These Extraordinary Women

 

Dear Parish Faithful,
 

CHRIST IS RISEN!
INDEED HE IS RISEN!


This past Sunday, the third of Pascha, we commemorated the Myrrhbearing Women, together with St. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Joseph and Nicodemus were instrumental in the burial of the Lord. The Gospels are unanimous in telling us that Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in a "new tomb," St. Matthew stressing that it was a tomb that actually belonged to St. Joseph. The Synoptic Gospels of Sts. Matthew, Mark and Luke are also clear in relating that the myrrhbearing women looked on "and saw where He was laid." (MK. 15:47) It is these same "myrrhbearing women" who return to the tomb on the "first day of the week" (MK. 16:2) in order to lament and anoint the dead body of Jesus with spices, as "is the burial customs of the Jews." (JN. 19:40) Those we know by name are Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome and Joanna; but there is also mention of "other women."

According to centuries of accumulated tradition and practice, it was customary among the Jews of Christ's time not to ascribe any "legal" authority to the testimony of women. That makes it rather inexplicable as to why the women are then the first to know of the Resurrection of Christ and to actually see the Risen Lord, with Mary Magdalene being the first human being to be accorded this awesome privilege. (JN. 20:11-18; MK. 16:9-11) However, all through His ministry, Christ treated women with a fresh sense of equality that was meant to remove any undue "prejudice." Christ had women disciples. (LK. 8:1-3) These women disciples remained loyal and committed to Christ even in death, when the "Jesus movement" appeared to be discredited and dissolved with His accursed death upon the cross. Everything was dead and buried with Jesus, to be forgotten in a matter of a short time, and to be lost to history with no real reason to justify its recovery. 

This is why explaining (away?) the emergence of the Church and the rise of Christianity without the Resurrection is so difficult and unconvincing. As my old Byzantine history professor once said to our class when describing the very beginning of Christianity, "something happened" of an extraordinary nature that accounted for the empty tomb. As an historian that was his way of referring to the Resurrection of Christ. There is really no other way to account for the fact that Jesus was believed in and worshipped.

Yet, the myrrhbearing women persisted in their loyalty to the Master even though they must have realized all of this. We can only surmise, but did the Lord "reward" these women for their loyalty by first proclaiming the Resurrection to them, before He did to the eleven disciples? If they were the only ones to come and minister to Him in death, then they would be the ones to behold Him alive after death. In an instant, the Risen Lord reversed centuries of prejudice by appointing the myrrhbearing women to be "apostles to the apostles." 

Intuitively, they went to the tomb, hoping to continue their ministry to Christ without having "figured out" beforehand the removal of the large stone that blocked access to the tomb: "Who will roll away the stone for us form the door of the tomb?" (MK. 16:3) Their anxiety and grief was transformed into surprise when they discovered that the stone had been removed from the entrance to the tomb. This in turn became amazement ("they were amazed" MK. 16:5) when they encountered "a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe" - clearly an angel. He addressed them with words that to this day thrill the heart of the believing Christian with the "good news" that will never be surpassed:

Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you. (MK. 16:6-7)

 

"Trembling and astonishment" in the presence of the numinous and holy, made tangible by the angel and his proclamation of the Resurrection, rendered them "afraid" and initially, at least, "they said nothing to any one." (MK. 16:8) Soon enough, however, the Gospel accounts make it clear that they spoke to the disciples. We can only imagine Mary Magdalene's reaction when "they would not believe it" when she told the disciples "that he was alive and had been seen by her!" (MK. 16:11) The Scriptures tell us nothing further of these remarkable women, an "omission" we can only lament. Various pious traditions developed over time, one of which has Mary Magdalene appear before the Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Rome and greet him with the words: "Christ is Risen!" while holding up before him an egg that slowly began turning a brilliant red in the process! 

In an age of betrayal, when even "Christians" are no longer willing or able to believe in the bodily Resurrection of Christ, we need to heed the words of the myrrhbearing women and imitate their loyalty, zeal, commitment and love of Christ. They were not proclaiming "an idle tale," as even the male disciples first believed according to St. Luke (24:11). They were witnessing to the Risen Lord and His conquest of death. If, in our daily lives, we could minister to the Lord in the same spirit, which would also mean ministering to others, because Christ is "in" the other, then perhaps we too would be "rewarded" with a greater certainty of faith in His presence as the risen and liviing Lord. The impression is indelible that the myrrhbearing women put Christ first, far above any other loyalties or loves. 

If and when we feel distant from Christ is it because we fail miserably at times to match that loyalty and love? Are we willing to come to the empty tomb regardless of what "common sense" or the daily obstacles of life throw up before us? Or are we easily tempted down another path that has nothing to do with Christ but only ourselves and our desires? These extraordinary women, who will be remembered and venerated until the end of time, present us with an enduring example and an unavoidable challenge.

 

The 'Apostles to the Apostles'

Dear Parish Faithful, CHRIST IS RISEN!  INDEED HE IS RISEN! We are in the week of the Myrrh-bearing Women, as we extend Sunday's commemoration of these extraordinary women throughout the entirety of this week. At all the Vespers and Matins services for this week, the Church will sing and chant primarily about the myrrhbearing women and their role as apostolic witnesses, implying their role as "apostles to the apostles."  Their eyewitness testimony of both the empty tomb and the Risen Lord continues to amaze me, and I can only imagine the excitement and intense response with which this testimony must have been greeted when they shared their experience with the other members of the earliest Christian communities. Their timeless witness is with us until "the end of the world." As the New Testament scholar, Richard Baukham writes: "These women, I think we can say, acted as apostolic eyewitness guarantors of the traditions about Jesus, especially his resurrection but no doubt also in other respects. As we have seen, that their witness acquires textual form in the Gospels implies that it can never have been regarded as superseded or unimportant. For as long as these women were alive their witness, 'We have seen the Lord,' carried the authority of those the Lord himself commissioned to witness to his resurrection... "They were well-known figures and there were a large number of them. They surely continued to be active traditioners whose recognized eyewitness authority could act as a touchstone to guarantee the traditions as others relayed them and to protect the traditions from inauthentic developments." ( Gospel Women, p. 295) If "fear and trembling seized them" when they departed from the empty tomb (MK 16:8), perhaps in our more focused moments we, too, can experience that same "fear and trembling" when we again read or listen to St. Mark's account in the Gospel. There is something unforgettable and awe-inspiring about that ever-memorable morning when the sun was just rising and the stone to the tomb had been rolled away; followed then by the appearance of the "young man" dressed in "white robes" announcing: "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him" (MK. 16:8).  The angel understood their amazement, because the women sensed the numinous presence of God filling that empty tomb with an other-worldly reality. Their own disorientation at this unexpected turn of events when they left the tomb is probably behind their initial silence. (This does not mean that the women failed to fulfill the command of the angel to tell the disciples that they would see Jesus in Galilee. It probably means that they did not share this news with others until the time the risen Christ appeared to His disciples confirming the proclamation of the angel that He had indeed risen). We, in turn, have to always guard against over-familiarity dulling our response to the Good News of Christ's Resurrection from the dead. This is not a message to be nonchalant about! The Resurrection has changed the world and certainly change the lives of Christian believers. And we, too, are "witnesses of these things" (Lk 24:48).  The role of the Myrrh-bearing Women has always been treated with great respect and recognition within the Church. In one of our most beloved paschal hymns, "Let God Arise," two of the stanzas are dedicated to the myrrh-bearers and their witness. These hymns build upon the scriptural accounts of their visit to and discovery of the empty tomb, poetically developing those terse scriptural verses in a more embellished manner that weaves together a host of scriptural messianic images together with the Gospel accounts: Come from that scene, O women, bearers of glad tidings, And say to Zion: Receive from us the glad tidings of joy, of Christ's resurrection. Exult and be glad, And rejoice, O Jerusalem, Seeing Christ the King, Who comes forth from the tomb like a bridegroom in procession. The myrrh-bearing women, At the break of dawn, Drew near to the tomb of the Life-giver. There they found an angel sitting upon  the stone. He greeted them with these words: Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why do you mourn the incorrupt amid corruption? Go, proclaim the glad tidings to His disciples.  As an aside of sorts, when listening to Rimsky-Korsakov's "Russian Easter Overture," I always feel that he musically captures the excitement and energy of the myrrh-bearers discovering the empty tomb.  The myrrh-bearing women did not mysteriously disappear following the Resurrection of Christ.There were many of them, and we have the names or a reference to at least the following: Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of Joseph the Little and Jose,  Salome,  Mary of Clopas,  Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus,  Susanna,  and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.  And, of course, the "mother of Jesus," as she is referred to by the Evangelist John (19:25), was at the foot of the Cross. They must have shared their experience innumerable times, and their credibility is what lies behind their inclusion in the Gospels. They must have therefore been very prominent figures in the apostolic era of the Church. I would again stress their presence in the liturgical services of Pascha. Their presence permeates these services as the empty tomb is always an object of pious and reverential celebration: Before the dawn, Mary and the women came and found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They heard the angelic voice: "Why do you  seek among the dead as a man the one who is everlasting light? Behold the clothes in the grave. Go and proclaim to the world: The Lord is risen. He has slain death, as He is the Son of God, saving the race of men." (Hypakoe) To again include a fine summary by the New Testament scholar, Richard Baukham: "As prominent members of the early communities, probably traveling around the communities,        they were doubtless active in telling the stories themselves. They may not usually, like the male apostles, have done so in public contexts, because of the social restrictions on women in public space. But this is no reason to deny them the role of authoritative apostolic witnesses and shapers of Gospel traditions, since there need not have been such restrictions in Christian meetings and since they could witness even to outsiders in women-only contexts such as the women's quarters of houses." (Gospel Women, p. 302-303) Jesus turned things upside down by proclaiming joy to the world through the Cross. Overcoming social prejudices, He raised to great prominence these humble women who would otherwise be unknown to the world. He granted them an integral role in proclaiming the Good News to the world that the sting of death has been overcome through His rising from the dead. As long as the Gospel is proclaimed, we will venerate and celebrate the memory of the Myrrh-bearing Women and rejoice with them. Women have always been integral to witnessing to Christ and the truth of the Gospel. Over time, that witness has been diminished by "traditions" that can only be perceived as "the precepts of men." (Mk. 7:7) Their full voice and their role in the ministries of the Church need to be re-established for the very spiritual health of the Church and its witness to a world starving of divine presence.

'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.”

A Ukrainian Pascha

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN! 

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

 

 

A Ukrainian Pascha

 I just saw many photos of committed Ukrainian Orthodox Christians attending the paschal services this last weekend. Some were standing in churches supported by walls riddled with bullet holes. One church had actually lost a wall from a missile strike. Attending the Paschal Liturgy with the uneasy fear hovering in the atmosphere of a possible missile strike made clear to me the courage and faith of these, our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in Christ. This faithfulness is worthy of our respect and admiration. I hope that President Zelensky word's quoted below - "But there will be a Resurrection" - comes true for Ukraine in a not-so-distant future. We were able to celebrate the Feast of Feasts on a wonderful weekend, with splendid weather allowing us to make our outdoor processions in the lovely atmosphere of a clear and peaceful evening. But we are painfully aware that the atmosphere was quite different in anther part of the world.

Apparently, the Russian Orthodox patriarch, Kirill of Moscow, has something very important to learn about Christianity from the Jewish president of Ukraine:

In his nightly address Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruminated on the significance of the date. "Today was Holy Saturday for Christians of the Eastern Rite. The day between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. It seems that Russia is stuck on such a day," he said. 

"On the day when death triumphs and God is supposedly gone. But there will be a Resurrection. Life will defeat death. The truth will defeat any lies. And evil will be punished," added Zelensky.

Was there any indication on Holy Friday, Holy Saturday and Pascha Sunday, that Putin and the Russia Federation refused to pursue its fratricidal war effort in Ukraine in honor of these, the most "holy days" of the Orthodox year? Not that I was aware of. Did Patriarch Kirill listen carefully to the words of the "Let God Arise" paschal hymn: "Let us call "Brothers" even those that hate us, and forgive all by the Resurrection?" Who would have thought of such a precipitous moral decline by the Moscow patriarchate. However, we now realize that this indefensible support of the war against Ukraine has been years in the making. Patriarch Kirill now remains justifiably alienated from a large segment of the Orthodox world. And I am most grateful to God for that!

Lena Zezulin, an attorney "experienced in legal reform and rule of lay programming in post-conflict and transitional economies" - and now a former member of ROCOR (The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) - has publicly written that what Patriarch Kirill has done in "unforgivable."

https://publicorthodoxy.org/2022/04/20/untie-knot-rocor-mp-unification-act/#more-11229

Of course, that is ultimately up to God. But I understand what she is saying. A bishop's role is to be a shepherd to his flock - and this is the chief hierarch of millions of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians - imaging the Chief Shepherd, Christ. As such he has the moral obligation to defend and support his flock from any and all kinds of danger. To therefore bless the means by which his own flock is being destroyed is hard to comprehend. This is a sin of profound implications. Forgiveness will be hard to come by. Ukraine is passing through its national Golgotha with an indomitable spirit that is inspiring to so many of us. Let us hope for that Resurrection that its courageous president is confident in.

IN MEMORIAM: Archbishop Paul reposes in the Lord on Great and Holy Pascha

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

On this Pascha Sunday, the Feast of Feasts and Holy Days of Holy Days, Archbishop Paul peacefully fell asleep in the Lord. That seems like a "sign" to me. The Resurrection of Christ means that "those in the tombs" have had Life "bestowed on them." May Archbishop Paul be with the Lord as he awaits the general resurrection!

The text below is from the webpage of our Midwest Diocese, and presents a brief account of Archbishop Paul's life. 

May his Memory be Eternal!

 

In Memoriam: The Most Reverend PAUL Archbishop of Chicago and the Midwest

 

BURBANK, IL [DOM] – On the Feasts of Feasts, Great and Holy Pascha, Sunday, April 24, His Eminence, the Most Reverend Paul (Gassios), Archbishop of Chicago and the Midwest, fell asleep in the Lord at the age of 69, after a grave illness.  He was the ruling hierarch of the Diocese of the Midwest of the Orthodox Church in America from 2014 until his repose.

Paul Nicholas Gassios was born in Detroit, Michigan on April 6, 1953 to Nicholas and Georgia Gassios, natives of Castanea, Greece.

As an infant, he was baptized with the name Apostolos, in honor of the holy Apostle Paul, at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, Detroit, MI – his home parish for the first 28 years of his life.

He graduated from Detroit’s Cooley High School in 1971, where he was a member of the National Honor Society, after which he enrolled at Wayne State University (WSU) as a history and psychology major.  After graduating in 1976, he worked with emotionally and physically abused children.  He received a Master of Social Work degree from WSU in 1980, and continued to work in his chosen field.

In the mid-1980s, he became a member of Holy Transfiguration Church, Livonia, MI.  He began theological studies in September 1991 at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY, from which he received his Master of Divinity degree summa cum laude and served as valedictorian in 1994.  He was ordained to the priesthood by His Eminence, the late Archbishop Job of Chicago and the Midwest, on June 25, 1994.

After ordination, he was assigned Priest-in-Charge of Saint Thomas the Apostle Church, Kokomo, IN, which he served until June 2005, after which he resided at Saint Gregory Palamas Monastery, Hayesville, OH until May 2006.  He briefly served as Rector of Archangel Michael Church, St. Louis, MO and the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Church, Desloge, MO before his transfer to the OCA’s Bulgarian Diocese and assignment as Dean of Saint George Cathedral, Rossford, OH in 2007.  In August 2014, he was named Administrator of the Diocese of the Midwest and relocated to Chicago.

On October 20, 2014, he was tonsured to monastic rank with the name Paul, in honor of Saint Paul the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople.  On October 21, 2014, the Holy Synod elected him to fill the vacant Episcopal See of Chicago and the Diocese of the Midwest.

Archimandrite Paul was consecrated to the Episcopacy and enthroned as Bishop of Chicago and the Midwest at Chicago’s historic Holy Trinity Cathedral on Saturday, December 27, 2014.  Concelebrating at the Consecration Liturgy were His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon; His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel of Detroit and the Romanian Episcopate; His Eminence, Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the West; His Eminence, Archbishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania; His Eminence, Archbishop Nicolae of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas; His Grace, Bishop Irénée of Ottawa and Canada; His Grace, Bishop Michael of New York and New Jersey; His Grace, Bishop Alexander of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese; and His Grace, Bishop David of Sitka and Alaska. On Thursday, May 28, 2020, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.

His archpastoral tenure in the Midwest was only seven years but filled with great progress and accomplishment for the diocese. From an administrative perspective, he was known for prompt replies and calls when his clergy contacted him. He was very organized and thoroughly followed the established procedures with attentiveness. He actively attended diocesan, deanery, and parish meetings guiding the progress of the discussed topics.

He established new ministries within the diocese that focused on building up the communities within the diocese which include: the Mother Maria of Paris Ministry – Department of Charitable Efforts, Department of Family Life, St. Andrew of Crete Music Ministry, and the Department of Youth. These were four areas he saw to be important pillars to building up the Body of Christ.

With a prioritization of pastoral visits, he was often on the road traveling each weekend to visit a different community within his vast diocese. He often reflected that this was the most enjoyable part of his ministry and gave him something to look forward to each week. In addition to leading the services when making archpastoral visits, he would make time to be with clergy and their families to hear about their life and struggles. He would gather with youth and parish councils to lead discussions on the faith and other topics of interest. He made annual visits to the seminaries to visit with the diocesan seminarians and their families and actively encouraged vocation within his parishes.

His genuineness is unforgettable, and his smile brought joy to those around him. His sermons were impactful and memorable for those who were blessed to hear them.

He is fondly remembered throughout the diocese as a loving shepherd for his flock.  May his memory be eternal!