Dear brethren,

In celebrating joyful days of Holy Resurrection and Holy Fifties, we here quote some passages from article number 14 written by our holy father St. Cyril of Jerusalem to the catechumens. These passages show how the Old Testament testifies for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ:

“Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and keep high festival, all you that love Jesus; for He is risen. Rejoice, all you that mourned before Isaiah 66:10, when you heard of the daring and wicked deeds of the Jews: for He who was spitefully entreated of them in this place is risen again. And as the discourse concerning the Cross was a sorrowful one, so let the good tidings of the Resurrection bring joy to the hearers. Let mourning be turned into gladness, and lamentation to joy: and let our mouth be filled with joy and gladness …

“As then we set forth the testimonies concerning His Cross, so come let us now verify the proofs of His Resurrection also: since the Apostle before us affirms: “He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Co 15: 4). As an Apostle, therefore, has sent us back to the testimonies of the Scriptures, it is good that we should get full knowledge of the hope of our salvation; and that we should learn first whether the divine Scriptures tell us of His resurrection …

“Come then to the 15^th Psalm, which says distinctly: “Preserve Me, O Lord, for in You have I put my trust”, and after this: “their assemblies of blood will I not join, nor make mention of their names between my lips”; since they have refused me, and chosen Cæsar as their king. And also the next words: “I foresaw the Lord always before Me, because He is at My right hand, that I may not be moved”, and soon after: “Yea and even until night my reins chastened me”. And after this He says most plainly: “For You will not leave My soul in hell ; neither will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption”. He said not “neither will You allow Your Holy One to see death”, since then He would not have died; but “corruption”, says He, I see not, and shall not abide in death. “You have made known to Me the ways of life”. Behold here is plainly preached a life after death …

“But would you know the place also? Again He says in Canticles: “I went down into the garden of nuts” (Song of Songs 4: 11); for it was a garden where He was crucified. For though it has now been most highly adorned with royal gifts, yet formerly it was a garden, and the signs and the remnants of this remain. “A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed” (Song of Songs 4: 12) …

“But what says Zephaniah in the person of Christ to the disciples? “Prepare yourself, be rising at the dawn: all their gleaning is destroyed”: the gleaning, that is, of the Jews, with whom there is not a cluster, nay not even a gleaning of salvation left; for their vine is cut down. See how He says to the disciples: “Prepare yourself, rise up at dawn”: at dawn expect the Resurrection …

“And whence has the Savior risen? He says in the Song of Songs: “Rise up, come, My neighbor”, and in what follows: “in a cave of the rock”! A cave of the rock He called the cave which was erewhile before the door of the Savior’s sepulcher, and had been hewn out of the rock itself, as is wont to be done here in front of the sepulchers … But where is the rock that had in it the cave? Does it lie near the middle of the city, or near the walls and the outskirts? And whether is it within the ancient walls, or within the outer walls which were built afterwards? He says then in the Canticles: “in a cave of the rock, close to the outer wall”.

May the blessings of St. Mary & St Mercurius, the holy resurrection & Holy 50 days be with us.

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