JESUS CHRIST’S RESURRECTION IS THE RENEWAL OF HUMAN NATURE

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Risen Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

JESUS CHRIST’S RESURRECTION IS THE RENEWAL
OF HUMAN NATURE.
By Saint Gregory Palamas

THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD IS THE RENEWAL OF HUMAN NATURE, and THE RENEWAL, RECREATION AND RETURN TO IMMORTALITY OF THE FIRST ADAM who was swallowed up by death because of sin, and through death went back to the earth from which he was formed. In the beginning nobody saw Adam being made and brought to life, for no one existed yet at that time. However, once he had received THE BREATH OF LIFE BREATHED INTO HIM BY GOD (Genesis 2:7), a woman was the first to see him, for Eve was the first human being after him. In the same way,no one saw the SECOND ADAM, that is THE LORD, rising from the dead, since none of His Disciples were present and the soldiers keeping the tomb had been shaken with fear and became like dead men. But after the resurrection it was a woman who saw Him first of all, as we hear in Saint Mark’s Holy Gospel, "Now when Jesus," it says, "was risen early THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene" [Mark 16:9].

"…There is something which the Evangelists tell us in a veiled way, but which I shall reveal to your charity. As was right and just, the Mother of God WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO RECEIVE FROM THE LORD THE GOOD NEWS OF THE RESURRECTION, AND SHE SAW HIM RISEN AND HAD THE JOY OF HIS DIVINE WORDS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE. SHE NOT ONLY BEHELD HIM WITH HER EYES AND HEART HIM WITH HER EARS, BUT WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY PERSON TO TOUCH WITH HER HANDS HIS MOST PURE FEET. If the Evangelists do not say all this openly, it is because they do not want to put forward his Mother as a witness, lest they give unbelievers grounds for suspicion. As we are now, however, by the grace of the Resurrection, addressing believers, and the subject of today’s Feast obliges us to clarify everything that concerns the myrrhbearers, this too shall be revealed, with leave from Him Who said, "Nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest" (Luke 8:17).

The Myrrhbearers are those women who followed the Lord in company with His Holy Mother, who stayed with her at the time of the Saving Passion, and were intent upon anointing the Lord’s body with myrrh. When Joseph and Nicodemus sought and obtained the Master’s body from Pilate, they took it down from the Cross, wrapped it in linen cloths with glue-like spices, put it in a sepulchre hewn out of a rock and put a large stone in the doorway (John 19:38-42). Meanwhile, according to the Evangelist Mark, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there watching (Mark 15:47), sitting opposite the tomb. When he refers to the other Mary HE CLEARLY MEANS THE Mother of God, for she was also called the mother of Joses and James, the sons of Joseph the Betrothed. But they were not the only ones there watching when the Lord was being laid in the tomb. There were other women as well, as Saint Luke tells us when he writes, "And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid" (Luke 23:55). It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James and other women that were with them" (Luke 24:0).

He says that they returned and bought spices and ointments (cf. Luke 23:56). As yet they did not fully understand that He Himself is truly the fragrance of life for those who come to Him in faith, though the smell of death to those who are disobedient to the end. The scent of His garments, that i sof His body, is above all spices, and His "name is like ointment poured forth", filling the whole world with Divine fragrance. They prepared myrrh and spices, intending on the one hand, to honor the dead, and, on the other to assuage by their anointing the stench of the body as it decomposed, for the sake of those who wanted to stay beside it.

When they had prepared the ointments and spices, they rested on the sabbath according to the Commandment (Luke 23:56), for they had not yet understood the true sabbaths, nor had they had discovered that exceedingly blessed sabbath which brought human nature up from the nethermost regions of Hades to Divine, Heavenly heights full of Light. "Now upon the first day of the week, at early dawn," as Saint Luke tells us, "they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared" (cf. Luke 24:1). However, Saint Matthew says that it was "in the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week" (Matthew 28:1), and refers to two women coming. According to Saint John, "it was yet dark" (John 20:1), and only Mary Magdalene approached, whereas Saint Mark tells us it was, "very early in the morning the first day of the week" (Mark 16:2), and there were three women who came (Mark 16:1). The Evangelists all call Sunday THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, and by the expressions, "the end of the sabbath," "at early dawn," "very early in the morning," and "early, when it was yet dark", they mean the time around dawn when light and darkness mingle. This is when the eastern horizon begins to grow light, heralding the day. If you were to observe the horizon from afar, you might see it beginning to be tinged with light at about the Ninth Hour of the night, with three hours still to go before full daylight.

"…Each Evangelist refers to one of the occasions when the Myrrhbearers approached, and passes over the others. However, I conclude and infer from all the Evangeliststhat the Theotokos was the first to come to the tomb of her Son and God, bringing Mary Magdalene with her. I gather this above all from the Evangelist Matthew who says, "There came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary," who was obviously the Mother of God," "to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door of the sepulchre, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men" (Matthew 28:1-4).

All the other women came after the earthquake when the keepers had fled, and found the sepulchre open and the stone rolled away. The Virgin Mother, however, was there when the earthquake took place, the stone was rolled away, the tomb opened and the keepers were still present, though shaken with fear. When they got to their feet after the earthquake they immediately took to flight, whereas the Mother of God delighted herself in teh sight without fear. It seems to me that the Life-bearing tomb opened first for her sake (because everything in heaven above and on earth below was opened first for her, and through her for us) and that the Angel shone like lightning on her account, so that een though it was still dark, by the Angel’s abundant light she could see not only the empty tomb, but also the graveclothes lying in order and bearing witness in many ways to the fact that He Who had been buried there had risen.

The Angel who announced the Good News was surely Gabriel himself. For when he who had originally said to her, "Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God" (Luke 1:30), saw her hastening to the tomb, he made speed now to come down and greet the Ever-Virgin once more with the same words, to announce the Good News that He Who had been born of her without seed had risen from the dead, to take aay the stone, and to show the empty tomb and the graveclothes as confirmation to her of his tidings. "And the Angel", it says, "answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: do ye seek Jesus, which was crucified? He IS RISEN. Come, see the place where the Lord lay" (Matthew 28:5-6). Not only can He not be held by the locks, bars and seals of Hades, death and the tomb, but He is also Lord of us, the immortal, heavenly Angels, and He alone is Lord of all." Come, see," "the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead" (Matthew 28:6-7).

"…The Mother of God was possessed with great joy because she understood what the Angel said and was completely filled with Light, being utterly purified and full of Divine Grace. Therefore, she knew the truth for sure and believed the Archangel, since his trustworthiness had long since been demonstrated to her through works. As the divinely wise Virgin was present when these things happened, how could she fail to understand what had been accomplished? She saw an earthquake, and a great one at that, an Angel descending from heaven, flashing forth as lightning, she saw the keepers being struck down as dead, and the stone being moved, and the tomb empty…

"…The Virgin Mother of God, returned in the company of other women to the place whence she had come. And behold, as Saint Matthew says, "Jesus met them, saying, All hail". Notice that the Mother of God saw Him Who for our salvation suffered in the flesh, was buried and rose again, even before Mary Magdalene. "And they came", it says, "and held him by the feet and worshipped Him" (Matthew 28:9). When the Theotokos, together with Mary Magdalene, heard the Good News of the resurrection from the Angel, only she understood the meaning of the words. In the same way now when, in the company of the other women, she met her Son and God, she was the first of them all to see and recognize the risen Lord, and falling down before Him she grasped His feet and became His Apostle to the apostles. It is from Saint John that we learn that Mary Magdalene was NOT with the Mother of God at the time when the Lord met her as she was returning from the tomb, appeared to her and addressed her. For Saint John says, that Mary Magdalene "runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciples, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, Thy have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him" (John 20:2). If He had met her and she had seen HIm, touched Him with her hands and heard Him speak, how could she have said, as she did, that they had taken Him away and laid Him in an unknown place? But Saint Peter and Saint John had run to the tomb and seen the linen cloths, and gone away, "Mary", it says, "stood without at the sepulchre weeping" (John 20:11).

Observe that not only had she yet to hear Him, but she also had yet to hear the news. When the Angels appeared and asked her, "Woman, why weepest thou", again, she replied as if speaking about a corpse (John 20:13). Even when she turned round and saw the Lord, she still did not understand, but when He too asked why she was weeping she gave the same reply, until He called her by name and proved it was He. Then she too fell down before Him and tried to embrace his feet in greeting, but heard Him says, "Touch me not" (John 20:1517). From this we learn that when the Lord appeared earlier to His Mother and the women with her, it was ONLY His Mother whom He allowed to touch His feet, een though Saint Matthew attributes this action the other women too, being unwilling to put forward the Lord’s Mother as a witness to such events for the reason we stated in the beginning. The Ever Virgin was the first to come to the tomb and receive the good tidings of the Resurrection. {Homilies)

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +

With sincere agape in His Divine, Glorious and Triumphant Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George