St. Katherine the Great-Martyr Orthodox Mission

138 Fifth Avenue, Kirkland, Washington
(425) 637-0181 (Info)
www.stkatherine.org
Rev. Fr. Benedict Crawford, Presbyter

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April 27, 2003: HOLY PASCHA
THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

• NEXT SUNDAY: Annual Parish Meeting and Election of 5 Council Members
• NOTE: Bright Week is a FAST FREE week (no fasting Wednesday and Friday).
• BLESSINGS INNUMERABLE be upon all who served, sang, worked, cooked, cleaned and prepared to add to the joy of this exceeding bright and glorious day of Holy Pascha. Our special thanks to Bill Mack for his outstanding work preparing our new Golgotha Cross, and to St. Symeon Orthodox Mission in Birmingham, Alabama for their gift of an Epitaphios and the Corpus for the Golgotha Cross.

The reign of Life has begun, the tyranny of death is ended . . . . This is the day the Lord has made ? a day far different from those made when the world was first created, and which are measured by the passage of time. This is the beginning of a new creation. On this day, as the Prophet says, God makes a new heaven and a new earth.

- St. Gregory of Nyssa (+384)

God, who first established this Feast for us, allows us to celebrate it each year. He Who gave up His Son for our salvation, from the same motive gave us this Feast . . . allowing us to pray together and to offer common thanksgiving . . . . He gathers to this Feast those who are far apart.

- St. Athanasius the Great (+373)

Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him; today I am quickened with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise with Him. But let us offer to Him Who suffered and rose again for us ? you will think perhaps that I am going to say gold, or silver, or woven work or transparent and costly stones, the mere passing material of earth, that remains here below, and is for the most part always possessed by bad men, slaves of the world and of the Prince of the world. Let us offer ourselves, the possession most precious to God, and most fitting; let us give back to the Image what is made after the Image. Let us recognize our Dignity; let us honor our Archetype; let us know the Power of the Mystery and for what Christ died.

- St. Gregory the Theologian, First Oration on Pascha (+390)

Once death has been conquered and bound hand and foot on the Cross by the Savior, all of those who walk in Christ trample on death as they go by; witnessing to Christ, they scoff at death, jesting at him and repeating what has been written about him of old: "O death, where is thy victory?"

- St. Athanasius the Great (+373)

We have no need to despair, for Christ has vanquished everything, raised Adam, released Eve, and slain death!

- St. Seraphim of Sarov (+1833)

Our first duty is to love nothing here, but to love the things above, to desire the things above, to relish the things above and to seek our home there, for the Fatherland is where our Father is. Thus we have no home on earth, since our Father is in heaven . . . . Unless we are filled with the urgent longing of heavenly desires, we shall necessarily be ensnared in earthly ones.

Many lose their true home because they have greater love for the road that leads them there. Let us not love the road rather than our home, in case we should lose our eternal home, for our home is such that we should love it. Let us keep to this principle, therefore, that we should live as travelers and pilgrims on the road, as guests of the world, free of lusts and earthly desires, but let us fill our mind with heavenly and spiritual forms singing with grace and power: "When shall I come and appear before the face of my God? For my soul thirsts for the mighty and living God" (Ps. 42:2).

- From the homilies of St. Columba of Iona (+597)

At the Liturgy on the day of the radiant Resurrection, the beginning of the Gospel of John concerning the Divine Word is read - when everything is filled with the Light of Christ's Resurrection, and the heavens are united with the earth in the glorification of the Victor over death, Who is proclaimed by the Evangelist: "In the beginning (according to an ancient transcription -- 'from the start') was the Word."

Even in the Old Testament it speaks of the Word: "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the might of them by the Spirit of His mouth" (Ps. 32:6). "He sent forth His Word and He healed them" (Ps. 106:20). In the book of the Wisdom of Solomon is the effectual activity of the Word of God especially clearly and expressively spoken of.

However, the Old Testament peoples understood by the Word of God only the manifestation of the will and activity of God. Now, John evangelizes that the Word of God is the Only-Begotten Son of God Himself, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

Why is the Son of God thus called the Word? Because through Him, the Father expresses His will. The Word of God is not such as is the human word. By words man expresses his thoughts and desires. But the word spoken by a man lapses into silence and disappears. The desire expressed thereby is sometimes fulfilled but often remains unfulfilled. The Word of God is eternal and all-powerful. It is always with God. The word of man is his ministering power. The Word of God is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. It is God Himself.

God the Word is the Son of God and loves His Father and does all things voluntarily according to His Will. More exactly ? they have one will. God the Father loves His Son, and does all things through Him. Nothing was created by the Father without the Son. "All things were made by Him." Everything originated through Him and without Him nothing that exists had the origin of its existence. "All things through Him came into being, and without Him nothing came into being which hath come into being" (John 1:3). (The second article of the Symbol of Faith, the Creed, also speaks of this.) When in the Book of Genesis it says that, at the creation of the world, God "said, Let there be light," and "said, Let there be a firmament," and the other things, it means that the Word, His Son, brought this to fulfillment.

The Word of God gives Life. He is the fountain of life: "In Him was life: and the life was the light of men." The Word of God is Light: through Him God the Father Himself is manifest and proclaims His divine will: "That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). The Light cannot conceal any darkness: "The Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." The gloom of sin clothed man after the Fall into sin, but it could not conceal the Divine Light.

In accordance with the will of the Father, the Son of God sanctified the world, coming down to earth and being incarnate: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:16). To prepare the way for Him in the hearts of the people, John the Forerunner was sent by God. He preached concerning Christ and called us to believe in Him, for He is the Son of God. Long before this the Law had been given through Moses. But the Law, which restrained evil, could not save people. While outwardly fulfilling the Law, people could remain full of evil within. It was for this reason that the world did not recognize its Creator, the Son of God, come to earth: "He was in the world, and the world through Him came into being, and the world knew Him not; He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (John 1:10-11). The custodians of the Law did not receive the Incarnate Word, for His Light was unendurable for them.

But the Fountain of Life, given over to death by them, descended into Hades, destroyed it, and dispersed its gloom by His own Divine Light. Having risen from the dead, Christ opened the gates of the Kingdom of His Glory to all that believe in Him. Those who believe in the Incarnate Son of God and have received Him into their souls and hearts are made children of God. The Grace of God spiritually gives them rebirth, planting with them and granting them the strength to love the Truth and to do the will of the Lord. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name" (John 1:12).

Those who are reborn by grace, if they continue therein unto the end of their earthly lives and go in the way indicated by Christ, the True Light, will be deemed worthy to receive from Him a new gift: they will delight in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father in the vision of the Glory of His Only-Begotten Son, the Glory which surpasses everything in the world, in which they will experience joy and blessedness inexpressible. Thus did the pre-eternal Word of God, by Whom the world was created, save and grant rebirth into a new, joyous life to the race of mankind by His Incarnation and Resurrection. The radiant Resurrection is a festival of God the Word, the day of His victory over Hades and death, the beginning of the new life and eternal rejoicing, which He grants. O ye faithful, let us hymn the Word, Who is co-beginningless with the Father and the Spirit, and was born of the Virgin for our salvation, and let us fall down before Him Who voluntarily ascended the Cross, and suffered death, and raised the dead by His Resurrection.

O Only-Begotten Son and Immortal Word of God, Thou Who art immortal, yet didst trample down death by death, Thou Who art One of the Holy Trinity, glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us!

- St. John of San Francisco (+1966), translated in
the British Orthodox journal The Shepherd.