor drunkenness and excess, nor the licentious indulgences that accompany them. Let us not despise the poor; let us not inflame the desire for vain glory or cast off the reins that restrain desire.

Let us not become like irrational beasts, raging for females, transgressing order and madly pursuing the wives of others. Let us not sow in the flesh the flames of fire. Let us not be deceived by the unclean lure of gold, silver, and precious stones. Let not our table be full, stirring up the savage worm of Gehenna, while others go hungry. For behold — the Bridegroom rises! Behold — the King of kings comes forth from the tomb!

Let us prepare, lest we be deprived of the joy. Let us become skilled bankers, discerning the better from the worse; let us burn the one with the fire of divine zeal and love, and store the other in our treasury. Let us restrain anger and desire; let us wither the appetite of the belly. Let us gird ourselves with self-control and a humble heart. Let us conquer pride with humility and the remembrance of death. Let us become all things to all; let us endure mockery bravely when wronged; let hope be our joy. For “the form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31), and leaves behind what we now see.

Above all, let this mind be in us which was also in Christ (Phil. 2:5): that while we were His enemies, He loved us; and having loved us, He showed us mercy; and having shown mercy, He humbled Himself; and having humbled Himself, He saved us. For from love comes mercy, from mercy humility, from humility salvation and exaltation. If we live in this way, even here we shall be freed from the sorrows that afflict us. If we cast off the yoke of passions, we shall also shake off the yoke of tyrants.

And just as sorrow followed what was good, so after sorrow joy will return. We shall regain our ancient boldness and celebrate purely, in the name of the Lord our God, the feast of the Exodus. We shall be delivered from the blasphemous voice raised against our Creator, and peace will prevail in the Church. Then, with joyful lamps, we shall splendidly receive the Conqueror of death, the Bridegroom, and the pure bridal chamber will receive us. With unveiled face we shall behold the glory of the Lord and delight in His beauty — together with whom, to the Father and the Holy Spirit, belong glory, honor, worship, and majesty, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Notes:

* Gregory of Nyssa, On the Creation of Man; Gregory the Theologian, Oration II on Pascha.

** This phrase is a composite drawn from various passages, especially Isa. 3:10–11.