“Rise up, all, and trample on Hades”

Let those of us united with Christ through baptism
And risen with Him sing praises and cry out:
“Where, O Death, is thy victory, and Hades, where is thy sting?
For the Lord is risen,
The Life and Resurrection.”

As we hear the parable of Christ
which Luke narrates in his Gospels,
Let us not consider it of secondary importance;
but let us examine it in faith.
The woman and the drachma: Who are they,
and what is the nature of the coin she lost?
She sought for it diligently, lighting a lamp and sweeping
Her whole house; and when she had found it,
she called in her neighbors, saying:
“Come, rejoice with me, for I have found what I lost.”
Now we long for Christ, saying,
“Lord, illumine our spirits
So that light is established,
The Life and Resurrection.”

The number of the coins is clear to all, for there were ten—
Ten in all which the Lord who made the universe possessed.
The woman is, they say, the virtue and wisdom of the Creator,
Or she is Christ, the wisdom and power of God.
There are ten coins, prime causes, resources, powers, and thrones,
And dominions, angels, archangels,
Cherubim and Seraphim,
And the first created man whom He destroyed and sought for,
And whom He found when fallen, He—
The Life and Resurrection.

Overcome by love, He came into the world to seek His creature who had wandered.
Without beginning, and Ineffable, Son of God and our God,
Wisely and with divine providence, as a God, He makes the search.
He is made flesh from His mother whom He cleansed (as though swept clean) and sanctified;
And He offers His body as a lamp to the fire and oil
Of His divinity which illumines all.
For fire and clay always make light.
Thus from His divinity and Incarnation, Christ
Shed the light of the Lamp—
The Life and Resurrection.

Then He ascended the cross, as a lamp in a lampstand,
and from there He saw Adam, the first created man sitting in gloom and darkness;
And He who is inseparable from His home, hastens to journey far in the flesh to Adam,
He who was not separated from the bosom of His Father,
still brings to pass all events.
He took with Him the gall and the vinegar,
the nails and the spear
In order that, with the spear and the nails, He might
immediately overcome Death
And Hades, when Hades came in contact with the bitter gall
And vinegar which He has drunk, He,
The Life and Resurrection.

After the crucifixion, when the King first arrived below in Hades
His light shone in the darkness and illumined it below,
For the darkness was not able to check Christ;
He had ample strength in darkness.
For, just as Jonah was in the belly of his tomb,
So He was carried into the tomb and yet in the grave He was alive,
For His divinity was not separated from the flesh.
Thus, Hades on beholding His awesome miracle,
Cried out, “Come, Death, let us behold
What sort of light He has kindled, He,
The Life and Resurrection.

HADES: “Quickly,” he said, “let us take courage,
for this is the body of a man carried in the tomb;
Let us guard with bolts the one who comes,
and let us give him over to putrefaction.”
And immediately as he said this, he ran quickly
and laid hold on the body;
But Jesus Christ, as though arising from sleep,
Enchains him and forcibly puts him down as
He cries out to those in Hades:

CHRIST: “Rise up, all, and trample on Hades.
Adam and Eve come into my presence;
Do not be afraid as though liable for past debts,
For I have delivered all, I,
The Life and Resurrection.

CHRIST: “Shamelessly strike the face of Hades, ye mortals,
and trample on his neck;
Come to them crying: ‘Hades and Death are destroyed.’
For you I have come, for I am the life and resurrection of all
So, all with joy recite psalms and songs:
‘Where is thy victory, O dishonored Hades?
Where, O Death is thy sting?’
You lie powerless, Death, condemned to death,
And you, Hades, skillfully bound down,
You who were ruling have been enslaved as you behold
That He is at hand,
The Life and Resurrection.”

In answer to this, the hated Hades, along with Death,
and bound with him,
Even as he lay there cried out; and as master he gave
order to his men:

HADES: “Run now, since you see that I suffer injustice,
Do you quickly close the bronze gates and guard them.
Put up the iron bars on the gates and permit no one
Of those assembled to come forth from the tomb,
For I wish to contend with the one
Who comes against me. Make fast and secure
Those who cry out: ‘He has come,
The Life and Resurrection.’

HADES: “What kind of injustice am I undergoing,
since until now I have been king of men?
Tell me then, O man, who you are, and how you have come here?
For it is clear that you are a man; I see a human body;
But everyone descended from the race of Adam is my possession.
Why, then, do you, who come from all men overpower me
as though you came on behalf of all men?
For every man is subject to me whether he lived
A long or short time on earth.
How, then, have you become more than human
And a redeemer of men,
The Life and Resurrection?

HADES: “Let me who have been treated unjustly state a case against you, for I see that the son of man
Has accomplished the deeds of God and not of man, though he appears human.

I see the wound in your side and the prints of nails;
But I see your power and the undefiled light flashing forth;
If, then, you are man, you are subject to Death and Hades;
But if, becoming man—a thing to be seen,
You have become God—a thing to be discerned in you,
Then now interpret for me that we may see how, if you appear as man,
You have become
The Life and Resurrection.”

Now when Christ heard him shouting these things,
at once He spoke to him:

CHRIST: “I plead my case and am judged; for I do not wish
to do you wrong in any way.
For even if you are unjust and shameless and worthy of condemnation,
I have indeed become man, as you see; but I am
Faultless, the Word of God, and Creator of all men
and God, the Ruler of all.
But even if I am God, I do not judge as a despot,
But, along with you, I shall plead my case as far as Adam is concerned.
I was born of his nature, and I shall conquer you
and overthrow you
From the kingdom which you possess. I am
The Life and Resurrection.

CHRIST: “Adam had the complete joy of eternal life;
but he was especially deceived.
I, the Creator of all things, am become life which really exists;
But you, Hades, did not exist in the beginning, nor did the
reality of Death.
The suffering of terrible sin engendered him and you.
And so Adam, through a trick of the Deceiver, became enslaved to sin,
And he became subject to you and a prisoner
For you and bitter Death.
For this reason you are without any actual existence
and easily captured.
How, then, will you prevail over
The Life and Resurrection?

CHRIST: “Exalted by folly, you control the descendants of Adam
as partners in sin,
And you imprison them as though they still owe an ancestral debt.
But every descendant of Adam, born in sin, was liable to me.
He was born of corruption, and of union with husband, and
intercourse;
But I am free from all that, from sin, and from intercourse,
For even if I became man, as I willed it,
A virgin womb brought me forth blameless;
And, for the sake of all men, I have given my blood
To the One who engendered me,
The Life and Resurrection.

CHRIST: “Examine me, readily do I allow it, and see that you will find no unjust word or deed.
For I have not done wrong in any action, nor have I uttered
anything deceitful in word.
Therefore I speak. ‘Who of you will accuse me of sin?’
For among all the dead now I am shown to be free in every respect,
And of all sensual mortals I am the one who is
unacquainted with sin.
How, then, Hades, did you dare
To restrain the faultless as guitar ?
Examine me carefully,
For I wish to know the truth, that I have even now
Refuted you justly, I,
The Life and Resurrection.

CHRIST: “And so you are shamelessly angry, for it is a just trial and you will have been completely thrown out,
You lawless leaders of the realm of darkness,
for transgressing what is just;
For if you have found in me any remnant of sin,
Then use against me, O unjust one, all of your punishments;
But if you have found nothing, restore quickly whatever
record you keep.
Since, in this case, you happen to have been exerting all your strength
Against the faultless Christ,
Make ready for restitution of those whom you seized in advance,
Those whom I have raised up, I,
The Life and Resurrection.

CHRIST: “Only in order that you may not be ignorant about what you are facing, Hades:
not only will you give back
Those whom you took, but also I have raised up those
whom I take with me as I leave here,
For indeed, as you know, if for the rest of time,
men are conveyed to you, they will arise,
Since at the sound of the trumpet I shall raise them
up all together
Because you have had the daring to lay hold on the blameless
Son of the King.”
As Christ said this, Hades was overcome.
The gatekeepers threw away their keys
And fled as they saw Christ
Crush and break their bolts, He,
The Life and Resurrection.

Suddenly the bodies of the dead became animated;
they were resurrected, and they trampled on Hades,
Crying out, “O unjust one, where is thy victory
and Death, where is thy sting?”
Suddenly all of the tombs were opened of themselves
And all of the dead were released from them and formed a chorus;
And an angel coming down rolled the stone from the tomb
of the Savior.
“O Lord, Master, Thou hast opened the tombs
At a command, not needing anyone.
How is it then that Thou hast need of someone
To roll away the stone from Thy tomb? Thou,
The Life and Resurrection.”

CHRIST: “Now in order that no one may be led astray, I shall answer you and explain the question set by you.
The stone was not wholly a hindrance to my way out of the tomb,
Since everything obeys and is subject to me as God,
For even if I become flesh, I am still Lord and Creator of all,
And at my command not long ago sea and land came forth;
The Jordan was turned back;
Springs of water gushed from the rocks
For people in the desert; and the sun withdrew
When they crucified me,
The Life and Resurrection.”

O Thou who at the mere nod of command opened up all the tombs and released the dead,
And never had need of an angel to roll away Thy stone,
Now, teach me a clever scheme; for I fear that this symbol,
And sign for mortals, the opening up of this stone from the tomb
Will not work in the graves as formerly,
When in this hour, the gates of Hades were pulled up
from their foundations.

Then, there appeared in shining raiment
An angel who sang a paean of victory,
Saying that there has been resurrected
The Life and Resurrection.

In return for these things, O Redeemer, what do we have to offer except a doxology?
Therefore, spare, O Christ, as God,
Those who believe in Thy cross, tomb, and resurrection.
Grant to us forgiveness of sins,
And whenever the awakening common to all comes,
Consider us worthy to see Thy face
And to hear Thy voice with confidence.

CHRIST: “Along with my saints, inherit
My kingdom with joy.”
Then grant to our spirits, O Thou full of mercy,
A spirit of peace that we may glorify
The Life and Resurrection.

St Romanos the Melodist