Anania vardapet, on the completion (martyrdom) of Peter at the Cross

Anania vardapet, on the completion (martyrdom) of Peter at the Cross "And the blessed Peter, having arrived at the place of completion," he celebrated upon the Cross of the heavenly Father with sweet fragrance. And standing before the Cross, filled with the Holy Spirit, he wished to reveal the mystery of the Cross, which had been revealed to him by the Lord, to whom he stood near in a manifest vision of his Spirit, which had become invisible, and with courage trampling the fear of death, he commanded that he be hung head-downwards. And he began to speak to those who had drawn near, upon a high and lofty platform, proclaiming to the hearers of the vision the hidden mystery of the Cross, which previously they could not hear, but now, through the All-Holy, having been able to comprehend the wisdom of the Spirit that spoke in him, for just as the rays of the sun are impressed upon a clear mirror and from there emit gleams, so they illuminate those who draw near. Thus also Peter, exalted, fully filled with the Holy Spirit, radiating with light, filled the surrounding multitudes, and because of this he said: "Now you have heard, you who are illuminated by the Spirit, that which 'previously you could not hear or know.'

Thus also it was with the prophets: when the prophets were filled with the Spirit, the worthy ones who were near them were filled with the Spirit along with them. As with David, when he sang the tunes of the psalms, Asaph and Idithum and many others were filled with the Spirit, so also when Peter was filled with the Spirit, all were filled with the Holy Spirit, as in the upper room there. "And Peter, standing before the Cross, began to speak thus: 'O name of the Cross, hidden mystery,'" for the name "Cross" holds the mystery of torments, and the torments are the destroyers of passions. According to that, the old man in us became a cross-bearer with him, and he who is tormented in body is justified in soul, for he who dies in body is justified from sins, and if we die with him, we shall also live. Behold, death and life, concurrent, are joined together in one, in one single subject they abide. This is the name of the Cross: the slayer of death and the death-bringer of passions, and the life-giver of souls.

Therefore it says: "O ineffable grace upon the Cross spoken," from it death issued, and the death that brings death and the source of life, the life-giver of the dead, for the same name of the Cross slays death alive, and what is seized from it, it makes alive and rescues into incorruptible life. This was the hidden mystery of the Cross and the ineffable graces revealed from it. "O human nature, unable to separate from God." Because of having naturally the seminal Word in the nature, planted by the Creator, as children toward their parents, not knowingly but naturally pitying the parent, but naturally moved necessarily having the natures to perpetually play in these. Then therefore: by nature man had the co-playing movement from the first cause, having been generated and rooted in existence. For which reason he necessarily has movement to revert to the archetype, and is unable to separate, with whom he was created according to the image.

Thus also the prototype could not endure or withdraw from its own image by separation. For this reason, it naturally possesses the reciprocal movements of compassion toward the type of its own image, but rather, following intently, it has surged forth, united itself in ineffable union, and mingled with its own nature in an unbreakable bond, remaining attached. And now, hear from the successor what the one overwhelmed by love for Christ says: "I compel you now to my fulfillments," having become, O my soul, to be crucified with Christ, and to forcibly seize the kingdom, having Christ as a co-worker in the spectacle of battle. And now, O hidden mystery of the Cross, reveal yourself now, for I cannot bear to keep the ancient mystery of the Cross closed in my soul, for the mystery of the Cross was somehow concealed. And now, "it is not only the Cross that appears to you now," but what is hidden within it is a terrible power, above all powers, for it bears up all creation within itself.

And now I shall make known to you the power of the ineffable mystery, which previously you were not able to hear and endure. “Now, at my completion, hear me. From all the perceptible things of this life, separate yourselves,” for the soul is created according to the image of God and has the body as an instrument for the conduct of life, which things are not true, but rather shadows, vain and empty of the life of vanity. Therefore, let the soul not be distracted by the hand of these senses, bound to the conduct of life and occupied with vanities, lest it be estranged from the true life. Rather, stand apart from these visible things, which are the deceivers of the senses. Now, “Close your eyes to visible sights,” lest you be deceived by vanities, lest you be enchanted and bound by vain rumor, unable to receive the word of true teaching. Conceal also your manifest works, which raise you up in vain glory, lest you cast down those who have become the proclamation of truth and through whom you will make known all the mysteries of salvation from the revelation of the Spirit which you have received; do not turn away by openly rejecting the knowledge of the Spirit which you have received.

For it is necessary for all to turn and ascend the Cross of Christ, which is the Word ordained for all.” He does not speak of the wooden cross, but calls the Word itself the Cross. As Ephrem says concerning that matter: “That which did not know sin, for the sake of our sin made—that is, the body—the Cross.” Therefore, he calls the Cross the tormented body of Christ. And he says to us: it is necessary to turn from pleasure and to imitate the crucified body of Christ. As Evagrius teaches us: “The body of Christ is the works of righteousness.” As our Lord Jesus Christ decreed: “He who does not take up his Cross and come after me, shall not inherit my kingdom.” Therefore, he called the way of death the Cross, concerning which he said: “It is necessary to ascend the Cross,” according to that: “If we die with Christ, with him we shall also live.” He calls the Cross the ordained Word, one and [...] Christ: “Word and Voice of God.

Now, look at the word of faith in truth: for what he called the Cross, which is the suffering of Christ, that same he called the Word, one and only the Voice of God, and did not divide into two, but called the Word the Cross, and the same Word he called the Holy Spirit, Christ. "For the same Word is the straight timber on which I am crucified, and he called the crooked timber the nature of man, which he set before him. O the great wonder of the mystery!" For the wooden-formed Cross he called only the image and likeness of the truth, a representation. But the true Cross he called the same Word himself from the Father. And now, it is necessary for us to take up from the life of this world and to be nailed inseparably to the Word of God, according to the apostle: "I die by the examples of the examples." And now, see in that same body both mortality and divine life concurrent, for I shall live by God and shall go up with Christ onto the Cross. Behold, Cross and Life conjoined, and I am not living, but Christ is living in me.

Behold the true death and the genuine life. Therefore, that which stands by itself in this life is truly dead to that life and has gone to the Cross of Christ. For this reason, he also clearly showed the example from the crossbar of the Cross. He says: The straight wood is the Word, which did not deviate to evil and did not stumble and fall, but stood firm, established on the earth. For although it bore the sins of all, it was not itself tainted, as John said: "I am not sufficient to untie the knots of the new cords, for not even the straight line of sins was bound to it." Therefore, all of humanity, beginning from the first-created, stumbled and fell with the slippery sins, was struck down, fell to the earth, like the example of the crooked wood, which could not stand upright by nature, but fell and lay low on the earth.

Then, the second Adam alone stood upright with an unyielding nature. And for the fallen one into the abyss of perdition, he bowed down like the base of the Cross, and he nailed our fallen nature to the Cross, together with himself, like the crooked wood. Again, he stands with himself, raising the fallen one higher than the heavens, drawing out the height of the fallen ones from the depths, as he said: "The nail is the turning and repentance of man," which is bound by a nail to the straight wood, which is the Word of God. And the same Christ called the straight wood the Word and the Voice of God. For, whoever has entered after the awakened and sharpened ones, first awakens by the Voice, and then teaches the truth by the Word. And so then, hearing the Voice of God, he signified that Voice which Adam heard in Paradise—the Voice of the departure of the Lord God in Paradise—and, awakened, he hid from the Voice and, condemned by the Word, was expelled from Paradise.

And now, it was necessary for that same Voice, by which Adam had fallen short, to call out after the one who had fled and to turn him back to Himself, and by that same Word which condemned Adam to death, to become severe toward him concerning life. For it was impossible for anyone else to believe that Adam could again receive life, even though from many the good news of blessings was heard from the prophets, until that same Voice and Word of God came, and by that same Voice He turned him back, and by that Word He promised him immortal life. And now, see the form of the Cross stretched out toward the west with its arms, because man's expulsion from the Garden of Eden and, being separated from the tree of life, he turned toward the west, driven in opposite direction toward the lower darkness, having turned his back on the eastern light of the Garden of life. For this reason also the Lord, having stretched out His arms toward the west, cried out with a mighty voice to turn back those who had fled toward the light of truth, and having gathered into His arms those who had fled, with a love united in truth He built the Church and founded it upon the Petrine rock, which the gates of hell could not strike against the firmness of the rock.

Because of this, Peter, the foundation of the Church, turns the Church from the West to the East, toward the Garden of Life. For this reason, he commands that he be crucified head-downward, and "he changes all his forms in opposition to the first man, who transformed his forms by turning the good into evil, whereby he considered the right left and the left right, and the good things together with others." "And this was the Lord's instruction, teaching us mystically." And now, observe the humility: for when Adam descended from the Garden, turning his face toward the darkness, giving his back to the light, he saw not only the darkness but also the pleasure of sins, which is the true darkness of souls, which he thought to be light. As David says: I said, "Darkness, then, covered me," and the night of sins instead of the light of my softness. For I thought it was the light of softness, and I remained deprived of the vision of light.

Does it not clearly show by the example the turning of the mind from the vision of true light to the dense darkness of the Egyptian-begotten passions of the body, by the inactivity of the true light's vision? Again, he turned the right side to the north and the left to the south, concerning which Solomon says: "The north wind, though it is a storm, is called 'right-hand' in Asia." And to whom shall it be called 'right-hand,' if not to those who are set facing the darkness and have given their backs to the eastern light? For this reason it is called the storm, the harshness of the northern air, because it is never warmed by the sun's heat nor illuminated, due to its distant habitation, being curved away from that place of openness, remaining unshared by all the luminaries, enveloped in cold and darkness, like the place of dark sins, which has its own part without share in the light of knowledge, being set in evils, surrounded by a dark wall.

