Ecclesiasticus I: Introducing Eastern Orthodoxy
Ecclesiasticus II: Orthodox Icons, Saints, Feasts and Prayer
|
Christians
throughout the world celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. On the day of the Resurrection, we give thanks
to God who has granted us victory through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and put
an end to the power of sin, which brought death to our Lord. Jesus Christ
is the first who rose from the dead. He destroyed death by His death, and
opened unto us the doors of paradise, and bestowed upon us the fullness
of life and of great mercy. The power of the Resurrection of Christ transforms
our weakness, and releases within us the dynamic of growing into the image
and likeness of our Risen Lord.
The Church of the Risen Christ is not an institution with human organization;
it is a new life with the Risen Lord. The light of Christ enlightens those
who seek their Lord with faithfulness and with love. All faithful believers
express the good news of the Resurrection every time they recite the symbol
of the faith, the Nicene Creed, which declares that our Lord, Jesus Christ,
after his death and burial, “rose again, according to the Scriptures.”
This particular expression is taken from 1 Cor. 15:3-4. St. Paul writes:
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He
was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.”
The prophetic message of Isaiah, Chapter 53, concerning the Suffering Servant
who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, who was wounded for our transgressions,
and was bruised for our iniquities, summarizes and articulates topologically
the scriptural foundation of the passions and death of the Saviour, who
“was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).
In the same manner, we read in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew 16:21; Mark
8:31, Luke 9:22) that Jesus Christ foretold his disciples and taught them
that he would suffer rejection and death, and after three days He would
rise again.
Moreover, the Resurrection of Christ stands at the center of all truths,
the seal of the Christian faith, and it is the dynamic power behind the
emergence of the Church and the very center of all her preaching. Pascha
is the cornerstone of Christian proclamation and ministry of the Gospel
of Christ. The whole of Christianity is the outcome of the joy of the paschal
celebration. St. Paul emphasizes that the denial of the Resurrection of
Christ amounts to the denial not of one element of the Christian faith,
nor of one truth among others, but of the Christian faith itself. “If
Christ has not been raised,” St. Paul writes, “then our preaching
is in vain and your faith is in vain.” I Cor. 15:l2ff. For St. Paul,
the Resurrection is the evidence of our salvation; it binds and unites the
Christian with Christ as the only hope of those who are asleep in him. “For
since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus,
God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep” I Thes. 4:14.
The Fathers of the early Church dealt with certain aspects of this Great
Feast. St. Gregory of Nyssa (+394) says that in His glorious Resurrection,
Christ has emerged as God, impassable and immortal. He was under no compulsion
to suffer or to come down on earth. Orthodox theology affirms this fact
by calling Christ “the second Adam,” by whose Resurrection the
primal sorrow was absorbed in joy and rejoicing (Matt. 28.8ff.). And so,
the discovery of the empty tomb, the different appearances, and the announcements
of the women to the Apostles that Christ has risen were not accidents. “For
a woman was both the cause of the transgression and the herald of the resurrection.
Woman who caused the first Adam to fall testifies that the Second Adam has
risen,” writes Basil of Seleucia (+468).
In view of such a great mystery, Byzantine iconography depicts the Resurrection
of Christ in such manner that it incorporates heaven, earth, and hell as
well. In heaven, the powers cry with joy to the hosts above: “Princes
raise your gates, lift up your eternal gates that the King of glory may
come in ...“ (Ps. 24, 7ff).
On earth, the Resurrection of Christ proclaims to the earth the Father’s
will for the universe. And in hell, the risen Christ stamps out hell, delivers
all humanity and extends a liberating hand to Adam and Eve. Hyppolitus of
Rome reflects on the whole picture and refers to Pascha as the common feast:
invisible feast for angels, immortal life to the entire world, total wound
of death, indestructible nourishment of man, sacred feast of heaven and
earth, prophet of mysteries old and new, seen by the eyes here on earth
and contemplated by the spirit of the heavens.
Because of the Resurrection of Christ, all men become heirs of God and participants
in the divine promises, and the history of the people of God finds in Christ
a total and final fulfillment. In the realization of the design of salvation
in respect to man and the world, the bodily resurrection of Christ initiates
a new state of man which makes him participate in the condition of the resurrected
Christ. In his sermon on Easter Sunday, St. Gregory of Nazianzus (+390)
writes that, “He who today is risen from the dead, will renew me in
spirit, and put on me the new man, giving to this new creation (those who
are born according to God), a good worker and a good master, eager to die
and be resurrected with Christ.” Such an invitation on the part of
God means that, first, because of the hope of the Resurrection, virtue is
pursued and evil is an object of hatred. “For without the Resurrection,”
writes St. Gregory of Nyssa, “one view will be found to prevail over
all others, ‘let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die’ “
(I Cor. 15:32). Second, the Resurrection of Christ becomes the pledge of
our resurrection and regeneration. The Resurrection of Christ frees man
from the alienation of sin and of death, and so regenerated man enters a
new era, a new existence which enables him in faith and hope to partake
in the life of the risen Christ. This “personal” participation
in the death and Resurrection of Christ and its utmost and total victory
over death is seen by St. John Chrysostom (+407) as a baptismal garment
and the gift of new life. On this victory over death, he writes: “Two
days ago the Lord died on the cross. Today he has risen from the dead. In
the same way two days ago these neophytes (converts) were held in the bondage
of sin. But today they rise along with Christ. He died in the flesh and
rose in the flesh. They likewise were dead in sin and have risen from sin.
Finally, the Resurrection of Christ introduces a new concept of human relations.
It brings about a total transformation, and transfiguration of the whole
of man opens for him a new way of life: a life that is genuine, authentic,
and full of love, peace, and brotherhood. On the day of the Resurrection
of Christ, all faithful believers are called to embrace one another, and
because of the life-giving Resurrection of Christ, they are called to forgive
one another in all things, so that they can wisely exclaim. “Christ
is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in
the tombs, bestowing life.”
Let us pray that God will generate in us His love; may we ask our Risen
Lord to grant us and our loved ones his blessings and many more good years
to come.
CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!
Fr. Joseph is pastor of St. George, Troy, MI and on the
faculty of the Antiochian House of Studies.
From Word
Magazine
Publication of the Antiochian Orthodox
Christian Archdiocese of North America
April 1998
p. 4-5
|
