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For the Son of God to die for the salvation of man, when, as the Almighty, He could accomplish our salvation in some other way — this is God's boundless condescension! To die the most shameful and painful death, when He could have died without shame and without suffering – this is His infinite patience. But for whose sake did He show this boundless condescension and this unspeakable long-suffering? For the sake of a man who was His enemy. This is endless love!

Christians, when our Lord suffered for us, was crucified and died for us, then we did not recognize Him as God, we blasphemed Him, and I, we despised His law, we revered other gods and, above all, did nothing good, on the contrary, we were immersed in the abyss of all evil. And for this we were subject to His wrath and eternal torment, as sinners. "As ... Christ is a sinner for us" (Romans 5:8). For a father to die for a son or a relative for a relative is in the order of things. To die for each other is also the order of the day, it is the duty of friendship, it is the greatest example of love. "Greater love hath no man," says Christ, "that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). And examples of such friendship can also be found among people. But for someone to die for the enemy – neither nature nor friendship requires this... And nothing like this has ever happened between people, and not even heard of... However, this was the case, and it is proclaimed in our Christian faith: our Lord died for His enemies... Here is love above nature, above word and reason: this is Divine Love. "And God makes up His love for us," says the Apostle Paul, "as ... Christ is a sinner for us" (Romans 5:8). This is such a blessing for which we could not be worthily thankful, even if each of us had a hundred lives and gave all these hundred lives to death out of love for Christ, even if these lives were a thousand years long, and out of love for Christ we wore the cross all these thousands of years... After all, no matter how much we suffer, we would suffer for our Benefactor, whereas Christ endured all His sufferings for His enemies. And in recompense for His life He does not demand our lives at all, for His blood He does not demand our blood; He demands of us only our love for the love He has shown us!

And is it possible that God is not worthy of such a reward for such great blessings, cannot receive it?! Oh, people, people! What name shall I call you? Blind, or what, if you do not see such blessings? Are they ungrateful, because you do not want to know them? Do you not have a heart of stone in your chest, which does not soften before God's boundless love?!.

I know that only evil spirits are hopelessly stubborn in evil, unrepentant, and therefore they are eternal enemies of God and will never become His friends. You are not demons, but is it possible to recognize you as people? Are you not freaks, with the nature of man and with the disposition of demons? After all, you always "can" become friends of God and... still you don't want to... Let Him become man, suffer, let Him be crucified, let Him die; let Him shed all His blood, to the last drop, for us — after all, you do not want Him... Even if He suffered a thousand times more, if it were possible, and died again, you don't care—you don't want Him?!. What days are there now? Does not the Church now celebrate the passion, the cross, the death of Christ? But will there be a truly repentant among you? Does anyone weep as bitterly as Peter? Does anyone confess Him as sincerely as the thief: "Remember me, O Lord, when Thou comest in this kingdom"? (Luke 23:42). But what am I saying? Rather, I will ask if there is one who would not now sell Him for the love of money, like Judas, who would not betray Him for the blessings of this world, like Pilate, who would not crucify Him on the cross with all kinds of sins, like the Jews? Is there any one among us who does not intend to nail Him to the cross again as soon as He is resurrected, which even the Jews did not dare to do?!. Christ hangs on the tree of the cross, and here is a Christian who does not think of leaving the embrace of a harlot. The other left it temporarily, but was it not in order to be reunited with it as soon as possible? Another does not want to return the appropriated property of others, a third persists in reconciling with the enemy. Some did not repent at all; the other, although he repented, but in order to give himself up again to his former vices... And the Passion of Christ... Nothing?! And the blood of Christ... is trampled underfoot?!. Did not Christ die in order to make His enemies His friends, in order to save sinners? And so?... They don't want to?! Oh, unrepentant, stone-hearted sinners! Let! If you do not want to have Him as a friend, then treat Him, at least, as an enemy! (The orator with fiery zeal denounces the indifference of Christians, which seems to him more terrible than enmity itself!) If you want me to show you your enemy, to your delight! Look, look, and rejoice, be amused, be satisfied, be satisfied with the sight, look at Him, men and women, spiritual and laity, rich and poor, all look at this enemy of yours.. Well, is this not enough for you? You want even greater mockery and torment than you see now?!. After all, you should have endured all these sufferings, and even then you would not have been able to satisfy God's truth and would have been condemned to eternal torment... And He alone endured all sufferings to deliver you forever from torment, He took upon Himself your debt and paid for it with His blood! He bore the punishment for your prideful mind in a crown of thorns, for your wicked, blasphemous words in vinegar and gall, for your malice in the piercing of the rib, for your robberies in the nailing of your hands, for your fleshly filth in the sores of the beaten body; finally, he lifted all the weight of his sins in the wood of the cross! He took sins upon Himself, and had not yet gained sinners. Oh, the ineffable love that sacrificed its life for its enemies! Oh, the terrible ingratitude, which prevents enemies from becoming friends!

