Pope Shenouda III series
8
THE FEAST
OF
THE CROSS
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Translated from the Arabic 2nd edition September 1999
Name of the book: The Feast of the Cross
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Second Edition: September 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset)
Deposition number at "The Library": 10664/1997
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 44 - 8
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
In the Name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God,
Amen
In this pamphlet, you read about:
The importance and the spiritual significance
of the Cross.
The Cross in the life of Christ.
The Cross in the lives of the apostles
and all the saints
and in the lives of the fathers monks.
The glories of the Cross.
The spiritual meanings of the Cross.
The theological and doctrinal meanings.
How to bear a cross in practical life.
Saint Helen who discovered the Cross.
Pope Shenouda III
The Church celebrates the feast of the Cross on the 17th of Tot, (27th or 28th of September), the day of the apparition of the Cross to the Emperor Constantin, and on the 10th of Baramhat (19th of March), the day when the Empress Helen found the wood of the Holy Cross.
We want to-day to speak about the spiritual meaning of the Cross, and about the importance and benediction of the Cross, in our lives.
The Cross is every difficulty which we suffer in view of our love for God, or for our love for people, for the Kingdom of God in general.
THE LORD CHRIST AND THE CROSS
The Lord invited to bear the Cross and said: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24) (Mark 8:34). And He said to the rich young man: "Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, ....... and come, take up the cross, and follow Me" (Mark 10:21).
He made the bearing of the Cross a condition for the discipleship to Him.
He said: "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).
He Himself, during all the period of His Incarnation on earth, lived bearing the Cross.
Since His Nativity, Herod wanted to kill Him, and He run away with His mother to Egypt. When He began his mission, he suffered the fatigue of the service, and had "nowhere to lay His head" (Luke 9: 58). He lived a life of pain, so that Isaiah said about Him that He is: "A Man of sorrow and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). He was bitterly persecuted by the Jews. Once they "took up stones again to stone Him" (John 10:31). Another time they wanted to "throw Him down over the cliff" (Luke 4:29). As for their insults and their accusation of Him, they are very numerous. All these are crosses which are other than the Cross on which He was crucified........
THE CROSS IN THE LIVES OF SAINTS
The disciples of Christ also placed the Cross before their eyes.
They preached continually....... and said about that: "but we preach Christ crucified" although He is "to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness" (1 Cor. 1:23). The apostle saint Paul said: "For I determined not to know anyting among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). He rather boasted in the Cross saying: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14).
Even the angel who announced the Resurrection, used this expression " Jesus who was crucified". He said to the two Mariam: "I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. he is not here; for He is risen, as He said" (Matt. 28:5). Thus he called Him "Jesus who was crucified" although He was already risen. The expression " who was crucified" remained attached to him, and our fathers the apostles used it and concentrated their predication on it. As saint Peter said to the Jews "know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).
The Cross is the narrow gate in which the Lord invited us to enter (Matt.7:13).
He said to us:
"In the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33);
"And you will be hated by all for my name's sake" (Matt. 10:22);
"yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service" (John 16:2);
"If you were of the world, the world would love its own.Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19).
Thus the apostle saint Paul taught: "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).
The life of the Cross is evident in the lives of the martyrs, the abbots, and the ascetics.
In view of the faith, the martyrs and the confessors suffered unbearable torments and agonies. The majority of the early apostles and bishops marched in the way of martyrdom.
When the Lord called Saul of Tarsus to become an apostle for the gentiles, He said about him "For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake" (Acts 9:16). We can mention as an example, the apostolic saint Athanassius of the abbots and the cross which they carried. He was exiled three times and he was exposed to bad accusations; and saint John Chrysostom who was also exiled...... and the incarceration and ostracisation to which the fathers were exposed.
As for the fathers monks, the Church surnames them "the cross bearers".
They have borne the cross of solitude and aloofness from every human consolation, and the cross of ascetism in which they were denuded from every corporal desire. They suffered the pains of hunger, thirst, cold, heat, poverty, and penury, in view of the greatness of their love the King Christ. They also suffered the afflictions and the warfare of the devils in various ways and kinds, as in the life of saint Antonios, and the lives of the the wandering anchorites.
THE CROSS
PRECEDES RESURRECTION
Christ was elevated over the level of the earth in His Crucifixion.
He was also elevated over the level of the tomb in His Resurrection.
He was elevated over the level of all the world in His Ascension to heaven and in His sitting at the right side of the Father. He was rather elevated over the level of this heaven.
These are degrees of elevation, all of which He had begun by the Cross.
Rather before that, He was elevated over the level of self-preoccupation in His Nativity. He "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant" (Philippians 2:7).
The Cross of the Lord preceded His Resurrection; and His making Himself of no reputation preceded His glory.
Pain always precedes the crowns. Thus the apostle saint Paul said:
"if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Rom. 8:17).
Thus he showed us the value and the results of pain. He rather considered pain as a gift in life to us from God. He said:
"For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Philippians 1:29). Pain is considered to be a gift because of its crowns.
Our Lord established the bearing of the cross as a condition to discipleship to Him. He said: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up the cross, and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24). He said more than that: "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).
Such as the bearing of the cross is a condition for life with God, so also it is a test of seriousness and steadfastness in His way.
The tribulations to which the faithful man is exposed during his life, are a test of the extent of his steadfastness in faith. Thus the Lord said: "in the world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33). While He was on his way to the Cross, He permitted that his disciples should encounter the bearing of the cross, so that the extent of their steafastness should appear. He said: "Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat" (Luke 22:31).
For this reason, the Holy Church has placed the martyrs in the highest order of saints
because they were those who have suffered the cross more than all the others, in view of their constancy in the faith. The Church places also with them the confessors who confessed the faith and suffered many torments, although they did not obtain the crown of martyrdom.
If you bear a cross, accept that joyfully because of the crowns which you will obtain, if you do not complain and do not doubt.
It was said about the sufferings of Christ our Lord that He "for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). Here we find the Cross with joy in enduring it, and glory resulting from it.......
You will encounter many kinds of crosses. Among them, there are exertion, toleration, patience, fatigue in service and in repentance, and also discipline from God and from the fathers.......
Do not grumble then, whenever you bear a cross; and do not think that spiritual life must be easy, and its way covered with flowers.
Otherwise, on what account will you be rewarded in eternity? And also, what is the meaning of the words of the Lord concerning the narrow gate (Matt. 7:13)?
CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A CROSS
In fact, christian life is practically a journey to Golgotha; and chrisianity without a cross is really not christianity.
Those who have received their good things on earth, will have no share in the Kingdom, as the story of the rich man and Lazarus explains to us (Luke 16:25). We say that, as regards individuals, just as we say it as regards groups and churches also. For christianity is a participation in the sufferings of Christ, as the apostle saint Paul said: "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Philippians 3:10). He said also about this participation in the sufferings:
"I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).
So that if you want to live with Christ, you must be crucified with Christ, or you must be crucified for Him, and suffer for Him, even if that would lead to die for Him also.
THE CROSS AND ITS GLORIES
In christianity, you suffer, you find pleasure in suffering, and you obtain crowns for your suffering which is transformed into glory.
Christianity is not a cross which you carry, and grumble and protest in your complaint! No, but it is the love of the cross, the love of suffering and sacrifice and fatigue for the Lord and for the expansion of His kingdom. It was said about the Lord Christ: "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame"(Heb.12:2).
The apostle saint Paul said: "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake" (2 Cor. 12:10).... And after having been scourged, the fathers apostles "departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41)....... But about the glories of sufferings, the apostle says:
"if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Rom. 8:17).
Therefore he said after that: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). And thus the apostle saint Peter said: "But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed" (1 Peter 3:14).
Hence sufferings are accompanied by blessings. The Lord Christ has mentionned them saying: "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matt. 5: 11-12).
Here we find that the sufferings for the Lord are associated with joy and jubilation and with the celestial reward.
Truly: because after the cross, there is resurrection and ascension, and also sitting at the right side of the Father.
If christianisty were only a cross, without glories, people would have been tired, and as the apostle said: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable" (1 Cor. 15:19). But christians in their bearing of the cross, look at the eternal glories "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" (2 Cor. 4:18).
Therefore, with the external fatigue, there is peace and consolation.
Saint Stephan at the time of his lapidation, saw the heavens opened, "and saw the glory of God" (Acts 7: 55,56). What joy had he at that time....!
There is another joy which the martyrs felt; it is that they had completed the days of their expatriation on earth and the moment of their encounter with the Lord approached......Some of them saw the crowns and the glories....... and some others had holy visions that consoled them...
We do not separate the cross from its rejoicing and its glories: also we do not separate it from the assistance and grace of God.
The christian might carry a cross, but he does not carry it alone, and God does not leave him alone. There is a divine assistance that supports and upholds. It is that assistance which stood with the martyrs till they supported the sufferings, and which stands with the faithful in every tribulation. There is the encouraging expression of the Lord: "Do no be afraid ....... for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you" (Acts 18: 9,10); "Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).
"They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you", says the Lord, "to deliver you" (Jer. 1:19).
THE LOVE OF CHRISTIANITY
FOR THE CROSS
The cross is an emblem to which every christian clings because of its spiritual and doctrinal meanings.
We suspend it on the churches, we include it in all our sculptures, we suspend it on our breasts, we make its sign on ourselves, we begin our prayers with it, we sign it on our food, we sanctify with it all that we possess. The men of the clegy carry it in their hands, and they bless the people with it. The cross is used in all the ecclesiastical sacraments, and in all the signings and the consecrations, in the belief that all the blessings of the New Testament came as a result of the Cross. The clothes of the clerical men are adorned with the cross, not just for ornamentation, but for its benediction and its power. We celebrate two feasts for the Cross, and we carry the cross during the processions and the celebrations.
We see that there is a power in the signing of the Cross, which the devils dread.
All the pains of the devil to ruin human beings, has been lost by means of the deliverance which was realised on the Cross. Therefore Satan dreads the sign of the cross..... on condition that the signing of the cross is done with faith and reverence. The apostle saint Paul said: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).
That is why a christian fortifies himself with the signing of the cross.
HOW TO BEAR PRACTICALLY
YOUR CROSS
The cross is a sign of love, bestowal, sacrifice, and redemption, which you carry each time you are tired in view of the practice of these virtues.
Try to get tired for the rest of another, and for his deliverance and his service; and be confident that God does never forget the fatigue of charity, "and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor" (1 Cor. 3:8).... Train yourself to give: whatever you bestow and support and sacrifice..... and train yourself to give from your necessities, as the blessed widow had done (Luke 21:4)........ Get tired in your service, because it is as much as you get tired, so much your love will appear, and therefore your sacrifice.
2. The Cross is also a sign of sufferings and endurance:
The sufferings which the Lord endured for us, whether the sufferings of the body, of which He said: "They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones" (Ps. 22: 16-17) ....... or the sufferings of shame which He joyfullly endured for us, that is He was rejoicing for our salvation.
Therfore the apostle said about Him: "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb: 12:2). How great is the endurance when it is joyfully done. That is a lesson for us.
While you suffer a cross, if you endure the tribulation of the cross for the Lord, or if you encounter persecution because of your justice, or if you are hit with disease or weakness for that...... likewise if you endure the wearisome deeds of people without taking revenge for yourself, but rather you turn the other cheek, and you walk the second mile, and do not resist an evil person (Matt. 5:39), but rather you act with patience, ... and patience is a cross, ... whether your endurance is within the circle of the family, or in the field of service, or in relation to your work.
3. You will bear a cross, if you crucify the flesh with its passions (Gal. 5:24).
You make efforts to crucify a craving or a guilty desire, and you conquer yourself. You crucify your thoughts each time they want to make you wandering. Likewise you restrain your senses, you bridle your tongue, you constrain yourself, and forbid your body to take food, enduring hunger, keeping away from every appetising food, and from every corporal pleasure and from the love of money.
4. You bear your cross in your self-denial, by taking the last place,
by not seeking dignity, by your giving up your rights, by not taking your reward on earth, by preferring others to yourself in everything with love that "does not seek its own" (1 Cor. 13:5), by humility and renouncement, and by keeping away from praise and dignity.
5. You bear your cross by bearing the sins of others, because our Lord the Christ has done so.
There is no objection that you would bear the guilt of another one and be punished for that instead of him; or that you bear the responsibilities of another one, and to carry them on instead of him. And as saint Paul said to Philemon about Onesimus: "But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, an writing with my own hand, I will repay" (Philemon 18-19)...... As much as you can, participate in the sufferings of others, and carry them in their place. Be a cyrenian bearing the cross of another.
SPIRITUAL MEANINGS
OF THE CROSS
When we make the sign of the cross, we remember many of the theological and spiritual meanings which are connected to it.
1. We remember the love of God for us, who accepted death instead of us, in view of our salvation. "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Is. 53:6). When we make the sign of the cross, we remember "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
2. And in the Cross, we remember our sins.
Our sins which He has borne on the Cross, and for which He Incarnated and was crucified.......
With this remembrance, we become humiliated, our souls become contrite, and we thank for the price which He paid for us "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:20).
3. And in the Cross, we remember the divine justice:
How forgiveness was not on account of justice. But the divine justice took his right on the Cross. We do not then consider sin as a slight matter, the sin whose price is such as that.
4. In our signing of the Cross, we declare our discipleship to this crucified One.
Those who take the cross simply by its spiritual meaning, inside the heart, without any apparent sign, do not openly manifest this discipleship which we declare by signing the cross, by carrying the cross on our breasts, by kissing the cross in front of everybody, by drawing it on our hands, and by raising it above the places in which we worship.
With all this, we openly declare our faith, and we are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ in front of people, but rather we boast of it, we hold fast to it, we celebrate feasts for it ....... Even without speaking, our plain aspect manifests our faith......
5. We do not make the sign of the cross on ourselves in a silent manner, but we say with that: In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Thus each time we declare our faith in the Holy Trinity who is One God for ever to eternity, amen. Thus the Holy Trinity is continually in our thoughts, and that is not available to those who do not make the sign of the cross as we do.
6. In making the sign of the cross, we also declare our belief in Incarnation and Redemption:
When we make the sign of the cross from upward to downward, and from the left side to the right side, we remember that God has come down from heaven downward to our earth, and transported people from the left side to the right side, from obscurity to light, and from death to life; and how many are the meditations which come to our hearts and minds from the signing of the cross!
7. We remember forgiveness in the Cross,
how our sins were forgiven on the Cross, and how our Lord addressed the heavenly Father saying (while He was on the Cross): "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luc 23:34)....
8. In the signing of the cross, there is a religious instruction for our sons and for others:
Whoever makes the sign of the cross, when he prays, when he enters the church, when he eats, when he sleeps, and at every moment, he remembers the Cross. This remembrance is spiritually useful and scripturally desirable. In it there is also an instruction for people, that Christ was crucified, and an instruction specially for our small children who grow from their childhood being used to the cross.
9. By making the sign of the cross we preach the death of the Lord for us, conforming to his commandment.
This is the commandment of the Lord who has redeemed us, to preach His "death till He comes" (1 Cor. 11:26)....... In making the sign the cross we remember His death at all times, and we keep remembering Him till He comes.
We also remember Him in the sacrament of Eucharist. But this sacrament is not done every moment, while we can make the sign of the cross at every moment, remembering the death of Christ for our sake.....
10. In making the sign of the cross, we remember that the retribution of sin is death:
because otherwise Christ would not have died; "we were dead in trespasses" (Eph. 2:5). But Christ died instead us upon the Cross and gave us life. Having paid the price on the Cross, He said to the Father: "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34).
11. In making the sign of the cross, we remember the love of God for us:
We remember that the cross is a sacrifice of love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)....... and we remember that "God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.......... and we were reconciled toGod through the death of His Son" (Rom. 5: 8,10).
In the Cross, we remember the love of God for us, because "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John: 15:13).
12. We make the sign of the cross because it gives us power.
The apostle saint Paul felt that power of the Cross, and said: "by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14). And he also said: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).
Note that he did not say that the crucifixion is the power of God, but he said that the simple word of the cross is the power of God.
Therfore when we make the sign of the cross, and when we mention the cross, we are filled with power; because we remember that the Lord trampled death by the cross, and He granted life to everybody, and forced and defeated Satan. Therefore....
we make the sign of the cross, because Satan dreads it:
All the labour of Satan since he fighted Adam until the end of time, has been lost on the Cross, because the Lord has paid the price, and erased all the sins of people with His blood, for those who believe and obey. Therefore Satan whenever he sees the cross, he is terrified and remembers his greatest defeat and the loss of his labour, and so he is ashamed and runs away.
Thus all the sons of God constantly use the sign of the cross, considering that it is the sign of conquest and victory, that it is the power of God. As for our part, we are filled with power inside. But the enemy outside is scared.
And as in ancient times the bronze serpent was lifted up, as a healing for people and salvation from death, even so the Lord of glory was lifted up on the Cross. (John 3:14). Thus is the sign of the cross in its effect.
14. We make the sign of the cross, and take its blessing:
In ancient times, the cross was the sign of malediction and death because of sin....... But on the Cross, the Lord bore all our maledictions, in order to grant us the benediction of the reconciliation with God (Rom. 5:10), and the benediction of the new life. Therefore all the gracious things of the New Testament come from the Cross.
Therefore the clergy men use this cross in the giving of benediction, as an indication that the benediction is not issued from them personally, but from the cross of the Lord who has entrusted them to use it for granting benediction, and because they take their ministry from the ministry of Him who was crucified. All the blessings of the New Testament follow the cross of the Lord and its effect.
15. Therefore we use the cross in all the holy sacraments of Christianity,
because they all have their source in the merits of the blood of Christ on the cross.
Without the cross, we could not deserve to come near to God as sons in Baptism; and we could not deserve the communion of his body and blood in the mystery of Eucharist (1 Cor. 11:26), and we could not enjoy the blessings of any mystery from the mysteries of the Church.
16. We pay attention to the Cross in order to remember our participation in it.
We remember the word of the apostle saint Paul: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). And also his word: "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformet to His death" (Philippians 3:10). Here we ask ourselves when shall we enter into participation with the sufferings of the Lord and shall be crucified with Him.
And here we remember the thief who was crucified with Him, and deserved to be with Him in paradise. Probably he is in paradise singing with the song that saint Paul said later "I have been crucified with Christ......."
All our wishes are that we ascend on the cross with Christ, and to boast about this cross which we remember now whenever we touch it with our senses.
17. We honor the cross, because it is a subject of joy for the Father:
The Father who has accepted Christ on the cross with all joy, as a sin sacrifice and also as "a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord" (Lev.1: 5,13,17).
The Lord Christ has satisfied the Father with the perfection of His life on earth, but He entered into the fullness of this satisfaction on the Cross, where He "became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8).
Each time we look at the cross, we remember the perfection of obedience, and the perfection of subjection, in order to imitate the Lord Christ in his obedience, to the point of death.
As the cross was a subject of joy for the Father, so also it was a subject of joy as regards the Son who was crucified, of whom it was said: "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb. 12:2).
Thus was the fullness of Christ's joy in His crucifixion. May we be like that.
18. In the cross, "we go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb. 13:12)
with the same feelings which we have in the holy week.......and in that, we remember what was said about the prophet Moses: "esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Heb. 11:26). The reproach of Christ is His crucifixion and His sufferings.
19. On the cross, we remember the salvation which the thief who was crucified with the Lord obtained:
That gives us a wonderful hope. How could a man be saved in the last hours of his life on earth, and get a promise to enter the paradise.
How the Lord with His spiritual influence on this thief, had been able to draw him to Himself, and remember his faith and his confession, without remembering any of his previous sins.
How great is that hope which was realised on the cross.
20. We bear the cross which reminds us of His second coming:
As it has been mentionned in the gospel about the end of the world and the coming of the Lord: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven" (that is the cross).........and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds....." (Matt. 24:30).
Let us remember the sign of the Son of Man on earth, so long as we expect this sign of His in heaven in His majestic coming.
THE JUST QUEEN
SAINT HELEN
We remember her on the occasion of
the Feast of the Cross
The Orthodox Coptic Church celebrates her feast on the 9th of Bashans, (the 17th of May), the day of her death in the year 327 AD, and we also remember her on the 17th of Tot, (the 27th or the 28th of September), the day of the feast of the Cross.
The Church also remembers her in the assembly of saints in the prayers of the "Psalmodia", asking for her prayers and the prayers of her son the Emperor Constantin...... Our brothers the Orthodox Greeks build churches on her name, and they celebrate her feast and the feast of her son on the 21st of Ayar. The Latin Church celebrates her feast on the 18th of Aab (August).
Her son Emperor Constantin honored her. He gave her the surname "Augusta", meaning queen. He gave her the power over the Imperial treasures. She spent generously and liberally on the construction of churches. She gave to the poor and the needy persons and cities.
The historian Eusebius of Cesarea said about her, that during her wandering in the Eastern States, she presented numerous proofs of her magnanimity as an Empress, and of her imperial generosity upon the inhabitants of the various cities as communities and upon the individuals, as well as she offered many aids with the utmost lavishness. She gave money to some, and big quantities of clothes to others. She liberated some from prisons, or from the slavery of service in the mines. She delivered others from the violence of persecution, and brought back some others from exile (K3 F44).
She was very religious. She went to church, with simple modest clothes, although she was an empress, and she stood with all veneration among the masses. She was constant in her prayers, and she attended the religious celebrations, and lived as a worshipper more than she lived as a queen. She visited the holy places, bearing the fatigues of travel in her old age.
The Lord suggested to her in a vision, to go to Jerusalem, and to search exactly for the place of the glorious Cross.
She went there, and inquired, and discovered three crosses. Saint Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem, accompanied her. God manifested the holy cross with a miracle, as it appears in the synaxaire of the 17th of Tot.
She placed the cross in a golden box, and gave it to the bishop, and she kept a part of it for her son Constantin who placed some of the holy nails in his protective covering.
Saint Helen constructed a church in Behtlehem, at the cave where our Lord was born, and she built another one on the Mount of Olives, at the place of the Ascension of the Saviour.
She began the construction of the church of the Resurrection......
Her son the emperor Constantin presented to her all that was necessary for her holy work. He sent letters in relation to that, to the governors and to the bishops.
This saint specified numerous unalienable properties for the churches and the monasteries, and for spending on the poor. She celebrated a feast in Jerusalem for the sacred virgins, and she herself served them.
She built a church on the name of the martyr saint Lucianos in the town where she was born, which her son called Helenopolis on her name Helen, in her honor.
This saint died in 327 AD at the age of 84 years. She wrote her testament to her son the Emperor, and to her grandsons the ceasars, inciting them to be firm in the life of faith and justice.
SOME VERSETS TO BE STUDIED AND RECALLED FROM MEMORY
ABOUT THE CROSS
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).
"And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24).
"But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14).
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).
".......having made peace through te blood of His cross" (Col. 1:20).
"For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus-Christ and Him crucified" (1Cor. 2:2).
"And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).
"knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him" (Rom. 6:6).
"for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:8).
Monday, 16 April 2007
the feast of the Annunciation
Pope Shenouda III series
5
THE FEAST
OF
THE ANNUNCIATION
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Translated from the Arabic first edition of April 1997
All rights are reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
Name of the book: The Feast of the Annunciation
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
First Edition: April 1997
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset) - The Cathedral - Abbassia
Deposition number at "The Library": 97 / 475
977 - 5345 - 38
In the Name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God,
Amen.
You will read in this pamphlet about the Annunciation of the Nativity of Christ, glory be to Him, and the annunciations which preceded and succeeded it. It is the annunciation of salvation for the world. It is the first feast of the Lord. It is an annunciation of love, because the reason of the Incarnation and Redemption is the love of God for the world. The Lord Christ has offered to us rejoicing annunciations and has presented God to us as a loving Father.
What shall we then announce to people? Let there be in your mouths, all of you, a rejoicing annunciation for everybody.
Pope Shenouda III
The feast of the Annunciation comes every year on the 29th of Baramhat. There is between it and the Feast of the Nativity which comes on the 29th of Kiahk, a period of nine months that constitutes the peiod of the holy pregnancy with the Lord Christ.
The Annunciation
Thus the feast of the Annunciation is the first among the Lord feasts.
We remember in it the Annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to the Holy Virgin saying to her:
"Hail to you, you full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women! ......... And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1: 26-33).
When the Virgin was astonished saying: "How can this be, since I do not know a man?", the angel replied: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1: 34-35).
The angel announced to her about the conception of Elisabeth while she was an old woman. Then he said: "For with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37).
The Virgin received this annunciation, or this assignment, with submission to the divine will and said: "Behold the maid-servant of the Lord! Let it be according to your word. And the angel departed from her" (Luke 1: 38-39)...... having accomplished his mission.
Other annunciations
There were other annunciations before and after The Annunciation:
There was before it, the annunciation of the angel to the priest Zacharias with the birth of his son John the Baptist.
That one who will be the angel who prepares the way before the Lord Christ (Mark 1:2); and about whom there was the prophecy of the prophet Malachi (Mal. 3:1).
The angel of the Lord "appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense", and announced to him saying:
"....and your wife Elisabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ......... He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah.........."(Luke 1:8:17).
The Annunciation of the angel to the Virgin was followed by another annunciation to Joseph the Carpentar.
"an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to yo Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:20-21). And he reminded him of the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah: "Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).
When the Lord Christ was born, another annunciation was sent to the shepherds and to all the people:
An angel of the Lord appeared to "shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night...... and the glory of the Lord shone around them ....... Then the angel said to them: "I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord ...... And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men" (Luke 2: 8-14).
The Annunciation is joy
An annunciation always brings rejoicing news.
Therefore the Gospel is called "besharah" (in Arabic, meaning annunciation). We say "the besharah" of Matthew, the "besharah" of Mark.... because the Gospel brings rejoicing news, Good News, news about the Salvation which the Lord Christ offered in view of our Redemption; and also because the Gospel brings us rejoicing news about the beautiful instructions of Christ, that rejoices every heart who loves virtue and holiness; since spiritual people rejoice with the word of God as if they have found great riches (Ps. 119).
The feast of the Annunciation brings an annunciation of Salvation.
That is clear from the words of the angel: "and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). The word "Jesus" means saviour.
Therefore also, the angel said to the shepherds: "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).
The Holy Virgin sang in her encounter with saint Elisabeth, with this song saying: "And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47).
This Annunciation of Salvation was neither only for the Saint Virgin, nor only for the shepherds, but for all the world.
Therefore the angel said to the shepherds: "I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2: 10-11).
It is about this salvation which is for all, that the old man Simeon, when he took the child Jesus up in his arms, blessed God and said: "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples" (Luke 2:29-31).
The good news of salvation is then for everybody and for all peoples. It arrived first to the ears of our mother the Holy Virgin Mary, then to the others.
The beginning of reconciliation
The annunciation of the birth of the Lord Christ was the beginning of the reconciliation between heaven and earth:
The beginning of the reconciliation between God and men, after a long dissension since Adam and Eve....... The way to the tree of life was closed, and was guarded by the cherubim with a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24). The Holiest of All was behind the veil, and nobody from the people could enter it (Heb. 9: 3,7).
In the previous period to the coming of the Lord Christ, there were neither prophets, nor talking between God and men, nor holy visions, nor angels whom God sent to men..... It was a long period during which human beings were alienated from God.
Then came the Annunciation as a prelude of reconciliation between God and men.
The visions of angels multiplied, accompanied by rejoicing epistles that were the Annunciation of the Saviour......
It was an annunciation of a spiritual salvation.
An annunciation of a Saviour who will save men from their sins, and not a political saviour who would save from the dominion of Romans.
It was rather a salvation "by the remisssion of their sins" (Luke 1:77). As the priest Zacharias prophecised saying about this salvation "Through the tender mercy of our God ......... to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death" (Luke 1: 78:79).
Salvation was to be completed upon the Cross, when Christ carried our sins and died for them. But the salvation upon the Cross would not have been completed unless if first Christ were born. Here was the importance of the Annunciation of the Nativity of Christ who will deliver his people from their sins, and the annunciation of the salvation from the dominion of Satan, and the annunciation of the salvation from the judgement of death, and from the dissension which was between God and men......
The road to salvation then, began with the Annunciation.
The old man Simeon saw it in the Nativity of Christ, and said to the Lord: "For my eyes have seen Your Salvation" (Luke 2:30); that is the procession of the salvation, and the procession of the journey from the Nativity to Golgotha. He saw them with the spirit of prophecy.....
An annunciation brought by angels
It was the archangel Gabriel who has brought the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin, in view of the dignity of the Saint Mother of God. The annunciation to Joseph the Carpentar, was in a dream where the angel of God appeared to him and brought him the good news. The annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist was on the right side of the altar of incense, as it is becoming to Zacharias the priest.....
The annunciation to Joseph was after the holy conception. But the annunciation to the Holy Virgin was before that. Why then?
It was not convenient that the Virgin would find herself pregnant, without her knowledge of anything about the matter, lest she would fall into a great terror that would also affect her blood and her morale! But the convenient matter was rather that she would first know the divine mystery, and be psychologically prepared in a restful manner.... and also it was necessary that she would be annunciated firstly, in order that she would give her acceptance to offer herself as a mother in the mystery of the divine Incarnation. God did not compel her to that.
When the Virgin responded to the divine will with the expression: "Let it be to me according to your word", then began the holy pregnancy.
But it was not convenient that Joseph the Carpentar would have been annunciated before the Virgin, and before taking her acceptance, and also because of the importance of the Holy Virgin.
Let it be to me according to you word
In the story of the Annunciation, we remember two things: the divine choice, and the human response.
The choice by God of the Virgin, and her response with her words: "Let it be to me according to your word".....
The reason of the choice by God, is His knowledge of the holiness of the Virgin, and her tolerance of this magnificent glory: the Virgin who was bred up in the temple since her childhood, in the life of prayer and meditation, and in her reading of the Holy Bible, and her study of many of the versets, the pure Virgin who loved virginity.
And also the humble Virgin who can bear that magnificent glory without her heart being raised up.
It would not be not an easy matter for a girl to become the mother of God, if she was not very humble-hearted. Bearing dignity is not an easy matter, as saint Abba Antonius said: "Bearing dignity is more difficult than bearing outrage". But a humble heart can bear dignity. Therefore God waited till He found that humble pure heart, in order to annunciate to her with the divine Incarnation.
The Holy Virgin said thus in her song: "my soul has rejoiced in God my Saviour, for He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant" (Luke 1: 47-48). The expression "maidservant" and not "mother", is also a proof of her humility, specially after she had heard saint Elisabeth say to her: "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
The will of God united with the will of the Virgin, by the expression: "let it be to me according to your word". And the holy pregnancy began by this expression.
Thus the Holy Spirit came upon her, and sanctified her womb, so that the Holy One that is born of her, would not inherit anything from the original sin.
By the expression: "let it be to me according to your word", the Logos or the Second Person came into the Holy Virgin's womb, and united personally to a body whom the Holy Spirit made in her, in order to grow with a natural growth until His birth is completed.
In this manner, the humble Word, "who made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant" (Philippians 2:7), came into the womb of the humble Virgin.
It was becoming of the humble Son, to be borne of a humble mother.
Because without humility, the completion of the divine Incarnation was not possible. And without humility, Crucifixion and Redemption could not have been possible.
There is another important lesson which we take from the expression: "let it be to me according to your word":
With the expression: "let it be to me according to your word", the Virgin proved the life of abandon:
The Holy Virgin who had loved the life of virginity, since she did "not know a man", (Luke 1:34), did not at anytime think that she would become a mother, and that was something wonderful in her eyes. But when the angel annunciated to her the divine will, she could not but abandon herself to the will of God, and she said: "let it be to me according to your word".
Thus in the feast of the Annunciation, we learn a lesson about the life of abandon.
In the story of the Annunciation, we see the awe of the angel of God.
The expression: "do not be afraid" is evidently apparent.
It was said in the annunciation of the angel to the priest Zacharias: "And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elisabeth will bear you a son" (Luke 1: 12-13).
And in the annunciation of the angel to the Virgin, it was said: "But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God" (Luke 1: 29-30).
In the story of the Annunciation also, we see the respect of the archangel Mikhail for the Holy Virgin.
When he appeared to her, he said: "Hail to you, O full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women" (Luke 1:28).
This encounter is different from the apparition of the angel to the priest Zacharias, and the apparition of the angel to Joseph in a dream. In the two apparitions, there were no salutation, and no praise, as in the apparition to the Virgin.
We remark that the expression: "blessed are you among women" which the angel said to the Virgin, was told to her also by saint Elisabeth in her encounter with her (Luke 1:42).
We note that the astonishment of Zacharias from having a son, was met by the angel Gabriel with a punishment (Luke 1:20), while the astonishment of the Virgin, was met by an explanation and a clarification.
It is on the one side, because of the dignity of the Virgin, and also because the virginal birth was the first of its kind and had no precedent. But the birth from sterile women and from the wives of old men, happened before, as in the birth of Isaac from the old Abraham and his wife Sara (Gen. 18:11-12). When Sara was astonished to give birth in her old age, the Lord did not punish her, because there was no precedent to this in that time.
Anyway, the angel replied saying: "For with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37). May we also take a lesson from this expression of the angel, a lesson that will bring hope in our hearts, whatever matters seem difficult or impossible before us!..... The Lord Christ also said this spiritual and theological principle later on: "With men it is impossible; but not with God; for with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27).
In the story of the Annunciation, we rejoice that it was an angel who brought the Annunciation.
The prophet Elisha brought the annunciation to the shunamite woman that she will have a son, saying: "About this time next year you will embrace a son" (2 Kings 4:16). And this happened. But here, it is an angel who brings the annunciation, rather an archangel, because of the majesty of the born .....
The angel said to the Virgin about her son: "He will be great" (Luke 1:32).
He said also: "and will be called the Son of the Highest" (Luke 1:32). He also said to her: "that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). He said this before Nataniel testified this sonship (John 1:49), and before Peter (Matt. 16:16).
The angel in his annunciation to the Virgin, testified that her Son will be a King, "and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:33). That resembles also the prophecy of the prophet Daniel, when he said: "Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 7:14).
The feast of the Annunciation gives us an idea about feasts during the period of fasting.
It comes always during Lent, because the month of Baramhat is always during Lent.We do not break Lent for any reason. Therefore we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation while we are fasting our vegetal fast, although we are exempted from fasting without any food or drink, in celebration of this feast of the Lord. Also there are no "metanoyas" (that means kneeling down and touching the ground with one's forehead).
The Annunciation of Salvation
It is the feast not simply of the Annunciation of the Nativity, but the Annunciation of the beginning of salvation.
We bring the good news to people that God had begun the execution of His divine plan for the salvation of the human race; beginning with the operation of the Incarnation by the holy pregnancy, which leads to Nativity, and then to the Cross, and the Redemption, then the Resurrection and the destruction of the judgement of death.
In the feast of the Annunciation, we bring the good news to everybody, that his salvation is near, and that God has decreted to save.
As He said when He granted salvation to the chief tax collector Zaccheus: "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19: 9-10). He who saved the tax collector Zaccheus in spite of all his iniquities, He is able to save any sinner. And He who came to save those who have perished, He also is ready to save those who have fallen.......
How beautiful is it that we present the annunciation of salvation to every one who is under a yoke.
We say to those who are tired and under heavy charges, here is the Lord who says: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).
And we say to those have broken hearts: The Lord has come for you and for your rest and for your delivery. Is He not the One who said: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (Isaiah 61:1). With this, we plant hope and joy in the hearts of people. Verily how true is the word of the Bible:
"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" (Rom. 10:15).
The Bible says also: "a good report makes the bones healthy" (Prov. 15:30).
Let then be in your mouths a good word that rejoices people, and good news that fills their hearts with hope..... Say to the sinner that repentance is easy, and that the grace of God is capable of facilitating for you the way of repentance; and God looks for you, and He will inevitably find you and bring you back to Him. Therefore your salvation from sin is possible and easy. And as the apostle saint Paul said: "now it is high time to awake ot of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed" (Rom. 13:11). The Lord is ready to accept us to Him whatever we have gone astray far from Him, as He previously accepted the lost son (Luke 15), and as He accepted the apostle Peter (John 21) although he had precedently denied Him, and swore and cursed and said: "I do not know the Man" (Matt. 26:74).
Rejoicing declarations by the Lord Christ
How numerous are the rejoicing declarations which the Lord God presented to individuals or to the whole world. Among them:
A rejoicing declaration in the expression: "your sins are forgiven you".
He said this expression to the paralytic whom his friends had let down on a bed from the uncovered roof (Mark 2:5). All what this paralytic hoped for was to obtain the healing of his body. But the Lord granted him also the annunciation of forgiving his sins...... The Lord said the same expression to the woman sinner who had anointed His feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair in the house of Simeon the leper. He annunciated to her also the forgiveness of her sins, because she had loved much, and He said to her: "your sins are forgiven you" )Luke 7:48). And also: "Your faith has saved you" (Luke 7:50).
The most beautiful annunciations are the proclamations of forgiveness, and they are many in the mouth of the Lord Christ.
Even when He was upon the Cross, He said this declaration: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34). He brought the same beautiful annunciation to the right thief, comforting him by his word: "today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). It is the most beautiful expression which the thief heard during all his life, and he heard it on the last day of his life.
How beautiful also is the word of the Lord to the woman who was caught in the very act: "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more" (John 8:11).
The apostle Peter was very sad because he had denied the Lord three times. "So he went out and wept bitterly" (Matt. 26:75). Then after the Resurrection, he heard from the Lord this rejoicing annunciation: "Feed my lambs .......... tend my sheep" (John 21: 15-16).
Truthfully, an annunciation will bring more joy if it is not expected, or if it is more generously announced.
Before the crucifixion, the Lord presented many rejoicing annunciations to his disciples.
He said to them: "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18), "Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you" (John 16:22). He announced to them that He will rise from death and that they will see Him; and He announced to them another beautiful annunciation which is: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14: 2-3). What is more beautiful than this annunciation.
He made to them another annunciation about the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them.
The annunciation of the Holy Spirit
by rejoicing words saying: "And I will pray the Father; and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:16-17). And also: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26), "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, ........ and He will tell you things to come" (John 13:16).
The talk about the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them, was a rejoicing annunciation, revealing the power which they will obtain, and revealing the beginning of their service and their predication. Therefore He said to them before the Ascension: "you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
May we, all of us, announce to people the action of the Holy Spirit in them.
We announce to them the participation of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13-14); and that they will all be, the "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Obviously partakers in the action, the Holy Spirit acting in us, and acting by us and with us. As the apostle saint Paul said about himself and about Apollos, his associate in the service: "For we are God's fellow workers" (1 Cor. 3:9). And as we pray in the prayer of the travellers, saying to God: "Participate in the work with your servants, in every good deed".......
Yes, we announce to people that they have become the temples of the Holy Spirit.
That would be after they had obtained the holy anointment in the holy sacrament of Confirmation (1 John 2: 20,27), and the Holy Spirit has taken His abode in them. Thus would be realised the annunciation which the apostle saint Paul said to us: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16), "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" (1 Cor. 6:19).
Other annunciations
Among the deepest and the most influencial annunciations, there is the word of the Lord:
"and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20).
It is a good and rejoicing annunciation that the Lord will be always with us, and that we are not alone. He says rather: "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). Also his word: "Peace I leave to you, My peace I give to you .......... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
Let us not forget also the annunciation of the divine protection:
He says: "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. 10:30)., and his word: "But not a hair of your head shall be lost" (Luke 21:18). The apostle saint Paul remembered this annunciation and said to his men announcing them and saying: "since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you" (Acts 27 34).
About this guard also, the Gospel presented to us another annunciation in the word of the Lord God: "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19). And his word to the apostle saint Paul: "Do not be afraid ....... for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you" (Acts 18: 9-10).
An annunciation concerning eternity
How wonderful are the annunciations which the Lord presents about the happy eternity. The Lord presents them to the triumphants, those who have fought in their spiritual life and were victorious.
He says:
"To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God"
"He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death"
"To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat"
"And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations"
"and I will give him the morning star"
(Apocalypse, Revelation 2: 7,11,17,26,28).
And He completes this rejoicing annunciation saying:
"He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels".
"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God."
Rather how wonderful is the annunciation in which He says:
"To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne".
(Apocalypse, Revelation 3: 5,12,21).
The Lord presents to us another annunciation about eternity in the description of the heavenly Jerusalem
where God will abide with His people in this city "coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for his husband"........ "there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Apoc. 21:2-4).
"The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it" (Apoc. 21:23).
"There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever" (Apoc. 22:5).
"They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads" (Apoc. 22:4).
There will be the tree of life, and the water of life.
There is the annunciation of the frequentation of the angels and of the saints. From the best which has been said about the annunciation of eternity, there is the word of the apostle:
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9).
A marvelous annunciation about life in eternity. It exceeds all imagination, and brings joy, and incites to spiritual exertion, and to join the Lord in order to enjoy this annunciation. The apostle adds another annunciation to it, where he says that we shall rise with spiritual bodies, heavenly bodies. We shall be risen in power and in glory. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:53).
The apostle adds another annunciation, and says: "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess. 4: 17-18).
Truthfully, how sweet and beautiful is it to meditate upon this annunciation concerning eternity......
An annunciation concerning God
In Chrisianity, there are many beautiful, deep and moving matters which we can annunciate to people. But the most beautiful in them, is God Himself and His relationship with human beings.
God loves human beings. He is The benefactor and controls everything. He is "fairer than the sons of men" (Ps. 45:2). He has beautifully done everything. In His love for us, He has created us to His image and His resemblance, and granted us power over all His creatures on earth (Gen. 1: 26-28). When we sinned against Him, because of the excellence of His love to us, He redempted us and facilitated for us the way of repentance. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
The annunciation of forgiveness and redemption is among the most beautiful matters which Christianity annunciates.
God of whom the psalmist said: "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103: 10-14).
He is the merciful forgiving good God .......
who says in spite or our disobeying his commandments: "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer. 31:34); "Do I have pleasure at all that the wicked should die?.....and not that he should turn from his ways and live?!" "None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live." (Ez. 18: 23-22). He is God who has reconciliated the world to Himself "not imputing their trespasses to them" (2 Cor. 5:19).
When the prophet David meditated upon the beautiful qualities of God, he said in his psalm:
"O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord? (Ps 89:8), "O God, who is like You? (Ps. 71:19).
"who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord?" (Ps. 89:6). "Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord" (Ps. 86:8), "For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols" (Ps. 96:4-5).
God gives us without our asking, and gives us more than we ask for. He gives food to the birds of the sky, He gives beauty to the lilies of the field which Solomon in all his glory had not (Matt. 6: 26-29).
Let us announce to people that God is the Shepherd who carries us joyfully upon his shoulders (Luke 15:5).
He is the shepherd about whom the prophet David said: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake" (Psalm 23). He is also the good shepherd who "gives His life for the sheep" (John 10:11)...... Yes, He is the good shepherd who searches for us when we go astray, and does not rest till He finds us. (Luke 15).
We announce to people that God is God the Safekeeper, the Deliverer, the Rescuer......
He is the One who will not forget us, even if the mother forgets her nursing child (Is. 49:15). He has said: "I will not leave you, nor forsake you" (Joshua 1:5). He cares for us whatever we go astray. He is the God of all, even the weak, the small, the despised, and that are not (1 Cor. 1:28). He is the One sitting in the high places, looking at humble people. He is the One who forgives our sins, and delivers our life from corruption; as we say in the divine mass. He is the One to whom we say in the Lord Prayer: "do not lead us into tempatation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matt. 6:13).
An annunciation of love
Let a rejoicing word be in the mouths of everyone of you, to say it to people, let everyone of you bring to them a good annunciation.
Carry a good word to every one who is in tribulation or who has a problem; a word of good wishes, or a word of profitable counsel. Say to everybody that there is a key to every closed door, there are, may be, rather many keys ...... and that God has a solution to every problem, rather many solutions. Say if God wills, that problem will be solved. If God wills, that tribulation will end. Remind people with the word of the Bible:
"all things work together for good to those who love God" (Rom. 28:8).
Let not your features be morose, do not give people a frightening thought about God, a black thought about religion which you do not mention unless accompanied with weeping and tears! so that all those who see you say: "O Lord, cover"! and see nothing but a band on which it is written: "by a sad countenance the heart is made better" (Eccl. 7:3)...... The sad countenance will be while you are giving account to yoursefl about your sins in your sleeping place, and not constantly before people!
Let cheerfulness be one of your beloved qualities that draws people to religion.
Your cheerfulness is a rejoicing annunciation which makes people feel that religion brings peace into the heart, and reminds them of the word of the apostle saint Paul: "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I sill say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4).
The work of the Lord Christ was not only the salvation which he offered on the Cross. But He brought joy to everybody whom He met. That appears from the word of the Bible about Him:
"who went about doing good ........" (Acts 10:38).
He distributed good things to people. All those who met Him obtained good things from Him. Is He not the One who said: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). You also, let this style which is of the Lord Christ, be your style.
If you cannot present good in action, present it in words as a good annunciation.
So that people will be optimistic when they see you, as the prophet David said about Ahimaaz the son of Zadok: "He is a good man, and comes with good news" (2 Sam. 18:27). Therefore do not complicate matters before anybody, whatever bad is his condition...... But rather in the midst of darkness, open for him a window of light, a window of hope, and beware of causing dispair to anybody, or of bringing affliction to his soul......
Let your soul be a relaxing soul so that anyone who hears you gets rest.
Relaxed souls can rest others. People always lean to them in order to have rest........ not with words of flattery or simply to please, but with spirit and truth, and with a beautiful instruction from the Bible and from the lives of saints. Contrarily to other souls who complicate matters; he who sits with them, goes out repeating the psalm: "Many are they who say to me: There is no help for him in God" (Ps. 3:2). They are like the friends of the just Job to whom he said; "Miserable comforters are you all!" (Job 16:2).
Features which are simply relaxed, give rest to people.
Likewise the photographer asks people to smile before taking their pictures, so that their features may be relaxed and acceptable. Likewise when you see a smiling child, from whose face light expands, you rejoice and smile also yourself...... A person when he sees the features of his chief dejected, runs away from meeting him and does not expect good. But if he meets him cheerfully or with a smile, he sees that his cheerfulness brings a good annunciation.
Let everyone who sees you be optimistic and expecting good, and be happy that he begins his day with your cheerful faces.
Even without your saying to them good news.... But their simple encounter with you, will be by itself a rejoicing annunciation. Say to people that God created man to be happy; and when He created him, He put him in Paradise. Then, O Lord, let it be to us according to your word.
The heart which is full of hope, has always a good annunciation inside.
He simultaneously transfers the hope which is in his heart to people; and the joy which is in his heart and which appears at the same time in his features, is conveyed to others. How beautiful is what a saint father said to the saint Amba Antonius: "It is enough for me simply to look at your face, O father"....
Even amidst tribulations, the fathers did not lose their joy. In this respect, the apostle saint Paul said about himself and about his associates in the service: "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Cor. 6:10).
The word of the Lord: "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes", in a rejoicing annunciation.
Thus the apostle Paul said: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). The rejoicing annunciation which you bring to the sinner, is not for him to think lightly of his condition, but that you say to him that God is able to save him from his sin; and that he has to begin with repentance, and grace will help him.....
In the first fall of man, and while God was punishing him, He presented a rejoicing annunciation to him.
He said to him that the seed of woman shall bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). That is wonderful: a promise of salvation at the same moment of reproving. Thus the Lord Christ came from the posterity of the woman, "born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law" (Gal. 4:4-5), and bruise the head of the serpent.
Yes, that is the rejoicing annunciation of the Nativity: "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).
5
THE FEAST
OF
THE ANNUNCIATION
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Translated from the Arabic first edition of April 1997
All rights are reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
Name of the book: The Feast of the Annunciation
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
First Edition: April 1997
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset) - The Cathedral - Abbassia
Deposition number at "The Library": 97 / 475
977 - 5345 - 38
In the Name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
the One God,
Amen.
You will read in this pamphlet about the Annunciation of the Nativity of Christ, glory be to Him, and the annunciations which preceded and succeeded it. It is the annunciation of salvation for the world. It is the first feast of the Lord. It is an annunciation of love, because the reason of the Incarnation and Redemption is the love of God for the world. The Lord Christ has offered to us rejoicing annunciations and has presented God to us as a loving Father.
What shall we then announce to people? Let there be in your mouths, all of you, a rejoicing annunciation for everybody.
Pope Shenouda III
The feast of the Annunciation comes every year on the 29th of Baramhat. There is between it and the Feast of the Nativity which comes on the 29th of Kiahk, a period of nine months that constitutes the peiod of the holy pregnancy with the Lord Christ.
The Annunciation
Thus the feast of the Annunciation is the first among the Lord feasts.
We remember in it the Annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to the Holy Virgin saying to her:
"Hail to you, you full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women! ......... And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1: 26-33).
When the Virgin was astonished saying: "How can this be, since I do not know a man?", the angel replied: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1: 34-35).
The angel announced to her about the conception of Elisabeth while she was an old woman. Then he said: "For with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37).
The Virgin received this annunciation, or this assignment, with submission to the divine will and said: "Behold the maid-servant of the Lord! Let it be according to your word. And the angel departed from her" (Luke 1: 38-39)...... having accomplished his mission.
Other annunciations
There were other annunciations before and after The Annunciation:
There was before it, the annunciation of the angel to the priest Zacharias with the birth of his son John the Baptist.
That one who will be the angel who prepares the way before the Lord Christ (Mark 1:2); and about whom there was the prophecy of the prophet Malachi (Mal. 3:1).
The angel of the Lord "appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense", and announced to him saying:
"....and your wife Elisabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ......... He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah.........."(Luke 1:8:17).
The Annunciation of the angel to the Virgin was followed by another annunciation to Joseph the Carpentar.
"an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to yo Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:20-21). And he reminded him of the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah: "Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).
When the Lord Christ was born, another annunciation was sent to the shepherds and to all the people:
An angel of the Lord appeared to "shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night...... and the glory of the Lord shone around them ....... Then the angel said to them: "I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord ...... And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men" (Luke 2: 8-14).
The Annunciation is joy
An annunciation always brings rejoicing news.
Therefore the Gospel is called "besharah" (in Arabic, meaning annunciation). We say "the besharah" of Matthew, the "besharah" of Mark.... because the Gospel brings rejoicing news, Good News, news about the Salvation which the Lord Christ offered in view of our Redemption; and also because the Gospel brings us rejoicing news about the beautiful instructions of Christ, that rejoices every heart who loves virtue and holiness; since spiritual people rejoice with the word of God as if they have found great riches (Ps. 119).
The feast of the Annunciation brings an annunciation of Salvation.
That is clear from the words of the angel: "and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). The word "Jesus" means saviour.
Therefore also, the angel said to the shepherds: "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).
The Holy Virgin sang in her encounter with saint Elisabeth, with this song saying: "And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47).
This Annunciation of Salvation was neither only for the Saint Virgin, nor only for the shepherds, but for all the world.
Therefore the angel said to the shepherds: "I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2: 10-11).
It is about this salvation which is for all, that the old man Simeon, when he took the child Jesus up in his arms, blessed God and said: "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples" (Luke 2:29-31).
The good news of salvation is then for everybody and for all peoples. It arrived first to the ears of our mother the Holy Virgin Mary, then to the others.
The beginning of reconciliation
The annunciation of the birth of the Lord Christ was the beginning of the reconciliation between heaven and earth:
The beginning of the reconciliation between God and men, after a long dissension since Adam and Eve....... The way to the tree of life was closed, and was guarded by the cherubim with a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24). The Holiest of All was behind the veil, and nobody from the people could enter it (Heb. 9: 3,7).
In the previous period to the coming of the Lord Christ, there were neither prophets, nor talking between God and men, nor holy visions, nor angels whom God sent to men..... It was a long period during which human beings were alienated from God.
Then came the Annunciation as a prelude of reconciliation between God and men.
The visions of angels multiplied, accompanied by rejoicing epistles that were the Annunciation of the Saviour......
It was an annunciation of a spiritual salvation.
An annunciation of a Saviour who will save men from their sins, and not a political saviour who would save from the dominion of Romans.
It was rather a salvation "by the remisssion of their sins" (Luke 1:77). As the priest Zacharias prophecised saying about this salvation "Through the tender mercy of our God ......... to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death" (Luke 1: 78:79).
Salvation was to be completed upon the Cross, when Christ carried our sins and died for them. But the salvation upon the Cross would not have been completed unless if first Christ were born. Here was the importance of the Annunciation of the Nativity of Christ who will deliver his people from their sins, and the annunciation of the salvation from the dominion of Satan, and the annunciation of the salvation from the judgement of death, and from the dissension which was between God and men......
The road to salvation then, began with the Annunciation.
The old man Simeon saw it in the Nativity of Christ, and said to the Lord: "For my eyes have seen Your Salvation" (Luke 2:30); that is the procession of the salvation, and the procession of the journey from the Nativity to Golgotha. He saw them with the spirit of prophecy.....
An annunciation brought by angels
It was the archangel Gabriel who has brought the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin, in view of the dignity of the Saint Mother of God. The annunciation to Joseph the Carpentar, was in a dream where the angel of God appeared to him and brought him the good news. The annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist was on the right side of the altar of incense, as it is becoming to Zacharias the priest.....
The annunciation to Joseph was after the holy conception. But the annunciation to the Holy Virgin was before that. Why then?
It was not convenient that the Virgin would find herself pregnant, without her knowledge of anything about the matter, lest she would fall into a great terror that would also affect her blood and her morale! But the convenient matter was rather that she would first know the divine mystery, and be psychologically prepared in a restful manner.... and also it was necessary that she would be annunciated firstly, in order that she would give her acceptance to offer herself as a mother in the mystery of the divine Incarnation. God did not compel her to that.
When the Virgin responded to the divine will with the expression: "Let it be to me according to your word", then began the holy pregnancy.
But it was not convenient that Joseph the Carpentar would have been annunciated before the Virgin, and before taking her acceptance, and also because of the importance of the Holy Virgin.
Let it be to me according to you word
In the story of the Annunciation, we remember two things: the divine choice, and the human response.
The choice by God of the Virgin, and her response with her words: "Let it be to me according to your word".....
The reason of the choice by God, is His knowledge of the holiness of the Virgin, and her tolerance of this magnificent glory: the Virgin who was bred up in the temple since her childhood, in the life of prayer and meditation, and in her reading of the Holy Bible, and her study of many of the versets, the pure Virgin who loved virginity.
And also the humble Virgin who can bear that magnificent glory without her heart being raised up.
It would not be not an easy matter for a girl to become the mother of God, if she was not very humble-hearted. Bearing dignity is not an easy matter, as saint Abba Antonius said: "Bearing dignity is more difficult than bearing outrage". But a humble heart can bear dignity. Therefore God waited till He found that humble pure heart, in order to annunciate to her with the divine Incarnation.
The Holy Virgin said thus in her song: "my soul has rejoiced in God my Saviour, for He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant" (Luke 1: 47-48). The expression "maidservant" and not "mother", is also a proof of her humility, specially after she had heard saint Elisabeth say to her: "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
The will of God united with the will of the Virgin, by the expression: "let it be to me according to your word". And the holy pregnancy began by this expression.
Thus the Holy Spirit came upon her, and sanctified her womb, so that the Holy One that is born of her, would not inherit anything from the original sin.
By the expression: "let it be to me according to your word", the Logos or the Second Person came into the Holy Virgin's womb, and united personally to a body whom the Holy Spirit made in her, in order to grow with a natural growth until His birth is completed.
In this manner, the humble Word, "who made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant" (Philippians 2:7), came into the womb of the humble Virgin.
It was becoming of the humble Son, to be borne of a humble mother.
Because without humility, the completion of the divine Incarnation was not possible. And without humility, Crucifixion and Redemption could not have been possible.
There is another important lesson which we take from the expression: "let it be to me according to your word":
With the expression: "let it be to me according to your word", the Virgin proved the life of abandon:
The Holy Virgin who had loved the life of virginity, since she did "not know a man", (Luke 1:34), did not at anytime think that she would become a mother, and that was something wonderful in her eyes. But when the angel annunciated to her the divine will, she could not but abandon herself to the will of God, and she said: "let it be to me according to your word".
Thus in the feast of the Annunciation, we learn a lesson about the life of abandon.
In the story of the Annunciation, we see the awe of the angel of God.
The expression: "do not be afraid" is evidently apparent.
It was said in the annunciation of the angel to the priest Zacharias: "And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elisabeth will bear you a son" (Luke 1: 12-13).
And in the annunciation of the angel to the Virgin, it was said: "But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God" (Luke 1: 29-30).
In the story of the Annunciation also, we see the respect of the archangel Mikhail for the Holy Virgin.
When he appeared to her, he said: "Hail to you, O full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women" (Luke 1:28).
This encounter is different from the apparition of the angel to the priest Zacharias, and the apparition of the angel to Joseph in a dream. In the two apparitions, there were no salutation, and no praise, as in the apparition to the Virgin.
We remark that the expression: "blessed are you among women" which the angel said to the Virgin, was told to her also by saint Elisabeth in her encounter with her (Luke 1:42).
We note that the astonishment of Zacharias from having a son, was met by the angel Gabriel with a punishment (Luke 1:20), while the astonishment of the Virgin, was met by an explanation and a clarification.
It is on the one side, because of the dignity of the Virgin, and also because the virginal birth was the first of its kind and had no precedent. But the birth from sterile women and from the wives of old men, happened before, as in the birth of Isaac from the old Abraham and his wife Sara (Gen. 18:11-12). When Sara was astonished to give birth in her old age, the Lord did not punish her, because there was no precedent to this in that time.
Anyway, the angel replied saying: "For with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37). May we also take a lesson from this expression of the angel, a lesson that will bring hope in our hearts, whatever matters seem difficult or impossible before us!..... The Lord Christ also said this spiritual and theological principle later on: "With men it is impossible; but not with God; for with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27).
In the story of the Annunciation, we rejoice that it was an angel who brought the Annunciation.
The prophet Elisha brought the annunciation to the shunamite woman that she will have a son, saying: "About this time next year you will embrace a son" (2 Kings 4:16). And this happened. But here, it is an angel who brings the annunciation, rather an archangel, because of the majesty of the born .....
The angel said to the Virgin about her son: "He will be great" (Luke 1:32).
He said also: "and will be called the Son of the Highest" (Luke 1:32). He also said to her: "that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). He said this before Nataniel testified this sonship (John 1:49), and before Peter (Matt. 16:16).
