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Dear Parish Faithful,
Here are a wonderful couple of paragraphs from the dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Fr. John Behr, taken from a small booklet prepared this Great Lent, entitled "Behold: Dying We Live!"
Pascha approaches: we should reflect once again on this crux of our faith, orient ourselves anew by the perspective that if offers, and enter afresh into its mystery.
By his death, his voluntary self-offering in love for us, Christ has destroyed death and granted us life. We say such words so often, that we frequently become immune to the stumbling-block and scandal that they present, and so overlook their implications for us. By dying, as a human being, Christ has shown us what it is to be truly divine. Lordship manifest in service, strength in weakness, wisdom in folly. If he had shown us what it is to be divine in any other way (acting, for instance, as a superhuman god), we could have had no share in him and his work. The fact is that we are all going to die, whether we like it or not. The only question is how we are going to die? Clinging to all that we think is ours, our own life and possessions, our own status or merit? Or following him on his path to Golgotha, laying down our life in love for him and our neighbors? Living, yet still dying, or dying to live.