Unrepentant, stone-hearted sinners! In Japan up to now (the orator means, of course, his time) idolaters and mortal enemies of Christians, with satanic cunning, have carved an honorable cross on marble at the threshold of the city gates, declaring to Christians, whom they cannot stand, whom they do not want to see or hear, if Christians want to enter their city, then let them first walk on the Cross with their feet! And so they achieved that not a single Christian dared to penetrate into such an impious country. In the same way, with divine zeal, I will go and place the sign of this Crucified One at the threshold of the door of the prostitute's house, so that you may not enter that house without stepping on Him! What then? Go and trample on Him! But I say unto you, From henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming upon the clouds of heaven" (Matt. 26:64). The time will come, the time will come when you will see this dead man, clothed with omnipotence, "with power and much glory" (Matt. 24:30), at His second coming. These eyes will not remain closed forever, these hands will not remain nailed down forever. The hour will come, and these eyes will be ablaze with all the fires of God's wrath, these hands will appear armed with the lightnings of God's righteousness, these lips, now caked and silent, will thunder with a thunderous voice and expose our ingratitude: "Depart from Me, curse, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his aggel!" (Matt. 25:41).

And yet I know, O sweetest Jesus, that Thy love is an inexhaustible abyss, because it is infinite. Truly terrible is our ingratitude! But prolong at least for a short time Thy usual long-suffering, with which Thou didst bear Thy cross, and permitted me to pronounce before these Christians one of Thy infinitely gracious words: "Forgive them" (Luke 23:24)! Pronounce forgiveness to all spiritual and laity – to all sinners! If we have hitherto been Thy enemies, by Thy grace we shall again be Thy friends. And with this hope, kissing Thy most pure noses, we beseech Thee: when Thou hast descended from the cross, come and be nailed to our hearts, that Thou mayest be inseparable from us both here on earth and in Thy heavenly kingdom! Amen.

Homily for the Sunday of Pascha

"For the disciples rejoiced, having seen the Lord" (John 20:20)

I also rejoice with you, divine disciples of the risen Lord. All the Christ-bearing peoples rejoice with you, having finally beheld the unflickering light of the luminous day of the Resurrection. The threw-blessed faces rejoice in grief, and, surrounding the throne of the King of Hosts, the angels of peace sing to Him a song of victory. Hell itself rejoices below, and all shines from the bright manifestation of the rising Sun of glory, bringing the unending day of life to the sorrowful ancestors. The brightly dressed bride of Christ, the Church, rejoices, and greets the Bridegroom with joy, Who came out of the tomb as from a palace. Golgotha itself changed its appearance: it was a terrible place of a deplorable event, but it became a glorious spectacle of universal merriment. The cross, the spear, the crown of thorns, the cruel instruments of terrible suffering, divinely adorn the triumph of the Divine Conqueror. The sepulchre, the sorrowful abode of former corruption, now appeared as a life-giving palace of incorruption; wounds, the culprits of death, became the sources of immortal life. "For the disciples rejoiced, having seen the Lord." Let us also rejoice, triumphant listeners, and praise the God-given grace of the glorious Resurrection of Christ.

