He hath trampled down death by His death

And bestowed life to those in the tombs.

Our waiting has been turned into joy and excitement at hearing the Gospel according to St. Mark announcing that the Lord was no longer in the tomb that He has arisen.   Death is no longer able to keep us captive.  We, too, will arise.  And after judgment, we will be enjoy alongside of Him the first fruits of a life in Christ.
  Let us go forth joyously and say "Christ is Risen."  Kalo Pascha.

And now...we wait

Ever since His triumphant entry into Jerusalem with cries of Hosanna and Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord,  we have followed with the Lord every step of the way.  We kept watch for the Bridegroom to come like the ten virgins, we have been there at the cursing of the fig tree, we have been seen how the Lord will revile those who do not use the talents entrusted to them, we have been with Christ at his Last Supper, with Him at His betrayal by Judas, listened to Him speak about the hardships that necessarily come from being His Apostle and servant, watched Him as Master wash the feet of His servants, watched Him as He was tried like a common criminal by the Sanhedrin, Pilate and Herod, the denial of Him three times by Peter, His scourging, His agony, His ridicule, His march to Gologotha, His pleas that no one weep for Him,  His Crucifixion, His prayer for forgiveness to His Crucifiers, His bestowal of eternal life on the good thief, entrusting John the care of His mother, His cry of agony to His Father, His death, His piercing by the Spear, the oupouring of both blood and water, the confession of the Roman centurion, the destruction of the temple, the trembling of the earth, the sun blackened, the dead rising from their tombs, the tempest, His taking down from the Cross and entombment by Joseph of Arimethea and, today, His Harrowing of Hades, preaching to those already dead.  And now...we wait.

We have fasted, we have prayed, we have given alms, we have sacrificed time from our pursuits and even our families, we have denied ourselves some of our simple pleasures.  And now...we wait.

We wait as the excitement for our Lord's Resurrection as celebrated in the Rush and the Divine Liturgy is but only half a day away.  But still, we must wait.  We must not get ahead of ourselves.

The waiting IS the hardest part. You don't need Tom Petty to tell you that (although it is a pretty nice song).  His Resurrection will come.  And it will bestow eternal life to those in the tombs.  But now, we wait...and wait some more.  But, it WILL come.

The Importance of the Incarnation

One of the many criticisms directed against the Orthodox Faith and her adherents is that it places way too much emphasis on the Incarnation of the Lord when it should be more or exclusively centered upon the Lord's Cross and Crucifixion.  I find it fascinating then that those who make such criticisms even bother to celebrate the Christmas season since its focus is on the Lord's appearance in the flesh.   The other problem is that those who make such criticisms are stuck in an "either...or" mentality.  Pascha and Christmas embrace one another in the Orthodox faith.  One cannot be without the other.

The Scriptures and the hymnography of the Church are replete with many examples of how Christ is consubstantial with His creation, namely, us humans.  Although many of the early battles over orthodox doctrine centered upon whether Christ was consubstantial with the Father, Christ's consubstantiality with His creation was not and cannot be simply forgotten.  It is the very foundation for our salvation, which is more than simply a declaration of forgiveness, but is an ontological reality in which we are made, by grace, one with the one who created us.

With this "both...and" approach instead of the "either...or", as we begin the long march towards Bethlehem let us also have our sights set on Calvary. 

Jesus lay as an infant int he cavern in the reign of Caesar Augustus that He might lay in the tomb under Pontius Pilate.  He was hounded by Herod that He might be caught by Caiphas.  He was buried in baptism that He might descend into death by the Cross.  He was worshiped by wise men that the whole of creation might adore Him in His triumph over death.  The Pascha of His cross was prepared by the Pascha of His Coming. The Pascha of His Resurrection was begun by the Pascha of His Incarnation.  The Pascha of His Glorification was foretold by the Pascha of His Baptism.--Fr. Thomas  Hopko, The Winter Pascha, p. 11

The Third Sunday after Pascha--The Paralytic

Three weeks ago, we thundered into Pascha siging "Christ is Risen."  Two weeks ago, we had our faith strengthened even though Thomas doubted and, still, we sung "Christ is Risen."  Last week, we marveled at the heroism and courage of the myrrhbearers who risked imprisonment and even death for defying guards placed at the tomb by Pilate and we again sang out, "Christ is Risen."  Now, we have come to the third week, the healing of the Paralytic.  Is "Christ is Risen" starting to sound hollow and something done by rote without the fire we had a mere three weeks ago?

It probably doesn't help that the Gospel appointed for today's feast has nothing ostensibly to do with Christ's Resurrection and triumph over death. In fact, it takes place long before the events of Great Friday and Pascha.  It's just another one of those miracle stories, not too different from any other miracle stories that are omnipresent in the Gospels.  If we concentrate simply on Christ healing then we  it is extremely easily to be discouraged and not to realize the truth that is being proclaimed. For that, we have to focus not on Christ, but on the paralytic himself and the others afflicted at the pool of Bethesda.

Christ asks the paralytic whether he wants to be healed.  I'm surprised a sarcastic answer along the lines of "No, I'm here to work on my tan" didn't come out of the paralytic--after all he had been there for 38 years.  He didn't answer "yes" or "no," but began saying, "I have no man."  His answer is telling in that there are a number of people are there to be healed, but all are there for themselves.  It seems no one helps another.  When the pool is troubled, each man forgets his neighbor and rushes to get to the pool first.  The people by the pool are no different then from the rest of society save for their respective infirmities.  When a chance comes to get ahead, members of society trample upon one another to get that morsel, whether it is for fame, power, riches, possessions, respect, etc..  When everyone else by the pool displayed this same egoism and desire for self, it is not unexpected that the paralytic is upset that he lacks a relationship with another person to help him obtain his desire.

Being as communion. I've recently started to read Metropolitan JOHN's (Zizoulas) book Being As Communion. It is, as expected, a very involved and difficult read, but worth it.  God's very nature is such that He must commune that He must be relational.  Christ came to restore that relationship with man, but that can only happen when man starts to remove himself from his own egoistic tendencies.  Christ, the Theanthropos, genuinely loves and desires to restore a relationship with the paralytic. The paralytic may not understand it immediately, though after his healing, Christ tells Him to sin no more.  The relationship with the divine can only be kept when we remove sin from ourselves.

In the icon of the Harrowing of Hades, Christ is seen taking the hands of both Adam and Eve and pulling them out of the tombs.  He doesn't just merely say "come out" but He approaches them, touches them and guides them into His Resurrection.  Adam and Eve sinned because they forsook the relationship with God and looked only to themslves.  Such with the paralytic.  He too was consumed with self, though he seems to long for that lost relationship which prevented him from being healed. Yet, Christ touched him and guided him to healing.  This is another Resurrection story, just not as obvious.

So, let us not be lukewarm about singing "Christ is Risen."  We have only a few more weeks of it until we enter into the feast of Pentecost.  Then we'll wonder where the time went.  Christ bestows life, He bestows a relationship, He bestows Himself.

The Pascha of the Lord

Some random thoughts on this Feast of feasts in my parish.

1) The Byzantine Men's Choir really did a great service to the church today chanting Odes 3, 5, 7 and 9 as well as the Ainoi and Paschal Stichera. There are still a lot of things to iron out (blending, dynamics, intonation, pitches, enunciation and breathing) but it was a glorious first effort. I'm very privileged to be a part of this fine group of outstanding musicians who wish to enhance the state of Byzantine music not only in our parish but for the Orthodox churches who still do use it or are trying to reintegrate back into common practice (e.g. Antiochian and Greek).

2) One of the Paschal verses from Psalm 67 says "Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered." God must have had some enemies at the Orthros this morning because after we processed outside to read the Gospel, chant the first "Christ is Risen" of this Paschal year and reenter the church, I notice that our ranks had thinned a little. It wasn't a lot but it was noticeable. The church was packed for people to light their candle during "Dhefte lavete phos" (Come take light) with no open seats in sight, but for the rest of the Orthros proceeding into the Divine Liturgy, I saw some empty spaces. I hope it wasn't the chanting that scared them off!

3) The Gospel read at Matins is from the end of St. Mark which ends with the women being afraid. Many have lamented that this should be the Orthros Gospel and should be replaced with something from Matthew or Luke or John instead that has more joy. But this is completely appropriate. We should be in a state of fear. Our Lord has just been crucified and buried and harrowed Hades. Those things should be frightening because they should never have happened. But such is the God we have, a God who has ALWAYS gone to great extraordinary means to recall His chosen people to Himself. That should inspire us with fear. At the same time, immediately after reading this Gospel, the Priest chants the first "Christ is Risen" alleviating our fear and changing it into joy just like it did for the women and the Disciples.

4) We really need to get a new translation of St. John Chrysostom's Homily for Pascha morning. I don't know where it comes from, but the translation I have heard on Sunday mornings for years is fraught with so many vocabulary errors (some of which are understandable considering how the Greek cannot be rendered into English on a 1:1 basis). Some of the word plays and the natural rhetorical flow are compromised. There's got to be a better way to translate it faithfully while retaining those features. Of course, it would be better if it were just read in Greek, but I know I'm not going to win that battle.

5) Speaking of Greek, I actually got to sneak some in there. I'm sorry, but the Byzantine chant just flows so much more naturally with the Greek words than English. English has too many muted and liquid consonants and so many harsh sounding consonant clusters that not only cause delays in the music (e.g. the "rect" in Resurrection) and just sound harsh. Again, a battle I'm not going to win.

6) We do our vigil in the morning at 5:30 beginning with the Pannychis (Midnight Office). I really wish we would start at 11:00 on Saturday evening or at midnight (like every other Orthodox church does). I think we could get a bigger crowd and even more kids. I think the total number of kids was maybe 15 or so (we have lots more) and 5:30 is too early in the morning. What kid doesn't want the opportunity to stay up late? And if this time does keep kids away what kind of message are we sending?

7) Is it just me or does anyone else especially a let down after the Liturgy is done? I've been waiting for 8 weeks now, fasting, praying and preparing for our Lord's resurrection and finally it has arrived and this morning was joyous as it should be. But it has come and gone so fast. I know we still celebrate the feast for 40 days but I wonder if "Christ is Risen" will start to sound hollow by next Saturday evening. I already miss my Triodion.

Pascha and Bright Week--the aftermath

Last Sunday, I was one of many faithful who gathered at the Dormition of St. Mary Church in Omaha, NE at 5:30 a.m. to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ which gave us victory over sin and death. It was nothing short of a glorious day. The solemnity and the extra vigil and extra prayers during Holy Week only made the glorious truth that we proclaim all year round on every Sunday all the more heartfelt.

But now, where do we go? For those of us, like myself as I am a chanter, we start to feel a disconnect because we are not in church as much. As you acclimate yourself to the extra time spent in prayer and meditation over the Scriptures, it seems that I am left in want of more now that Holy Week and Pascha are over. I do not belong to a church which offers daily services or even mid week services unlike a growing number of Orthodox churches in the Antiochian Archdiocese around this nation. So, aside from my own efforts at home, I am left starving for more. I know that it would be impossible to offer daily services at our church since hardly anyone comes to Orthros or Vespers on the weekend as it is now! But, I know that I would benefit greatly.

Why is it that I find such difficulty with basking in the joy of Pascha? Why is it that I cannot continue the joy I find throughout Holy Week and culminating in Pascha into Bright Week and beyond? The words with which we begin every prayer from Pascha through Ascension should be enough to fill even the hardest of hearts with joy. Those words reflect our whole theology: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! So, why isn't that enough for me?

If anyone has some great ideas for me, let me know. I'm not kidding.

The Winter Pascha

I'm in Omaha right now for a few days taking care of some business that will hopefully allow me to come back next month to finish out a class at Creighton and start to really get my life in order. Right now, I'm snowed in. My friends, Josh and Walker, with whom I am staying have both gone to work though the local schools are all canceled due to the inclement weather. It is expected to snow throughout the day even into the hours of tomorrow morning. Snow accumulations should be about 6 inches or more.

We instinctively tie our Lord's Nativity with winter. And that is because of the fact that in Europe and America, snow sometimes accompanies our Lord's arrival as the Christmas songs which deal with "White Christmases." But, when Christ was born, there was no snow, there was no cold weather. Shepherds did not tend their flocks in frigid snowy weather. Most likely, Christ was actually born in September or October. The reason that December 25 was chosen as the day to celebrate Christ's incarnation was because the pagans celebrated the birth of Mithras, the Sun God (a Persian import to Rome) on that day. That is why, in the Eastern Rite Troparion for Nativity, we call Christ the Sun of Righteousness, which, in English translation (the Greek word is helios), has double meaning implications.

In Great Lent, we are coming out of the winter tumult, the winter death to the spring of Christ's Resurrection, which is usually sometime in April (though on the Western Calendar can be as early as March). We prepare for that glorious time with fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Why should we do no different in this time of our Lord's incarnation. If he had not been incarnate, our Lord could not have died and risen again to triumph over death and heal us from our infirmities.

Thus, we should be mindful that though winter conjures up thoughts (good ones, mind you) of frolicking in the snow, going out to the mall to buy gifts for friends, loved ones and those in need, we should not make this season a party. Don't get me wrong, it's hard to do when hardly anyone else believes that this is a season of repentance, but if we wait for everyone else to get on board, all we have done is squandered precious time for our own self-repentance.

Christ's coming in the midst of winter is another Pascha, a resurrection of Creation, of the Sun which is never overtaken by the night.