On this Sunday, the Church remembers the Myrrh bearing women: Mary of Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome who got up early to anoint the body of our Savior in his Sepulcher.
The myrrh-bearing women took with them spices that ‘they might anoint Him’ so we see that they did not go empty handed, rather they brought their gifts.
How is this meaningful for us? Firstly, it is important to emphasize this point, the Apostles, those that the covenant was entrusted to bring to the world, were afraid and in hiding. So, there was a loss of Church leadership at that time.
These women filled the void – the vacuum that was created by lapse of momentary leadership. The Church through the Fathers teach that in the resurrection order was restored for just as it was through a woman, through Eve, that sin came into the world, it was through a woman, the Theotokos, that God came into the world. And it was to these women that the Resurrection was first revealed. Order was fully restored.
How can this Good News be applicable to us today?
1.) The Sepulcher – if we view this tomb internally or symbolically, this is where we also store the Lord and by our sin and habitual behavior Crucify Him and we seal off Christ with a heavy obstacle like the stone in a tomb for example with our cowardice, apathy, sloth, and our shame. We can utilize this Icon of the Myrrh-bearing as means to for our removal of the stone we place to seal off Christ. Their faith, their continuation even in the face of certain defeat, and their bearing of gifts. For we see that in Christianity, much of our relationship with Christ is a call and a response. It requires some movement from our end, a reciprocation. We are called to respond to the Lord, as His Resurrection from this point forward, is a continual call, which not only changes us, but humanity forever. He is still calling us continually. We too should move towards Christ even if it seems certain to end in disaster, we should be faithful, we should lead, and we should bear our gifts for Him to use. And, like then, there will be miracles. Our heart-tombs will be opened by a conversion, which in this case, is in essence – is an earthquake that removes the huge stones that block our path to Christ.
2.) An Angel of the Lord proclaims to ‘go and tell the disciples and Peter that He (Christ) goes before them to Galilee’ But why Galilee? That is where most of the Apostles had their first meeting with Christ – a most unforgettable moment for all of them. Perhaps this is where Christ would like us to go when we get in a bind. Our ‘own Galilee’ where we first met Him? With the resurrection, Christ breaks any notion that His presence is based on locality – in other words, He is everywhere. He transcends place and time. Yes, sometimes we may have to travel to encounter Christ to change our circumstances; to build missions as we are called to do, to visit monasteries, or partake in pilgrimages that are in distant lands. These can all be our Galilee.
3) The Myrrh bearing women went to anoint Christ not for recognition or to seek another Great Commission to garner their own status, rather out of duty and love. They certainly were not seeking the moniker “Equal to the Apostles.” These are titles bestowed on saintly people who seek not their own, rather those who seek Christ. Christ, in their minds, was reposed. He would not be around at that moment to thank them or bless them with high honors. They harnessed the unique quality of a women – one of selfless love, a sort of motherly martyrdom nurturing and honoring those in their weakest position. The true strength of a woman. Restoring order not only of administration, but also that of the role of the woman in the modern-day Church.
Brothers in Sisters in Christ, this is why the Church reminds us that during this period why we must turn back to the tomb – the most difficult and horrendous period in history. And while we already know of the resurrection, we know how that story ends. It ends with triumph, but we have yet to learn how our story ends. So, we look to the tomb to remember the sacrifice given for our salvation. Not for titles or our own status, but to help us remember the need for our on-going repentance.
Let us venture to our own Galilee. The Mission Church where many first met Christ. Help us further our efforts to support missions and mission priests by donating to Share the Faith Ministries today.
In the late Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s classic The Orthodox Church, he describes the Church as “a continued Pentecost”. This is true, but it is important not to misunderstand his meaning.
It is possible to understand the description of the Church as “a continued Pentecost” as meaning that the Church is an earthly organization founded by Jesus Christ and now run by clergy, an organization which exists as part of this world and which occasionally does sacramental things wherein grace comes down.
Take, for example, Holy Communion. In this model the clergy perform certain rituals and at a certain moment within the ritual something supernatural happens—bread and wine miraculously become the Body and Blood of Christ, and the moment is (in the classic western tradition) signalled by the ringing of a bell to let all the assembled congregation know that now, at the ringing of the bell, grace came down into this world. Or take baptism and chrismation, for example. In this model the clergy again perform certain rituals, a part of which involves dunking someone in water while saying certain words. At that moment, grace comes from heaven into this world, and the candidate is born again; oil is applied to the candidate’s person and the Holy Spirit flies down into him or her. This model assumes that the people at assembled for the service live the same sort of life as everyone else. The only difference is that grace is injected into their lives at certain times to help them cope with life in this age. The Church is a “continued Pentecost” in the sense that it performs certain rituals in which the grace is injected into our individual lives.
This is, I suggest, not what Metropolitan Kallistos was getting at, but represents a diminution and distortion of it. To really understand what a continued Pentecost is, we must first understand the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the power of the age to come, and it is through the Holy Spirit that the entire cosmos will be changed and refashioned. The Psalter declares that God in this age sends forth His Spirit and the world is created and the face of the ground renewed (Psalm 104:30). This refers to the constant renewal of life in this world, wherein creatures die and creatures are born. Every spring, God by His Spirit continues to create life.
In the age to come, the life-giving Spirit will renew and re-create the whole world which will arise like a phoenix from the ashes of God’s consuming fire. The Spirit will create new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Like our new resurrection bodies, this new world, though sown in weakness, will be raised in power. Though sown in dishonour, it will be raised in glory, and will abide eternally in deathless immortality (2 Peter 3:12-13, compare 1 Corinthians 15:43). This is the Kingdom of God, of coming of which we pray for every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer and say, “Thy Kingdom come.”
That is why Christ referred to the world to come as “the regeneration” (Greek παλιγγενεσία/ paliggenesia) in Matthew 19:28—in the age to come the entire cosmos will be born again and will rise to a new and immortal life. What happens to us in baptism is that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we begin to partake of this regenerative power even now in this age.
We can miss this because the concept of “becoming born again” has been inadequately understood by well-intentioned Evangelicals. In Evangelical parlance, regeneration is an entirely individual experience, a moral transformation—one effected by the Spirit, admittedly, but primarily an individual experience nonetheless. What is missing from this understanding is the primary cosmic meaning of regeneration. To understand the work of the Holy Spirit, this cosmic component must be recovered: it is the entire cosmos which will be born again and will become the Kingdom of God. Our experience of being born again in baptism is simply a foretaste of this work of regeneration in our lives now.
That is why Saint Paul referred to the gift of the Holy Spirit in baptism as “a pledge [Greek ἀρραβών/ arrabon] of our inheritance” in Ephesians 1:14. In Paul’s day, an arrabon was a down payment, something paid in advance as a guarantee that the rest of the purchase price would in due time be paid. God has promised us the Kingdom, a world born again and renewed to deathless joy and immortality. He gives us His Holy Spirit as His guarantee that He will eventually give us this Kingdom as well, for the Holy Spirit is nothing else than the power that will bring the Kingdom.
The Church—i.e. the assembled Christians, regardless of where they assemble for the Eucharist—is therefore is the place where the Holy Spirit is given and where the Kingdom is even now breaking into this world. That is, to speak more plainly, the Church is the Kingdom, and not simply a part of this world into which grace is occasionally injected. The Church is the presence of the future, the new age present even now among those who gather in Jesus’ Name at the Eucharist.
This means that the Church even now lives by the Holy Spirit in “the eighth day”. There are, of course, by worldly counting only seven days in a week (regardless of the Beatles’ song)—after seven days, beginning with Sunday and ending with Saturday, we begin counting another seven. In this age, therefore, there is no “eighth day of the week”. The term “the eighth day” therefore is used to describe a day outside of time and number, the eternal day which knows no evening, the day of eternity. In the Church’s theological counting, Sunday is both the first day of the week and also the eighth day, because on that day the Christians assemble for the Eucharist and experience the timeless Kingdom of God as eternity breaks into time. In the Church, we experience the Holy Spirit, the power of the age to come, and we live in the eighth day—not just on Sunday, but every day, for the Holy Spirit does not abandon us on Monday morning. In the world every seven days we inch closer to death. In the Church, for those living in the eighth day, every day brings us closer to the Kingdom which we are already experiencing.
Living in the eighth day and by the power of the Holy Spirit brings with it a call to live a certain lifestyle. As Saint Paul phrased it, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). At our baptism, we received new life and began to live by the Spirit’s power within us. Now we must “walk by the Spirit”, conducting ourselves as those who have been born again and who are destined for the regenerated world to come.
The Greek word here rendered “walk” is not the usual word for walk (Greek περιπατέω/ peripateo), the word used for walking to the store. Saint Paul used the Greek word στοιχέω/ stoicheo, cognate with the word στοῖχος/ stoichos, a line, a row. The verb means to follow in a straight line; Barclay renders it “keep step with”; the Jerusalem Bible “be directed by”. Since we have been given life by the Spirit and now live in the eighth day, we must follow the Spirit, living in the righteousness which will characterize the age to come. Those who are bound by time and know only seven days a week live one way; we live another way entirely, for the Spirit of God indwells us, and calls us to put to death what is merely earthly in us.
This is the continued Pentecost of which Metropolitan Kallistos wrote. When we assemble for the Eucharist we come as those indwelt by the Spirit, and as those who walk by His power. Whatever our daily planners tell us, we live in the eighth day. We experience the promised Kingdom every Sunday, and time on earth is nothing but our advance into that future Kingdom and the age to come.
Note: His Eminence Metropolitan Kallistos reposed in the Lord on August 24 after a long and fruitful ministry. May his memory be eternal and may he enjoy a full reward from Christ for all his many labours as he stands before his Lord in the light of the eighth day.
About the Author
Fr. Lawrence Farley, formerly an Anglican priest and graduate of Wycliffe College in Toronto, Canada in 1979, converted to Orthodoxy in 1985 and then studied at St. Tikhon’s Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. After ordination he traveled to Surrey, B.C. to begin a new mission under the OCA, St. Herman of Alaska Church. The Church has grown from its original twelve members, and now owns a building in Langley, B.C. The community has planted a number of daughter churches, including parishes in Victoria, Comox and Vancouver.
Fr. Lawrence is the author of many books including the Bible Study Companion Series, Let Us Attend: A Journey through the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, and A Daily Calendar of Saints. He has also written a series of Akathists published by Alexander Press, and his articles have appeared in numerous publications.
Fr. Lawrence has given a number of parish retreats in the U.S. and Canada, as well as being a guest-lecturer yearly at Regent College in Vancouver. Father lives in Surrey with his wife Donna; he and Matushka Donna have two grown daughters and six grandchildren. He regularly updates his blog, “No Other Foundation” which is also recorded as a podcast for Ancient Faith Radio. His many books are available from Ancient Faith Publishing.
Below is a word from our social media coordinator, Eric Tweten
The human heart is in the most need especially of the healing touch of Jesus. Many don’t have in person contact with the fullness of the Good News of Jesus Christ in the form of a local Orthodox Church Parish with a full time Priest or even a Deacon for a reader service. Many Priests and Deacons work unrealistic bi-vocational hours to share the love of Jesus. We can bring relief.
The Orthodox year has a rhythm, much like the tide coming in and going out – only this rhythm is an undulation between seasons of fasting and seasons (or a few days) of feasting. Every week, with few exceptions, is marked by the Wednesday and Friday fast, and every celebration of the Divine Liturgy is prepared for by eating nothing after midnight until we have received the Holy Sacrament.It is a rhythm. Our modern world has lost most of its natural rhythm. The sun rises and sets but causes little fanfare in a world powered and lit by other sources. In America, virtually everything is always in season, even though the chemicals used to preserve this wonderful cornucopia are probably slowly poisoning our bodies.The Scriptures speaks of the rhythms of the world – “the sun to rule by day… the moon and stars to rule by night…”
The rhythm of the Church does not seek to make us slaves of the calendar nor does it treat certain foods as sinful. It simply calls us to a more human way of living. It’s not properly human to eat anything you want, anytime you want. Even Adam and Eve in the Garden initially knew what it was to abstain from the fruit of a certain tree.
Orthodox do not starve when they fast – we simply abstain from certain foods and generally eat less.
At the same time we are taught to pray more, attend services more frequently, and to increase our generosity to others (alms).
But it is a rhythm – fasts are followed by feasts. The fast of the Apostles begins on the second Monday after Pentecost and concludes on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on June 29. Most of Christendom will know nothing of any of this – that Eastern Christians will have begun a Lenten period while the world begins to think of vacations.
The contemporary God is much the same as the contemporary diet – we want as much of Him as we want – anytime, anywhere. There is no rhythm to our desire, only the rise and fall of passions. There is no legalism in the Orthodox fast. I do not think God punishes those who fail to fast. I believe that they simply continue to become less and less human. We will not accept the limits and boundaries of our existence and thus find desires to be incessant and unruly. It makes us bestial.
For those who have begun the fast – may God give you grace! For those who know nothing of the fast – may God give you grace and preserve from a world that would devour you. May God give us all the mercies of His kindness and help us remember the work of His blessed apostles!
by Fr. Stephen Freeman
About the Author
Fr. Stephen Freeman is the priest at St. Anne Orthodox Church (OCA) in Oak Ridge, TN.
His weblog “Glory to God for All Things” has quickly become one of the most read Orthodox sites on the Web, being translated frequently in Romanian, French and Serbian, by enthusiastic readers. He is also author of the book Everywhere Present, published by Conciliar Press.
Below is a word from our social media coordinator, Eric Tweten
The human heart is in the most need especially of the healing touch of Jesus. Many don’t have in person contact with the fullness of the Good News of Jesus Christ in the form of a local Orthodox Church Parish with a full time Priest or even a Deacon for a reader service. Many Priests and Deacons work unrealistic bi-vocational hours to share the love of Jesus. We can bring relief.
As we approach the Apostle’s Fast the word “sacrifice” comes to mind. Saints Peter and Paul among others pioneered the Church through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, while going through many beetings and much sacrifice and ultimately death.
2 Corinthians 4:8-18 NKJV
8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.
13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Martyrs are the seed of the Church. The trials and tribulations we choose to endure and the sacrifices we make for the sake of the Gospel cause us in a way to be living martyrs. The human heart is in the most need especially of the healing touch of Jesus. Many don’t have in person contact with the fullness of the Good News of Jesus Christ in the form of a local Orthodox Church Parish with a full time Priest or even a Deacon for a reader service. Many Priests and Deacons work unrealistic bi-vocational hours to share the love of Jesus. We can bring relief.
When our churches look like cardboard boxes instead of Cathedrals, we have lost true worship towards God in architecture. When our Communion Elements come from a factory, we have lost true worship towards God in The Pinnacle of an intimate relationship with Him.
When we trade our embroidered vestments for ripped jean shorts and a tank top to be trendy, we have lost our childlike awe and reverence in true worship towards our God and King Christ Jesus of Nazareth, The Almighty. When we stop dressing up on Sunday because we have lost our childlike awe and wonder, we irreverent the beauty of God.
The human heart is in the most need especially of the healing touch of Jesus. Many don’t have in person contact with the fullness of the Good News of Jesus Christ in the form of a local Orthodox Church Parish with a full time Priest or even a Deacon for a reader service. Many Priests and Deacons work unrealistic bi-vocational hours to share the love of Jesus. We can bring relief.
Ancient Faith Radio gave Share the Faith Director, Fr Evangelos Pepps, an opportunity to discuss Orthodox mission work in the US. How can we share the faith effectively and establish more Orthodox missions? Listen Now!
Ancient Faith Radio gave Share the Faith Director, Fr Evangelos Pepps, an opportunity to discuss Orthodox mission work in the US. How can we share the faith effectively and establish more Orthodox missions? 
