Tag Archives: St. Athanasius

“Today Hell Cries Out Groaning….”

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This 8th-century panel painting, now at the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt, is the oldest known painted depiction of the dead Christ on the cross. We see Gestas, the unrepentant thief, on the left; Dismas, the Good Thief, was probably on the right (which is now missing; we can see the first letter of his name in the space beside Christ). At the foot of the Cross, there are 3 soldiers gambling for Christ’s seamless robe. On the Cross, Christ is wearing a tunic, known as a “stola,” a garment worn by those who had permission to speak to the emperor. Christ has the boldness to speak to God, his Father, on our behalf because of His Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection and his battle with Death on the Cross.

Today, hell cries out groaning: “I should not have accepted the Man born of Mary. He came and destroyed my power. He has shattered the gates of brass. As God, He raised the dead that I had held captive.” Glory to thy Cross and Resurrection, O Lord.

Today, hell cries out groaning: “My dominion has been shattered. I received a dead man as one of the dead, but against Him I could not prevail. From eternity I had ruled the dead, but behold, He raises all. Because of Him do I perish.” Glory to thy Cross and Resurrection, O Lord.

In these hymns from Holy Saturday, we hear Hell cry out in agony as Christ enters and destroys it from the inside out. Truth exposes the Liar. Light shines in the Darkness. Life confronts Death. The gates of Hell are torn down and the chains broken. Only those who want to remain in Hell are still there.

Christ fought Death and the Devil, the Liar, on their own turf. In the ancient world and the figurative language of the Bible, three places belonged to the Death and the demons: deep water, the desert, and the air. Christ went down into the deep water at His baptism and then went out into the desert for forty days. In both places he confronted the enemies of God. But how did He fight them in the air?

Early Christians thought Christ had to die on the Cross because crucifixion was the only way to die in the air. Raised on the Cross, Christ was able to fight the powers of Darkness in their own territory and thus enter Hell. St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote: “… if the Lord, by His death, broke apart the wall of partition divinding people (Ephesians 2:14) and called all the nations to Him, how could that happen except on the Cross? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for the Lord to spread out His hands, that with the one He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in Himself. Furthermore, if the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about in the air (Ephesians 2:2) … well, by what other kind of death could this have come to pass, than by one which took place in the air, I mean the cross? Being lifted up on the Cross, He cleared the air of the malignity both of the devil and of demons of all kinds, as He says: I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven; and made a new opening of the way up into heaven as He says once more….”

Having slain Christ on the Cross, Death and Hell thought they had won their battle. But once Christ had entered Hell, they discovered their mistake and realized that what they had thought was their ultimate victory was instead their ultimate defeat.

Want to read more about this? Read The Victory of the Cross by James R. Payton, Jr. or On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius of Alexandria.

St. Hilary of Poitiers, patron of Spring Semesters

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The Ordination of Saint Hilary, from a 14th-century manuscript

Born in Poitiers at the beginning of the fourth century and dying there as well (13 January AD 368), Hilary was raised as a pagan but converted to Christianity when he met the God of nature in the Scriptures. He was chosen, against his will, to be the bishop of Poitiers in France but took his position seriously and was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century: Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. (It was the practice in many places during this period for many clergy–both bishops and priests–to chosen and ordained not because they “felt called” to the ministry but because the people chose them, based on qualifications and abilities that the candidates themselves did not see or appreciate in themselves. St. Ambrose of Milan is another famous example of a candidate chosen to be bishop and ordained against his own will.)

The heresy spread rapidly. Saint Jerome said “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia. Eventually he was called the “Athanasius of the West.”

While writing in exile, he was invited by some semi-Arians (hoping for reconciliation) to a council the emperor called to counteract the Council of Nicea. But Hilary predictably defended the Church, and when he sought public debate with the heretical bishop who had exiled him, the Arians, dreading the meeting and its outcome, pleaded with the emperor to send this troublemaker back home. Hilary was welcomed by his people. He wrote and preached constantly, leaving us a wealth of books and sermons.

In the Western Christian calendar of saints, Hilary’s feast day is on 13 January, 14 January in the pre-1970 form of the calendar. The spring terms of the English and Irish Law Courts and Oxford and Dublin Universities are called the Hilary term since they begin on approximately this date. Some consider Saint Hilary of Poitiers the patron saint of lawyers.

Suggested Advent Reading

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A great introduction to the basic theology of the Incarnation and our experience of salvation.

Looking for a book to read this Advent? Look no further! A great introduction to the basic theology of the Incarnation and our experience of salvation, The Early Eastern Orthodox Church: A History (AD 60-1453), provides what you are looking for. Easy-to-read, user-friendly chapters give the background of the great controversies about how divinity and humanity are present in Christ. Excerpts from the leading theologians of the 4th to 7th centuries are given. Their ideas are discussed and explained in language modern readers can easily grasp.

What better way to prepare for Christmas than to spend time with St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Maximus the Confessor in order to better understand the mystery of God becoming human in Christ? The early Christian struggle to understand how Jesus is both 100% divine and 100% human is described. The vital role of Mary–and the importance of her title “Mother of God” as the way to adequately describe who her Son truly is–is the subject of one chapter as is the harmonization of our struggling, combative wills with Christ’s will for us.

Although Jesus is the unique God-made-human whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, we are able to share in His life.

“The Word of God, born once in the flesh (such is His kindness and His goodness), is always willing to be born spiritually in those who desire Him. In them, He is born as an infant as He fashions Himself in them by means of their virtues. He reveals Himself to the extent that He knows someone is capable of receiving Him. He diminishes the revelation of His glory not out of selfishness but because He recognizes the capacity and resources of those who desire to see Him. Yet, in the transcendence of mystery, He always remains invisible to all.” (St. Maximus the Confessor)

Get your copy of The Early Eastern Orthodox Church: A History (AD 60-1453) now and celebrate Christmas with a new or deeper understanding and appreciation for the coming together of humanity and divinity in the manger at Bethlehem.