Sermon of Great Friday 1978 – by the late Father Bishoy Kamel

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.

Today, my beloved, is a day of great feast. And although the appearance of the church seems to reflect sadness and the hymns are in a sorrowful tone, and our mouths are bitter from not eating or from fasting, all of this is, as we will see now, nothing but the bitter herbs on which the Passover will be eaten.

 

Yesterday, we contemplated our Lord Jesus Christ and what He gave us: matchless humility. When He bowed down to our feet and washed them while we were deep in sin. An indescribable humility, as He bowed down to the feet of Judas and washed his feet while being God, and He also gave us His love when He broke Himself by His own choice and offered Himself as food so that we may taste love. The word love in the dictionary of all languages is an abstract term, but with us in Christ, we eat love because He gave us Himself… and because He is all love and He established us in Him. He said, “He who eats me will live forever.” So He also gave us eternal life.

 

All these are the blessings we received yesterday in Christ, and these are our rights as Christians. As for today, my beloved, it is a day of great feast that marks for us the Gospel of our teacher John, which was read to us: “When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat on the judgment seat in a place called The Pavement, and in Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was preparation for the Passover, and about the sixth hour.” The sixth hour means noon, the time when Christ was crucified. And at the same time, it was the preparation for the Passover.

 

Preparations were being made rapidly because this is their feast that they celebrate and their eternal remembrance of the day the Lord brought them out of the land of Egypt. For this reason, my beloved, the Apostle Paul, by the grace and inspiration given to him, spoke about this feast in his epistle to the Corinthians, saying in chapter five that “For indeed  Christ,our Passover was sacrificed for us.” Our Passover is Christ who has been sacrificed, and the Passover known to the Jews is a feast. So when the Apostle Paul says that our Passover is Christ sacrificed for us, he means that today is the feast of the sacrifice of Christ for us.

 

It is a very great feast. The word “Passover” is a Hebrew word, and when it was translated into Arabic, it was translated as “Pascha” just as it is. However, in all languages around the world, it is called “Pascha” in Coptic, “Pascha” in Greek, “Pâques” in French, and “Passover” in English. They all refer to it as “Pascha,” but since Arabic borrowed from Hebrew, it became “Fes-ḥ” because our Passover is Christ who was sacrificed for us.

The word “Pascha” even from its English meaning “Passover” carries an expression; so, passing here essentially clarifies the mystery of what we have done today.

 

And this is the point that I want to be clear, by God’s grace, in front of our eyes so that we know what have we done today and what are we doing? What is the story of this Pascha? Indeed, we say that this is Pascha week, but the Pascha is mentioned to us in the Book of Exodus in chapter 12, where it says, “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ‘This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

 

And then you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight,’ which means in the evening of that day, they shall start to slaughter the lamb and take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. They shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it, in order to remember their initial bitterness, because a person does not feel the value of grace when God gives it to him without having felt the bitterness and hardship in it.

 

That is why I tell you that our sorrows, our sad melodies, and our pains today do not mean an inner sadness in the heart; they mean joy, but they are bitter herbs on which we taste the Christ who is our Passover.

 

And he says, “You shall eat it with your waist girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.” For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. And this day shall be a memorial for you, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. The Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. Thus, all the houses will be marked with blood, and the Lord will pass by, along with the destroyer.

 

The house that has the blood mark, He will say, “Leave this one and pass by to another,” and so on… There is no house without a firstborn. The Bible says that the Lord struck, and it happened at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and not only that, every firstborn of the animal, meaning even the firstborn of the beasts was struck, and who remained? Those marked with the blood sign.

 

And then it says, Pharaoh rose up at night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without a dead man. Except for certain houses that were marked by the blood. Moses warns him, saying, “Be careful, no foreigner shall eat of it. This meal is for my children; no one else shall eat of it. But every male servant who is bought for silver, you shall circumcise him first, and then he may eat of it; the temporary resident and the hired worker shall not eat of it,etc…”

 

And then they left the land of Egypt and walked on the road. And it was not absent from their minds the story of the blood that was sprinkled on their houses and their lives, and they went and took the unleavened bread and ran. God could have made them enter Sinai directly if they had come from the Gulf of Suez; they could have passed quickly. But God had a specific wisdom. They wandered in the wilderness for almost three days, and while they were lost, instead of going up and crossing over, I tell you there was no Suez Canal or anything like that.

 

They gathered by the sea in front of them, and then there was another problem. So God said to Moses, “Strike, complete my Passover, take its blessings and continue the crossing.” Then he struck the sea and the people crossed, while Pharaoh and his remaining soldiers perished, not just their firstborns. The word “Passover” means crossing. And do we know what we are doing now? We are sprinkled with the blood, and the destroying angel has no power over us. That’s why in the exposition that was read to us now, it says, “Who proclaims to the captives?” This was said by Zechariah literally.

 

Look at the verse; you’ll find it more than wonderful. “And you also, for in the blood of your covenant, I have released your captives from the pit where there is no water. Return to the stronghold, O captives of hope.” And you also—speaking to His people, speaking to the church—there is also a part that was held captive in hell, those who died before Christ… they were waiting for His day, about whom he said, “Abraham your father desired to see My day.” So, he says, “You also, O church captive in hell, and you also, for in the blood, I have released your captives by the blood of the new covenant. I have released your captives from the pit—meaning from hell—where there is no water. Return to the stronghold. Return to paradise, return to Christ, O captives of hope.” The captives of hope are those who died in hope. You can’t imagine how great their joy was on the day of the cross! And the truth is, who will go and proclaim to the captives? No one will proclaim to the captives. He is saying, “And you also, for in the blood of your covenant, I am the One with My blood who will proclaim to you; no one will ever proclaim this matter to you.

 

And Peter the Apostle was able to quickly reveal to us through spiritual inspiration this dangerous message by saying: “For Christ also suffered once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” Look at what the rest of the verse says: “by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison” – the spirits in hell – and Peter the Apostle says that when the Lord was on the cross, the first thing He did was quickly descend and bring the good news.

 

Who can enter hell? The devil has an enormous grip on it. Who can come from hell or approach it? The devil is the master over all those souls? Christ descended with the blood of His covenant and preached… He brought good news to the spirits in prison… Can you, my dear, imagine a day of joy greater than this day today?

 

Today is not a day of sorrow; it is a day of joy. During the liturgy, we take this particular verse from our teacher, Peter the Apostle, and say: “He descended into hell from the cross.” We often overlook this matter of hell.

 

 

We, if we think, think about ourselves and the millions of people who died in hope, waiting for this day. Christ dies on the cross, and people mock Him saying, “Leave Him, let Him call Elijah,” and the Christian who does not understand sits in front of this image and says, “what pity, ” and wails and mourns, just like his disciples did not understand what he was doing. But if we knew what happened today, it would be a day of great joy and happiness. Our teacher, the Apostle Paul, speaks about what happened on the cross in his epistle to the Colossians, saying that “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,” Just as He brought us to life, He wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us,so that when we say in prayer continuously, “Tear up the book of our sins,” we remember this verse in Colossians: “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

It turns out that we had a handwriting of requirements… this handwriting of requirements could not be paid by any one of us, and if there was just one who could pay it, there would have been only one soul that escaped from hell. There were no Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or the patriarchs, saints, prophets, or leaders of the fathers; they were all in hell, holding a handwriting of requirements which (Jesus) took and said, “I will pay its price.” The devil said to Him, “Its price is very high, it is the life of all people. Did I laugh at Adam? Or was Adam fully free?” I indeed said to him, “Oh Adam, come with me and forget about God,” and he ate from the tree and became like God. He said, “Yes, I will go with you.” And he asked, “What will God benefit you with in the afterlife?” He said, “I did not bring Adam against his will; Adam came of his own free will.” He said, “Correct,” and he said, “Then his life will end up as a slave under me, and his children, like him, will also be my slaves.”

 

He said, “Okay.” He asked him, “Okay, what? How will you bring them out of the pit? Because God is just.” He told him, “I will give my life as a ransom for the handwriting of requirements written against all of humanity.” So he says, “He has wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us in the ordinances that were contrary to us, a handwriting of requirements against us, and He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.” This means that the handwriting of requirements against us has been removed.

 

The second point is that the devil actually had another battle with Christ. Because the devil is a slanderer and has humiliated humanity in a terrible way, as humanity was foolish when it fell under the control of the devil, who deceived him until he made him his slave and humiliated him. Christ says on the cross, “He wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.”

 

Having disarmed principalities and powers — the principalities of devils and powers— and He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it at the cross. This means he brought the cross, pierced the devil like this, and told him, “That’s it.” So there was a very big battle… What happened on the cross was that the handwriting of requirements was cut off… And He said, “I will go down and proclaim the blood of My covenant to all your captives who are in your pit that has no water.”

 

Imagine that the pit which has no water is the hell, and He said, “I wil make a public spectacle of the devil, triumphing over it in at My own cross. And you, right thief, your sins are forgiven; today you will be with Me in paradise. This is what happened on the cross.

For this reason, my beloved, today is a very great feast day, a day of celebration because the cross for Christians is not a disgrace but a power. We know its secret and we know its strength, but the best thing that can lead us to the understanding of the cross is what happened today: the Passover lamb tells us to take the blood and sprinkle it on the doorposts and the lintel, and every house sprinkled, do not approach it.

 

In the past, we were afraid to say that the houses were marked with crosses. I wish the house was not marked with crosses… I wish our hearts would be marked with crosses. The devil came to approach Christ because it is the devil’s right to claim every soul and bring it to hell, but he found the soul of Christ to be sinless. Yet Christ openly proclaimed His triumph over him, and thus the devil was broken.

 

Therefore, my dear ones, we have protection in the blood of Christ. If you want to know what the devil is doing, the Apostle James said that the devil roams like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. The devil doesn’t joke; he can lure a person with kindness and deception  because the nature of the devil is always deceitful in his dealings, just like the serpent did with Eve. But in the end, the serpent will remain a serpent, and the devil will remain a devil. The roaming lion will not change its nature; it will still be a roaming lion. I want to tell you an important point: the death of Christ on the cross did not change the nature of the devil, but the death of Christ on the cross provided protection for humanity against the devil. The devil is indeed a devil, but a person marked by the blood of Christ will live a life of Pascha.

 

Today we celebrate our passover by looking at Jesus and saying to Him, “Yesterday, we were affected by Your humility and the life You gave us, but today we see You like this, as You sprinkle us with blood.” As one of the writers says, this Great Lent was established by the Church to be the Passover, which is the bitter herbs of our Passover today. Those who have labored and struggled have the right to rejoice today because the destroying angel will pass by, but it cannot approach him because he is sprinkled with blood.

 

In reality, my beloved, when we go back to the people of Israel as they were coming out of Egypt, we see Pharaoh, a symbol of Satan, and the Egyptians, humiliated God’s people in a way that is beyond description. When they would make requests, they would say, “Okay, you’re asking for rest,” but when they asked to lighten the work a bit, they would say, “Well, since you’re asking, we’ll lighten the work, but tomorrow you’ll work double.” This is typical of Satan. Is it reasonable for someone to go complain to Satan? Is it believable that  someone can go to complain to Satan about Satan? It’s unbelievable!! Satan wants to devour mankind. God sent the plagues; you know about the 9 plagues. Even though the first plague was with blood too because He turned the rivers to blood.

 

But do you think those plagues affected Pharaoh? Not at all; he never woke up. At that time, he would take the plague and tell Moses, “I repent,” and then he would say, “Okay, He will lift this from you.” As soon as the matter was lifted, he would return worse than before. None of the plagues were of any use to him except for the last one, because the last one involved death.

 

The initial strikes were sent, like sending flies, sending mosquitoes, turning water into blood, sending frogs, kept annoying him with such things, within his strength and in his interests and in these things. God must annoy the devil like that, but there will be a strike that he will take which will be the first and the last, and that will be the strike of death. You see Christ dead today.

We used to hear the church saying, “Holy God who manifested in weakness greater than in strength,” meaning.. in His weakness, He did what has not been done in strength.. ignorant people think He is weak and mourn for Him, but we say to Him, “Thine is the power, glory, and majesty forever Amen,” and then at the end of the hymn, we chant, “The lord is my strength and my praise is the Lord, and He has become my salvation.”

 

So today is a day of victory, a day of triumph, not a day of sadness, but a day of joy. It is true that there is sadness in every house because there is mourning due to death, but not in our case. We have sadness in the world, but we do not have what? Sadness.. we have joy, but they cannot understand how much joy we are living in. But the truth is that there is sadness outside.. the world rejoices and you grieve, but your grief turns into what? Into joy, so the people of Israel rejoice tonight. So suppose there is one person from the people, just one, who has sprinkled his house with blood, do you think what will happen? The destroying angel will come, and he will knock the firstborn dead along with the Gentiles.. Oh, then it is clear that now there is danger for the soul that is not protected by the blood of Christ; it will be treated just like the soul that does not know Christ at all.

For this reason, my beloved ones, the destroying angel passes over the souls sprinkled with blood. That’s why I personally want to immerse myself in this blood, according to Isaiah’s saying, “Why are your garments red?” He said, “I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me.” Also, our Pascha is a crossing; the crossing occurred once again when they crossed the Red Sea. They were, in the first instance, when the firstborn were struck, unaware. Because they ate the Passover and ran away, they took the dough and left, not seeing the disasters and calamities that befell the devil and the mourning.

 

So why didn’t  he chase after them? There had to be a funeral in every house, and if the devil wasn’t struck, he would have immediately pursued them. So when he finished his funeral and completed three days or so… he regained his senses and ran after them again, He said to him, “Now you will take the final blow.” He came to cross the Red Sea and drowned himself and his soldiers with the rod, which is a symbol of the cross, which Moses also had as a sign for what? For the cross.

 

And notice a very important point that the cross did not leave Moses’s life for a moment until the last moment after they first crossed when he struck the sea with what? With the staff which was a symbol of the cross and then  He  said to him, “Strike it with the staff.” He asked, “What is this rock?” The Apostle Paul says, “And the rock was Christ.” And the side is wounded and from it, you say, “Oh my, water is coming out of it.” Indeed, this water is very sweet; we are quenched by it. This blood we drink from it; without it, we would have no value, as the cross accompanied Moses’s life because Moses soon faced Amalek, who were very mighty in battle.

 

He said, “What will I do?” The people said, “There are no graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to bury us.” He said, “Give them anyone to fight them like this.” He said, “They can’t fight them.” He asked, “What will you do?” “Raise your hands all day like the example of the cross, make the sign of the cross like this and pray all day.” He said, “Okay,” and then he raised his hands all day, saying, “What’s the news?” He would say, “Tremendous victories; not one of us dies.” He said, “Well, I’m tired now when I lower my hands.” He lowered his hands and looked, hearing the screams of people coming running. He asked them, “What’s wrong?” They said, “There’s a terrible defeat in our people.” He said, “Okay, raise my hands again, but I’m tired.” They said, “There’s no solution; let one hold your hand from here and one hold your hand from there… because you, Moses, are not winning by your outstretched arms. You are indeed a symbol of the cross yourself. Your very self is a symbol of the cross, so that’s why you have to appear like the cross… so that there can be victory. And when the serpent bit them, he said, “Okay, what should I do?” He said, “You have no option but the cross, a bronze serpent like the example of the cross, and every soul that has entered the poison of sin can be healed by what? Looking at the bronze serpent.”

 

Thus, my dear, the cross is the symbol of Moses’ life… the life of the people throughout the exodus. The Passover, in reality, for the people of Israel was not just something they did one night and left; these were their tests. When they forgot, they fell again… that’s why the Passover in our lives today, I want you to memorize this verse in Corinthians 5: “For our Passover or Pascha, the Christ, has been sacrificed for us.” Enough. How often do you celebrate the Passover, Father? Not every year; every year we do it after the fast… we taste its sweetness and beautiful reminders.

 

But the Passover is our daily life, every day. Every day there is a Passover; it’s not just every day… every moment, and neither does the devil rest nor do we overcome our human weakness. The blood is present before us every day. Therefore, my dear, every struggle against sin… as long as your life is sprinkled with the blood… I don’t want your life to be just a general statement. Your eyes should be sprinkled with the blood… so that you may taste the blood of Christ and wipe your eyes.

 

Then the destroyer will come and get close and say: no, I can’t. It’s something that frightens me completely. You know when there are planes and find missile bases,they must keep away from them. When they tell you to get close, the plane will fall immediately.

 

Right now, the devil knows the value of this blood, and the prophets in the Old Testament wished for it. David the Prophet said in the psalm, “They pierced my hands and my feet.” Yes, you will say that he is prophesying about Christ. Indeed, he is prophesying about Christ, but David wanted to live with Christ. He is saying, “My hands and my feet.” My hands that have killed and shed much blood, pierce them, O Lord, so that this may cease.

 

And my feet that led me into sin, that went to the place of sin and walked upon the roof… I want you, O Lord, to pierce my hands and my feet. Although he was speaking of Christ, all the prophets desired to see this day. And do you remember what Abraham saw? Your father Abraham longed to see my day. What is the day of the Lord that he saw? It is the great day of the Lord.

 

For in it the devil was crushed, and in it He told the captives good news and in it death was trampled by death… and death is the last enemy that Paul the Apostle speaks of as “the last enemy.” Where is your sting, O death?

 

And our church says, “With your death, O Lord, you have brought life.” The death that grants life, we are not facing a dead man, we are before a living God. How can we weep for a living God, my beloved? I said we mentioned that we are contemplating this week on what we have received from Christ. We received that we are to be marked by the blood, which passes over the destroyer and cannot approach us. Thus, the Passover becomes, in the true sense of the word,  my life.

 

You tell me, “I have lived my Passover all my life,” and I’ll say to you, “How can you tell me to see on what we can eat the Passover?” I would tell you it’s bitter herbs… Yes, look at all the bitterness… Why the bitterness? He carried the bitterness for the bitter herbs as well, on which the flesh was eaten.

 

They eat roasted meat with what? With bitter herbs. He says to him, “The smell of the meat is very nice when grilled.” And then the children come to eat from the meat and say, “Dad, this has bitterness.” What’s the story? He tells them, “Well, kids, the law says so: you must eat it with bitter herbs.” They ask, “So, what is this bitterness?” The answer is, “You took it ready-made.”

 

But our ancestors lived in slavery once with Pharaoh and with the devil and his soldiers. And you are enjoying this freedom. So taste the bitterness, just a bit… as a reminder. So you can see the bitterness that those under the slavery of the devil lived. If you are in freedom and your Passover is Christ, then eat it with bitter herbs.

 

And the bitter herbs in your life, dear, are your struggle against sin. For example, there might be a young man or woman who will live for Christ, keeping themselves in holiness and purity in the world. Will they not struggle a little? They will struggle, not just a little bitter herbs, but bitter herbs that have a sprinkle of blood that gives them eternal salvation… and gives them salvation… and gives them escape from death because the destroying angel is coming to destroy every soul not sprinkled with blood and every soul that has not eaten the Passover… and has not eaten with bitter herbs.

 

What does it mean when it says you must eat it with bitter herbs? Each person should go out of their house and gather as many bitter herbs as they can, and the clever one is the one who gathers the most bitter herbs. When the dish is completely bitter… having a sweet smell… and the dish is very bitter, this is our life… bitterness… yes, there is bitterness we cannot deny. Do you think there’s anyone who strives against sin who does not experience bitterness? Someone who struggles in their prayers… Someone who struggles in their fasts…ts there not  bitterness in their lives? If we are to be sprinkled with blood. “We have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.”

 

How many times Jesus instructed us this week, telling us to strive to enter through the narrow gate, and He spoke to us about the fig tree that did not bear fruit. How He cursed it and told us to stay awake, stay awake. And this is bitter herbs. So, the Passover is your entire life on earth; it is my life if we make a covenant with the Lord today and tell Him that we will not celebrate the Passover today. This Passover is our whole lifetime. So, are we ready to always eat it with bitter herbs and with joy? When you see everyone like that eating the Passover, you find them joyful. Why joyful? The meat is bitter, and it tells you: be quiet, we will pass over now and death will flee from us… but it will destroy the other houses.

 

So there is bitterness you will taste in your life… and the bitterness of the injustice that Christ suffered… and the bitterness of the struggle against sin… and the bitterness of deprivation… and the bitterness of fatigue… and how do you eat it? He said, “You shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste.” You shall eat it with your belt fastened, ready like this, and this becomes clear among the monks in the monasteries. A monk must wear a girdle around his waist so that when he stands to pray, he stands praying actively, meaning his waist is straight.

 

The work of the Lord should not be done with slack hands. For the book says, “Cursed is anyone who performs the work of the Lord with slack hands.” Prayer should not be done lazily, but our waists should be truly what? Girded. So that we may eat… for our Passover or our feast is Christ, who was sacrificed for us. And our sandals on our feet and our staffs in our hands. We eat it in haste.

 

All of this means readiness, my beloved, as St. Ephrem says: There is no calamity for man worse than laziness. Laziness has become the door to all sins… Those who eat the Passover while they are asleep and groggy, and their loins are not girded… they will not be able to escape.

 

He told them to take the dough. They said to him it has not leavened. He told them to take it and eat it for seven days without leavening. Eat it unleavened. And the unleavened bread he told them in the Book of Deuteronomy—what does it say? It tells them about the bread of bitterness or the bread of affliction or toil… So, eating the bread that is not leavened and mixed together, they would eat it for a week and they would say, “Why, O Moses, like this?” He would say to them, “This is the bread of affliction.” because you have seen much affliction, remember what your ancestors did?

 

In fact, our waists must be girded and our rods in our hands. How many people were strong and fell? It’s because laziness, once it enters, seeps in one by one like that, and there’s nothing worse than laziness. You become lazy in prayer. Then you become lazy in your church attendance, then you become lazy in your confessions, and then you become lazy in your Bible readings.

Little by little, you find that apathy has filled your life, and then you come to say you have severe apathy. After what? After a long period of laziness. That’s why if you notice, in the final judgment on the last day, God will punish people who didn’t steal, kill, commit adultery, or do any of that.. He will punish them because He will say to them, “O lazy servant.” Is being just lazy enough? Does that mean you will receive punishment? He said to him, “Lazy, I told you to eat with your shoes on your feet, your rod in your hand, and eat it in haste.”

 

The work of the Lord is done quickly, listen to this advice: sprinkle your heart, your life, your hands, your feet, your house, and your children with the blood, everything you have. And all your Passover with its bitterness. Don’t complain about it, don’t complain about the bitterness.. this bitterness is the delight in the food. Eat it in haste and stay active in your spiritual life. You will pass through.. the “destroying angel” will pass over you, and you will also cross the sea. You will experience baptism.

 

We thank Christ that we have all gone through baptism. But you might say, there are children; we didn’t feel the struggle and hardship when we were baptized, for example.. Yes, of course, we didn’t feel it, but everything was accomplished.. the blood washed us, and we were born anew, putting off the old man and bitterness and everything.You say to me, “We never felt anything.. back then, they were distributing sweets and celebrating.”

 

I tell you, come back a little to our ancestors. Look at someone like Mar Girgis the Muzahem; what did he do to triumph? He would go to the church and plead with the priest. He would say, “Stay away from me… you’ll bring me disaster.” He would go to the bishop and say, “What are you going to do?” Then the devil would enter a Christian woman who had the spirit of divination, screaming in the middle of the church, saying, “Help! There’s someone among you doing this and that and will cause you a calamity..” and things would become chaotic. Look how the devil opposes him and sees the bitterness. And I don’t know how, for 11 years, he has been wandering the earth from country to country, just for someone to baptize him and to receive the sacrament of baptism. That’s why Christ said, “By the blood of which I am baptized, you shall be baptized,” meaning by the baptism by which I am baptized, you shall be baptized.

 

Do you remember back then when someone accepted the faith? Did they give him a job in the state? Immediately, they would put him on trial. In reality, baptism was done hurriedly and was considered bitter. It was also quick, because the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. So, the Pascha is our life.

In short, my beloved ones, I intended for us to rejoice today because our Pascha is Christ, who was slain for us. So don’t look at Him while you are sad. But rejoice, for the angel of death flees from you. And finally, there will be another Pascha, which is the day we depart from life. It will be a crossing. And you know how much.Before  Christ , the souls that were not sprinkled with blood would tremble in fear of death and shudder… and be very afraid? Because they would see before them the apparitions of demons coming to seize their souls and take them to hell.

 

Is there a scene harder than this one?

Well, what is it then? The people, the believers who are sprinkled with blood? Those who are fed bitter herbs when the angels come to receive them… the Virgin Lady comes to greet them… something like this happened. Saint George the fighter and Sidhom Beshay, while they were beating him and he was martyred, he said to them, “Guys, bring a chair for the lady so she can sit.” They said the man is rambling. A chair for the lady to sit? He sees the Virgin Lady in front of him coming to take his soul.

 

He says to them, “Look, bring a chair so you can sit.” This last crossing is incredibly significant; sins accumulate for a person without limits. If there’s no blood to cleanse all these sins, and one sin has a wage of death, how will the crossing be, my dear ones? The Passover will be very difficult; the destroying angel will come and destroy without mercy, without compassion. But the children of God, whose lives are sprinkled with blood, will live… they will pass through this moment in complete peace. And they will say to you, “So-and-so departed in peace,” and they will say to you, “So-and-so was carried by angels; Lazarus was carried by angels to the bosom of Abraham.”

 

And they tell us about the saints being received by the spirits of the angels. It means it was a grand, wonderful, beautiful, and enjoyable reception. On the contrary, they would say that they would call out to the saints, and it would seem that they were moving as if they were speaking to people in front of them. The crossing was very easy; they crossed over some bitter herbs. And although death has bitterness, no one will escape from it. But the bitterness does not frighten us because the destroying angel will not destroy us because we will cross over by the blood.

 

 

For this reason, my dear ones, our joy today is in the blood of Christ that will not be sprinkled on the doorposts anf the lintel., but it will be sprinkled on our entire lives, and our children, and our homes. Run quickly and live before the cross. Don’t let it leave your life, and meditate on the blood that is flowing from it, and be like Mary Magdalene, who the artist depicted sitting under the cross. He said so that she can receive all the blood that is flowing upon her, do not be like the disciples who fled and saw this blood.

 

 

And Peter says, “What a pity! I wish I had seen the blood of Christ, for I would have taken it and cherished it. But we are not just in the material form; we also live in the spirit through the blood of Christ, which, by the blood of His covenant, frees the captives in exile – ‘the captives of hope.’ And by His blood, He accompanies us through every hardship in our lives., He washes away every trial, every sin with His blood, so we also cross over. Christ, our Passover, who was sacrificed for us, we worship Him all the days of our lives and into eternity. To our God be everlasting glory, Amen.”

 

Reference 

Book of Luminous Living Sermons – Page 320 – Published by the Diocese of Mallawi, Anasna, and Ashmunein.