Archive for the ‘Holy Pascha Week’ Category
The Cross (John 12:27-36)
A marvelous and mighty paradox has just occured; for the death, which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument of victory against death itself. Therefore, it is also, that He neither endured the death of John, who was beheaded, nor was He sawn asunder, like Isaiah: even in death He preserved His body whole and undivided, so that there should be no excuse hereafter for those who would divide the Church.
Originally posted 2006-04-18 20:35:38.
Why was our Lord wearing white?
It is significant that Jesus is clothed in a white garment by Herod. It denotes His sinless passion; because the Lamb of God without stain and with glory accepted the sins of the world. (John 1:29) Herod and Pilate, who became friends instead of enemies through Jesus Christ, symbolize the peoples of Israel and the Gentiles, since the future harmony of both follows from the Lord's passion (Eph 2:13) First, the people of the nations capture the Word of God and bring it to the people of the Jew, through the devotion of their faith. They clothe with glory the body of Christ, who they had previously despised.
Note: Now our Lord is wearing the white garments, but in the next hour, they shall be crimson, reddened by our sins and stained by our iniquities.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:42:51.
The punishment of the wicked (Matt 25:30)
In this parable, the nobleman going into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return, is none other than Christ going into another country to receive the kingdoms of this world and the things in it; those who receive the ten talents are those who have been entrusted with the dispensation of the Word which has been committed unto them; His citizens who did not wish Him to reign over them when He was a citizen in the world in respect of His incarnation, are perhaps Israel who disbelieved Him, and perhaps also the Gentiles who disbelieved Him.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 22:55:37.
Who is Zachariah son of Berachiah?
St. Jerome thinks that in his time there were three options as to who this Zechariah was:
- The prophet Zachariah was one of the minor prophets, even though his father's name is in the accordance with the Lord's words. But the Book did not mention anything about the shedding of his blood between the temple and the altar, particulary because the temple at his time was merely in ruins.
- Some others think he is Zachariah, John the Baptist's father, who has been killed because of his prophecy about the Savior's coming. But St. Jerome does not accept this suggestion.
- He is Zachariah killed by Joach, King of Judea, as mentioned in 2 Chr. 24:21. But his father's name is mentioned in the Holy Book as Jehoioda. St. Jerome believes that this man had two names: Berachia, meaning "blessing" or "blessed from the Lord," and Jehoiada meaning "holiness."
Originally posted 2006-04-18 19:56:36.
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Originally posted 2006-04-13 17:39:41.
Why didn't He defend Himself? Why was He silent?
The Lord became the defender of truth, and came in silence before Pilate, on behalf of truth which had been oppressed (John 18:37-38). Others gain victory through making defenses, but our Lord gained victory through His silence, because the recompense of His death through divine silence was the victory of true teaching. He spoke inorder to teach, but kept silent in the tribunal. He was not silent over that which was exalting us, but He did not stuggle against those who were provoking Him. The worlds of His accusers, like a crown on His head, were a source of redemption. He kept silent so that His silence would make them shout even louder, and so that His crown would be made more beautiful through all his clamor.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:38:40.
"My soul is very sorrowful"
The Lord, to test the fidelity of the human nature He had taken on, truly felt sorrowful. However, lest the suffering in His soul be overwhelming, He began to feel sorrowful over the events taking place just before His suffering. For it is one thing to feel sorrowful and another thing to begin to feel sorrowful. But He felt sorrowful, not because He feared the suffering that lay ahead and because He had scolded Peter for his timidity but because of the most unfortunate Judas, the falling away of all the apostles, the rejection by the Jewish people, and the overturning of woeful Jerusalem. Jonah, too, became sad when the plant of ivy had withered, unwilling to have this booth disappear.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:08:57.
The experience of the Eucharist
When we eat the holy body of Christ, our Savior of us all, and drink of His precious blood, we thus obtain the life in us, for we become as if we are one with Himl we dwell in Him, and He too reigns in us. Do not doubt, for this is true, since He is the One who says it clearly, This is My flesh, this is My blood.” (John 6) Rather, accept the word of the Savior in fath, for He is the Truth, who can never lie.
Originally posted 2006-04-19 22:56:35.
"His sweat became like great drops of blood…" (Luke 22:44)
He sweated to heal Adam who was sick. "It is by sweat of your brow," God said, "that you will eat your bread." (Gen 3:19) He remained in prayer in this garden to bring Adam back to his own garden again.
Originally posted 2006-04-20 18:03:39.
Wisdom and instruction
He who knows the wisdom of God, receives from Him also instruction, and learns by it the mysteries of the Word; and they who knew the true heavenly wisdom will easily understand the words of these mysteries. Wherefore he says: ?To understand the difficulties of words;? for things spoken in strange language by the Holy Spirit become intelligible to those who have their hearts right with God.
Originally posted 2006-04-17 20:04:40.
The washing of the feet, repentance and baptism
He who has been washed has need still to wash his feet…[for] in holy baptism a man has all of him washed, not everything but his feet, but every part. But after living in ths human state, he cannot fail to tread on the ground with his feet, Thus our human feelings themselves, which are inseparable from our mortal life on earth, are like feet with which we come into sensible contact with human affairs…
Therefore, every day He who intercedes for us is washing our feet. We, too have a daily need to be washing our feet, that is ordering aright the path of our spriritual footsteps, we acknowledge even in the Lord's prayer, when we say, "Forgive us our trespasses as we also forgive those who trespass against us." For "If we confess out sins," then truly He who washed His disciples' feet is "faithful and just to forgive us our sings, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
Accordingly the Church, which Christ cleanses with the washing of water in the word, is without spot and wrinkle, not only in the case of those who are taken away immediately after the washing of regeneration from the contagious influence of this life, and tread not the earth so aso to make necessary the washing of their feet, but in those also who have experienced such mercy from the Lord as to be enabled to quit this present life even with feet that have been washed.
But although the Church is also clean in respect of those who tarry on earth, because they live righteously; they still need to be washing their feet, because they assuredly are not without sin. This is why it is said in the Song of Songs, "I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" For one so speaks when he is constrained to come to Christ, and in coming has to bring his feet into contact with the ground.
Originally posted 2006-04-19 22:49:13.
