A so that you may attain the same glory; sending up glory to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; to whom be glory, and honor, and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for the ages of ages. Amen.
ORATION V
On the Day of Holy Saturday
I. We celebrate today the sepulchral feast of our Savior. And He, indeed, among the dead below, is dissolving the bonds of death, filling Hades with light, and awakening those who have fallen asleep; but we leap for joy upon the earth, setting the resurrection of Him before our eyes in our meditation, and we no longer fear corruption, B lest it should prevail over incorruptibility. "For you will not allow," it says, "your holy one to see corruption" (Ps. xv, 10). And perhaps the Jews and Greeks mock our philosophy; the former expecting another Christ, while the latter shutting up their hopes in tombs, concerning whom the prophet aptly says: "Their graves are their houses forever" (Ps. xlix, 12). But those who now mock shall lament (for they will lament later, looking upon Him whom they pierced and insulted) (Zach. xii, 10); but we, weeping, will temper this passion with joy. Did death snatch the Lord Christ? But it will not keep Life with itself. Did it devour Him? It devoured Him in ignorance, but it vomited forth many with Him. Willing now He is detained; but on the morrow, having despoiled Hades, He will rise. Yesterday, being crucified, He darkened the sun, C and at midday night supervened; today death is paralyzed, having received a strange corpse; yesterday creation mourned, seeing the madness of the Jews, and put on darkness as a garment of grief; today the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light (Isa. ix, 2). Yesterday the earth was shaken, and took counsel about flight, and threatened to gape open for the inhabitants; the mountains were rent, the rocks were split, and the temple, as if alive, was laid bare, having rent its garment, showing through the things that happened to it that the holy things had been violated. Inanimate things perceived the outrage, but those who dared these things possessed souls devoid of perception. The elements were indignant, and nearly abandoned their order, and would have brought about the confusion of the universe, had they not perceived the will of the Creator, that He suffered not against His will.
D II. O new and unexpected things! He who stretched out the heaven by His word is stretched out on wood; He who bound the sea with sand is bound with bonds; He who bestowed fountains of honey is given vinegar to drink; He who crowned the earth with flowers is crowned with thorns; and He whose head is struck with a reed is He who once punished Egypt with ten plagues—
and covered the head of Pharaoh with the waters. A His face, which the Cherubim cannot bear to behold, is spat upon. And while suffering these things, He prayed for those who were crucifying Him, saying: "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." With goodness He overcomes malice. Christ undertakes a defense for the killers of Christ, studiously seeking their salvation. He washes away their crime by pleading their ignorance. He does not take it bitterly that He became a mockery of their madness. He endures their drunkenness, and in His inclination toward the human race, He calls them to repentance. Why say more? Having derived no fruit from His goodness, they shut into a tomb Him whom nothing in the universe of existing things can contain. They set seals, guarding our liberation; and fearing the resurrection, they station soldiers as guards at the tomb. Who has ever seen a dead man guarded? Or rather, who has seen a corpse attacked in war? Who has heard of the exit of life being brought upon anyone, and then striking fear into its perpetrators? Who does not cease to be anxious about an enemy, once he has taken away his life? Who does not dissolve his enmity, satisfied by the death of his adversary? B Why are you still shuddering at the one you have removed from your midst, O Jew? Why do you fear the one you killed? Why do you dread him who has departed from the living? Why are you afraid of the one who has been put to death? Why does the one you crucified torment you? The slaughter itself promises you security. Be of good courage. If He who died is a mere man, He will not rise; if a mere man, you acted rightly in crucifying Him; if a mere man, what He said remains untrue: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." If a mere man, He is held by death; if a mere man, why do you seal the tomb, O senseless one? Wait for the third day, and you will see the refutation of your own madness. Cease to toil in vain, and you will see the outcome of events. Cease to rage against the truth. Cease to wage war against God, and by waging it, wounding yourself. Cease to insult the Sun of justice, thinking that you can extinguish His rays. Cease, I say; nor contend to block the fountain of life. Cease to weary the prefects. C Cease to make words about the guard. Cease to traffic in lies for yourself, and cease stirring up armed men. Do not labor in vain; do not expend your wealth on impiety, and do not imagine a victory against God. Do not give the soldiers a reward to say one thing rather than another. Do not leave the crowd to watch at the tomb. Do not place your trust in weapons. Resurrection is not prohibited by arms, it is not hindered by seals, it is not coerced by soldiers, it is not stolen by bribes, but it is attained by faith. Have you not seen Lazarus recently shaking off death like sleep? Have you not seen how he walked forth with his very burial cloths, as soon as he heard the voice, "Come out"? Have you not seen how the dead man followed the command, and the bond did not restrain him? Have you not seen how the voice harmonized with him whom death had dissolved? He who was able to do those things will be able to do these things as well; He who raised the servant is Himself raised by much more. He who gave life to the one who had rotted, does not D
leave Himself dead. A But indeed the blindness of the Jews is great, and though seeing the miracles, they do not see. *They have eyes, and do not see; they have ears, and do not hear* 46. For the God of this age has blinded their hearts, so that the *Gospel of justice* 47 might not shine upon them. But let us for the time being leave those to their unbelief; we, however, with the faithful woman around Mary, refashioning for ourselves in our minds the sepulchre of the Savior, let us say: *They have taken away our Lord, and we do not know what they have done with Him* 48. To Him be the glory, with the immaculate Father, and with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
OF AMPHILOCHIUS BISHOP OF ICONIUM
SYNODICAL EPISTLE
B Before the letters sent by your charity were brought [to us], rumor had already brought to us [tidings of] your sincerity in the faith, and your constancy in the face of dangers, and your fortitude in suffering for Christ, and the ardor of your love towards God, and, finally, your firmness in the hope of things to come. But after we also received the letters of your piety, we recognized in very truth the character of an apostolic Church, the zeal of good shepherds, and the untiring study that befits true Christians. C For the fact that you neither calculated the length of the road, nor brought forward your questions disparately, but rather made your inquiry collectively by way of letters, has filled us with great hope that, as you wrote with one voice, you will also receive our reply with unanimous consent; and we have accepted the concord in your letters as a kind of prelude to a more perfect harmony. And we did indeed desire, with all reverence, to receive the most admirable and worthy-of-all-honor Bishop Basil, to be present at our synod and to have him as a companion, or rather as a leader in the writing of letters to you. But because a serious bodily illness kept him [from coming], it belongs to your perfect love not to despise in any way the letter of our mediocrity. Nor, indeed, [is it fitting] for your holy Church...
A to be deprived of that voice; but having his treatise specially composed for this topic, we hold him speaking with us in writing.
What, therefore, is the answer to the inquiry? We acknowledge the holy council of the Nicene Fathers as a truly catholic and apostolic council, and we guard the faith that was set forth by the Fathers at that time as immovable, and we pray that it may remain unshaken for all time. B It was, however, more necessary for the Fathers at that time to expound more fully on the dogma of the Only-Begotten; since they were striving with all haste to excise the heresy of Arius which had newly sprung up, immediately destroying its first seeds before the thorn could grow completely harsh. And as the question concerning the Holy Spirit was being passed over in silence at that time, they added nothing more on this account. However, to those who have read with understanding, the doctrine concerning the Spirit contained in that faith will seem sufficient. For they taught that, just as one ought to believe in the Father and the Son, so also one must believe in the Spirit, C bringing in no other nature whatsoever into the divine and blessed Trinity, nor cutting off anything from the Trinity in that exposition of faith. But since Satan, having recently undertaken to shake the Churches, has cast doubt into some regarding the Spirit, it is necessary that we return to the fountain of faith, from which the Fathers gathered at Nicaea also drew when they made their exposition of faith.
What, therefore, is our perfection of faith? The tradition of the Lord, which, after He had risen from the dead, He commanded to His holy disciples, enjoining: *Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit* (Matt. xxviii, 19). It is clear that we have received the command not only to baptize in this way, but also to teach in an equal manner. So that, by this precept, both the disease of Sabellius is shut out, through the three hypostases purely delivered to us; D and the mouths of the Anomoeans, the Arians, and the Pneumatomachians are stopped; with three persons and hypostases indeed declared, but one nature and divinity confessed. Wherefore it is right for us to baptize in the way we have been taught, and to believe as we have been baptized, and to glorify as we have believed. For after pondering many things in our mind, and turning our thoughts in every direction, we can find nothing intermediate between the Creator and the creature. Wherefore, if we sever the Spirit from the divinity, we must necessarily number Him with the creatures. But if we should be so bold as to call Him a creature, which is possible
Spirit, we divide Him, or is it of necessity A to number Him among creatures? But if we should dare to call Him a creature, how is it possible for Him to be united in baptism? We denounce polytheism in such a way as we do atheism, and we proclaim neither three principles, nor three gods, nor three different natures; but, acknowledging the Father as the beginning of all things, we do not deny any of the three hypostases, bringing forward the dignity of the holy Scriptures and testimonies to prove each point. But since a detailed discussion of these matters exceeds the measure of a letter, we believe that your Charity will be content with the sum of our exposition and will supply the rest from itself: For "give," he says, "an occasion to a wise man, and he will become wiser;" and we consider that we have written these things sufficiently. To these it is enough to add a brief exhortation. For we exhort you, that you remain sons of peace, so B that you may fulfill the apostolic command, being of one mind, of the same opinion, and sharers in the sufferings for Christ. Do not permit the evil one to disjoin what is beautifully connected, nor make yourselves more easily captured by the wolves through dissension, confirming their desires. For we have learned how many struggles you have endured for the sake of orthodoxy. Having therefore overcome the threats and pressures brought on by the adversaries, give no opportunity for dissension; lest hatred, if it finds a place, should gradually creep in and cause you great precipices. But it is right also in the doxologies to glorify the Spirit together with the Father and the Son, and to understand this, that those who commit the unforgivable sin through blasphemy against the Spirit, C in vain decline communion with the Arians, because certainly they will be condemned with them. But we pray and hope that you, keeping the body of the Church undivided and without contention, may pass the remaining time of your life peacefully in the present age, and gloriously stand at Christ’s judgment seat in the day of judgment.
SENTENTIAE ET EXCERPTA - SENTENCES AND EXCERPTS
OF OUR HOLY FATHER AMPHILOCHIUS, BISHOP OF ICONIUM — SENTENCES AND EXCERPTS
I. *From Theodoret, Dial. III, Opp. tom. IV, pag. 166.* *From the oration of holy Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, On the Son.* For when Peter had said, "Both Lord and Christ," D