In Martham Mariam et Lazarum

On Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and the Prophet Elijah. All who bear the love of the Lord’s resurrection, genuinely receive the Christ-loving myrrh of the testimony just read. For already Mary anoints, and the Church is fragrant; already the alabaster is emptied, and the altar is filled with gladness. Mary anoints, Martha serves, and the one from the dead reclines with the Lord. For the race of men is honored, because man was made in the image of God, but woman from the image of man, glorifying the man, but not characterizing Christ. And who is witness to these things, that we may not incur blame? Listen to Paul crying out: For a man ought not to cover his head, being the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. And woman is the glory of her own husband; not of others, nor because of the ancient vain counsel, but because of the final genuine childbearing. For this genuine childbearing freed woman from the curse. And who is witness to these things? The same Apostle crying out: Adam was not deceived, nor did woman, being deceived, come to be in transgression. But she will be saved again through childbearing. Do you see that woman is saved through childbearing? Not because Eve aborted Cain, but because the glorious Virgin bore Jesus in her womb. So then Mary anoints, Martha serves, and Lazarus reclines with the Lord, as you have just heard. Mary depicts the Church; for the myrrh of the Church is inexhaustible. But Martha indicates the synagogue; for it is of little faith and fond of earthly things.

Lazarus bears the scepter of the resurrection, as you have just heard the evangelist proclaim: Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he raised from the dead. So they made a dinner for him there, and Martha served; and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Then Mary, taking a litra of costly spikenard ointment, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped them with her hair; and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. Do you see the work of a woman, and how she prefigured the Church? Mary drove away many women from their evil deeds, and taught them to carry a litra of ointment, and not to cut off the head of the Baptist; to anoint the Lord, and not to conspire with Judas; to let down their hair, and not to tighten their sins; to be called the sister of Lazarus, and not to be reputed a daughter of the devil. These things have been said by me against the synagogue of the Jews, which did not anoint the Lord, but gave him vinegar and gall, which is fond of blood, which always acts contrary to the Lord Christ, which strives to put to death Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead. And which is more faithful? The Lord raising, or those killing? As you have just heard the evangelist saying: A great crowd of Jews knew that Jesus was there; and they came not only for Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead; because many of the Jews were going over to him, and were believing in Jesus.

You have seen the synagogue of the Jews, how it is man-slaying, prophet-slaying, so as to rush into Lord-slaying; to which the Lord himself in person said, as to a murder-loving and brigand-like place: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how long will you murder, and will you not turn back? You are drunk with a drunkenness not from wine, you lover of blood." And that you may know these words are not boast, hear the Lord speaking through the prophet: "Hear all this, you rulers of the house of Jacob, and the remnants of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all that is right, who build Zion in blood and Jerusalem in injustices." And again: "If you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my face from you; and if you multiply your entreaty, I will not listen; for your hands are full of blood." What then does the evangelist say? "Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany." The Lord who came to Bethany is himself also present here; for here this house is properly called Bethany, since Bethany means "house of peace," and this house of the Lord is a house of peace, into which we inhabitants cry out daily to the master of the house: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men." He who came to Bethany, he himself also arrives here; and he arrives not as one not present, but as one who is, and is present, and is coming.

This arrival of the Lord the prophet also foresaw and said: Behold, the Lord comes with strength, his arm with dominion. Behold, the Lord comes with strength. The word is true: the Lord comes with strength. How with strength? As one who has plundered Hades, as one who has made Lazarus taste resurrection, as one who has filled the world with countless benefactions. Behold, the Lord comes with strength. For who is stronger than the one who said, "Lazarus, come forth"? Behold, the Lord comes with strength. He comes who is not absent; for you heard, "Let us go out to meet the one who is present and coming," not walking the earth by the shifting of feet, but purifying souls by the improvement of ways. Let us go out to meet him, giving thanks; let us do what the sister of Moses did; let us utter more effective cries than she, since the devil drowned in the lake of water is more dangerous than Pharaoh. Let us therefore greet the symbols of victory, not hand-held timbrels, but also branches of palm shoots; let us cry out with our fellow believers what we have just heard: Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. This royal arrival of the Lord the prophet Isaiah foresaw and said, as I said before: Behold, the Lord comes with strength, as one who has raised the dead; and not simply the dead, but those putrefied, dissolved, suppurating, shedding hair, having raised Lazarus on the fourth day from the tombs, as you heard the evangelist saying: Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he raised from the dead.

What did Moses do that was like what our Master Christ did? Moses caused death; he did not bring to life. Let the children of the Jews be ashamed, then, those who praise Moses and revile the Master Christ. But immediately a Jew jumps up and says: Did not a dead man rise among us? Did not the prophet Elijah raise the son of the widow of Sarepta? Yet Elijah was a man. How then do you boast about your teacher, attributing divine power to him because he raised Lazarus from the dead? What are you saying, O Jew? Do you compare Elijah and the Master Christ? One thing is the discipline of a servant, and another is divine authority. For if you do not first understand the manner of the raising from the dead, you will not perceive the meaning of divine authority. Listen attentively: the dead man in the case of Elijah, the son of the widow of Sarepta, even if he was given over to death, was nevertheless not so because of natural expiration, but because of the discipline and affliction of Elijah, so that Elijah might be bent from his hard-heartedness to compassion. For once Elijah, as you clearly know, became angry with the house of Ahab and the Israelite people because of the lawlessness of Jezebel, and declared under oath, saying: As the Lord God lives, if there will be dew or rain on the earth in these years, except through my mouth. The God of all was not pleased with this rainless declaration of Elijah, and he fulfills

the servant’s decree. For he wanted the one who had bound the clouds with the sterility of the wealthy rains to quickly dissolve the calamity of the drought. But Elijah did not consent to the reconciliation. For God is compassionate in one way, and man is hardened in another. The Lord therefore, on account of the servant’s hardness, wished to entreat the servant, so that he might lend rain to the land through his word. For it was unseemly for God to entreat a man; therefore, as God, he pursued another course. What course was this? Listen attentively: as the lack of rain intensified, for three years and six months no cloud swelled to produce rain. So Elijah began to grow faint with thirst, but nevertheless he persevered, bearing the deprivation, doing this out of contentiousness; for he wished either to be worn away or to be reconciled with the house of Ahab. What then did the Lord do? He deals wisely with his own servant, not by entreating, but by saying: Arise from here, and go to the torrent bed Chorrath, which is opposite the Jordan, and you will drink water from the torrent, and I will command the ravens to feed you there. The Lord said these things not in order to feed Elijah, but to insult him; not to honor him, but to draw him into compassion through the insulting food. For it was unseemly for the prophet to be fed by ravens, and for a table of meat to be set before him who from the beginning had cut through ascetic labors. For the Lord was able either to feed the righteous man through doves, or through the gift of manna, after the likeness of the sons of Israel, or, similarly to Daniel, to present a lentil-bearing man, Ambakoum, before him.

The Lord was able to nourish Elijah in a dignified manner, since also on another occasion he nourished him in a dignified manner. For when at another time Elijah, fleeing Jezebel, took refuge in the desert, and in the desert he slept with great hunger and thirst, because the journey of flight was long, the Lord places bread and water at his head, and again pricks his side, and no other part. Why? Listen attentively: he pricks his side, because he fled a threat to his side. And the Lord says to him: “Elijah, arise, and eat and drink, for the journey from you is long.” And Elijah, having arisen and eaten and drunk, went on the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights, not as one hungry, but as one filled. For such is the God-given food. Therefore the one who there genuinely nourished him was able also in the present to nourish him from heaven; but he sets before him an unsuitable table, so that through the insulting food he might be bent to sympathy and pity. But he remained unbent. For it was necessary that Elijah, hearing the Lord say, “You will drink from the stream, and I will command the ravens to feed you there,” should fall down, entreat, and say, “By no means, Lord; never has anything common and unclean entered my mouth; do you set ravens over me, the plotters against Noah? Do you prepare a meat-bearing table as for a pagan and foreigner, who from the beginning was reared in ascetic customs?” It was necessary for Elijah to offer these words suppliantly. But Elijah did none of these things; for he knew that if he reproached the unsuitable table, the Lord would say to him, “What are you saying, Elijah?

You do not deign to drink foul water, having prevented rain from falling? For you have scorched the land of Israel; there is not a drop of water to be found in a well, nor a moist spot in a spring. What you have done, then, accept. Do you not accept the flesh-bearing food of ravens? There is no bread to be found, nor an ear of grain, nor a green vegetable, since neither rain nor dew has fallen upon the earth because of the sealing of your mouth; nothing is to be found except meat alone, and that carrion, from animals that have died due to the lack of food. Why, then, do you not accept the table of your own labors? So that Elijah might hear none of this, he accepted the unseemly table. For he chose rather to endure a prolonged drought than to lend a rain-bearing word. What, then, does the all-wise Lord do? When he saw him persisting in his harshness, he employs another device, stronger than the first. What is this? He dries up the river, he restrains the ravens, he sends a voice to him: "Go to Sarepta of Sidonia; behold, I will command a widow woman to support you there." Do you see how the Lord hastened to incline him to compassion? For he did not send him to the house of a ruler, or to a royal one, or to some wealthy woman, but to a needy widow, so that even thus he might be bent toward compassion. Yet even so he remained unbending. For when he heard the Lord saying, "Go to Sarepta of Sidonia; behold, I will command a widow woman to support you there," he ought to have fallen down, cried out, supplicated, and said, "Do not bring me down to humiliation, O Master.

You send me to the Sidonians, and you order me to trouble a widow woman, whose bread is filled with tears, whose table is full of groans, whose bed has a pillow of curses? But Elijah did none of these things. For he knew that, if he should refuse the widow's table, the Lord would say to him: What are you saying, O Elijah? Do you refuse the widow's table, you who caused the whole land of Israel to become barren, making her a widow, barren and childless, bearing no fruit, and do you refuse the widow's table? So in order that Elijah might hear none of these things, he immediately set out on his journey to the Sidonians, traveling in joy or in pain. But listen to this. Having been hosted by the widow, Elijah found a table without expense, genuine, fitting, ascetic: water and oil and flour, and two small pieces of wood. What then? Did the widow have only two small pieces of wood? Yes. How? Listen, and I will tell you. This mentioned widow bore an image of the Church; therefore the prophet is sent to her. So entering the widow's house, the prophet found indeed the storehouse of our Church: he found water and oil and flour, and two small pieces of wood: water, baptism; oil, anointing; flour, the bread; two small pieces of wood, the achievement of the cross. And Elijah also cried out to the widow: The flask of oil will not diminish, and the jar of flour will not run out. For the grace of the orthodox faith is inexhaustible. So finding the widow's table without expense, Elijah rejoiced, exulted, saying to himself:

Here I will spend the rest of my life; here I will pass all my time. For I have found a suitable table; I have no concern with the house of Ahab, nor with the people of Israel, nor with the madness of Jezebel. Let them have as their inheritance the drought; for I will not separate myself from this place at all. Saying these things, Elijah reasoned joyfully with himself, not knowing, as a man, that in his joy he was about to find pain. You all know how the widow, having two legitimate children of her own womb, rising from her bed at dawn, sees one of her sons given over to death. And if a widow is naturally disposed to be distressed over a grown son who dies, none of you is ignorant of that; for she considers the life of her child more honorable than all the wealth of the world. For the woman was not added to the corpse according to custom, nor did she prepare it for burial, nor was she occupied with the funeral; but leaving her dead, she laid hold of Elijah, seizing him, dragging him about, raising a crowd, crying out before everyone: "What have I to do with you, man of God? You came to me to remind me of my sins and to kill my son." That is, "You killed him." Do you see how Elijah’s joy turned into pain? He was held as a murderer; for thus the widow said, "What have I to do with you, man of God? You came to me to remind me of my sins, to kill my son. You killed him; your coming caused this. Did you not find my son ill? Was he not sick for a single day? Your coming provided the death of my son. Why did you give me flour, when the one who eats is not present? Give me my son.

You killed him, wanting to inherit my house. Take the flour, and give me back my son. Are you fattening me, and murdering my child? Shall I starve with my own, and not grow rich with strangers? What have I to do with you, O man of God? You came in to me to remind me of my sins, and to kill my son. You killed my son; you seem harsh to me. Is your entrance not straightforward? What shall I do? Tell me. Did you not flee from your God? Did you not do the things of Jonah? You seem rough to me. You breathe fire, you reach for murder, you bring drought, you burn up captains of fifty; for I have learned of your deeds. Is it not enough that you drowned your own countrymen, but you have also come here to do the same? You have deceived many, but you will not deceive me; give me my son. What then of Elijah? He was immediately bent; for he recognized the Lord's constraint. Therefore, groaning greatly as if defeated, he cried out, saying: Alas, Lord, the witness of the widow with whom I dwell, you have afflicted her to cause the death of her son; it is your work; for she recognized it, Master. Behold, I am pressed by a widow; for you always send me to the harshest women. I fled Jezebel, and I have fallen into this one. I endured many trials, but I cannot bear her tongue. You are the one who said to me, Master: Go to Sarepta of Sidon; behold, I will command a widow woman to support you there. And behold, she perverts it; for she does not support me. I am held as a murderer; and rightly I am held; for the boy was healthy at my entrance; how then he was suddenly given over to death, I do not know.

Deliver me, Lord, from this annoyance: he has set up a spectacle around me, he has covered me with shame, he has brought great distress upon me. Give the soul, and I provide the rain; satisfy the widow, and I water the land; give the boy’s renewed life, and I set my tongue to rain-giving. These things, however, are because of the aforementioned raising of Lazarus from the dead and the contradiction of the Jews, that the Master acts in one way, and the slave raises in another. Elijah raised a dead man, but he did not act with authority; for he suffered greatly and was distressed and fell into straits. Hence he cried out in prayer, saying: Woe is me! And where there is “Woe is me,” there is grief of the soul. For thus you will also find the prophet elsewhere lamenting and saying: Woe is me! that I was left behind like one gathering stubble at harvest time, and like a gleaning at vintage; and again another prophet: Woe, woe to the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and it is like misery; and again another: Woe is me! that it has perished from the earth. Everywhere “Woe is me” is grief. Thus also Elijah here: Woe is me, Lord, the witness of the widow, you have afflicted her to cause the death of her son. And he breathed into the boy a third time. Observe then here how the mystery is depicted in the law of grace. For the “He breathed a third time” represents the entry of the undivided Trinity. And he called upon God and said: Let the soul of the boy return to him, Lord. And so it happened.

What are you saying, O Jew? Is the Lord like Elijah? Is Elijah like the Lord? Did the Lord not bend his knee? Did he not spread out his prayer? For every prayer is sent up to him. He only uttered a voice, "Lazarus, come out," as a master calling a slave. What then? Did he come out as a slave obeying his master? He came out, he did not delay, Hades did not wait, death did not rebel, the nether powers did not resist; rather, they were struck with awe. For Hades, having held Lazarus already four days in his own regions, dissolved from every side like a ship without bolts, was henceforth carefree; the nether powers had no thought that Lazarus would ever be drawn up from the underworld. But when suddenly the Lord's voice, descending into the tomb with great illumination, began quickly to replant the hairs of Lazarus on his head, to store the marrow in the hollow of the bones, and to direct the filling of the veins toward life-giving blood, the nether powers were struck with awe, crying out to one another, "Who is this who calls? Who is this who commands? Who is

reforming dissolved dust? Who is it that awakens a corpse as from sleep? Who is it that breaks through adamantine gates? Who is it that cries, "Lazarus, come outside"? The voice is human-sounding, but the power is God-powered. Who is the one calling? He is not a man: the form is of a man, but the voice is of God. Let us send Lazarus forth, let us carry him up quickly, lest the one who calls him come down here, lest while he delays here the one who calls come down. The dead began to stir and move. Let us lose one, he says, and not destroy all. Thus Lazarus leaped forth from the bosom of Hades, praising and blessing and glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ. Here let us seal the word; gathering the palm branches to meet the Lord, let us go out crying and saying: Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. To him be the glory and the power for the ages.