Our Venerable Father Theodore Trichinas (that is, “the one who wears a hair shirt”); Holy Anastasius of Mt. Sinai (686)
Acts 4:23-31; John 5:24-30.
Read John 5:24-30
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
“Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
Who are the dead in this passage? Yes, the physically dead – who will hear the voice of the Son of God and be recalled to life at general resurrection; but also the spiritually dead. We may not be spiritually dead, but at times we can feel like we are spiritually dying. Simply going through the motions of the Christian life, praying our prayer rule, attending the Divine Liturgy and other services, even partaking of the Holy Eucharist – all seemingly without experiencing the life-giving presence of Christ.
In response to this state of affairs, what does the giver of life say to us in today’s scripture reading? The hour is coming…when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Notice that there are two senses of hearing mentioned here – the passive and active sense. All the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, but only those who hear will live. This enigmatic saying echos another saying of Christ: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15).
How often do we hear the words of the Son of God addressed to us in the Holy Scriptures and expounded in the hymns of the Church services, but fail to really hear them? Not just in the moral sense, of being doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22), but in sense of having a deafness and insensibility to the glories the texts themselves reveal.
Take, for example, the following text: The myrrh-bearing maidens anticipated the dawn and sought, as those who seek the day, their Sun, Who was before the sun and Who had once sat in the grave. And they cried to each other: Friends, come, let us anoint with spices His life-giving and buried body — the Flesh Who raised up fallen Adam, and Who now lies in the tomb. Let us go, let us hasten, and like the Magi, let us worship; and let us bring myrrh as a gift to Him, Who is wrapped, not now in swaddling clothes, but in a shroud. And let us weep and cry: Arise, O Lord, Who offers Resurrection to the fallen. (Ikos, 6th Ode of the Paschal Canon)
We all know the story of the Myrrh-bearing women, but have we ever thought about it in the terms described above by the hymnographer? Only one who is intimately familiar with the one being hymned could produce such a commentary. Let us take advantage of the treasures being opened up to us in the hymnography of the Church, and strive hear with open and attentive ears the life-giving mysteries of our salvation being unveiled before us.