Word for Holy Saturday

What is this? Why is there such deep silence on earth now, and such silence? - That is why there is deep silence because the Tsar is resting. The earth became silent with fear, because the Lord fell asleep in the flesh and raised those who had fallen asleep from eternity. The Lord died in the flesh, and hell trembled; The Lord fell asleep for a short time, and aroused those who had been sleeping in hell for centuries. Where now, O wicked ones, are those noisy and frantic voices against Christ that were heard before this? Where did the people, conspiracies, spira and drekoliye go? Where are the kings, priests and judges worthy of condemnation? Where are the lamps, swords and disorderly cries? Where did the furious people and the dishonest guards hide? Truly, “people have learned from vain and vanity!” (cf. Ps. 2:1). They stumbled over the cornerstone - Christ, but they were also crushed; hit the hard Stone and broke themselves; their waves turned to foam; they tied the great Sampson, but He, breaking the eternal bonds, destroyed the foreigners and the lawless; God, the sun, Christ went underground and left the Jews in constant darkness. Now salvation has dawned on those who live on earth and who have been in the underworld for centuries; now salvation has arisen for the visible and invisible world; Today is the coming of Christ, the deep construction, the deep love of mankind, the deep descent, and at the same time the condescension, the deep visit to men: God comes from heaven to earth, and from earth to the underworld; The gates of hell are opening: you who have fallen asleep from eternity, rejoice, and you who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, receive the great light! Master among slaves, God among the dead, Life among mortals; The innocent with the guilty, the never-evening Light with those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death! Among the captives is the Liberator; He who is above the heavens is among those who inhabit the underworld. Christ is on earth - and we have believed; Christ is among the dead; we too will go down with Him into the underworld and look at the mysteries taking place there; Let us understand the hidden miracles under the earth, performed by the hidden (Christ). Let us learn how the gospel was revealed to those in hell. What then? Is it possible that God, having descended into hell, saves everyone indiscriminately? No. He saves only those who believe there. Yesterday He showed the works of construction, and now the works of dominion; yesterday were works of weakness, but now are works of omnipotence; yesterday the affairs of humanity, and now the affairs of the Divine; Yesterday He was smothered on the cheeks, and now He shakes the dwelling of hell with the radiance of the Divine; yesterday he was bound, and now he himself binds the tyrant with insoluble bonds; yesterday he was condemned, and now he grants freedom to the condemned; Yesterday Pilate's servants mocked Him, but now, having seen Him, the gatekeepers of hell trembled with fear. But listen to the essential reason for Christ's suffering; and after listening, sing, glorify and preach the great wonders of the Lord; see how the law gives way to grace, how the images pass and the shadows disappear, how the sun fills the universe, how the Old Testament has grown old, and the New is established like the “ancient past” (2 Cor. 5:17), and the new has blossomed! During the suffering of Christ, there were two peoples in Zion - Jews and pagans; two kings - Pilate and Herod; two Bishops - Anna and Caiaphas; two Passovers were celebrated - the Old Testament, which was supposed to end, and the New Testament, which began from now on; that same evening two sacrifices were offered, because the salvation of the living and the dead was accomplished; The Jews, binding the lamb for slaughter, turned their gaze to the shadow, the pagans resorted to the Sun of righteousness - God; the first, having bound Christ, sent Him one to another, and the latter readily accepted Him; For some, the sacrifice consisted of the animal-sacrificial (κτηνοθυτον), for others - from the God-pleasing (θεοσωμον); The Jews remembered their exodus from Egypt; and the pagans proclaimed liberation from error. And where is everyone? In Zion, the city of the great King, in which He wrought salvation in the midst of the earth, “in the midst of two living creatures” (Hab. 3:2) the known Jesus the God-man, the source of life among the two sources of life of the Father and the Spirit - belly from belly; born in a manger among Angels and men; lying as a cornerstone between two nations; preached together in the midst of the law and the prophets, appearing on the mountain in the midst of Moses and Elijah; crucified in the midst of two thieves, but confessed by God from the prudent thief: as the eternal Judge, He will sit in the midst of present and future life; in the midst of the living and the dead he has now wrought twofold life and salvation. I say double life i.e. birth and rebirth. Listen to the works of the double birth of Christ, and applaud the miracles. The angel preached to Mary the maternal birth of Christ from Her, and the Angel announced to Mary Magdalene about His terrible rebirth from the tomb; at night Christ is born in Bethlehem, and at night in Zion he is reborn; at birth He accepts being wrapped in shrouds, and here He is wrapped in a shroud; upon birth, they brought Him myrrh as a gift, and with myrrh and aloes He was given farewell to the burial; there Joseph is the unmarried husband of Mary; and here Joseph of Arimathea is the guardian of our life (Christ); The Bethlehem manger served as the place for the one born, and He lay down in the tomb as in a manger; The shepherds were the first to announce the birth of Christ, and the first to announce His rebirth from the dead were also the shepherds - the disciples of Christ; there the Angel exclaimed to Mary: “Rejoice”, - and here, “Great Angel of the Council” - Christ, exclaimed to the women: “Rejoice”; forty days after his first birth, Christ entered earthly Jerusalem, into the church, and as the firstborn, he brought two turtle doves to God, - after forty days and after the resurrection from the dead, he ascended to the heavenly Jerusalem, - into the true Holy of Holies, and as the incorruptible Firstborn from the dead, he brought our soul and flesh to God and the Father, like two immaculate turtledoves; and here the Ancient of Days God and Father received Him inexpressibly into His bosom, like the old Simeon, who received Him in the earthly church into his arms. If you think this is a fable and listen with disbelief; then the seals of the tomb of the Lady will condemn you, remaining intact after the rebirth of Christ: for, just as He was born of a Virgin, He did not damage the signs of the virginity of His Mother, so He rose again without damaging the seals of the tomb. But let us listen to sacred legends, like Christ, our life, when and by whom was he laid in the tomb? “Later I was,” says the Scripture, “and a rich man came from Arimathea, named Joseph. This man approached Pilate, asking for the body of Jesus” (Matthew 27:57–58): - a mortal approached a mortal, asking permission to take the God of mortals; - dust to dust, asking permission to take the Artist of all kinds; hay to hay to receive heavenly Fire; a small drop from a small drop receives the Sea. Who has seen or heard anything like this? Man gives to man the Creator of men; the wicked one promises to give up the Righteous One and the Lawgiver; The unjust judge delivers the judge over to burial as if he had been condemned. “Later, a rich man came, named Joseph.” Truly rich because he received the entire complex hypostasis of the Lord; truly rich, because he received from Pilate the deep nature of Christ; rich because he was honored to receive the priceless Margarita; truly rich, because he carried a Treasury filled with Divinity. How can one not recognize him as rich when he has acquired the Life and Salvation of the world? How is Joseph not rich, having received as a gift the One who Nourishes all and Dominion over all? “I’ll be late” because the Sun of Truth has already set in hell; That’s why “a rich man came from Arimathea, named Joseph, but he hid fear for the sake of Judea.” Nicodemus, who came to Jesus overnight, also came. The most secret of secrets! Two hidden disciples come to hide Jesus in the tomb, teaching by their concealment the mystery of God hidden in the flesh, hidden in hell! Of these, one surpasses the other in zeal for Christ: - Nicodemus earned praise for his generosity in myrrh and scarlet, and Joseph for his courage and boldness before Pilate: because he, having rejected fear, “daringly went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.” Look what prudence Joseph shows before Pilate in order to achieve his desired goal; with what modesty he speaks to Pilate, so that, having upset him, he would not be deprived of what he wanted. So, he does not say to him: give me the body of Jesus, who before this darkened the sun, tore apart the stones, shook the earth, opened the tombs and tore the veil of the church; but what? Offers him the most unimportant request. Judge! I came, he said, to offer you a small request: - let me bury the dead body of that Jesus of Nazareth, whom you condemned; Jesus poor, without a home, hanged, naked, despised, Jesus the son of Tekton; Jesus bound, who lived in the open air, an unknown wanderer, neglected by everyone. Give me this stranger: for what use is his body to you? Give me this stranger, because he came from a distant country to save strangers; he descended into the dark region in order to raise up the wanderer; give me this wanderer, because he and he alone are the true wanderer; give me this wanderer, whose homeland we strangers do not know; give me this wanderer, whose father is unknown to us wanderers; give me this wanderer, whose place, birth and way of being are unknown to us wanderers; give me this wanderer who spent a wandering life among strangers; give me this wanderer of Nazareth, who had nowhere to “bow his head” (Matt. 8:20), give me this stranger, who, like a stranger in a foreign land, did not have his own home, even was born in a manger; give me this wanderer, who had to flee from Herod from the very manger; give me this wanderer, who even in swaddling clothes was brought up in Egypt, had no city, village, house, dwelling and kinship, and lived in a foreign country; give me, hegemon, this naked thing hanging on the tree: I will cover it, I will cover the one who covered the nakedness of my nature; give me this dead man, who is God together: I will cover him, because he has covered my iniquities; give me, hegemon, this dead man who buried my sin in the Jordan. I intercede for a dead man who suffered insults from everyone, who was sold by a friend, betrayed by a student, persecuted by his brothers, and killed by a slave; I intercede for the dead man, who was condemned by the very ones whom he freed from slavery; I ask, hegemon, for a dead man who has no father on earth, no friend, student, relative, no burial; He is the only begotten of the one Father, God in the world, and there is no other besides Him. When Joseph said thus to Pilate; then he ordered that the all-holy body of Jesus be given to him. Joseph, coming to Golgotha, took God in the flesh from the tree and laid him on the ground; and thus lay prostrate the One who drew everyone to grief; Life and Breath become lifeless for a short time; The Creator of the many-eyed becomes blind; The resurrection of everyone was thrown to the ground; God, who raises the dead, is mortified by the flesh and the thunder of the word of God is silenced. He will land with his hands containing the sky. Tell me, tell me, Joseph! How do you perform a terrible burial of the body of Jesus? Are you not afraid to carry in your arms the One whom the cherubim tremble? With what fear do you expose His divine flesh? Don't you tremble, fixing your gaze on the exposed nature of the flesh - the supernatural God? Tell me, Joseph, how will you place the deceased, who himself is the East of easts, in the east? How will you close with your fingers the eyes of Jesus, who with his most pure fingers opened the eyes of the blind? How can you close the lips of Him who loosed the tongue of the dumb? How do you fold the hands of the one who healed the withered hand; as you swaddle the feet of the One who healed the lame man; how will you lay on the bed the One who said to the paralytic: “Take up your bed and walk” (Matthew 9:6, etc.); How can you shed myrrh on the heavenly Myrrh, which has exhausted itself and sanctified the world? How can you cut off the still bleeding rib of Jesus, who healed the bleeding one? How can you wash the body of God, who washed and cleansed everyone? What lamps will you light for the true Light that enlightens every person? What funeral songs will you sing to Him whom the heavenly armies incessantly praise? How will you mourn the One who mourned the dead Lazarus and raised him four days later? How will you mourn the One who gave joy to everyone and destroyed the sorrow of Even? I bless, Joseph, your hands, which touched the still bleeding hands and feet of Jesus; I rejoice your hands, which touched the wound that draws blood; I bless your lips, which touched the lips of Jesus, and drew from there the Holy Spirit; I bring joy to your eyes, which looked at the eyes of Jesus and drew the true light from there; I please your face, which approaches the face of God; I will please your shoulders, who bore the One who bears all; I bless your head, upon which Christ, the Head of all, bowed; I bless your hands, with which you carried the Bearer of all things; I bless Joseph and Nicodemus, for before the cherubim they carried God on themselves, before the six-winged ones they served God, covering the Lord not with wings, but with sindon; Joseph and Nicodemus carried on their shoulders the One whom the cherubim tremble, and all orders of the incorporeal are terrified. “Joseph came with Nicodemus” (John 19:38–40): therefore the whole divine council of Angels flocked here; cherubim precede, seraphim flock, wear thrones, cover with six wings, the many-eyed tremble, seeing Jesus with faded vision; powers are hidden, principles are sung, ranks are terrified; All the armies of supreme strength are amazed, and in amazement they ask each other: what does this extraordinary and incomprehensible spectacle mean? On earth, mortals unhinderedly look at that God, whom we disembodied do not dare to look at; Joseph and Nicodemus freely bury Him, whom the cherubim stand before with reverence. How did He come forth from the bosom of the Fathers? How did He who fulfills all things come to earth? How was the Hidden One revealed to everyone? The perfect God, who is above the Father and below the Matter, is a perfect mortal. Having never appeared to us, how does he appear to people, both as a man, and at the same time as a man-loving God? How did the Invisible become visible? How did the Immaterial incarnate? How did the Passionless One suffer? How did the Judge appear before the court? How did Life taste death? How does the Inconceivable fit into the coffin? How does “he who is in the bosom of the Fathers” live in the tomb? (John 1:18). How does He who opened the gates of heaven enter the gates of the cave? He who does not destroy the gates of virginity crushes the gates of hell? How did the “prisoner’s door” appear to the disciples? (John 20:19). How did he open the doors of the kingdom of heaven for people, keeping the gates of the tomb and seals intact? How is it imputed to the dead, “Freedom to the dead”? (Ps. 87:6). How does the non-evening Light appear in the dark and the shadow of death? With what intention does one descend to hell? Maybe He is coming to resurrect the condemned Adam. Exactly, He goes to look for the primordial, like a lost sheep; Surely, God and the Son of Eve is coming to free the captive Adam and Eve, captive with him, from suffering? But let us come down with Him and rejoice, hasten, sing, and hasten to see how God is reconciled with people: how the all-good Lord freed the condemned. For he who loves mankind by nature comes with strength and authority to bring out those who were captive from the ages, and those whom bitter and insatiable death swallowed up and separated from God, to be numbered among the inhabitants of heaven. There is the first created and first condemned Adam; there is the first to die and the first righteous shepherd Abel, the image of the unrighteous slaying of the shepherd Christ; there is Noah, the image of Christ, the builder of the ark of the great Church of God, which saved the bestial pagans from the flood of wickedness through the dove - the Holy Spirit, and sent out the black corvid; there is Abraham, the ancestor of Christ, who offered a sacrifice pleasing to God without slaughter; there Isaac, whom Abraham bound for sacrifice in the image of Christ; there is Jacob, who grieves in hell just as he grieved on earth for Joseph; there the prisoner Joseph, who, in the image of Christ, was a prisoner in Egypt - and finally became a master; there Moses is in the same darkness in which he was when he was placed in the dark ark; there in the pit of hell is Daniel, who was once thrown into the den of lions; there is Jeremiah, who was once in the ditch of mud; there Jonah, who was in the belly of the whale, in the image of the eternal and eternal Christ; there is the Godfather David, from whom Christ was born according to the flesh. But what should I say about David, Jonah and Solomon? In the dark womb of hell there was the great John, the greatest of all the Prophets, who foretold Christ to everyone in hell; which is why he became doubly the Forerunner - a preacher for the living and the dead; he was sent from Herod’s prison to the universal prison of hell, where the righteous and the unrighteous had been living since the ages. But the prophets and all the righteous incessantly prayed to the Lord from there to deliver them from sorrows and the eternally dark night; for one of them said: “Hear my voice from the belly of hell!” (Jon.2:3), another: “Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice” (Ps.129:1); one said: “Show Your face and we will be saved” (Ps.79:4), and the other: “He who sits on the cherubim appears” (Ps.79:2); another said: “raise up Your strength and come to save us” (Ps. 79:3), and another: “Let Your compassions quickly precede us, O Lord” (Ps. 79:8); one: “deliver my soul from the lowest hell” (Ps. 85:13); and the other: “Lord, bring my soul out of hell” (Ps. 29:4); one said: “Do not leave my soul in hell” (Ps. 15:10); and the other: “Let my life ascend from decay to Thee, O Lord my God” (Jon. 2:6). The all-merciful Lord Christ, having heard them, did not consider it fair to make only those who lived during His stay on earth and will live after Him partakers of His love for mankind; but also those who, before His coming, were kept in hell, and sat in the darkness and shadow of death; therefore, he visited people in the flesh with animate flesh, and to souls separated from their bodies he appeared with a divine and pure soul, which, having been separated from the body, was not separated from the Divinity. So let us hasten to descend with our minds into hell, in order to see how there He weakened the strong tyrant with His power, and how with one radiance, without weapons, He disarmed the immortal forces; how, having crushed the gates, he opened the doors with the tree of the cross, how he trampled the serpent and hung his head, destroyed the mediastinum, set up invincible trophies, killed death, destroyed corruption and raised man to primitive dignity. Yesterday, He, rejecting the help of Angels, said to Peter: “I can imagine a greater legion of Angels than twelve” (Matthew 26:53); and now with Divine power, as a conqueror and ruler, he descends even to hell and death, accompanied by incorporeal armies and invisible ranks, not twelve legions, but thousands of thousands of Angels, authorities, thrones, six-winged and many-eyed, in order to destroy the tyrant through death. These ranks accompanied Him, not as co-workers, but accompanied Him with reverence, as Lord and King, because the omnipotent Christ does not need assistance; their duty and together with their ardent desire to stand before their Lord and God; therefore, with one wave, they strive to fulfill each other’s commands, and are always ready to fight with enemies and lawless people; Therefore, even then they went down with the Lord their God into hell and the grave, the dwellings of those who had been imprisoned from time immemorial, in order to bring out the prisoners with power. Then, as soon as the luminous coming of the Lord with the Divine host illuminated the tightly fenced, unknown and dark prison and dungeons of hell, the Archangel Gabriel preceded everyone and pronounced the following command to the opposing forces: “lift up your gates, O princes,” and after him Michael exclaimed: “lift up the eternal gates” (Ps. 23:7); then the powers said: stand back, lawless gatekeepers; and finally, power with power: resolve insoluble