Homily on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearing Women and Righteous Joseph
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
“Amen, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her” (Matthew 26:13).
This week, beloved, our holy mother Church remembers the holy Myrrhbearing women and the Righteous Joseph, who took down the body of the Lord from the cross. How good it is to serve the Lord Almighty with all your heart, no matter what! What a reward this man received from the generous God! The reward is within yourself - in your conscience, the reward outside of you - is in the grateful memory of people, but what is higher and dearer than all is the reward in the memory, in the eternal memory of you of the Lord God Himself and in eternal glorification from Him in heaven! Here is an example from the Gospel. Once, when our Savior was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman approached Him with a vessel of precious ointment, broke the vessel and poured myrrh on His head, and anointed His feet, which she wiped with her hair. The whole house was filled with the fragrance of peace. When others were indignant at the waste of the precious ointment, the Lord praised her and said: "For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Amen, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her" (Matthew 26:6-13).
This prophecy of the Savior, as you see, is being fulfilled to this day throughout the whole world, wherever there are churches of the Lord. Every year her praiseworthy zeal for the Lord is praised in the ears of the whole Church and will be praised until the end of time. Wherefore, beloved, it is good to serve the Lord with all your heart, with great love! The memory of you will be preserved throughout all centuries until the end of the world! Your memory will be eternal in heaven; there will be eternal joy and glory to you in heaven! Moreover, even on earth it is very pleasant for you, as it is not pleasant for any of the people who do not serve the Lord with all their hearts. Proof of this is all the saints – apostles, prophets, saints, martyrs, venerables and righteous. They have served the Lord with all their hearts on earth – and from age to age they are glorified on earth; eternal glory to them also is in heaven.
But let us pass on to the Myrrhbearing women and to the noble Joseph. All the holy Myrrhbearing women, who came to the tomb of the Savior out of great love for Him – to anoint His buried life-bearing body with aromas, are also glorified in all the churches of the world – and also according to the dispensation of the Lord, Who rewarded their love and zeal with eternal remembrance of them in people, but especially with His memory in His heavenly kingdom and eternal joys in heaven. The names of these holy women according to the Gospel are as follows: Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James the Less and Josiah, Joanna, or Anna, wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, Salome and some others.
But Saint Joseph the Noble, who served the Lord by bringing down His life-bearing body from the cross, – from year to year, from century to century, is also blessed with divine songs and will be blessed until the end of time throughout the whole earth, and, as you all see, his honorable name shines with golden letters on the shroud of the Lord in all the churches. Oh, how he shines in heaven! Oh, how he will shine at the Lord's second coming to earth! Oh, how good it is to serve the Lord! The memory of the saints, who served Him with faith and love, passes and will pass from age to age, and no one will ever blot, will not be able to erase their memory among people; and in heaven to them be glory eternal.
And what if we, beloved, could also participate in the glory of the holy Myrrhbearing women and in the glory of the holy righteous Joseph - what if we, too, did something similar to what they did, if we also brought myrrh to the Lord, although not the same as the Myrrhbearers brought, but no less valuable? What if we could do something similar to the work of the righteous Joseph? How glad we would be for this! After all, "the Lord is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8).
It is possible, beloved, for us too - and not just once, not twice, but many times - to do deeds very similar to the deeds of the holy Myrrhbearers and righteous Joseph, and therefore we can expect a reward equal to them. In the Gospel of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ there are words that are very comforting for us, priceless for us, true as the "Amen I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me" (Matthew 25:40). What can we do for the lesser brothers of the Lord Jesus? – To feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked or those who do not have necessary and decent clothing, to visit the sick, to help him recover, to visit prisoners in prison, to bury the dead in poverty (Matthew 25:35–36), i.e. our love for our neighbors is myrrh for the body of the Lord. Christians are His body. The Church is His body (cf. Eph. 1:22–23; Col. 1:18), says the apostle. This is where our myrrh is. Let us take this ointment to the least brethren of Christ, as if to the Lord Himself, and let us walk with it as long as there is breath in our mouths: and the Lord will certainly receive this spiritual myrrh into His most heavenly and noetic altar, as a spiritual fragrance, and will reward us for it with His eternal memory, and will receive us into eternal rest and glory of His heavenly kingdom. Let us each do good deeds according to his ability, but whoever is deprived of the opportunity to do works of mercy should weep over his sins, because you often anger the Lord with them, and your tears will be peace for the Lord; It is as if you will anoint His body with them, and the fragrance from them will spill into your soul, and the Lord Himself will descend into it, and will smell the fragrance of your heartfelt contrition for your sins, and will grant you forgiveness of sins, and will make you an heir of the kingdom of heaven, according to what is written: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matthew 5:4), i.e. there in heaven.
I will also say something very comforting for the pious. Those of you who bury the dead in poverty and piety and pray for the repose of their souls, as if Christ Himself was taken down from the cross along with Joseph, as if it was His most pure body buried, they will be rewarded in heaven, and the Lord will tell them: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me;" inasmuch as have buried at your own expense such and such a poor and wretched person, you have done this to Me: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). This is what edification and consolation the week of the Myrrhbearing women and righteous Joseph brings to us, beloved! Imitate the Myrrhbearers and Righteous Joseph. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.