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In sancta et magna parasceve

ON THE HOLY AND GREAT Friday.

50.811 The contest of the fast is now fulfilled for us, and it has ended at the cross; for where ought the end of the victory to be, but to end upon a trophy? For the cross is a trophy; once fixed, it always turns away demons. For where are the idols, and the slaughters of foolish beasts? where are the temples, and the fire of impiety? It has been extinguished, all things have fallen because of one holy blood. And the cross is a multi-potent power, an invisible arrow, an immaterial medicine, a pain-releasing spring, a shameful glory; so that even if I should say ten thousand other things about Christ, even if relating ten thousand miracles I should astonish the hearer, I do not glory in those things as I do in the cross. For example: Jesus came forth from a virgin; a great wonder to have surpassed marriage, and to innovate nature; but if there were no cross, the first Virgin of paradise would not have been saved by her works; but now, in the time of the cross, a woman is saved first, healing the ancient evil with new gifts of grace. For a dead man was raised in Galilee, but died again; but I, having been raised through the cross, can no longer fall into death.

Jesus sailed the sea, God in a boat; the ephemeral wood gave the benefit; but I have received an eternal, good wood, which using instead of a 50.812 rudder, I push away the spiritual waves of wickedness. Five thousand were fed under the one sign of the cross. Where then are the remains of the food? how can I, who was not present, receive the remains of those who were present? For there were twelve baskets of leftover fragments; a commensurate grace. Christ was crucified, and we are always fed; and being satisfied, we seek again, and what is left over is more; for grace is without loss. Let the day that gives birth to light be praised, through which the other days were called to gladness. How? Listen:

Today Adam was formed on the sixth day, today he put on the divine form, today a small world was established in the world, today man the helmsman took hold of the fair rudders of humanity, ruling over all living things; today he received commandments with free will, today he fell from paradise, today he was brought in again. O day of many turns! O full of mourning and free of mourning! O that saddened in the morning, but gladdened in the evening! or rather, O how many things it healed! I confess to you with a sad face, encountering the ancient passions, hearing of Adam cast out from his father's hearth, a man, a citizen of paradise, fed without husbandry, living in luxury without rain, needing no sweat or mattock or 50.813 labor or toil for life, exulting in evergreen trees, passing from flowers to flowers, going from fruits to fruits, having his need follow upon his desires, but not knowing, because of the beauty of the things seen, to which he should first put his hands; I have often wept for so great a blessedness, seeing him cast out; for the suffering was common, and it touched our own race.

But when I encountered the Gospels, and took hold of this day (for that one was the sixth, and so is this one), I lost my sorrow, and I am clothed in white in my speech, and I say to myself and to you: Pain, sorrow, and groaning have fled away; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. For just as the children of physicians heal snakelike wounds, pouring out antidotes from the snakes themselves, and having prepared them, they fight the affliction with the very sources of the affliction; so the Savior used all the sources of evils for a good purpose, making the bitter sweet, the bilious for healing.

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In sancta et magna parasceve

ΤΗ ΑΓΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΓΑΛΗ Παρασκευῇ.

50.811 Πεπλήρωται ἡμῖν λοιπὸν ὁ τῆς νηστείας ἀγὼν, ἔληξε δὲ εἰς σταυρόν· ποῦ γὰρ ἐχρῆν τῆς νίκης τὸ τέλος, ἢ ἐπὶ τρόπαιον λήγειν; Τρόπαιον γὰρ ὁ σταυ ρός· ἅπαξ μὲν παγεὶς, ἀεὶ δαίμονας τρέπει. Ποῦ γὰρ εἴδωλα, καὶ ζώων ματαίων οἱ φόνοι; ποῦ ναοὶ, καὶ δυσσεβείας πῦρ; Ἐσβέσθη, πάντα δι' ἓν ἅγιον αἷμα πέπτωκε. Καὶ ἔστι σταυρὸς πολυδύναμος δύνα μις, βέλος ἀόρατον, φάρμακον ἄϋλον, πηγὴ λυσί πονος, ἐπονείδιστος δόξα· ὥστε κἂν μυρία ἕτερα λέγω περὶ Χριστοῦ, κἂν μυρία θαύματα διηγούμενος καταπλήξω τὸν ἀκροατὴν, οὐχ οὕτως ἐπ' ἐκείνοις, ὡς ἐπὶ σταυρῷ σεμνύνομαι. Οἷόν τι λέγω· Ἐκ παρ θένου προῆλθεν Ἰησοῦς· μέγα τὸ θαῦμα γάμον ὑπερβῆναι, καὶ φύσιν καινοτομῆσαι· ἀλλ' εἰ μὴ σταυρὸς ἦν, οὐκ ἂν ἐσώθη τοῖς ἔργοις ἡ πρώτη τοῦ παραδείσου Παρθένος· νυνὶ δὲ ἐν τῷ τοῦ σταυροῦ καιρῷ πρώτη σώζεται γυνὴ, τὸ παλαιὸν κακὸν νέοις χαρίσμασι θεραπεύουσα. Ἀνέστη γὰρ νεκρὸς ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ, ἀλλὰ πάλιν ἀπέθανεν· ἐγὼ δὲ διὰ σταυροῦ ἀναστὰς, οὐκέτι δύναμαι πρὸς θάνατον πεσεῖν.

Ἔπλευσεν Ἰησοῦς τὴν θάλασσαν, Θεὸς ἐν σκάφῃ· τὸ ξύλον ἐφήμερον ἔδωκε τὴν ὠφέλειαν· ἐγὼ δὲ ἔλα βον ξύλον αἰώνιον, ἀγαθὸν, ᾧ κεχρημένος ἀντὶ πηδα 50.812 λίου, τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἀπωθοῦμαι κύ ματα. Ἐτράφησαν πεντακισχίλιοι ὑφ' ἑνὶ τῷ τοῦ σταυροῦ συνθήματι. Ποῦ οὖν τῆς τροφῆς τὰ λείψανα; πῶς ὁ μὴ παρὼν, τὰ τῶν παρόντων λείψανα λάβω; ∆ώδεκα γὰρ ἦσαν περισσεύσαντες κλασμάτων κό φινοι· σύμμετρος χάρις. Ἐσταυρώθη Χριστὸς, καὶ ἀεὶ τρεφόμεθα· καὶ κορεννύμενοι, πάλιν ζητοῦμεν, καὶ πλέον τὸ λειπόμενον· ἀζήμιος γὰρ ἡ χάρις. Ἐπαινείσθω ἡμέρα φωτὸς γεννητικὴ, δι' ἣν αἱ λοιπαὶ ἡμέραι πρὸς εὐφροσύνην ἐκλήθησαν. Πῶς; Ἄκουε·

Σήμερον Ἀδὰμ ἐπλάσθη τῇ ἕκτῃ ἡμέρᾳ, σήμερον μορφὴν ἐφόρεσε θείαν, σήμερον μικρὸς κόσμος ἐν κόσμῳ συνέστη, σήμερον κυβερνήτης ὁ ἄνθρωπος καλὰ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης κατέσχε πηδάλια, ζώων ἁπάντων ἡγεμο νεύων· σήμερον ἐντολὰς ἔλαβεν αὐτεξουσίους, σήμερον ἐξέπεσε τοῦ παραδείσου, σήμερον πάλιν εἰσήχθη. Ὢ πολυτρόπου ἡμέρας! ὢ πολυπενθοῦς καὶ ἀπενθοῦς! ὢ πρωῒ μὲν λυπήσασα, ἑσπέρας δὲ εὐφράνασα! μᾶλλον δὲ ὢ πόσα θεραπεύσασα! Σκυθρωπῶς ὑμῖν ὁμολογῶ, τοῖς παλαιοῖς ἐντυγχάνων πάθεσιν, ἀκούων τὸν Ἀδὰμ τῆς πατρῴας ἑστίας ἐκπεσόντα, ἄνθρωπον παρα δείσου πολίτην ἄνευ γεωπονίας τρεφόμενον, ἄνευ ὄμβρου τρυφῶντα, μηδὲν ἱδρώτων ἢ δικέλλης ἢ πό 50.813 νου ἢ μόχθου πρὸς ζωὴν δεόμενον, ἀειθαλέσι δέν δρεσιν ἀγαλλόμενον, ἀπὸ ἀνθέων εἰς ἄνθη μεταβαί νοντα, ἀπὸ καρπῶν εἰς καρποὺς μετιόντα, ταῖς ἐπι θυμίαις ἀκολουθοῦσαν τὴν χρείαν ἔχοντα, οὐκ ἔχοντα δὲ διὰ κάλλους τῶν ὁρωμένων τίνι πρότερον τὰς χεῖρας ὑποβάλλει· ἐδάκρυσα πολλάκις τὴν τοσαύτην μακαριότητα, αὐτὸν ἰδὼν ἐκπεσόντα· κοινὸν γὰρ ἦν τὸ πάθος, καὶ τοῦ ἡμετέρου γένους ἁπτόμενον.

Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις ἐνέτυχον, καὶ ἐλαβόμην ταύτης τῆς ἡμέρας (ἕκτη γὰρ ἦν κἀκείνη, καὶ αὕτη), ἀπώλεσά τε τὴν λύπην, καὶ λευχειμονῶ τῷ λόγῳ, καὶ λέγω ἐμαυτῷ καὶ ὑμῖν· Ἀπέδρα ὀδύνη, λύπη, στεναγμός· τὰ ἀρχαῖα παρῆλθεν, ἰδοὺ γέγονε τὰ πάντα καινά. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἰατρῶν παῖδες τὰς ὀφιώδεις πληγὰς ἰῶνται, ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐκχέοντες τὰ ἀλεξίκακα φάρμακα, καὶ σκευάσαντες, ταῖς ἀφορμαῖς τοῦ πά θους τὸ πάθος πολεμοῦντες· οὕτως ὁ Σωτὴρ πάσαις ταῖς κακῶν ἀφορμαῖς πρὸς ἀγαθὸν συνεχρήσατο, τὸ πικρὸν γλυκὺ καταστήσας, τὸ χολῶδες εἰς θεραπείαν