255. Беседа в день отдания Пасхи и принесения камня Гроба Господня

(Printed 705 in the Works of St. Ot. 1850 and in the collection 1861) Today, concluding the joyful days of the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, how will we part with them? In what thoughts? In what feelings? – Let us bless the Risen Lord, who has granted us participation in the joy of His Resurrection. Let us give Him our hopes that we may yet meet this joy as we continue our wanderings on earth. Most of all, let us call on faithful hope to find for ourselves, beyond this journey, the bright region of the Risen One, and there to partake of Him more truly, in the unfading days of His reign. We recognize the great-gifted goodness of Christ and the Church in the fact that it has been given to us to abundantly enjoy the festive joy of the Resurrection of Christ. This is a gift to the Church: because she established it this way; and together the gift of Christ the Lord himself: inasmuch as He gave the foundation for the establishment of the Church. The Church remembers and adheres to the rule spoken by Christ the Lord for His followers: “the sons of a marriage cannot weep and fast, as long as the bridegroom is with them” (Matthew 9:15); and from that moment when, like the “bridegroom” from the palace, Christ came out from the tomb, the “sons of marriage,” that is, clinging to the Risen One by faith and love, on all the days in which He is not “taken away” from them, but continues to approach them on earth in His glorified body, not yet ascended to heaven, do not fast with strict fasting, do not bend the knee, and the days of the cross they delight in the joy of the Resurrection, and during the days of work they continually see the dawn of the holiday. On the very day of His Resurrection, on the first day of the week, the risen Lord appeared to His gathered Apostles, and after the completion of the week, He appeared to them again on the same day: therefore, these “sons of marriage” understood that on this day the Heavenly “Bridegroom” was especially pleased to approach them; and therefore this day of the week was called “the day of the Lord” 706, and, at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they consecrated it for the Church as the day of resurrection and joy, for all weeks of the year and for all times. If in this way the institutions of the Church show how desirable the proximity of the risen Christ and His glorified body is for her, since it is manifested in time: then, in accordance with this, it is not surprising if His proximity is also desirable for believers, since it is marked in relation to place. So, the zeal of Saint Helen, Equal to the Apostles, is understandable, as she made extraordinary efforts to find the cross, which was sanctified by the touch of the body of Christ crucified on it and by the blood poured out from His wounds; to open the tomb then buried in the ground, in which was buried the body of Christ who was crucified and died for us, and from which it rose again in glory. Let us imagine mentally, in the heliport of Joseph of Arimathea, a stone hill, and in it a carved small cave, or church, with a low entrance to it. At the entrance to it, on the right side, there is a stone bed of such length and width as is sufficient for the position of the body of the deceased, and on the left there is as much space as is needed to accommodate those bringing in the body. Let us imagine what happened in this tomb cave on the evening and beyond on Saturday evening, which we rightly call “Great Saturday”: let us imagine not according to our arbitrary dreams, but according to the instructions of the truth. In the evening twilight, Joseph and Nicodemus bring the body of Christ, taken from the cross and wrapped in swaddling clothes with aromas, and lay it on a stone bed, against a stone wall. Then, in a certain moment destined from eternity and eternity, the burial shrouds develop. “Sir, who is at the head” of Christ also develops, and again “coils” correctly, so that later the “individual” (John 20:7) turns out to be placed decorously and significantly, and not dropped by chance. In the hand of God the Father on the cross, the devoted spirit of Christ re-animates His body. The light of the Divine, on Tabor for a short time, partly, because the audience could accommodate it - the Apostles, shining through this body, now, in the tomb, shines completely; and this body, hitherto earthly and involved in death, transforms into heavenly, immortal, glorified. At this, the highest transfiguration of Tabor, divine light and the most holy fragrance fill the tomb cave; and the very body of Christ, already spiritual and glorified, penetrates and passes through the stone stronghold in the same way as later through closed doors. O place, heavenly on earth! O bed of death, equal to the throne of divine glory! O