Christ our mystic Pascha!

Kristos anesti!

Alithos anesti!

We have come to the end of the Great Fast at last! We wandered forty days in the desert preparing for the final battle. We then went into battle with Our Lord, were buried with Him in the deaths of our baptism as we pleaded to be delivered from the unjust man. The unjust man that is the Old Adam of whom we bury in the waters of baptism. And finally, we are pulled out of those waters to the New Adam uniting ourselves in the Life of Christ in His Resurrection from the dead. No more is the power of Death for us Christians! We have left that Kingdom. Our Kingdom is the Kingdom of Life! We rejoice today in the jubilation of Christ our Pascha, our mystic Pascha!

Pascha is the Greek word for "Passover". When the Egyptians held the Israelites under slavery, the Lord commanded that a lamb was to be slain and its blood painted over the doorstop of every home. The Angel of Death was to come and take the firstborn of every one who neglected this. The Israelites were thus protected by the blood of the lamb. And now Christ has become the Paschal lamb. Slaughtered on the night in which the Paschal lamb was slaughtered risen on the third day. Death regretted this mistake in swallowing Him up.

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.

(St. John Chrystom's Paschal Homily)

Hades was enraged at its defeat. It had tried to pull Adam into the first sin damning the world but now the Creator of All has shown Himself to be the King of even Death itself!

"The sorrow of Christ's cruel death has passed, destroying the enmity of the former sin: and cleansing away all the strains of guilt. Sweetness of ineffable joy has followed, and the height of everlasting glory; which shall be given to all born again by Christ in baptism, after the exile of this world: as to men coming back from Egypt to Paradise. For, by the sacrifice of the true Lamb, the spiritual Israel was freed from the captivity of the devil's damnation: and the new people of God passed to the liberty of the heavenly dwelling; because Christ, rising from the dead, changed the old pasch into a new: and turned temporal into everlasting life." (Ven. Thomas à Kempis, Sermons on the Passion of Our Lord, XXXI)

The Church, Israel, has been freed from the bondage to the Devil. It has been freed from its bondage to sin. Christ came in the flesh condemning not the world but the sin that had held the world in bondage. Christ came offering restoration to the world and restoration to all. We celebrate this glorious miracle of the Resurrection every Sunday. We celebrate this miracle in our own very day-to-day lives as we become Christians. This Feast of all Feasts "happens daily and eternally in those who know its mystery, and so has filled our hearts with unspeakable joy and gladness." (St. Symeon the New Theologian, Discourses, XIII) "How wonderful it is to be steadfast in devotion to the Lord! May you also, O reader, wait upon Him, that you may learn from Him and transmit to others what you learn." (Bl. Theophylact, The Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to John, ch. 20)

We have come to the victory over Hades but it is not over yet. Our duty as Christians is to join into this eternal mystery of the Pascha through our baptism, through our partaking in the sacraments, through our own restoration. Christ came to heal the image of God which was damaged, like a pearl being thrown into mud (St. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo?, Bk 1, ch. 19), we are to be cleaned off and restored to our former glory. For the old sin is vanquished and its power over us is no more! Therefore,

"Are you happy? Increase your happiness with the present celebration. Are you unhappy? Forget your earthly sorrows and rejoice that heaven is opened to you. Are you a sinner? Do not speak of that: in the Resurrection all are righteous. Are you righteous? Rejoice even ore, over the triumphant righteousness of the Only Righteous One." (St. Philaret of Chernigov, Homily on the First Day of Holy Pascha)

The saints do not condemn any one. The saints join Our Lord in condemning sin in the flesh. But to those who are defeated and attached to their sins, the cross is their defeat. Like Hades, they are in an uproar. Like Hades, they wish this event had never happened at all. Like Hades, they are mocked, destroyed, annihilated. Like Hades, they are the ones captive to their sins, assuming falsely that they have full control but it is only the Will of God who has enslaved Hades who sustains all and holds all things together. Blessed Pascha to all who read this today or any day!

Christus surrexit!

Vere surrexit!

(And how can one who has heard this Charles Wesley hymn not include it!)