The Paschal Discourses

Saint Dorotheos of Gaza · the golden age of the Fathers

The Paschal Discourses

THE PASCHAL DISCOURSES DISCOURSE XVI: EXPLANATION OF SAYINGS OF GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN FOR HOLY PASCHA “It Is the Day of Resurrection—Let Us Offer Ourselves” 166. With great pleasure I would speak to you briefly about the meaning of the hymns we chant in church, so that the melody may not absorb you, but your mind also may participate proportionately in the power and depth of the words. What, then, did we chant just now? “It is the day of Resurrection. Let us offer ourselves as a gift.” In ancient times the Israelites, during the feasts—that is, during the religious festivals—offered various gifts to the Lord according to the Law, such as sacrifices, whole burnt offerings, firstfruits, and other things of this kind. Saint Gregory counsels us also to keep festival for the Lord just as they did and exhorts us, saying: “It is the day of Resurrection.” In place of the holy day celebrated by the Israelites, we now have a day of divine festival, the day of the Christian Pascha. But what is the Pascha of Christ? The Israelites celebrated Phasek when they departed from the land of Egypt. The Pascha which the saint now exhorts us to celebrate is kept by the soul that comes forth from the noetic Egypt—that is, from sin. For when the soul passes from sin to virtue, it then celebrates the Phasek of the Lord, as Evagrius also said: “The Pascha of the Lord is a passage”—that is, a passing from the place of vice into the place of virtue.

167. Today, therefore, is the Pascha of the Lord, a day of radiant festival, the day of the Resurrection of Christ, who died and rose and for our sake nailed sin to the Cross. Let us also offer to the Lord gifts, sacrifices, and whole burnt offerings—not, of course, those of irrational animals, which Christ does not desire. For “sacrifice and offering You did not desire,” and “in whole burnt offerings of calves and sheep You took no pleasure” (Hebrews 10:5-6; Psalm 39:7). Isaiah also says: “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? says the Lord,” and what follows (Isaiah 1:11). But the Lamb of God was sacrificed for us, as the Apostle says: “For Christ, our Pascha, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7), in order to free the world from sin. And He “became a curse for us,” as Holy Scripture says: “Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree,” in order to redeem us from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13), so that “we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:5). We too, therefore, ought to offer Him as a gift something of those things that are pleasing to Him. What gift and what sacrifice, then, ought we to offer Christ on this day of Resurrection, so that He may be pleased, since He does not desire sacrifices of irrational animals? Saint Gregory again teaches us.

For after saying, “It is the day of Resurrection,” he added, “Let us offer ourselves as a gift.” The Apostle also says: “Present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your rational worship” (Romans 12:1). A Living and Holy Sacrifice 168. How ought we to present our bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice? By not doing the wills dictated to us by our flesh and our thought, but by walking in the Spirit and not fulfilling any will of the flesh (Ephesians 2:3). For this is precisely what it means to put to death the members of the body that impel us toward earthly desires (Colossians 3:5). This is considered a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Why is it called a living sacrifice? Because the irrational animal led to sacrifice dies at the very moment it is sacrificed. The saints who offer themselves to God, however, are sacrificed daily while at the same time they remain alive, as David says: “For Your sake we are put to death all the day long; we were reckoned as sheep for slaughter” (Psalm 43:23). This is the meaning of Saint Gregory’s saying, “Let us offer ourselves.” That is, let us sacrifice ourselves; let us put ourselves to death all the day long, as all the saints did, for Christ our God, for Him who died for our sake.

How did the saints put themselves to death? They ceased to love the world and the things in the world, as Saint John says in the Catholic Epistles (1 John 2:15). They completely renounced “the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of worldly life”—that is, love of pleasure, love of money, and vainglory. They “took up their cross and followed Christ” (Matthew 16:24), and they crucified not only themselves to the world but also whatever worldly thing they possessed within themselves (Galatians 6:14). For this reason the Apostle says: “Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh together with the passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). See, then, how the saints put themselves to death.

169. But how did they offer themselves? By living not according to their own desires but according to the commandments of God, submitting and abandoning their wills for the sake of the commandment and the love of God and neighbor. As the Apostle Peter said: “Behold, we have left all things and followed You” (Matthew 19:27). What did he leave? Did he possess money or lands, gold or silver? He had only a net, and that an old one, as Saint John Chrysostom said. But he left, as it is said, all his own wills and every attachment to this world. It is evident that, even if he had possessed money or property, he would have disdained those things as well. Having taken up the Cross, he followed Christ according to the saying of the Apostle Paul: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). This is how the saints offered themselves as gifts. Having been put to death, as we have said, to every attachment and every personal will, they lived given over only to Christ and His commandments. The Most Precious Creation of God 170. Let us too, therefore, “offer ourselves,” as Saint Gregory teaches. For he means us when he says, “the most precious creation of God.” Truly, man is the most precious of all visible creatures. God created the others by His word alone, saying, “Let this come to be,” and it came to be; and again, “Let this spring forth upon the earth,” and it sprang forth; or, “Let the waters of the sea bring forth fish,” and they brought them forth (Genesis 1:3, 11, 20), and so with all the rest.

Man, however, He fashioned with His own hands and adorned. He created all the other creatures to serve man and give him rest. But He appointed man king of all these creatures and fashioned him to enjoy the delight of Paradise. Most wonderful of all, when man fell from his place through his own fault, God restored him again to his first condition by the Blood of His only-begotten Son. Thus man is the most precious of all visible creatures—and not only the most precious, but also the most honorable and the most intimate to God. For He said: “Let Us make man according to Our image and according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Holy Scripture further says: “God created man; according to the image of God He created him, and He breathed into his face the breath of life” (Genesis 1:27; 2:7). When our Lord Himself became incarnate, He assumed a human form, human flesh, and a human soul. In a word, He became man in all things except sin, thereby bringing man near to Himself and making him, as we might say, His own. Saint Gregory therefore said very well and fittingly: “The most precious and most intimate creation to God is man.” He then adds more plainly: “Let us restore the image given us by God to its original condition.” Restoring the Image to Its Ancient Beauty 171.

How shall this be done? The Apostle Paul tells us: “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Let us make our image clean again, as we received it. Let us free it from the filth of sin so that its beauty may be revealed through the virtues. David prayed concerning this beauty, saying: “O Lord, in Your good pleasure You gave strength to my beauty” (Psalm 29:8). Let us therefore cleanse that which is according to the image. For God requires it from us just as He gave it, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Let us restore that which is according to the image to its ancient beauty. Let us become conscious of the great dignity God gave us. Let us learn how many great good things were bestowed upon us. Let us learn according to whose image we were fashioned. Let us not fail to recognize the great gifts bestowed upon us by Him—not because of our worth, but solely because of His goodness. Let us learn that we were created according to the image of God Himself, who fashioned us. Let us honor the Archetype. Let us not insult the image of God according to which we were fashioned. Who among those wishing to paint an image of the king dares to use cheap and useless color, insulting the king and placing himself in danger of punishment?

On the contrary, he uses every precious and radiant color worthy of the king’s image. Often he even applies leaves of gold to the images of kings and takes care, so far as possible, to represent all the king’s garments, so that the image may contain every royal characteristic and anyone who sees it may suppose that he sees the king himself, the very Archetype. Then the image is exceedingly beautiful and radiant. Let us too, therefore, not dishonor our Archetype. We were created according to the image of God. Let us make our image pure and honorable, worthy of the Archetype. For if the one who insults the image of a king, who is himself a man, is punished, what ought we to suffer who disdain the divine image within us? As the saint said: “Shall we not give back to the image of God within us the whole of its original glory?” Let us therefore honor the Archetype. “Let Us Learn the Power of the Mystery” 172. “Let us learn the power of the mystery, and for whose sake Christ died.” The power of the mystery of Christ’s death is this. Because through sin we effaced within us that which is according to the image, we therefore became dead, as the Apostle says, “in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). God, who fashioned us according to His image, had compassion upon His creature and upon His own image.

He became man for our sake and accepted death for the sake of all, in order to restore us who were dead to the life from which we had fallen through transgression of the commandment. Having ascended His holy Cross and crucified the sin on account of which we were cast out of Paradise, He “led captivity captive” (Psalm 67:19; Ephesians 4:8). What does this mean? From the time Adam transgressed God’s commandment, the enemy took us captive and held us enslaved. When human souls were separated from their bodies, therefore, they went to Hades because Paradise was closed. But when Christ ascended the height of the holy and life-giving Cross, by His own Blood He delivered us from the slavery in which our enemy, the devil, had bound us because of the transgression of the commandment. That is, He seized us again from the enemy’s hands and, in a certain manner, transferred us from our former slavery into His own service, having conquered and overthrown the devil who had previously enslaved us. For this reason it is said, “He led captivity captive.” This is the power of the mystery. For this reason Christ died for our sake: to restore to life us who had been put to death, as the saint said. We have therefore been delivered from Hades by Christ’s love for mankind, and it is now in our power to return to Paradise.

The enemy no longer tyrannizes us or holds us as slaves, as he did before.

