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Homilia ii in sanctum Lazarum (homilia 12)

Of Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, a discourse on the four-day Lazarus.

1 I love the place of the church, which gathers for me this spiritual banquet; for the assembly of the church is a banquet of God, watered from a mystical mixing-bowl, fed with a life-giving lamb; for since the king of angels visited the earth, banquets and delights have been organized for the faithful and the grief of nature has been turned back against the author of grief from the times that began with the visitation of the Savior; for nature, immediately perceiving the master's light, was from the outset full of joy and leapings. Barren women were giving birth to forerunners of grace, in their very wombs the embryos played, exulting; “For the babe leaped in her womb for joy.” A virgin was blessed for an unwedded childbirth, heaven from above called the Magi by a star, the earth was full of angels rejoicing with those on the earth, the demons were releasing those they held, diseases were setting bodies free; from here a paralytic ran to meet him, from there a blind man stood up seeing, here a leper washed away his leprosy, there a pool of a much-bleeding passion was dried up, this one was made talkative from being speech-impaired, another enjoyed the swift recovery of his ears for hearing, for the reception of words, which were previously blocked.

2 And what need is there to speak of the unplanted wine-drinking at the wedding, of the dead leaping out from tombs? “Young man,” he says, “I say to you, arise”; and he was a swift hearer of the voice, as if feigning to be dead and not truly having died. The tomb also released Lazarus, but when called he so hurried as to demonstrate running though swaddled, he who on the fourth day had decayed in the tomb, with many of his innards ravaged by worms, and with the whole harmony of his body torn apart, and possessing the stench of the tomb as a witness of corruption. But the sweet smell of life reforged the dissolution of his innards and the tomb became a womb for the one lying there and, as if sown in a belly not in a tomb, Lazarus, the old and new man, sprang forth newly-formed.

3 O new wonder-working! A tomb has borne for us a man into life, wrapped in burial cloths like a babe in swaddling clothes; for the voice of the Master, being recognized by the dead man, drew him with his swaddling clothes from the tomb; “Lazarus,” he says, “come forth.” And at the word the dead man quickly came forth at once, as his limbs ran together to one another in the tomb; the eye returned to its proper place, the nose took its own position, the cheeks hastened to their former shape, the neck was bound tight with the shoulders and head, the pair of hands was prepared for movement, the harmonies of the joints were brought together, the order of the fingers was composed, the connections of the sinews were re-bound, the nature of the bones was clothed, arteries were stretched out with veins, marrow was re-formed, membranes were woven, hairs were set in order.

4 I have made the course of the members slow by my description. Like a horse from a signal, so the dead man, spurred by the Master's voice, leaped up, at once called, formed, and appearing from the tomb. “Lazarus, come forth.” Before saying “arise,” he commands the exit. He urges him toward running while he is still lying down. First raise him up, Master, and then command him to run once he has been raised. Why do you proclaim an exit to the one lying there before the resurrection? - “Yes, to the one lying there,” he says,

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Homilia ii in sanctum Lazarum (homilia 12)

Ησυχίου, πρεσβυτέρου Ἱεροσολύμων, λόγος εἰς τὸν τετραήμερον Λάζαρον.

1 Φιλῶ τὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας χωρίον, τὸ πνευματικόν μοι τοῦτο συναγούσης

συμπόσιον· συμπόσιον γὰρ θεοῦ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὁ σύλλογος, κρατῆρι μὲν μυστικῷ ποτιζόμενος, ἀμνῷ δὲ ζωο ποιῷ σιτιζόμενος· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁ τῶν ἀγγέλων βασιλεὺς τῇ γῇ ἐπεδήμησεν, συμπόσια τοῖς πιστοῖς καὶ τρυφαὶ συγκεκρότηνται καὶ τὸ τῆς φύσεως πένθος εἰς τὸν πρόξενον τοῦ πένθους ἀνέστραπται ἐκ τῶν τῆς ἐπιδημίας τοῦ σωτῆρος ἐναρξαμένων χρόνων· ἡ γὰρ φύσις, εὐθέως τοῦ δεσποτικοῦ φέγγους λαβοῦσα τὴν αἴσθησιν, χαρᾶς ἦν ἐκ προοιμίων καὶ σκιρτημάτων ἀνάπλεως. Ἔτικτον στεῖραι προδρόμους τῆς χάριτος, ἐν αὐταῖς ἔπαιζον ἀγαλλιῶντα ταῖς μήτραις τὰ ἔμβρυα· «Ἐσκίρτησε γὰρ τὸ βρέφος ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ αὐτῆς ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει.» Ἐπ' ἀλοχεύτῳ παρθένος ἐμακα ρίζετο τόκῳ, οὐρανὸς ἄνωθεν δι' ἀστέρος Μάγους ἐκάλει, ἀγ γέλων πλήρης ἡ γῆ τοῖς ἐν τῇ γῇ συγχαιρόντων, ἠφίεσαν οὓς εἶχον οἱ δαίμονες, ἀπέλυον αἱ νόσοι τὰ σώματα· ἔνθεν τρέχων ἀπήντα παράλυτος, ἐκεῖθεν τυφλὸς ἐξανίστατο βλέπων, ἐνταῦθα λεπρὸς ἀπενίπτετο λέπραν, ἐκεῖ πολυαιμάτου πάθους ἐξηραίνετο λίμνη, οὗτος ἐκ μογιλάλου κατεσκεύαστο λάλος, ἄλλος πρὸς ἀκρόασιν τῶν ὤτων ἀνάκτησιν εἰς δεξίωσιν λόγων πεφραγμένων τὸ πρὶν ἐκαρπίζετο σύντομον.

