And since then, everyone has called the Virgin Mary their Mother. Because this is the will of Christ, which He Himself prophesied from the Cross. After this, a rich man, Joseph, a member of the council, came along with Nicodemus. They begged Pilate to give them the body of Jesus, and they took down Christ, wrapped Him in a shroud, which is now kept in the Vatican, put Him in a coffin, and surrounded Him with a multitude of incense.

In the coffin, that is, in a stone cave, there was a bench, and they covered it with a stone, so that no one would steal. And the next day the chief priests and Pharisees examined the body, sealed the tomb, and set a guard so that no one would steal the body. In this way, people thought Christ would be finished. But this was not the end. Because as soon as Christ died, His soul left the body and went to hell. Where did all the souls go? To hell. Christ also went there.

The devil was sitting, rubbing his hands, he thought that the soul of Christ would be the same as the souls of all people. But bitter disappointment awaited him. Christ came to hell, and there He revealed His Divinity. Do you remember who Christ was? He did not have a human personality, His "I" is from God, so His "I" manifested itself in hell. And hell, which was a place of eternal darkness, suddenly shone with light, imagine what a horror it was for the devil!

And Christ said to the devil: you had a right to sinners, you had honestly, they sinned, you invented sin, and they committed it. Therefore, people's souls were rightly sent to hell. And why hast thou stretched out thy hands against me? That's it, so you lose the right to everyone. And the devil was robbed. Christ committed the greatest robbery. As the prophet foretold: "Can the booty be taken from the strong, and can the captives be taken from the conqueror? Yes!

thus saith the Lord: And the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the spoils of the tyrant shall be delivered; for I will contend with thy adversaries, and I will save thy sons; and I will feed thy oppressors with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their blood as with new wine; and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord thy Saviour and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob" (Isaiah 49:24-26). He did it.

He robbed the robber, He justly killed the murderer, and He brought out the souls of people and brought them into Paradise. Thus, those people who hoped and sought God in the Old Testament, they were saved by the Blood of Jesus: John the Baptist, who had been executed by that time, and Simeon the God-Receiver, and Moses, and other prophets – they all entered the Kingdom of Heaven, the returned Paradise.

And, finally, at the very bottom of hell, the Lord found His old friend Adam, who ran away from Him for a long time, and He also led him into Paradise along with other righteous people. And yet death is ruinous. Why? What is death, in your opinion? Death destroys our personality. What happens to a person when he dies? His personality is destroyed. The "I" of a person acts both in the soul and in the body.

We do not say: my body is sick, we say: I am sick. Since the body dies and the soul is separated from the body, the personality is destroyed. Did this happen to Christ? No. Why? He had only one "I." Whose? God. And God – is He limited by something, place or time? He is omnipresent. That is why we sing in hymns that He was in the grave in the flesh, in hell He was in soul as God, in Paradise with the thief, on the throne He was with the Father and the Spirit – at the same time. Death tried to destroy.

You see, she has always done this, she destroyed the personality, her main task is to destroy the personality of a person. And death broke its teeth. The first time death broke his teeth. She could not destroy the Personality, the body was not subject to decay, the first thing. Why do many saints now leave incorrupt relics? They gain incorruption from the power of Christ. Before that, there was no incorruptibility of grace.

And moreover, the soul was not separated from the body. After all, in space they separated, but the Personality was one. Through the Person of Christ, the divine, the body and soul remained united. And as the Apostle Peter says in his famous sermon on the day of Pentecost: "God raised Him up, breaking the bands of death, because it was impossible for it to hold Him" (Acts 2:24).

The meaning of his speech is as follows: death was tormented by labor pains, it could not endure the life that was inside it. Death exploded, indeed, explosives were planted inside death. And the explosives exploded. On the third day, Sunday night, Jesus rose from the dead by the power of His own divinity. His body was reunited with His soul, His body was transformed, it remained a body, but it acquired new properties that we will have after the Resurrection.

He went through the shroud, burned His image on it. He went through the stone and invisibly passed through the guards. He no longer needed food, although He could take food. He could no longer die, He became immortal in body, He became immune to any disease, He became the Conqueror of death. Death was killed. We sing in hymns on Pascha, do you know what words?

We sing thus: "We celebrate the mortification of death, the destruction of hell, the beginning of another eternal life." Why is the Easter holiday the most amazing holiday for us? Even people of little faith, when they come to church for a feast, see Pascha, even they feel joy. Why? Because the power of the Conqueror of death extends even to unbelievers. This power of the Resurrection is so great that it will resurrect all people, believers and unbelievers, at the end of time.

Only unbelievers will not be able to use it for their souls for good. And the body will be resurrected in all people. That is why He is called the Firstborn of the dead, that is, the first. Of course, other people died before Him. But with Him began the process of Resurrection from the dead. He is the first, and all mankind follows Him. The harvest begins with Him. And after that, the Angel committed a crime against the state.