Homily for Great Saturday #
Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
Yesterday, we venerated the burial shroud, which is a symbol of Christ’s death. We honored the Lord’s long-suffering, His Passion, and His sacrificial love for all mankind. It is difficult to reconcile what we do now—venerating the Cross and the shroud—with what once was: when Christ died in the flesh upon a rough wooden Cross after many sufferings. Before that terrible execution, Christ spent the night face to face with approaching death. He prayed to the Father: “Let this cup pass from Me,” but then, strengthened in spirit, He said: “Thy will be done.” Then we hear in the Gospel how He was beaten and tortured for a long time, and in humility He died a slow death on the Cross, never uttering a word of cowardice or reproach. The only words He spoke to the Father at that moment were about His tormentors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The events of the Lord’s Passion pass before us, and all of it happened to Him out of love for mankind. Christ had told His disciples beforehand: “No man taketh My life from Me—I lay it down of Myself.” He completed the work of our salvation to the very end, but what a terrible price this saving love for mankind demanded!
The death of Christ speaks to us of the joy of His Resurrection, but today, at the foot of the Cross, we see His weeping Mother—the Most Pure Virgin—who offers to the world a priceless gift: Her Son, for the salvation of mankind. She loved her Son more than anyone in the world. He is dying, and She, in compassion, dies with Him in spirit; and in Her long-suffering, She forgives the murderers of Her Divine Son, that She might then have the right to pray before Him for our salvation. This right the Most Holy Mother of God received by sharing in the Cross and death of Her Son.
Afterwards, the Lord’s body was taken down from the Cross by His disciples, who had once been secret followers but now, in the face of death, revealed themselves without fear. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus carried the Lord’s body to a tomb in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And now before us lies the burial shroud, where Christ’s body is depicted with His Mother and His disciples. As we venerate this holy image, let us do so with deep reverence and awe, understanding with all our soul that the horror of Christ’s death rests on one thing: our sin. Each of us who sins bears responsibility for this death, for it happened because we have lost the fear of God and turned away from His commandments. As we gaze upon the burial shroud, let us hear the weeping of the Mother of God, feel the dread of the disciples, and the sorrow and groaning of all the earth.
Let us give thanks to God for our salvation, purchased by Jesus Christ and the Mother of God at so great and fearful a price—so freely given to us, yet which we so often pass by with indifference. Let us sing glory to God for the Cross, for the death, for the fact that death is no longer the end for us, but only a sleep, the beginning of eternity.
Today we abide in the stillness of the most-blessed Saturday, when the Lord rested in the flesh from His sufferings. All the most dreadful and painful things have passed, and as we look upon His body depicted on the shroud, we may be filled with a sense of peace and quiet. The Lord descended into the abyss, into the very depths of hell, to that place where there is no God and no hope. When He entered that realm, hell was shaken and terrified, and a miracle took place—hell lost its power and was conquered. In the Resurrection of Christ, heaven, earth, and the underworld were filled with light. When the Victor over death, Jesus, appeared in hell, all its captives were illumined with the light of Christ, and the righteous who had long awaited Him came forth from the dark prison, following the victorious Shepherd. Jesus Christ, by His Divinity, by His Cross, by His Light, bound the dark and evil power of the devil and freed the whole enslaved human race.
Before the Resurrection of Christ, death was terrifying to man—it separated him from God and from those he loved. But after the Resurrection, immortality shone forth, and instead of death, man found repose and eternal life. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55), the Apostle exclaims with triumphant joy.
Saint Gregory Palamas writes in his homilies for Holy Saturday: “By His sacrifice, Christ freed us from slavery to the devil and death, giving His own blood as a ransom. He redeemed us from guilt, forgiving our sins and tearing up the handwriting of them upon the Cross; He redeemed us from the tyranny of the devil, who was firmly bound and publicly shamed by the Cross of Christ.” The saint continues: “Let us also, imitating Christ by our righteousness, overcome the prince of darkness, repelling his attacks and incitements to sinful passions. And though Christ has conquered and bound the leader of evil, casting him out from the souls of men, He yet allows him to attack from without, so that the renewed man, living according to the Gospel of Christ, in virtue and repentance, enduring suffering and thus being tempered, may prepare himself in this life to attain the future heavenly blessings.”
The death of Christ has forever drawn out from hell all that is capable of life; it has abolished the dread of mortal enslavement. Now we call death “repose,” that is, a temporary sleep. The sufferings of Christ have sanctified our earthly sufferings for the sake of truth and faith, transforming the wrath of God into the hope of salvation in the Kingdom of eternal glory. What is our grave now? It is no longer a grim and hopeless place of decay, but a blessed bed of rest, where our body—wearied from life’s struggle—lies in peace until the joyful morning of the Resurrection. And the grave of a righteous one is God’s field, where the perishable is sown in order to rise in incorruption. When the righteous depart this life, they go not into the abyss of God-forsakenness and despair, but to God—who has loved us so greatly that He gave His Only-Begotten and Beloved Son as a sacrifice, that we might believe in His love. He died that we might believe we are beloved by Him, and thus, having died with Him, rise also with Him unto eternal life, casting off from our souls, as an old garment, all that is corruptible and passing.
Now, in death, what stands before us is not dry and lifeless bones, not fear or despair, but the life-filled joy of the coming Resurrection and the victory over death. Already we may glorify the Resurrection as we stand before the shroud, which bears the image of the much-suffering body of Jesus, who has triumphed over death. And we shall soon celebrate that victory, and sing in gladness, awaiting with hope and joy the moment when that Paschal proclamation reaches us—when the churches resound with the triumphant hymn of Christ’s Resurrection! May the Lord grant this to us all!