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Pascha is eucharistic joy.
The Lord was not separated from us in the Ascension but left for us a connection with Him in the Holy Communion. In partaking of the heavenly bread and of the cup of life, we palpably feel the coming Christ and praise Him then with the hymn of the Resurrection: ‘O great and most holy Pascha, Christ; O Wisdom, Word, and Power of God! Grant that we may partake of Thee fully in the unfading day of Thy Kingdom’ (from the Paschal Canon, ode 9).
The Paschal triumph is already this unfading day, and the Paschal joy is akin to the joy of communion. The faithful are filled with Christ; the Lord is close to us; He appears to us just as He appeared to the apostles before the Ascension. Pascha is the sacrament expressly bestowed upon the Church by the Holy Spirit in order that it know the risen Lord: ‘Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the Lord Jesus.’
From Sergius Bulgakov’s homily entitled “Divine Joy” from his book Churchly Joy.
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The paschal mystery is the basis of the Eucharist, and every Eucharist is the presence of the paschal mystery. Perhaps this truth more than any other is behind the the choice of the title Churchly Joy for Fr. Sergius Bulgakov's collection of homilies from which the last two Bright Week meditations have been drawn.
