Беседа в день Воскресения Господа Спасителя нашего. Святого Иакова Саруга 218

Excited by immeasurable joy, I now, together with the Prophet, proclaim: this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 118:24). A day like this has never happened before or since. This is a great holiday, the crown and glory of all other holidays. On this precious day, I cry out with a feeling full of joy. Blessed be you, new day, on which the ancient night is destroyed! Be blessed, clear day, bringing with it the wonderful gospel! Blessed be the comforter of the sorrowful, the satisfaction of the oppressed, the gatherer of the wasted, the liberator of the burdened, the strengthener of the downtrodden! Blessed be for me a day without evening, and a clear morning that is not covered by darkness. Blessed be the day—the resurrection which death can no longer destroy—and the resurrection which must fear no fall. Blessed be the only day through which both worlds, the visible and the invisible, are adorned. Blessed be the Resurrection Sunday, for through you we forget the incidents of Good Friday. Blessed be the bright day, for you are not like the day before yesterday. The time of sadness is completely over, and everything has changed. The misfortune has passed, and the power of grief is destroyed; death has departed, and life lives on; hell is closed and baptism is open; the left side (the enemies of the Church) is desolate, and the right side (the members of the Church) rejoices exceedingly. The day before yesterday they killed the Shepherd, and his flock fled; but now the wolves have fled, and the herd gathers freely. The day before yesterday Judas received the money, Caiaphas conferred, Annas accused, the scribes shouted, Pilate sat on the throne, Simon (Peter) denied, Andrew fled, John withdrew, Thomas hid, James was nowhere to be found, Philip was invisible, Matthew was in hiding, Bartholomew was far away, the twin (Simon the Zealot) was terrified, and everyone fled in all directions. And now Caiaphas is put to shame, Annas should be ashamed, Judas hanged himself, throwing away his money, the scribes kept silent, the elders of the synagogue hide their eldership, Pilate is in complete amazement, the herd of wolves scattered, the Shepherd speaks to the flock, the flock hears His voice and gathers again. Mary (Lazarus's sister) triumphs, Salome rejoices, Martha returns with good news, Joan brings tidings of peace, the disciples are encouraged again, the apostles leave their refuges, Simon and John run to the tomb, Matthew and Bartholomew are released from despair, Andrew and James rejoice, Thomas confesses, Philip sings songs of praise. The path that leads to the tomb is rich in companions. Sorrow went over to the side of the enemies, and consolation is found among those standing on the right side, at the entrance to the tomb. Death is destroyed in the lower world, since this hero was destroyed at the gates of Samara. With open boldness, the prophecy laughed at death and said: where is the sting of death: where is the victory in hell (Hos. 13:14)? The Crucified One destroyed the treasure of death, threw its crown to the ground: its voice ceased in the world below, its sting was dulled, and its walls were destroyed. Let the guard call and say: Babylon is fallen, and all her idols, and everything made with her hands, are broken on the earth (Isa. 21:5-9). Now the false Pharisees have handed over the money that the traitor Judas returned to them to the guards of the tomb. The day before yesterday Judas stole, now the guards were horrified; the opponents of the truth filled their bags with money, but they failed to destroy the truth. The Strong Man gave Himself into their hands, and they weakly nailed Him, and after that they guarded Him, so that He would not free himself and rush at them: for for what reason did they guard near the tomb, if not out of fear from the Strong Man, Who, although closed, nevertheless inspired fear in His enemies? The darkness kept watch over the morning so that He would not appear, but when the day dawned, its rays defeated the enemy. The guards saw the rising light, the heavenly glory, enveloped in rays, the majestic and clear noise of the angels was heard from below, a clear radiance extended from the tomb to the very sky, which appeared to Jacob in Bethel (Gen. 28:12); only here the Lord did not sit on top (the sky), but below it, rising to the top. The guards saw all this and were frightened: they trembled with all their limbs and became dead with fear; Frightened, they ran to the coffin, but the seal on it turned out to be intact. The Jews sealed the coffin and laid a stone, as Scripture teaches us about this, and Pilate agreed to place guards near the coffin, as they requested. But when the guards saw the glory of the Savior, how He rose in radiance, how the Saint was awakened from the unconscious state of the deceased, how the angels, rising and falling, glorified and joyfully prayed to the Lord returning from a victorious battle with the enemy, then through this vision they were firmly convinced of the resurrection: they saw the Savior face to face. When they saw the sealed tomb and saw that the seal on the tomb had not been destroyed, they were so surprised that they were firmly convinced of the resurrection that they had seen with their own eyes. They looked with surprise at the seal, which remained