Слово третье в Великую Субботу

Today, beloved, is the day of the burial of the Lord, a great and sacred day. The seventh day of creation was important, because on it, as Moses tells us, “God rested ... from all His works that He had done in the previous six days” (Gen. 2:2). The real Sabbath is even more important; for the Son of God rested in it from His works, after completing all the works of His embassy on earth, after the second creation. The first creation was the work of omnipotence alone: ​​it spoke and was, commanded and was created. The second creation was no longer the work of omnipotence alone, but of all the perfections of God, mainly freedom and love. The first creation did not cost any effort to the Creator, the second cost great efforts to the Son of God, and what do I say: effort? - was worth the most terrible torment, the most cruel death. Great is the present day of rest, sacred and secret is His stay in the tomb. The activity of the Son of God, apparently, all ceased with His death on the Cross: His body, like other dead men, became soulless, motionless, feeling nothing: so He was taken down from the Cross, so anointed with fragrant ointments, so buried, so sealed in His tomb. But when apparently everything stopped, invisibly everything began at the same time. Listen to how the Holy Church depicts this new, invisible, great activity of the Lord resting in the tomb: “In the grave carnally, in hell with the soul like God, in paradise with the thief, and on the throne you were, Christ, with the Father and the Spirit, fulfilling everything, indescribable!” This is what he did and where he rested in the small vertograd and in the even smaller tomb of Joseph! The present day was for Him a day of rest in the flesh, but of greatest activity in spirit and Divinity. The tormented flesh remained in the tomb, without being separated from the Divinity that penetrated it. The Most Holy Soul, also without separating the Divinity, descended into hell to raise from there everything capable of rising to grief. The spirit, filled with the Divine, appeared in paradise, where perhaps the first, prudent thief entered. Finally, the Divinity of the Son was, as always, enthroned “with the Father and the Spirit.” Truly, everything and everyone is filled with the activity and presence of the God-man. But, beloved, is our heart filled with the Lord? What is there: heaven or hell? Without the Lord and His grace, heaven is not heaven, but with the Lord and His grace, hell will not be hell. If within you, in your soul, the trees of paradise grow - virtues and faith, then thank the One who rests in the tomb: this is His planting - thank and accept Him in your paradise, like Joseph in Vertograd, present to Him your heart instead of a funeral bed. If, by misfortune, you have allowed the flame of passions into your soul, the undying worm of pride and lust, the coldness and tartar of the love of money and insensibility; then be sure that He will now visit your inner hell, you will hear from Him - in your conscience - the word of life, calling you from the abyss in which you find yourself. Do not neglect, beloved, her voice, in whatever form you hear the word of salvation. If there is ever a time to come out of inner hell through repentance, then on this day, when the Savior brings out of hell even those sinners who were unrepentant in their time, who resisted the preaching of Noah, when God’s patience awaited them before the flood. Amen. You might be interested in: