Homily on Great Friday and the AnnunciationThe Light of Joy Drives Away Sorrow

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Dear brothers and sisters, when a splendid luminous dawn rises in the east, on the brilliant surface of the horizon, the manifold face of the beautiful stars hastens to disappear as soon as possible, the thick darkness of the dark night completely disappears, the harmonious sounds of the pleasant voices of various birds are heard in the green forests, people awaken from a deep sleep to begin their usual occupations. And to the whole world this light-bearing messenger announces the nearness of the sun, announcing that the day is already coming. In the same way, today from the bright abodes of the Unfading East comes the fiery Archangel of God, the bright and pure Gabriel. And as soon as he greeted him: Rejoice, O Thou of Grace! The Lord is with Thee (Luke 1:28) proclaims the Coming of the unsetting Sun of Righteousness, begins to hastily flee from God-defying polytheism, the human race, immersed in the sleep of ignorance, awakens to the Christian life in the Orthodox faith. Through the grace-filled Annunciation of the Archangel, the world turns from impiety to piety. Oh, ineffable joy! Oh, the unspeakable miracle! Joy, for today the Eternal God opens His bosom and grants us His Only-begotten Son; The Son is incarnated with the assistance of the All-Holy Spirit, the Spirit descends upon the Virgin, and the Virgin conceives without seed. A miracle, for the immortal unites with the mortal, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity perceives human nature. Joy, for the condemnation of the first-created Adam is resolved and grace is granted to the acquisition of paradise, from which disobedience has expelled us. A miracle, for the incorporeal, incorporeal, and immaterial God deigns to take on body, flesh, and matter, uniting the human and the divine. A majestic and touching spectacle of Heavenly joy and spiritual rapture was presented by the Nazareth upper room of the Most Holy Virgin Mary at the moment of the Archangelic Annunciation of the Birth of the Savior of the world from Her. Here is the Evangelist before us - the Archangel Gabriel. He is full of boundless delight, having been vouchsafed the great honor of bringing to earth the news of the Birth of the Son of God from the Virgin. In Heaven there is joy among the angels of God even over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10), says the Gospel. And he, Gabriel, came with the Annunciation of the Birth of the One Who would call the whole world to repentance, shed His blood for the salvation of the world, and save countless people who repented from eternal perdition. And Gabriel is full of delight, irrepressible delight. He pours out this rapture that fills his soul in the fiery, comforting words: Rejoice, Thou of Grace! The Lord is with Thee; blessed art Thou among women (Luke 1:28). The subject of the Gospel, its meaning so delights the messenger of Heaven, the blessedness of the God-chosen Mediator so amazes him, that even before the Gospel itself he calls Her beloved God, Who is with Her, blessed among women. And when the Most Holy Virgin is embarrassed by his words and ponders what kind of greeting it would be, he calms Her confusion with a new enthusiastic utterance of the Gospel. Do not be afraid, Mary," he says to the Virgin, "for you have found grace with God; and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bear a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:30-33). To the Virgin's new perplexity as to how the Son would be born from Her, when She did not know a man, the Archangel again, filled with power and delight, announced to Her: "The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You; wherefore also the Holy One who is born shall be called the Son of God. Here is Elizabeth, Thy kinswoman, who is called barren, and she conceived a son in her old age, and she is already six months old, for with God no word shall be powerless (Luke 1:35-37). And having completed his Gospel and heard from Mary the words full of humility and devotion to the will of God: Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto Me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38), the Archangel departs from the Virgin in the same ecstasy in which He appeared and preached the Gospel to Her. In the same way, the heart of the Ever-Virgin was filled with inner ecstasy at the Archangel's Annunciation of the Birth of the Savior of the world from Her. And this delight was revealed at the very first occasion for discovering it - at Mary's meeting with the righteous Elizabeth. Hearing the greeting of the Virgin of God, Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, calls Mary blessed among women and the Mother of the Lord (Luke 1:41-43). And in response to this, the Most Holy Virgin pours out the rapture of Her soul with all Her power. "My soul magnifies the Lord," She exclaims, "and My spirit rejoices in God My Saviour, because He hath looked upon the humility of His servant, for henceforth all generations shall bless Me (Luke 1:46-48). Such sacred joy was experienced by the Most Holy Virgin at the moment of the Annunciation to Her by the Archangel of a wondrous and unprecedented Revelation. And we are all called to the same joy by the all-joyous event that is now being commemorated. … But what else can be seen today through the window of the upper room of Nazareth? This is Jerusalem, the city of the Great King, filled with an innumerable multitude of people, agitated and disorderly. A bloody affair is being prepared. A majestic man is subjected to spitting, beating, struggling, terrible wounds, condemned to death and nailed to the Cross on Golgotha. He endures unbearable sufferings, inhuman insults, and in terrible torments He gives His spirit into the hands of the Heavenly Father. Who is this extraordinary Sufferer? Let us read the inscription on the Cross. "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" - this is what it says... The extraordinary sufferer is the same Jesus about whom the Archangel preaches to the Virgin. Heavenly Evangelist, where is your Gospel? Thou hast proclaimed that the Son of Mary shall be great, but that He hangs on the Cross diminished, more humbled than all the sons of men. Thou hast proclaimed that He shall be called the Son of the Most High, and that He shall be reckoned with the wicked, and shall be punished shamefully. Thou hast proclaimed that God and the Father will give Him the throne of King David, and He is lifted up on the Cross. Thou hast proclaimed that there will be no end to His kingdom, and that He must soon pass from the kingdom of the living to the kingdom of the dead. Where is the truth of your Gospel? Should not the joy of thy gospel be changed into sorrow? "Let no one be confused," the Evangelist would answer us to such perplexities, "let no one be confused by the sight of the humiliation, suffering, and death of the Son of Mary. Thus it behooves Christ to suffer and enter into His glory. His sufferings and death are terrible, they cause great sorrow, but they will flash by like a short heavy sleep and will be replaced by eternal glory, His Eternal Kingdom. Short-lived sorrow must disappear like a shadow before the light of joy!" Amen. 1961

