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Catechetical Sermon on the Holy Great Sunday of Pascha

By St. Theodore the Studite (759-826)

Introduction

St. Theodore was born in Constantinople, the son of a palace bureaucrat and a woman from a distinguished Constantinopolitan family; he had two younger brothers and a sister. In 781, by the urging of his uncle, Platon the Studite, Theodore's family all decided to take monastic vows and to turn their family estate on Mount Olympus into the Sakkudion Monastery. In time, Theodore became a priest, and, in 794, abbot of Sakkudion, taking over the office from his uncle. In 795, Emperor Constantine VI divorced his wife to marry her lady-in-waiting, a cousin of Theodore; Theodore and Platon criticized the marriage and called for the excommunication of the priest who performed it. Theodore and some other monks were beaten by imperial troops and sent into exile; however, shortly thereafter, the Emperor was overthrown, and Empress Irene, who took his place, lifted the exile. Not long after returning to Sakkudion, an Arab raid forced the monks to flee to Constantinople; at that time, around 798, Empress Irene offered Theodore the office of abbot at the ancient Stoudios Monastery, which he accepted. In time, Theodore had a number of conflicts with Patriarch Nikephoros of Constantinople, ending with his arrest, anathematization, and banishment in 809. When Emperor Michael I Rangabe was enthroned in 811, Theodore was recalled from exile. His greatest trials were about to begin, though: two years later, Leo V became emperor. He reinstated iconoclasm, which had been condemned at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. Theodore fought valiantly for the cause of veneration of icons, which led to yet another exile; it was during this exile that he wrote his some of his most famous works, defending the practice of icon veneration. During his exile, he was also frequently beaten and tortured. Eventually, with the death of Leo V and the enthronement of Michael II, Theodore was once again recalled from exile and returned to Constantinople; however, upon being unable to convince Emperor Michael to renounce iconoclasm, Theodore went into a kind of self-imposed exile in Anatolia. He died on November 11, 826, while celebrating the Divine Liturgy at the Hagios Tryphon Monastery on Cape Akritas in Bithynia; his relics were later transferred to the Stoudios Monastery, laid alongside those of his uncle Platon.

St. Theodore wrote a host of works, in many genres. His most famous are his writings against iconoclasm, though they are usually overlooked in favor of those by St. John Damascus, a century before. He wrote poems, some of them specifically supporting the veneration of icons, which were part of the revival of classical Greek verse in Byzantium. He left a Testament at the end of his life, numerous letters, and a number of orations and catechetical sermons. Some of these are funeral orations for his family members, such as his uncle Platon and his mother, Theoktiste; some were sets of sermons given to the Studite monks. There are also a number of topical orations, including the following, on Pascha; notably, it quotes the entirety of the famous Paschal Sermon attributed to St. John Chrysostom, read by Byzantine Catholics and Orthodox during Paschal Matins.

Oration 4

Catechetical Sermon on the Holy Great Sunday of Pascha

  1. What is this, brethren, beloved and feast-loving and Christ-loving? What is such radiance? What is such drawing of light and gladness? What is so lightening the Church? What is glorifying the world? What is preparing such pleasure and brilliance to come to be? Yesterday in despair, today in cheer; yesterday in humiliation, and today in brilliance; yesterday in bewailing, and today in ululation. Do you ask what is the cause of such things, and what is preparing such joy and radiance to come to be? Christ arose from the dead, and the whole world rejoiced. He abolished death by His life-giving death, and all those in Hades’ chains He freed; He opened paradise, and made an entrance there for them all. O depth uncomprehended! O height unmeasured! O fearful mystery, surpassing mind’s power! The angels hymn, delighting over our salvation. Prophets rejoice, beholding their own foretellings fulfilled. All creation feasts together. For the day of salvation has dawned upon it, the Sun of Righteousness [1] shone again. Therefore, who will worthily sing the grace of this radiant day? Who will divinize the power of this mystery with proper greatness? Who else but our golden Father John, the piercing and great-voiced preacher, the most shining and most radiant star of the universe, and a true shepherd and teacher, the most fitting and most tested doctor of souls, the sufficient surety of sinners, the one streaming gold-flowing rivers beyond the Nile River, the golden, and golden-tongued, and golden-mouthed? Let him divinize and hymn and applaud the mystery’s power; and let him announce its grace, through as brief, concise words as possible; but he is prepared, as a many-colored speaker of the word, and a greatest-voiced trumpet of the Spirit; then let us be more prepared and more attentive to hear him, so that we may know what the other preacher of repentance announces to us. Therefore, listen:
  2. “If someone is pious and God-loving, let him enjoy this noble solemnity; if someone is a prudent servant, let him enter, rejoicing, into the joy of his lord; if someone labored, fasting, let him receive now the denarion; if someone worked from the first hour, let him receive now the right wage; if someone came at the third, giving thanks, let him feast; if someone came about the sixth, let him not doubt, for he will also not be fined; if someone lagged until the ninth, let him approach, lacking nothing; if someone came only at the eleventh, let him approach, also lacking nothing himself; for the Lord, being honor-loving, receives the last like the first; He gives rest to he of the eleventh, as to the one working from the first; and He has mercy on the last, and He tends to the first; to that one He gives, and to this one He bestows; He both receives the works, and greets the will; He both honors the deed, and praises the purpose. Therefore, enter, all, into the joy of our Lord; both the first and the latter, receive the reward; wealthy and wretched, dance with one another; continent and heedless, honor the day; those fasting and those not fasting, delight today; the table is prepared, eat, all; the calf is fatted, let none depart hungry; all, enjoy the richness of goodness; let no one weep for poverty, for the common kingdom is revealed; let no one bewail falls, for pardon shone from the tomb; let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death freed us; the One snatched by it quenched it; the One descending into Hades hindered Hades; He embittered it, tasting His flesh; and Isaiah, foreknowing this, cried out: ‘Hades,’ he says, ‘was embittered, meeting You below’ (Is 14:9 LXX); it was embittered, for it also died; it was embittered, for it was also mocked; it received a body, and it encountered God; it received earth, and it met heaven; it received what it saw, and it fell from what it did not see. Where, death, is your sting? Where, Hades, your victory? (cf. 1 Cor 15:55) Christ arose, and the demons fell; Christ arose, and the angels rejoice; Christ arose, and life is set free; Christ arose, and there is no one dead in a tomb.” [2] For Christ, having risen from the dead, became the first-fruits of those fallen asleep; the Lord is arisen from the dead, and a great crowd of holy ones with him. Let us feast pleasurably and prudently; for truly this is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it; let us preach the Savior’s resurrection, rather, let us cry out our salvation; let us preach the saving day’s remembrance; let us preach the death of the devil, the unclean demons’ captivity, Christians’ salvation, the resurrection of the dead; for through the resurrection of Christ, Gehenna’s fire is quenched, the unresting worm comes to an end, Hades is troubled, the devil sorrows, sin is put to death, wicked spirits are chased away, those from earth run up to the heavens, those in hades are freed from the chains of the devil, and, fleeing to God, they say to the devil: “Where, death, is your sting? Where, Hades, your victory?”
  3. For Christ is the cause, for us, of the divine feast and solemnity, He is also the provider of all goods to us; for He also created from the beginning, He led creation from not being into being; He now has saved the lost, has enlivened the dead, and has destroyed the devil’s tyranny; He showed us, being slaves of sin, free, wiping off the handwriting against us; [3] Christ bought us from the curse of the law, becoming curse for us; for which we also worthily say: “What will we repay the Lord, for all which He has repaid to us?” (Ps 116:12). God, the Only-Begotten, was pleased to become man for us, and became obedient unto death, so that He would free us from eternal death; the angels’ Lord put on a servant’s form; God the Word took flesh, and the One co-formed and consubstantial with the Father appeared as a man; and He endured these things so that He would both lead us out of unjust servitude and ransom us from dishonor; for this, the Originator of Life endured flesh; for this, the Fountain of Immortality was also buried, so that He would grant everlasting life to mortals; and bestowing benefits upon earth, and healing all the passions of men, He then received unworthy recompense from the God-fighting Jews; for Our Lord Jesus Christ, through great goodness, cleansed lepers, granted sight to the blind, healed the sick, expelled demons, arose the four-day Lazarus from the dead, and, from five loaves, nourished five thousand; He walked on the sea, He turned the water into wine, He healed the hemorrhaging woman, He gave life to the dead daughter of the leader of the synagogue. Then the Jews, moved by envy and malice, sometimes stoned Him, sometimes tried to toss Him off a cliff, then they even led Him to death on the Cross.
  4. But Our Lord Jesus Christ did not imitated the evil of the blasphemous Jews, but turned His back to beatings, according to the prophet, and His cheeks to slaps, and did not turn away His face from the shame of spittings; and the rest (cf. Is 50:6). As a sheep to the slaughter was He led, and as a lamb before the one shearing it, He was voiceless, not opposing, not responding (cf. Is 53:7); the One blasphemed did not rail in response, suffering, He did not threaten, but He handed Himself over to the judge; for He did not come, in the first coming, to chastise and wreak vengeance on the faithless, but He willed, through longsuffering, to guide the erring to truth; and learn the Lord’s goodness and great kindness; the Jews blasphemed Him and said: “You have a demon”; but the Lord, being longsuffering, expelled demon from men; the Jews spit on His face, but He healed their blind; the Jews stoned Christ, but Christ let their lame walk; and, through everything, He was beneficent to the insulters, and giving goods for evils to those graceless and hateful men; then, bearing the abuses painfully, the One attended by angels was deemed equal to a infirm man.
  5. And lest, saying much, we think of prolonging the sermon, let us go to the very head of the deeds; for, at the end, the King of glory was led to the Cross and death, and the One hymned by Cherubim and Seraphim, and worshiped by all powers and angels, was nailed to the Wood; and He endured and suffered such things meekly, being an example for us, and becoming a teacher of clemency; for this, therefore, we ought to also nobly bear the threats of wicked men; but the One hung on the Cross revealed greater deeds and more wonders, so that He would thus cease the mania of the God-haters, so that they would not have a sentence of faithlessness, nor say that, “We crucified a bare man”; therefore, first, Christ was led to be crucified, and raised into the air, so that He would put to flight the demons in the air; He was hung upon the Wood, so that the sin of old, which came to men through wood, He would heal; He was even pierced in the sight by a spear, for the woman taken from the side of Adam; for since the serpent deceived Eve, and Eve prepared Adam to transgress, a sentence, then, went forth against both, “And death reigned from Adam until Moses, even upon those not sinning” (Rom 5:14). For this, the side was wounded, so that we would learn that the passion of Christ brought salvation not only to men, but also to women; “for Adam was first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but Eve, being deceived, came into transgression; then She will be saved through the child-bearing” of the Holy Mary (1 Tim 2:13-15); for she gave birth to the Savior Christ, not through intercourse with man, as Isaiah witnesses, but by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, as Gabriel the archangel evangelized; for this sentence, then, the side of Christ was also struck, so that the foretellings would be managed, and the mystery of Baptism would be preached, and the coming grace would shine; for blood and water flowed from the side of Christ, so that He would also wipe away the handwriting of sin against us; by His blood, we are both cleansed and received paradise.
  6. 6. O great mystery! The thief repented, who lacked water to be baptized; upon the cross he hung; there was no other place for Baptism, no fountain, no pool, no rainshower, no one completing the mystagogy; for all the disciples fled for fear of the Jews; but Jews did not lack springs, but, hanging on the Cross, He became a leader of waters, for, since the thief could not enter into the Kingdom without Baptism, the Savior provided the blood and water of His pierced side, so that He would free the thief himself from swollen evils, and He would show the blood become a bath for those having hope in Him; for “If the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of calves, being sprinkled, sanctifies the polluted for the flesh’s purification, how much more does the blood of our Savior become the purification of all Christians?” (Heb 9:13-14). Therefore, if one of the faithless says to you, “Why was Christ crucified?” say to him, “In order to crucify the devil”; if he says to you, “Why did He hang on the Wood?” say to him, “In order to uproot the thorns and thistles of Adam; for he was condemned to groan and tremble, and farm thistles; therefore, Jesus, being lover of mankind, and willing to provide for His own creation, arranged all things for us, so that we would be freed from condemnation; for as He was born of a woman, in order to wipe out the sin accruing to humanity from a woman, so He was also crowned with thorns, in order to make earth, evilly cultivated under sin, tamer, through His own obedience;” if he says to you, “Why did He drink gall and sour wine?” say to him, “So that we might vomit up the death-bearing poison of the dragon; for gall became my sweetness; and that sour wine, become sweetness and healing for me;” and if, again, a faithless one says to you, “Why did they kneel before Him, approaching Him?” say to him, “So that the Jews, unwilling, would worship Him, and would, involuntarily, confess His Kingdom upon earth; for now, jeering, they bowed down, not knowing what they did, and, in the coming resurrection, ‘every knee will bow, of the heavenly, and of the earthly, and of the infernal, and every tongue will confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, unto the glory of God the Father. Amen’ (Phil 2:10-11). And that gall has even another enigma; for it not only typified the Kingdom, but it also showed forth the blood-sucking and bloodthirsty nature of the Jews; and they also put a reed in His hand, so that He would write their sins.”
  7. Therefore, the Christ-fighters did these things, not knowing the Crucified One; but creation was not ignorant of its Master and Creator; for, the Savior yet hanging on the Cross, the sensible sun, beholding the Sun of Righteousness insulted by lawless ones, and, not bearing the boldness, fled, darkening the earth, deeming it untoward to co-operate with the great impiety and enlighten the impious eyes; but not only did the sun flee, but also the earth moved, not bearing the lawlessness of the deeds, then revealing and teaching, that the Crucified One was God; therefore, it did not endure, but it fell slack, not wanting to bear upon itself the God-hated Jews; for Cain, slaying his brother, did not thus defile the earth, nor did the tower-building of the giants weigh it down, nor did the abominably-acting Sodomites thus stain it, nor did those erring after idols made from it, nor the blood shed from Abel unto Zachariah, do thus to it, as the Jews did, daring this great, impious deed; for this, therefore, even the hard rocks split, so to teach that this is the spiritual and living rock; “For they drank,” he says, “from the spiritual rock following them, and the rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4). O the Jews’ ignorance! The rocks split asunder, and they were senseless; the soulless beings were in tumult, and the ensouled disbelieved; the curtain of the temple was torn asunder, so that, finally, their desertion would be revealed; for the curtain was split and the things in the temple were denuded, according to Christ’s saying, “Behold, your house is left a desert” (Lk 13:35); for all the things honored by the Jews were deserted after the Christ-slaying ; and the things remaining in the city and in the temple, the angels translated from there, and brought them into the Church; and many of the bodies of those fallen asleep arose with Christ, so that we learn that, Christ dying, He does not arise alone, but all those believing in Him will arise from the dead.
  8. This is, as in a summary, the honorable feast of Pascha; and let us solemnize these mysteries of Christians, about the resurrection from the dead and life eternal; therefore, let us feast, not in the leaven of evil and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (cf. 1 Cor 5:8), believing in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the Trinity, consubstantial and uncreated, believing in the resurrection, expecting Christ coming again, no longer humbly, but gloriously, with heavenly radiance, with shining angels, with trumpets and fear and joy, joy of the saints, and fear of the condemned and sinners; but may the God of peace deem us all worthy of resurrection with the saints, being found in deeds and words and orthodox faith! for to Him is glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.

    9. Footnotes: [1] A title deriving from Mal 4:2, frequently applied to Christ by the Fathers and by the Church.

    [2] It is uncertain where Theodore resumes his homily; I ended the quotation from Chrysostom at the traditional end of the text, but Theodore may be quoting a longer version.

    [3] A phrase derived from Col 2:14. The term “handwriting” is typically taken to refer to either a judicial sentence or a record of debt; in some ancient writing materials, ink could be literally wiped (or scraped) off, removing the previous writing. (This can lead to palimpsests, which are documents where one writing was wiped off, and another was written on top of it; sometimes we can determine the original writing and find lost works this way.)p>

    Source: Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne, Tomus XCIX (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1903), 709A-720B. [PG 99:709A-720B]


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