2 Καὶ τί δεῖ λέγειν τὴν ἀφύτευτον ἐν γάμοις οἰνοποσίαν, τοὺς ἐκ μνημάτων ἐξαλλομένους νεκρούς; «Νεανίσκε», γάρ, φησίν, «σοὶ λέγω, ἐγέρθητι»· καὶ γοργὸς ἦν ἀκροατὴς τῆς φωνῆς ὡς πλασά μενος νεκρὸν καὶ οὐκ ἀληθῶς τεθνηκώς. Ἔλυσε καὶ τὸν Λάζαρον ὁ τάφος, ἀλλ' οὕτω καλούμενος ἔσπευσεν ὡς ἐσπαργανωμένος ἐπιδείξασθαι δρόμον, ὁ τετάρτην ἡμέραν κατασαπεὶς ἐν τῷ μνή ματι, πολλὰ δὲ τῶν σπλάγχνων ὑπὸ σκωλήκων πεπορθημένος, πᾶσαν δὲ τοῦ σώματος διασπασθεὶς ἁρμονίαν καὶ τῆς φθορᾶς μάρ τυρα τοῦ τάφου κεκτημένος τὸ δυσῶδες. Ἀλλ' ἡ τῆς ζωῆς εὐοσμία τὴν τῶν σπλάγχνων ἀνεχάλκευσε λύσιν καὶ γέγονε τῷ κειμένῳ μήτρα τὸ μνῆμα καί, καθάπερ ἐν γαστρὶ σπαρεὶς οὐκ ἐν μνήματι, νεόπλαστος ἐξήλατο Λάζαρος ὁ παλαιὸς καὶ νέος ἄνθρωπος.

3 Ὢ καινῆς θαυματοποιίας. Ἄνθρωπον ἡμῖν εἰς ζωὴν ἐκυοφόρησε τάφος, τοῖς ἐνταφίοις ὥσπερ τι βρέφος ἐνειλημμένον σπαργάνοις· ἡ γὰρ τοῦ δεσπότου φωνὴ τῷ νεκρῷ γνωρισθεῖσα μετὰ τῶν σπαργάνων ἐκ τοῦ μνήματος εἷλκεν αὐτόν· «Λάζαρε», φησίν, «δεῦρο ἔξω.» Καὶ τῷ λόγῳ ταχέως ὁ νεκρὸς συνεξήρ χετο, συνδραμόντων ἀλλήλοις τῶν μελῶν ἐν τῷ τάφῳ· πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς ἐπανήρχετο τάξιν, τὴν ἰδίαν ἡ ῥὶς κατελάμ βανε χώραν, πρὸς τὸ πρότερον παρειαὶ κατηπείγοντο σχῆμα, τράχηλος ὤμοις καὶ κεφαλῇ συνεσφίγγετο, ἡ τῶν χειρῶν πρὸς κίνησιν εὐτρεπίζετο συζυγία, ἄρθρων ἁρμονίαι συνήγοντο, δακ τύλων συνετίθετο τάξις, νεύρων ἀνεδεσμοῦντο συνθῆκαι, ὀστέων ἐνεδύετο φύσις, διετείνοντο σὺν φλεψὶν ἀρτηρίαι, μυελὸς ἀνεπλάτ τετο, ὑμένες ὑφαίνοντο, εὐθετίζοντο τρίχες.

4 Βραδὺν τῷ λόγῳ τῶν μελῶν κατεσκεύαζον τὸν δρόμον. Ὥσπερ ἐκ συνθέματος ἵππος, οὕτως ἐκ τῆς τοῦ δεσπότου φωνῆς νυσσόμενος ὁ νεκρὸς ἀνεπήδα ὁμοῦ καὶ κληθεὶς καὶ πλασθεὶς καὶ φανεὶς ἐκ τοῦ μνήματος. «Λάζαρε, δεῦρο ἔξω.» Πρὶν εἰπεῖν «ἀνάστηθι», προστάττει τὴν ἔξοδον. Κείμενον ἔτι κατεπείγει πρὸς δρόμον. Ἀνάστησον πρῶτον, δέσποτα, εἶθ' οὕτως ἀναστάντι τὸ τρέχειν ἐπίταξον. Τί πρὸ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἔξοδον τῷ κειμένῳ κηρύττεις; - «Ναὶ κειμένῳ», φησίν,