ties; do not think that the Lord who came could not ascend through closed doors; He commands you, as fugitive slaves, to take the eternal gates, that is, to break them: “Take away your gates, princes,” because Christ, the heavenly Door, is coming; level the path of the one who came to the west of hell, the Lord is his name; His exodus through the gates of death; you made the entrances, and He came to create the exit; therefore do not hesitate, take the gates and make haste; take it without delay; and if you don’t decide to do it; then we will command the gates themselves to be lifted up without hands: “lift up the eternal gates.” Following these words of the heavenly powers, the gates were lifted, the bonds were loosened, the rivets fell apart, the foundations of the prison were shaken; the opposing forces fled. Throwing down their reins, they exclaimed: “Who is this King of glory?” (Ps. 23:8). Who is this who performs such miracles in hell? Who is this one who brings out from here those who have fallen asleep here from time immemorial? Who is this who destroys our strength and brings us bound from the prison of hell for centuries? Meanwhile, the Lord approached the very underworld of hell, where the first-created Adam was especially in bondage, whom the Lord, taking by the hand, raised up, saying: “Arise, sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will illuminate you” (Eph. 5:14). I am your God, and with authority I command the prisoners to come out, those in darkness to be enlightened, the dead to rise again; Therefore, I command you: “Arise, sleep,” because I did not create you to be kept in hell; "rise from the dead"; I am the life of the dead; rise again, my likeness, created in my image; get up, let's get out of here; you in Me and I in you constitute an inseparable person; for you I, your God, have become your son; for you I, your Lord, have taken on the form of a servant; for you I, who am higher than the heavens, descended to earth and to the underworld; for you man I, in the dead freedom, became man; for you, expelled from the garden, I was betrayed by the Jews in the garden and crucified on the tree. Look at My spit-stained face: I accepted the spittle for you in order to restore you to primeval dignity; look at My cheeks, which suffered the blowing: I accepted the blowing for this purpose, so that I could restore your spoiled face to My image; look at My ulcerated spine: I took the scourging for this purpose, in order to destroy the burden of your sins lying on your spine; look at my hands, pierced by a nail: I stretched them out for you on the cross; look at my pierced feet: they were nailed to the cross because of your feet, which flowed to the tree of transgression; I suffered in order to restore you and open paradise; for you I tasted bile in order to heal the bitter pleasure that you received from food that was sweet for you; you tasted the otzta in order to destroy the power of the bitter cup from which your death flowed; took the lip to blot out the handwriting of your sins; accepted the cane to sign freedom for the human race; my rib healed the wound of your rib, my sleep aroused you from a hellish sleep; the spear with which I was pierced stopped the weapon directed at you: therefore arise, let us leave here; the enemy brought you out of paradise, but I am restoring you not to paradise, but to the heavenly throne; I forbade you to touch the figurative tree of life, but here I am, Life, united with you; Before I commanded the cherubim to guard the entrance to paradise, and now I command the cherubim to serve you; you hid yourself from God through nakedness; but now you have hidden Me, the true God, within yourself; You have put on garments of leather as proof of your shame; but I, God, have put on the bloody robe of your flesh: therefore arise, let us go out from here - from death to life, from corruption to incorruption, from darkness to eternal light; Arise, let us leave here - from sorrow to joy, from slavery to freedom, from captivity to heavenly pleasure, from earth to heaven: for for this purpose I died and rose again, and have possession of both the living and the dead; arise, let us leave here: for my heavenly Father waiteth for the lost sheep; ninety-nine sheep, that is, Angels, are waiting for their fellow servant Adam, when he is resurrected, when he rises and ascends to God. The throne of Cherubim is prepared; those who will lift you up into heaven are quick to carry out commands; the heavenly villages are prepared; the treasuries of blessings are open; the kingdom of heaven was prepared before the ages; blessings await man such as “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and” which “has not entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9). After the Lord said this, Adam is resurrected with Him and united in Him, Eve is also resurrected, and many other bodies, who have fallen asleep from time immemorial, have risen by faith, preaching the three-day resurrection of the Lord, which we believers will meet, see brightly and embrace, rejoicing with the Angels, triumphing with the incorporeal, and glorifying Christ, who raised us from corruption and revived. To Him be glory and power with His beginningless Father, and with the All-Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: