Homily 684 – Myrrhbearers
Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church, Ames, Iowa
April 26, 2026
Epistle:  (16) – Acts 6:1-7
Gospel:  (69) – Mark 15:43-16:8

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Christ is risen!

Today in the Church we remember specifically the Myrrhbearing Women, who, with Joseph of Arimathea, buried the lifeless body of our Lord.  We know the story, how there wasn’t time to anoint the body before burial.  Everything was rushed, in preparation for the Sabbath and the Passover celebrations.

In some respects we remember the Myrrhbearing Women every week between St. Thomas Sunday and Pentecost, as the Aposticha hymns at vespers are focused on those women, who – at the break of dawn as the hymns say – drew near to the tomb of the life-giver.

When the Myrrhbearing Women are joined with the other women celebrated in Great Lent and the Paschal 40 days, we end up with a really, really clear example for all of us about how we are to live.

We remember so many women – these today, plus Photini the Samaritan woman two weeks from today, and Mary of Egypt from before Pascha, while for the men we have John of the Ladder, Gregory Palamas, and Thomas the Apostle.

Somewhere in there we add the Paralytic and Blind Man (Bartimaeos), who were healed by our Lord, along with the woman with the blood disorder, who give us examples of faith that we can follow.

And look at the other great women of the Church – Phoebe the Deaconess, St. Nina, enlightener of Georgia, Equal to the Apostles, Emperess Theodora who restored the Icon to the Churches, and Emperess Irene who convened the Council that restored the Icons.  St. Mariamne, the sister of St. Philip who traveled with him in his Apostolic mission taking Christ to Asia Minor, and completed the mission with the Apostle Bartholomew after Philip was martyred.

This is before we get to the mothers of John the Forerunner and of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the mother of the Birthgiver of God.  And today, the newly-recognized St. Olga of Kwethluk.  St. Maria of Paris comes to mind as well.

What we get from these women are the most practical examples for us of living a Christian life, humbly following God’s calling.  In today’s reading, we find the women able to go and do things that the men were unable to do – partially because of culture, partially because of fear – and they did those things out of love.

They were able to move and act under the radar.  They were then, and are now, the commando units of the Church, working and living out their calling at a grass-roots level, where the work needs to be done.

In our own parish, let me take a moment and offer my wife, Matushka, as an example.  She did not want, and still does not want, to be the Choir director, but has taken on the role because no one else will.  She comes and cleans the Church weekly, because no one else will.  She doesn’t look for glory or praise, and frankly I can’t look in her direction at the moment for fear of getting a death stare for only mentioning it.  I will probably hear about it when I get home.

Matushka Debra offers similar services to the parish, helping with the gardening.  Mimi and Kristen have taken on educating our children.  Theodora, better known as Landica to us, offers her abilities in art and sewing and crafts to the parish, with the skirt for our baptismal horse trough that converts it into a font, and for altar vestments.

This isn’t to say the men don’t do things also – we do, and we continue to do so.  But I’m always struck by the example, of the saints and of those in our physical presence, of the women we encounter.  Mothers, teachers, nurturers, all pointing the way to Christ by their example, more than their words.

What can we all take away from these lessons?  I think there are a few, and I’m quite sure that a moment of contemplation will bring more.

Let’s start with the very practical aspect of seeing a need, and then meeting it.  That is what the myrrhbearing women were doing.  They saw a need, and they met it.  My guess is there wasn’t much discussion or coordination required.  The most important thing they did was show up.  The men couldn’t be bothered.

They also acted locally.  They weren’t trying to change the world, only serve the people.  Martha of Bethany is a great example, as she was serving Christ and the guests.  Christ had to admonish her that her sister Mary had chosen the better part at that moment, because learning and being discipled by Christ was important also.

St. Peter’s mother in law, in bed with a serious illness and apparently near death, healed by our Lord and immediately goes about the work of serving.  Photini, or Svetlana, the Samaritan woman, who preached throughout her home in Samaria and later in Carthage, in North Africa.  This woman I love so much.  But that will wait a couple of weeks.  You’ll find that she is an absolute model of a strong, courageous woman and leader, unafraid of anything or anyone.

None of these women did these things for recognition – which remains largely true today, particularly in our parish.  They did these things because they were gifted by God to do them, and they were called by God to do them, and they recognized the need and set their own will and their own dreams aside to humbly do what God needed done.

There were men that did these things too.  More often than not, though, the men did their work visibly, in a way that tempted them with the vices of power and authority, to use and misuse throughout history.

So as we continue through to Pentecost, remember the women, all the women, in our lives and in the life of the Church.  Think about them, their sacrifices, their love.

And do what they do, in the way that they do it.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Christ is risen!