intact, although the strong Man came out of the coffin; With the greatest surprise, they ran to the church elders and told them: “Come, and you will see that the seal is still intact, and the stone you laid remains untouched. Let us go without reproach: for He whom you laid in the tomb has ascended into heaven; we must only hand over the seal untouched. Go, we will give it to you - the coffin, and do not demand the body from us. There is no one in the coffin, and the seal on it is still intact. We fulfilled our duty and guarded near the tomb so that the disciples of Christ could not approach it, and we did this; but in order to forbid the angels, this is no longer our business: the inhabitants of the earth did not approach, but the heavenly ones entered and left constantly. None of the disciples were even present at the tomb; but we saw fiery men, dressed in white robes, descending from heaven, bowing and praying to Him whom you had laid in the tomb; and when they heartily prayed over him, he left with them, but we could not get closer to them.” When the crucifiers of Christ heard this, they felt their insignificance, were very embarrassed and ashamed. They told the guards: “People! We have invited you to help us; and therefore do not rebel against us. Take the pieces of silver, and don’t tell anyone about what happened; receive them, and we will not have to be ashamed. What we have heard from you, no one else should hear; but be always ready to say: His disciples came overnight and stole Him for us while we slept” (Matthew 28:13). The guards took the gift and, for the sake of the gold, did not dare to tell the truth, and thus hid what had happened. The love of money took over, and as a result they did not convey the story that happened in its present form. The improvement of their fortunes was an excuse for them, and the truth was rejected: they saw gold, and the lie turned out to be strong. Seeing the money that had a strong hold on them, the guards said what they were told to say: “His disciples came at night and stole Him for us sleeping.” Oh, a lie that even without outside evidence contradicts itself! His disciples stole Him at night for us sleeping. Oh, deceivers! Was your dream so insightful that, even while in the dream, you knew who the thieves were? Why didn’t you pay attention to ensure that you weren’t robbed? Your lies will be discovered and you will be despised by everyone. If you were asleep, as you claim, then you probably don’t know whether Jesus’ disciples stole Him or someone else; and if you are convinced that the disciples stole Christ, then you were not sleeping at that moment. Thus, through this your lies are already clear to everyone. Either you were awake and saw it, or, if you were asleep, you could not see it; and therefore your words cannot be trusted, since your words contradict themselves. If you were to say this: “We were sleeping, that’s why we stole Him; but we do not know who stole Him,” then with this you could somewhat cover up your deceptive intention. But when you say that Christ’s disciples stole Him because you were asleep, then your deception, obviously, contradicts itself and makes you ashamed: you are not able to cover up your lies further. The sleeping person does not know who stole his thing, and if he knows who stole it, then it means that he was not sleeping and wanted to be robbed. If you knew who stole Him (Christ), then why didn't you take care to catch the thief? If you did not notice Him because you were asleep, then why do you blame the disciples? Everything that was aimed at hiding the truth speaks precisely about the truth. The crucifiers of Christ wanted to use false calculations and placed guards at the tomb; and it is precisely they who testify to the resurrection. And the fact that the guards agreed to say that His disciples stole Him testifies that they were not from among the disciples of Christ, but that they were in agreement with those who crucified Christ. When the guards saw that they were being used as liars, in order to tell the people one thing instead of another, they secretly spoke among themselves about the actual incident, so that through the secret, which they repeated among themselves every day, the resurrection became known. Our Savior, to the humiliation of the crucifiers - known not from the mouths of Simon and John, His friend, but from those who slandered the disciples, that they stole Him, and that He was not resurrected. In order to testify to His resurrection, He did not send His friends to His enemies; Caiaphas, therefore, did not hear Peter; Anna was not convinced by John, and therefore our Savior revealed His resurrection to the guards who were at the tomb. His crucifiers spoke with astonishment before those who conveyed Pilate’s command to them; but for those who participated in the crucifixion of the Savior, the guards of the tomb became apostles about His resurrection, and they were very easily convinced of this, since they were associates of the crucifiers, and not friends of the Crucified One. All the enemies of our Lord gathered secretly with these guards in order to find out what was happening at the tomb of the Crucified One, and what they saw, and these secretly told them what they saw; Meanwhile, they consulted among themselves so that none of them would in any way begin to divulge this secret. From this it is clear that the resurrection