PASCHA - Day Thirteen — 'Set our cold hearts on fire'

 

The Encounter on the Road to Emmaus

Dear Parish Faithful, CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN! Our mind cannot grasp the divine mysteries, how the Source of Life rises after slaying death. Therefore, it is only in our heart that we experience the joy of the Resurrection, and enlightened by it, with a voice of spiritual gladness we sing to You: Jesus, You pass through the locked doors, enter the house of our souls.  Jesus, having met Your disciples on the road to Emmaus, meet us on the journey of life.  Jesus, You enflamed their hearts with Your words, set also our cold hearts on fire.  Jesus, You and Yourself known in the breaking of the bread, grant us to know You in the Divine Eucharist.  Jesus, You promised the Holy Spirit to Your disciples, send down to us also this Spirit Comforter from the Father.  Risen Jesus, resurrect our souls. (Ikos 2 of The Akathist Hymn to the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ) ___ We chanted this Akathist Hymn to the Resurrection yesterday morning in church. Akathist Hymns are very rhetorical and rather creative in how they employ scriptural passages and images. I found this particular Akathist both uplifting and humbling in that it continually kept the focus of the Lord's Resurrection on our own lives and on our capacity to assimilate the deepest truths of the Resurrection for what we call "Christian living."  Can we today have a "road to Emmaus experience?" If we expand the meaning of that initial encounter between the Risen Christ and Cleopas and an unknown disciple on that first paschal morning, to include our own "journey of life" as expressed in the hymn, then this is possible. Perhaps even more significant is the hymn's exhortation that we "set our cold hearts on fire," thus echoing the disciples on that morning who said to each other after Christ disappeared from their presence: "Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Lk. 24:32)  The paschal season allows us the opportunity to "think on these things."

PASCHA - Day Eleven — Break On Through (To The Other Side) !

 

Paul sees the Risen Christ on the Road to Damascus

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen

The Orthodox Church’s claim that Pascha is “the Feast of Feasts” is far more than poetic rhetoric. On the most basic level, it reminds us that the very existence of the Church is dependent upon the reality of Christ’s bodily resurrection “from the dead.” The Feast of Pascha makes that abundantly clear with an intensity that can be overwhelming. This, in turn, reinforces the blunt apostolic insight from the St. Paul: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (I COR. 15:14). No amount of modern “reinterpretation” of the Lord’s resurrection to the contrary can effectively silence or refute what the Apostle wrote. The Christian Faith – and the Church – stands or falls on the truthfulness of the bodily resurrection of Christ.

The Apostle Paul further warns us that a non-resurrected Christ has even worse consequences for those who would mistakenly proclaim a resurrection that never actually occurred: “We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God the he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true the dead are not raised” (v. 15). Finally, and with a brutal honesty that reveals the Apostle’s clarity of thought, he does not shrink from exposing the futility of purpose that a non-resurrected Christ would collapse into: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied” (v. 19). That assessment sounds just about right to me.

Yet after decisively dealing with such theoretical scenarios, St. Paul confidently proclaims the Gospel that he had himself received (literally that which was “handed over” or “traditioned” to him): “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (I COR. 15:20). Therefore, when someone dies, we do not have to “grieve as others do who have no hope” (I THESS. 5:13). Christian hope is directed to the future and the eschatological fulfillment of God’s providential care for, and direction of, our common human destiny, culminating in a transfigured cosmos and “the redemption of our bodies” (ROM. 8:23). This is only possible if the “last enemy” – death itself – has been overcome from within, revealed to the world in and through the Risen Lord. Little surprise, then, that Pascha is the “Feast of Feasts” and “Holy day of Holy Days” if all of the above is what we indeed celebrate! Pascha has inaugurated the current paschal season of forty days – culminating in the Ascension - during which we intensify our focus on the Lord’s triumph over the sting of death. We, too, with the Apostle Paul exclaim with glad hearts: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I COR. 15:57).

The natural cycle of life and death can weary the human heart with the inescapability of its endlessly reoccurring patterns: “Vanity of vanities! … All is vanity…. A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever” (ECCLES. 1:2,4). “And therefore,” according to Fr. Georges Florovsky, “the burden of time, this rotation of beginnings and ends, is meaningless and tiresome.” Our dissatisfaction with this closed cycle undermines the very claim that it is all “natural,” and therefore acceptable to the human spirit. On the contrary, human beings are always seeking an escape into whatever “reality” will allow us at least some temporary relief from the oppressiveness of a closed universe forever marred by corruption and death. If not Stoic resignation – “the impassibility or even indifference of the sage” (Fr. Florovsky) - then perhaps a desire to transcend the limitations imposed upon us by “nature,” will lead to a desperate search for an ecstatic experience – the dionysian impulse.

If I may indulge in a pop culture reference from the heady rock music of the past (over fifty years ago now!), there exists a song that more-or-less captures this inchoate desire for liberation: “Break on Through (to the Other Side).” For the moment forgiving the fatal excesses and self-indulgent pretensions of the singer-songwriter of this popular song; we can hear in its strained lyrics the human need to pass over (“break on through”) into a realm (“the other side”) that promises a heightened experience of reality that our mundane world cannot deliver. Of course, this can begin with “religion” or what we call “mysticism” (often a dangerous combination of mist + schism as I have heard it described). 

On a more secular level, the search for transcendence can be attempted through science or art. Within the context of the song we are now discussing, however, this possibly/probably refers to the rebellion associated with transgressing moral and ethical norms that seem to be restrictive and not liberating. This would be the dead world of bourgeois middle-class values supported by an insufferably bland moralistic Christianity. In other words, to all that the word “suburbia” implied in the 60’s. This is justified by the individual desire for self-autonomy, “freedom,” or a stance against hypocrisy. Only God knows how much of this was only a self-justification for indulging the passions and acting irresponsibly. In other words, the quest for freedom can easily degenerate into “license.” When the imagination fails, there is always the more prosaic and ever-popular “eat, drink and make merry, for tomorrow we die.” When practiced with serious abandon, though, this leads to a “breakdown” rather than a “breakthrough.” (Alas, this was the fate of our singer-songwriter).

All of these attempts to “break on through to the other side” can be both exhilarating and dangerous; heroic or pathetic; inspiring or disgusting. When pursued with a seriousness that reveals the human spirit’s refusal to submit, not only to mediocrity, but to the laws that eternally legislate the “house of the dead” that our world has become through human sinfulness, then such attempts at self-transcendence can earn our respect. Yet, an air of futility permeates all such autonomous attempts at self-liberation, for the human person has no such inherent capabilities apart from the power of God. A wholly different issue is raised by promethean pride that resists any “authority” greater than the self – including God. (It was the anarchist Bakunin who said: “If God exists, then I am a slave”). Here we cross over into the world of “mystical insolence” and demonic rebellion.

It is only Christ who has truly “broken through” to the “other side.” Again, this claim can only be made based upon the “fact” of His bodily resurrection.

 

Yet, it is only Christ who has truly “broken through” to the “other side.” Again, this claim can only be made based upon the “fact” of the bodily resurrection of Christ. Death itself – the fear of which subjects us to “lifelong bondage” - has been transcended in the voluntary death of Christ; a “resurrecting death” that was revealed to the Lord’s astonished disciples when He appeared among them following His burial and said: “Peace be with you.” (JN. 20:19) This was not a case of resuscitation and the resumption of natural life within the time and space of this world. For the Apostle Paul writes: "For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never did again; death no longer has dominion over him” (ROM. 6:9). 

The human spirit’s “natural” desire for self-transcendence is no longer wasted on rebelliousness, utopian dreams, or nihilistic despair. Now it is Truth itself which has set us free. And this Truth is Christ. It is actually the will of a merciful and loving God that desires this for us; and God has acted to make this possible by raising Christ from the dead, the “first fruits” of a general resurrection that we await in patient expectation of God fulfilling the promises made to us “according to the Scriptures.”

We can close these “fragments” with again turning to Fr. Georges Florovsky who, employing some of the remarkable liturgical hymns that illuminate our celebration of Pascha, describes the one meaningful “breakthrough" - our liberation from death - in the following manner:

Amidst the darkness of pale death shines the unquenchable light of Life, the Life Divine. This destroys Hell and destroys mortality. “Thou didst descend into the tomb, O Immortal, Thou didst destroy the power of death” (kontakion). In this sense Hell has been simply abolished, “and there is not one dead in the grave.” For “he received earth, and yet met heaven.” Death is overcome by Life. “When Thou didst descend into death, O Life Eternal, then Thou didst slay Hell by the flash of Thy Divinity” (Vespers of Great and Holy Friday).

PASCHA - Day Ten — 'The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

"Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus ..."

In the narrated scene in St. John's Gospel (heard yesterday in church) in which the Risen Lord appears to the disciples even though they are behind closed doors "for fear of the Jews" (Jn. 20:19), Jesus will immediately drive that fear out by his sudden appearance and the calming words: "Peace be with you." (v. 20) After showing his disciples both his hands and his side, we read: "Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." It has always struck me that this description of St. John's as to the reaction of the disciples to the presence of the Risen Lord, is one of the great understatements found in any of the Gospels! Can "gladness" possibly capture what they experienced on the "first day of the week?" (v. 19)

However, we need not underestimate the biblical use of the expression of gladness. We need to recall that in the Farewell Discourse of Jn. 13-17, we hear Jesus say to his confused disciples as he speaks of his departure: "When a woman is in travail she has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world."(16:21) The crucifixion of the Lord was, in a sense, the birth pangs of the Messiah. But when the Lord was "delivered" of his anguish and placed Himself into the hands of his heavenly Father (Lk. 23:46), and then appeared to his disciples, they rejoiced with what we could call a biblical joy/gladness. For the Lord further added: "So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one shall take your joy away." (Jn. 16:22) The disciples were seeing the Lord again as he promised them; and we are left with the distinct impression that no matter what the hardships they were forced to endure in their respective apostolic ministries, their joy was never taken away.

To further strengthen this point, we have the words of the eminent biblical scholar, Raymond Brown, who commented: "In Jewish thought peace and joy were marks of the eschatological period when God's intervention would have brought about harmony in human life and in the world. John sees this period realized as Jesus returns to pour forth his Spirit upon men." So, when the disciples "were glad when they saw the Lord," we can be assured that this was that eschatological (end-time and Kingdom-oriented) joy/gladness that takes us far beyond our usual sense of gladness as a fleeting experience that may expire as quickly as it overcomes us. 

Life is too demanding and filled with such challenges that we can hardly expect to maintain that joy so that no one could take it away. But if life is stronger than death in the Risen Lord, then we can trust that it is "there" even when it seems to be absent.

 

PASCHA - Day Nine — The Glorious First and Eighth Day of the Week

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,


CHRIST IS RISEN! 

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

In St. John's account of the first appearance of the Risen Lord to the disciples as a group (Jn. 20:19-31), we find the liturgical structure of the Church as it exists to this very day in his account of this incredible encounter. For St. John records: "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week ..."(20:19). The first day of the week is the day after the Sabbath, and that would be our Sunday.

It was on this day that the risen Christ appeared to his bewildered, dejected, and frightened disciples in order to convince them that He was risen from the dead. "Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord" (20:20). That “glad” sounds like a classic understatement, in all due respect to the Evangelist John! Jesus returned to further convince the unbelieving Thomas that He was indeed risen. And significantly, this next appearance was "eight days later" (20:26). Which means, of course, the following Sunday.

Since those memorable two days until today, we use the language - with all of its symbolic meaning - of the First and Eighth Day of the week for our liturgical assemblies on the Lord's Day - Sunday. In a deep sense, the first day of the week is the eighth day, if we understand the "eighth day" as taking us beyond the seven days of the week as a kind of anticipation of the Kingdom of God which is beyond the "time" of this world.

St. Gregory Palamas (+1359), Archbishop of Thessaloniki, in a homily entitled "On the Sabbath and the Lord's Day," explains it like this:

You will see that it was Sunday when the disciples assembled and the Lord came to them. On Sunday He approached them for the first time as they were gathered together and eight day later, when Sunday came around again, He appeared to their assembly. Christ's Church continually reflects these gatherings by holding its meetings mostly on Sundays and we come among you and preach what pertains to salvation and lead you towards piety and a godly way of life.

Yet, as a pastor, St. Gregory continued his homily with this admonition:

Let no one out of laziness or continuous worldly occupations miss these holy Sunday gatherings, which God Himself handed down to us, lest he be justly abandoned by God and suffer like Thomas, who did not come at the right time. If you are detained and do not attend on one occasion, make up for it the next time, bringing yourself to Christ's Church. Otherwise you may remain uncured, suffering unbelief in your soul because of deeds or words, and failing to approach Christ's surgery to receive, like divine Thomas, holy healing.

To our modern sensibilities, even these words of pastoral admonition may seem over-stated if not harsh to us today. But the saint was trying to reinforce the sense of commitment that the believer needs to have towards the Lord's Day Liturgy which brings us directly into the presence of the Risen Christ - "Christ is in our midst!" - as we joyfully exclaim at the Liturgy.

St. Gregory's homily clearly places commitment over convenience. This is our first priority. He was writing to a Christian society that was not as pluralistic or diverse as our own, there is no doubt. That means that the pressure for us is "out there" to conform to those "worldly occupations" that St. Gregory warns us about. Today, that could even have a bearing on our presence at the Sunday morning Liturgy. As one example from among many: How many Orthodox parents have to deal with their child's sports events scheduled these days on Sunday morning? So, we can see that the challenges are out there.

In the light of the Gospel revelation about the glorious first and eighth day of the week, we should at least think hard about any such choices. To be in church on Lord’s Day for the Liturgy; to hear the words of Christ that we use to this day: “Peace be to you;” to be gathered as disciples of the Risen Lord; and to receive the Eucharist together as the meal anticipating the Kingdom. This is to receive gift upon gift. Let us glorify the living God for these wonderful gifts!

Christ is Risen!

 

BRIGHT FRIDAY — Pascha to Pentecost: On 'Not Bending the Knee'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Perhaps not everyone is aware of a traditional liturgical discipline associated with the paschal season, and that is the practice of not "bending the knee" (kneeling) from Pascha to Pentecost. But the practice actually applies to each and every Sunday of the liturgical year, not simply the paschal season. This was thought to have been a practice important enough to be the subject of one of the canons from the First Ecumenical Council (Nicea 325): "Forasmuch as there are certain persons who kneel on the Lord's Day and in the days of Pentecost, therefore, to the intent that all things may be uniformly observed everywhere (in every parish), it seems good to the holy Synod that prayer be made to God standing."

I was reading about this practice in Sister Vassa's new book, Praying in Time, within which she devotes a section to this theme in one of the book's chapters. This section concludes with the following paragraph that serves as a good explanation behind the practice:

Why are we not to kneel on Sundays? Saint Basil the Great (+379) explains that by standing upright on Sundays, rather than kneeling, we symbolize or re-present with our own bodies the bodily resurrection of the Lord, our having risen from the dead together with him, and seeking "the things above" (On the Holy Spirit 27, cf. Canon 91 of St. Basil the Great). Thus the "kneeling prayers" of Pentecost Sunday, attributed to St. Basil, are not read at the vigil or Vespers or Matins of Pentecost Sunday, but at the Vespers of the following day, Pentecost Monday, so as to avoid kneeling on Sunday.

Even while for practical reasons this Vespers service, with the kneeling prayers of Pentecost Monday, is usually celebrated immediately after the Divine Liturgy on Pentecost Sunday, the liturgical tradition is bending over backwards (or forwards, in this case) to avoid kneeling on a Sunday by placing the kneeling prayers outside the liturgical cycle of Pentecost Sunday and within the Vespers of the next day. (p. 91)

We can apply this liturgical principle and practice to our personal prayer also.

 

BRIGHT THURSDAY — 'Eucharistic Joy'

 

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.

_____

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.

 

BRIGHT WEDNESDAY — 'Easter is the anticipation of the Heavenly Jerusalem'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!    INDEED HE IS RISEN!

“Earthly colors fade in the shining of the white Paschal light, and the soul sees only ‘the unapproachable light of the resurrection’: ‘now all things have become full of light — the heavens, the earth, and the under-world.’ During the Paschal night, man is permitted to know in anticipation the life of the future age, to enter into the Kingdom of Glory, into the Kingdom of God… 

"Easter for us is not just one of the feast days; it is ‘the feast of feasts, the celebration of celebrations.’ All of the major feasts of the Church give us knowledge of the Kingdom of God in the works of God as events of this age. But Easter is not a remembrance of such an event, for it is directed toward the future age. 

"Easter is the earthly preparation for the revelation of the glory about which Christ prayed to the Father in His high-priestly prayer. Easter is the anticipation of the heavenly Jerusalem, which at the end of time will descend, according to the prophetic vision, from heaven to earth: ‘Shine, shine, New Jerusalem. You are radiant with the glory of the Lord.’ Easter is eternal life, consisting of knowledge of God and communion with God.”

—Excerpts from Sergius Bulgakov’s homily entitled “Divine Joy” from his book Churchly Joy

____

Fr. Sergius Bulgakov was one of the great Orthodox thinkers and writers of the 20th c. This passage is a wonderful indication of his many gifts. In this short passage, he combines a theological vision of the Resurrection that is Kingdom-oriented with a host of liturgical hymns from the Paschal service organically interwoven into his homily.

 

BRIGHT TUESDAY — 'Let no one go hungry away!'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!      INDEED HE IS RISEN!

Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second. You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day. Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.

- St. John Chrysostom

____

I believe that we are all familiar with the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom: Its rhetorical splendor through which the depth on St. John's images and scriptural allusions deliver the Gospel of Life as revealed in the Lord's Resurrection from the dead. This mere fragment from the Homily (read in the church during the Paschal Matins) is enough to remind of us of the fact that a parish priest will not "dare" deliver a homily of his own on Pascha!

 

Great and Holy Saturday ~ On this Blessed Sabbath, the Son of God completes creation

 

 

Great and Holy Saturday Great and Holy Saturday is the day on which Christ reposed in the tomb. The Church calls this day the Blessed Sabbath. By using this title the Church links Holy Saturday with the creative act of God. In the initial account of creation as found in the book of Genesis, God made man in his own image and likeness. To be truly himself, man was to live in constant communion with the source and dynamic power of that image: God. Man fell from God. Now Christ, the Son of God through whom all things were created, has come to restore man to communion with God. He thereby completes creation. All things are again as they should be. His mission is consummated. On the Blessed Sabbath he rests from all his works. Holy Saturday is a neglected day in parish life. Few people attend the services. Popular piety usually reduces Holy Week to one day—Holy Friday. This day is quickly replaced by another—Easter Sunday. Christ is dead and then suddenly alive. Great sorrow is suddenly replaced by great joy. In such a scheme Holy Saturday is lost. In the understanding of the Church, sorrow is not replaced by joy; it is transformed into joy. This distinction indicates that it is precisely within death that Christ continues to effect triumph. We sing that Christ is “...trampling down death by death” in the troparion of Easter. This phrase gives great meaning to Holy Saturday. Christ’s repose in the tomb is an “active” repose. He comes in search of his fallen friend, Adam, who represents all men. Not finding him on earth, he descends to the realm of death, known as Hades in the Old Testament. There he finds him and brings him life once again. This is the victory: the dead are given life. The tomb is no longer a forsaken, lifeless place. By his death Christ tramples down death. —Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Great and Holy Saturday

Great and Holy Friday — 'A Messianic Reading of Psalm 22'

 

 

Great and Holy Friday

About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mt 27.46, cf. Mk 15.34) 

Into thy hand I commit my Spirit, thou hast redeemed me, Yahweh, faithful God” (Ps 31.5, cf. Lk 23.46) 

While agonizing in his last moments on the Cross, [Christ] experienced just what any one of us might experience, from a moment of despair and seeming solitude, to trust and joy that led him to praise Yahweh. The fullness and depth of his humanity, as revealed in his experience of the Cross, ought to serve as an example to us, leading us all to the same humility and perseverance. Just like the psalmist [King David], Jesus, the Messiah, did not die in solitude, abandoned by God, but rather he went to his death awash in a jumble of feelings, which were ultimately overshadowed by his trust that the God of his fathers had redeemed him: “From between the horns of the rams thou didst answer me!” (Ps 22.21, cf. Ps 31.5). 

—Archpriest Eugen J. Pentiuc, “A Crucifying Silence: A Messianic Reading of Psalm 22,” in Holy Week: A Series of Meditations

 

An Orthodox Christian Perspective on the Cross of Christ

 

An Orthodox Christian Perspective on
the Cross of Christ 

by Archpriest Steven C. Kostoff

We have reached the saving passion of Christ our God. Let us, the faithful, glorify His ineffable forbearance, that in His compassion He may raise us up who were dead in sin, for He is good and loves mankind.

— Praises, Bridegroom Matins of Holy Monday

The misunderstanding may still persist that the Orthodox Church downplays the significance of the Cross because it so intensely concentrates on the Resurrection, or on other such themes as transfiguration, deification, mystical encounter with God, and so forth. This is an implicit criticism that there is some deficiency in the Orthodox Christian presentation of the place of the Cross in the divine dispensation “for us and for our salvation.” Such criticism may not hold up under further reflection and inspection, for the Orthodox would say that based upon the divine economy of our salvation, resurrection – and any “mystical encounter” with God – is only possible through the Cross. As this was “the purpose of his will” and “the mystery of his will” (Eph 1:5,9), our salvation could not have been accomplished in any other way. The “Lord of Glory” was crucified (1 Cor 2:8) and then raised from the dead. Elsewhere, the Apostle Paul writes that “Jesus our Lord” was “put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes of “Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2). A text such as this could be behind the hymn we sing at every Divine Liturgy after receiving the Eucharist: “For through the Cross, joy has come into the world.” Jesus himself said “that the Son of Man must suffer many things…and be killed and after three days rise again”(Mark 8: 31). Of the Greek word translated as “must” from these words of Christ, Archbishop Demitrios Trakatellis wrote:

This expresses the necessity (dei) of the Messiah’s terrible affliction. Judging from the meaning of the verb (dei) in Mark, this necessity touches upon God’s great plan for the salvation of the world. (Authority and Passion, p.51-52)

 

 Many such texts can be multiplied, but the point is clear: The Cross and the empty tomb – redemption and resurrection – are inseparably united in the one paschal mystery that is nothing less than “Good News.” Like Mary Magdalene before us, one must first stand by the Cross in sober vigilance before gazing with wonder into the empty tomb and then encountering the Risen Lord (John 20:11-18).

As something of an aside, part of this misunderstanding of the Orthodox Church’s supposed neglect of the Cross in the drama of human redemption could stem from a one-sided emphasis on the Cross in other churches at the expense of the Resurrection. The redemptive significance of the Cross somehow overwhelms the Resurrection so that it is strangely reduced to something of a glorified appendix to the salvific meaning of the Cross. As Vladimir Lossky wrote: “This redemptionist theology, placing all the emphasis on the passion, seems to take no interest in the triumph of Christ over death.” Since the “triumph of Christ over death” is so integral to the very existence of the Church -- and since it is the ultimate paschal proclamation, as in “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death!” -- then the Orthodox Church will never concentrate on a “theology of the Cross” at the expense of the Resurrection. Rather, the one paschal mystery will always embrace both Cross and Resurrection in a balanced manner. Within the Church during the week of the Cross (beginning on the third Sunday of Great Lent), we sing and prostrate ourselves before the Cross while chanting:

"Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify!"

 

In addition, and perhaps more tellingly, the growth, development and continuing existence of certain theories of atonement that have proven to be problematic today, but not shared by the Orthodox Church, have had an impact on evaluating the Orthodox Church’s understanding of the Cross on the whole. These theories of atonement will portray God as being primarily characterized by a wrath that demands appeasement, or “propitiation,” something only the death of His Son on the Cross could “satisfy.” These theories would stress the “juridical” and “penal” side of redemption in a one-sided manner. They may also bind God to act within certain “laws” of eternal necessity that would impose such categories as (vindictive?) justice on God in a way that may obscure God’s overwhelming mercy and love.

Not sharing such theories of atonement as developed in the “West,” the Orthodox Church may face criticism for lacking a fully-developed “theology of the Cross.” However, such “satisfaction” theories of atonement are proving to be quite unsatisfactory in much of contemporary theological assessments of the meaning and significance of the Cross in relation to our salvation “in Christ."

The Orthodox can make a huge contribution toward a more holistic and integrated understanding of the role of both Cross and Resurrection, so that the full integrity of the paschal mystery is joyfully proclaimed to the world. From the patristic tradition of the Church, the voice of Saint Athanasius the Great can speak to us today of this holistic approach (using some “juridical” language!):

Here, then is the…reason why the Word dwelt among us, namely that having proved His Godhead by His works, He might offer the sacrifice on behalf of all, surrendering His own temple to death in place of all, to settle man’s account with death and free him from the primal transgression. In the same act also He showed Himself mightier than death, displaying His own body incorruptible as the first-fruit of the resurrection. (On the Incarnation, 20)

In soberly assessing too great of a dependency on juridical language when speaking of redemption, and anticipating some later theories that would narrowly focus on the language of “payment” and “ransom” in relation to the sacrifice of Christ; Saint Gregory the Theologian argued that a “price” or “ransom” was not “paid” to the Father or to Satan, as if either would demand, need or expect such a price as the “precious and glorious blood of God.” Saint Gregory says, rather, the following:

Is it not evident that the Father accepts the sacrifice not because He demanded it or had any need for it but by His dispensation? It was necessary that man should be sanctified by the humanity of God; it was necessary that He Himself should free us, triumphing over the tyrant by His own strength, and that He should recall us to Himself by His Son who is the Mediator, who does all for the honor of the Father, to whom he is obedient in all things …. Let the rest of the mystery be venerated silently. (Oration 45,22)

 

However, getting it right in terms of a sound doctrine of atonement is one thing – essential as it is – but assimilating the necessity of the Cross in and to our personal understanding and the conditions of our life is another. In fact, it is quite a struggle and our resistance can be fierce! If this is difficult to understand, assimilate and then live by, the initial disciples of the Lord suffered through the same profound lack of comprehension. Their (mis)understanding of Jesus as the Messiah was one-sidedly fixated on images of glory, both for Israel and for themselves. A crucified Messiah was simply too much for the disciples to grasp, ever though Jesus spoke of this in words that were not that enigmatic. When Peter refused to accept his Master’s words of His impending passion and death in Jerusalem after just confessing His messianic stature and being blessed for it; he is forced to receive what is perhaps the most stinging rebuke in the Gospels when Jesus turns to him and says: “Get behind me Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men” (Mark 8:33). It was Satan who did not want Jesus to fulfill His vocation by voluntarily dying on the Cross, so Peter’s refusal to accept Christ’s words was his way of aligning himself with Satan.

The disciples were not enlightened until after the resurrection of their Lord and Master. We are raised in the Church so that we already know of Christ’s triumph over death through the Cross. Our resistance is not based on a lack of knowledge, but of a real human dread of pain and suffering. It may be difficult to us to “see” the joy that comes through the Cross until we find ourselves “on the other side," for "now we see in a glass darkly, but then face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). It is our hope and the “certainty” of our faith that Christ has indeed triumphed over death, “even death on a Cross” (Phil 2:8). God has blessed us with yet another Great Lent and upcoming Holy Week and Pascha in order to share in that experience of His glorious triumph that begins with the life-giving wood of the Tree of the Cross.

Holy Tuesday — 'Let us work zealously for the Master...'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

HOLY WEEK - Tuesday

“Come, O faithful, let us work zealously for the Master...”

(Sung with Aposticha at Matins and Vespers on Holy Tuesday)

During Holy Week, our penitence is brought to a high level of intensity, at a dosage that we cannot tolerate for long. But here we are pushed to our limits, because our Lord himself, the King of Glory, who made the heavens and the earth, is on his way to being betrayed, abandoned, and slaughtered. Matters do not get any more serious than that, so we have to make sure we are paying full attention....

The hymn encourages us to goad each other to work zealously: Don’t almost do something; don’t just think about doing it, don’t do it in a half-baked way. Do it, and do it well, for the sake of God.

—Dr Peter C. Bouteneff, “A Hymn of Invitation,” in Holy Week: A Series of Meditations