This man had a successful work, easily undertaken, insatiably rejoicing from the light toward the darkness. But having turned the gaze toward the south, he became inactive in the fruits of the light; for the south is always turned and always illuminated by the proximity of the sun's light, from which the man, having fallen away from the good of the light, would perform piety unsuccessfully, being alienated from the good by inactivity. But Peter, turning these forms of faces toward the darkness of men, would turn his own toward the light of eastern knowledge, which the prophet proclaimed to our faces: "Arise, Jerusalem, from the death of darkness and look toward the east, toward Christ, the Sun of righteousness, and see your salvation rising from the east, to which he ascended." And his church looked, amazed, astonished, not knowing the hidden mystery. And having learned from the angel that this Jesus, who ascended, will likewise come from the east to illuminate his saved church.

And here Peter fulfills the word of the Lord, that you not turn back the instrument of evil, which seems to you successful and easily borne toward the works of the darkness of the northern tyranny, and that you render the same fearful one by the inactivity of evil, not causing the manifold instrument of evil to exist, and the fearful one inactive from piety into the work of piety, to stand before the southern light, the south-bearing sun shining with righteousness. And to turn the later faces, which are fixed toward the east with neglect, toward the west, to be always blind in evils, always leaving the tormenting darkness of sins behind, by the inactivity of evil. And to keep the seeing power of the faces always fixed upon the eastern bright radiance, by which the vision of the soul, always delighted, luxuriates. As long as we were in evil, we were freed from righteousness, and we did not have a straight portion of piety, but with ceaseless, uninterrupted, harmonious delight we were intent upon evil with irreversibility, proceeding after the darkness.

In accordance with that same concept, by turning back toward the light of truth, let us proceed with unhindered haste, by turning back the evil ones to become sons of light and sons of peace, reborn into the living light, formed according to the original imprint of light, filled with the shadowless light of knowledge, and, according to the footsteps, according to Peter, to direct our steps toward the heavenly capital, whose architect and creator is God. Not to fix the footsteps on the earth, lest the lurking serpent again encounter us to bite our steps that are toward God, but naked, according to Moses: to ascend from the footsteps upon the holy earth and to take the royal road of the serpent's venom, which is the same Self, the true Life, Christ, and the unengraved rock, the creeping primordial evil serpent, which Solomon bound, but did not know the tracks of Israel's thirsty stone on the unengraved rock's path.

«And with Peter, raising the eye of the soul, always to behold Christ before the eyes,» «to speak with him in thanksgiving, not with these lips, which, moved by the arts, through the composition of words and the approach of proximity, bring forth the disposition of the passions of the new selves in a presentation with a fitting movement, and not with a mouth from which both false and true emerge. With that speech I shall thank you, which is understood in silence,» and with that same eye of the soul, which is unknowable to the existence of this world, by which one worships the Father, recognizes the Son, and illuminates the Spirit, through communion with them. With that same one, to bless and give thanks with him, to cry out with ineffable joy. «You, my Father, reborn into the living hope, you, my brother, firstborn from the womb of the font, you, my steward, going and preparing a place for us, coming and taking us, you, everything in everything, life-giving and our deliverer.»

Because your natural merciful compassion, which you always have for us, came to the aid of your good shepherd, the wandering sheep that had become prey to the beast, and with might you snatched from the lion's mouth the earlobe of the first ancestor, which by deafness became food for the evil beast of death, and the two jaws of the first ancestor, which were bound by the evil courses of the lion. By knowledge of the evil one, you supposed the deified one, which is truly the kind of evil from the unskilled knowledge of the arts, by which he was bound with the rope of sins, so that he might no longer run in the most evil course and ascent, which is the cause of the fall. And fixed with unbreakable bonds to the death-dealing wood, captive and servant of death forever, no one had the means to release him. For which reason, the parent mercifully bowed from the heights and came to seek the lost one. "And, taking his bound feet, he fastened them with nails to the cross-wood, so that he might release" the bound feet of the first ancestor, as if to drive out nails with nails.

Thus with nails they fastened the innocent feet of the Lord to the Cross. The nails of the feet of the one who sinned, cast into the abyss, released the one bound by sins. For this reason the feet of the Lord were nailed to the lower side of the Cross, because the feet of Adam were bound to the lower side of darkness. And from then on he was no longer able to ascend to the upper world, but descended into the lower abyss. But the feet of the Lord, directed toward the lowly, signified the descent from heaven to earth, coming in search of the lost one. And they were nailed to the lower side of the Cross, so that my God might release the bound feet of the forefather, and glory to him for eternity. Amen.