His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros Homily for the Third Bridegroom Service

Evening of Great and Holy Tuesday - April 14, 2020

Archdiocese Chapel of Saint Paul, New York, New York

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We have arrived at our final Nymphios Service for Holy Week, one that is beloved by all Orthodox Christians for the famous hymn of Kassiani that concludes this Matins of Holy Wednesday.

This magnificent hymn begins:

Κύριε, ἡ ἐν πολλαῖς ἁμαρτίαις περιπεσοῦσα Γυνή…

O Lord, the Woman who had fallen into many sins …

It tells the story of an anointing of the Lord that happens before His Passion in the house of Simon the Leper, and in many ways mirrors the other anointing of the Lord in Bethany, by Mary the sister of Lazaros.

In both instances, the women served as preemptive Myrrh-Bearers, whose acts of love and devotion performed a great service for the Lord in advance. One was nameless, a known sinner, and a stranger to the Lord. The other was Mary, a dear friend, and disciple who sat at His feet to hear “the one thing needful.”[*] But they both chose to offer their most precious possession, in a mystical foreshadowing of the Resurrection.

You might ask, how does this anointing foretell the Rising from the dead of our Lord? If you recall the aftermath of the Crucifixion, the righteous Women, led by the Holy Theotokos and Mary Magdalene – and aided by Joseph of Arimathea and Nikodemos – hastened to bury the Sacred Body of our Lord before sundown, the beginning of the Sabbath.

But the sky was dark, because the “Sun of Righteousness”[†] had eclipsed in His willing death on the Cross.[‡] The Day of Preparation, which is why Friday is called Παρασκευή in Greek, was almost over. And this meant there was no time to finish the proper anointing in accordance with Jewish custom.

It is the reason why the Women returned to the Tomb early on Sunday morning, very early – λίαν πρωῒ, as the Gospel of the Resurrection says, διαγενομένου τοῦ σαββάτου, “when the Sabbath had passed.”[§] They came back to the anoint the Christ, Who is already the Anointed One, which is the very meaning of the word, Χριστός.

But they had already been anticipated by the Sinful Woman, and by Mary the sister of Lazaros.

As we chant in the Hymn of Kassiani, where it says of the Woman who had fallen into many sins,

τὴν σὴν αἰσθομένη Θεότητα, μυροφόρου ἀναλαβοῦσα τάξιν…

“sensing Your Divinity, she took upon herself the rank of a Myrrh-Bearer…”

She sensed the Divinity of the Lord in spite of her sinfulness. She approached the Lord, humbly, standing behind Him like a servant. She wept upon His feet and dried them with her hair. And then, taking an alabaster jar of very costly myrrh, she broke the jar, and anointed the feet of the Lord.[**]

This act of offering is majestic in so many ways. 

She did not join the table of the host, but acted only as a servant.

She poured forth her confession silently through her weeping, and by kissing the feet of Christ.

She dried our Lord’s feet, moistened by her tears, with her hair, which, for a Jewish woman, was her most precious adornment.

And finally, she took a jar of the most precious myrrh, and opened it the only way it could be opened, by breaking it, for such vials were always sealed for just one use. Her offering was so great, so costly, that the Disciples – namely Judas Iscariot – were offended and asked the Lord: “εἰς τί ἡ ἀπώλεια αὓτη – why this waste?”[††] They even justified their outrage by invoking the cause of the poor.

But the women remained silent, never uttering a word of defense for her actions. She left her defense to Christ and to Christ alone. What an example she is to every one of us!

Thus, while the Disciples berated her for her act of generosity, the Lord rewarded her and commended her “good deed.”[‡‡]

While His host, Simon the Leper, judged our Lord for allowing the sinful Woman to touch Him, the Lord taught Simon a lesson in mercy, and sent the woman away pardoned, healed, saved, and in peace.[§§]

While Peter, on the Night of the Mystical Supper, would protest the Lord washing his feet, the Woman who had fallen into many sins washed the feet of our Master Christ with her tears.

While Judas would give our Lord a kiss of betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the sinful Woman kissed “the feet whose sound Eve heard at dusk in Paradise” – of which Kassiani sings.

While the Roman soldiers tossed lots for His garments as the Lord hung naked on the Cross, the Woman dried and covered His feet with hair.

And finally, while the Righteous Women came to the Tomb to anoint Him and finish their custom, and they found Him not! The sinful Woman finished their work before they even began. She anointed Him with more than precious ointment, she anointed Him with total and unconditional love.

My beloved Christians, the sinful Woman acted before the Passion. And we are here now in this Holy Week, two thousand years after the Passion, but we can still act. We can still offer.

Therefore, we are, this evening, in the house of Simon the Leper. We are standing in the same room, but it is up to us to chose whom we shall be.

The one who judges the deeds of others?

The one who complains about the waste, the cost, the value of another’s gift?

Or the one who offers true and sincere repentance,

who rains down tears upon the feet of the Lord’s Body,

who offers the most precious gift of heart and soul,

and who perceives the Resurrection before there is any manifestation.

May we join with that Sinful Woman in all her excellencies, in all her faith, in all perceptions, and thus announce beforehand the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever. Amen.