The angel in his annunciation to the Virgin, testified that her Son will be a King, "and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:33). That resembles also the prophecy of the prophet Daniel, when he said: "Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. 7:14).
The feast of the Annunciation gives us an idea about feasts during the period of fasting.
It comes always during Lent, because the month of Baramhat is always during Lent.We do not break Lent for any reason. Therefore we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation while we are fasting our vegetal fast, although we are exempted from fasting without any food or drink, in celebration of this feast of the Lord. Also there are no "metanoyas" (that means kneeling down and touching the ground with one's forehead).
The Annunciation of Salvation
It is the feast not simply of the Annunciation of the Nativity, but the Annunciation of the beginning of salvation.
We bring the good news to people that God had begun the execution of His divine plan for the salvation of the human race; beginning with the operation of the Incarnation by the holy pregnancy, which leads to Nativity, and then to the Cross, and the Redemption, then the Resurrection and the destruction of the judgement of death.
In the feast of the Annunciation, we bring the good news to everybody, that his salvation is near, and that God has decreted to save.
As He said when He granted salvation to the chief tax collector Zaccheus: "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19: 9-10). He who saved the tax collector Zaccheus in spite of all his iniquities, He is able to save any sinner. And He who came to save those who have perished, He also is ready to save those who have fallen.......
How beautiful is it that we present the annunciation of salvation to every one who is under a yoke.
We say to those who are tired and under heavy charges, here is the Lord who says: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).
And we say to those have broken hearts: The Lord has come for you and for your rest and for your delivery. Is He not the One who said: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (Isaiah 61:1). With this, we plant hope and joy in the hearts of people. Verily how true is the word of the Bible:
"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" (Rom. 10:15).
The Bible says also: "a good report makes the bones healthy" (Prov. 15:30).
Let then be in your mouths a good word that rejoices people, and good news that fills their hearts with hope..... Say to the sinner that repentance is easy, and that the grace of God is capable of facilitating for you the way of repentance; and God looks for you, and He will inevitably find you and bring you back to Him. Therefore your salvation from sin is possible and easy. And as the apostle saint Paul said: "now it is high time to awake ot of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed" (Rom. 13:11). The Lord is ready to accept us to Him whatever we have gone astray far from Him, as He previously accepted the lost son (Luke 15), and as He accepted the apostle Peter (John 21) although he had precedently denied Him, and swore and cursed and said: "I do not know the Man" (Matt. 26:74).
Rejoicing declarations by the Lord Christ
How numerous are the rejoicing declarations which the Lord God presented to individuals or to the whole world. Among them:
A rejoicing declaration in the expression: "your sins are forgiven you".
He said this expression to the paralytic whom his friends had let down on a bed from the uncovered roof (Mark 2:5). All what this paralytic hoped for was to obtain the healing of his body. But the Lord granted him also the annunciation of forgiving his sins...... The Lord said the same expression to the woman sinner who had anointed His feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair in the house of Simeon the leper. He annunciated to her also the forgiveness of her sins, because she had loved much, and He said to her: "your sins are forgiven you" )Luke 7:48). And also: "Your faith has saved you" (Luke 7:50).
The most beautiful annunciations are the proclamations of forgiveness, and they are many in the mouth of the Lord Christ.
Even when He was upon the Cross, He said this declaration: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34). He brought the same beautiful annunciation to the right thief, comforting him by his word: "today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). It is the most beautiful expression which the thief heard during all his life, and he heard it on the last day of his life.
How beautiful also is the word of the Lord to the woman who was caught in the very act: "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more" (John 8:11).
The apostle Peter was very sad because he had denied the Lord three times. "So he went out and wept bitterly" (Matt. 26:75). Then after the Resurrection, he heard from the Lord this rejoicing annunciation: "Feed my lambs .......... tend my sheep" (John 21: 15-16).
Truthfully, an annunciation will bring more joy if it is not expected, or if it is more generously announced.
Before the crucifixion, the Lord presented many rejoicing annunciations to his disciples.
He said to them: "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18), "Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you" (John 16:22). He announced to them that He will rise from death and that they will see Him; and He announced to them another beautiful annunciation which is: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14: 2-3). What is more beautiful than this annunciation.
He made to them another annunciation about the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them.
The annunciation of the Holy Spirit
by rejoicing words saying: "And I will pray the Father; and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:16-17). And also: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26), "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, ........ and He will tell you things to come" (John 13:16).
The talk about the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them, was a rejoicing annunciation, revealing the power which they will obtain, and revealing the beginning of their service and their predication. Therefore He said to them before the Ascension: "you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
May we, all of us, announce to people the action of the Holy Spirit in them.
We announce to them the participation of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13-14); and that they will all be, the "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Obviously partakers in the action, the Holy Spirit acting in us, and acting by us and with us. As the apostle saint Paul said about himself and about Apollos, his associate in the service: "For we are God's fellow workers" (1 Cor. 3:9). And as we pray in the prayer of the travellers, saying to God: "Participate in the work with your servants, in every good deed".......
Yes, we announce to people that they have become the temples of the Holy Spirit.
That would be after they had obtained the holy anointment in the holy sacrament of Confirmation (1 John 2: 20,27), and the Holy Spirit has taken His abode in them. Thus would be realised the annunciation which the apostle saint Paul said to us: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16), "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" (1 Cor. 6:19).
Other annunciations
Among the deepest and the most influencial annunciations, there is the word of the Lord:
"and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20).
It is a good and rejoicing annunciation that the Lord will be always with us, and that we are not alone. He says rather: "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). Also his word: "Peace I leave to you, My peace I give to you .......... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27).
Let us not forget also the annunciation of the divine protection:
He says: "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. 10:30)., and his word: "But not a hair of your head shall be lost" (Luke 21:18). The apostle saint Paul remembered this annunciation and said to his men announcing them and saying: "since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you" (Acts 27 34).
About this guard also, the Gospel presented to us another annunciation in the word of the Lord God: "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19). And his word to the apostle saint Paul: "Do not be afraid ....... for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you" (Acts 18: 9-10).
An annunciation concerning eternity
How wonderful are the annunciations which the Lord presents about the happy eternity. The Lord presents them to the triumphants, those who have fought in their spiritual life and were victorious.
He says:
"To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God"
"He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death"
"To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat"
"And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations"
"and I will give him the morning star"
(Apocalypse, Revelation 2: 7,11,17,26,28).
And He completes this rejoicing annunciation saying:
"He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels".
"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God."
Rather how wonderful is the annunciation in which He says:
"To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne".
(Apocalypse, Revelation 3: 5,12,21).
The Lord presents to us another annunciation about eternity in the description of the heavenly Jerusalem
where God will abide with His people in this city "coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for his husband"........ "there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Apoc. 21:2-4).
"The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it" (Apoc. 21:23).
"There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever" (Apoc. 22:5).
"They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads" (Apoc. 22:4).
There will be the tree of life, and the water of life.
There is the annunciation of the frequentation of the angels and of the saints. From the best which has been said about the annunciation of eternity, there is the word of the apostle:
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9).
A marvelous annunciation about life in eternity. It exceeds all imagination, and brings joy, and incites to spiritual exertion, and to join the Lord in order to enjoy this annunciation. The apostle adds another annunciation to it, where he says that we shall rise with spiritual bodies, heavenly bodies. We shall be risen in power and in glory. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:53).
The apostle adds another annunciation, and says: "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess. 4: 17-18).
Truthfully, how sweet and beautiful is it to meditate upon this annunciation concerning eternity......
An annunciation concerning God
In Chrisianity, there are many beautiful, deep and moving matters which we can annunciate to people. But the most beautiful in them, is God Himself and His relationship with human beings.
God loves human beings. He is The benefactor and controls everything. He is "fairer than the sons of men" (Ps. 45:2). He has beautifully done everything. In His love for us, He has created us to His image and His resemblance, and granted us power over all His creatures on earth (Gen. 1: 26-28). When we sinned against Him, because of the excellence of His love to us, He redempted us and facilitated for us the way of repentance. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
The annunciation of forgiveness and redemption is among the most beautiful matters which Christianity annunciates.
God of whom the psalmist said: "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103: 10-14).
He is the merciful forgiving good God .......
who says in spite or our disobeying his commandments: "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer. 31:34); "Do I have pleasure at all that the wicked should die?.....and not that he should turn from his ways and live?!" "None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live." (Ez. 18: 23-22). He is God who has reconciliated the world to Himself "not imputing their trespasses to them" (2 Cor. 5:19).
When the prophet David meditated upon the beautiful qualities of God, he said in his psalm:
"O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord? (Ps 89:8), "O God, who is like You? (Ps. 71:19).
"who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord?" (Ps. 89:6). "Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord" (Ps. 86:8), "For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols" (Ps. 96:4-5).
God gives us without our asking, and gives us more than we ask for. He gives food to the birds of the sky, He gives beauty to the lilies of the field which Solomon in all his glory had not (Matt. 6: 26-29).
Let us announce to people that God is the Shepherd who carries us joyfully upon his shoulders (Luke 15:5).
He is the shepherd about whom the prophet David said: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake" (Psalm 23). He is also the good shepherd who "gives His life for the sheep" (John 10:11)...... Yes, He is the good shepherd who searches for us when we go astray, and does not rest till He finds us. (Luke 15).
We announce to people that God is God the Safekeeper, the Deliverer, the Rescuer......
He is the One who will not forget us, even if the mother forgets her nursing child (Is. 49:15). He has said: "I will not leave you, nor forsake you" (Joshua 1:5). He cares for us whatever we go astray. He is the God of all, even the weak, the small, the despised, and that are not (1 Cor. 1:28). He is the One sitting in the high places, looking at humble people. He is the One who forgives our sins, and delivers our life from corruption; as we say in the divine mass. He is the One to whom we say in the Lord Prayer: "do not lead us into tempatation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matt. 6:13).
An annunciation of love
Let a rejoicing word be in the mouths of everyone of you, to say it to people, let everyone of you bring to them a good annunciation.
Carry a good word to every one who is in tribulation or who has a problem; a word of good wishes, or a word of profitable counsel. Say to everybody that there is a key to every closed door, there are, may be, rather many keys ...... and that God has a solution to every problem, rather many solutions. Say if God wills, that problem will be solved. If God wills, that tribulation will end. Remind people with the word of the Bible:
"all things work together for good to those who love God" (Rom. 28:8).
Let not your features be morose, do not give people a frightening thought about God, a black thought about religion which you do not mention unless accompanied with weeping and tears! so that all those who see you say: "O Lord, cover"! and see nothing but a band on which it is written: "by a sad countenance the heart is made better" (Eccl. 7:3)...... The sad countenance will be while you are giving account to yoursefl about your sins in your sleeping place, and not constantly before people!
Let cheerfulness be one of your beloved qualities that draws people to religion.
Your cheerfulness is a rejoicing annunciation which makes people feel that religion brings peace into the heart, and reminds them of the word of the apostle saint Paul: "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I sill say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4).
The work of the Lord Christ was not only the salvation which he offered on the Cross. But He brought joy to everybody whom He met. That appears from the word of the Bible about Him:
"who went about doing good ........" (Acts 10:38).
He distributed good things to people. All those who met Him obtained good things from Him. Is He not the One who said: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). You also, let this style which is of the Lord Christ, be your style.
If you cannot present good in action, present it in words as a good annunciation.
So that people will be optimistic when they see you, as the prophet David said about Ahimaaz the son of Zadok: "He is a good man, and comes with good news" (2 Sam. 18:27). Therefore do not complicate matters before anybody, whatever bad is his condition...... But rather in the midst of darkness, open for him a window of light, a window of hope, and beware of causing dispair to anybody, or of bringing affliction to his soul......
Let your soul be a relaxing soul so that anyone who hears you gets rest.
Relaxed souls can rest others. People always lean to them in order to have rest........ not with words of flattery or simply to please, but with spirit and truth, and with a beautiful instruction from the Bible and from the lives of saints. Contrarily to other souls who complicate matters; he who sits with them, goes out repeating the psalm: "Many are they who say to me: There is no help for him in God" (Ps. 3:2). They are like the friends of the just Job to whom he said; "Miserable comforters are you all!" (Job 16:2).
Features which are simply relaxed, give rest to people.
Likewise the photographer asks people to smile before taking their pictures, so that their features may be relaxed and acceptable. Likewise when you see a smiling child, from whose face light expands, you rejoice and smile also yourself...... A person when he sees the features of his chief dejected, runs away from meeting him and does not expect good. But if he meets him cheerfully or with a smile, he sees that his cheerfulness brings a good annunciation.
Let everyone who sees you be optimistic and expecting good, and be happy that he begins his day with your cheerful faces.
Even without your saying to them good news.... But their simple encounter with you, will be by itself a rejoicing annunciation. Say to people that God created man to be happy; and when He created him, He put him in Paradise. Then, O Lord, let it be to us according to your word.
The heart which is full of hope, has always a good annunciation inside.
He simultaneously transfers the hope which is in his heart to people; and the joy which is in his heart and which appears at the same time in his features, is conveyed to others. How beautiful is what a saint father said to the saint Amba Antonius: "It is enough for me simply to look at your face, O father"....
Even amidst tribulations, the fathers did not lose their joy. In this respect, the apostle saint Paul said about himself and about his associates in the service: "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Cor. 6:10).
The word of the Lord: "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes", in a rejoicing annunciation.
Thus the apostle Paul said: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). The rejoicing annunciation which you bring to the sinner, is not for him to think lightly of his condition, but that you say to him that God is able to save him from his sin; and that he has to begin with repentance, and grace will help him.....
In the first fall of man, and while God was punishing him, He presented a rejoicing annunciation to him.
He said to him that the seed of woman shall bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). That is wonderful: a promise of salvation at the same moment of reproving. Thus the Lord Christ came from the posterity of the woman, "born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law" (Gal. 4:4-5), and bruise the head of the serpent.
Yes, that is the rejoicing annunciation of the Nativity: "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).
the Epiphany and saint John the Baptist
Pope Shenouda III series
4
The Epiphany
&
St. John The Baptist
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Second print, Cairo, September 1999
Name of the book: The Epiphany & St. John the Baptist
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: July 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset), The Cathedral, Abbassia
Icon design: Tassony Sawsan
Deposition number at "The Library": 2504/97
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 37 - 5
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
MEDITATIONS UPON THE GLORIOUS
FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
The month of January brings to us several feasts: the beginning of the new year, the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Epiphany.
We thank God who gave us the blessing and the efficiency of all these feasts, in our lives.
While we celebrate the glorious feast of the Ephiphany, we are glad to stop sometime for meditation:
The feast of Epiphany is the feast of Baptism ......
This feast is also called the feast of the divine manifestation (the Theophania).
Because the Holy Trinity appeared in it: The Son is baptised, The Father says from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", and The Holy Spirit appears "like of a dove" (Matt. 3: 16-17). Hence the baptism of the Lord Christ shows the creed of the Holy Trinity.
Thus the baptism is always in the Name of the Holy Trinity,
according to the word of the Lord to His disciples before His Ascension: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19). He did not say in the names, because the three are one, as it was mentioned in (1 John 5:7): "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one".
It is well that the Church has called this feast: "Eed El Ghetass", or the feast of the Immersion, (in Arabic: Eed means feast, and "El Ghetass" means immersion).
Because in it, the Church reminds the people that the Lord Christ was baptized by being immersed, as it was said that after being baptized, "When He has been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water" (Matt. 3:16). The Church also reminds the people that the faithful in the New Testament are being baptized by being immersed, (and not by being sprinkled with water, as it is done in some communities). The Ethiopian eunuch was baptized in this manner, at the beginning of the apostolic era, at the hands of Philip: "Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away" (Acts 8:39).
Also because Baptism is a tincture, (Baptisma in Latin), and tinting is accomplished through immersion; and because Baptism is a burial with Christ (Col. 2:12), and burial is accomplished through placing inside the tomb (immersion), and cannot be represented by sprinkling with water ......
Likewise in all the ancient vestiges, we see that baptism was accomplished inside a recipient that was called the baptistery.
That proves that baptizing was accomplished through immersion, and not by sprinkling water.
We remember, during this feast, many spiritual and doctrinal meanings, whether as regards the baptism of the Lord Christ at the hands of John the Baptist, or as regards the importance of Baptism in the Church.......
We remember also that the Lord came to the baptism of John, while He was not in need of it.
But that was in order "to fulfill all righteousness", so that He would be without blame before men, even while He is not in need. That also establishes before us the principle of obedience and the principle of loyalty, without asking what profit it is to us?
He entered the baptism of John also in order to be our representative, or to take our place, just as He fasted instead of us, and just as He was crucified instead of us.
Many of His actions were for the others and not for Himself. He took our place to present to God the Father an image of the perfect man, who satisfies the Father by His life, as well He satisfies Him by His redemption of the human kind.
In His baptism, we remember his humility .....
We remember His love and His fidelity, and His tenderness in His conversation with John, when He says: "Permit it to be so now".
The baptism of Christ also reminds us of our baptism , and of the care of the Church for Baptism.
Baptism is the first sacrament of the Church, and is the door through which we enter to the other sacraments.
We say vulgarily: "we have christianised so and so", that is: we have batptised him; because he has become a christian through baptism. ..... That is an expression which is sound in its doctrinal meaning, and which reminds us of the word of Christ: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
Therefore the day of baptism is a feast as regards the child and his family.
In that day, the Church gives him three sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist also; and makes him ready to participate in the life of the Church. He becomes a member in it, and takes the first ecclesiastical certificate in his life.
The Church assigns a sponsor to the child, who will care for him spiritually, and very often it is the mother who is the sponsor to her child.
The mother is engaged before God and the Church to take care of her child in the fear of God, and to be his first teacher, who instructs him, and who gives him the practical training for all religious matters.
THE LORD'S HUMILITY
IN BAPTISM
The baptism of John was the baptism of repentance. The Lord Christ was not in need of repentance. Why then was He baptized?
He was baptized instead of the human kind in entering the baptism of repentance....
Likewise He fasted instead of us, while He was not in need of fasting, just as He was dead instead of us, while He was not deserving death......
All this was in order to offer to the Father a perfect image of the human kind, and to pay the price of our sins. Likewise He presented Himself to baptism, in order "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 4:15), so that nobody convicts Him of sin .... in order to be submissive to the Law, before everybody, although He is above the Law.....
Thus He walked with the crowds, as one of them, presenting Himself to the baptism of repentance.
What is this humility, which the Lord offers to us?! When John apologised saying: "I need to be baptized by You", the Lord replied: "Permit it to be so now"....
In the same manner He permitted to His mother who is exemplar in her purity, who gave birth to Him from the Holy Spirit without stain, to present herself "when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed ...... to present Him to the Lord" (Luke 22:2), while she absolutely was not in need of days of purification.
The Lord Christ was not a sinner to present Himself to the baptism of repentance, but He was a bearer of sins. He has borne all the sins of the world.
"Now this is the testimony of John" who baptized Him" (John 1:19....).
Christ has borne the sins of the world, and descended with them to the baptism; likewise He has borne these sins upon the Cross, and erased them with His blood .... "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
The Lord Christ, although He was Righteous without sin, and defied the Jews later on saying to them: "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46) ...... yet He accomplished the rite of the baptism of repentance. He did not omit this spiritual act to which the repented crowds presented themselves. We have found Him walking like the rest of the people who were sinners, and advancing toward the baptism of repentance.
All of them were baptized confessing their sins. But He was baptized bearing the sins of all the people.
He did this, lest a fault would be caught, or a defect would be counted, against Him. And also in order "to fulfill all righteousness".
Also in order "to fulfill all righteousness", His mother the Holy Virgin Mary acted with the same humility.
It was mentioned in the story of her entry with Him to the temple: [Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord: "Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord"), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord: "A pair of turledoves or two young pigeons"]. (Luke 2: 22-24) .......
It is astonishing that this expression is said about the Holy Virgin: "when the days of her purification.....were completed"....!! The Holy Spirit had sanctified her womb during the holy pregnancy; and she conceived without the stain of the original sin; and was absolutely not at all in need of purification ..... but, in order "to fulfill all righteousness", she submitted to the commandment of the law, while she was not in need of that.
Verily there are matters which the human being is not compelled to do, but he does them in order not to scandalise others and in order to fulfill all righteousness.....
Also because of the humility of the Lord, He obtained the baptism at the hands of John.
The greatest High Priest, who grants priesthood, obtained the baptism from one of his priests, from one of his sons.... from a person who had confessed saying to Him: "I need to be baptized by You" (Matt. 3:14); and likewise had confessed saying: "whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose".....
The priesthood of the Lord Christ is of Melchisedek, and the prieshood of John is of Aaron.
It is well known that the priesthood of Melchisedek is greater than the priesthood of Aaron, as our teacher the apostle saint Paul explained in (Hebrews 7). Likewise Melchisedek blessed our father Abraham in whose loins Aaron was (Hebrews 7). Nevertheless, with all humility, He who was "a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4), presented Himself to obtain the baptism at the hands of one of the sons of Aaron!
In this, there is also some veneration from His part to the priesthood in His time.
Likewise, when He healed the leper, He said to him: "go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them" (Matt. 8:4).
Verily the Baptism's story is full of numerous examples of humility.
Also because of the Lord's humility, after all the glorious matters that appeared during His baptism, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the testimony of John ....... after all this "He went up on a mountain", in order to be tempted by Satan, and permitted Satan to tempt Him, in all audacity, or more accurately speaking, in all pride ...... and the Lord replied to him in all quietness, and defeated Satan with His humility ......
Also because of the humility of the Lord, He submitted to the Law in age as well as in baptism.
He waited till He reached the age of thirty according to the Law; while it was so easy for Him to begin many years before that, He who at the age of twelve, amazed the old teachers, "and all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers" (Luke 2:47) ...... But He waited till the age of thirty, and waited till He was baptized, and till He passed a period of solitude upon the mountain ......and then He began working ......
Christ humbled Himself from the beginning of His mission, in order to reply to the sin of the first Adam.
The first Adam responded to the incitement to become like God (Gen 3:5). That was undoubtedly a kind of pride. Then the Lord Christ the Son of God came, "taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7), walking in humility, in His birth in a manger representing poverty (Luke 2: 7), and also in His baptism at the hands of John who was in need to be baptized by Him .........
John the Baptist who baptized Him, was humble.......
although he was great, and the Lord Himself had attested of his greatness, and also the angel of the Lord, as we shall see.
THE BAPTIST'S GREATNESS
People certified of the greatness of many, but their testimony was
either fictitious and false, or ignorant, or complimentary ......
But God Himself and His angel attested of the greatness of John the Baptist.
The angel of the Lord announced his birth to Zacharias his father: "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord" (Luke 1:15).
This expression is very astonishing: to be "great in the sight of the Lord", before whom every human being stands, feeling his insignificance, as our father Abraham said: "Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord" (Gen. 18:27).
The expression "great in the sight of the Lord" does not mean His own feeling of his greatness, but it means that the Lord has given him greatness in order to stand before Him.
Thus greatness had been united with John before his birth, as the Lord testified.
Great works have been said about this great prophet: among them is that " he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He sill also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord", "and many will rejoice at his birth" (Luke 1: 16-17, 14) .......
In all this we ask the angel who announced his birth, about the secret of this wonderful greatness, and he replies saying that
"He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15).
Verily, this is the secret of John's greatness. We have heard in the Holy Bible that the Holy Spirit came upon many people: the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samsun (Judges 13:15), upon Saul (1 Sam. 10: 10-11), upon David (1 Sam. 16:13), and upon many prophets. But we absolutely did not hear about anybody that "He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb". We note here the expression "filled with the Holy Spirit", and not only the coming of the Holy Spirit upon him. This matter is special to John the Baptist, and to nobody before him. But perhaps we ask:
When was John the Baptist filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb?
That was in the word of the Lord: "And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41). Then Elizabeth "spoke with a loud voice and said" to the Holy Virgin Mary: "..... For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy" (Luke 1:44).
At this moment, the moment of the greeting of Mary the mother of God, John was filled with the Holy Spirit, while he was in the womb of his mother.
By the Spirit, the babe (in Elizabeth's womb) felt the divine babe in the Holy Virgin's womb, and rejoiced at Him and was as if he ran to meet Him!! It was said that he leaped for joy, as the Lord said to the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56). What is astonishing is that Elizabeth felt that her babe leaped for joy in her womb. It is possible for her to feel a movement (leaped).
But I remained perplexed for sometime before the expression "for joy".
I was perplexed before two things. The first is the joy of the babe. The feeling of a babe in his mother's womb! The second is the mother's feeling that the movement of her babe inside her, is a movement for joy!!
It is undoubtedly a gift from the Spirit, because it was said about Elizabeth in that moment that she "was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41). This revelation can be a gift of the Spirit..... And here my perplexity ends......
It was not only the angel of the Lord who testified of the greatness of John, but more than that, the Lord of glory Himself testified when He said: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: "Behold, I send My messenger before your face, who will prepare Your way before You. Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:7-11).
The Scriptures also said about him that he is an angel:
"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face" (Mark 1:2). The Lord Christ Himself certified this surname (Matt. 11:10).
This prophecy was mentioned about him in the book of the prophet Malachi: "Behold, I send My messenger" (Mal/ 3:1).
John also was a priest among the sons of Aaron, a son of the prophet Zacharias.......
The greatest matter in the life of John is that he baptized the Lord Christ, glory be to Him.
The Lord Christ came to him to be baptized by him like other people. John accomplished the baptism of Christ out of obedience, and deserved to see the Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove, and to hear the voice of the Father saying: "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16-17). Thus he enjoyed the Holy Trinity both spiritually and sensationally.......
God rather guided John to Himself before the baptism:
Saint John the Baptist said about that: "I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me: "Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is ths Son of God" (John 1: 33-34).
The greatness of John the Baptist appears in that he accomplished his great mission in a short time, perhaps six months or a little longer.
These six months are the difference between his age and the corporal age of the Lord Christ, according to what the archangel Gabriel said in his annunciation to the Holy Virgin of the Holy conception: "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren" (Luke 1:36).
Each of both Christ and the Baptist began his life at the age of thirty. John served during these six months. And when Christ appeared, he began to hide. In this short period, that saint was able to lead many people to repentance, and to testify with a strong testimony to the Lord, and to prepare the way before Christ, and he presented to the whole world a practical example of the fact that:
the strength of service is not in its length, but in its deepness, and in the amount of its efficiency and the amount of its influence, and in its
fruit.
Is it not astonishing that the Lord does not let many of the useful servants, serve for a long time?! It is enough that they have presented an excellent sample of service and righteousness. They have presented an example to be followed. The Lord was satisfied with what they had presented, and He let them go in peace.
John presented an excellent example of serious service, and profound spiritualities, which were agreeable to God who let them go in peace.
The greatness of John is distinguished in that he lived in his perfection in spite of the darkness of his genereation.
It was a wicked age. Its spiritual leaders were the most wicked in that age, like the priests and the chiefs of the Jews. the scribes, the pharisees, and the saduccees. During that age, sometime before, there rose up some lying teachers like Theudas and Judas of Galilee about whom Gamaliel spoke, and they drew away many people after them (Acts 5: 36-37).
But saint John was not harmed by the corruption of his generation, but rather on the contrary he was a blessing for his generation, and a cause of repentance and good conduct for them.
John was great in that he was the son of mountains, who was brought up in the life of abnegation and ascetism.
He lived all his life in the deserts "till the day of his manifestation to Israel", growing and becoming "strong in spirit" (Luke 1:80). He lived as an ascet and did not "drink neither wine nor strong drink" (Luke 1:15); he was "clothed with camel'a hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey" (Mark 1:6).
In the desert, he learned prayer and meditation, he learned courage and lack of fear, and also firmness and faith; and he learned the strength which comes from abnegation.......
God prepared him in the desert, as He prepared the Holy Virgin in the temple.
He grew up courageous, not fearing any human being ...... fit for being the author of a mission.
He told the truth in all strength, and did not care about what would be the consequences......
King Herod sinned; and nobody had the courage to rebuke him or to confront him with truth, except John the Baptist. He was the only one who said to Herod: "It is not lawful for you to have her" (Matt. 14:4).
The king threw him into prison, but he did not care. An ascet like him who had relinquished everything, does not dread prison, even if his service is delayed. His thoughts during that, were:
"If God wills that he serves, then he will serve. And if God does not will, let His will be done. The important matter is to testify to the truth.
And it happened that John the Baptist was beheaded. But this voice which cries aloud in the desert, remained sounding in Herod's ear, disturbing his conscience, his thoughts, his sleep, his awakeness, and saying to him at every moment: "It is not lawful for you".
The voice of John did not die with the death of John.
Herod kept fearing John, even after his death. When he was informed about the strong predication and the miracles of Christ, he "said to his servants: "This is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him" (Matt. 14:2).
John treated Herod like the others: he testified of the truth to him, because Herod was in need of this testimony.
He resembled the prophet Elijah in his blame of the king.
Elijah rebuked king Achab for his worship of the idols (1 Kings 18: 17-18); and he was exposed because of that, to the anger of his wife Jezabel who threatened to kill him. John the Baptist rebuked king Herod, and he was exposed because of that, to the anger of Herodia whom Herod wanted to marry, and who then became the cause of the murder of John (Matt. 14: 6-11).
Thus John walked "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17).
He called the people and said to them: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matt. 3:2). He was strong in his mission. He rebuked, criticised, and censured; and people accepted his criticism with an open heart.
The Scriptures say about that: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves: "We have Abraham as our father". For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3: 7-10).
JOHN THE BAPTIST'S ICON
John the Baptist's icon is the icon of the baptism of Christ by him.
But there are some who design an icon to John the Baptist like an angel with two wings and carrying his head on a plate in his hand.
They do that in consideration of the word of the Scriptures about him that he is the angel who prepares the way before the Lord (Mal.3:1), (Mark 1:2). And he really is so. As for carrying his head on a plate in his hand, that is true, because the martyrs carry their sufferings.
But this is a meditative icon and not a ritual icon.
It is supposed that icons which are put inside the churches, must be ritual icons. Therefore I refused to consecrate an icon like this in some churches in the countries of emigration. Why then?
The greatness of John the Baptist is not because he was called an angel. For all the pastors of churches have been called angels, and likewise the Lord gave this surname to all the seven churches in Asia (Apoc. 1:20), (Apoc. 2:3).
The greatness of John the Baptist also is not because he is a martyr carrying his sufferings. For there are tens of thousands, and rather millions of martyrs in the Church.
But his real greatness, is that he baptized Christ, the matter by which he was distinguished among the rest of the saints, and therefore he was surnamed the Baptist.
Hence the saint Church does not call him neither the angel John, nor John the martyr, nor the prophet John, but the Church calls him John the Baptist.
The ritual icon which represents him inside the church, is his image baptizing Christ. Likewise, his baptism of Christ is a feast of the Lord, which the Church celebrates. The fathers priests raise incense before this icon of the baptism; and they say whenever they go out of the sanctuary with incense: "Hail to you, O John son of Zacharias, the priest and son of a priest".
There is no other saint like him, whom the Church salutes in every raising of incense at evening and morning, and in every mass.
HIS BAPTISM OF CHRIST
The greatest act of John the Baptist, is his baptism of the Lord Christ.
Here we see two great situations of humility. The first is the coming of Christ to be baptized by his servant John. The second is that great prophet saying to the Lord: "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" (Matt. 3:14).
"I also am a sinner, in need of the baptism of repentance.
I am a teacher before these people, but before You, I am a disciple.
Before them, I am a prophet and an angel, but before You, I am dust and ashes.
I am a priest before them, but You are the source of my priesthood and every priesthood."
All the greatness that surrounded John, and all the tremendous popularity which he had, did not make him forget the insignificance of himself before Christ.......
He did like his mother Elizabeth when she said to the Holy Virgin: "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
John said to the Lord: "I need to be baptized by You". And the Lord did not say to him that he did not need, but He said: "Permit it to be so now" (Matt. 3:15), which is an astonishing expression from the mouth of the Lord, and is addressed to one of his servants.
He said to him, tenderly and gently: "I do not command you, but I ask for your permission, I ask for your agreement....... in order "to fulfill all righteousness.........."
NOT I
The Baptist was successful in his service.
"Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins" (Matt. 3:5).
Naturally the only One who did not confess sins when He presented Himself to baptism, was Christ, because He had absolutely no sins to confess.
When John saw the crouds increasing around him, he transferred their looks from him to Christ, meaning: "not I".
He made all his efforts in order to hide himself, and that Christ appears. This is the most distinguished virtue and the most profound work of this saint.
He said to the people: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11).
As he attracted them to another baptism which is greater than his baptism, so also he attracted them the more, to the author of this baptism, saying that He is stronger and higher and more ancient than him.
He said: "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose" (Mark 1:7). "After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me" (John 1:30). "I am not the Christ, but, I have been sent before Him" (Matt. 3:28).
The Baptist did not say all that, as mere words of humility,
or that he degraded his level before the people......
The true humility, as the saints say, is that man knows himself. And John, in his humble words, knew exactly who was he, and who was Christ? and he spoke out of truthfulness and out of humility.....
He was the greatest "among those born of women". But he, and all those born of women, are all mere servants before Christ; even the angels, as the apostle says: [But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, he says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him"] (Hebr. 1:6).
This saint did not seek his own glory, but he sought the kingdom of Christ.
He understood that "He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light" (John 1:8), "that all through him might believe" (John 1:7). He knew that he was simply a predecessor before the convoy of the coming king; all his work consisted of preparing the way for the king.
John was able to keep his ritual, and not to trespass over his limits.
For him selfishness was dead; and Christ was all in all.
That is a lesson to the servants who build themselves at the account of service, or to them who consider service as a simple field where they can manifest themselves!!
The most marvelous word that exhibits John's service, is his word about Christ: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). He also said about Him: "He who comes from above is above all ....... He who comes from heaven is above all" (John 3:31). Thereby he indicates the divinity of Christ, because He came from heaven, therefore He is above all, including also John......
Hence, when the predication of Christ had begun and started to sway the atmosphere of service, John rejoiced and was glad (John 3:29). He said: "Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." As for me, I am merely the friend of the bridegroom, I look from afar and rejoice.
Thus he rendered the groom to the bridegroom.
He rendered to Him the church which he had prepared for Him through repentance, and he also rendered to Him his disciples, and he joyfully withdrew from the field, releasing the leadership to the Lord.
Nevertheless, while John humbled himself, he was raised up.
According to the word of the Lord Christ: "whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12). When John humbled himself and said: "I must decrease", the Lord exalted him, and made him the greatest among those born of women.
Of course he meant the greatest among "men" or "prophets" born of women. Because the Holy Virgin Mary, who is among those born of women, is undoubtedly greater than him.
During the feast of the Epiphany, we also remember our own baptism.
OUR OWN BAPTISM
Our baptism is something other than the baptism of John.
It is not simply a baptism for repentance. We note that when the apostle saint Paul was predicating in Ephesus, he asked the disciples there, saying: ["Into what then were you baptized?" So they said: "Into John's baptism." Then Paul said: "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19: 3-5).
Our baptism is a birth from water and the Spirit.
According to what the Lord said to Nicodemus: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).
Our baptism is death and resurrection with Christ.
As the apostle says to the Colossians about Christ: "buried wit Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him" (Col. 2:12).
He told the same meaning to the Romans: "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.......For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection" (Rom. 6: 3-5).
Death here means the death of our ancient man.
As the apostle says: "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with" (Rom. 6:6).
We obtain salvation through our baptism.
As the Lord said: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
And as the apostle saint Paul said about it: "but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). And as also the apostle saint Peter said about the ark: "in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us, baptism" (1 Peter 3: 20-21).
Salvation through baptism means salvation from all sins before baptism. And this means justification and renovation:
Salvation from the original sin, and salvation from all the actual sins before baptism. Renovation means the renovation of our nature (Rom 6:4).
As the old man dies in baptism, so a new man is raised up in the likeness of Christ.
The apostle saint Paul said about that: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). That is, you have put on the righteousness that is in Him ..... (Here is the action of justification which is in baptism).
May the blessing of saint John the Baptist be with us all.
Many happy returns for you all.
4
The Epiphany
&
St. John The Baptist
BY HIS HOLINESS AMBA SHENOUDA III,
POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
AND OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF
ALL THE PREDICATION OF SAINT MARK
Second print, Cairo, September 1999
Name of the book: The Epiphany & St. John the Baptist
Author: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Editor: Orthodox Coptic Clerical College, Cairo
Edition: July 1999
Press: Amba Rueiss, (Offset), The Cathedral, Abbassia
Icon design: Tassony Sawsan
Deposition number at "The Library": 2504/97
I.S.B.N. 977 - 5345 - 37 - 5
All rights reserved to the author
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
Pope and Patriarch of the See of Alexandria and of all the Predication of the Evangelist St. Mark
MEDITATIONS UPON THE GLORIOUS
FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
The month of January brings to us several feasts: the beginning of the new year, the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Epiphany.
We thank God who gave us the blessing and the efficiency of all these feasts, in our lives.
While we celebrate the glorious feast of the Ephiphany, we are glad to stop sometime for meditation:
The feast of Epiphany is the feast of Baptism ......
This feast is also called the feast of the divine manifestation (the Theophania).
Because the Holy Trinity appeared in it: The Son is baptised, The Father says from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", and The Holy Spirit appears "like of a dove" (Matt. 3: 16-17). Hence the baptism of the Lord Christ shows the creed of the Holy Trinity.
Thus the baptism is always in the Name of the Holy Trinity,
according to the word of the Lord to His disciples before His Ascension: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19). He did not say in the names, because the three are one, as it was mentioned in (1 John 5:7): "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one".
It is well that the Church has called this feast: "Eed El Ghetass", or the feast of the Immersion, (in Arabic: Eed means feast, and "El Ghetass" means immersion).
Because in it, the Church reminds the people that the Lord Christ was baptized by being immersed, as it was said that after being baptized, "When He has been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water" (Matt. 3:16). The Church also reminds the people that the faithful in the New Testament are being baptized by being immersed, (and not by being sprinkled with water, as it is done in some communities). The Ethiopian eunuch was baptized in this manner, at the beginning of the apostolic era, at the hands of Philip: "Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away" (Acts 8:39).
Also because Baptism is a tincture, (Baptisma in Latin), and tinting is accomplished through immersion; and because Baptism is a burial with Christ (Col. 2:12), and burial is accomplished through placing inside the tomb (immersion), and cannot be represented by sprinkling with water ......
Likewise in all the ancient vestiges, we see that baptism was accomplished inside a recipient that was called the baptistery.
That proves that baptizing was accomplished through immersion, and not by sprinkling water.
We remember, during this feast, many spiritual and doctrinal meanings, whether as regards the baptism of the Lord Christ at the hands of John the Baptist, or as regards the importance of Baptism in the Church.......
We remember also that the Lord came to the baptism of John, while He was not in need of it.
But that was in order "to fulfill all righteousness", so that He would be without blame before men, even while He is not in need. That also establishes before us the principle of obedience and the principle of loyalty, without asking what profit it is to us?
He entered the baptism of John also in order to be our representative, or to take our place, just as He fasted instead of us, and just as He was crucified instead of us.
Many of His actions were for the others and not for Himself. He took our place to present to God the Father an image of the perfect man, who satisfies the Father by His life, as well He satisfies Him by His redemption of the human kind.
In His baptism, we remember his humility .....
We remember His love and His fidelity, and His tenderness in His conversation with John, when He says: "Permit it to be so now".
The baptism of Christ also reminds us of our baptism , and of the care of the Church for Baptism.
Baptism is the first sacrament of the Church, and is the door through which we enter to the other sacraments.
We say vulgarily: "we have christianised so and so", that is: we have batptised him; because he has become a christian through baptism. ..... That is an expression which is sound in its doctrinal meaning, and which reminds us of the word of Christ: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
Therefore the day of baptism is a feast as regards the child and his family.
In that day, the Church gives him three sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist also; and makes him ready to participate in the life of the Church. He becomes a member in it, and takes the first ecclesiastical certificate in his life.
The Church assigns a sponsor to the child, who will care for him spiritually, and very often it is the mother who is the sponsor to her child.
The mother is engaged before God and the Church to take care of her child in the fear of God, and to be his first teacher, who instructs him, and who gives him the practical training for all religious matters.
THE LORD'S HUMILITY
IN BAPTISM
The baptism of John was the baptism of repentance. The Lord Christ was not in need of repentance. Why then was He baptized?
He was baptized instead of the human kind in entering the baptism of repentance....
Likewise He fasted instead of us, while He was not in need of fasting, just as He was dead instead of us, while He was not deserving death......
All this was in order to offer to the Father a perfect image of the human kind, and to pay the price of our sins. Likewise He presented Himself to baptism, in order "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 4:15), so that nobody convicts Him of sin .... in order to be submissive to the Law, before everybody, although He is above the Law.....
Thus He walked with the crowds, as one of them, presenting Himself to the baptism of repentance.
What is this humility, which the Lord offers to us?! When John apologised saying: "I need to be baptized by You", the Lord replied: "Permit it to be so now"....
In the same manner He permitted to His mother who is exemplar in her purity, who gave birth to Him from the Holy Spirit without stain, to present herself "when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed ...... to present Him to the Lord" (Luke 22:2), while she absolutely was not in need of days of purification.
The Lord Christ was not a sinner to present Himself to the baptism of repentance, but He was a bearer of sins. He has borne all the sins of the world.
"Now this is the testimony of John" who baptized Him" (John 1:19....).
Christ has borne the sins of the world, and descended with them to the baptism; likewise He has borne these sins upon the Cross, and erased them with His blood .... "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
The Lord Christ, although He was Righteous without sin, and defied the Jews later on saying to them: "Which of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46) ...... yet He accomplished the rite of the baptism of repentance. He did not omit this spiritual act to which the repented crowds presented themselves. We have found Him walking like the rest of the people who were sinners, and advancing toward the baptism of repentance.
All of them were baptized confessing their sins. But He was baptized bearing the sins of all the people.
He did this, lest a fault would be caught, or a defect would be counted, against Him. And also in order "to fulfill all righteousness".
Also in order "to fulfill all righteousness", His mother the Holy Virgin Mary acted with the same humility.
It was mentioned in the story of her entry with Him to the temple: [Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord: "Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord"), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord: "A pair of turledoves or two young pigeons"]. (Luke 2: 22-24) .......
It is astonishing that this expression is said about the Holy Virgin: "when the days of her purification.....were completed"....!! The Holy Spirit had sanctified her womb during the holy pregnancy; and she conceived without the stain of the original sin; and was absolutely not at all in need of purification ..... but, in order "to fulfill all righteousness", she submitted to the commandment of the law, while she was not in need of that.
Verily there are matters which the human being is not compelled to do, but he does them in order not to scandalise others and in order to fulfill all righteousness.....
Also because of the humility of the Lord, He obtained the baptism at the hands of John.
The greatest High Priest, who grants priesthood, obtained the baptism from one of his priests, from one of his sons.... from a person who had confessed saying to Him: "I need to be baptized by You" (Matt. 3:14); and likewise had confessed saying: "whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose".....
The priesthood of the Lord Christ is of Melchisedek, and the prieshood of John is of Aaron.
It is well known that the priesthood of Melchisedek is greater than the priesthood of Aaron, as our teacher the apostle saint Paul explained in (Hebrews 7). Likewise Melchisedek blessed our father Abraham in whose loins Aaron was (Hebrews 7). Nevertheless, with all humility, He who was "a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4), presented Himself to obtain the baptism at the hands of one of the sons of Aaron!
In this, there is also some veneration from His part to the priesthood in His time.
Likewise, when He healed the leper, He said to him: "go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them" (Matt. 8:4).
Verily the Baptism's story is full of numerous examples of humility.
Also because of the Lord's humility, after all the glorious matters that appeared during His baptism, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the testimony of John ....... after all this "He went up on a mountain", in order to be tempted by Satan, and permitted Satan to tempt Him, in all audacity, or more accurately speaking, in all pride ...... and the Lord replied to him in all quietness, and defeated Satan with His humility ......
