On this, the 3rd Sunday of Pascha, we commemorate St. Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Joanna, Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, Susanna, and Mary and Martha the sisters of Lazarus; and Sts. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who buried the Lord.
We also remember the Hieromartyr Mocius of Amphipolis (295), St. Cathan of Bute (6th c.), St. Asaph, Bishop of Llanelwy, Wales (6th c.), St. Comgall of Bangor (c. 603), St. Wiro, Irish missionary bishop to the Netherlands (710), the holy Equals to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius, Teachers of the Slavs, Rostislav, prince of Greater Moravia (870), Ven. Sophrony, Recluse of the Kiev Cave (13th c.), St. Joseph of Astrakhan (1671), St. Nicodemus, Archbishop of Serbia (1325), St. Bessarion, Archbishop of Larissa, and the New Martyrs Dioscorus and Argyrus of Thessalonica (1808).
All the universes, all the existing worlds and beings, hold on just a moment! Down all the hearts, all the minds, all the lives, all the immortalities, all the eternities because of all these, without Christ are hell for me, one hell after another; all are innumerable and endless hells and to the height and to the length and to the width. Life without Christ, death without Christ, truth without Christ, the sun without Christ, and universes without Him are all horrible foolishness, unbearable martyrdom, Sisyphian torment, hell! I want neither life nor death without Thee, O Most Sweet Lord! I want neither truth, justice, paradise, nor eternity. NO, no! I want only Thee, Thou only art everything, in and above all! The truth, if there is no Christ, is not needed by me, it is only a hell. Justice, love, good, and happiness, they are all the same hell without Christ; even God Himself is a hell if there is not Christ. I want neither the truth without Christ, nor justice without Christ, nor love without Christ, nor God without Christ. I do not want any of them, in any possible way! I will accept any kind of death, let you kill me in any way you want, because without Christ I want nothing. Neither myself, nor even God Himself, wants anything else between these two; I do not want it, I do not want it, I do not want it! (cf. Phil. 1:21 and 3:8)
Our Lord Jesus became man, so that "we may walk in Him," to live in Him, as an earthly God-man, and not to see Him from afar, to admire Him, and to philosophize Him . . . "Walk ye in Him," is the commandment of commandments, to live, namely, in Him, and Him not adjusting Himself to us, but ourselves to Him, not changing and altering Him according to Him: neither remodeling Him according to our image, but remodeling ourselves according to His Image. Only the haughty lunatics, these foolish soul-destroyers, falsify and distort the God-man Christ according to their wishes and their perceptions from which there are so many "pseudo-Christs" in the world, and so many pseudo-Christians. The true God-man Christ, however, in all the fulness of His evangelical God-human reality, is in a whole present in His God-human body the Church, as much during the time of the holy Apostles as today and forever. His God-human life is extended in the God-human body of the Church to the ages of ages. Living in the Church we are living "in Him" exactly as the Christ-like Apostle orders. And in this, in the most perfect and complete measure live the Saints, a fact which explains their miraculous sanctity. Living with the soul and body in Christ, the Saints are sanctified by Him, become Christ-like, divinized, become omnipotent, in the same way in the post-apostolic period as in the apostolic period. And in the same way now, and yesterday, and tomorrow, and always, "until the close of the age," they preserve the God-human image of Christ. (cf. Col. 2:6)
- From the writings of St. Justin Popovich of Serbia (+1979)
When wicked thoughts war with me, I do what a wayfarer would do if he were walking in the wilderness and suddenly saw a wild beast pursuing him; find a tree and climb up to the top to be saved. And so I flee to God with prayer and escape from the attack of wicked thoughts.
- Abba John the Short (5th c.)
St. Pachomius was an Egyptian by birth and was a pagan in his youth. As a soldier, he took part in the Emperor Constantine's war against Maxentius. After that, learning from Christians about the one God and seeing their devout life, Pachomius was baptized and went to the Tabennisiot desert, to the famous ascetic Palamon, with whom he lived in asceticism for ten years. Then an angel appeared to him in the robes of a monk of the Great Habit at the place called Tabennisi and gave him a tablet on which was written the rule of a coenobitic* monastery, commanding him to found such a monastery in that place and prophesying to him that many monks would come to it seeking the salvation of their souls.
Obeying the angel of God, Pachomius began building many cells, although there was no-one in that place but himself and his brother John. When his brother grumbled at him for doing this unnecessary building, Pachomius simply told him that he was following God's command, without explaining who would live there, or when. But many men soon assembled in that place, moved by the Spirit of God, and began to live in asceticism** under the rule that Pachomius had received from the angel.
When the number of monks had increased greatly, Pachomius, step by step, founded six further monasteries. The number of his disciples grew to seven thousand. St. Anthony is regarded as the founder of the eremitic life [the life of the hermit], and St. Pachomius of the monastic, communal life. The humility, love of toil an abstinence of this holy father were and remain a rare example for the imitation of monks. St. Pachomius performed innumerable miracles, and also endured innumerable temptations from demons and men. And he served men as both father and brother. He roused many to set out on the way of salvation, and brought many into the way of truth. He was and remains a great light in the Church and a great witness to the truth and righteousness of Christ. He entered peacefully into rest in 346, at the age of sixty. The Church has raised many of his followers to the ranks of the saints: Theodore, Job, Paphnutius, Pecusius, Athenodorus, Eponichus, Soutus, Psois, Dionysius, Petronius and others.
The angel of God asks the Myrrh-bearing women, as if in wonder, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" This witness of God and His power was seeming to say: "How could you for one moment imagine that He could be death's booty? Do you not know that He is the Source of Life? Do you not know that all life is through Him and the no living creature can borrow a single drop of life from any other source? Did He not show you clearly enough on earth His power over life and over death? Who gave life to the dead Lazarus? Who withdrew life from the barren fig-tree?"
O my brethren, let us stop seeking the living among the dead. If any of us is still doing so, let him stop this soul-destroying task. It is a vain task, one for Jews and pagans, not for Christians. We know that the Lord, the Giver of Life, is not in the Tomb but on His Throne in Glory in Heaven. A spirit undimmed by sin looks into the heavens and sees no tomb; but a spirit darkened by sin looks into the tomb and sees no heavens. Sin and virtue both govern the spiritual sight of man and reveal to him the whole of their realms, held in opposition one to the other. Sin turns the eyes of the spirit earthward and reveals the realm of corruption; virtue turns the eyes of the spirit heavenwards and reveals the realm of immortality, and the Risen Christ as the King of that realm. O my brethren, let us seek life, not of creation but of the Creator. And let us not commit the even graver sin of seeking the Creator in the created tomb, or the radiant Immortal One in the darkness of death.
O Lord Jesus, Thou Conqueror of death, we sing to Thee: raise us also up to eternal life from the corruption and darkness of death. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
- From The Prolog of St. Nicholai Velimirovic (+1959)