Слово третье в Великий Пяток

“...daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but rather weep for yourself and your children...” (Luke 23:28). This is what the Lord said to the compassionate women of Jerusalem, who accompanied Him with tears from Pilate’s praetorium to Golgotha. But was it possible to refrain from tears at the sight of the Sufferer, already tortured by Pilate’s soldiers, who, with a heavy Cross on his shoulder, was now walking among the villains to the place of execution? The weeping wives could say in response the same thing that the Lord Himself said to the Pharisees upon His entry into Jerusalem: “If we remain silent, the stone will cry out”! (Luke 19:40). Now something else: at our annual Golgotha there is no more torment for the Son of Man. When we surround His tomb and sing the original songs, He sits in glory at the right hand of the Father, and listens to the praising voices of the Archangels and Angels. Don’t we all the more have the right, on behalf of the Divine Sufferer, to now cry out in the voice of Calvary: “daughters of Jerusalem” - sensitive and compassionate souls, at the sight of this Shroud, “do not weep for Him, weep both for yourself and your children!” Do not cry for Him; for the cup of fierce suffering, prepared for Him by heavenly justice, has long been exhausted by Him to the end; the cross and death, as necessary for the redemption of the human race from the curse of sin, were endured, the state of earthly humiliation of the Son of Man ended, and He rested from all His works. Do not cry for Him: for death and the grave did not keep Him in their bonds; He rose with glory; ascended into heaven in triumph, sent down the Holy Spirit to the apostles and all believers; and now sits at the right hand of the Father, waiting until all His enemies are made His footstool. Do not cry for Him: for why cry for Him Who now enjoys bliss and glory, of which there is no limit or end? Why shed tears over the One who ascended to the Cross for this purpose, in order to take away every tear from every eye? What to do? Ask. Is it really possible to look at the Cross and the tomb of your Savior with a cold heart and dry eyes? No, my brothers, if there is a place for our tears and sighs, then here: only these tears and sighs should not be about Him, but about ourselves: “Weep for yourself and your children!” Weep to yourself: for your Savior is in heaven in glory, but you are still on earth in the flesh, in which by nature goodness does not dwell. He is among the Archangels and Angels, and you are still in the midst of a world that lies entirely in evil, still in the midst of snares and temptations, the misfortunes and sorrows of the age, so that you cannot be confident either in life or in your very virtue. Cry to yourself: mourn the delusions of your youth, which disappeared in vanity and evil thoughts; weep over the sins of courage and mature years, which were mercilessly sacrificed to ambition and covetousness, carnality and luxury; tear down over the very gray hairs of your old age, rich in years, but not in good morals, which removed the world from you, but did not free you from the world. Cry to yourself: for how many gifts and nature, or even more so its Creator and yours, have been destroyed by you! How many gifts of grace have been rejected or received in vain! How many good movements of spirit and heart have been sacrificed to vain worldly customs! What a multitude of obvious sins have been committed, which, like a stone, now lie on your conscience and weigh down your soul! Weep for yourself: weep always, especially now, at the tomb of your Savior and Lord. For how did you pay for His unworthy love for you? What use have you made of His holy promises and commandments? For what earthly idol have they not madly exchanged the Gospel and His Cross? What most insignificant earthly benefit was not preferred to the cause of your salvation? Cry for yourself and your children. Weep and children, because they were conceived by you in iniquities and born in sins; because, instead of being an example of goodness, you often served as a temptation and stumbling block for them, and, while laying up an inheritance for them on earth, you did not prepare anything for them in heaven. Weep... and your children, who, having left their parental home, did not take with them either purity of spirit or purity of body, who, having succeeded in the knowledge of earthly wisdom, neglect the lessons of heavenly wisdom, who from an early age were given over to the sacrifice of foreign customs, became alien among their own, cold to the faith and traditions of their fathers. Weep for yourself and your children: for, given such an unhappy state of affairs, what awaits you and your children in the future? The wrath of God awaits on earth and in heaven; expects health problems, changes in household well-being and all family relationships; Mutual strife, crying and grief await... Weep for yourself and your children: weep now, when our tears are accepted and wiped away by the hand of the merciful Savior, so as not to weep forever after, when they will no longer be acceptable, and when those who weep in vain will cry out to the mountains: “fall on us!” and with a hill: cover us from the face of the coming wrath! (Luke 23:30). Amen. You might be interested in: