'All That Is Needed'

 

Dear Parish Faithful, "God has gone up with a shout! The Lord with the sound of a trumpet!" "Pascha. Holy Week. Essentially, bright days such as are needed. And truly that is all that is needed. I am convinced that if people would really hear Holy Week, Pascha, the Resurrection, Pentecost, the Dormition, there would be no need for theology. All of theology is there. All that is needed for one's spirit, heart, mind and soul. How could people spend centuries discussing justification and redemption? It's all in the services. Not only is it revealed, it simply flows in one's heart and mind." - From The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann (1973-1983) _____ A succinct, but very eloquent plea, that we make our liturgical presence and awareness the very heart of our lives in the Church! And perhaps a timely reminder as we may still have remnants of Holy Week and Pascha within our minds and hearts.  Lex orandi, lex credendi - loosely translated as "what we pray is what we believe." The Feasts and their liturgical expression through the reading/hearing of Scripture and the Church's hymnography, is a whole "catechism" in and of itself. Our hearts and minds - organically united in our Orthodox Christian understanding of the human person - are simultaneously nourished and illumined. Being present in the services and somehow accomplishing the "miracle" of "laying aside our earthly cares" is our goal.  Fr. Schmemann is not being "anti-intellectual" at all. He knew that theology was the search for "words adequate to God." And that is a process of great intellectual achievement. Yet, that very theology is already there in the Church's liturgical worship and then comes to life in the act of communal prayer as we gather together as the Body of Christ.

 

The Ascension: Our Destiny in Christ

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

You were born, as was your will, O our God.
You revealed Yourself, in Your good pleasure.
You suffered in the flesh, and rose from the dead,
trampling down death by death!
Fulfilling all things, you ascended in glory ...
(Vespers of Ascension)

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven,
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
and suffered, and was buried.
And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
(Nicene Creed)

 

The two texts above - one from the Feast of the Ascension and the other a portion of the Nicene Creed - are wonderful expressions of the great mystery of the "descent" and "ascent" of the Son of God. The eternal Son of God becomes the Son of Man, descending into our world to live among us and to teach us about, and prepare us for, the Kingdom of God. This is what we call the Incarnation.

This movement of descent is only completed when Christ is crucified and enters the very realm of death on our behalf. There is "nowhere" further to descend (in)to. Thus, there are no limits to the love of God for His creatures, for the descent of Christ into death itself is "for our salvation." The Son of God will search for Adam and Eve in the very realm of Sheol/Hades. He will rescue them and liberate them as representative of all humankind, languishing in "the valley of death." Since death cannot hold the sinless - and therefore deathless - Son of God, He begins His ascent to the heavenly realm with His resurrection from the dead. And He fulfills this paschal mystery with His glorious ascension.

As St. Paul writes: "He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." (EPH. 4:10) The One who ascended, however, is now both God and man, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the incarnate, crucified, risen, and glorified Jesus Christ who is now seated at "the right hand of the Father," far above the heavens. It is the glorified flesh of the Incarnate Word of God which has entered into the very bosom of the Trinity in the Person of Christ. As St. Leo the Great, the pope of Rome (+461) taught:

With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of Heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest Heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father.

This is simultaneously our ascension and our glorification, since we are united to Christ through holy Baptism as members of His Body. Therefore, St. Paul can further write: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (COL. 3:3) Out of our physical sight, we now "see" the glorified Christ through the eyes of faith. St. Leo further explains how important this spiritual insight is:

For such is the power of great minds, such the light of truly believing souls, that they put unhesitating faith in what is not seen with the bodily eyes; they fix their desires on what is beyond sight. Such fidelity could never be born in our hearts, nor could anyone be justified by faith, if our salvation lay only in what is visible.

The Feast of the Ascension is not a decline from the glory of Pascha. It is, rather, the fulfillment of Pascha, and a movement upward toward the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the joyful revelation of our destiny in Christ. To return to the opening theme of the marvelous acts of God moving from the Incarnation to the Ascension, I would like to turn to St. Leo one more time for his understanding of that entire movement:

It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men's sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.

It is always wonderful when a Feast is ... festal! And it is most festal when many faithful members are present worshiping and glorifying God. The Feast of the Ascension has a full octave, which means that we commemorate this great event until June 2 this year. According to St. Luke, once the disciples beheld Christ ascend into heaven, "they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." (LK. 24:52) The "temple" is our common place of worship. Hopefully, we too, will continually be in the temple blessing God.

"God has gone up with a shout! The Lord with the sound of a trumpet!"

 

Science and Awe for the Healing of the Man Born Blind

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!

Paschal Meditation - Day Thirty Seven

"Healing a person blind from birth was indeed an act of creation, not simply a repair. Contemporary medical science knows more clearly how difficult it would be than was known in the first century. When a boy is born, he can only see far enough to behold his mother's face when held in her arms. It will take several years of practice for him to learn to use his eyes, to make the connections among nerves and his brain that will enable him to see well. Medical technology is working on building an artificial eye that would enable a blind person to see at least light and darkness. This might work for one who lost vision in adulthood, but not for one who was blind, who never developed the infrastructure of nerves for seeing in the first place. Indeed, Chrysostom in his own way hints at these facts:

"'Furthermore, not only did [Christ] fashion eyes, not only did He open them, but He also endowed them with power to see. And this is a proof that He also breathed life into them. Indeed, if this vital principle should not operate, even if the eye were sound, it could never see anything. And so he both bestowed the power to see by giving the eyes life, and also gave the organ of sight completely equipped with arteries, and nerves, and veins, and blood, and all the other things of which our body is composed.

"This passage contains another echo of Adam's creation in Genesis 2:7: 'Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being'."

- Sister Nonna Verna Harrison from her article, "John Chrysosom on the Man Born Blind (John 9)."
______

This short medical/scientific digression into the function of the complexities of the eye can only enhance our admiration and awe at the great sign of Christ restoring sight to a man born blind! Interesting to read of St. John's own perception of what was involved. 

 

'A Human among humans...'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!

"The classic understanding of Christian orthodoxy - formed in the early church over seven or eight centuries of preaching and controversy and expressed in a growing stream of biblical commentary, theological argument, creedal confessions, and conciliar formulas - was and continues to be that Jesus is himself the Son of God: the eternal Word "by whom all things were made" (cf. John 1:3), who in time has become a human among humans, in order to transform and liberate the humanity he has made his own, even to offer humanity a share in the life of God. Classical Christian orthodoxy confesses that the Jesus who revealed God's will and God's love in works and words of power is "one and the same" as the Jesus who slept in a boat, who wept for Lazarus, and who suffered on the cross: God the Son, humanly "personalizing" the transcendent fullness of the divine Mystery in the body and mind, the relationships and limitations, of his own fully human life."

- Brian E. Daly, SJ

_____

I found this helpful paragraph in an article that Brian Daly wrote, entitled: "The Word and His Flesh: Human Weakness and the Identity of Jesus in Greek Patristic Christology." So, before plunging into the heart of his article, he offers us this fine, succinct summary of the paradoxical nature of the Person of Jesus Christ - both God and man. Brian Daly is a very prominent Patristic scholar, who has many of his translations published by SVS Press. He is a Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. If we turn back many centuries to the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553), we find this already expressed in that rhetorical and polemical style that marked that era:

If anyone says that the Word of God who performed miracles was someone other than the Christ who suffered, or says that God the Word was with the Christ "born of a woman" (Gal. 4:4) or was in him as one in another, but does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh and made human, is one and the same, and that both the miracles and the suffering which he voluntarily endured in the flesh belong to the same one, let that person be anathema.

This is the One who was both crucified and raised from the dead!

 

Rivers of Living Water

Dear Parish Faithful,


CHRIST IS RISEN!
INDEED HE IS RISEN!

“So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city…” [John 4:28]

A Samaritan woman came to Jacob’s Well in Sychar, a Samaritan city, at the same time that Jesus sat down by the well, being wearied by His journey [John 4:5]. The evangelist John provides us with a time reference: “It was about the sixth hour” [John 4:6] - i.e. noon. The Samaritan woman had come to draw water from the well, a trip and activity that must have been an unquestioned daily routine that was part of life for her and her fellow city-dwellers.

The ancients had a much more active sense of equating water with life than we do today with the accessibility of water from the kitchen tap, the shower, or the local store. On the basic level of biological survival, Jacob’s Well must have been something like a “fountain of life” for the inhabitants of Sychar.

Therefore, it is rather incredible that she returned home without her water jar, a “detail” that the evangelist realized was so rich in symbolic meaning that he included it in the narrative recorded in his Gospel [John 4:5-42]. And this narrative, together with the incredible dialogue embedded in it, is so profound that every year we appoint this passage to be proclaimed in the Church on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, the Fifth Sunday after Pascha. Why, then, would the Samaritan woman fail to take her water jar home with her?

Her “failure” was based on a discovery that she made when she encountered and spoke with Jesus by Jacob’s Well. For even though the disciples “marveled” that Jesus was speaking with a woman [v. 27], Jesus Himself began the dialogue with the woman perfectly free of any such social, cultural or even religious restraints. 

As this unlikely dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman unfolded by the well, it was revealed to the woman that Jesus was offering her a “living water” that was qualitatively distinct from the well-water that she habitually drank [v. 11]. This “living water” had an absolutely unique quality to it that the Lord further revealed to the woman:

Jesus said to her, "Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” [v. 13-14].

 

A perceptive and sensitive woman who was open to the words of Jesus, she responded with the clear indication that she had entered upon a process of discovery that would lead her to realize that she was speaking with someone who was a prophet—and more than a prophet: “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw” [v. 15].

Her thirst is now apparent on more than one level, as her mind and heart are now opening up to a spiritual thirst that was hidden but now stimulated by the presence and words of Jesus. Knowing this, Jesus will now disclose to her one of the great revelations of the entire New Testament, a revelation that will bring together Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles:

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” [v. 23-24].

 

A careful reading of Saint John’s Gospel indicates that under the image of water, Jesus was speaking of His teaching that has come from God, or more specifically, to the gift of the Holy Spirit. For at the Feast of Tabernacles, as recorded in John 7, Jesus says this openly to the crowds that had come to celebrate the feast:

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." Now this He said about the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified [John 7:37-39].

 

Overwhelmed and excited, inspired and filled with the stirrings of a life-changing encounter, the Samaritan woman “left her water jar, and went away into the city and said to the people, ‘Come and see a man Who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” [v. 28-29].

It is not that the contents of her water jar was now unimportant or meaningless. That would be a false dichotomy between the material and the spiritual that is foreign to the Gospel. The Samaritan woman will eventually retrieve her forgotten water jar and fill it with simple water in fulfillment of her basic human needs. For the moment, however, she must go to her fellow city-dwellers and witness to Christ! They, in turn, will eventually believe that Jesus is “indeed the Savior of the world” [v. 42]. Thus, the Samaritan woman became something of a proto-evangelist. Subsequent tradition tells us that she is the Martyr Photini.

There are indeed innumerable “wells” that we can go to in order to drink some “water” that promises to quench our thirst. These “wells” can represent every conceivable ideology, theory, philosophy of life, or worldview—in addition to all of the superficial distractions, pleasures, and mind-numbing attractions that offer some relief from the challenges and oppressive demands of life.

For a Christian, to be tempted to drink the water from such wells would amount to nothing less than a betrayal of both the baptismal waters that were both a tomb and womb for us; and a betrayal of the living water that we receive from the teaching of Christ and that leads to eternal life. It is best to leave our “water jars” behind at such wells, and drink only that “living water” that is nothing less than the “gift of God” [John 4:10].

'What can we do to best serve the Gospel of peace and righteousness? '

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Paschal Meditation - Day Twenty Seven

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

"Serbian citizens have handed over nearly 6,000 unregistered weapons in the first three days of a month-long amnesty period that is part of an anti-gun crackdown following two mass shootings last week, police said on Thursday."

"Police also have received nearly 300,000 rounds of ammunition and about 470 explosive devices during the same period, the Serbian interior Ministry said on Instagram."

"The effort to rid Serbia of excessive guns was launched after 17 people were killed in two mass shootings last week and 21 were wounded, many them children. One of the shootings took place in a school for the first time in Serbia."

The above are not exactly the usual types of passages chosen to deepen our appreciation of the paschal mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ. These are quotations that I have taken from a recent Associated Press article (May 11) about the reaction in Serbia over the two horrible mass shootings that had occurred there just last week. (Serbians have a high per capita rate of gun ownership dating back to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s). The Serbians are not used to what we, as Americans, are accustomed to on an almost daily basis: gun violence that claims the lives even of our children. It is my impression that a kind of collective shock, horror and dismay have overcome much of the population in Serbia, and thus the cooperation on the part of a wide range of its citizenry to oppose these mass shootings, by (voluntarily?) turning in their weapons following a government mandate to that effect. 

Overwhelmed by the sheer number of mass shootings in our country, we no longer seem that horrified over such killing sprees. Hence, the entrenched reluctance to take any significant action in controlling the ownership of the urban equivalent of "weapons of mass destruction:" high-powered rifles such as the A-15, apparently the new weapon of choice among mass shooters. But perhaps we need to first transform our "gun culture" before we can meaningfully pass "gun laws." Whatever the solution may be, the Serbian people (primarily Orthodox Christians) have provided an example of civic responsibility and humane care for their fellow citizens - beginning with their children. I just heard a fellow Orthodox priest publicly say that "the Church must do something about gun violence."

Perhaps the questions posed for Christians should be something like: What do we need to do to best protect our children? What can we do to best serve the Gospel of peace and righteousness? 

 

Mid-Pentecost: 'Glistening with splendor!'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!  INDEED HE IS RISEN!

Admittedly, this is an older meditation that I have sent out more than once since initially writing it. But, we always have new members in the parish; and our liturgical cycle remains, of course, unchanged. So, hopefully there are some reflections found here that may seem to be worthwhile. As we have reached the midpoint between Pascha and Pentecost, we realize it all goes by rather quickly.

As Orthodox, we are "Paschal" and "Pentecostal" Christians. At least in theory. It is up to each and every one of us to also be so in practice.

___

'Glistening with splendor!'

Today finds us at the exact midpoint of the sacred 50-day period between the Feasts of Pascha and Pentecost. So, this 25th day is called, simply, Midfeast or Mid-Pentecost.

Pentecost (from the Greek pentecosti) is, of course, the name of the great Feast on the 50th day after Pascha, but the term is also used to cover the entire 50-day period linking the two feasts, thus expressing their profound inner unity. Our emphasis on the greatness of Pascha—the “Feast of Feasts”— may at times come at the expense of Pentecost, but in an essential manner Pascha is dependent upon Pentecost for its ultimate fulfillment.  

As Prof. Veselin Kesich wrote:

“Because of Pentecost the resurrection of Christ is a present reality, not just an event that belongs to the past.” Metropolitan Kallistos Ware stated that “we do not say merely, ‘Christ rose,’ but ‘Christ is risen’—He lives now, for me and in me. This immediacy and personal directness in our relationship with Jesus is precisely the work of the Spirit. Any transformation of human life is testimony to the resurrection of Christ and the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. God constantly creates new things and glorifies Himself in His saints, in order to make it known that the Word of God became flesh, experiences death on the cross, and was raised up that we might receive the Spirit” (The First Day of the New Creation,p. 173).

Be that as it may, there is a wonderful hymn from the Vespers of the Midfeast that reveals this profound inner connection:

“The middle of the fifty days has come, beginning with the Savior’s resurrection, and sealed by the Holy Pentecost. The first and the last glisten with splendor. We rejoice in the union of both feasts, as we draw near to the Lord’s ascension—the sign of our coming glorification.”(Vespers of the Midfeast)

 

Pascha and Pentecost “glisten with splendor” – what a wonderful expression! Yet, this very expression which is indicative of the festal life of the Church, may also sound embarrassingly archaic to our ears today. This is not exactly an everyday expression that comes readily to mind, even when we encounter something above the ordinary!

However, that could also be saying something about ourselves and not simply serve as a reproach to the Church’s less-than-contemporary vocabulary. Perhaps the drab conformity of our environment; the de-sacralized nature of the world around us, together with its prosaic concerns and uninspiring goals; and even the reduction of religion to morality and vague “values,” make us more than a little skeptical/cynical about anything whatsoever “glistening with splendor!” How can Pascha and Pentecost “glisten with splendor” if Pascha is “already” (though, only 25 days ago!) a forgotten experience of the past, and if the upcoming feasts of Ascension and Pentecost fail to fill us with the least bit of expectation or anticipation? 

To inwardly "see" how Pascha and Pentecost "glisten with splendor" then our hearts must "burn within us" as did the hearts of the two disciples who spoke with the Risen Lord on the road to Emmaus (LK. 24:32). At the empty tomb, the "two men ... in dazzling apparel" told the myrrh-bearing women to "remember" the things that the Lord had spoken to them while He was still in Galilee (LK. 24:6).

Only if we "remember" the recently-celebrated Holy Week and Pascha can any "burning of heart" that grants us the vision of the great Feasts of Pascha and Pentecost "glistening with splendor" possibly occur. With an ecclesial remembrance, only prosaic and drab events - or those that are superficially experienced - are quickly forgotten. 

The Lord is risen, and we await the coming of the Comforter, the “Spirit of Truth.” These are two awesome claims!

The Apostle Paul exhorts us, “Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). This exhortation from the Apostle is a great challenge, for experience teaches us that “the things that are on earth” can be very compelling, immediate and deeply attractive, while “the things that are above” can seem abstract and rather distant; or that they are reserved for the end of our life as we know it “on earth.”

The Apostle Paul is exhorting us to a radical reorientation of our approach to life—what we may call our “vision of life”—and again, this is difficult, even for believing Christians! Yet, I would like to believe that with our minds lifted up on high and our hearts turned inward where God is – deep within our hearts – not only will the feasts themselves “glisten with splendor,” but so will our souls. Then, what the world believes to be unattainable, will be precisely the experience that makes us “not of the world.”

May the days to come somehow, by the grace of God, “glisten with splendor!” As it is written:

“The abundant outpouring of divine gifts is drawing near. The chosen day of the Spirit is halfway come. The faithful promise to the disciples after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ heralds the coming of the Comforter!”(Vespers of the Midfeast)

'Lent after Lent' and 'Life after Pascha'

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Christ is Risen!

The meditation below is another old one that has been reissued with some regularity. However, since human nature hasn't changed much since then; and since we face the same temptations and challenges this year, as we did last year, I decided to re-issue it for everyone's consideration.

 

'Lent after Lent' and 'Life after Pascha'

I believe that a meaningful question that can be posed to any contemporary Orthodox parish is: Is there life after Pascha?

Another question has formed in my mind this morning: Is there Lent after Lent? 

Before proceeding any further, I need to offer a brief point of clarification: I apologize if I just happened to unsettle anyone with the frightening prospect of another immediate lenten period, because contrary to any possible misperceptions, I am not a “lent freak!” My purpose in asking “Is there Lent after Lent?” is meant to pose a challenge. 

Is there anything spiritually fruitful that we began to do – or anything spiritually unfruitful that we ceased to do – during Great Lent that we can carry over with us into the paschal season and beyond? Are we able to establish some genuine consistency in our ecclesial lives? Surely this is one of the most important elements in nurturing a holistic approach to our Faith. 

If I am not mistaken, a real temptation that exists once Great Lent is over is to return to “life as usual,” as if Great Lent is at best a pious interlude during which we act more “religiously;” and at worst a period of specific rules that are meant to be more-or-less mechanically observed out of a sense of obligation. This undermines the whole reality of repentance at its core, and drives us back into the dubious practice of the religious compartmentalization of our lives. Great Lent is over – now what?

I am not even sure just how healthy it is to assess and analyze our Lenten efforts. Great Lent is a “school of repentance,” but this does not mean that we are to grade ourselves upon its completion. However, there are a number of things we can ask ourselves by way of a healthy assessment.

• Did I practice prayer, charity and fasting in a more responsible, regular, and consistent manner? 

• Did I make a point of reading the Scriptures with the same care and consistency? 

• Did I participate in the liturgical services with greater regularity? 

• Did I watch over my language and gestures, or my words and actions, on an over-all basis with greater vigilance? 

• Did I make a breakthrough in overcoming any specific “passions” or other manifestations of sinful living? 

• Did I work on healing any broken relationships? 

• Did I simply give more of myself to Christ? 

• Did I come to love Christ even more as I prostrated myself in faith before His life-giving Cross and tomb?

If these points, or at least some of them were part of your lenten effort, then why not continue? Not to continue is to somehow fail to actualize in our lives the renewal and restoration of our human nature that definitively occurred through the Cross and Resurrection. Appropriating the fruits of Christ’s redemptive Death and life-giving Resurrection is essential for our self-designation as Christians.

In other words, can we carry the “spirit” of Lent (and some of its practices) with us outside of Lent? In this way, we are no longer “keeping Lent” but simply practicing our Faith with the vigilance it requires. We still must fast (on the appropriate days), pray and give alms. We still need to nourish ourselves with the Holy Scriptures. We must continue to wage “warfare against the passions” that are always threatening to engulf us. We need to deepen our love for Christ so that it surpasses any other commitment based on love in our lives. 

Or, have we doomed ourselves to being intense in the practice of our Faith for a short, predetermined length of time, and then pay “lip service” to, or offer token observance of, the Christian life until next year? In a rather unfortunate twist, Great Lent can work against us when we reduce it to such a limited purpose. Great Lent is the designated time of year meant to get us “back on track” so as to live more consciously Christian lives because certain circumstances and our weaknesses often work against us. It is the “example” rather than the “exception” if properly understood. In other areas of life, do we simply abandon good practices – in matters of health, let us say – because a designated period of testing or observing these good practices has come to an end?

Today may be a good day to reawaken to the glorious gift of life offered to us in the Church. In less than week from today - next Wednesday, May 4 - we will return to our usual pattern of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, as the initial glow of Pascha slowly recedes. I would suggest that this may be one of the most difficult days of fasting in the entire year. It is very hard to reestablish a discipline temporarily suspended with the paschal celebration. Yes, in many ways, we are returning to “life as usual,” even in the Church, but that is a “way of life” directed by the wisdom of the Church toward our salvation and as a witness to the world. Let us take the “best of Lent” and continue with it throughout the days of our lives.

“Lent after Lent” means that there is “Life after Pascha.”

'The Angel speaks worthily of the Crucified One...'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!  INDEED HE IS RISEN!

Paschal Meditation - Day Nineteen

"The angel mentions the name of Jesus, alludes to his cross, speaks about his Passion and refers to his death. He then proclaims his resurrection and confessed his lordship. After all the punishment and after the sepulcher, the angel heralds the Lord, speaks of his subjection and sees that the full offense of the Passion has been transmuted into the glory of the resurrection. How could anyone judge that God was lessened by becoming human? Or believe that his power was demeaned by the Passion? Or think that his sovereignty was diminished by his servanthood? The angel speaks worthily of the crucified one. He shows the very place where the Lord's body was laid, lest someone else and not he is believed to have risen from the dead."

- Peter Chrysologos (+c. 450)

 

'The apparent failure of Jesus has been reversed...'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!

Pascha - Day Eighteen

"The question asked of God by Jesus from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (14:34) has been answered. Jesus has not been forsaken. Unconditionally obedient to the will of God (see 14:36), Jesus has accepted the cup of suffering. On the cross he is Messiah, King of Israel, and Son of God (see 15:32, 39). God's never-failing presence to his obedient Son leads to the definitive action of God: he has been raised! The apparent failure of Jesus has been reversed by the action of God, who has raised Jesus from death. The women are told to look at the place where they laid him: The opponents of Jesus crucified him, and they place his body in a tomb ("look at the place where they laid him"). It could appear that they have had their victory, but they have been thwarted. He has been raised, and the existence of the Gospel indicates that there is a community of believers whose coming into being depends upon God's action. Jesus' prophecy that the rejected stone would become the foundation stone of a new Temple God has proven true (see 12:11-12; 14:58; 15:29)."

From The Resurrection of the Messiah by Francis J.Moloney
________

This passage is excerpted from a fine work of biblical exegesis by the scholar Francis J. Moloney. The vindication of the messianic claims of Jesus is here stressed in the reversal of the cross and death manifested in the glory of the Resurrection. No wonder the myrrhbearing women were filled with a feeling of "trembling and astonishment!"