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“Moses secretly typified the great day of today, saying: And God bless the seventh day. This is the blessed Sabbath, this is the day of repose, on which the only begotten Son of God rested from all His works, having looked upon death, having become a Sabbath in the flesh, and again returning to it” (at Vespers, verse 4). Such is the greatness of this day! The past days were great in exploits and activity, but this day is great in peace. Great: for in him rested the One who is above all and everything; he rested then, as he had accomplished everything; rested, so that he would never rest for the good of the human race. The Church itself, throughout the continuation of time from the beginning of the world, finds only one day with which the present can be compared. This is the seventh day of creation, on which, according to Moses, “God... rest... from all His works that He had done” (Gen. 2:2). How great this day must be! But he was also less real. The present peace is greater than this; for the second labor was greater than the first. It was easier to create the whole world and man than to redeem them: in paradise there was no cross for man either; and on Golgotha ​​the cross is also for the God-man. And after this great feat of the godfather, the present day was chosen for peace! God the Creator, after six days of work, rested on the seventh; and God the Redeemer, after many days of labor, did not choose more than one day for rest - the same seventh! Oh, stop the sun, make the precious day last! May the peace of the Divine Sufferer last! May these ulcers be closed! Let the blood stop flowing! But what kind of cry is heard among mortal silence? Are not the myrrh-bearing women coming to anoint the body of Jesus? But the Sabbath rest has not yet passed: and he must remain silent, “according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). Who dares to disturb the peace of the Lion of Judah? “The one who most violated it during his lifetime: “today,” the Church sings, “hell, groaning, cries out (at Vespers of Holy Saturday, verse itself. 1). But why should he groan when he has achieved what he desired? Why cry out when everything fell silent before him? Doesn’t he want to take the soul of the Crucified One, just as he took His Body with the hands of the Jews and sealed it in the tomb? But he was not given power over Job’s soul; Can the soul of Jesus be left in hell? Let us listen, however, more closely to the cry of hell: it is not in vain that it became strong, which, occurring in the heart of the earth, is heard at all its ends; It is not in vain that it is so painful that the crying cannot hide it in its darkest depths. “Today hell, groaning, cries out, saying: I would not have had it, if I had not received the one born of Mary.” So, here is the reason for the bitter cry of hell: it is caused by the One who Himself silently rests in the tomb! What is this Dead Man doing to you, oh hell? With this head crowned with thorns, with these pierced hands and feet, what can He do to you? Everything, everything, the tormented man answers: “come upon me, destroy my power, crush the copper gates, and resurrect the souls that I previously held.” Oh, after this you must groan and cry, groan forever, and cry forever! But how did all this happen? – How, while resting in a carnal tomb, did the God-Man descend into hell? - Was He not somewhere else at this time? Didn’t he do anything else besides destroying the strongholds of hell? – Who can give an answer to this? It is obvious that hell is a bad witness in this case: from torment, it can only cry out, and not narrate. Let us turn to the witnesses and servants of the Word resting in the tomb—the apostles. May Peter stand at this tomb! He should know better than others the deeds of the soul of Jesus after death; for he promised to go with Him to death, and to lay down his life for Him. True, in the midst of the hellish darkness of Caiafin’s court, his vision was darkened, and he did not recognize the Teacher three times; but bitter tears have already washed the dust from his eyes, and he now sees everything more clearly than before. Now he is able not only to carry the keys, open and close (Matthew 16:19); but also to feed the lambs with the sheep (John 21:17). What will you tell us, Chief Apostle, about the deeds of the soul of Christ? “Christ,” he says, “was put to death... having been flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, and he also came down and preached about him who was in prison, the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18–19). So the Savior, during the stay of His most pure flesh in the tomb, was as if in hell; for what else could the apostle’s prison of spirits mean if not hell, or, moreover, the deepest and darkest compartment of hell? – And into this depth, the underworld in all respects, the deceased God-man descended – in His spirit! – He came down not in the form of a sufferer (for the cross concluded a series of sufferings), but in the form of a conqueror of death and hell, so that he, according to the expression of the Church, would fulfill all things (For the worthy, they say, in the Literature of Basil the Great). The sky was filled with His Divine glory, the earth was already full of His sufferings; It was necessary for hell to be filled with His power. What was the God-man doing in hell? “I preached,” answers Saint Peter. Where Jesus is, there is a sermon! It was necessary to show in practice that He is the “light” of the whole “world”. But who should preach in hell? “The spirits,” continues Saint Peter, “were sometimes resisted, while we waited for God’s long-suffering, in the days of Noah, making the ark” (1 Pet. 3:20). But if these unfortunate sinners, having suffered for too two thousand years in a terrible prison, finally became able to hear with benefit for them the preaching of the Redeemer of men; then all the more eagerly should those of the prisoners of hell hear it, who during their lives did not show the stubbornness and wickedness of Noah’s contemporaries, and therefore were closer to them to the gates leading from the terrible prison. Therefore, the Holy Church, as the mystery of God’s love, now boldly sings in honor of her Bridegroom: “Hell reigns, but does not reign eternally over the human race. You lay in the tomb, you opened the keys of death, and you preached true deliverance to those sleeping there from time immemorial. What was the subject of the sermon in hell? – The Apostle does not say this directly. But what else could be the subject of the Savior’s preaching other than salvation? - The end of the matter shows its essence; and the end of the preaching in hell for the most stubborn souls, such as Noah’s contemporaries, should have been, according to the clear and precise testimony of the apostle, that they, having “received judgment” - during the flood - “will live according to man in the flesh” now - after the preaching of Christ - “by the Spirit” (1 Pet. 4:6). Those who had come to life in spirit could no longer be left in the midst of the habitation of death, and the Conqueror of death, having descended into hell alone, had to bring many with Him. If anyone were to doubt about this to give full faith to hell, which complains that on this occasion it “destroyed all the dead, with them the kingdoms from all eternity”: then they cannot doubt the testimony of the Church, which undoubtedly sings that, by the descent of her Divine Bridegroom into hell, “all the kingdoms of hell were exhausted.” Judge for yourself, brethren, what joy must have accompanied the departure from the terrible “prison of spirits,” when even those released from earthly prisons often do not remember themselves for their joy! It was then that the Savior’s saying came into full force: “I have not come... call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance!” (Matthew 9:13). Then the whole world learned how the Seed of the woman crushes the very head of the serpent. And for the Great Conqueror of death, the destruction of the strongholds of hell and the liberation of the prisoners of hell was, without a doubt, the most pleasant deed of all His deeds. If the accomplishment of human salvation according to the will of the Father constituted for Him, in His own words, “freedom” (John 4:34); then in this case He ate the manna. After leaving hell, his Savior with His most pure soul was in paradise. We know this from His own lips: for when the thief crucified with Him prayed to be remembered in His Kingdom, He answered: “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” It was necessary for the Savior Himself to personally introduce into paradise those who were freed from hell: for only in His face could the flaming weapon guarding the gates of paradise turn its shoulders; only by His omnipotent voice could the Cherubim retreat from the tree of life and give the new inhabitants of paradise to partake of the food of paradise. There was another thing in paradise: the “grain of wheat” that fell to the ground and died on Calvary was supposed to create “much fruit” (John 12:24); The Savior of the world, ascended to the cross, had to take “all things” with Him (John 12:32). So it was necessary to inspect the entire space of paradise, and distribute by the hand of the Householder a sufficient number of inhabitants in the house of the Heavenly Father for His new children (John 14:2). If, brethren, even in hell, during the destruction of its strongholds, there was a triumph for the liberated and the Liberator, then much more in paradise, at the tree of life. Here it was time for David to thunder a new psalm on the ten-stringed psalter and leap before the ark of the New Testament, a new, holy leap, for which there was no one to condemn him (2 Samuel 6:16); It was here that Moses’ desire was fulfilled - to see God face to face: for he saw His Only Begotten Son, in Whom “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9); It was here that Abraham’s holy request for the non-destruction of sinners, for the sake of the virtue of the righteous, was satisfied (Gen. 18:32–33): for now, for the sake of the only Righteous One, forgiveness has been granted to all sinners. We can think that the deceased God-man was also with the Father. – For He Himself repeatedly said to the disciples: “Behold, I leave the world and go to the Father” (John 16:28). We heard with what feeling He confessed before the onset of His suffering: “Father, I have finished the work that you gave Me, that I may do it” (John 17:4). All the more joy should these words be repeated in heaven, when the Conqueror of death appeared before the throne of the Father with the sign of victory, no longer intended, but complete - with the cross! Oh, how many times, after this new baptism of blood, should a voice be heard under the heavens of heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). “Listen to him!” – Listen, not just men, but “all the angels of God” (Heb. 1:6), all “creation” (Mark 16:15). For at Calvary, heaven and earth saw that the Lamb who was slain was “worthy... to receive power and riches, and wisdom and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. 5:12). Let us not continue depicting the great activity of Jesus in the midst of this day of rest; for Scripture gives us no further guidance for this; and without this guidance, how can we talk about the secrets of the invisible world? And after what we have seen and heard, who will not say, “Great indeed is the day of this Sabbath,” and worthy of being typified by all the Sabbaths of the Old Testament! And all this happened, brothers, when the body of Jesus rested peacefully in the tomb; when this tomb was sealed with the seal of Caiaphas, surrounded by Roman guards! The seven seals on the book of destinies have been broken at this time (Rev. 5:5); but the seal of Caiaphas remained intact! The entire army of hell was put to flight, but four Roman soldiers continued to stand guard! – Thus, under the simple veil of the visible, the darkness of invisible miracles can be hidden! “So in our graves great work can be and, without a doubt, is being done, when our coarse feelings do not notice anything in them except inaction. But what should we do at a time when our Lord does so much for us and for us? – Follow Him in spirit with faith and love. The Lord is in hell: let us also follow Him in thought to hell, so as not to go there in deed; Let us put ourselves for a time in the condition of those who were imprisoned in the prison of spirits, and learn to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Those who lived before the appearance of Christ in the flesh saw Him in hell: who will guarantee that those who voluntarily descend into hell after Christ’s ascension to heaven see Him there? The real preaching of Christ in hell is clearly a non-repeatable sermon: for the separation of His soul from the body is non-repeatable. Therefore, it is best and safest to work out your salvation, “until there is day”: for “night will come” for everyone, in which, according to the word of the incessant Worker Himself, “no one can work” (John 9:4). The Lord is in paradise: let us dare in His name and we follow Him in thought into paradise, not for idle curiosity, like those spies of the promised land, condemned for this to die in the desert (Num. 14:37), but in order to double and triple our efforts to actually enter the gates of paradise opened by the cross for all. Oh, how many abodes are prepared there! And each one is open for everyone! This is the abode of faith and hope; The father of believers, Abraham, who by faith raised his son to the altar, calls into it. Here is the abode of arbitrary poverty and self-sacrifice: Moses calls to it, who deigned better to “suffer with the people of God” in the wilderness, “rather than,” calling himself the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, “to have the temporary sweetness of sin” (Heb. 11:24–25). Here is the abode of patience and devotion to the will of God: Job dwells in it, who knew how to bless the name of the Lord on rot. Here is the abode of purity and chastity: Joseph and Susanna are invited to it, who preferred persecution and death to the joys of voluptuousness. This is the abode of zeal for God and virtue: it is offered by Phinehas and Elijah, who were zealous for the Lord God of Israel at a time when almost everyone was zealous only for their passions. This is the abode of mercy: the most merciful Lord Himself calls to it. “Come,” He says to the merciful, “inherit the kingdom prepared for you” (Matthew 25:34); For what you did to the poor, you did to Me. The Lord is with the Father: let us not be offended, brothers; we too will follow Him. But what will we face? - Either with virtue, or with repentance: the Heavenly Father accepts both, if only both were sanctified in the blood of His Son. Let us stand up and tell the Heavenly Father about His and our Joseph the same thing that was once said about the son of Jacob: we have an “evil” council about Him, but You have a “good” council about Him and about us. Now “forgive them iniquity and their sin” (Gen. 50:20,17); for from now on we will have no other leader in life except Him, the Savior and Lord you have given us. In such and similar reflections, we, brothers, should spend time at this tomb. And could there be a better time for this than the silence of this night, which was chosen from all nights by the Church for this reason, in order to be entirely dedicated to a prayerful conversation with the crucified Savior? – But, unfortunately, many of us do not take advantage of this wonderful institution of the Church. How many nights are spent in bustle and fun! But we cannot spend one night at the tomb of our Savior; He remains almost alone, and we appear only for His resurrection! Oh, brothers, what if He leaves us like this when we lie in the grave? I do not say this “to condemnation” (2 Cor. 7:3); but to show how little attention we pay to the means to our sanctification. – He who loves his Savior will not leave His tomb. Amen. If one of the non-believers and not familiar with our sacraments were to enter any of our churches today, he would be surprised at what is happening in them: we surround the coffin of the deceased, lament and sigh over him; and at the same time we believe that in this tomb is the source of life and incorruption. If your Savior, an unbeliever would say, is the resurrection and the life, then how could He be killed and imprisoned in the tomb? - And when He died and was buried, how can He give you life and incorruptibility? - One of two things - either cry or rejoice: God does not die, the dead do not resurrect! This is what an unbeliever could tell us, now and here. But he, brothers, would begin to say similar things if he were taken to paradise, where our ancestors once lived. And there – one thing happens, but something completely different happens. The food is eaten as if it were good food... and pleasing to the eyes of the eye (Gen. 3:6); but it produces everlasting famine and everlasting death. Their eyes are opened, but they do not see the tempter, but see only their own nakedness! They want to be gods, but they run away from God. The sacrament is from both! But we were the first to draw back the veil. The manger and the cross were made by people. It was not God who hid from man, but man who hid from God. If we had not fallen so deeply, it would have been obvious how we were being raised up. – Now, it is better not to look into the abyss of evil, so that your vision is not darkened by its depth. It is better not to know all the techniques of the heavenly Doctor, so as not to be horrified by the healing itself. Let us give knowledge to the One in Whose hands are strength and salvation. Why am I saying this over this tomb? - To the fact that even now there are “Jews” who “ask for a sign, and Greeks” who “seek wisdom,” and we “preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:22, 23). We preach and we will preach! For a Jew, Christ crucified is a temptation: what a need! – Wasn’t the Jew tempted when manna was sent to him from heaven, and didn’t he ask “what is this”? (Ex. 16:15). Wasn’t it you, a Jew, who was once healed by looking at the copper serpent; ascended to the cross? Tell us, how did looking at copper heal? How did the serpent save you from the bite of the serpent? And we will tell you how the cross heals sins and exudes incorruption and life. For a Greek, Christ crucified is “madness”: what a need! And it’s not the first time for him to see without seeing, “to be wise and foolish” (Rom. 1:22). In the mirror of nature, from the creation of the world, not only the wisdom of God, sought by the Greeks, is visible, but also the very “ever-present power ... and the Divinity” (Rom. 1:20). Well, did the Greek see much in this mirror? And what did you see, did you not hide it in untruth? Did you not change the glory of “the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible men, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23)? - That is why, Greek, God was pleased to save believers through the violence of preaching, because “in the wisdom of God you do not understand the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:21). But even among Christians there are “enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil. 3:18). There are, there were and there will be: but who are they? These are, firstly, people for whom God is their self. Is it surprising that this point does not accommodate a cross? These people now love to produce the whole world from a circle: why don’t they take a closer look at this circle? Maybe they themselves would have seen the cross in it - Another kind of enemy of the cross is those for whom, in the words of the Apostle, God is their “womb”! (Phil. 3:19). With such a deity, there is no need to talk about Lebanon and myrrh: he needs the sacrifices of Beelphegor and Moloch. The Son of God on the cross: truly a miracle of miracles! The Savior of the world in the grave: exactly the mystery of mysteries! But, unbeliever, is this hidden from you? You say this is incomprehensible to you. And they tell you that this is incomprehensible to the Angels themselves. And why be afraid of the incomprehensible? You are amazed at nature and in awe of it: but have you comprehended everything in it? And don’t you revere the most what you comprehend the least? - To a God who is completely comprehensible, you would stop worshiping. But why argue? There is only one judgment regarding the goodness of a tree - according to its fruits. The tree of the cross is dry, dishonest, terrible, but let us look at its fruits. Before whom is it, O Jew, that your Jerusalem and church fall, so that not one stone remains in them, so that the Lord of Light, Julian, himself cannot raise them? - Before This Dead Man. To whom does the Athenian Pantheon, the Roman Capitol, the Caesars, and the philosophers give way? - To this Dead Man. Who stops the barbarians who destroyed the Roman Empire, makes them forget their cruelty and begin to learn to be people according to the Gospel? - This Dead Man. What peoples have power and authority over the entire earth? - Those who believe in the name of Jesus crucified. From whose banners is Mohammed now, in our eyes, running? - From those who bear the cross. What do you need, Jew, better than these signs? “Don’t you see from them that Christ, even in relation to earthly affairs, is “God’s power?” (1 Cor. 1:24). You, ancient or new Greek, need wisdom: “come and see” (John 1:46). Do you see how on the hills of Athens your philosophers fall before idols, those people who in their secret meetings mock nothing so much as idols and gods? We do not strictly condemn their weaknesses: life is more valuable than philosophy. But admit that your philosophy does not have the strength to fight superstition, and see what happens. In less than five centuries, there are not even five idols in the entire Roman Empire. Where are they and who killed them? Philosophers? There are not five philosophers in Rome; and those that exist are for idols. – The idols fell from the preaching of Paul and Apollos! Isn't this wisdom, Hellenic? Listen again to what your divine Plato says. “The True God,” he says, “is difficult to find, and if anyone found Him, then one cannot talk about the Father of Nature to everyone.” That is, Greek, your Plato wants to know God alone, for himself only; according to him, let the world not know him! -Mankind would not benefit much from such a philosophy. But fortunately for him, there were people more courageous and more humane than your Plato. See what happens. Less than one century has passed since the death of Jesus the Nazarene, and the barbarian and the Scythian begin to theologize; small children will learn about the Father of nature and men something that neither academies nor porticos even dreamed of; and all this is produced by the twelve fishermen of Galilee! Thus, the wisdom of the cross was justified in the face of the whole world “from children” (Matthew 11:19; 5, 16) and from his works! And it will still be justified! The new Hellenes will be put to shame, just as the ancients were put to shame. The “storehouses of brokenness” of elemental wisdom, no matter how much they are deepened, will not yield living water (Jer. 2:13). Without the Son they will not know the Father; He is known only by the one “to him, if the Son wills, it will be revealed” (Matthew 11:27); and the Son reveals Him only from the cross. But enough about Jews and Greeks; time to turn to you, true Christian. You do not ask for signs, but the Lord gives them to you without asking. You don't look for wisdom, but it comes to you. You yourself are a great sign and a great mystery for the world. Indeed, Christian, you have the eyes of your heart open (Isa. 42:7), which are closed in all carnal people, and you see the vanity of all that is great and glorious in the world, you see and count it in your minds, “that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8): isn’t this a sign? For you there is no fear of death, so that if you walk “in the midst of the shadow of death,” you will not fear “evil” (Ps. 22:4): isn’t this a sign? You find food and sweetness in what for peace lovers is boredom and heaviness, and on the contrary, you are bored and burdened by what they chase all their lives: isn’t this a sign? From time to time you feel within yourself “the powers of the coming age” (Heb. 6:5), you soar in spirit above the whole world, you are one with Him “whom your soul shall love” (Song. 3:1): isn’t this a sign? It cannot be that you are without wisdom. Oh, the Lord knows how to enlighten and instruct those who know how to listen to Him and are ready to fulfill what they hear. Without a doubt, you have already heard more than once, within yourself, That Mentor Who creates apostles from fishermen. Or maybe he has already received that anointing from the Saint, which they do not require when they receive it, “but who teaches” them; for the “anointing itself teaches” them everything (1 John 2:27). How could you, a Christian, after this, doubt that the crucified Lord is truly God’s power, “wisdom, truth... sanctification and deliverance” for the salvation of everyone who believes (1 Cor. 1:24,30), when in the very thing He long ago became all this for you? This would mean doubting one’s own mind, which is “Christ’s” (1 Cor. 2:16), one’s own heart, which is Christ’s (Eph. 3:17), one’s own life, which is Christ’s (Col. 3:4). And if, beloved, Christ has not become all this for you, if your Christianity has not turned into your life, if your faith consists of words, worship or passing feelings: then, let it be known to you, you are not much different from Jew and Greek. What is the use of having a precious treasure in your hands when you do not use it and remain a beggar as before? What is in front of your eyes an excellent cure for all ailments, when you do not take it, and therefore continue to suffer mortally? Christ saves us all, but not when he remains only in the Gospel, or on the Shroud, or in heaven; and when it enters our heart, it connects with our spirit and becomes the beginning of our entire life and all our actions. Think about this at this tomb! Amen. Have we, brothers, ever thought that we were all already in the grave, and that burial had already been completed over each of us? At least, let's think about this now, at this tomb. For in it, in this tomb, we were all buried. How and when? “In baptism,” answers the apostle. For “as we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into His death: we were buried... By Him we were baptized into death: just as Christ was raised from the dead in the glory of the Father, so we also will begin to walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3–4). Be baptized into death! Bury yourself into death! Ah, brothers, no matter how you explain these words, they are all extremely strong and striking. And the death of a person is something very important, especially the death of the God-man. And we were all baptized into this death! Everyone was buried in this death!.. Where does this wonderfully terrible baptism come from? Why is this Divine burial incomprehensible? - Why was our font a coffin, and the tomb of Christ? In order to understand this more clearly, brethren, we must pay attention to the purpose of our baptism... Why are we baptized? “For the remission of sins,” answers the Church itself. That is, to explain the same idea more separately, we are baptized to sanctify our nature, defiled by sin, to restore the image of God in it, to return to it primitive innocence and the capacity for virtue and bliss. But what cleanses and sanctifies us in baptism? - Is it really the water with which we wash ourselves in the font? But water can only cleanse the body, and that only in appearance, and not the soul, not the conscience, not the mind and will. For a soul defiled by sin, for a spirit that has fallen into the abyss of evil, a higher, internal, spiritual cleansing is needed. And it is accomplished in baptism; – otherwise why would baptism itself be performed? What produces it if water cannot produce it? – Produces the all-sanctifying blood of the God-man. The font cleanses us because the grace of the Spirit, brought down to earth by the incarnation of the Son of God, is hidden in the water; our sins are forgiven at baptism because a sacrifice was made for these sins on the cross; we emerge from the font as children of God with the right to inherit eternal life because in the font we clothed ourselves with faith in the merits of the Redeemer, to Whom belong all the blessings of eternal life. Thus, when we are baptized for the remission of sins, we are visibly immersed in water, and invisibly in the death and Blood of Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit. And this invisible immersion makes visible baptism with water so valid, which in itself would not have any effect on the soul. Remove faith in the Crucified One from the font: grace will be removed along with it; and therefore there will be no remission of sins; take away the cross, and there will be no baptism. This is what the apostle expresses, brothers, when he says that we are “baptized into the death of Christ.” But you can be baptized into death without sharing this death. – A Christian is not baptized into the death of his Lord in this way: plunging into this death, he himself dies, or, in the words of the Apostle, “is buried in Christ.” This burial is very clearly expressed to the sensory eye by the immersion of the baptized person in water. By plunging, we hide from the world, as if we cease to exist for some time - we are “buried”: and on the contrary, emerging from the water, we appear again - we begin to exist, as it were - we are “resurrected”. This, I say, is seen by the eye itself; but this is one symbol: in fact, in baptism, with the visible, figurative burial of the body in water, an invisible, real burial takes place, embracing the whole person, leaving indelible traces for all life, temporary and eternal. To fully understand this, let us remember again why we are baptized? - “For the forgiveness of sins.” So we approach the font unclean, sinful, old, enemies of God, and we come out of it justified, cleansed, children of God, new people. Where does our old, old man go? - Remains in the font. What's wrong with him? - He dies and disappears. How and by whose power? - By the power of the Cross. – Our Redeemer and Lord takes upon Himself in our font our sins, our old age and mortality, our old man, and destroys it by the power of the merits of the cross, by the omnipotent grace of His Spirit; and instead of this he gives us His truth, His life, His powers and rights to immortality and glory; That’s why we come out of the font as new people. If this saving change had not occurred in our font, if our Redeemer had not met us in it in such a miraculous way; if we had not died there and risen with Him, then our font would not have been a tomb for our old man; plunging with sins, we would emerge from the water with sins. On the other hand, our Redeemer would not have, so to speak, the right to take our sins upon Himself in the font, and to give us His righteousness, to remove the curse from us, and to clothe us with blessing - if He had not died for us on Calvary, had not satisfied the justice of God for our sins, had not suffered our execution on Himself, had not earned for us all the rights to eternal life, and thus had not acquired for Himself the right to appropriate the inheritance eternal life to those who believe in His name and live according to His commandments, as all those who are baptized should be. Thus, in the font, during our immersion, the burial of our old man takes place; because we are not immersed alone, but with Christ, who puts him to death; We are immersed not only in water, but also in His Blood; we are not only buried, but we are buried. And all this is accomplished by faith. – By faith our sins will be taken away from us and placed on our Redeemer; by faith His righteousness is taken from Him and assimilated to us; by faith we die and are resurrected before the judgment of God's righteousness, in the person of our Intercessor. Remove faith from baptism, and there will be no burial for Christ; and without burial there will be no burial of the old man; and without this burial, spiritual renewal and resurrection will not occur. There will only be one simple immersion left - a symbol for the eyes, but there will be no strength for the spirit, no action for the heart, no sacrament for eternal life. I hope, brethren, that now the power of the apostolic words is completely clear to each of us: “to be plunged into death, to be buried in the death of Christ”; and at the same time it is clear why the tomb of Christ is a universal font, just as our font is the tomb of Christ. But, brethren, Christianity is “not in words, but in power,” not in concept, but in deed. The truths that we talked about are such that they should embrace and penetrate our entire being, express themselves in our entire life. And for this, not even a separate concept of those relations in which our baptism to the death of Christ is located: quite simple faith in the Cross of Christ, simple fidelity to those vows that were given at baptism. Who does not understand these vows, unless he has forgotten them through negligence, which is completely unforgivable? So, brethren, allow me, on behalf of the Lord who rests in the tomb, to ask you: do you feel in yourself the fruits of the sacrament of baptism into the death of Christ - the precious fruits of that wondrous covenant for life and death, which was concluded at the font with our Lord and Savior? If we are faithful to this Divine covenant, then it should produce a lot in us: it should bring peace to our conscience, light to the mind, purity to the heart, holiness of life; must correct and improve our entire way of thinking and feeling, sanctify all our relationships and connections, make us new people, acceptable before God and people, worthy of blessing on earth and in heaven, elevated above all the vicissitudes of the world and life. I must, I say: for the Blood of Christ, into which we were immersed in the font, cannot be barren. It was not in vain that the Lord ascended the Cross and descended into the tomb; it was not in vain that he descended into our font and was buried in it with us; the fruit of this must be eternal life, which will be revealed in all its glory in eternity, but in all its power must be revealed here, during the continuation of our earthly life. Is it really so, brothers? Did our old man with his passions and lusts remain buried forever in the font? Has he not risen, and is he acting autocratically in us? And isn’t the new man with whom we came out of the font buried in his place? It should not be, brethren, difficult to answer these questions. Death and resurrection are not objects that can not be seen, not recognized, or hidden. The deceased Christ was visible to everyone; His very enemies recognized Him as dead. Is this the case with us? – Has even one person said about us that we are dead to the world and sin? Have we ever felt this ourselves – in our conscience? The risen Christ was seen by many; He even allowed Himself to be touched by unbelievers. Is this so, brothers, with us? Can we say to people who do not believe in the power of baptism, in the grace of renewal, what Christians once said to the pagans: come and look at this renewal in the lives of the baptized, in their good deeds and integrity of morals (Apology of Tertullian). At least, having been buried in Christ in baptism, although have we begun to walk in the newness of life received from Him? Are we not, instead, completely idle on the path to salvation? Are we not sitting carelessly on the seat of the destroyers? Are we not lying down and sleeping in the bliss of sensuality? I will also propose one more question: do we at least remember that we were once baptized into the death of Christ, that the white robe in which we were clothed upon leaving the font was made from the Shroud of our Lord? Alas, there are so many Christians who cannot give an affirmative answer to this last question! My God, what does our Christianity mean if we do not remember into whom and what we were baptized? The greatness of the tomb of Christ will not be diminished, brothers, from our ingratitude: the Lord will remain the ruler of heaven and earth despite all our betrayals of Him; but what will happen to us if we, having lost the grace of our baptism, do not return it through repentance? – The all-sanctifying blood of the Covenant, instead of interceding for us, will it not cry out against us and ask for vengeance? So, let us hasten while there is time to be baptized again with tears of true repentance; Let us hasten to be cleansed by the blood of the Covenant before it ceases to flow from the Divine plagues. He calls all day, our whole life, stretching out His hands to us from the Cross, and we do not heed and do not come: there will be a time when they will call to Him, and He will not hear those who did not listen to Him. Let us not be among the last! Amen. On the Cross of the Lord, brothers, there was, as you know, an inscription in different languages; and on the Holy Sepulcher there is no language. Meanwhile, the Cross of the Lord could rather remain without an inscription than the coffin. But what should we write on it, and who will write it? There is little ordinary “human writing” here: you need either the cane of a prophet, or the pen of an evangelist and apostle. So, let us turn to the holy writers and look for a decent inscription from them: having written so much for people like themselves, for us sinners, they will not refuse to give a few words for their and our Lord. And, firstly, will not the first of all holy writers, Moses, help our poverty? “Whoever so correctly described the fate of Adam the first could not but know what would happen to Adam the second. It is not in vain that the Holy Church itself turns to Moses in the current stichera and borrows from him his significant words about the repose of God on the seventh day, after six days of creation. “And rest on the seventh day from all His works” (Gen. 2:2), it is very fitting to say about the present rest of the Lord. It was as if God Himself rested in Joseph’s tomb, and rested on the seventh day. No one could overshadow this truth: neither the Sanhedrin with its high priests, nor the Caesars with fire and sword, nor philosophers with doubts and unbelief, nor heretics with their stubbornness and intricacies. The whole universe recognized and confessed the true God in Him Whom Joseph himself buried as a man. So in this tomb “God Himself rests again on the seventh day,” only not from all works, but from one great work of Calvary. It is true that everything is contained in this matter; but all this must be put into action and implemented: and from here there are so many new things to do! – It is necessary to lead the prisoners out of hell underground (1 Pet. 3:19), and on earth to lead the apostles out of doubt (Luke 24:41); it is necessary to ascend to heaven, send the Holy Spirit, and rule the Church until all enemies are made your footstool. When the “years of the dispensation of all” are fulfilled (Acts 3:21), when the “kingdom” is given over to grace “to God the Father” (1 Cor. 15:24); then, not before, the Son will rest from all His works, then the eternal and endless Sabbath will come for Him. So, the inscription of Moses is very good and decent, but it is more spacious than the tomb of the Lord: with all its fullness and power it must appear not on the tomb, but on the future throne of the Lord. Let's turn to other prophets. They looked into a future that did not yet exist, and, despite its remoteness, they saw much better than us, although we look into the past, which has already happened. So, one of them seemed to be standing over the very tomb of the Lord and saw His resurrection when he exclaimed: “Where are you, death, the sting, where are you, hell, victory?” ( Hos. 13:14 ). Shouldn't we also inscribe these very words on this coffin? For where did death lose its sting, if not in the tomb of the Lord, and when did hell lose the victory, if not at the time of His death? - And how wonderfully both happened! It is there that everything was lost by the enemies of our salvation, where they thought they would find everything. “I have received,” says the golden-speaking vita (in the word read at matins on the first day of Easter) about hell, “the body, and it has struck God, it has received the earth, and the sky has been accepted, having seen the hedgehog, and having fallen into it, not having seen it.” Therefore, if somewhere, then on the tomb of the Lord some Angel could exclaim and inscribe: “Where are you, death, the sting, where are you, hell, victory?” But the Angel, brothers, not us! – Death, even without its sting, is still so strong for us that, as a result of our sins, it brings each of us down to the grave. Hell, with its destroyed walls and abolished gates, continues to be filled again with those who, having left the royal narrow path of the cross leading to paradise, walk all their lives along the broad path, the latter of which “sees the bottom of hell.” So, it is time for the Lord, and for us, brothers, it is too early, too early to sing on our own behalf the song of victory over death, too early to call hell against us for battle. Let us hasten better in silence to move away from these enemies, to destroy in ourselves everything corruptible that cannot inherit the kingdom of God, to drive out from ourselves everything hellish that is not capable of being in heaven. And when, with the help of faith and grace, we pass safely through the shadow of death, and we come out onto the floor (the other side - ed.) of existence; when we see hell and death “cast” into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14); Then, in honor of our Savior, together with all the saints, let us not fail to exclaim: “Where are you, death, the sting, where are you, hell, victory?” Prophets are followed by evangelists. In the Gospel of John there are beautiful words for the inscription over the tomb of his beloved Teacher and Lord. “So,” it says, “...God loved the world, for He also gave His only begotten Son to eat, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). These words, I think, came to John’s own memory when he stood in Joseph’s helicopter city and watched how the Son of God was buried. In the tomb of Jesus there is more love of God for the world than in the whole world. Here we most understand that God Himself “is our love”! (1 John 4:8). There is one inconvenience if we use John’s words instead of an inscription: they indicate what was done for us in the death of the Lord, and do not indicate what, as a result of it, we need to do. And really, brothers, when the Lord rests in the tomb, should we recline on our beds? - True, we too worked, worked hard, inventing and doing for Him, with our sins, a cross and a tomb: but this work is followed not by peace, but by thorns and thistles. From him there is no resurrection, but eternal death. To destroy this work of our sins, the Son of God Himself descended to earth and into the grave. Let's look for an inscription that would show both what the Lord is for us in the grave, and what we should be for Him - before the grave. We search a lot; but where should there be a comprehensive inscription, if not on a comprehensive coffin? – We asked many people; but there is one more person who should know about the death of the Lord almost more than anyone else: for he, - if you believe him, and you cannot not believe, since he had the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), - did not stand only, in spirit or body, at the Cross and tomb of Christ, but was on the “cross” ( Gal. 6:14) “and in the tomb” ( Rom. 6:2,4), died with Christ and with Christ He rose again, and for this very reason he was so closely united with Him that even on earth it was no longer he himself who lived, but “Christ” who lived in him (Gal. 2:20). Already from this description you can guess that I mean St. Paul. He wrote a lot about the Cross and the death of the Lord, but one day he wrote something that had such an extraordinary effect on him that he could not hide this action and exclaimed: “the love of God will support us,” that is, it embraces, fills, carries away “those who judge this”! - What about the judges? “If one dies for all, then all die. Christ died for all, so that those who live live not for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). I don’t know about you, but to me these words seem to contain everything we are looking for; this is the most complete, and therefore the best inscription for the tomb of Christ! -Let us delve deeper into its meaning, and perhaps we ourselves, despite the coldness of our hearts, will say with the apostle: “The love of God will support us, who have judged this same thing”! “If one dies for all, then thou shalt die.” There was a time, brothers, when there was no one to die; when there was no death itself. The entire human race was then contained in one person, on whose fate the lot of all people therefore depended. If this universal man had remained in temporary life, which was to turn into eternal life; then all of us, his descendants, would know nothing but life. But the crafty charm of the destroying serpent seduced the “innocent” and therefore gullible from the path of immortality: instead of accepting the life “given”, he wanted to discover in himself the source of life not borrowed; encroached on what did not belong and was impossible, and destroyed what he had and could have had. Death followed, first spiritual and then physical. Apparently, one person was subjected to its dominion, meanwhile, all of humanity died by it: for in this “one” man were all people: what happened to him could not but happen to all of us. Thus, this is when the law spoken by the Apostle was still fulfilled: “If one die for all, then thou art dead!” – Adam “died” for all of us, therefore we all die, or more precisely, have already died: for in none of us is there original life, but only remnants, a shadow of it. – No matter how many people were born from Adam, all of them, descending from the “one” sinner, were sinners themselves; born from a single mortal, there were mortals themselves. One sinned, and all sinned! One died, and all died! This is the law of nature! What could God’s love for people do in such a situation for all mankind? – How to save those who are perishing without violating the unity of their origin and the very immutability of the law, as a result of which they perished? - In its wisdom, the love of God intended to turn to this same law for this purpose, and to turn it into the salvation of those afflicted by it. It is ordained that one person should again fulfill the truth for all, so that in this way everyone would be justified; so that again one person would die for all, in order to free everyone from death. The means of salvation are the most natural; but who could put it into action? Who was able to die for everyone? – The blood of animals flowed in rivers in the victims; but all of them with their death could not replace the death of one person, much less of all mankind. Of the people, no one could die for everyone, simply because everyone must die for himself. Of the Angels, perhaps each would gladly agree to die for people; but Angels do not die; and the death of the Angel, as a limited being (even if he could die), could not satisfy for insulting the infinite majesty of the Creator. Thus, for our salvation only “One” was required; but this One was neither on earth nor in heaven, among created beings. Where was it found? – In God, in the Trinitarian Council. The Son of God saw us in the shackles of sin and death, in captivity and slavery to the devil, and, like the firstborn Son of “love” (Col. 1:13), could not bear to see the death of His least brothers. “Behold, I come to “do Thy will, O God” (Ps. 39:8-9), that is, to die for everyone, He said immediately after the fall of Adam, and from then on began to act as the second Adam, as the full representative and head of the human race, who must save everything destroyed by the first Adam. since this salvation mainly consisted in the future death of our Intercessor for all of us: then this death for many centuries constituted the focus and goal of all grace-filled orders. All the Old Testament sacrifices depicted her; it was depicted in symbols and visions; The prophets spoke about her. Finally, the Great High Priest Himself appears; by taking upon Himself our nature, He partakes of our “flesh and blood... sincerely” (Heb. 2:14), and withstands at the very beginning of His ministry, like the second Adam, a new threefold temptation of the devil (Matt. 4:1-10), and having thus rewarded Eden's disobedience, later setting an example of all virtues in His life, He finally dies on Calvary for all mankind - the innocent and sinless for the guilty, the immortal for mortals - dies, and the terrible law: “if one die for all, then thou art dead,” which acted against us, begins to act for us. Because what was required? Death: - and we died in the person of our Intercessor. The quitrent... “the death of sin” (Rom. 6:23) – paid in full; tribute to disobedience, life - given without retention. They don’t pay for the same thing twice, they don’t punish another time, but we are completely paid, completely punished, and therefore completely free. Now the justice of God, in the words of the prophet, will look for us and will not find us; We are not there for him, we are dead and buried, we are in the tomb of the Lord. “If one died for all, then you died; Christ died for everyone." You see, brethren, the power of the apostolic saying, or, more importantly, the power of the death of Christ. This is our death! – If we die now, then we die not as we would have died before: not forever, but for a while, with the hope of resurrection, not so much as a punishment, but for the final cleansing, through death, of our spirit and body. And all this because our Savior, by His death, freed us from the yoke of eternal death; because - “if one die for all, then thou art dead!” The conclusion is the most fair and inevitable! But it is equally true, brethren, that if all have died in Christ, then all must act as if they had died. Therefore, if someone asked what a Christian means, he could be answered: a Christian is dead, that is, to sin and the world. Does the dead act? Not at all in this world. He has eyes: but show him all the beauties of paradise, he will not even look at them; he has hands: but scatter all the treasures of the world before him, he will not lay a finger on them; he has legs: but you will not move him, no matter what you excite him, and no matter what you call him to. That's how the dead are! - Such is a true Christian! This should be the case for all of us; for we have died in Christ anyway. By doing otherwise, by living for the world, the flesh and sin, we not only offend our Savior, who died for us, but we also act contrary to our own good. For, in this case, the death of Christ no longer belongs to us, and we are again alive for the righteousness of God, again under the wrath of heaven. To bring this important truth closer to the most limited understanding, let us use one comparison. Imagine that a person, as a result of a serious crime, for example, treason against the Fatherland, was condemned to death. Imagine at the same time that another person, out of love for the unfortunate man, having decided to die for him in order to do this more successfully, takes his name, title, everything that is possible, and gives him everything he has, and thus is subjected to execution. What should a criminal saved from death do to further his salvation? He must abandon the use of his former name, change his title, habits, relationships, everything by which he was previously known, and begin to live under a new name, appearance and title - the very ones given to him by the friend who died for him. Necessity demands this. What would you think when you saw that this unfortunate man does not value his new name and title, carelessly uses the old name, lives as he lived before and, to complete the evil, is again plotting treason and starting rebellions? It is impossible to think anything else in this case, except that the unfortunate man has lost his mind and is looking for his own destruction. But in the same way, that is, insanely and destructively, a Christian acts when, in the hope of death and the merits of Christ, he indulges in a lawless life. The Son of God took upon Himself all his sins, all responsibility before the truth of God, suffered the execution he deserved, and gave him His new name and His truth, but on what necessary condition? On the fact that he will no longer be what he was - a sinner, will forget everything criminal and ungodly, will “put off the old man” with all his lusts and “deeds” (Col. 3:9, Eph. 4:22), will begin to walk “in the newness of life” (Rom. 6:4), given to him, will become a “new” man (Col. 3:10), created “according to God in righteousness.” and the excellence of the truth” (Eph. 4:24). But, if you are a redeemed sinner, having forgotten gratitude and your own good, you do not think about fulfilling this necessary condition, if instead of assimilating the sufferings of your Redeemer, being dead to sin and its temptations, and alive to God and His righteousness, you continue to be dead to God, and alive to sin: then his “judgment is written” (Ps. 149:9); over him there is no cover of the merits of Christ; he cannot participate in the fruits of the Lord’s death, for he does not participate with his heart in death itself; Having come to life for sin, he at the same time came to life for heavenly justice, which cannot but pursue in him the criminal of the law, the enemy of God and men. Keeping this in mind, brethren, let us live as people who were saved from execution under certain conditions live. These conditions are the most important for them in life. These should be the conditions for us of our salvation, the death of Christ. They all consist in one thing: that we who are saved remain dead to sin, for which we were condemned to execution, and alive to God, with whom we are reconciled and united by the death of Christ. Let us cherish this condition as salvation itself. For only when it is fulfilled, “if one die for all, then thou art dead” (2 Cor. 5:14): and without it, even if everyone died for us, not one of us will be saved. Such is the meaning and such is the power of Paul’s inscription, which we have chosen for the tomb of Christ. I don't think anyone would wish for a better one. May God grant that we all fulfill this inscription, and that it does not turn into a sentence against us! - But where do we write it? The true tomb of the Lord in Jerusalem: before us is only the Shroud, a faint image of it. So, let us write this inscription on our hearts. If the Crucified Lord has not yet rested there, then sooner or later, for our salvation, he must rest in them. And even if he had already risen in someone’s heart, then Paul’s entire inscription would not be superfluous: for the very resurrection of Christ is assimilated by us in no other way than by participation in His death. Amen. You might be interested in: