The Holy Myrrhbearers and Contemporary Christian Women
by S. V. Bulgakov
The diligence of the Holy Myrrhbearing Women is truly
great and their fervent love for the Lord is constant. Free from every earthly
predilection their hearts lived and breathed only for the Lord: all their thoughts,
desires and hope were concentrated in Him and all their blessings and treasure
consisted in Him. For the sake of their beloved Teacher they willingly leave
their homes, their close and known relatives, forget the weakness of their
gender, are not frightened by the cruelty of the numerous enemies of the Lord,
steadily follow Him everywhere, long-sufferingly pass through the cities and
villages with Him and minister to Him from their means.
They do not abandon
their beloved Teacher during His suffering and His death. Trailing behind with
love, they accompany the Lord also to Golgotha and they look upon the Crucified
One, taking measure of the compassionate feeling of His extreme suffering.
Having disdained all the dangers of the frantic enemies of Christ, they finally
come nearer, to His very cross and by their participation ease the unquenchable
grief and illness of His All-pure Mother. Having fervently served the Lord with
their means during His lifetime, they do not stop serving Him even after His death.
According to their internal burning love of their Divine Teacher they will
zealously render Him the final burial honor: the anointing of His body with
aromatic spices (Mk. 15:40, 47, 16:1-2; Mt. 27:55; Lk. 23:28-31, 49-56, 24:1;
Jn. 19:25). In a holy impulse to see and to visit the tomb of the Lord they
forget about themselves, about their need for rest, do not remember the
obstacles and dangers, and even the weakness of their gender does not stop
them. Such is the true love of the holy women for the Lord. It is continual,
pure and simple, deep and strong. The burning continual love, the sincerest
unquenched diligence of the holy women was worthily rewarded by the Lord
Himself. The Holy Myrrhbearing Women, who preceded every one to the tomb of the
Lord, also went before everyone in the joy of the Resurrection (Mt. 28:1-10;
Mk. 16:6; Lk. 24:1-11). From this time the holy women have become true
witnesses equally with Holy Apostles to the resurrection of Christ for all the
people.
The ardor and continual love of the Holy Myrrhbearers
for the Lord also serves as an example for our love for Him. By the example of
the holy women, we also should strengthen in our hearts the true self-denying
love for our Savior. Even the strength of our love for Him should be like
those, as the holy Apostle says, that nothing could separate us from Him,
neither things present nor things to come, neither life nor death, neither
angels nor men (Rom. 8:38-39). Besides this, in the example of the Holy Myrrhbearing
Women the Holy Church presents a spiritual healing for all Christians tempted
with sorrows, leading to depression. Like the holy women, wounded with fierce
grief during the scene of their Lord and Savior, crucified on the cross and
buried in a tomb, however searched for unique comfort in that tomb where all
their happiness and life were hidden and found this desired comfort, so it is
that each Christian soul should seek consolation in the sorrows and grief at
the tomb and cross of the Savior.
Together with this, the life and labors of the Holy
Myrrhbearing Women themselves represent an example of the true-Christian
pursuit of the Christian woman. Her calling on earth is that this is according
to privilege a life of the heart in all its lawful displays. An example of the
Holy Myrrhbearers and the contemporary Christian woman is likewise called to
serve the indigent from their means, to ease the situation of the disabled by
their labor, comfort the sorrowful and the sick and, to care "not for the
beauty of the body, not for the external braiding of the hair, not about gold
finery and elegance in clothes, but about the secret heart of the person in the
incorruptible beauty of the gentle and taciturn spirit, that is precious before
God" (l Pet. 3:З-4; 1 Tim. 2:9, 12), i.e. about the development and
improvement in the Christian spirit of internal spiritual qualities, especially
of the good and loving heart.
(See Rukovodstvo dlia Seljskikh Pastirej (Manual for
Village Pastors) 1892, 15; Smolenskiia Eparkhialniia Vestnik (Smolensk Diocesan
Messenger), 1891, 9).
Source
Read also The Myrrhbearing Women and the Christian
Women of Today by Elder Sofian (Boaghiu).
