Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Remembering who we truly are
3rd Sunday of Pascha
7 May, 2006
Acts 6:1-7 ; Mark 15:43-16:8


In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is risen

It is sad for me as I travel from parish to parish in the Paschal season, because wherever I go, there are many new people coming from Russia, and I see how quickly they have become Canadianised in a negative way. When I say : “Christ is risen” to them they say : “Indeed He is risen” very quietly. That is the Canadian way. Canadian habits are all right in some ways, except when it comes to saying “Christ is risen”. When we say : “Christ is risen”, we are proclaiming what is the centre of our life. We really must say : “Indeed He is risen” with audible strength. The usual insipid Canadian response will not do. That limp response is the equivalent to saying : “Yeah, sure, of course He is risen”. If we are Orthodox Christians, what does this mean ? The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the centre of our life. That is why we are here today. That is why Russia survived seventy years of persecution, death, destruction. That is why the Orthodox Church is alive today in Russia. The Church is being resurrected.

Therefore, it is very good that I have a chance this year to come in the Paschal season because I see this happening here, and I have a chance to exhort you to wake up and to remember who you are. You are, we are Orthodox Christians who live by the Resurrection. We live in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us all be strong in our Orthodox Faith, and show it by how we respond on these days.

Today, the Acts of the Apostles is telling us about the diaconate : what is the meaning, the purpose of the diaconate, and how it came to us. The apostles, as we heard, were very busy with preaching the Gospel. However, they were also so busy feeding widows, distributing food to the hungry, and meeting so many other urgent needs, that they had no time to do their first responsibility, which was to preach to the world about Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit inspired the apostles and told them to set apart deacons. The deacons were to do the work of caring for those who were in need in any way. That is precisely what deacons are doing, and ought to be doing until this very day. It seems that our Church has become somewhat forgetful in North America, and does not have nearly enough deacons.

However, God by His mercy is raising up men to become deacons, and they are serving as they follow in the footsteps of Stephen, Timon, Parmenas, and all the others that we heard of today. Their responsibility is to lead people in worship (as they do, and as they have always done). However, at the same time they also care for the people who are in need. As the eyes and ears of the priest, they keep watch in the parish in order to see who is sick, who is in need, who has problems one way or another. They make sure that in some way the needs of these persons are seen to. That is what deacons ought to be doing. It is their work to be helping the priest like this, so that the priest can bring the sacraments to the shut-ins and the sick. Through them, the parish council can make sure that if someone is in a particularly tight spot, perhaps the parish, as brothers and sisters in Christ, can help that person in whatever way that might be.

Service is the way of Christ. Above all, we love Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ loves us. We are here precisely because of that. However, it does no good (and we can see it in the Gospels and the Epistles all the time) for us merely to say : “I am a Christian ; yes, sure, I love Jesus Christ”. It has to be demonstrated in concrete ways. Earlier this week, we had the reading from the Acts about Ananias and Sapphira (see Acts 5:1-11). They were two early Christians. In those days, everything was held in common. By mutual agreement, Ananias and Sapphira fell into a temptation. They were selling their property. Ananias and Sapphira, as the Acts tell us, decided that they would only give part of what they got for this property for the life of the Church, and they hid the rest from the apostles. Therefore, when Ananias came and laid at the apostles’ feet the proceeds from this property, and said, as it were : “This is all there is”, the Lord taught the Apostle Peter that this was not true. The apostle said (to paraphrase) : “You are not telling the whole truth here. Did you not sell it for so much ?” Well, that was true, and because that was the case, Ananias fell down dead. Sapphira came in later, and then the Apostle Peter asked her : “‘Tell me whether you sold the land for so much ?’” She agreed in the lie her husband had told, and said : “‘Yes, for so much’”. The apostle then said to her : “‘The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out’” (Acts 5:8-9). And immediately she died also.

The problem here is not that Ananias and Sapphira did not give everything, because that could have been allowed. It could have been agreed that they would keep part of the proceeds for whatever they had to do with these proceeds. The problem is that they told a lie. They told a lie, and this lie is what brings death. That is what happened with Adam and Eve at the beginning. They disobeyed the Lord, and, beguiled by the serpent, they took the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. After that, they hid from God. Then of course, Adam blamed Eve – it was really bad. They began to lie, because to hide from God means that we accept fear and we run away. We cannot be like that. The way of Christ is not like that.

The way of Christ is living the truth. Above where I am standing we see written on the wall (it is Jesus Christ, Himself, speaking) : “‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’” (John 14:6). Jesus Christ Himself is the Truth. We are living in that Truth. There is no other truth. That is another crazy Canadian idea, that there can be many different sorts of truths : there is this truth for one, and that truth for another. That is just plain stupid. There is only one truth. There is only one. Just by definition, truth is truth, and it is only one. If there are alternatives, then there is no truth ; there are only ideas and opinions. There is only one truth, and the one Truth is Jesus Christ, whom God the Father sent to us. When Saint Arseny had those words put on that wall, he knew what he was doing for you and for me. Ever since I became acquainted with those words many, many years ago, I have been impressed with the importance of them. No matter what else he did, Saint Arseny left us a great legacy just in having those words written on the wall. We are living in Jesus Christ, who is the Truth.

This gives me again another opportunity to make a correction, in case anyone fell into this trap. Today we heard how Saints Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome (the Myrrh-bearing Women) came to the tomb of Jesus Christ in order to anoint His Body with spices. However, instead, they found that He had risen. These women are the first witnesses of His Resurrection. Because there is so much lying circulating about Saint Mary Magdalene these days, I must say that Saint Mary Magdalene, equal to the apostles (who indeed was the woman who had seven demons cast out of her), was not a prostitute, as the recent phantasy book, The Da Vinci Code, tries to pretend. The Scriptures never said that. The apostles never said that. The Church’s tradition never said that. That is an invention of some Europeans in the Middle Ages. That is not an Orthodox understanding, and it is not the truth. Saint Mary Magdalene was not the woman in the Scriptures who was a prostitute, and who was healed. Saint Mary Magdalene was delivered of demons, and that is quite a different thing.

The other lie that is being circulated, associated with The Da Vinci Code (this is terrible ; this is really bad), is that Jesus Christ did not die on the Cross. The lie suggests that He only pretended to die, but by a clever trick, He appeared to rise from the dead ; He got married to Mary Magdalene, lived in the south of France, and had children. That is such an evil story. It is truly evil. It is especially evil in North America because people are so lost, and they have abandoned the Christian Faith. Thus, they easily believe this lie. They are swept away by this lie.

You and I, Orthodox Christians, live in Him who is the Truth, and we know the truth. We know the truth about the Truth. It is our responsibility when people say that they believe what this crazy phantasy book says, to correct them, and say that it is only a phantasy, and not history. The true history, which is demonstrated in the writings of the Church and in some documents, is that Saint Mary Magdalene, after her missionary journeys, settled in Ephesus near the Apostle John the Theologian. There she died and was buried. Her final resting place was in Constantinople, not France. Let us remember that her relics ended up in Constantinople, and one portion of her relics is in the Monastery of Simonos Petra on Mount Athos.

More important than these details about Saint Mary Magdalene, however, is the fact that Jesus Christ truly did die, and rise from the tomb. He rose bodily from the tomb, and we know it because there are so many eyewitnesses to this fact as recorded in the Scriptures. Until this day, there are very many other witnesses of Jesus Christ, who makes Himself known to millions and millions and millions of Christians. Then, finally, we know it because millions and millions and millions of Orthodox Christians in the former Soviet Union were prepared to die for love of Him, for Him who is the Truth, because of their experience of the Risen Jesus Christ.

We, who are Orthodox Christians, must remain in harmony with all these believers who knew, and do know the truth. We know the truth, too, and when we hear these lies being spread, we have to correct them. It is not our responsibility if people do not believe us. That is their problem. We have to speak and correct them.

Now, back to the Myrrh-bearing Women, who were the first to see the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. At the end of the Gospel, it is said that they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. Would we not be, under those circumstances ? Let us put ourselves in the shoes of those Myrrh-bearing Women going to anoint His Body and finding that He is not there. The stone has been rolled away. At first we might think that someone had stolen Him, and then we find out from the angel that He is risen from the dead. An angel speaks to them and says : “‘Tell His disciples – and Peter – that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him’”. Would any of us not be shaken up considerably ? I have no idea how I would react under circumstances like that.

Finally, the Myrrh-bearing Women did talk. They did tell the apostles. The Apostle Thomas was not there when the other apostles encountered the Risen Christ. The Apostle Thomas is called “Doubting Thomas”, but he is not alone. We recall that the other apostles did not believe until they saw. The other apostles also had to see. Doubt was good in this case, because when Jesus Christ appeared to the apostles and showed Himself risen from the dead, it confirmed their faith. They were unswervable after that.

The Myrrh-bearing Women, themselves, give to the rest of us an example of what is the way of a Christian. Christ, at the Last Supper, washed His apostles’ feet. And He said that you and I are supposed to live our lives in the same way. We are supposed to be caring for each other, not demanding to be cared for. Our Lord said : “‘I am among you as the One who serves’” (Luke 22:27). All we Orthodox Christians are in this world as servants. Those women came to the Saviour as servants, loving Him, wanting to give Him the last rites, the last anointing as it were, because there was no time when they buried Him to finish the ritual of anointing and properly bury Him. They came because of love and service.

In the whole of the history of the Orthodox Church, who has served as the example of service ? We have deacons, men that are expected to be the living examples of servants for the rest of the Church from the time of Christ. However, it is the women of the Church, following in the footsteps of all those women in the Scriptures, who are truly living out this service.

Women in this parish have held this place together year after year. It is women in all sorts of parishes who, because of love for Jesus Christ, make sure that the church has what it needs. The church is looked after. It is women’s groups who have cared for children and made sure that they had money for education. In many parishes, the women would make sure that they knew the dates of the birthdays and name-days of the children, so that they would send them a card from the church to remind them that they are prayed for and remembered. It was women very often in our past who made sure that people who were in the hospital had a flower or a card, and had someone amongst the women who, in addition to the priest, would go and visit. Yes, it is the job of the priest and the deacon to go and visit. However, often a person lying in a hospital bed will say in his heart : “It is nice that the clergy come to see me, but it is their job. When my brothers or sisters from the parish come to see me, it gives me extra encouragement, extra joy” (or words to that effect). This is the way. It is women who have in the past embodied this.

Brothers and sisters, our life is a life of joy, a life of love, a life of service, a life of living in the Truth. Let us ask the Saviour to renew our hearts in His love, so that having confidence in Him, we will not be afraid to step out, and do and say things that He asks us to do and to say, because He said : “‘I am with you always, even to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:20). That is not only until the end of the world, as it says in so many Western translations. It is until the end of everything. When we are alive in Him, there can be no end. His Resurrection means for you and for me that when we are alive in His love, there is no end. God is love, and there is no end of His love. Let us, therefore, brothers and sisters, step forward in faith and in love, and let us glorify our Saviour, Jesus Christ, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.