Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women--Christ the New Adam

Brothers and sisters in Christ—

In the morning of the Resurrection of Christ, before the sunrise, the angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and opened the tomb.  The Gospel of St. Matthew tells us that “He rolled the stone away, and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.  In fear, the soldiers trembled and fell down before him, as if dead.”  The purpose of this deed was to show that the tomb was empty, for the Lord Jesus had earlier risen from the dead.  In order to understand the term “third-day resurrection” or “resurrection on the third day,” we need to understand the Hebrew concept of the day.  The Hebrew day begins in the evening with the setting of the sun.  Therefore, when we say “the resurrection on the third day,” we do not mean that the Lord Jesus Christ was among the dead during three whole days, but rather during parts of three days, for He died on Friday, the Preparation Day for the Jewish Sabbath, and then the Sabbath began with the setting of the sun on Friday evening.  On Saturday, He slept in death, but the Sabbath ended  with the setting of the sun on Saturday evening, and the new day (the first day of the week) began.  Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day, that is, after the setting of the sun on Saturday.  In this way, Our Lord fulfilled the prophecy spoken by the Prophet Hosea: “Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn, and He will heal us. He has stricken, and He will bind us up. After two days He will bring us to life. On the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him.”(Hosea 6:2) The words of the Prophet show that the Resurrection of Christ is our resurrection, and through the suffering of the Lord Jesus we have the forgiveness of sins and a new life.  The Resurrection of Christ begins a new world, for the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, when God’s work of Creation began, and when He created the light.  The Lord Jesus Christ is “the Father of a new Creation,” and He fulfilled all the prophecies, which proclaimed the restoration of the universe.  For example, the Gospel of St. John tells us that “there was, in the place where they crucified Him, a garden, and in the garden was a tomb in which no one had yet been laid.  There then, because of the Preparation Day of the Jews, they laid Jesus, because the tomb was near at hand.” Here we see the clear parallelism between the burial of the Lord Jesus and the Garden of Eden, for the Book of Genesis tells us: “The Lord God planted a Garden in Eden, in the East, and there He placed the man, whom He had made. Out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.  The Tree of Life was in the middle of the Garden…”(Gen. 2:8) Here we see a complete restoration, since, in the beginning, the Tree of Life was in the middle of the garden, and now the new Tree of Life, the Cross of the Lord Jesus is in the midst of this new garden.  The Book of Genesis tells us: “Then the Lord God made the man from the dust of the earth, and breathed into him the breath of life, and the man became of living being.” But now, in the Resurrection of Christ, the Man became a life-giving Spirit.

     In this imagery, we behold the Lord Christ—the New Adam, the father of the new family of the human race.  This new family is not like the old one, since God only has children. He does not have grandsons and granddaughters.  Each Christian person has the same relationship with Christ: “To as many as accepted Him, He gave to power to become Children of God, those who believe in His Name; who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Truly, each Christian is begotten from above, just as the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus: “If one does not receive birth from water and Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.  That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit—is spirit.  The wind blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or whence it goes. So too is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” In Christ, I am a direct son of God.  Therefore, Christ our God made the Church to be a family, and He became its head.  In this way the human family was restored, because according to the traditional ethical teachings of the Church, the most important people in the world are the heads of families, for they hold the place of Christ.  The Holy Catholic Church has the most profound respect for the heads of families, but complete disdain and contempt for human bureaucracies and other structures, which try to destroy the rights of the family.  A healthy society and nation recognizes the rights of the heads of families to make decisions concerning the good of their families, while an evil society and nation abridges these rights, which belong to the heads of families according to the law of nature. 

     The Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of a new family, which we call “the Church,” and we imitate him in our daily lives, and we model our families according to the example of His family.  Each head of a family is the recipient in abundance of the virtues of wisdom, justice, courage and temperance, if he asks for them from Christ, the Head of our Heavenly Family.