When A Faithful Disciple Doubts

Christ is risen! 

Indeed he is risen!

Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:27-29)

The Gospel writers give us realistic portrayals of Christ’s chosen apostles. They are presented to us as being quite human with normal frailties and foibles. They are not described as perfect, faultless saints. This should give each of us hope that we too can be Christ’s disciples despite our own sinful failings, faults and foibles.

The Apostle Thomas fails to believe that Jesus is risen, yet it is not held against him eternally. He is not condemned to hell for his lack of faith or failure to believe. The Lord Jesus does not harshly rebuke or condemn Thomas. Despite his failure to believe, Thomas is still looking to Jesus for help and salvation. Fr Alexander Yelchaninov comments:

Turning our eyes from the radiant scenes of the Gospel to ourselves, we are thrown into confusion. Not only do we not move mountains, we lack even the tranquility, the stability, the joy, afforded by faith; melancholy, fear, a troubled heart are our common condition. In our despair we often pray for some sort of proof, some trifling sign of God’s presence near us – for the slightest hint of his solicitude for us.

But the expectation of a proof of God’s existence is a refusal to accomplish the heroic feat of Faith.

God does not exercise constraint, does not seek to violate us. Faith is an act of love that chooses freely.

Yet, we may object, our Lord gave Thomas a tangible evidence of His reality. But this would not help a sinful soul: we may see and not believe, as did the Pharisees. We too know of miracles which happen in our days (miraculous cures, miracles in our family, incidents in our own life which cannot be explained otherwise than by a miracle). So let God help us to remember the innumerable manifestations of His love, that we may attain to that confirmation in our faith which gives strength, joy and peace.  (A TREASURY OF RUSSIAN SPIRITUALITY, pp 445-446)

From Russian Orthodoxy to Russian Orthodystopia

I previously noted that I was very troubled by what I see the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate becoming especially based on their recently published document, The Present and Future of the Russian World.  posted Has the Russian Patriarch and Church Abandoned Christ and the Gospel? To me they have abandoned the Gospel because they prefer Russian militaristic nationalism. Such nationalism from Christians in any nation is incompatible with the Gospel. They favor a worldly kingdom, guided by worldly values to fight a worldly war, all things rejected by the New Testament. There has been decent Orthodox theological criticism of that document and of the Russian Patriarch and Synod for supporting it and the war of aggression in Ukraine. Sadly, so far there has been little “official” Church response to the document or statements from the Patriarch from the other Orthodox primates or synods around the world.

I was troubled again when I read Chris Ferrero’s article, Are Nuclear Weapons Moral?  It was further confirmation that the Russian Church has moved from Russian Orthodoxy to Russian Orthodystopia. Ferrero cites another book which points to the same disturbing ideas being promulgated by the Russian Patriarch and Church. He writes:

Dmitry Adamsky wrote Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy: Religion, Politics, and Strategy, one of the most well-documented and stunning works I have read in my field. Adamsky chronicles the relationship the Russian Orthodox Church has built with the country’s nuclear establishment since the 1990s. At the heart of this relationship is a narrative that Russian nuclear weapons were foretold by Saint Seraphim and gifted by God through his intercession. The proof is that Russia’s nuclear weapons were developed at Sarov after Church property including Seraphim’s monastery was expropriated by the Soviet Union and incorporated into a secret military installation code-named Arzamas-16. Latching onto this coincidence, the ROC has decreed Seraphim the patron saint of Russia’s nuclear forces. The Church legitimizes nuclear deterrence as a moral method to defend Orthodox civilization (embodied in the Russian state) against a satanic liberal West. One may suspect that the Kremlin coerced the Church to promulgate this narrative, but in fact, the ROC under Patriarchs Alexei and Kirill has created it and driven its internalization in the Russian government, military, and society. Kirill publicly reaffirmed his belief as recently as October 2023, stating during an award ceremony for a top Russian physicist that nuclear weapons are “ineffable divine providence,” and that Russia may not exist were it not for the nuclear deterrent provided by God and Soviet physicists.

I do not have any experience in global politics so can’t say much about how nations should think regarding the morality of nuclear weapons, but the Orthodox should at least bring to the discussion on the morality of nuclear weapons Matthew 5:38-48 from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

I know this thinking cannot help policy makers whose countries are committed to defense at all costs and guaranteed retaliation for any first strike against them. They all feel the greatest deterrent to war is when others fear if they strike you, you will retaliate 10-fold and so initiating a war is not worth the risk (It is the thought which has been called MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction). But Christians could never justify this based on the Gospel. The eye for an eye morality of the Old Testament many feel tried to limit retaliation and revenge.  It still is not the morality of Jesus Christ who rejects such thinking completely.  I can’t see our Lord Jesus blessing nuclear weapons on any level or for any reason. Christians are supposed to be the salt of the earth – which I think implies we are not the earth nor are we to be of the earth (worldly) but rather we are to bring something to the earth (salt) which it is lacking, namely the Gospel. Nations may in fact decide nuclear weapons are needed, but Christians should never bless such thinking. Christians should know that you cannot achieve the good by using evil, rather you have to overcome evil with good.

Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

The recent document accepted by the Russian Church and that church’s embracing a war of aggression and blessing nuclear weapons, goes against what the Russian Church itself used to proclaim in its document, “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the ROC”.  As Serhii Shumylo in his devastating criticism of the Russian Patriarch, “Ordinary Fascism,” or The Russian World of Patriarch Kirill, writes about the older “Fundamentals” document:

in the eighth chapter entitled “War and Peace,” it is noted that “war is evil”, and “killing, without which wars cannot happen, was regarded as a grave crime before God as far back as the dawn of the holy history.” (para. VIII.1), therefore “clergy and canonical ecclesiastical structures cannot assist or cooperate with the state” in matters of “political struggle”, “waging civil war or aggressive external war” (para. III.8.2), since “the Church endeavors to perform a peacemaking ministry…, also opposes the propaganda of war and violence, as well as various manifestations of hatred capable of provoking fratricidal clashes” (para. VIII.5).

The Russian Church has abandoned not only Christ and the Gospel, but its own moral ideals as well.

Self-Love Vs. Loving Neighbor as Yourself

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3: 30) 

St John the Forerunner famously shows his humility in understanding his unique role in revealing the Messiah to Israel and the world. The baptizer John understood he was not the Messiah and his God-given role was to point out the Messiah to others. He willfully accepts his role and upon fulfilling it he knew it was time for him to disappear from the public scene. He shines his light on Christ so people’s attention would be turned to Him, and then humbly turns his own light out so that everyone would be looking to Christ, the Light of the world (John 8:12).

It is obvious in the 4 gospels that the Baptizer’s appearance created a buzz in Israel and attracted a lot of attention (see for example: Mark 1:5, 6:20). But he never tried to turn that fame to his own advantage or glory. He knew he was in the supporting cast, not the main character. He was signage pointing out the way to the main event. He faithfully fulfilled the task because he was humble, not narcissistic. He had a task to perform in love and didn’t allow self-love to shape his actions. He is a good example of how the early church understood the difference between self-love (Greek: philautia) and true, godly love for others. Bishop Alexis Trader writes:

“ … the monastic fathers in general and Saint Maximus in particular view philautia or love of self (lit., friendship with self) as the ‘very essence of morbidity… and the root of all the passions.’

Saint Basil the Great provides the simplest definition of philautia [Lat., amor suus]. Someone with philautia ‘supposedly loves himself…  Whatever that person does, whether in accord or in conflict with God’s commandments, is done for himself with disregard for others.’

Although human beings are fashioned to be behaviorally active, mentally concerned, and temperamentally loving, they are also free to choose to direct that active concerned love in the wrong direction, that is, toward self rather than toward God and neighbor.