173. Only let us take care, my brethren, and guard ourselves from sin in act. For, as I have often told you, every sin committed in act makes us once again slaves of the enemy, because willingly we hand ourselves over and enslave ourselves. Is it not truly a shame and a great misery, after Christ delivered us from Hades by His all-holy Blood and after we have heard all these things, to turn back and cast ourselves again into Hades? Are we not then worthy of a still more severe and pitiable punishment? May the God who loves mankind have mercy on us and give us spiritual watchfulness, so that we may come to awareness, help ourselves, and find a little mercy on the Day of Judgment. “Noetic Egypt” preserves Dorotheos’s spiritual reading of the Exodus. “Attachment” renders prospatheia; logismos is “thought,” and pathos is “passion.” “Archetype” and “image” retain the theological relation between God and humanity fashioned according to His image. Scriptural quotations are rendered from the Greek forms cited in the discourse, and Psalm numbering follows the Greek Psalter. DISCOURSE XVII: EXPLANATION OF SAYINGS OF GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN FOR THE HOLY MARTYRS Chanting with the Heart 174. For this reason it is good, my brethren, to chant using troparia composed by the God-bearing saints. For in all these hymns they always endeavor to teach us the things that contribute to the illumination of our souls.

From words appropriate to each occasion, therefore, we are given the opportunity to understand the depth and meaning of the commemoration we celebrate, whether it is a feast of the Master, of holy martyrs, of fathers, or any other holy and distinguished day. We too ought to chant with spiritual watchfulness and concentrate our attention upon the depth and meaning of the saints’ words, so that it may not be only the mouth that chants, as the Gerontikon says, but the heart together with it. From the preceding troparion we learned a little concerning Holy Pascha according to our strength. Let us now see what Saint Gregory wishes to teach us concerning the holy martyrs. For the troparion dedicated to them, which is contained in the discourses of Saint Gregory and which we mentioned a little earlier, says: “Living sacrificial victims, rational whole burnt offerings,” and what follows. Living Sacrificial Victims 175. What are “living sacrificial victims”? A sacrificial victim is anything intended for sacrifice to God—suppose a sheep, an ox, or something similar. Why, then, does he call the holy martyrs “living sacrificial victims”? Because the sheep offered for sacrifice is first slaughtered and dies. Afterward it is divided, cut into pieces, and offered to God. The holy martyrs, however, were divided while alive. Their flesh was torn, they were tortured, and they were cut to pieces. Frequently the executioners even cut off their hands, feet, and tongues and put out their eyes.

They flayed their sides so deeply that even the form and position of their inward parts could be seen. The saints endured all these things while, as I have said, they were still living, while their souls were still within their bodies. For this reason they are called “living sacrificial victims.” Rational Whole Burnt Offerings Why are they also called “rational whole burnt offerings”? Because a sacrifice is one thing and a whole burnt offering another. Sometimes they did not offer the whole sheep, but only its first portion, as is written in the Law (Leviticus 3-4): the right shoulder, the lobe of the liver, the two kidneys, and other such things. Those who offered these things made a sacrifice—that is, they offered the first portions. This is called a sacrifice. A whole burnt offering, however, is made when they bring the entire sheep or ox, or whatever else is being offered, and burn it, as the Law says: “the head with the legs and the inward parts.” Frequently they burn the whole of it together with its hide and dung. This is what a whole burnt offering means. In this way, according to the Law, the Israelites performed both sacrifices and whole burnt offerings.

176. Those sacrifices and whole burnt offerings were symbols of souls that wish to be saved and offered to God. I shall tell you a little about them from what the Fathers have said, so that when you read these things your thought may be elevated somewhat and your soul nourished. The Sacrificial Parts and the Powers of the Soul The shoulder represents strength. The hands, as we have often said, symbolize the practical life, and the shoulder is the strength of the hand. They therefore offered the strength of the right hand—that is, the performance of good works—for the right hand is considered a symbol of the good. All the other parts we mentioned are likewise symbols: the lobe of the liver, the two kidneys and their fat, the fat surrounding the kidneys, the fat upon the thighs, the heart, the breast, and all the rest. For all these things, as the Apostle says, happened as a figure and “were written for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11). I shall explain. The soul, as Saint Gregory says, consists of three parts: it possesses the desiring power, the incensive power, and the rational power. They offered the lobe of the liver. The Fathers consider the liver to be the seat of desire, and its lobe is the outermost part. They therefore offered symbolically the outermost part of the desiring power—that is, its first portion, the best and most precious part of the liver.

This signifies that a person no longer loves anything more than God, nor has any desire stronger than desire for God, because, as we said, they offered Him the most precious part of the desiring power. The kidneys and the fat around them, the fat surrounding the kidneys, and the fat upon the thighs signify approximately the same things we said concerning the liver, for desire is said to have its seat there. These, then, are symbols of the desiring part of the soul. The heart is the symbol of the incensive power, for anger is said to be situated there. Basil the Great means this when he says: “Anger is the boiling and movement of the blood around the heart.” The breast is the symbol of the rational power, for this is the symbolic meaning given to the chest. Thus it is said that when Moses clothed Aaron with the high-priestly garment, he placed the breastpiece upon his chest according to God’s commandment (Exodus 28:15). All these things, as we have said, are symbols of the soul which, by the grace of God, is purified and returns to that which is according to nature. For Evagrius says: “The rational soul operates according to nature when its desiring power stretches toward virtue, its incensive power contends for virtue, and its rational power applies itself to the contemplation of created things.”

177. When the Israelites offered a sheep, an ox, or something else as a sacrifice, they took these symbolic parts from the animal offered and placed them upon the altar before God. This was called a sacrifice. A whole burnt offering is made when they offer the entire animal intended for sacrifice and burn it completely. Thus it is intact, entire, and perfect, as we said before. It is a symbol of the perfect, of those who say: “Behold, we have left all things and followed You” (Matthew 19:27). The Lord exhorted the young man to reach this measure when he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth,” and the Lord answered him: “One thing is still lacking to you.” What was it? “Take up your cross and follow Me” (Luke 18:21-22; Matthew 16:24). The Perfect Offerings of the Martyrs The holy martyrs offered their body and soul to God in this way. They offered not only themselves, but also whatever they possessed and whatever surrounded them. For, as Basil the Great says, we ourselves are one thing, the things belonging to us another, and the things surrounding us another. I have told you these things before. We ourselves are the mind and the soul. The things belonging to us are the body, and the things surrounding us are possessions and the rest of our material goods.

The saints offered themselves to God with their whole heart, their whole soul, and their whole strength, as Scripture says: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with your whole mind” (Matthew 22:37). They disdained not only children, wives, glory, money, and all their remaining possessions, but even their very bodies. For this reason they are called whole burnt offerings. They are called rational because man is a rational animal. They are also called perfect victims for God. Sheep Who Know God and Are Known by Him 178. The hymn next says: “Sheep who know God and are known by Him.” How do they know God? Just as the Lord Himself taught us when He said: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know My own, and they know Me” (John 10:27, 14). Why did He say, “My sheep hear My voice”? He meant: they obey My word, they keep My commandments, and for this reason they know Me. For through keeping the commandments the saints draw near to God; and the more they draw near to Him, the more they know Him and are known by Him. But since God knows all things—the hidden things, those deep within us, and even the things that do not exist—why does the hymn say that the saints “are known by God”? Because, as I have said, through the commandments they draw near to Him.

They know Him and are known by Him. Certainly, the more someone turns back and withdraws from another, the more he fails to know him and is not known by him. In the same way, the one who draws near another knows him and is known by him. In this sense God is said not to know sinners, because they withdraw from Him. For this reason the Lord Himself said concerning them: “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you” (Matthew 25:12). The saints, therefore, as I have often said, become more intimate with God in proportion as they acquire virtues through keeping the commandments. And the more intimate they become, the more they know Him and are known by Him. A Fold Impassable to Wolves The hymn continues: 179. “Whose fold is impassable to wolves.” A fold is a place enclosed all around, where the shepherd gathers and guards his sheep so that wolves may not seize them or robbers steal them. If the enclosure is crumbling on one side, however, it is easily traversed, and wolves and robbers can readily break into it. But the fold of the saints is secured and guarded on every side, as the Lord said: “Thieves do not break in, nor do they steal,” nor can anything else harmful be devised against it (Matthew 6:20). Let us pray, therefore, my brethren, that we too may be counted worthy to go into the same flock with them and be found in the place of blessed delight and rest that they shall receive.

For even if we have not reached the condition of the saints and are not worthy to enjoy the same glory as they, we can nevertheless avoid losing Paradise if we live with spiritual watchfulness and constrain ourselves a little. As Saint Clement says: “Even if someone is not crowned, let him at least take care not to be found far from those who are crowned.” In a palace there are higher and splendid ranks: the senate, patricians, generals, prefects, and silentiaries, which are honored orders. But within the same palace there are also others who are enrolled in service and labor for very small wages. Nevertheless, they too are reckoned to be in the king’s service and are within the palace. Although they do not possess the glory of the great men, they are still inside. Frequently it even happens that little by little they advance and are counted worthy to be enrolled in higher ranks and receive great dignities. In the same way, let us also take care to escape sin in act so that we may at least be delivered from Hades. Thus, through Christ’s love for mankind, may we be counted worthy even of entrance into Paradise itself, through the prayers of all His saints. Amen. “Rational whole burnt offerings” preserves the hymn’s logikai holokautōseis and Dorotheos’s explanation of humanity as a rational creature. The soul’s three powers are rendered “desiring,” “incensive,” and “rational”; “contemplation” renders theōria.

The high priest’s breastpiece is the logeion, the “breastpiece of judgment,” which held the Urim and Thummim (Exodus 28:15-30). Scriptural quotations follow the Greek wording cited in the discourse.