On Holy Saturday · §1 · Amphilochius of Iconium

The feast of the tomb and the hidden despoiling of Hades

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The preacher opens the homily for Holy Saturday, addressing the congregation as they celebrate the burial feast while Christ is below among the dead.

Today we celebrate a funeral feast for our Saviour. He is below among the dead, loosening the bonds of death, filling Hades with light, and waking those who have fallen asleep, while we dance above the earth, imagining the resurrection. We do not fear that decay will prevail over incorruption, for the prophet says, “You will not let your holy one see decay” (Psalm 16:10). Perhaps the Jews and the Greeks laugh at our wisdom: the Jews because they wait for another Christ, the Greeks because they have shut up their hopes in tombs. Of them the prophet rightly says, “Their tombs are their houses forever” (Psalm 49:11). But those who laugh will groan—later they will groan when they see the one they pierced and insulted. As for us, let us mix the passion with pleasure as we weep.

Death seized the master Christ, but it will not keep life with itself. It swallowed without knowing, but it will vomit out many along with him. Christ is held willingly now; after this day he will strip Hades and rise. Yesterday, when he was crucified, he darkened the sun, and night came in the middle of the day. Today death is undone, having received a strange corpse. Yesterday creation mourned when it saw the madness of the Jews and put on darkness as a garment of grief. Today the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light (Isaiah 9:2).

Greek

In diem sabbati sancti Ἀμφιλοχίου ἐπισκόπου Ἰκονίου λόγος τῷ ἁγίῳ σαββάτῳ. Ἐπιτάφιον ἑορτὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἑορτάζομεν σήμερον. Καὶ ὁ μὲν παρὰ τοῖς νεκροῖς κάτω τοῦ θανάτου τὰ δεσμὰ διαλύων καὶ φωτὸς τὸν ᾅδην πληρῶν καὶ ἀφυπνίζων τοὺς κεκοιμημένους, ἡμεῖς δὲ χορεύομεν ὑπὲρ γῆν τὴν ἀνάστασιν φανταζόμενοι καὶ οὐ δεδοίκαμεν τὴν φθοράν, μὴ κατισχύσῃ τῆς ἀφθαρσίας. Οὐ δώσεις γάρ, φησίν, τὸν ὅσιόν σου ἰδεῖν διαφθοράν. Καὶ ἴσως ἡμῶν τὴν φιλοσοφίαν γελῶσι Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ Ἕλληνες· οἱ μὲν ἕτερον Χριστὸν προσδεχόμενοι, οἱ δὲ τάφοις ἐναποκλείσαντες αὐτῶν τὰς ἐλπίδας, περὶ ὧν εἰκότως ὁ προφήτης φησίν· Οἱ τάφοι αὐτῶν οἰκίαι αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. Ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν γελῶντες στενάζουσι–στενάξουσι γὰρ ὕστερον ὁρῶντες εἰς ὃν ἐξεκέντησαν καὶ ἐξύβρισαν–, ἡμεῖς δὲ δακρύοντες ἡδονῇ τὸ πάθος κεράσωμεν. Ἥρπασεν ὁ θάνατος τὸν δεσπότην Χριστόν, ἀλλ' οὐ καθέξει παρ' ἑαυτῷ τὴν ζωήν. Κατέπιεν ἀγνοήσας, ἀλλ' ἐξεμέσει πολλοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ. Ἑκὼν κατέχεται νῦν, μετὰ ταύτην τὴν ἡμέραν σκυλεύσας τὸν ᾅδην ἀνίσταται. Χθὲς ἠμαύρωσε τὸν ἥλιον σταυρωθεὶς καὶ μεσούσης ἡμέρας ἐπεισῆλθεν νύξ, σήμερον ὁ θάνατος παραλύεται ξένον νεκρὸν εἰσδεξάμενος. Χθὲς ἐπένθησεν ἡ κτίσις τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων μανίαν ὁρῶσα καὶ στολὴν πενθικὴν τὸ σκότος ἐνεδύσατο, σήμερον ὁ λαὸς ὁ καθήμενος ἐν σκότει φῶς εἶδε μέγα.

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About this text

Holy Saturday: Christ lies in the tomb while his soul frees the dead. Amphilochius preaches the quiet triumph.

Amphilochius of Iconium (c. 340–c. 395) was a fourth-century bishop in central Asia Minor, a friend of Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus, and a participant in the First Council of Constantinople in 381. He wrote this homily for the Christians of his diocese, to be delivered during the Holy Saturday liturgy, the day when the church commemorates the burial of Christ and waits for his resurrection. His purpose was to turn the congregation from grief at the tomb toward confidence in the victory hidden within it, and to answer the mockery of both Jews and pagans who saw the crucifixion as proof that the Christian hope was dead.

The sermon was preached on the Great and Holy Saturday of the Paschal week, the day between Good Friday and Easter. Amphilochius addresses a congregation assembled for the burial feast of the Savior, and he speaks directly to two groups of opponents: Jews, who sealed the tomb and set guards over it, and Greeks, pagans who mock the Christian hope and have shut up their own hopes in tombs. He quotes the prophet David, Christ on the cross, and Christ's own words about the temple, and he argues against the Jewish precautions at the tomb, saying that the very act of sealing and guarding it shows they feared Jesus was no mere man.

A reader should know that the homily uses Hades for the realm of the dead, which Christ enters to despoil and fill with light, and that death and life are spoken of as persons, with death swallowing life but unable to hold it. The author quotes the Psalms according to the Septuagint numbering, so Psalm 15 in the sermon is Psalm 16 in modern English Bibles, and Psalm 48 is Psalm 49. He also quotes Isaiah, the Gospel of John, and Luke, and he alludes to the raising of Lazarus as proof of Christ's power over death. The sermon ends by inviting the congregation to join Mary and her companions at the tomb in faith and to make their words their own.

Printed text used

Translated from PG 39 (Greek)

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