Oration on the Myrrhbearing Women and on the Burial of the Divine Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and on Joseph of Arimathea, and on the Three-day Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
By St. Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch (+ 593)
By St. Gregory, Patriarch of Antioch (+ 593)
This law of the Church also is praiseworthy, which prepares us to celebrate the remembrance of the depositing of Christ among the dead. For who, reflecting on the life-giving death of the Savior, will not consider that the dead in their coffins lie stretched out as in tents, awaiting the heavenly trumpet, which will call all of us to the dread day of Judgment?
And who, looking toward that saving tomb, does not draw near to the tombs as to chambers of life? Who, believing that the Lord has risen from the dead, does not behave in a way that shows that he himself also is about to rise, attaining the resurrection through Him?
Since therefore, obeying the good law of the Church, you who are watchful have run to those who sleep in the tombs, and the place constrains you but your longing gladdens you, because you are so many and have pressed together like a cluster of grapes — for this reason listen, as you desire, concerning the mystery of death, which one may learn, but no one is able to possess.
The Master Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, of His own will, without being compelled by anyone, having ascended the Cross and stretched out His hands, restored righteousness on behalf of all creation, and put to shame all the invisible and wicked powers by the Passion to which He subjected His body. He willed that His holy flesh should taste the three-day deadness for the sake of all nature, in order to grant through it immortality to the deadened race. And indeed, having inclined His holy head, He commanded death, as a servant, to come to His flesh. Immediately death came as a servant, ministering to the Master’s command, and coming forward it seized the body which it was permitted to take.
And when that body — fearsome to the Cherubim and dreadful to the Seraphim — was held by death, as the Lord of the body willed, the soul of the Savior hastened to proclaim glad tidings to the souls, their redemption. But His divinity remained both in the body and in the soul, for in no place nor manner was the divinity separated from the humanity after their union. But He was also in the heavens and was present in the tomb, being in no way affected, preserving His vesture incorrupt.
After this dread dispensation, a certain noble and rich man, Joseph, who came from Arimathea and had become a disciple of the Crucified One, rendering the last duty after death to his Teacher, appeared before Pontius Pilate, beseeching him and saying: “For a dead man I make this request — one slandered by enemies and abandoned by friends at the time of His Passion. For a dead man I entreat, who has acquired neither gold nor silver nor soldiers nor allies nor bodyguards, but only a poor mother, who was enriched by giving birth to Him. For a dead man I intercede who died willingly; for if He had not willed it, He would not have died. Let Him therefore be taken down from the Cross, He who wronged no one in anything, but rather honored countless people with benefactions. Grant me a gift than which you have none better. Grant me a gift that will make me blessed in receiving it. Give me this life-giving dead One, that I, taking Him, may cover Him in the earth. Give me the thrice-blessed body, whose death all creation mourned. Give me the body at which the rocks were rent, manifesting their grief by the splitting. Let me kiss the wounds of the holy hands, by which the wounds of our soul were healed. Let me touch that spotless side, from which flowed mystical blood and the water of regeneration. Let these hands bury Him who is about to loose the swaddling-bands of death. Let these sinful fingers tend Him who wrought and taught all righteousness. Let me touch the sinless flesh, which thrice-blessed is he who touches with faith. Let me lead to the tomb Him who will open the tombs of the dead. Let me give to those who have departed from life the source of the Resurrection. Let me kindle even for those held by Hades the lamp of the Resurrection.”
Thus Joseph spoke piously, and Pilate consented favorably, because the divine power of the One sought as dead was working in a manner worthy of God upon those in authority, and softened the soul of Pilate so that he obeyed. And immediately the petitioner was shown to be a burier. For taking the body he longed for, he embraced it and kissed it, and applied his lips to the holy members, considering within himself: “If the woman with the issue of blood, touching His garment with faith, dried up the source of her blood, shall I, who touch this very divine body, not obtain gifts?” Then, wrapping the pure Pearl in a clean linen cloth, he placed Him in his own new tomb, and placing a stone at the entrance of the tomb, full of tears, he returned, turning often toward the tomb and mourning the deprivation of his Teacher.
But the impiety of the Jews overtook the piety of Joseph. For again the God-fighters gathered on the Sabbath day and came to Pilate, saying: “Sir, we remember that the deceiver said, while still alive: 'After three days I rise.' Command therefore that the tomb be secured until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him and say to the people: He has risen from the dead — and the last deception will be worse than the first.” What are you saying, O deceived and lawless Jew? Was He a deceiver who healed your leprous countrymen? Was He a deceiver who freed your blind compatriots from the darkness that had been born with them? Was He a deceiver who delivered the demoniacs from the madness of demons? Was He a deceiver who in the wilderness provided you food without cultivation? Was He a deceiver who called Lazarus of Bethany from the tomb and by His word awakened the dead as though asleep? Was Christ a deceiver? And who else is true? Was Christ a deceiver? Why then do you fear the words of a deceiver? Was He a deceiver, and do you fear the voice of a dead man? Did He perhaps say something about the Resurrection while still alive? Do you perhaps believe what He foretold? Why then do you toil in vain concerning the outcome? For if the dead man about whom you are anxious does not rise, then He is a deceiver, as you blaspheme.
