"In order to fill everything with glory, You

descended into the inner depths of the earth."

(1st Ode of the Holy Saturday Canon)

Dearly Beloved,

The liberating sufferings, death and burial of the Lord in the flesh we celebrate again as we celebrate Pascha.  This Paschal night, we celebrate anew the Resurrection from the dead of the Author of Life, who through His sufferings and death upon the Cross freed us from our sufferings and eternal death, bestowing upon every human flesh willing to identify with the glorious humanity of Christ, the glory of the Lord.

       In its first Ode, the Holy Saturday Resurrection Canon chants gloriously this new reality in the life of humankind, which is the result of Christ's glorious Resurrection from the dead.  The canon says: "In order to fill everything with Your glory, You descended into the depths of the earth; for my fallen existence in Adam did not hide from You, O lover of humankind; and, in being buried, You renewed me, who had suffered corruption."

      Indeed, the fallen, corrupt human nature in Adam, is fully restored and renewed, through the death and burial of the Deathless One.  The fallen existence in Adam is not only risen and renewed, but is also filled with the divine glory which fills Christ's resurrected humanity; furthermore, the dreaded pseudo-power of Hades, the "inner depths of the earth," the place of the dead, has been annihilated by the descent into it of Christ, the Anointed of God.  It is filled with the glory of the Lord, so that nothing in God's creation may be exempt from participating in His divine glory.

      "Today Hades cries out groaning," we chanted during this morning's vesperal first Paschal liturgy: "’my power has been abolished; I have received a mortal, as one of the mortals; but this One, I am completely powerless to contain; with Him, I have lost all those over which I have ruled.  For ages I had held them dead; but behold, He raises them up all.' Glory to Your Cross, O lord, and to Your Resurrection."

      "Now all things are filled with Light," chants the Holy Resurrection Canon this Paschal night: "heavens, and earth, and the inner depths of the earth; therefore, let all creation celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, upon which it has been founded."

      On this Pascal night, let us, therefore, brothers and sisters in the Risen Lord, celebrate the foundation of God's creation upon the Resurrection of Christ; let us rejoice, as the pseudo-power of Hades and death has been annihilated and abolished by the descent into it of the Deathless One; let us rejoice, as the entire creation of God is filled with the Light of glory and the joy of the Risen Christ.  Early this afternoon, the glorious Light of Christ's Resurrection shone to the world from the same open Tomb of Christ, whence it first gushed forth on the night of Christ's Resurrection from the dead. "Let us come, and receive this Light, from Christ's unwaning and unsetting Light; and let us glorify Christ, who has risen from the dead."

      Wishing you a glorious Pascha, filled with the glory, the glorious Light, happiness and joy of the Risen Lord, I remain, your spiritual father in the Risen Christ,

+MAXIMOS

Metropolitan of Ainou

Bishop of Pittsburgh

PASCHA, 2001