God-receiving stone! Isn’t this the first of the stones of Zion, the most precious of the stones of the whole world, which the Prophet looked at more than others when he foreshadowed “The Risen One, who has spared Zion,” for the sake of the faith of those who are kind to the stones of Zion, marked by the touch and trace of the Risen One: “You have risen, having spared Zion; How did Thy servants delight in His stone” (Ps. 101:14–15)? I bless with the Prophet those who “rejoice in the stone of Zion,” who undertake a long journey in order to reverently behold and kiss the stone on which, near which, under the canopy of which (for it is all one stone) lay the buried body of Christ, which was illuminated and penetrated by the light of the risen body of Christ. But what if I say that we can reverently behold and kiss this stone without having to travel to Jerusalem? - This seems like a dream: but, according to God’s dispensation, this is the truth. In the year of the Lord 1808, according to the inscrutable fate of God, the Church of the Sepulcher and Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem was visited by fire. Everything that was added to the primitive, not hand-made, but natural stone tomb of the Lord by art for decoration, more or less suffered from the fire, and was in need of renewal. On this occasion, the architect, who had authority in this renewal, out of respect for the reverent priest of the church, Thaddeus, who still lives in the rank of Archbishop of Sebaste, dared to separate a part of the sacred stone from the wall at the very bed of the Lord and hand it over to the priest. God was pleased to incline the heart of Archbishop Thaddeus so that this sacred monument, with his written testimony about it, would move to Russia and become a local church property, as a blessing and consolation to the sons of faith, who, although they know that “those who have not seen blessedness have believed” (John 20:29), yet out of love they desire even the traces of the Lord, in Whom believe, touch and kiss. Thus, I have the opportunity to invite you, without traveling to Jerusalem, now here to approach the part of the Jerusalem Life-Receiving Sepulcher of the Lord, and to honor it with a reverent kiss. But just as, according to the word of the Lord, “there is a spirit that gives life, the flesh has no use” (John 6:63): then, approaching the material sign of the Lord who was buried, let us seek to draw closer to the spirit of the Risen One. In the image of the Myrrh-Bearers, let us approach the Holy Sepulcher with the “aromas” of reverent thoughts and prayerful feelings. In the likeness of the Apostles John and Peter, we will not only “enter into the tomb” of Christ, so that we will know the mystery of His saving death and resurrection for us, but also “let us enter into the tomb,” let us completely “surrender ourselves into the death” of Christ, so that our old man, with his unrighteous deeds, unclean desires, vain thoughts, will die and be buried, and “the life of Jesus will appear in more than our dead flesh, that we may put on the new man, renewed in understanding, after the image of Him who created him” (2 Cor. 4:11; Col. 3:10). To warn ourselves, let us remember that the guard soldiers also approached the tomb of Christ; but since there was unbelief and selfishness in their hearts, and not love for the truth and not the desire for salvation, then from the light of the Resurrection that appeared to them, they were reflected into death. To warn ourselves, let us remember that the Jewish elders and Pharisees touched the Holy Sepulcher: but since they were led to it not by truth, but by hypocrisy, not by faith, but by unbelief, not by love, but by enmity: they did not penetrate to the inner light of the Holy Sepulcher, but only put a seal on it from the outside, and for no one else but themselves: with unbelief and enmity they blocked the entrance to themselves into the mystery of Christ, which they could not hide from the world. Christ the Lord, Who was “carnally in the grave, in hell with the soul, like God, in heaven with the thief, and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit, fulfilling all things indescribable” 707, and you promised to be with us until the end of the century! Grant us from the contemplation of Your life-giving tomb to draw inner light, and joy, and grace, and the hope of our resurrection, not into judgment, but into eternal life. Amen. It was not spoken due to weakness, due to which the Liturgy itself on May 31st was celebrated with difficulty. See letters to Rev. Gregory, later M-tu Novg. Thurs. in general love spirit. enlightenment 1877, part III, p. 157. Rev.I. 10 per day per week. In the Greek text: en te kyriake hemera which means: on the day of the Lord. Sunday canon 4 voices, hymn 1, troparion 2. Also sung at the hours of Easter. You might be interested in: