Bishop Mefody on the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearers

Here is my translation of a brief homily by Bishop Mefody of Campanie (+1974) on the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women:

Today is a feast in honor of those who were witnesses of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ the Savior, and of those who served the Lord, who labored for the Lord. Today is the feast day of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women and Saints Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.

The Holy Myrrh-Bearers accompanied the Lord, served Him from their property, from their means, were with the Lord on Golgotha, at the removal of the Lord from the Cross, and at His burial. They hastened to Christ’s Tomb and were the first to know of Christ’s Resurrection. St. Joseph of Arimathea requested the body of Jesus Christ from Pilate, and with Nicodemus took him down form the Cross, wrapped him in a shroud and laid Him in a tomb, in a cave in his garden.

The Holy Myrrh-Bearers and Saints Joseph and Nicodemus are succeeded by all those who today serve the Lord and His body, the Church, some from their means, some by work, and some by their talents. “In place of myrrh we bring Thee song, O Master,” we sing in the Paschal days. Do those singing feel this? Do they understand that by their singing their are serving the Lord, bringing Him myrrh, taking their place alongside the Myrrh-Bearers? Do all the Church workers and donors feel Whom they are serving and to Whom they are bringing sacrifice?

With a proper understanding of this in service to the Church, and with sacrifices to the Church, there can not be any taking of offense or discontinuation of Church work or sacrifice to it because either the Batuishka or the starosta or someone else did or said something incorrect.

Today is the feast of the Holy Myrrh-Bearers, Saints Joseph and Nicodemus and all those who follow them in service to the Lord and His body, the Church. Amen.

Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women

Tomorrow, the third Sunday of Pascha, is dedicated to the Myrrh-Bearing Women. Here is how S. V. Bulgakov describes this commemoration:

This Sunday the church services are taken from the contents of the Gospel narration about the appearance of the risen Lord to the Myrrhbearing women. This all-joyful appearance of the Lord was the first after His rising from the grave and consequently it is glorified by the Church at the present time as the undoubted proof of His resurrection. Among the Myrrhbearers mentioned in the Gospel are the following: Mary Magdalene (Jul. 22), Mary Cleopas or James (May 23), Salome (3 Aug.), Johanna (Jun. 27), Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus (Jun. 4, Mar. 18) and Susanna (see Lk. 8:3; she is not mentioned in the Menologion). Besides these seven Myrrhbearing women, "there were also others, very many others, who served Christ and His disciples out of their means". The Holy Myrrhbearing Women and the circumstance of the appearance of the risen Lord to them are glorified in the stichera and troparia of the Canon for the third Sunday after Pascha and on all the days of this week and consequently it is called the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women.

Besides the Holy Myrrhbearers, the church hymns glorify Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, the secret disciples of the Savior on this present Sunday. According to the explanation of the Synaxarion, the Holy Women Myrrhbearers were "the first to truthfully bear witness to the Resurrection, Joseph and Nicodemus to the burial, but this is the most important and best kept of our teachings. This is the reason that they are the true witnesses of the burial together with the women, who have seen the Resurrection, and it was established to celebrate them after the first verification of Thomas, which came before because it happened in eight days as the holy evangelist said".

Calling its children on this day to praise "the wonderful Joseph together with Nicodemus, and the faithful Myrrhbearers", the Holy Church in the hymns for this day mainly glorifies our Lord Jesus Christ, inspiring us thus, that He should always be the first, the primary subject of commemoration and glorification for us. As the Holy Myrrhbearers were witnesses not only of the resurrection of the Savior, but also His suffering, death and burial so the Holy Church in its hymns will also remember the "passions" of the Savior and, turning to Him, sings: "You were smitten for our sake, and You were spat upon by lawless men, O Jesus", "You were given vinegar and gall to drink for our sake, O Savior", "You were pierced in the life-creating side with a spear", "You were counted among the dead", "You were placed in the tomb".

But this sorrowful memory of the suffering and death of the Savior will abundantly dissipate together with the comforting instruction on saving the fruits of the cross of the Savior for us and in the joy of His resurrection. The Holy Church exclaims, "O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? It was destroyed by the enlivening Rising from the dead"; "Let Zion be glad, also let heaven rejoice, Christ is risen, having raised up the dead". Even the troparia of this Sunday ("The Noble Joseph", "The angels came to the Myrrh-bearing women"), are taken from the service of Great Saturday where they mainly expressed pious grief and only a hint of the celebration, but on this Sunday they also are supplemented with the joyful instruction of the accomplishment of the resurrection of the Savior (see the endings of these troparia below). Through such comparison of sorrowful and joyful commemorations in the church hymns of this day the spiritual situation of the holy women, who received the Savior after the resurrection is shaded with special power "instead of weeping the unspeakable joy", but equally this "unspeakable joy" of the resurrection of Christ, "who has illumined all the ends of the world is more deeply imprinted in our hearts".

Online resources:

• Pentecostarion service in English, Greek, and Slavonic.
• Epistle reading: Acts 6:1-7.
• Gospel reading: Mark 15:43-16:8.
• St John Chrysostom, Homily 14 on Acts.
• Blessed Theophylact, commentary on Gospel reading.
• St Gregory Palamas, homily.
• Metropolitan Anthony of Kiev and Galicia, sermon.
• Metropolitan Philaret of Eastern America and New York, sermon.
• Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, sermons from 1991 and 1997.
• Archbishop Averky of Syracuse, Gospel commentary.
• Archbishop Andrei of Rockland, sermon.
• Archbishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada, sermon.
• Bishop Mefody of Campanie, sermon.
  
• Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov), sermon.
• Archimandrite Panteleimon (Lampadarios), sermon.
• Elder Sofian (Boaghiu), sermon.
  
