“W<\/em><\/strong>hat is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was <\/span>still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.<\/span><\/p>\n Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son.<\/span><\/p>\n The Lord goes <\/span>in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: ‘My Lord be with you all.’ And Christ in reply says to Adam: \u2018And with your spirit.\u2019 And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: \u2018Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you <\/span>to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018For you, <\/span>I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.<\/span><\/p>\n `I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.<\/span><\/p>\n “The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages.“<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n [\/su_panel]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A reading from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday [su_panel background=”#fffcf0″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px solid #dddddd” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”] “What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":60467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[547],"class_list":["post-60459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-must-read","category-news","tag-holy-saturday"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/04\/Arise.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmanuel.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}