Слово на Святую и Спасительную Пасху. Святого Григория, епископа Нисского

The true peace of the God-blessed Saturday, on which the Lord rested from His works (having won victory over death for the salvation of the world) - this true peace has already ended and has sweetened the eyes, ears and hearts through everything that, during the celebration of our triumph, we saw, heard, and felt joyful to the heart. In fact, our eyes saw the light shining from the lamps, and, like a fiery cloud, rushing before us in the darkness of the night; the hearing was resounding all night long with the Word of God (psalms, hymns and spiritual songs), which, pouring into the soul in a joyful stream, filled us with good hopes; our heart, rejoicing in both the verbal and the visible and ascending through the sensory to the spiritual, anticipated inexpressible bliss [since the blessings of this peace, assuring themselves of the ineffable hope of receiving what is prepared for us, serve for us as an image of those blessings which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and (which) has not entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9)]. Since this luminous night, combining the brilliance of the lamps with the early rays of the sun, constituted one continuous day, without any interval of darkness, then we, brothers, will reflect on the prophecy that proclaims that this day is the day the Lord has made (Ps. 118:24). It is not any difficult or inconvenient task that is commanded on this day, but joy and gladness, for St. The Prophet says this: let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 117:24). What an easy feat! What an easy commitment! Who would hesitate to fulfill such a command?! Who wouldn’t consider the slightest delay in such an activity a loss?! Joy is a deed, and joy is a command, through the fulfillment of which condemnation for sin is resolved, and sadness turns into joy. In this, the saying of Wisdom is fulfilled: on the day of good, the oblivion of the evil (Sir. 11:25), that is, on the day of joy, the oblivion of evil. This day made us forget about the first sentence against us, or better yet, did not force us to forget, but completely destroyed it for us: it completely erased any memory of the condemnation pronounced on us. Then it is said: give birth to a child in illness (Gen. 3:16), - now birth is painless. Then that which was born of the flesh was flesh: now that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). Then we were sons of men: now we are born children of God. Then we were brought down from heaven to earth: now the Heavenly One has made us heavenly. Then death reigned through sin: now, on the contrary, life has received dominion through righteousness. Then one opened the entrance of death: now through the One life is introduced again. Then through death we fell away from life: now death is abolished by Life. Then we hid ourselves under the fig tree out of shame: now we have approached the tree of life in glory. Then we were expelled from paradise for our crime; now we are brought into paradise for our faith. Again the fruit of life is offered to us freely as food. Again, the source of paradise, divided into four principles by the streams of the Gospel, waters the entire face (Gen. 2:6) of the Church, so that the reins of our souls are intoxicated with it (which the reins of the Sower of the Word held with the rall of teaching) and abundantly increase the fruits of virtue. What should we do with this? What else but to leap, like the mountains and hills, which the Prophet proclaimed, saying: the mountains leaped like rams; and the hills are like lambs of a sheep (Ps. 113:6)?... Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, Who crushed the power of the enemy and, after the overthrow of the enemy, raised up for us the great victorious sign of the Cross. Let us exclaim with that voice of joy with which victors usually exclaim over the corpses of the vanquished. After the horde of the enemy is overthrown, and he himself, who had power over the evil demonic army, is overthrown, destroyed and even reduced to insignificance, we will also say: for God is a great Lord, and a great King throughout all the earth (Ps. 95:1, 3). He blessed the crown of the summer with His goodness, and gathered us for this spiritual rejoicing in Christ Jesus the Lord, to Him be glory forever. Amen 10. See Curs. Compl. Patrolog. Migne, col. 681–684; Wed Created, St. Grigor. Nissk. in Russian transl., ed. 1871, part VIII, pp. 88–91; Christ. Read 1839, part II, 47–51 pp.; Sunday Read VII (1843–1844), 1–2 pp. You might be interested in: