Sermons & Homilies
Today is the Second Sunday of Pascha on which we commemorate the myrrh-bearing women as well as Sts. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. In looking at their lives, we do not see them comparable to the Apostles who lived with Jesus for three years, witnessed His miracles, and listened to His teaching. Nor is their life similar to the Apostle Paul who would come later and would be taught by the Lord through Divine visions. Instead, the myrrh-bearers were women, second-class citizens who are denied the benefits of social, political, and economic equality. Joseph and Nicodemus were both secret disciples of Christ and had never previously publicly revealed their commitment to Him or their willingness to sacrifice their reputations or their life for Him.
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One week ago we commemorated the Sunday of All Saints, which is always the first Sunday after Pentecost. On the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended from Heaven in the form of tongues of fire in order to unite Himself with the holy disciples and apostles of Christ. When the Holy Spirit descends unites Himself with man, man is utterly transfigured and becomes godlike. And last Sunday we saw the results of this descent and transfiguration: we saw the entire host of heaven gathered together, the assembly of All Saints. And likewise today, on the second Sunday after Pentecost, it is the custom of the Holy Orthodox Church to commemorate all the local saints of the particular nation in which the feast is being celebrated. But today, we celebrate the memory of All Saints of Russia.
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One of the hymns for Vespers during “Lord, I have cried…” on Sunday says that Christ “hath renewed the ascent into the heavens.” If we are told that the ascent into the heavens has been renewed, then it must be that man was supposed to ascend into the heavens in the first place. With a most penetrating and unique divine vision, St. Symeon the New Theologian unfolds to us what would have been if we had not fallen. And this vision of his also fully unravels what is taking place today in the human nature of Christ, and therefore, in our human nature:
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We stand at a spiritual crossroad today—two martyrs with insuppressible love for Christ are both commemorated today: St. George—the glorious, faithful and pure lover of Christ who was filled with divine love from His youth; and St. Photini—the repentant Samaritan woman, who, after Christ came to her and revealed her sins and told her plainly that He was the long-awaited Messiah of the Jews and the Savior of all mankind; after this, she acknowledged her sins, cast them aside and went straightway in her zeal with haste to preach this Good News to all her kinsman and fellow-neighbors.
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The Gospel tells us that Thomas was not with the other disciples on the day when Christ rose from the dead and appeared to them. Therefore, when the disciples saw Thomas, they announced to him that they had seen the Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Thomas replies, saying, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).
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