In diem sabbati sancti

A discourse of Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, for Holy Saturday. We celebrate today the funeral feast of our saviour. And while he below among the dead is loosening the bonds of death, filling Hades with light, and awakening those who have fallen asleep, we above the earth dance, imagining the resurrection, and we do not fear corruption, lest it prevail over incorruption. For you will not, it says, allow your holy one to see decay. And perhaps Jews and Greeks laugh at our philosophy: the former awaiting another Christ, the latter having shut up their hopes in tombs, concerning whom the prophet fittingly says: Their tombs are their houses forever. But those who laugh will groan—for they will groan later, seeing the one whom they pierced and insulted—while we, weeping, shall mingle pleasure with the passion. Death seized the Lord Christ, but it will not keep life with itself. It swallowed him in ignorance, but it will vomit forth many along with him. Willingly he is now held; after this day, having plundered Hades, he rises. Yesterday he darkened the sun, crucified, and at midday night came on; today death is paralyzed, having received a strange corpse. Yesterday creation mourned, seeing the madness of the Jews, and put on darkness as a mourning garment; today the people sitting in darkness saw a great light. Yesterday the earth was shaken and considered flight, and threatened to split apart for its inhabitants; the mountains were struck, and the rocks were split; the temple was bare, as if a living being had rent its garment, showing through its sufferings how the holy things had been profaned.

The inanimate elements perceived the audacity, but those who dared such things had insensible souls. The elements were indignant, and they would have abandoned their order and wrought confusion in the universe, had they not perceived the will of the Creator, that he was not being insulted unwillingly. O new and paradoxical things! He who stretched out the heaven with a word is stretched out on wood; he who bound the sea with sand is bound with bonds; he who granted the fountains of honey is given gall to drink; he who crowned the earth with flowers is crowned with thorns; he who struck Egypt with the ten plagues and covered the head of Pharaoh with the waters is struck on the head with a reed; he whom the cherubim cannot bear to look upon is spat upon in the face. And suffering these things for the sake of those crucifying him, he prayed, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He conquers evil with goodness; he pleads for the Christ-killers, netting them for salvation; he dissolves the charge by blaming ignorance; he is not angered at becoming a plaything of their drunken violence; he accepts the madness and calls them to repentance with philanthropy. Why need I say more? Having rejected nothing of his goodness, they shut up in a tomb him whom none of existing things can contain, and they place seals upon it, guarding our salvation for us, and, fearing the resurrection, they set soldiers as guards over the tomb. Who has seen a dead man guarded? Or rather, who has seen a dead man warred against? Who has heard of a death that is disputed and instills fear in those who wrought it? Who, having taken the life of an enemy, has not ceased? Who, satisfied with the death of a foe, has not ended the enmity?

Why do you shrink from him whom you have destroyed, O Jew? Why do you fear him whom you have killed? Why do you tremble at him who has departed? Why are you afraid of him who has been slain? Why do you dread him whom you have crucified? You have security from the slaughter. Take courage: if the dead man was a mere human, he does not rise; if a mere human, you did well to set up the cross; if a mere human, he does not speak truth when he says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it”; if a mere human, he is held by death; if a mere human, why do you seal the tomb, fool? Wait for the third day, and you will see the refutation of your own madness. Cease your meddling, and you will behold the outcome of events; cease raging against the truth; cease warring against God and wounding yourself by that war; cease insulting the sun of righteousness and thinking to extinguish those rays; cease striving to block up the fountain of life; cease troubling the authorities and talking about a guard; cease purchasing falsehood and stirring up the soldiers. Do not labor in vain, do not waste your resources on impiety, do not imagine victory against God, do not give soldiers pay to say one thing instead of another, do not station a crowd by the tomb overnight, do not trust in arms. Resurrection is not prevented by arms, is not hindered by seals, is not barred by soldiers, is not stolen by money. But do you disbelieve? Did you not see Lazarus long ago shaking off death like sleep? Did you see how the corpse obeyed the command and the bond did not prevent it? Did you see how, with the very bandages, he walked when he heard, “Come out”? Did you see how the voice fitted together what death had dissolved?

He who was able to do those things will also be able to do these things; he who raised the slave is himself raised much more; he who gave life to the rotting corpse will not leave himself a dead body. But indeed the blindness of the Jews is great, and though they see the miracles, they do not see; they have eyes and do not see, they have ears and do not hear. For the god of this age has blinded their hearts so that the gospel of righteousness does not shine upon them. But let us leave them for now to their unbelief, and let us say with those around faithful Mary, fashioning in our minds the tomb of the savior: They have taken our Lord from us, and we do not know what they have done with him. Glory to him, together with the immaculate Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.