ON THE SUNDAY OF THE MYRRHBEARERS

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

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!

ON SUNDAY OF THE MYRRHBEARERS
In which it is said that the Mother of God was
THE FIRST TO SEE THE LORD AFTER HE ROSE
FROM THE DEAD.
By Saint Gregory Palamas

THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORDs is the renewal of human nature, and THE RENEWAL, RE-CREATION 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 who saw Him first of all, as we heard today in Mark’s Gospel. "Now when Jesus," it says, "was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene" (Mark 16:9).

The Evangelist seems to be telling us clearly that it was early morning when the Lord rose, that He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, and that He appeared at the very time of the Resurrection. However, this not what he says, as will become clear if we look more carefully. A little earlier Mark, together with the other Evangelists, says that this Mary had also come earlier to the tomb with the other myrrhbearers, and finding it empty, they went away (Mark 16:1-8). So the Lord had Risen long before that hour of the morning when she saw Him. When the Evangelist indicates the time of that earlier visit, he does not say simply "early," as he does here, but "very early in the morning." There they called the first hint of pale light on the horizon sunrise, as John shows by saying that Mary Magdalene came "early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre" (John 29:1).

According to John, she did not just come to the sepulchre at that time, but left it without seeing the Lord. She ran and came to Peter and John and told them, not that the Lord had Risen, but that He had been taken from the sepulchre, as she was not yet aware of the Resurrection (John 20:2). So the Lord did NOT appear to Mary absolutely first of all, but when full daylight had come. There is something which the Evangelist tells us in a veiled way, but which I shall reveal to your agape. 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 HEARD HIM WITH HER EARS, BUT WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY PERSON TO TOUCH HIM 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 Mother, who stayed with her at the time of the Saving Passion, and were intent upon annointing the Lord’s body with myrrh. When Joseph and Nicodemos 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 Luke tells us when he writes, "And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, 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 24:10).

He says that they returned and bought spices and ointments (cf. Luke 23:56). As ye 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 IS OF HI BODY, IS ABOVE ALL 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. (Resources: The Homilies)

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

(To be continued)

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

With sincere agape in His Glorious and Life-Giving Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George