Until late in the evening, Orthodox Tbilisi residents went to Christ, washed themselves with blood and went to Heaven. No one spat on the icons. Jalal-ad-Din looked with amazement at the martyrs whom he had captured, but not enslaved.

Medieval Japan. European navigators discovered this island people, and discovered European civilization for the Japanese. The harbors are full of ships whose sails are decorated with a cross. Outlandish goods flood the country. A new faith is being preached. Europeans study the Japanese language, translate the Gospel into it. Many natives respond to the preaching of Christ and accept the new faith. Shoguns (rulers) favor this and even allow services and prayers in their castles. But soon the Japanese smell something is wrong. The success of the Catholic mission threatens to colonize the country. Religion can serve as an instrument of politics. In addition, the missionaries who flooded the country are not an example of Christian life. Representatives of different monastic orders are at war with each other. The Japanese make a radical decision - they expel all Europeans and forbid them to appear on the islands in the future. Japan has deliberately isolated itself from the rest of the world for many centuries. In this way, it will avoid the fate of many countries of Indochina and will never be a colony. But there are still many Japanese Christians inside the country. What to do with them? They decide to identify and destroy them.

Christians are identified in a special way.

It is clear to the shoguns that there are things that a Christian would not do under any circumstances. For example, he will not step on the icon of Christ. And so armed detachments go around the country and in every village offer people the same thing – to trample the image of the Savior under foot. The calculation turned out to be correct. Believers immediately reveal themselves as a categorical refusal.

A painful death awaited them all.

For Georgians and Japanese, for Greeks and Russians, for Orthodox Christians of any nationality, it has always been clear that Christ is not only the Word of the Father, but also the Image of the invisible God. It is not only His Book that must be honored, but also His Image. The icon is not identical with the nature of the Depicted, but is identical with His Person.

In the corner of my room hangs an icon of the Savior with a lamp burning in front of it. I often look at this image and am used to it. But today, remembering the martyrs, I look at the icon as if for the first time — and I see in it a shrine for which one can die.

240 "Heavens! Heaven!"

As everyone who has read the Holy Scriptures knows, the Jewish people are very connected with Egypt and its history. The descendants of Jacob lived in this country for four hundred years. The Son of God fled there and from there returned to the land of Israel in the arms of His Mother. New Testament history is also connected with Egypt through the history of monasticism and the miraculous feats associated with it. All this, of course, is not accidental. Surely there must be some traits in Egypt's culture and religion that have made it so significant in sacred history. After all, it is not for nothing that it is Egypt, and not China, not India, not the Aztecs. It seems to me that the attitude towards death is the main feature that distinguishes the Egyptians from the rest of the world.

Only the deaf or insane have not heard of Egyptian mummies. Since childhood, we read and hear about the strange customs that reigned in this country. About how a person after death was subjected to complex ritual and medical manipulations with the idea that he would be resurrected. Egyptian anthropology in general is very complex. If today man has to prove that he has a soul and it is immortal, then the ancient, "wild" Egyptian saw in man the immortality of the soul, and the separate existence of the name, and many other things that we cannot even talk about due to the paucity of mental concepts. And it was to this complex and cunning country (not to China or India) that the Lord led His people and blessed them to live there. It is obvious to me that the religion of Egypt is the religion of the Resurrection, albeit in conjectures and vague insights, even in the form of mythology and pagan rites, but still the Resurrection. The body is sacred, the body is eternal, and it is mine. "I will not be incarnated into a mosquito or a mammoth, and a burdock will not grow out of me" (Bazarov). I will be resurrected in my flesh, with which I have sinned or tried to do good.

The coming Paschal days make us talk about the meaning of life and about the future Resurrection. That is why we started with Egypt. They began with what was obvious to the ancient pagans and what today is closed by an impenetrable veil from millions of "literate" people who fly on airplanes and have a bank account.

Such a bright thought – everyone will be resurrected! Such a miracle – we are eternal! Even if we don't want to. It is we who are with both soul and body. True Christianity stands in amazement before the empty Sepulchre of the Saviour. It looks at His neatly rolled swaddling clothes, it listens to the strange word of the Angel: "He is not here. He has risen." And despite its fascinated constraints, it brings this joy to all corners of the Universe.

What has been said concerns Orthodoxy. Because Catholicism also stands fascinated, but not at the empty Sepulchre, but at the Cave of the Nativity. Western intellectuals and ordinary parishioners meditate on this topic. "Bambino Jesus", Child Lord, Emmanuel. This is the main theme of Catholicism – God on earth, God among people. Anyone who has been to the West or has been interested in the religious life of Western Christians knows how many songs and poems, fairs, attractions, sermons are devoted to Christmas, and how few are devoted to the Resurrection. Eastern Christianity (which is also true) looks at Christmas as a step, a stage. It may be wonderful, unique, surpassing even the creation of the world, but still a stage. But Easter is the crown. This is no longer a betrothal or a marriage in the registry office, this is the marriage of God with people in its fullness. The Kingdom of God will not be brought down to earth, but the earth and those who dwell on it must grow to the Heavenly Jerusalem, must ascend from earth to heaven, just as the Jews once made the exodus from Egypt to Palestine. Here is the main difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The Catholic wants to clothe the Kingdom of God in visible forms, as familiar as possible. The Orthodox do not seek Paradise on earth. On this earth Christ was crucified. The Orthodox, joyful and bright, on the day of Pascha again feels that his home is not here, that there is another life, that we are still guests and have not yet given us ours.