Welcome toChrist is Risen!
As I read the newspaper and watch the news on TV, I wonder about the world. Is this the same world that our God brought into being? Are we the same people to whom God entrusted this globe?We have a war that shouldn’t be, crime is escalating, corruption in high places and genocide taking place in many places in the world. So called Christians want all the world to comply with their brand of “Christianity”. They want a “Christian United States. They are looking to suppress all other religions and make their interpretation of biblical law the Law of the Land. They want to make “Caesar” a Christian and bring us all to the least common denominator…a Protestant Christian Theocracy. The Civil world is not a very happy place.
Where is the Church in all this? Is it doing the right thing? No, because even the Church is in a mess. Corruption in high places abounds. Many sections of the Church are increasingly Protestant in attitude. Yet I have hope. Yes, I have hope in a hopeless world.
The Church is perfect. It is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the world and it is the promise of our God to all Humanity. God has promised that nothing will prevail against His Holy Church. The world is in a bad place, not because it has forgotten God, but rather that we have stropped listening to the whisper of the Spirit and instead are trying to do what “we” think the Spirit is directing us to do.
The Church is perfect because God give it to us and with it we received a promise. The Promise was that if we are true to what God teaches, we will have eternal life. You see sin entered the world when Adam rebelled against the command of God, and it was up to God to help us to come back to the original place He created for us. It is His promise that makes me believe that all the evil in the world will not win. From the creation of the world humanity has wandered in oblivion. Humans have created wonderful things for the progress of the human race and that was the guidance of the Spirit leading. Humanity has great potential when listen to the Spirit. In the same sense we can do terrible things that destroy our humanity, create Chaos, and give Evil everything it needs to succeed. This happens when we cease to listen to the voice of God. Because of this we live in a dark world, and yet we have a Promise.With the birth of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, the promise was initiated and with His death the Promise was complete.
And so we have the Paschal Hymn: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life. This is the Hymn we sing every Pascha and yet, I wonder how many of us pay any attention to its words.
If we literally believe the creation story in Genesis (Orthodox Christians are not required to believe it literally) then humanity was created to live in communal bliss. All of nature was united in the proper use of the environment. Everything was good. When humanity was driven out of a place of perfect living, we received a promise that all of our (now) suffering life wouldn’t be in vain, but that God would send us a redeemer. Jesus, God’s Son, was born and was the Promise incarnate.Jesus, during his last three years of life, gave us all that is necessary to acquire the Promise. He taught us how to live, to pray and to love God. He taught us that while physical death would still be a part of our Spiritual legacy, Death wasn’t the end; because the Promise that we have from God brought back our immortality.
Jesus died and agonizing death to show us that physical death must be endured. As he taught us about forgiveness in his 3 years of ministry, he gave the ultimate forgiveness from the Cross… in forgiving his tormentors for the awful things that they accomplished in his death. So in the Paschal Hymn we sing “Christ is risen from the dead… and that is the Promise. Of his own free will he raised from the dead. He showed us… weak humanity that we too could be a part of this wonder. “ Conquering death by death”… here we learn that although physical death remains, we have the potential of eternal spiritual life.In physical death we do not simply “cease to exist” , but we have promise of the Kingdom; a renewed world with a renewed body. He showed us that our corrupting body in the ground was not all that we could experience. With his death spiritual death was wiped away and the Promise was complete.
“ And upon those in the tombs, bestowing life”. From the beginning of time physical death was the end. The souls of those who had died were in Sheol, the Jewish equivalent of Hades. It was a place of darkness where souls waited. It wasn’t a fire and brimstone place we associate with the word “Hell”. These souls were in a spiritual place of death waiting for the Light. Death, the Master of Sheol, held these souls captive. When Jesus fulfilled the Promise they were freed and became inheritors of the Promise. These souls could be at peace. The Promise is now in full force and effect. You and I together as we sing this glorious hymn, know and understand that we too, are inheritors of the Promise. When we die our spirits will not simply go into oblivion, but will wait for the final act of the Promise. Jesus promised to come back and re-establish the world as it was meant to be. Yes, this last part of the Promise is yet to be fulfilled, but we know that, just as God promised to send a Saviour, he will fulfill the last part of the Promise as well. So let us sing out with joy this wondrous Hymn and be assured by, and enveloped in its words. “Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs, bestowing life.” May we all, as St. John Chrysostom encourages us, celebrate the Feast of Feast with great joy and rejoicing. The race has been run and we have accomplished the course of the Fast. Let us embrace one another and exchange the trifold Kiss of Peace. Let us eat from the richly laden table and take in all that has been forbidden to us during the rigors of the fast. Let us dance with Music in our hearts and know that we are giving honour to God. Let us remember that without the actions of this Feast of Feasts, there would be only darkness and no hope. Yet to be sure there is hope, even in this hopeless world I wish to extend to each and everyone of you a joyous wish that the light of Pascha will fill your hearts and souls. +EliasBishop of San Francisco,
First Hierarch,
Independent Greek Orthodox Church of the United States
Issued at San Francisco, April 17th, 2006