• Fr Sergei Sveshnikov, sermon.
• Fr Seraphim Holland, sermon.
• Fr Andrew Phillips, sermon.
• Fr George Dimopoulos, sermon.
• Fr Anthony Coniaris, sermon.
• Greek Archdiocese, explanation.
• S. V. Bulgakov, explanation and liturgical notes.
• Dr M. R. Brett-Crowther, Scripture commentary.
  

The Theotokos and Isis

Q & A with Fr Job, installment IV:

Question: Why is so little said about the Theotokos in the Bible, but She is venerated almost no less than the Savior Himself? Is not the cult of the Theotokos a transformation of the cult of the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis?

Answer: There is an incorrect statement in the question. In the Bible a great deal is written about the All-Holy Theotokos. In the sacred books of the Old Testament this is said in the form of prophecies and prefigurations. In the New Testament, the Evangelists relate Her participation in the most important events of Sacred history: the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, the Circumcision of the Lord, the Meeting. The beginning of the miracles of Jesus Christ and the revelation of His glory took place in Cana of Galilee by the request of the Mother of God. The Evangelists portrayed Her standing at Her Son’s Cross.

Her veneration arose from the special feeling of gratitude and warm love for the Mother of our Savior and the Supplicant for all people. But never in the Church, neither theologically-dogmatically (c.f., the Symbol of faith), nor liturgically-prayerfully, did this veneration become equal to that of God.

As concerns the attempts of cultureologists-rationalists of the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century (James Frazer and others) to place the foundations of of Christian doctrine upon pagan cults and mythology, today serious scholars consider these affirmations arbitrary. Under the guise of science was expressed, openly or disguisedly, an anti-Christian disposition.

The Veneration of the Theotokos as Mother

Question and Answer with Fr Job, installment III:

Question: The Orthodox Church venerates the Mother of Jesus Christ, Mary. However let us turn to the Bible: (Mt. 12: 47-50): Then one said unto Him, Behold Thy Mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Thee. But He answered and said unto him that told him, Who is My Mother? And who are My brethren? And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold My mother and My brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother. That is, Christ Himself did not recognize Her as His Mother, except inasmuch as she gave Him birth?

Answer: There exist blood kinship and spiritual kinship. The latter is higher. The Savior indicated this: And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked. But He said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. Between the Mother of God and the Savior there existed not only a blood kinship, but also a very close spiritual kinship. When the All-Holy Virgin bore in her womb the God-Child, She sang a wonderful song: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden: for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His name (Lk. 1:46-49). In the aforementioned place in the Gospel (Mt. 12: 47-50), Jesus Christ gave special attention to spiritual kinship, because at that time the Pharisees (an evil and adulterous generation -- Mt. 12:39) slandered the Savior and even blasphemed against the Holy Spirit (Mt. 12: 24-32). Jesus Christ pointed out the signs of spiritual kinship: For whoseover shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother (Mt. 12:50). These words apply in the highest degree to the Mother of God, who said to the Archangel Gabriel: Behold, the handmaid of the Lord (Lk 1:38).

There should not be even the shadow of a doubt concerning the relationship of Jesus to His Mother. His devoted love is witnessed by Scripture. How He respected and fulfilled Her wishes is seen from the description of the miracle of Cana in Galilee. And then they wanted wine, the Mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? My hour is not yet come (Jn 2:3-4). At these words the Mother of Jesus confidently told the servants: Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it (Jn 2:5). Note well: She knew ahead of time that her Son would fulfill her request and perform a miracle, although He had not yet performed any: This beginning of miracles did Jesus (Jn. 2:11). This, undoubtedly, witnesses to the particularly close spiritual kinship between them. Dying on the Cross in terrible suffering, the Savior demonstrates love for His Mother and gives care for Her to his beloved disciple.

Fear Factor

Question and Answer with Fr Job, installment II:

Question: May an Orthodox person participate in the program “Fear Factor,” the prize of which is $100,000? If I won I’d give half the prize to the Church. Can I receive a blessing to participate in this game? Is this pleasing to God?

Answer: The participation in games in which people win money without working for it falls under Canon 50 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council: “No one at all, whether cleric or layman, is from this time forward to play at dice. And if anyone hereafter be found doing so, if he be a cleric he is to be deposed, if a layman let him be cut off.” Apostolic canons 42 and 43 also speak of this.

The Baptism of the Theotokos

Question and Answer with Fr Job, installment I:

Question: How was the Theotokos baptized, when, and by whom?

Answer: Saint Sophronius the Patriarch of Jerusalem, apparently on the foundation of a tradition preserved by the Jerusalem Church, writes: “Our Lord Jesus Christ baptized Peter with His hands, and Peter, in his turn, baptized Andrew, James, and John; James and John baptized the other apostles. The Mother of God was baptized by the Apostles Peter and John together.” (Fragmentum. De baptismate apostolorum // Migne P. G. 87 / 3. Col. 3372. Quoted in St Sophronius, Sermons. Translation and commentary by Archimandrite Ambrose (Pogodin)).

Hieromonk Job's Questions and Answers

I have four times so far translated brief questions and answers with Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) from the Sretensky Monastery in central Moscow: one, two, three, four. Just today I was lent a book in Russian (depicted above) called One Thousand Questions to a Priest, the priest in question being Fr Job. It's an excellent book: Fr Job's answers are clear, concise, correct, and firmly rooted in Scripture and Tradition. I've decided to offer, God willing, a translation of one exchange a day on this blog. The book is arranged systematically by topic, but I'll likely jump around to whatever strikes my interest and, frankly, isn't too long. I hope you'll find these exchanges as profitable as I do!