By Metropolitan Sotirios of Pissidia
“Today is the Day of the Resurrection!”; “a Pascha for the faithful”;
“a Pascha that opens for us the gates of Paradise”; O, what a Pascha,
delivering from sorrow!” (Stichera of the Resurrection).
“a Pascha that opens for us the gates of Paradise”; O, what a Pascha,
delivering from sorrow!” (Stichera of the Resurrection).
My beloved,
Our Church tonight, the night of the Resurrection, announces through its beautiful hymns messages of joy:
"Today is the Day of the Resurrection"! Christ was risen from the dead and with Him He resurrected from the graves the whole of humanity. Those of us who believe in His redemptive work and become members of His resurrected Body, we expect the resurrection of the dead. Death no longer has any power over us. Physical death has been turned into a temporary sleep. And just as Jesus passed from death to life, so we, too, are lead from our grave to eternal life.
"Pascha of the faithful". Pascha means passage. The Jews celebrated the passage
from the slavery of Egypt to the land of their fathers. We Christians celebrate the passage from the shackles of death to the Land of the Living : "Our God made us pas from death to life and from earth to heaven, and so we sing to Him triumphal praise”.
(A’ Ode of Paschal Canon).
“Pascha that opens for us the gates of Paradise”. The sealed gates of paradise opened simultaneously with the gate of the Holy Selpuchre . The first man and the first woman – Adam and Eve - denied God and thus they lost communion with Him. The new Adam obeyed His Father and through His crucifixion, His Self- sacrifice, He opened the way of return, of men’s repentance and their communion with the source of Life.
“Let us then embrace one another”. The joy of the Resurrection, which is an unimaginable benefaction of our Risen Lord, is not meant only for us. We the faithful manifest it through the attitude we adopt in our life, and it constitutes a continuous testimony of the treasure that God has bestowed upon us. It is a continuous offering to all peoples, without any distinction. The eternal light of the Resurrection is not kept for us only. We try to transmit it to those near and to those far away with an endless pleasure that springs from the certainty of Christ's victory over inexorable death.
“Pascha delivering us from sorrow”. The joy of the Resurrection sends away the sorrow, because the Kingdom of Heaven has been revealed; because forgiveness has risen from the grave and no one should be afraid of death, as St. John Chrysostom points out in his Catechetical Speech: “Let all the wise servants blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord…Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the Universal Kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave; let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free…!”
Christ is Risen, my beloved. May the presence of the Resurrected Lord be continuously abiding in your hearts and fill you with His joy and peace.