A word about Myrrh-Bearing Women

Exclusive. Even with a cursory look at the church calendar, we notice that of the many, many names listed, often very unusual by today's standards, the overwhelming majority belong to men. But today, on this second Sunday after Easter, continuing to celebrate the event that changed history and all of creation, the Holy Church asks us to turn our thoughts to the holy Myrrh-bearing Women: Saint Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Salome, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Susanna, Mary and Martha of Bethany and the Holy Mother of God. According to the established tradition, two men are also added to them: Joseph of Arimathea (according to ancient sources, a relative of St. Joachim, father of the Virgin) and Nicodemus.

A word about Myrrh-Bearing Women

These women and men were among those "off the screen." In the case of women, we know that they were not very visible in the first century. However, their service was certainly not one of the last. But they, like Joseph and Nicodemus, acted with great faith and courage.

The purpose of this beautiful liturgical practice is not only to help us remember and identify with the encounter of the Myrrh-bearing Women with the empty coffin, but also with those virtues that made these brave women worthy to be the first to learn about the resurrection and to become "apostles of the apostles."

From this world's point of view, only a complete madman (or recklessly brave) could do what the Myrrh-bearing women did. Jesus Christ was condemned by the people and was executed by the Romans as an enemy of the state; and His tomb was sealed, and soldiers were stationed to guard it. Therefore, the women took a great personal risk, coming to the tomb in search of the Lord Jesus, but their great love did not allow them to do otherwise. They had no plan to overcome these obstacles—"they said to one another, 'Who will roll away the stone from the door of the coffin for us?' — but their great faith did not allow them to do this.

But when they came to the place, they found that Christ Himself had rolled away the stone, and the tomb in the garden was no longer a place of death, but a paradise of light and life.
In other words, we are called to live lives that reflect our faith, not the concerns and priorities of the secular world. We must live in such a way that we truly believe that Christ is risen, that He conquered death and gave us the assurance of eternal life. And yet it seems to be much easier said than done.

So who will throw away the stone for us? How do we get to the Resurrection? Today's gospel event is a call to action. Let us not delay and delay, but seek the Lord at the first opportunity. Let us not worry about what the world will say or how we will achieve our goal. If we are firm in faith and guided by love, then the stone that seals the door of our heart will fall away, our dead spiritual feelings will come to life, and the joyful cry "Christ is Risen" will no longer be a theoretical idea for us, but a way of life.

To tell the truth, it is difficult for us who live today in Ukraine of the 21st century to imagine a completely different role for women in Palestine of the 1st century. A woman's place was really only in the house - subordinate and obedient to her husband in everything; they were doomed to cooking, raising children, making clothes and many other endless domestic duties. Official Judaism accepted this as divine law; an established order that cannot be undone.

We know from the Gospels that one of the accusations that the scribes and Pharisees consistently leveled against our Lord was that He was trying to "change the Law", "overturn the traditions of our ancestors". We know, of course, that this was not the case; He himself explained: "I did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it." As the lawgiver, He came to give a more perfect and complete understanding of the law than perhaps existed before. This included the discovery of a much higher role for women. We know that, although He did not choose women before the number of the twelve, there were many women among His followers, and, as St. tells us. the apostle Luke, "they supported him from their own funds." Even during his crucifixion, when the "manly" disciples fled out of selfish fear—except for John—the faithful women did not sleep.

Despite the cultural restrictions and prohibitions they had internalized over the years, these faithful Women still felt the need to act—to do something, if only one last time, to show their love for Jesus Christ, who took the time not to look at them as second-class people, but as persons created in the image and likeness of God. They saw the place where Saints Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had hastily buried the Lord because of the approaching sunset of the Sabbath, and they knew what they had to do.

Obeying the observance of the Sabbath, the women waited for the sunrise following the Sabbath to put their plan into action. They were going to do something expensive, something dangerous, something maybe even "stupid" in the eyes of others, but they knew it was right.

The holy myrrh-bearing women were ordinary housewives. With the exception of St. Joanna, the wife of Herod Huza's housekeeper, none of them were rich. With all that, the evangelists tell us that they purchased a large quantity of expensive myrrh, ointments, and spices to anoint the Lord's body. They sacrificed what little they had saved for their families for the "dark day" because they realized that they could not appreciate God's love. His presence in their lives was invaluable, and now they weren't going to skimp. They spared no expense. But they were not worried about spending money.

The holy myrrh-bearing women literally risked their lives to achieve their goal. Cities in the ancient world were walled for a good reason—the area beyond the walls was a no-man's land for wild animals and robbers, especially after dark. Since our Savior's tomb was in the garden near Calvary, it was outside the safety of the city walls. Women deliberately and consciously did everything to express their love. It would be too much if they had made it safely to the tomb, but the Roman Guard would certainly have used whatever force was necessary to prevent them from gaining access to the tomb. But they were not worried about the danger.

The holy myrrh-bearing women no doubt heard voices as they left the house in the dark morning silence: “where are you going? ... what are you doing? … are you all crazy out there? … how do you women think you are going to move this huge rock?” … “you better get back here in time to make my breakfast!”.

Of course, their plan to go and anoint the Lord's body was, in most people's estimation, unrealistic. How will they get to him? As they say, "the devil is in the details." They didn't care how other people perceived them. Yes, it may have been impractical; maybe it was positively stupid. But they didn't worry about looking foolish.

And what happened? This small group of the "weaker sex", these fragile women, were the first to hear the words that will resound throughout the universe as long as it exists: "Christ is risen!" Not Andrew, who was the first called to discipleship; not Peter, who swore that he would never deny the Lord; not James and John, who swore they would drink from the same cup as Him—no, they shut themselves up, paralyzed with fear, and inactive. Because the holy myrrh-bearing women blinded themselves in faith to everything except the desire to show their love for Christ, they were granted this unique and blessed experience.

This is an important lesson for all of us. We all profess our faith in Christ, but is it the fearless, trusting, unshakable faith of the holy Myrrh-bearing Women? Too often, despite our initial good intentions, we allow ourselves to withdraw from the expression or action of our faith. We fear the cost of the Christian life, whether it is financial or in terms of the time, energy, or emotion required to offer ourselves to others for the love of Christ. We fear the dangers of the Christian life—it always seems so much easier to maintain the status quo, so much safer to keep doing the same old things in the same old ways, even if it means missing an opportunity to make Christ manifest in our lives. We are afraid of looking foolish in living as Christians.

Like the myrrh-bearing women, having seen the terrible and terrible mystery ... where the Creator of the universe voluntarily betrayed himself to a terrible death on the cross ... and we must be ready to go into the coffin of our heart, knowing that for a long time its entrance was blocked by a great stone. And yet, we must resolve to go there in the earnest hope that we can find our way into that tomb to minister there to the body of our Lord… for each of us is a part of his body. And in such faithful hope we discover the resurrected Jesus Christ there and, by the grace of God, we are inspired by the life-giving courage of what this means for our own lives.

Think about that for a moment. If we go to the tomb of our heart with our salves of loving care, then by the grace of God, we may just find that the stone has been rolled away. It is that stone which, when it covers our heart, makes us unable to see Him...He...unable to live courageously in fellowship with Him. So many times in our lives, a stone stood in front of our heart. God, who can do all things, will bring it all together if we earnestly ask Him for it. Women were unable to do this, and neither are we, but we must intentionally come to serve where the stone is, to find that God has rolled it away.

This stone is made up of everything that holds us back: our fear, our sense of worthlessness, our inability to unite with Christ's mission in the world, our own difficulties, our sense of hopelessness, our self-centeredness that seems to capture us despite our best intentions. All this closes the coffin of our hearts ... and we need to ask God to help us find the Risen Christ there.

Of course, the mission of Myrrh-Bearing Women did not stop there. Each of them continued to testify about the Resurrection of the Lord until the day of her death. Mary Magdalene traveled the known world, preaching the Good News. What is remarkable about their testimony is that in a time and place where the roles of men and women were clearly defined, Jesus Christ included these women as disciples in his mission to bring the Kingdom of God into the world…and it was because of their fragrant witness we are also filled with joy.

Today, it has become popular among many in the Orthodox Church to claim that evangelism (preaching and teaching people outside the Church the Good News of Christ) is not an Orthodox occupation. God help us if we subscribe to this heresy, because it actually means that these beautiful myrrh-bearing saints of the Orthodox Church were not really Orthodox. This suggests that Saint Joseph of Arimathea (who later became one of the 70 apostles...went so far as to preach about the Risen Christ first in the Jewish synagogues of Palestine and then in the British Isles) was not really Orthodox. What an absurdity ... may God help us if we participated in spreading such lies. And may God help us, especially, to resemble those saints who only sought to connect with the mission of our Lord's love for the world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is impossible to unite with Christ (have deification) if we reject union with Him in His mission of bringing people to the Kingdom of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is impossible to unite with Him at the cup, where we partake of His body and blood, if we refuse to unite with Him in His desire to make His Gospel known to the whole world.

Through the prayers of the holy Myrrh-bearing Women, they first watched from afar, and then gained great courage to serve the body of Christ... through the prayers of Joseph of Arimathea, who at first only secretly believed in Jesus Christ, and then followed Him with great courage...

Therefore, may God graciously remove his stone from our hearts, and give us the courage to become myrrh-bearers throughout the world, and live in the fact that when we also come to serve the body of Christ, we find that our own life has been resurrected in Him.

But in conclusion, let's return to our world, to the post-Soviet space of the 8st century. There is such a peculiar church joke that Myrrh-Bearing Women Sunday is such a church analogue of March XNUMX. Day of respect for women's vocation.

In general, the very idea that the vocation of a man and a woman can be different is very difficult to accept in the modern world. It is argued that modern feminism is essentially what it is fighting against. That is, he perceives a woman not as an independent phenomenon, but as an "unfinished man." And therefore strives for recycling at any cost. A very true observation, but a partial one. The problem is not feminism at all. The problem is the deformation of social consciousness, which has lost the meaning of the concept of "equality". If earlier equality was based on "equality before God" and it was necessary to prove it. But after the rejection of God in social life, there was nothing to base the concept of equality on.

And here began the invention of sameness, and where it does not exist. Acceptance of the essence in its diversity became a big problem (and all totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century had this idea at their core as well). And here is the division of humanity into two sexes.

And to refuse to accept humanity as it is, various methods are used. Human nature is weak and damaged, and it has defects and deviations. And the denial of the complexity of nature is conducted through them. There are 0.08% of people with gender dysphoria; but this does not mean that there is no division between men and women.

This statement is as stupid as the attempt to abolish the concept of "left-handed/right-handed" on the grounds that there are ambidextrous people, i.e. people by nature or specially trained who know how to use both hands equally.

For the world of general leveling (again, here again a return to totalitarianism, but from the other side) it is very important to invent uniformity, and where it cannot be invented, to create it.

The task of Christians is not to fall for these tricks, but to accept people in their variety of vocations and ministries. Including men and women of various ministries. Different spirituality of men and women. Different bodies. The name of their being should be different. And this variety is beautiful.

Now I will tell you about one thing that is present in "female" spirituality, but minimized in "male". Girls love those who lost too. Not only heroes, but also those who need mercy. This is one of their lessons for the entire Christian community, including from the Myrrh-Bearing Women.

The Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women did not compose the Gospels, did not leave us any messages; as far as we know, none of them were martyred. May, through their prayers, we too have the courage to first actively love Christ, and only then to worry about the vanity of this world. Because if we are with Christ, we will receive everything we need through prayer to Him and His saints.

Hieromonk Feofan (Skorobagatov) Polotsk, doctor of theological sciences