When the gates of paradise were closed, from which man was expelled, the gates of hell were opened, by which death entered the world, entered together with curse and corruption. Like a tyrant, it reigned over the unfortunate human race, which with difficulty and suffering bore a heavy yoke and invariably paid with its own life for the heaviest debt. But as Adam was the first of all men to sin, so he had to die first. And yet, before everyone else and Adam himself, the righteous and innocent Abel died, killed by his envious brother Cain. Was it not just that just as sin began with Adam, so death began from him, and not from Abel? Brethren, every kingdom is stable only when it is based on justice. If justice reigns, and the beginning of the kingdom is firm, and its abiding is eternal. On the contrary, a kingdom is unstable if it is unjust, and very short-lived if it lives by violence. If it begins with injustice, its beginning is shaky, and if it is held together by violence, its end is near. Of course, the unjust is unstable and the violent is unstable. Now look at the lofty work of God's philanthropic providence. God allowed — and the first to die was not Adam, who was the first to sin, which would have been just, but the innocent Abel. Behold, the kingdom of death began with injustice, and therefore its beginning is shaky. Abel was not only the first to die, but in addition to an unnatural, violent death, killed by his brother. Thus the kingdom of death, which began with injustice, attracted violence to its aid, and therefore came to an end. Thus, death reigned in the world, but its kingdom was unjust and violent, and therefore unstable and short-lived. This is the thought of Athanasius the Great in his 61st question and answer. "If Adam had died first, death would have had a firm foundation, for it was the first to carry away the sinner. But since she was the first to receive the unjustly murdered, her kingdom is shaky and weak." From the very beginning it was discovered that death, though a tyrant, still had no free royal power over the human race. From her hands slipped Enoch, taken alive into paradise; Elijah escaped it, ascending to heaven in a fiery chariot. And Elijah delivered the son of the widow of Zarephath from the power of death, and his disciple Elisha the son of the Shunammite woman. In the last days came the incarnate Son of God, the Lord of the living and the dead, the terrible destroyer of death, and revealed to it all its weakness. With a single word he took away from her daughter Jairus, who was already dead, and as if from sleep he raised her to life; he took away the widow's son, who was already being carried on his bed to the tomb, and stirred him up with a single touch of his hand; He took Lazarus from death, whom Hades had already held in chains for four days, and with one cry he plucked him out of corruption; He took away so many bodies of the departed saints, brought from the graves to life, whom hell had already contained for so long. Finally, the Lord deposed the tyrant, killed death, destroyed its kingdom, when the thrice day gloriously rose from the dead. The descendants of Adam, we all, like birds, were in that fatal unfortunate net that death kept everywhere stretched out. Into the same snare the God-Man Jesus gave Himself, accepting voluntary death. But He gave Himself up with His Divine power, broke the net, and after His glorious Resurrection He was the first to soar into heaven and saved us also from the power of death. "The snare is broken, and we are delivered. Our help is in the name of the Lord" (Psalm 123:7-8). We are saved and no longer prisoners of death. We look at it and are no longer afraid of its ferocious appearance. Before the Resurrection of Christ, death was terrible for man. After the Resurrection of Christ, man became terrible for death. Ever since the resurrected Jesus conquered death, it has been boldly despised by Christ's disciples. From among the martyrs, even small children and young virgins laugh at her. This is the gift of the risen Lord, the privilege of the glorious Resurrection. Christ is risen, and death is put to death. Christ is risen, and corruption is removed. Christ has risen, and immortality has shone. Christ is risen, and paradise is opened. "Where art thou, O death, the sting? Where are you, hell, victory?" (1 Cor. 15:55) As mortals we fall, but as immortals we are resurrected. We are imprisoned in a gloomy grave, but even there the blessed light of the Lord's rebellion penetrates, and it gives us life. We wait for death, but we foresee immortal life, the pledge of which was given to us by the Resurrection of the Savior. Christ is risen!