Also because of the humility of the Lord, He submitted to the Law in age as well as in baptism.
He waited till He reached the age of thirty according to the Law; while it was so easy for Him to begin many years before that, He who at the age of twelve, amazed the old teachers, "and all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers" (Luke 2:47) ...... But He waited till the age of thirty, and waited till He was baptized, and till He passed a period of solitude upon the mountain ......and then He began working ......
Christ humbled Himself from the beginning of His mission, in order to reply to the sin of the first Adam.
The first Adam responded to the incitement to become like God (Gen 3:5). That was undoubtedly a kind of pride. Then the Lord Christ the Son of God came, "taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7), walking in humility, in His birth in a manger representing poverty (Luke 2: 7), and also in His baptism at the hands of John who was in need to be baptized by Him .........
John the Baptist who baptized Him, was humble.......
although he was great, and the Lord Himself had attested of his greatness, and also the angel of the Lord, as we shall see.
THE BAPTIST'S GREATNESS
People certified of the greatness of many, but their testimony was
either fictitious and false, or ignorant, or complimentary ......
But God Himself and His angel attested of the greatness of John the Baptist.
The angel of the Lord announced his birth to Zacharias his father: "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord" (Luke 1:15).
This expression is very astonishing: to be "great in the sight of the Lord", before whom every human being stands, feeling his insignificance, as our father Abraham said: "Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord" (Gen. 18:27).
The expression "great in the sight of the Lord" does not mean His own feeling of his greatness, but it means that the Lord has given him greatness in order to stand before Him.
Thus greatness had been united with John before his birth, as the Lord testified.
Great works have been said about this great prophet: among them is that " he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He sill also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord", "and many will rejoice at his birth" (Luke 1: 16-17, 14) .......
In all this we ask the angel who announced his birth, about the secret of this wonderful greatness, and he replies saying that
"He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15).
Verily, this is the secret of John's greatness. We have heard in the Holy Bible that the Holy Spirit came upon many people: the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samsun (Judges 13:15), upon Saul (1 Sam. 10: 10-11), upon David (1 Sam. 16:13), and upon many prophets. But we absolutely did not hear about anybody that "He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb". We note here the expression "filled with the Holy Spirit", and not only the coming of the Holy Spirit upon him. This matter is special to John the Baptist, and to nobody before him. But perhaps we ask:
When was John the Baptist filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb?
That was in the word of the Lord: "And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41). Then Elizabeth "spoke with a loud voice and said" to the Holy Virgin Mary: "..... For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy" (Luke 1:44).
At this moment, the moment of the greeting of Mary the mother of God, John was filled with the Holy Spirit, while he was in the womb of his mother.
By the Spirit, the babe (in Elizabeth's womb) felt the divine babe in the Holy Virgin's womb, and rejoiced at Him and was as if he ran to meet Him!! It was said that he leaped for joy, as the Lord said to the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56). What is astonishing is that Elizabeth felt that her babe leaped for joy in her womb. It is possible for her to feel a movement (leaped).
But I remained perplexed for sometime before the expression "for joy".
I was perplexed before two things. The first is the joy of the babe. The feeling of a babe in his mother's womb! The second is the mother's feeling that the movement of her babe inside her, is a movement for joy!!
It is undoubtedly a gift from the Spirit, because it was said about Elizabeth in that moment that she "was filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:41). This revelation can be a gift of the Spirit..... And here my perplexity ends......
It was not only the angel of the Lord who testified of the greatness of John, but more than that, the Lord of glory Himself testified when He said: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: "Behold, I send My messenger before your face, who will prepare Your way before You. Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:7-11).
The Scriptures also said about him that he is an angel:
"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face" (Mark 1:2). The Lord Christ Himself certified this surname (Matt. 11:10).
This prophecy was mentioned about him in the book of the prophet Malachi: "Behold, I send My messenger" (Mal/ 3:1).
John also was a priest among the sons of Aaron, a son of the prophet Zacharias.......
The greatest matter in the life of John is that he baptized the Lord Christ, glory be to Him.
The Lord Christ came to him to be baptized by him like other people. John accomplished the baptism of Christ out of obedience, and deserved to see the Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove, and to hear the voice of the Father saying: "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16-17). Thus he enjoyed the Holy Trinity both spiritually and sensationally.......
God rather guided John to Himself before the baptism:
Saint John the Baptist said about that: "I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me: "Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is ths Son of God" (John 1: 33-34).
The greatness of John the Baptist appears in that he accomplished his great mission in a short time, perhaps six months or a little longer.
These six months are the difference between his age and the corporal age of the Lord Christ, according to what the archangel Gabriel said in his annunciation to the Holy Virgin of the Holy conception: "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren" (Luke 1:36).
Each of both Christ and the Baptist began his life at the age of thirty. John served during these six months. And when Christ appeared, he began to hide. In this short period, that saint was able to lead many people to repentance, and to testify with a strong testimony to the Lord, and to prepare the way before Christ, and he presented to the whole world a practical example of the fact that:
the strength of service is not in its length, but in its deepness, and in the amount of its efficiency and the amount of its influence, and in its
fruit.
Is it not astonishing that the Lord does not let many of the useful servants, serve for a long time?! It is enough that they have presented an excellent sample of service and righteousness. They have presented an example to be followed. The Lord was satisfied with what they had presented, and He let them go in peace.
John presented an excellent example of serious service, and profound spiritualities, which were agreeable to God who let them go in peace.
The greatness of John is distinguished in that he lived in his perfection in spite of the darkness of his genereation.
It was a wicked age. Its spiritual leaders were the most wicked in that age, like the priests and the chiefs of the Jews. the scribes, the pharisees, and the saduccees. During that age, sometime before, there rose up some lying teachers like Theudas and Judas of Galilee about whom Gamaliel spoke, and they drew away many people after them (Acts 5: 36-37).
But saint John was not harmed by the corruption of his generation, but rather on the contrary he was a blessing for his generation, and a cause of repentance and good conduct for them.
John was great in that he was the son of mountains, who was brought up in the life of abnegation and ascetism.
He lived all his life in the deserts "till the day of his manifestation to Israel", growing and becoming "strong in spirit" (Luke 1:80). He lived as an ascet and did not "drink neither wine nor strong drink" (Luke 1:15); he was "clothed with camel'a hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey" (Mark 1:6).
In the desert, he learned prayer and meditation, he learned courage and lack of fear, and also firmness and faith; and he learned the strength which comes from abnegation.......
God prepared him in the desert, as He prepared the Holy Virgin in the temple.
He grew up courageous, not fearing any human being ...... fit for being the author of a mission.
He told the truth in all strength, and did not care about what would be the consequences......
King Herod sinned; and nobody had the courage to rebuke him or to confront him with truth, except John the Baptist. He was the only one who said to Herod: "It is not lawful for you to have her" (Matt. 14:4).
The king threw him into prison, but he did not care. An ascet like him who had relinquished everything, does not dread prison, even if his service is delayed. His thoughts during that, were:
"If God wills that he serves, then he will serve. And if God does not will, let His will be done. The important matter is to testify to the truth.
And it happened that John the Baptist was beheaded. But this voice which cries aloud in the desert, remained sounding in Herod's ear, disturbing his conscience, his thoughts, his sleep, his awakeness, and saying to him at every moment: "It is not lawful for you".
The voice of John did not die with the death of John.
Herod kept fearing John, even after his death. When he was informed about the strong predication and the miracles of Christ, he "said to his servants: "This is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him" (Matt. 14:2).
John treated Herod like the others: he testified of the truth to him, because Herod was in need of this testimony.
He resembled the prophet Elijah in his blame of the king.
Elijah rebuked king Achab for his worship of the idols (1 Kings 18: 17-18); and he was exposed because of that, to the anger of his wife Jezabel who threatened to kill him. John the Baptist rebuked king Herod, and he was exposed because of that, to the anger of Herodia whom Herod wanted to marry, and who then became the cause of the murder of John (Matt. 14: 6-11).
Thus John walked "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17).
He called the people and said to them: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matt. 3:2). He was strong in his mission. He rebuked, criticised, and censured; and people accepted his criticism with an open heart.
The Scriptures say about that: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves: "We have Abraham as our father". For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3: 7-10).
JOHN THE BAPTIST'S ICON
John the Baptist's icon is the icon of the baptism of Christ by him.
But there are some who design an icon to John the Baptist like an angel with two wings and carrying his head on a plate in his hand.
They do that in consideration of the word of the Scriptures about him that he is the angel who prepares the way before the Lord (Mal.3:1), (Mark 1:2). And he really is so. As for carrying his head on a plate in his hand, that is true, because the martyrs carry their sufferings.
But this is a meditative icon and not a ritual icon.
It is supposed that icons which are put inside the churches, must be ritual icons. Therefore I refused to consecrate an icon like this in some churches in the countries of emigration. Why then?
The greatness of John the Baptist is not because he was called an angel. For all the pastors of churches have been called angels, and likewise the Lord gave this surname to all the seven churches in Asia (Apoc. 1:20), (Apoc. 2:3).
The greatness of John the Baptist also is not because he is a martyr carrying his sufferings. For there are tens of thousands, and rather millions of martyrs in the Church.
But his real greatness, is that he baptized Christ, the matter by which he was distinguished among the rest of the saints, and therefore he was surnamed the Baptist.
Hence the saint Church does not call him neither the angel John, nor John the martyr, nor the prophet John, but the Church calls him John the Baptist.
The ritual icon which represents him inside the church, is his image baptizing Christ. Likewise, his baptism of Christ is a feast of the Lord, which the Church celebrates. The fathers priests raise incense before this icon of the baptism; and they say whenever they go out of the sanctuary with incense: "Hail to you, O John son of Zacharias, the priest and son of a priest".
There is no other saint like him, whom the Church salutes in every raising of incense at evening and morning, and in every mass.
HIS BAPTISM OF CHRIST
The greatest act of John the Baptist, is his baptism of the Lord Christ.
Here we see two great situations of humility. The first is the coming of Christ to be baptized by his servant John. The second is that great prophet saying to the Lord: "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" (Matt. 3:14).
"I also am a sinner, in need of the baptism of repentance.
I am a teacher before these people, but before You, I am a disciple.
Before them, I am a prophet and an angel, but before You, I am dust and ashes.
I am a priest before them, but You are the source of my priesthood and every priesthood."
All the greatness that surrounded John, and all the tremendous popularity which he had, did not make him forget the insignificance of himself before Christ.......
He did like his mother Elizabeth when she said to the Holy Virgin: "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
John said to the Lord: "I need to be baptized by You". And the Lord did not say to him that he did not need, but He said: "Permit it to be so now" (Matt. 3:15), which is an astonishing expression from the mouth of the Lord, and is addressed to one of his servants.
He said to him, tenderly and gently: "I do not command you, but I ask for your permission, I ask for your agreement....... in order "to fulfill all righteousness.........."
NOT I
The Baptist was successful in his service.
"Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins" (Matt. 3:5).
Naturally the only One who did not confess sins when He presented Himself to baptism, was Christ, because He had absolutely no sins to confess.
When John saw the crouds increasing around him, he transferred their looks from him to Christ, meaning: "not I".
He made all his efforts in order to hide himself, and that Christ appears. This is the most distinguished virtue and the most profound work of this saint.
He said to the people: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11).
As he attracted them to another baptism which is greater than his baptism, so also he attracted them the more, to the author of this baptism, saying that He is stronger and higher and more ancient than him.
He said: "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose" (Mark 1:7). "After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me" (John 1:30). "I am not the Christ, but, I have been sent before Him" (Matt. 3:28).
The Baptist did not say all that, as mere words of humility,
or that he degraded his level before the people......
The true humility, as the saints say, is that man knows himself. And John, in his humble words, knew exactly who was he, and who was Christ? and he spoke out of truthfulness and out of humility.....
He was the greatest "among those born of women". But he, and all those born of women, are all mere servants before Christ; even the angels, as the apostle says: [But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, he says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him"] (Hebr. 1:6).
This saint did not seek his own glory, but he sought the kingdom of Christ.
He understood that "He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light" (John 1:8), "that all through him might believe" (John 1:7). He knew that he was simply a predecessor before the convoy of the coming king; all his work consisted of preparing the way for the king.
John was able to keep his ritual, and not to trespass over his limits.
For him selfishness was dead; and Christ was all in all.
That is a lesson to the servants who build themselves at the account of service, or to them who consider service as a simple field where they can manifest themselves!!
The most marvelous word that exhibits John's service, is his word about Christ: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). He also said about Him: "He who comes from above is above all ....... He who comes from heaven is above all" (John 3:31). Thereby he indicates the divinity of Christ, because He came from heaven, therefore He is above all, including also John......
Hence, when the predication of Christ had begun and started to sway the atmosphere of service, John rejoiced and was glad (John 3:29). He said: "Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." As for me, I am merely the friend of the bridegroom, I look from afar and rejoice.
Thus he rendered the groom to the bridegroom.
He rendered to Him the church which he had prepared for Him through repentance, and he also rendered to Him his disciples, and he joyfully withdrew from the field, releasing the leadership to the Lord.
Nevertheless, while John humbled himself, he was raised up.
According to the word of the Lord Christ: "whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12). When John humbled himself and said: "I must decrease", the Lord exalted him, and made him the greatest among those born of women.
Of course he meant the greatest among "men" or "prophets" born of women. Because the Holy Virgin Mary, who is among those born of women, is undoubtedly greater than him.
During the feast of the Epiphany, we also remember our own baptism.
OUR OWN BAPTISM
Our baptism is something other than the baptism of John.
It is not simply a baptism for repentance. We note that when the apostle saint Paul was predicating in Ephesus, he asked the disciples there, saying: ["Into what then were you baptized?" So they said: "Into John's baptism." Then Paul said: "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19: 3-5).
Our baptism is a birth from water and the Spirit.
According to what the Lord said to Nicodemus: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).
Our baptism is death and resurrection with Christ.
As the apostle says to the Colossians about Christ: "buried wit Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him" (Col. 2:12).
He told the same meaning to the Romans: "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.......For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection" (Rom. 6: 3-5).
Death here means the death of our ancient man.
As the apostle says: "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with" (Rom. 6:6).
We obtain salvation through our baptism.
As the Lord said: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).
And as the apostle saint Paul said about it: "but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). And as also the apostle saint Peter said about the ark: "in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us, baptism" (1 Peter 3: 20-21).
Salvation through baptism means salvation from all sins before baptism. And this means justification and renovation:
Salvation from the original sin, and salvation from all the actual sins before baptism. Renovation means the renovation of our nature (Rom 6:4).
As the old man dies in baptism, so a new man is raised up in the likeness of Christ.
The apostle saint Paul said about that: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). That is, you have put on the righteousness that is in Him ..... (Here is the action of justification which is in baptism).
May the blessing of saint John the Baptist be with us all.
Many happy returns for you all.
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