Sunday 26 April 2015

St. Gregory Palamas-Sermon on the Myrrhbearing Women



The resurrection of the Lord is the regeneration of human nature.  It is the resuscitation and re-creation of the first Adam, whom sin led to death, and who because of death, again was made to retrace his steps on the earth from which he was made.  The resurrection is the return to immortal life.  Whereas no one saw that first man when he was created and given life—because no man existed yet at that time—woman was the first person to see him after he had received the breath of life by divine inbreathing. 

For after him, Eve was the first human being.  Likewise no one saw the second Adam, who is the Lord, rise from the dead, for none of his followers were near by and the soldiers guarding the tomb were so shaken that they were like dead men.  Following the resurrection, however, it was a woman who saw Him first before the others, as we have heard from Saint Mark’s Gospel today.
After his resurrection Jesus appeared on the morning of the Lord’s Day [Sunday] to Mary Magdalene first.
It seems that the Evangelist is speaking clearly about the time of the Lord’s resurrection – that it was morning – that he appeared to Mary Magdalene, and that he appeared to her at the time of the resurrection.  But, if we pay some attention it will become clear that this is not what he says.
Earlier in this passage, in agreement with the other Evangelists, Saint Mark says that Mary Magdalene had come to the tomb earlier with the other Myrrhbearing women, and that she went away when she saw it empty.

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