What then did Pilate answer them? “You have a guard. Go, make it as secure as you know.” If for the godless and lawless one, as you call Him, you are so greatly terrified; if you, the living, so fear the dead — then you have a guard, you have soldiers. March many against one. Secure the dead man whom you fear so much, as you know how. Do you wish to seal the tomb? Seal it. Do you wish to surround it with iron chains? Do that also. Lest afterwards you say: if you had allowed us to guard the tomb, we would not have lost the dead man. Go, secure it as you know. If Peter appears there, slay him with your weapons. If anyone of His disciples comes, rise at once and kill him. Persist in guarding it with care and precision, lest some suspect person manage to steal your enemy.
With such words and with weapons and soldiers equipped, the enemies of the Savior came with much eagerness and fury to the tomb, and placing iron seals upon it they sat there and “guarded” it for as long a time as the One being guarded by them willed. Meanwhile the second day arrived. And on the first day death was chewing over its prey, and wishing to bite it with the teeth of its corruption, it was unable. And again on the second day it wished to consume it, but could not. Being at a loss, therefore, it reasoned within itself as was natural:
“Who is this invincible and strange dead man? Who is this one who died according to the law of nature and yet remains incorrupt, transcending the law? He is not God, for He would not have died, since He would be bodiless. He is not an angel, for He has human form. He yielded to me like Adam, but does not submit like Adam to corruption. As a man He withdrew before me, yet He does not endure what mortals suffer. His flesh proves superior to corruption. None of the dead over whom I have ruled for so many ages has appeared here with such a body. Perhaps this body is a garment of God, and for this reason I cannot consume it? Perhaps this is the tent of the Word? Perhaps this is the temple of Him who said to the Jews: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’? Does remaining incorrupt mean that He is about to rise? Has this strange dead man come to spy out the dead? Will He take also the dead whom I have long devoured and bring them up there with Himself? Perhaps, as Jonah lived in the belly of the whale without harm, so also He remains here with me, awaiting the third day, in order to rise first and to open also for the other dead the way?”
These things death said — not with words, for the events themselves were speaking.
While these things were happening, and the guards of the Jews were sitting near the tomb, “late on the Sabbath, as it was dawning toward the first day of the week,” as Sunday was breaking, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
O strange and paradoxical wonders! Peter the Apostle, the first general of Christ, feared the voice of a maidservant and denied his Lord while He was alive, and women, so weak and timid, came to honor their teacher as dead. They came to see the tomb, for they had not yet believed that He would rise. They came to see the tomb, so that they might console a little their grief by the sight of the monument. For the tomb knows how to console grieving souls by its sight, just as tears also do when they come.
They came to see the tomb, and they approached indeed, but not as much as they desired, because of the fear of the Jews. At times they approached nearer, secretly. They were sprinkling the tomb with myrrh, and again they withdrew without being noticed. Thus they stood from afar, and gazing upon the tomb with tearful eyes, with sighs and lamentations, they thought that they were serving the Lord. At times they even reproached the Jews in a low voice, saying to one another, as is natural:
“How did they dare these things against such a Master, having no just accusation against Him? How did they not shudder when they nailed Him to the Cross, Him whom, seeing crucified, the sun withdrew? How did they not fear to hand over to death Him who did nothing worthy of death? How were they not satisfied with their cruelty even after death, which they unjustly brought about? Granted, while He lived they had such rage — but why even after death do they sit by the tomb, preventing even those who were benefited from entering and boldly venerating the tomb, and from offering with tears a small return for the grace each one received?”
With such lamentations the women mourned Christ as dead, when He Himself, the Master being mourned, escaping the notice of the guards and leaving the tomb sealed, by a leap was found outside it — as He alone knows — and sent an angel, saying to him:
“Go to these women, courageous and faithful, who mourn and consider Me still dead, and inform them that I have conquered death and, as you see, I live. Change their gloom into brightness. Move with your hand the stone, which many hands together secured. Show them how much one lawful soldier of a lawful King can do against many lawless soldiers of a tyrant. Lead the women into the chamber of the tomb, so that, examining the place where I was willingly laid as dead, they may hymn My power. Appear also to the guards of the tomb as terrible, and strike them all with astonishment by your appearance, so that they may learn from your power that not from weakness but from love for mankind I endured their audacity. You go before, proclaiming the royal victory, and I, coming with you, will shake the earth again, so that the earthquake may become a witness to your proclamation.”
