On the Holy Pascha
By St. Hesychios of Jerusalem [1]
1. Τhe call of the royal trumpet. It is a sacred and royal trumpet
that calls us again to this spiritual theater, the Paschal celebration in the
Church. This trumpet was filled with sounds in Bethlehem, because it was there
that God was born as man. Bethlehem was the beginning. But this trumpet was
fired, reached its full blast in Zion, Jerusalem. Because it was in Jerusalem
that the Cross was raised and the Resurrection took place. The Cross was the
hummer and the Resurrection the anvil. It is impossible to everyone to speak
worthily of its beauty, to describe its wondrous splendor, to recount the
divine kingdom which emerges from it, to touch it and to explore it.
2. Its message: the dead God who cancels death. This paschal
trumpet invites us to revisit the grave which gives birth to life, the
sepulcher of corruption which becomes the bearer of incorruption, the three-day
rest[2] which puts the Bridegroom to sleep, and the bridal chamber from which
the bride emerges uncorrupted after the marriage. It tells us that the grave
guards one who is dead,[3] but the earth is shaken by Him who is God.[4] The
body says that He is dead, but the miracle cries out that He is God. The burial
testifies that He is dead, but the resurrection demonstrates that He is God.
The tears of the women confess Him to be dead,[5] but the words of the angels
confess Him to be God.[6] Joseph prepares His internment as dead,[7] but He who
is interred as man is God who denudes and abolishes death. The soldiers guard
Him as dead, but the guards of the gates of Hades encounter Him and shrivel
with fear.
3. The main theme: the mystery of the Godman. Who then is this dead
God, is He two or one? No He is not two, but one, man and God, God and man. You
cannot speak of Him as this one and that one, i.e. as one person and another
person, nor as another thing in another person, nor another thing through
another person. This One is “God the Word who became incarnate,”[8] became man,
and conjoined by His will in a manner ineffable and these (human) things with
those (divine) things. To Him belong both the flesh and the Godhead – the flesh
which He offered in order to accomplish the sufferings, and the Godhead which
He used in order to achieve the signs and miracles. As it is illegitimate to
sever the flesh from the Word, so it is necessary to conjoin the sufferings
with the miracles. Because, He who “descended into Hades”[9] is also the one
who freed the dead as God. How else would the angels minister at the grave? How
else would they appear to the women “dressed in white”[10] as representatives
of the bridegroom? How else would they say, “Do you seek Jesus who was
crucified? He is not here. He is risen as He had fore-announced it?”[11]
Heaven, then, is His “place,”[12] and there you should send the
“ointments.”[13] “He is Risen” by Himself.[14] We did not raise Him. We only
“rolled” the stone for your sake.[15] The grace was empty before we came down
to it. He is risen as He himself had fore-announced it.[16]
4. The Witness of the Prophets. The angel also said that neither
the prophets could explain the mystery although they fore-announced it. Hosea
spoke about the time of the Resurrection. Isaiah fore-saw it, but did not know
how it would be accomplished. The prophesy of Hosea is as follows: “Come and
let us return to the Lord our God, because He has captured us and will heal us,
He will wound us and will attend to our wounds within two days. On the third
day we shall rise again and will live in His presence.”[17] Listen also to the
words of Isaiah: “Lebanon was made low and Sharon was changed into swamps.
Galilee and Carmel will be exalted. Because now I will rise again, says the
Lord; now I will be glorified; now I will be exalted. Now you will see, and
will be brought to shame.”[18] To the Jews were these words addressed. “Now I
will rise again,” because now I will raise Adam, who was thrown into death by
the transgression. “Now I will be glorified,” because I will demonstrate to the
nations the impassibility of My passion. “Now I will be exalted,” because now I
will raise to heaven your “firstfruits,”[19] and will raise “the form of the
servant”[20] which I took from you to heaven and place it on the Cherubic
throne. “Now you will see,” the types to be removed and the truth to blossom
(open like a bud). “Now you will be brought to shame,” because of the words
which you used in order to slander Me; because you were defeated from the
events; because the glory belongs to God, to the Father and to the Son and to
the Holy Spirit, now and always and into the ages of the ages, Amen.
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[1] The presbyter Hesychios was a teacher in Jerusalem during the first half of
the 5th century AD. He was distinguished for his exegesis of the Bible and for
his Sermons. The original text of the present Homily was published by Michel
Aubineau in Subsidia Hagiographica 59 (1978) σσ. 112-116.
[2] (Matth. 27:63)
[3] (Matth. 27:62-66)
[4] (Matth. 28:2)
[5] (John 20:13)
[6] (Matth.28:5-6, Μark 16:6-7, Luke 24:5-7)
[7] (Matth.27:57-60, Μark 15:42-46, Luke 23:50-53, John 19:38-42)
[8] (John 1:14)
[9] (Εph. 4:9-10)
[10] (Matth.28:3, Mark 16:5, John 20:12, Luke24:4)
[11] (Matth.28:5-6, Mark 16:6)
[12] (Matth.28:6, Mark 16:6)
[13] (Luke 23:56, 24:1 Μark 16:1)
[14] (Matth.28:6, Μark 16:6)
[15] (Matth.28:2, Μark 16:3-4, Luke 24:2)
[16] (Matth.28:6)
[17] (Hosea 6:1-2)
[18] (Isaiah 33:9-11)
[19] (I Cor. 15:20)
[20] (Phil. 2:6)
