Homily III — The tomb finer than Eden and the ark
Today the spiritual and living ladder (Genesis 28:12), by which the Most High came down and was seen on earth and lived among men (Baruch 3:37), has used death as a ladder and gone up from earth to heaven. Today the earthly table, which without knowing marriage carried the heavenly bread of life (John 6:35), the coal of the Godhead, has been lifted from earth to heaven; and for the eastern gate of God (Ezekiel 44:1–2) the gates of heaven have been lifted up (Psalm 24:7). Today the living city of God is moved from the earthly Jerusalem to the Jerusalem above (Galatians 4:26). She who bore as her firstborn and only son the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15), the Only-begotten of the Father, now dwells in the church of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:23); and the ark of the Lord, living and endowed with reason, passes over to the rest of her Son (Psalm 132:8). The gates of paradise are opened and receive the field that bore God, from which sprang the tree of eternal life that undid the disobedience of Eve and the death of Adam.
This tree is Christ, the cause of life for all. A hewn cave receives the mountain no hand had quarried, from which a stone cut without hands has filled the whole world (Daniel 2:34–35). The bridal chamber of the divine incarnation of the Word rests in the all-glorious tomb as in a chamber. From there she goes up to the heavenly bridal hall, reigning in full view with her Son and God; and she has left the tomb behind as a bridal chamber for those on earth.
The tomb a bridal chamber? Yes, more splendid than any bridal chamber: not flashing with the gleam of gold, the brightness of silver and the clear sparkle of precious stones, not woven of silken threads, of robes spun with gold and of purple, but with the radiance of the all-holy Spirit, bright with the light of God. It does not bring about the joining of bodies for those who love the earth; for those who are prisoners of the Spirit it brings about the life of holy souls, a state with God better and sweeter than any other.
This tomb is lovelier than Eden. I will not speak of what happened there: the goodwill of the enemy, his kindly advice, if I may call it that, the envy, the deceit, the weakness of Eve, the persuasion, the sweet and bitter bait, through which her mind was stolen and she in turn stole away her husband, the disobedience, the exile, the death. I will not speak of these, so as not to make the feast an occasion of gloom. This tomb raised a mortal body from earth to heaven; Eden brought the father of our race down from on high to earth. For was it not in Eden that he who had been made in the divine image (Genesis 1:27) was condemned with the words, “You are earth, and to earth you shall return” (Genesis 3:19)?
This tomb is more precious than the tabernacle of old (Hebrews 9:2). It has received the living lampstand, endowed with reason and shining with the light of God, and the life-bearing table, which held not the bread of the presence but heavenly bread, and received not material fire but the immaterial fire of the Godhead. This tomb is more blessed than the ark of Moses, for its portion was not shadows and figures but the truth itself. For it received the pure and golden jar that bore the heavenly manna as its fruit (Hebrews 9:4); the living tablet which, by the finger that is the all-powerful Spirit (Exodus 31:18), received the Word of God who was to become flesh, the Word who subsists in his own person; the golden censer, she who conceived the divine coal and filled all creation with fragrance.
Greek
Σήμερον ἡ νοητὴ κλίμαξ ἡ ἔμψυχος, δι' ἧς καταβὰς ὁ Ὕψιστος ἐπὶ γῆς ὤφθη, καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνανεστράφη, τῷ θανάτῳ χρησαμένη κλίματι γῆθεν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀνεφοίτησεν. Σήμερον ἡ ἐπίγειος τράπεζα, ἡ τὸν οὐράνιον τῆς ζωῆς ἄρτον τὸν τῆς θεότητος ἄνθρακα ἀπειρογάμως βαστάσασα, ἀπὸ γῆς ἤρθη πρὸς οὐρανούς, καὶ τῇ κατ' ἀνατολὰς τοῦ Θεοῦ πύλῃ, πύλαι οὐρανοῦ ἐπήρθησαν. Σήμερον ἐκ τῆς ἐπιγείου Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἡ πόλις τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡ ἔμψυχος πρὸς τὴν ἄνω Ἱερουσαλὴμ μετατίθεται, καὶ τὸν πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως, τὸν ἐκ Πατρὸς μονογενῆ, πρωτότοκον ἐξ αὐτῆς μονογενῆ κυήσασα, ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ τῶν πρωτοτόκων αὐλίζεται, καὶ ἡ κιβωτὸς Κυρίου ἡ ἔμψυχός τε καὶ λογικὴ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ Υἱοῦ ἀνάπαυσιν μετανίσταται. Πύλαι παραδείσου ἀνοίγονται, καὶ τὴν θεοφόρον ὑποδέχονται ἄρουραν, ἐξ ἧς τὸ τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς ξύλον βλαστῆσαν τὴν παρακοὴν τῆς Εὔας καὶ τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἀδὰμ διαλέλυκε.
Χριστὸς οὗτος, ὁ τῆς ζωῆς τῶν ἁπάντων αἴτιος, ἄντρον λελαξευμένον, ὄρος τὸ ἀλατόμητον ὑποδέχεται, ἐξ οὗ λίθος χειρῶν ἄνευ τμηθεὶς τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐπλήρωσεν· ἡ παστὰς τῆς θείας τοῦ Λόγου σαρκώσεως, ὡς ἐν θαλάμῳ τῷ πανευκλεεῖ ἀναπέπαυται τάφῳ, ὅθεν πρὸς τὸν οὐράνιον ἄνεισι νυμφῶνα, τῷ Υἱῷ καὶ Θεῷ ἀριδήλως συμβασιλεύουσα, καὶ τὸν τάφον παστάδα τοῖς ἐπὶ γῆς καταλέλοιπεν.
Παστάδα τὸν τάφον; Ναὶ παστάδος πάσης παναγλαέστερον, οὐ χρυσοῦ περιλάμψεσιν, οὐκ ἀργύρου φανότητι, καὶ λίθων διαυγείαις ἀστράπτουσαν, καὶ σειρῶν νήμασι, καὶ χρυσονήστῳ ἐσθῆτι, καὶ ἁλουργίδι κεκλωσμένη, ἀλλὰ θεοφεγγεῖ αἴγλῃ τοῦ παναγίου Πνεύματος· οὐ σωμάτων συνάφειαν τοῖς γῆς ἐρασταῖς, τοῖς δὲ δεσμίοις τοῦ Πνεύματος ψυχῶν ὁσίων ζωὴν προξενοῦσαν, πρὸς Θεὸν πάσης ἀμείνω καὶ γλυκυτέραν κατάστασιν.
Οὗτος ὁ τάφος τῆς Ἐδὲμ ὡραιότερος· καὶ ἵνα μὴ λέγω τὴν ἐν ἐκείνῃ τοῦ δυσμενοῦς εὔνοιαν, τὴν χρηστήν, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, συμβουλήν, τὸν φθόνον, τὴν ἀπάτην, τῆς Εὔας τὴν μαλακότητα, τὴν πιθανότητα, τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ πικρὸν δέλεαρ, δι' ἧς ἐκλάπη τὸν νοῦν, καὶ τὸν ὁμόζυγα κέκλοφε, τὴν παρακοήν, τὴν ἐξορίαν, τὸν θάνατον, ἵνα μὴ ταῦτα λέγων τὴν ἑορτὴν ἐκτελῶ κατηφείας ὑπόθεσιν· οὗτος ἀπὸ γῆς σῶμα θνητὸν εἰς οὐρανὸν μετεώρισεν· ἐκείνη δὲ ὑψόθεν εἰς γῆν τὸν γενάρχην κατήγαγεν. Ἢ γὰρ οὐκ ἐν αὐτῇ· Γῆ εἶ, καὶ εἰς γῆν ἀπελεύσῃ, ὁ κατ' εἰκόνα θείαν γεγονὼς κατακέκριται;
Οὗτος ὁ τάφος τῆς πάλαι σκηνῆς τιμιώτερος, τὴν λογικήν τε καὶ ἔμψυχον, θεοφεγγῆ λυχνίαν δεξάμενος, καὶ τὴν ζωηφόρον τράπεζαν, οὐ καρποὺς προθέσεως, ἀλλ' οὐράνιον, οὐ πῦρ ὑλικόν, ἀλλ' ἄϋλον δεξαμένην πῦρ τῆς θεότητος. Οὗτος ὁ τάφος τῆς Μωσαϊκῆς κιβωτοῦ ὀλβιώτερος, εὐμοιρήσας οὐ σκιὰς καὶ τύπους, ἀλλ' αὐτὴν τὴν ἀλήθειαν. Ἐδείξατο γὰρ τὴν ἀκίβδηλον καὶ χρυσοειδῆ στάμνον, τὴν τὸ οὐράνιον μάννα καρποφορήσασαν, πλάκα ἔμψυχον, Λόγον Θεοῦ δακτύλῳ τῷ παναλκεστάτῳ Πνεύματι δεξαμένην σαρκωθησόμενον, Λόγον τὸν ἐνυπόστατον, τὸ χρυσοῦν θυμιατήριον, τὴν τὸν θεῖον κυήσασα ἄνθρακα, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν κτίσιν εὐωδιάσασαν.