Homily on Holy SaturdayTrampled on the End and Death

Let all human flesh be silent, and let it stand with fear and trembling, and let it think of nothing earthly in itself: For the King of kings and the Lord of lords comes to sacrifice himself, and to be eaten by the faithful... [1] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Today the Holy Church commemorates the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ into hell and His deliverance from there of the souls of all the righteous of the Old Testament, who were imbued with faith in the coming Messiah. This day, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, has once become a day of decisive and final struggle, a life-and-death struggle between the two kingdoms – the kingdom of darkness and evil and the kingdom of good and light. Satan, who was put to shame by Jesus Christ in the wilderness, has by now managed to inflame the hearts of the enemies of the Savior with the strongest malice against Him - to such an extent that man is never able to reach by himself. The enemies of Christ succumbed to the influence of the spirit of malice to such an extent that their fury against the Lord Jesus completely went beyond the boundaries not only of moderation and decency, but also of common sense. Christ died on the Cross and was buried; And, it would seem, what else do they need when they have achieved their goal? But their malice does not calm down on this, it does not give rest to the Dead One, insulting Him, calling before Pilate a flatterer and a deceiver, to assure Him of which He also seals His tomb with a seal and sets a guard over Him. But the tomb and the guards could not restrain the Giver of Life; then human malice resorts to bribery, gives money to the guards, so long as they do not speak the truth, they decide not only to desecrate the truth in general and the Divine in particular, but also to enter into a direct struggle with it. There is nowhere else to go: to have all the proofs of the truth of the Resurrection of Christ and at the same time to exert every effort to prevent this truth from being made public among the people – what can be more vile than such an act! But while human malice was so mocking the highest truth and love, at the same time the Son of God, the Son of the Virgin, finally struck down our primordial enemy – the devil – and all his dark power. The evil one, hearing from the Cross the cry of the Only-begotten: My God, My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me? (cf. Matt. 27:46), in his mad blindness thought: "If this Jesus had been the Only-begotten of the Father, the Father would not have forsaken Him." Therefore, Satan was already triumphant, anticipating that he was about to receive the soul of this Righteous One to live forever in the depths of hell. But while he is so rejoicing in his darkness and blindness, the prisons of hell are suddenly illuminated, and the Only-begotten Son of God, united with the human soul, appears before Satan and all the dark power. The power of the enemy was stupefied when they saw Jesus Christ, and realized their mistake. Divine love has finally triumphed over Satan's malice. Satan, seeing himself and his entire host bound, seeing the prisoners being led out of prison to the heavenly abodes, trembled greatly and was terrified. The name of Jesus is terrible for the demons, the sign of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross is unbearable and unbearable for them. True, even now the spirits of evil dwell in the air and seek whom to devour (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8), but no longer as princes, but as robbers. They have an influence only on those who voluntarily surrender to them. After gaining victory over Satan, the Saviour solemnly escorts the souls of the Old Testament righteous to the heavenly abodes, and then His soul returns to His body lying in the tomb - and now it comes to life and is itself spiritualized. Trampled on at last and death - Christ is risen! Peace be with you! (John 20:19) – He declares to His disciples, appearing to them after the Resurrection, and the peace that descends from Heaven and surpasses all understanding, fills their hearts with joyful trembling. Inspired by Divine forgiveness, goodwill and grace, they flow after this with incomprehensible courage to peoples and tribes that do not know God, with the preaching of the Crucified One, with the word of peace, love, truth, freedom, brotherhood, and their word, which at first seemed to this world to be madness, in the course of time is received with love by pagan kings and wise men and entire nations. And so the Conqueror of hell and death finally reveals Himself to be the Conqueror of sin and all evil brought into the world through the devil by the sin of the first man. Remembering today the descent of the Savior of the world into hell and His deliverance from there of all the righteous of the Old Testament and the very victory over hell, we must, dear brothers and sisters, rejoice, because now we celebrate the mortification, the destruction of hell, the beginning of another eternal life. [2] We must always rejoice in the Lord, because Christ is our hope and our hope, both in this earthly life and in the Life to come, according to His true promise: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). Amen. 1964 A hymn sung instead of the Cherubic Hymn at the Liturgy on Holy Saturday. -Red. ^ Troparion of the 7th Ode of the Paschal Canon. -Red. ^