Thursday, May 07, 2009

Thoughts in Light of Holy Pascha



Years ago, after the customary reading of the Paschal Homily of Saint John Chrysostom at the Paschal Vigil, Metropolitan ANTHONY (Bloom) shared these thoughts with the congregation:

If I may I wish to add just a few words of my own. Christ is life and the victory of life. In the world in which He came, death was prevalent and seemed to be all-powerful over men; when He came, He defeated death by His resurrection. And nowadays we live in a world which is full of torment, of pain, of fear, of murder, of death, and we may say, “But where is the victory?”.. The victory is in each of us, the victory is in all those of us who believe that death cannot separate us from God, that death is no longer a victory of evil over us, but a triumph of us through our faith, because death is no longer separation. Saint Paul says that for him death is a meeting with Christ; as long as he lives in the flesh he is separated, partly, from God. But with his death he enters in full unity and communion with Him. This is our faith, but there is more to it in a sense, because life is triumphant in our midst. However frightening and dark the world is nowadays, we know that victory has already been won, that God has won and that we who believe in Him partake together with Him in His victory. And therefore, let us bring, to all around us, this message of life and glory!

Christ is risen!


(image from www.orthodoxwiki.org; quotation from www.mitras.ru/eng/eng_112.htm)