To the words: (John 11:47)

On Holy and Great Tuesday The beloved children of the Church are like breastfeeding babies, babies who are nourished every day from their mother’s breast and every day do not cease to strive for it. And we ourselves can be compared to a poor mother whose milk has disappeared from exhaustion due to hunger. And just as it happens that a loving mother, having no milk, but touched by the cry of her child, gives him her breast, not in order to feed the child, but only to calm him down, so we, as you see, experience the same thing and act in a similar way. After all, we, seeing this new gathering of the children of the Church surrounding us and expecting verbal milk from us, extend our word to them - not in order to nourish them (after all, we are poor and unskilled in words), but in order to quench their dust and thirst. Come, beloved, let us listen to the messenger of the Sun, so that we can see what an evil ambush the high priests and Pharisees have laid for the Lord. “The high priests and Pharisees gathered a council,” he says, “and said: What should we do?” Evangelist John told us about this now. Oh, the “council” gathered by the devil against Christ! O meeting filled with malice! Oh, a gathering of bloodthirsty wolves rather than God-bearing people! What am I saying – dire wolves? They are worse than ferocious lions! After all, the lions, not seeing any sign from Daniel, but accepting him as an ordinary person, paid him respect and closed their mouths before him. And the high priests and Pharisees, who were eyewitnesses of such and so many signs, were all the more jealous of murder and said: “What should we do?” Oh, reasoning inspired by malice! Oh, the lament and cry born of envy! Oh, weeping and sobbing over the evil plan! Rachel herself, who mourned her children, did not groan like that. "What should we do"? They would need to rejoice over the unfortunate, establish a national holiday because the dead are resurrected, life triumphs, death is destroyed, the devil is put to shame, the horde of demons is scattered, humanity is liberated, the resurrection of the dead is proclaimed to everyone. But on the contrary, such blessings do not please them, but sadden them, and they conspire to kill the Creator of all these blessings. And what do they say? "What should we do"? Let us turn in repentance and, falling to Him, we will believe - that is the only thing they could say. What else, indeed, could they say if not this? “What should we do” - after we violated the commandment of God, did not keep the law of God, which was given to us and says: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from among your brothers, like me; you shall listen to him” (Deut. 18:15) in everything that he commands you? But they did not mean repentance when they said: “What should we do?” No, completely different. "What should we do"? How can we kill this Righteous One? Your mind has become darkened, O Israel! Have you not heard the commandment: “Thou shalt not put to death the innocent and the righteous” (Dan. 13:53)? Or was the shed blood of the prophets not enough for you? Indeed, to this day she cries out to God, expecting retribution from Him. But, in order to surpass everything that has been done, you are preparing to shed holy and innocent blood and say: “What should we do?” Oh, crazy thought and reckless advice! The four-day-old (dead man) has come to life among them, the bonds of sins have been broken, and they are plotting deceit against Him! Совсем не то следовало бы сказать им: «что нам делать» ? Мы оскорбили Святого, мы не верили Сыну Божию. "What should we do"? Язвы прокаженных исцелил Он одним словом, и мы не уверовали в Него. "What should we do"? Слепым от рождения отверзал Он очи, и это нас не убедило. "What should we do"? Мы знали, что пятью хлебами напитал Он в пустыне пять тысяч, и не верили в Него. "What should we do"? The weakened one, lying on his bed, overcome by illness for thirty-eight years of his life, He brought him to his feet with His word, and we did not believe in Him. "What should we do"? We saw Him walking on the sea as if on dry land, we knew that with one wave of His hand He calmed the terrible disturbances and gusts of unbridled winds, and yet we remained in our unbelief. Но они произносили эти слова: «что нам делать» ? - not at all in a repentant disposition, but seeking a way to commit an evil deed. The earth effortlessly brought forth their dead alive, like ripe ears of corn, and they groaned. Have you not reaped what you have sown, Jews? Разве кто-нибудь из вас, приняв Господа, был отягощен? What exactly were you burdened with when you were punished? What injustice have you suffered from God? Why do you remove the dead from life, embarrassed by envy? Why do you strive to destroy the never-failing streams of a sweet source, from which those who drink would never feel thirsty? Why are you killing your weak ones, intending to destroy their Physician? However, the culprit of all this was the worst envy. O envy, the parent of murder, the invention of the devil, the culprit of death! Oh, envy, which does not allow those whom you attack to live, and even more punishes those whom you take possession of! Oh, envy, the devil's cohabitant! Oh, envy, enemy of friendship, adversary of peace, rival of love, spawn of the devil, color of the dark abyss! Whoever owns you comes to the point of killing Christ. You also wounded Adam in paradise from the very beginning and betrayed the one who tasted sweet pleasures to the bitterest death: after all, death did not exist in the world until you, envy, gave birth to it. This is also attested by the divine word, which reads: “God did not create death and does not rejoice in the destruction of the living.” “But through the envy of the devil death entered the world” (Wis. 1:13, 2:24). You also deprived Cain of the white robe of brotherly love and armed him with the knife of deceit; you taught him to kill and immediately made the unfortunate man shake and tremble. You, having possessed Pharaoh, destroyed newborn Jewish children with untimely death. Oh, envy, and benefactor, you rebel even more against your benefactors! So it was Saul, using the services of David, but excited by you, who armed himself even more for murder. At your suggestion, the sons of Jacob sent the beautiful Joseph to dizzying Egypt and sold the free man as a slave. His dreams did not frighten them either. Meanwhile, the divine vision indicated that he was the image of Christ: it was eleven stars that bowed to him in the vision, eleven because the traitor Judas hanged himself, serving envy. And we, having escaped the envy of this ancestor of death, having risen, will glorify God, worshiped in the Trinity, because to Him belongs power, honor, glory and splendor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria. You might be interested in: