This Day in the Life of the Church

Archpriest Pavel Velikanov (Moscow, Russia)

"The Light Shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness Did Not Overtake It" (John 1:5)

Before us is a picture of the incredible, overwhelming humiliation of Jesus, turning Him into a shameful nonentity - spat on, trampled, ridiculed. The Passion’s Gospels are saturated with pain—pain of such intensity that it exceeds any human understanding. And the question inevitably arises: who needed this? Should God the Father watch His Son being humiliated? To the people around Jesus - to see the strength and steadfastness of the Messiah? But behold, He prays to the point of bloody sweat that this cup may pass from Him - behold, He falls under the weight of the Cross, behold, He cries out in dying languor - “I thirst!” Before us is not a “heroic” picture at all, but a very human and very truthful one. This is not some movie fake “Superman” - but a real, living person - with the inherent limits of everyone’s capabilities. And this insane injustice screams to Heaven for vengeance - for righteous retribution - for a terrible punishment that cannot but overtake the guilty.

And Heavens do not refuse, they answer, they are not silent, they do not hide their indignation. But their answer is incredible in its paradox. The question ringing in the air is who will answer for this triumph of lawlessness and malice?  The answer comes: The One Who is now being nailed to the Cross is the Only Answerer. God absorbs all the chaos of human malice - and dies with it, carries it away in His Body, torn apart by suffering. The darkness of sin has become an all-consuming black hole - and into it rushes the soul of the God-man - not guilty of anything - but responsible for everyone and everything with His Divine life.

" The light shines in the darkness,” and the darkness cannot absorb it, digest it, or destroy it. The light will still be stronger than the darkness - and will break through and illuminate all corners of the universe with the undying Light of the Resurrection - and will settle in every soul with the fire of faith and love.

Each of us has a reflection of this light. But it depends only on us whether we will allow this light to become a beacon of our whole life - or whether we will turn away from it in every possible way.

Source:
Radio Vera

Priest Alexander Satomsky (Yaroslval', Russia)

 

“His Blood Be On Us and On Our Children!” (Mat. 27:24)

Pilate did not want Jesus to die and wanted to release one of the captives according to custom, but the people chose the murderer Barabbas. Then Pilate washed his hands and said that he was not to blame for the death of Jesus and everyone shouted in agreement that His blood was on them and their children. Then Pilate released Barabbas, and handed Jesus over to be crucified.

This passage speaks about a monstrous thing. When the crowd, excited by the high priests, demands the execution of Jesus and does not even stop before placing His blood on their heads and the heads of their children. Many argue that these words played a terrible role in the history of the Israeli people - bloody persecution, the Holocaust, many woes, all this largely goes back to the interpretation of these words. And many say so - what’s amazing is that the blood of Christ cries out for vengeance on those who brought it upon themselves, on the representatives of this very people.

This is a terrible interpretation, because when we talk about the crucifixion of Christ, we understand that this is not the story of just one place, but the story of all people. Christ is crucified for people and is being crucified by people. And then he resurrects for people and brings people out of hell. Not representatives of one people, but all people. Thus, we can say that in this insane cry of the crowd, the words are not the words of one particular people, but the words of all humanity.

But these words, oddly enough, also have a very bright positive meaning. The blood cleanses from sins from the point of view of the Old Testament. The high priest sprinkles the blood of a sacrificial animal on the lid of the ark, renewing the relationship between the people and God every year, asking for forgiveness of sins. And these words - “His blood be on us” - sounding like a curse, from God’s point of view, become a blessing and cleansing. And in the New Testament we will see that His blood cleansed us from our sins. Therefore, these words concern not only the people of Israel, but all of humanity. Yes, this blood came upon us and delivered us from the curse of sin and death

Source:
Moi pravoslavnyi mir

Sources

• Venning, T., Harris, J. eds. A Chronology of the Byzantine Empire. London: Palgrave MacMillan. 2006.
• St. Herman of Alaska Calendar 2023. St. Herman of Alaska Press, Platina, CA