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In sanctum pascha

Of our father among the saints John, archbishop of Constantinople, the Chrysostom, a sermon on holy Pascha

The mere sight of the feast conquers every weaving of encomia, and every praise is left behind by its dignity. For however much of a struggle speech may undertake and stir its whole self toward the praises, it will be able to say nothing worthy. Just as one who is inexperienced with the sea, when he sees a vast and great expanse of water, before beginning is deadened by the greatest fear and at the mere sight is undone and changes his expression to board and greet the back of the sea, so also we, beholding the sea of the Godhead, do not dare to touch the encomia, lest out of ignorance we should utter things small and cheap. For it is better to honor in silence than to insult by speaking. For silence, recognizing its own ignorance, is deemed worthy of forgiveness, but a rash treatment, belching forth nothing worthy of the subject, is both unforgivable and has exposed itself to shame.

Nevertheless, since God, through the multitude of his mercies and his compassion for us, does not seek according to worth but accepts the intention of each, let us say what we are able. For the feast is a proof of the divine love for mankind and proclaims the intelligible goodness of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; through which the only-begotten saved the perishing world and recalled exiled man, through which he freed the enslaved Adam, through which he healed the right hand of Eve evilly stretched out towards the tree, through which he opened the gates of Hades, having shattered the bars of transgression and having trampled the immutable cruelty of demons and having terrified the gatekeepers. For when they saw the king arrive at the guard of Hades, they cowered exceedingly; Hades himself was shaken with trembling and hurried on those who had departed and compelled them with haste.

All the myriads of the imprisoned were stirred, hastening to see a newer sight, and falling down together they supplicated, putting forward his diabolical cruelty and fierceness, and with one voice making intercession they fell down. Wherefore the king delivered the whole captivity and masterfully liberates his own creations. Death himself was ashamed, not being able to hold him who was free among the dead; for he swallowed many, and not being able to digest the savior, he was destroyed. He swallowed him as a man, but he vomited him up not as a man, for with the one he vomited up all. For he saw him clothed in a body and leaped upon it, but he got a taste of the power and shuddering, leaped away. He shut him in a tomb by means of the Jews and thought he had conquered this one and was exalted and proclaimed; but when he saw the tomb opened and the resurrection of the body of the one who had died, as he thought, become divine and the invincible power of the one put to death, his strength was paralyzed and the wretch, fearing his own end, cried out: Woe is me, as it seems, he has come who destroys me and sacks my kingdom.

Many came to me and seeing no one did I grow cowardly, many I put to death and no one resisted me. Now, I the powerful, do not stand, I the exalted, am humbled, I the mighty, am paralyzed, I the boaster, am brought to the ground, I am held invisibly, I do not bear the power of the one present; I who am seen as terrible have become easily despised, I who am thought powerful am ridiculous to all. Woe is me, what shall I do? How was I deceived. He was born as a man, he was carried in arms as a man, he was put to the breasts as a man, he hungered as a man, he thirsted as

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In sanctum pascha

Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰωάννου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως τοῦ Χρυσοστόμου λόγος εἰς τὸ ἅγιον πάσχα

Νικᾷ καὶ μόνη ἡ ὄψις τῆς ἑορτῆς πᾶσαν ἐγκωμίων πλοκὴν καὶ πᾶς ἔπαινος τῇ

ἀξίᾳ ἀπολιμπάνεται· ὅσον γὰρ ἂν ὁ λόγος ἀναλάβοι ἀγῶνα καὶ ὅλον ἑαυτὸν κινήσει πρὸς τὰ ἐγκώμια, οὐδὲν εἰπεῖν πρὸς ἀξίαν δυνήσεται. Ὥσπερ δὲ ὁ ἄπειρος ὑπάρχων θαλάσσης ὅταν ἀχανὲς καὶ μέγα θεάσηται πέλαγος πρὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς τῷ πλείστῳ φόβῳ νεκροῦται καὶ πρὸς μόνην τὴν ὄψιν ἐκλύεται καὶ ἀλλοιοῦται τῷ προσώπῳ ἐπιβῆναι καὶ νῶτα θαλάττης ἀσπάσασθαι, οὕτως καὶ ἡμεῖς θεωροῦντες τῆς θεότητος τὸ πέλαγος οὔτε ἅψασθαι τῶν ἐγκωμίων τολμῶμεν, ἵνα μὴ μικρὰ καὶ εὐτελῆ ἐξ ἀμαθίας φθεγξώμεθα. Κρεῖσσον γὰρ ἐστὶ σιωπῶντα τιμᾶν ἢ ὑβρίζειν φθεγγόμενον· ἡ μὲν γὰρ σιωπὴ ἐπιγινώσκουσα τὴν οἰκείαν ἀμαθίαν ἀξιοῦται συγγνώμης, ἡ δὲ προπετὴς πραγματεία οὐδὲν ἄξιον τοῦ προκειμένου ἐρευγομένη καὶ ἀσύγγνωστός ἐστι καὶ ἑαυτὴν ἐστηλίτευσεν.

Ὅμως ἐπειδὴ ὁ θεὸς διὰ πλῆθος οἰκτιρμῶν καὶ τὴν περὶ ἡμᾶς εὐσπλαγχνίαν οὐ κατ' ἀξίαν ἐπιζητεῖ ἀλλὰ τὴν ἑκάστου πρόθεσιν ἀποδέχεται, λέγωμεν ὅσα δυνάμεθα. Ἡ γὰρ ἑορτὴ τῆς θεϊκῆς ἐστι φιλανθρωπίας τεκμήριον καὶ βοᾷ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου πνεύματος τὴν νοητὴν ἀγαθότητα· δι' ἧς ὁ μονογενὴς τὸν κόσμον ἀπολλύμενον ἔσωσε καὶ τὸν ἐξορισθέντα ἀνεκαλέσατο ἄνθρωπον, δι' ἧς τὸν δουλωθέντα Ἀδὰμ ἠλευθέρωσεν, δι' ἧς τὴν κακῶς ἐκταθεῖσαν κατὰ τοῦ ξύλου δεξιὰν τῆς Εὔας ἰάσατο, δι' ἧς τὰς τοῦ ᾅδου πύλας ἀνέῳξε συντρίψας μοχλοὺς παραβάσεως καὶ δαιμόνων ἀμετάβλητον πατήσας ὠμότητα καὶ τοὺς πυλωροὺς καταπλήξας. Ὡς γὰρ ἐθεάσαντο εἰς τὴν τοῦ ᾅδου φρουρὰν παραγενόμενον τὸν βασιλέα ἔπτηξαν ἰσχυρῶς· αὐτὸς ὁ ᾅδης τῷ τρόμῳ ἐκλονεῖτο καὶ τοὺς κατοιχομένους κατήπειγε καὶ μετὰ σπουδῆς ἐβιάζετο.

Πᾶσαι αἱ μυριάδες τῶν ἐγκατακλείστων ἐκεκίνηντο καινότερον θέαμα θεάσασθαι ἐπειγόμεναι καὶ προσπίπτουσαι συμφώνως ἱκέτευον προβαλλόμεναι τὴν διαβολικὴν ὠμότητα καὶ ἀγριότητα αὐτοῦ καὶ ὁμοφώνως πρεσβεύουσαι προσέπιπτον. Ὅθεν πᾶσαν τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀπέσωσε καὶ τὰ οἰκεῖα δεσποτικῶς ἐλευθεροῖ δημιουργήματα. Αὐτὸς ὁ θάνατος κατῃσχύνετο κατέχειν τὸν ἐν νεκροῖς ἐλεύθερον μὴ δυνάμενος· κατέπιε γὰρ τοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ τὸν σωτῆρα πέψαι μὴ δυνάμενος διεφθάρη. Κατέπιεν ὡς ἄνθρωπον, ἐξέμεσε δὲ οὐχ ὡς ἄνθρωπον, πάντας γὰρ τῷ ἑνὶ συνεξέμεσεν. Ἐθεάσατο γὰρ σῶμα ἐνδεδυμένον καὶ ἐνεπήδη σεν, ἔλαβε δὲ τὴν πεῖραν τῆς δυνάμεως καὶ φρίξας ἀπεπήδησεν. Ἐν τάφῳ διὰ Ἰουδαίων κατέκλεισε καὶ νενικηκέναι τοῦτον ἐνόμισε καὶ ὑψοῦτο καὶ ἐκηρύσσετο· ὡς δὲ εἶδε τὸν τάφον ἀνεῳγμένον καὶ τοῦ ἀποθανόντος, ὡς ἐνόμισε, σώματος τὴν ἀνάστασιν θεϊκὴν γενομένην καὶ τοῦ νεκρωθέντος τὴν ἀνίκητον δύναμιν, τὴν ἰσχὺν παρελύετο καὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον τέλος ὁ δείλαιος δεδοικὼς ἐβόα· Οἴμοι, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἦλθεν ὁ ἐμὲ καταλύων καὶ τὴν ἐμὴν βασιλείαν πορθῶν.

Πολλοὶ ἤλθοσαν πρός με καὶ οὐδένα θεασάμενος ἐδειλίασα, πολλοὺς ἐθανάτωσα καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀντέσχε μοι. Νῦν ὁ δυνατὸς οὐχ ὑφίσταμαι, ὁ ὑψηλὸς τεταπείνωμαι, ὁ κραταιὸς παραλέλυμαι, ὁ καυχώμενος ἐδαφίζομαι, ἀοράτως συνέχομαι, οὐ φέρω τοῦ παρόντος τὴν δύναμιν· ὁ ὁρώμενος φοβερὸς εὐκαταφρόνητος πέλω, ὁ νοούμενος δυνατὸς παρὰ πᾶσι καταγέλαστος ὑπάρχω. Οἴμοι, τί ποιήσω; Πῶς ἠπατήθην. Ἐτέχθη ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ἐπ' ἀγκαλῶν περιηνέχθη ὡς ἄνθρωπος, μαζοῖς ὑπεβλήθη ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ἐπείνασεν ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ἐδίψησεν ὡς