Welcome toBeloved in XP, Brother Bishops, Venerable Archimandrites and Archpriests, Honorable Priests, Protodeacons, Deacons, Altar Servers, Holy Monastics, and all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
THOUGHTS ON HOLY WEEK AND PASCHA.
I greet you with the shout “Christ IS risen!”
Holy Week, leading up to the Greatest day of the Year… Holy Pascha, was wonderful. Of course all of the Great Fast was wonderful and inspiring, as well, but Holy Week has a special note or ring to it.
I am always impressed with Palm Sunday, with its brightness and celebratory feel. It is a brightness in the midst of the shadow of the previous weeks and the encroaching darkness that Holy Week brings us. But as I come into the Church for the Monday night Bridegroom Service I reflect carefully on the Gospel message for that night… beware that you don’t become a hypocrite like the Pharisees of Israel. Don’t allow yourself to be externally righteous while internally corrupt. Be sure you are compassionate and loving, internally and externally.
As Holy Week progresses, there is a sense of “foreboding” that lingers under all the preparations. Its not realistic, but it feels darker as the Church gets darker and darker. It like a great weight is being placed upon our shoulders, bowing us ever more to the earth. Together for those of you who had the time, we walked through Wednesday night’s service for the “healing of soul and body”, Thursday night’s retelling of the Crucifixion narrative, Friday morning Fr. Anastasy and I decorated the Tomb, Friday afternoon… the Taking Down From the Cross, and the deepest of the Darkness… the Lamentations at the tomb. The setting is somber, but the tone of the hymns reflects the impending joy of the Liturgy the next morning. Holy Saturday morning has us standing with the Myrrh Bearers at the opening of the empty tomb. He is Risen and he is not there.
Although attendance was low for Monday night through Thursday night. Friday night was better… I often wonder, we do all of these beautiful services, and so few of the Faithful come… well, anyway… Saturday morning brought a few more of the faithful and the experience of the “empty tomb”. I love the act of joy in the throwing of the flower petals and laurel leaves. It gives such a feeling of fulfillment.
PASCHA… what can be said… coming to Church laden with food for the Trapeza, Decorating the Paschal light, Vesting in darkness with a single vigil candle giving us light, and then “Come and receive the light”. Pascha has begun.
Processing around the Church three times, and the reading of the Gospel at the Front door, having the front door “magically” open and everything ablaze with the light of His Resurrection is almost over whelming. We finish the Paschal Orthros and move on into the Divine Liturgy with all its special hymns, the first of which being “Christ is Risen from the Dead”. Everyone sang this with such life… it was wonderful.
We finished the morning with a wonderful spread of food and drink and wonderful fellowship.
In all this, as I sit here writing I wonder… do we really comprehend the awesomeness of this event? We aren’t just recreating, or reenacting the event in time. We are experiencing it in the “here and now”. We don’t sing “ Christ **HAS** risen from the dead, but rather that he **IS** risen from the dead. It is as though it is happening for us right now. It is happening “right here and now” in our hearts and spirits.
Christ’s journey here on earth, culminating with His resurrection is what we ought to be all about. Humanity is desolate without understanding those last three years of Jesus’ life. It gives us the one thing we need in a world so dark with inhumanity; it gives us “HOPE”.
Humanity rejected God and sin, suffering and death came into the world. The Gates of Paradise were closed and humanity was on its own. God sent prophets and intervened into the spirit of humanity but we are a difficult race… as a last ditch effort He sent His Son to show us the way.
For three years Jesus taught us all we need for salvation and we can sum it up in one sentence: Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as you, yourself, want to be loved. In his dramatic death he needed to show us that there was more to the world than what we knew. There was an existence after death. There was a renewal of paradise and those who had followed the Law of God, waiting in darkness for the Promise were released from their place of waiting, and given the reward of the Good and Faithful Steward.
Like them we must Fight the Good Fight and Run the Good Race to achieve the Promise. We, as Orthodox Christians, have the fullness of Christ’s teachings. We have been given the key… the key that opens the Gates of Paradise to each of us. Let us take heed and use the key.
Let us then revel in what the Son of God has done for us. St John Chrysostom asks “Death, where is your sting?” Yes, where is death? It is no more, because Christ became the first to emerge from the grave. He showed us the way with His teaching, and gave us the path to eternal life.
Did Jesus eliminate the death of the physical body?
No… He didn’t. We as humans bear the reminder of the actions of our forefather and foremother. We are born, live a span, and return to the earth, but our soul, that part of us that continues after death, remains alive. We have the Promise that at some time in the future, Jesus will come back to us and create a new world for us. All of us will be given new bodies and our souls will see the glory of God.
This is the Promise that the Resurrection of our Lord gives to us. We have hope that, when we die, we will not simply cease to exist; but have the potential of living forever.
In all this, let us rejoice and be glad because Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by his death, and upon those in the asleep in their tombs, he has given life.
We all have the potential of receiving the Promise, because Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by his death, and upon those in the asleep in their tombs, he has given life.
We Orthodox Christians have it all because Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by his death, and upon those in the asleep in their tombs, he has given life.
Together, my Brothers and Sisters, let us with one voice sing out: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by his death, and upon those in the asleep in their tombs, he has given life.
May the Light of peace and joy reflected in the Resurrection of our Lord, fill your hearts and souls.
Christos Anesti!
+Elias
Bishop of San Francisco
First Hierarch of the Independent Greek Orthodox Church
Of the United States