Insensitivity to others coupled with a hypersensitivity to satisfying one’s own desires are two aspects of philautia that give the impression that it is reasonable to hate those who thwart one’s plans.  (ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WISDOM AND AARON BECK’S COGNITIVE THERAPY, pp 90-94)

The issue of self-love (philautia) which the early Christians believed to be spiritually dangerous and debilitating is a very specific notion not to be confused with modern ideas of self-esteem. Self-esteem has a positive denotation in the modern world as it helps us deal positively with others as in Christ’s words in Luke 10:27 – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” It is clear in this command of Christ that you have to care for yourself and believe yourself worthy of love before you can love others properly.  This love though has nothing in common with the narcissist’s love for his/her self-image (Remember in the legend of Narcissist, he is completely focused on and enamored by his own image which he sees reflected in the water. No one else sees what he sees or understands what has entranced him about himself.  He believes everyone else sees him as he sees himself and should be just as entranced by his self-image.  He is not in love with himself but with the image of himself which he is projecting and sees reflected in the waters).

The early church’s understanding of self-love is much more closely related to self-centered narcissism which is particularly common in a society which emphasizes the individual self over and above everything and everyone else. In America sadly enough, we sometimes glorify the person, celebrity or politician, who is narcissistic. Narcissism (philautia) is a spiritual affliction which is directly opposed to Christ’s teachings on loving one another. Note Bishop Trader’s signs that someone is afflicted with the spiritual disease of self-love: “insensitivity to others coupled with a hypersensitivity to satisfying one’s own desires.” We should not be electing such people to public office.

Spiritual Reality: The Body as Temple

Christ is risen!

Indeed He is risen!

So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. (John 2:18-22)

The above passage is a perfect cautionary example of why interpreting the Scriptures literally (even the sayings of Jesus) can lead to misunderstanding God. This is not to say a passage should never be interpreted literally, but a warning that even the most apparently straight-forward sayings of Christ can be misinterpreted.

In another Gospel passage in which the temple is being discussed, we encounter the same theme of the people misunderstanding Jesus:

And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.'” (Mark 14:57-58)

As in the above passage from John 2, those who heard Jesus speak are confused by what Jesus means when He speaks about the temple, this time however they realize He is speaking in some spiritual sense (a temple “not made by hands”) but they do not comprehend to what temple He is referring. Their literalist understanding however causes them to bring legal charges against Jesus rather than to try to grasp his meaning and intent.

The great Jerusalem Temple was certainly made by hands, though it too has a spiritual dimension for it was built based upon a heavenly pattern revealed to Moses by God (Exodus 25:8-9; Numbers 8:4), a heavenly or divine prototype (Acts 7:44; Hebrews 8:5). Christ enters this heavenly Holy Place (which Moses saw) only once He has a body (is incarnate), the temple not made by hands, an act that means salvation for the human race:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place… thus securing an eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12)

St Gregory of Nyssa comments:

Taking a small clue from Paul., who has partially revealed the mystery involved here, we shall say that by this symbol Moses was instructed in anticipation of that Tabernacle which embraces the universe: and this is Christ, the Power and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), Who being in his own nature not made by human hand, received a created existence when he was to build his tabernacle among us.  . . .  It is God, then, the Only-Begotten, Who encompasses in Himself the entire universe, Who has built His own tabernacle among us.  (FROM GLORY TO GLORY, p 132)

Thus, these three are the same one reality: 1] what Moses saw of the heavenly temple, 2] the Jerusalem Temple which was built upon the pattern of what Moses saw, and 3] our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (a temple not built by hands). This cannot be comprehended through a literal reading of Scripture, but only when we open our hearts and minds to the spiritual reality being revealed to us. And we each also personally participate in this same spiritual reality for the temple/house “not made with hands” applies to our bodies as well:

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1)

Baptized into Christianity

Christ is risen! 

Truly He is risen!

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5-6)

The New Testament is clear that baptism is an essential part of one’s spiritual sojourn. It is not merely a ritual but more truthfully is a mystery in which we encounter God. As is seen in the Acts 2 quote above, the call to baptism was part of the Apostolic proclamation from the very beginning of Christianity.

However, baptism is not a private experience, for it incorporates us into the Body of Christ which in turn makes us responsible for loving all the people of the world. Olivier Clement writes:

For the early Church salvation is not at all reserved to the baptized. We repeat: those who receive baptism undertake to work for the salvation of all. The Word has never ceased and never will cease to be present to humanity in all cultures, all religions, and all irreligions. The incarnation and the resurrection are not exclusive but inclusive of the manifold forms of this presence.

‘Christ is the first-born of God, his Logos in whom all people share. That is what we have learned and what we bear witness to . . .  All who have lived in accordance with the Logos are Christians, even if they have been reckoned atheists, as amongst the Greeks Socrates, Heraclitus and the like. (St Justin the Martyr) (ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM, p 296)

Christ Jesus as God’s Word (Logos) is always available to every person in the world whether or not they are Christian or baptized. He draws the entire world to Himself to unite us to divinity (John 12:32)

King David’s Lord

Christ is risen!

Indeed He is risen!

For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the LORD always before my face, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. (Acts 2:25-32)

St Peter in his sermon cites Psalm 16:8-11 in quoting the Psalmist and Prophet King David speaking about someone who will not feel the sting of death nor remain in Hades after death. David proclaimed: “For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” Yet Peter notes that David died and was buried, so he wasn’t speaking about himself, but was prophesying about someone else – who Peter identifies as Jesus Christ. While David was anointed by God, Peter proclaims that Jesus is God’s chosen and anointed one. And though the Jewish leadership handed Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified, God had not rejected Jesus, only the Jewish people did. For Peter, God knew beforehand that His Christ would be crucified, and God used it to accomplish His purpose – the defeat of death. Peter is endeavoring to draw his fellow Jews into the Christian fellowship by proclaiming that their beloved and chosen King David spoke and prophesied about Christ’s death and resurrection. As David was looking to the Christ, so should all of God’s people enter into fellowship with their Lord, whom King David Himself also proclaimed as His Lord (Mark 12:35-37).

The fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection was koinonia: community, communion, fellowship, or the church. In Hebrew the corresponding term for it is yahad, used in the Dead Sea scrolls to denote ‘unity.’ With one mind [homothymadon] the members of the community ‘devoted themselves to apostolic teaching and fellowship [koinonia], to the breaking of bread and prayers’ (Acts 2:42). (Veselyn Kesich, FORMATION AND STRUGGLES, p 33)

THE Feast of Pascha-Pentecost

Christ is risen!

Indeed He is risen!

But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.  . . .  I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the Name of the LORD shall be saved.’ (Acts 2:16-21)

In the first recorded public sermon/ proclamation by the Apostles, St Peter begins by talking about God’s pouring forth His Holy Spirit on the world, rather than by proclaiming the resurrection of Christ. Admittedly the events of Pentecost had attracted the attention of a crowd, and Peter is addressing what has caught the people’s attention. There is ample reason for him to explain what the people were experiencing immediately. He is very direct that what has happened is the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the world in fulfilment of the prophecies given to the Jews by God. The Pentecost event though stunning should not be considered as unexpected by the Jews if they are faithful to God’s Word and promises.

The Holy Spirit enters into the world as a publicly notable event, whereas the resurrection was not directly witnessed by anyone – its main sign is the empty tomb, an event accepted in faith by the disciples of Christ. The witnessing of Christ’s resurrection is limited to the believing disciples, not the public. It is with the Pentecost event that the disciples begin going public with their witness to the resurrection. It is with the coming of the Holy Spirit that the disciples become apostles. [Note also that Peter quotes the whole prophecy of Joel even though the events of the sun being darkened and moon turning blood colored are not occurring at that moment. The sun was darkened at the crucifixion of Christ, and it is perhaps this event (which would also have been experienced by the general population) which Peter is trying to call to the minds of the people.]

For the apostles, it is Pentecost which completes the prophecies of God in the Jewish scriptures. It is Pascha and Pentecost together which are being treated as one divine event for the salvation of the world. And in the earliest Church, Pascha-Pentecost was in fact treated as one Feast, not two separate feasts. The entire 50-day period from Pascha to Pentecost was early on kept festively with no fasting or penitential kneeling for the entire period. (see also my posts The Middle of THE Feast, Pentecost: The Fullness of the Feast of Feasts or Midfeast of Pentecost 2020). Pentecost was not some type of addendum tacked on to Pascha, or ‘icing on the cake’, for it is the fulfillment of the resurrection of Christ, the very purpose for God becoming incarnate in Christ. Our salvation consists of both experiences together – which is why baptism and chrismation are so linked in the Orthodox Church as they represent our personal participation in the resurrection and in Pentecost (receiving the Holy Spirit).

Christ’s work of redemption cannot be considered apart from the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification. The Word took flesh, said Athanasius, that we might receive the Spirit: from one point of view, the whole ‘aim’ of the Incarnation is the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost. . . .

‘Prayer, fasting, vigils, and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, certainly do not constitute the aim of our Christian life: they are but the indispensable means of attaining that aim. For the true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, vigils, prayer, and almsgiving, and other good works done in the name of Christ, they are only the means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Note well that it is only good works done in the name of Christ that bring us the fruits of the Spirit. (St Seraphim of Sarov)  (Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, THE ORTHODOX CHURCH, p 223)

The Disciples Discerning the Resurrection

Christ is risen!  Truly He is risen!

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. (Acts 1:12-14)

Immediately after the resurrection what were the disciples of Jesus doing? Gathering together in prayer, no doubt asking God to help them to discern what it all meant. The news of their Lord’s resurrection was stunning and while the resurrection has implications for every human as well as all of creation, only the few disciples are even aware of it or thinking about it. The entire cosmos has changed, but few realize it.  The apostles and their disciples will spend centuries trying to properly discern all of the implications of the resurrection as we continue life in this world (see for example Acts 15). We still have to work through the implications today as new questions arise and as human research and understanding uncovers new facts about the cosmos and what it means to be human. Previous generations of Christians have worked out many issues, but there are always new questions, new information, new insights, new paradigms to challenge us in what the resurrection means. Christ’s resurrection is a once and for all event (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 9:26. 10:10), but it doesn’t occur in a static universe. Change is what defines creation as versus the unchanging God. The incarnate Christ rose from the dead in an ever-changing universe and His resurrection brings meaning to every new event which occurs in the cosmos.

Scripture scholar N.T. Wright offers a couple of ideas about what Christians had to realize about the meaning of the resurrection:

We should note carefully the difference, at this point, between the promise of ‘heaven’, seen as a post-mortem comfort offered by the wealthy and powerful to the poor and powerless, on the one hand, and resurrection on the other. Resurrection is precisely concerned with the present world and its renewal, not with escaping the present world and going somewhere else; and, in its early Jewish forms right through to its developed Christian forms, it was always concerned with divine judgment, with the creator God acting within history to put right that which is wrong. Only if we misunderstand what resurrection actually involved can we line it up with the kind of ‘pie in the sky’ promises which earned the scorn of many twentieth century social reformers. (THE RESURRECTION OF THE SON OF GOD, p 138)

The resurrection of Christ was not mostly about “dying and going to heaven.” It was far more about how we should live on earth – a new set of values because life is not limited to this world but stretches through and beyond death. The resurrection changes how we relate to one another because death does not end our relationship to each other or to God. Death is not the cure-all and end-all solution to human problems, conflicts, or suffering. Death is a tool of our common enemy, Satan, and is to be destroyed.

For the first disciples, the resurrection and ascension of Christ were the necessary stages before His second coming – His return to earth to establish the Kingdom of Heaven. Only when that return did not immediately occur, and the first disciples began dying off did they begin to contemplate the relationship between Christ’s resurrection and the believers who died after it occurred.

Death, the greatest weapon of the tyrant, is an intruder in the creator’s world, and YHWH has it in his power to overcome it and not only restore the righteous to life but install them as rulers, judges and kings. (THE RESURRECTION OF THE SON OF GOD, p 173)

The resurrection was not meant to cause us to long for a “pie-in-the-sky” heaven, but to reconnect our life on earth with God’s kingdom. Our behavior on earth is to change as we allow the Kingdom to become part of our daily lives. We live on earth where death continues to happen, but we are to live in the light of Christ’s resurrection, waiting in faith for His return. And as science and technology continue to explore the universe and unlock its mysteries, we will continually have to discern what it all means. The very notion of history tells us that things are changing, and we have to discern how to relate our faith in Christ’s resurrection with our ever-changing understanding of the world around us.

Many of the Paschal hymns exhort us in how to live here on earth:

“This is the day of resurrection.

Let us be illumined by the feast.

Let us embrace each other.

Let us call “brothers” even those who hate us,

and forgive all by the resurrection”

(Matins of Pascha)

Pascha: Christ is Risen! (2024)

Christ is risen!

Indeed He is risen! 

Wishing everyone a joyous celebration of Pascha. May the risen Christ be Lord of your heart and mind, present in every circumstance of your life.

St Paul tells us that Christ “… is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent” (Colossians 1:18).  A statement that St Irenaeus uses to help us understand the role His resurrection plays in our daily lives:

… the Word of God <become> flesh, that He might demonstrate the resurrection of the flesh and be preeminent (proteuo) in all things.  . . .  the Word of God… calling man back again to communion with God, that by this communion with Him we may receive participation in incorruptibility.  (ON THE APOSTOLIC PREACHING, p 65)

The 5th Century Gospel of Nicodemus, taking into account the words of Matthew 27:51-53 (the saints who arose from the dead at Christ’s crucifixion), reminds us that Christ does not rise alone from the dead, but rather rises with dead:

Why then do you marvel at the resurrection of Jesus? What is marvelous is not that he arose but that he did not arise alone, that he raised many other dead ones who appeared to many in Jerusalem.  (John & Sarah Crossan, RESURRECTING EASTER, p 61)

Christ rises from the dead to show the defeat of death and that life is given to those in their graves.  Christ shares His life and power over death with all of us who have died or will die.

The Gospel of God… concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be a Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:1-4) . . .  the Greek phrase used by Paul, ex anastaseos nekron, does not mean ‘by Christ’s resurrection from the dead ones,’ but ‘by Christ’s resurrection of the dead ones.’ For Paul, Christ was always ‘God’s Son’ (1: 3), but becomes ‘Son of God with power‘ (1:4) not just by his individual, but by the universal resurrection.  (RESURRECTING EASTER, p 67)

Christ is risen from the dead

trampling down death by death,

and upon those in the tombs

bestowing life. 

Christ’s resurrection is an act of God’s love. It is not self-love, for the resurrection is not Christ’s alone, but rather is fully shared with all of humanity.

Christ’s Descent into Darkness

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. (Mark 15:33)

When the sun, beheld You hanging on the cross, it wrapped itself in darkness. (Hymn of Holy Saturday Vespers)

On Holy Saturday we commemorate Christ’s descent into Hades, the dark netherworld of the dead. The hymns suggest the darkness of this netherworld began reaching into our world as Christ’s life ebbed away as he was dying on the cross. Simultaneously though God’s Kingdom was extending into Hades (thus the reference in Matthew 27:52-53 of the dead saints being pushed back into the world). For Christ fills all things with Himself (Ephesians 1:23) and therefore unites all things in heaven, in the cosmos including earth, and even in Hades (Ephesians 1:10). The world without Christ is the netherworld. Orthodox scripture scholar Eugen Pentiuc comments:

Through this imagery of the ‘sun wrapping [itself] in darkness,’ the hearers or readers of this hymn are progressively introduced to the central theme of Holy Saturday, Jesus’s descent to the netherworld. It is as if the entire creation came under the menacing darkness or blackness of the netherworld. It was a time of ordeals and trials, a time when the one who used to throw the light upon his shoulders as a royal mantle became naked, lifeless, and without a tomb, a time when the sun that regularly used to share its light became an eclipsed luminary and, in the midst of utter confusion, wrapped itself in the weird blackness of the netherworld.

It was as if a living and orderly creation was giving itself over to chaos, darkness, and death. In conjunction with 1 Peter 3:18-20 – where Jesus, having died, and having been ‘made alive in Spirit, went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison [tois en phylake pneumasin poreutheis ekeryxen]’ (vv. 18-19) – one may consider this … the odd blackness covering the sun, a portent of Jesus imminent descent to the darkness of the netherworld. (HEARING THE SCRIPTURES, p 233)

He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)