The angel therefore came quickly to the Master’s tomb. He did not dare to disobey the command of the Lord. And first, when he arrived, he shook the earth from its foundations to awaken the guards, having them as witnesses to show the reason for which he came. Then, as they were watching, he rolled away the stone from the entrance of the tomb and sat upon it, mocking the iron seals, and reproving the Jews who had entrusted security to the stone.
“His appearance was like lightning.” For where there is no cloud of sin to overshadow, there the brightness of form is great. “And his garment was white as snow,” for he had a form and clothing worthy of the events he was about to proclaim. For it was altogether fitting that the messenger of the joyful event be in all things joyful.
And having struck the guards with great fear and almost rendered all the Jews present as dead, he said to them:
“Why are you afraid, Pharisees? Why do you tremble and fall with your faces down like dead men? Before me, the servant, you are dead, and against the Master you were bold? I, the soldier, seemed fearful to you, and the King of Heaven contemptible? You cannot endure the presence of an angel, and how did you imagine that you would weaken the power of the Creator of angels? Since you are not able to hinder me, the heavenly worker, from moving the stone, how could you hinder the Craftsman of all creation who wishes to renew the temple of His body? You cannot restrain the creature and you attempt to oppose the Creator? Rise and look around carefully: is Peter here with me? Is one of the fishermen stealing the dead man with me? Does God have need of a helper? Does the Word of God require a co-worker for the resurrection of His own flesh?”
Having said these things to the Pharisees and the guards, and leaving them writhing upon the ground, he turned his face toward the women. And first he allowed them to enjoy a gentle and serene look. Then he removed the fear from their souls, crying out to them:
“Do not be afraid, you. Let them be afraid — the enemies and fighters — but you do not be afraid; rather leap and rejoice, because your deeds are worthy of rewards. Do not be afraid. Since we belong to one Master, we glorify the same Lord. I know that you seek Jesus the crucified.” He did not say “Jesus the dead,” for He was not then dead, but “Jesus the crucified,” the one who for you despised the shame of the Cross. “He is not here.” Not where you think. He is not where they placed Him.
“What are you saying, O angel? Is our Master not here? Is the cause of our tears not here? Did we mourn Him in vain? Did we in vain offer to Him the things fitting for the dead? Is He not here? Did the wicked again transfer Him elsewhere? Did they envy even His burial, those who envied His life? Is He not here? But where is He? Tell us, we beg you, quickly. Strengthen our trembling souls. Do not add another grief to our grief. Show us the place of the dead one whom we seek, so that, running quickly there, we may let our sorrow pour out from our eyes.”
And the angel said:
“Do you wish to learn where He is whom you seek and how He rose? I will tell you, for this reason the very one whom you seek — the dead one — sent me to you, to teach you the Resurrection, and to heal your souls, and to stop your tears, and to strengthen you by gladdening you with the narration.
‘He has risen, as He said.’ The Truth has proved true now also, as is customary, and what He spoke with words He fulfilled with deeds. His immortal divinity did not cease to live. And at the hour of the death of the flesh, His mortal body, having closed its bodily eyes, received the sleep of death. ‘For having lain down, He slept as a lion,’ royally, but He escaped and went forth from here in a manner worthy of God.
The guards did not perceive the passage of Him whom they were guarding, for they were not worthy to see Him whom they were fighting against as risen. The tomb did not hinder the Resurrection of the Almighty. Death was not able to bind Him whom sins did not bind. The tyrant yielded unwillingly to the King. Hades itself trembled from fear of Him. The gatekeepers of Hades, throwing away the keys and opening the gates, did not dare to say anything to any of those who were raised with Him.
He rose, therefore, as He said. How shall I relate to you the unutterable things? How shall I proclaim those things that overcome every word and mind? How shall I explain the mystery of the Master’s Resurrection? The Cross also is a mystery. And His three-day death is a mystery. And all the things concerning the Savior are mysteries. For just as He was born with the doors of virginity closed, so also He rose with the tomb closed.
And just as He was born firstborn from the Mother, being the only-begotten Son of God, so also by His Resurrection He became the firstborn of the dead. As therefore He did not loose the virginity of the Virgin Mother by His birth, so neither did He loose the seals of the tomb by His Resurrection.
Therefore neither can I encompass His birth in words, nor can I comprehend His departure from the tomb. I see the place of the Resurrection, and I worship the Resurrection. I do not examine the Resurrection in detail. I worship the place of the wonder, even though I do not understand the manner of the thing. What I see, these things I wish to show to you.
Come, see the place where the Lord lay. For this reason I moved the stone — not to grant an exit to Jesus. He had no need of my help, He who is the help of all. For the cornerstone, before I rolled away the stone, as He willed, sprang forth. But I did it so that you might examine the place and hymn the risen Christ.
Come, see the place where the Lord lay. See now the place, and shortly you will see also the paradoxical fruit of the place. Come, see the place where the devil received the mortal blow. Come, see the place in which was written the contract of your own resurrection. Come, see the place where death died.
Come, see the place where the seed of the body, sown without sowing, produced the rich ear of immortality. Come, see the place more pleasant than all paradises. Come, see the place more radiant than every royal bridal chamber. Come, see the tomb which without voice proclaims the power of the one buried.
Bow down to see the tomb which became the gate of incorruptible life. Bow down to see the cave from which you were transferred to heaven. Stop your groanings and your tears. Say to death, dancing: ‘O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’
‘And going quickly, tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He goes before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.’ Take care not to hide the miracle in silence. For silence concerning the miracles of the Lord is not without danger for servants.”
And having gone out quickly from the tomb, with fear and great joy, they ran to announce to His disciples that He has risen from the dead and behold He goes before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He told you.
As the Myrrhbearing Women were running with fear and great longing, and were striving with one another in the speed of their journey — since each wished to arrive first and to bring to the Apostles the gospel entrusted to them — suddenly the Savior appeared to them, sealing the words of the angel with the seal of His form. And He raised up their souls, saying to them:
“Rejoice! Eve, the condemned, has been justified. Adam, the exiled, has been recalled. The sentence has now been loosed. The wicked serpent has been trampled down. The devil has now fallen. The advocates of the devil have been put to shame. The enemies have been overthrown. The Jews mourn inconsolably. The Pharisees lament what they dared. The Cross has appeared as My advocate. The tomb has become a witness of My power. Death confesses its defeat. Immortality has been signed for mankind. The nature of men has been renewed with Me. With Me all those who have died shall live again. With Me reigns the one with whom I have been united. In My person My image has been crowned. These are the fruits of My three-day burial. These are the crowns of the victory over death. These are the royal pearls of My kingdom, which, taking from the depths of Hades, I have brought to those who love Me.
For all these things therefore rejoice, dance, exult, celebrate. Go, announce them to My brethren. See how forgiving and loving toward mankind I am: I call brethren those who abandoned Me upon the Cross. For I know how to be long-suffering when I am insulted. I know how to endure ingratitude. I know how to bear the weaknesses of My friends. I know how to have mercy and to receive those who sin and weep for it.
Go, announce to My brethren that they may go into Galilee, and there they will see Me. Announce to My disciples the mysteries which you yourselves have seen. Become first teachers of the teachers. Let Peter, who denied Me, learn that I am able even to make women apostles. Let them go also to the other Galilee to see the poor lake from which I caught them, so that they may catch rational fish. Let them see the lake from which I transferred them into the human sea.”
These things the Lord was saying to the women. And He Himself even now stands invisibly at the font for those who believe. He Himself embraces the newly-illumined as friends and brethren, and says to them: “Rejoice.” He Himself fills their hearts and souls with joy and gladness. He Himself washes the unclean with the water of grace. He Himself anoints those who are reborn with the myrrh of the Spirit. He Himself provides to His servants the spiritual banquet. He Himself says to all the pious:
“Take, eat the heavenly bread. Take the source from My side, which is continually drawn and never exhausted. As many as hunger, be filled. As many as thirst, be made drunk with a saving and sober drunkenness.”
But, O King of Heaven, You who sit at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the Lord of the bodiless powers, You who as You will guide creation, who govern mankind with goodness, You who have granted to us this day and this feast, have mercy on us, as You had mercy on the harlot. Do not drive us away, if, with the boldness we have in Your love for mankind, we dare with sinful hands to hold Your holy body.
And just as You did not drive away that sinful woman, the harlot who held Your spotless feet, so also endure, we beseech You, us who are unworthy and hold You; and as One who loves mankind, care for all of us; and as One who loves mankind, draw us into the nets of Your fear.
As You took hold of the thrice-blessed Paul the Apostle from heaven and showed him forth as an Apostle, count us also worthy to accomplish with a pure conscience the day of Your three-day and life-giving Resurrection.
For You are the only good and loving Master, Christ our God, and to You belongs the glory and the dominion, together with Your all-immaculate Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.”
Source: Migne, P.G. vol. 88, col. 1848. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