of the Lord was equally clear and known to both friends and enemies of the Lord, and that it was also known to those who performed the crucifixion as to His disciples; His friends rejoiced, but His enemies’ hearts sank. The cloud of despair, which the day before yesterday, like a thunderstorm, rose over the disciples, promising them torment, as a result of which they fled, now shook those who committed the crucifixion with its strong storm and thunderstorm. So, the time has changed: the light of all joy now shone over the disciples, and over the crucifiers a terrible storm of misfortune. In the chariot, which on Friday was immersed in blood, and which appeared in order to take the dead to heaven, life is now harnessed, and the resurrection drives it everywhere around, in order to raise the living from the grave to heaven. The crucifiers worked to conceal the truth, but their intention was not realized; They wanted to use money to put a lie in the place of truth, but it could not replace the truth: they lost money and could not hide the truth. The robbers wanted to replace day with night and hide him, but they could not understand that there was no place where they could hide him. Foolish thieves thought to take the sun into their hands and run away with it: they wanted the world to no longer be guided by its light; but the sun rose upon the world, and these blind men hired themselves out as day laborers to go into the world and say that the day had not yet come. The Resurrection of the Son of God was announced to everyone, as a result of which both the highest heights, as well as the lowest places, felt joy; and only the crucifiers gave gifts so that false rumors would spread that He had been stolen and that He had not risen. They hired people until half daylight to say that the sun had not yet risen. Of course, their intention to hide the light could not be realized, and when they learned that no one listened to their words, they were ashamed. Although the crucifiers announced that Christ had been taken, He appeared to Mary Magdalene, met Martha, appeared to the disciples, and walked along the road to Emmaus with Cleopas and his brother; and thus the news of His resurrection came together, since everyone who saw Him hastened to tell others about it - their acquaintances. Angels sat at the entrance to the cave in order to announce to everyone who came about the event that had taken place. So, the truth spread and eclipsed the lie; light prevailed and darkness had to give way. Why did the angels sit on the tomb, if not to announce His resurrection to His disciples? And they said to the disciples: We know that you are looking for Jesus crucified. There is no here: there is no rising (Matthew 28:5–6); and again: why are you looking for the living with the dead (Luke 24:5)? Now, then, the angels were at the tomb; but why weren’t they at Golgotha ​​the day before yesterday? The Father gave up His Son as a sacrifice, and did not allow His Servants (angels) to approach the cross, so that at the sight of their Lord their devotion to Him would not be inflamed by strong excitement: for then they would have burned the crucifiers with fire, and the Crucified One would have been turned away from the path of suffering. If, during the wickedness of Sodom, when Lot was spared, they threw hot coals from heaven and burned the city; what would they do if they saw the humiliation of the Son of God? Could they have refrained from taking revenge on their tormentors? And when He was completely humiliated, then the Father commanded the servants (angels) to descend and glorify His Son; when our Savior had already left the tomb, then the angels announced this. The angels did not announce that He would come out; but they tried to ensure that the disciples could see that He was not in the tomb. It is written: an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and came and rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb and sat on it (Matthew 28:2). If our Lord were still in the tomb, then the angel could not sit on it, since it is said that after the stone was rolled away, he sat on it; and it is known and understood that a servant could never sit before his Lord. But he sat here to announce to those who came that our Lord had risen: for they might have doubted His resurrection if the tomb had been closed and the seal had been intact. Our Lord came out of the tomb, since He, who was present on that day alone from the Sabbaths (John 20:19), entered the upper room. It was necessary for the angels to roll away the stone: for after this the disciples began to come; it was necessary that the insides of the tomb, as well as the place where His body lay, should be visible to the eyes, as well as the veils laid with Him, and so that after all these testimonies they would be firm in the belief in the resurrection of the Savior. Through all this, which is so clear, and which, like the sun, opened brightly, the disciples celebrated the resurrection, but the crucifiers were very humiliated by this. With obvious and unshakable confidence, the apostles testify: we know that Christ has risen from the dead who no longer dies: death does not possess Him (Rom. 6:9). To him be glory forever Amen 219. Sechs homilien des heiligen Jacob von Sarug, aus syrischen "Handschriften ubersetzt von P. Pius Zingerle." Bonn. 1867 p.p. 80–93. You might be interested in: