Homily on the Pascha of Christ
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
We are already standing at the threshold of the feast; we have already seen how the Epitaphios was carried into the altar, and by this the Church symbolizes the hidden Resurrection of Christ the Savior. For when our Lord rose, neither the angelic worlds nor people knew about it — only God knew! As the Church sings: “We did not know how You were born of the Virgin, nor do we know how You rose from the dead.” Both of these mysteries were hidden from those who examine, but grace was revealed to those who believe and confess the mystery. Truly, the great mystery of faith which we proclaim today — the mystery of victory over death, the mystery of deliverance from corruption and destruction, the mystery of the transformation of man, the mystery of the great escape from death to life, escape from slavery to freedom, escape from the prison of decay into the freedom of the glory of the children of God — this is great happiness! Because we are no longer slaves of the earth, we are not bound by earthly laws, and the weight of earthly expanses does not press upon us. A great meeting with Almighty God awaits us. This victory is manifested in that we are given the joy of absolute forgiveness. Let the Jews be indignant, let the Muslims consider it audacious, let the godless reproach us for cunning, saying: “Everything is simple for you — repent and receive forgiveness!” The main Paschal message is the proclamation of repentance to all nations!
The Lord after Pascha said: “Go, proclaim and preach repentance and forgiveness of sins, beginning from Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth” (Luke 24:47).
The Paschal message — forgiveness has shone forth from the Tomb, and death has been destroyed by the death of Christ. The Resurrection from the dead gives resurrection also to the souls and bodies of human beings. Today, on this bright, mysterious night of the Resurrection of the Lord, we stand counting the minutes until the moment when we will hear the message of the Angel of God, from the lips of the priest singing that death is destroyed. In these moments, let us look at who we were and what we have become. Now the night is still dark, it is not yet illumined by the rays of our lamps. The candles that we hold in our hands are not yet lit, there is still no light. And this is not accidental. At this very moment we, as it were, immerse ourselves in the state of a godless world that does not know God, does not know forgiveness, is forced to rely only on itself and therefore inevitably falls and perishes. And behold, this night we will hear the message of victory, the message of happiness — that God has been reconciled with people, that death is conquered. And our soul is immortal, and this body also will be made alive.
For, as Scripture says: “Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
The first is Christ, and after Him all will follow! And now we will see how the great explosion of death will occur, and the great spark of immortal life will be kindled, which from the tomb of Jesus spreads through all cemeteries, through all our bodies, and kindles in us the spark of immortality. And the day will come when the secretly smoldering flame will burst forth. To the prince of this world — the devil — it seems that everything is fine: evil, filth, death. But under this crust burns the hidden fire of the risen Jesus, which spreads imperceptibly in our hearts. And it transforms first the mind, then the will, then the feelings, and embraces also the body. You probably know that the bodies of the saints are not subject to corruption, drawing the power of incorruption from the incorrupt body of Jesus. Then, on the day of Resurrection, God will simply tear off the rotten covering, and the pure flame of eternity will come out from beneath the covering of time. We, blazing with divine fire, shining and being sanctified, have become children of God entering into His glory.
And it is promised to us that the righteous “shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).
Some will shine like small stars, others like larger stars, others like the moon, others like the sun. All this radiance proceeds from the mysterious, incomprehensible, life-giving tomb, from which incorruption grows: incorruption of souls, of mind, of bodies, and the restoration of all that exists.
Let us listen to the words of the Holy Gospel, which says:
“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them: ‘They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down into the tomb and saw two Angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her: ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them: ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.’ Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her: ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him: ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’ Jesus said to her: ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to Him: ‘Rabbouni!’—which is to say, ‘Teacher.’ Jesus said to her: ‘Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them: “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.”’ Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her” (John 20:1–18).
Thus, for the first time, Mary Magdalene at early dawn of the Lord's day, still in darkness, saw the Great Gardener — Jesus Christ, the Gardener who truly is the Gardener in the garden of paradise. And the woman who first heard the words of the curse is the first to hear the good news of forgiveness and joy. Christ lets Himself be recognized by name, and God calls us by name. Many want to be a personality, a unique, unrepeatable person. And this is right. But a person can draw his personality only from the vision of the face of God. Only in His face can we find personality. Christ is the heavenly Shepherd who calls His sheep by name. Now the risen Jesus calls His own and proclaims to them that the time of the healing of personality has come. We must become unique children of God.
Therefore the Lord says: “Go to My brethren” (John 20:17), therefore we are brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ — the Son of God! Because, thanks to the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, He became the firstborn among many brethren.
There was a moment when we all participated in His death and His Resurrection. We went down into the depths of the waters in baptism, descending into His tomb, and came out of the water participating in His Resurrection. Therefore we are brothers and sisters of Jesus, and He is the firstborn among us. God the Father is one for us all; therefore let us glorify Him, thank Him, and bless Him. And now we see that a gift has come to us: from the life-giving Tomb of the Lord the Holy Fire has been brought. And as an ancient church hymn sung by the Greeks says: “Come, receive light from the unwaning Light, and glorify Christ risen from the dead.” Receive the immortal Light from the living God! The Holy Fire from Holy Jerusalem has reached us as well. We receive the living flame of the life-giving fire. Imagine the joy of a person who wakes up healthy after a month of severe illness. A person feels a certain power filling him — this is the power of bodily life. Spring comes, the air is filled with a sweet fragrance, and this is the fragrance of plant life, which also rises to the Creator. We know what happens when a person is burdened by sin — his conscience gnaws at him, in his soul there is a feeling of filth, a heavy weight. And when a person confesses his sins in confession, he simply soars — and this too is the power of life that seizes a person. All this life is poured into us through the Resurrection of Christ the Savior.
Before, a person also had a certain life — a corruptible life, a decaying life, disintegrating, mortal — a false life that deceived and rotted a person; and chasing the pleasures of the flesh, a person received true misfortunes both of soul and body. But now a new time has come, a new power appears in people, life is reborn. We truly recover; into us is poured the true health of the heavenly Father, into us is poured that blossoming whose image is the blooming gardens that flourish after Pascha. And our soul begins to bloom, because the spring of souls has come. Christ, risen from the dead, has poured into us the power so that we may create virtues. We must not simply be rule-followers who fulfill regulations; we must create virtues, seeing and understanding God, having the power of God to accomplish them and realizing the beauty of the virtue that God places in us. Virtues are not merely external laws, but a property of the divine nature that is poured into us, strengthening us, transforming and sanctifying us.
But we feel an even greater power — the power that conquers death. We see martyrs who sing and rejoice under tortures, because they see within themselves the conquering power. They know that the ancient monstrous dragon that devoured all people has been killed, destroyed, annihilated, blown apart from within. And now death is trampled down, and life reigns. Being partakers of this life, we rejoice and exult, because we do not fear death. For salvation has shone forth from the tomb! Entering into the mystery of the Resurrection, immersing ourselves in the depths of the life-giving tomb of Jesus, we feel and understand that we have nothing to fear. Our past is cleansed, and our sins are forgiven. What blessedness it is to know that your lawlessness is covered, that sins are no more. The Lord, as He promised, has done: He has already cast our iniquities into the great water of baptism, because great is His mercy. He has freed us from great and ancient tyrants, and freed us from our own evil tyranny — our sins.
We do not fear the present, because we know that the present is in the hands of the Lord. We do not need to panic when looking into the future, because just as Christ, having died and risen, will never die again, so we also, following Him, will live eternally. The future is entirely in the pierced hands of Jesus, the wounded hands of the Redeemer, who possesses the future and governs all worlds. We know that we belong to Him, and therefore we belong to immortality. Already now eternal blessedness is accessible to us on earth, if only we ourselves do not fall away from Him. On the day of Pascha we truly rejoice and exult: death is conquered, destruction overcome, corruption abolished, sins covered, ungodliness destroyed, and light has shone in our hearts.
We will now approach the mysterious Vespers, to the secret initiation, to participation in the mysterious and unseen mysteries of the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit of God will grant us to see, to feel, and to become participants in the greatest Sacrifice of Jesus, when Christ offers Himself in sacrifice to the Great Trinity. And the Heavenly Father receives His sacrifice, and the Spirit of God makes the bread and wine the Blood and Body of Christ, making the sacrifice perfect. This is the Cup of Pascha, the Cup of eternal life, the Cup of victory, through which Christ enters into us — but He does not enter alone. Together with Him enters into us also the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Life, the Life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, who gives us strength to receive the risen Jesus.
Together with Christ and the Holy Spirit, the Father also enters into us, because only through Christ do we have access to the Father, as He said: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him” (John 14:23).
Now this great mystery is opened for us, and we will be participants in this Great Vespers; we will stand with fear and trembling, with love and joy, and be illumined with great light, so that the risen Christ may enter into us. As John the Theologian said: “An immeasurable ocean of light flows from the risen Jesus,” so that we may be encompassed by this boundless ocean. Let us also be like branches of a new vine, participants in this divine joy; let us partake of the Kingdom of Christ, singing of Him as God, the conqueror of death.
As it is said in Scripture: “Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; and let Your judgments help me” (Ps. 118:175).
Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
