PASCHAL PASTORAL LETTER 2000
"In all truth I tell you - the hour is coming - indeed it is already here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear it will live." Gospel of St John 5:24
Dearly Beloved: Christ is risen!
Truly, He is risen!
Over the past decades,
archeologists have uncovered evidence of the burial traditions of many and
various peoples. There is general consensus that human remains were respected
and buried in an honorable manner. In most cases, various articles were
interred with the dead as "provisions" needed for another life.
Humans and animals were often sacrificed to accompany a dead person of rank.
There was, therefore, on the part of some peoples, a sort of desire, if not
belief, in an afterlife. This is, at the most, a belief in the continuation of
the spirit but not in the belief in a resurrection of the body with the spirit.
In the Old Testament, the most
obvious statement of belief in or the hope that there is an after life is found
in the Second Book of Maccabees, 7:22 about 134 B.C., when the unnamed mother
of seven sons, after the first six have been killed, encourages her last son
with the words: "...the Creator of the world who made everyone and
ordained the origin of all things, will in his mercy give you back breath and
life since for the sake of his laws you have no concern for yourselves." In
other words, obedience to God assures a present good life, and those who are
righteous before God can expect to live again. In this statement, however,
there is no belief in a universal resurrection of all mortals, just those who
are righteous according to the Law of Moses.
Following the birth of Jesus
Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, almost two centuries after the exhortation
of that mother, Jesus stated that it is not in keeping the Law of Moses that
one will live again but through faith in him. "I am the resurrection.
Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live and whoever
lives and believes in me will never die." (John 11:25) As followers of
Christ, as those who have "put on Christ" in holy baptism, we believe
"...the testimony God has given about his Son. This is the testimony: God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has
life, and whoever has not the Son of God has not life." (I John 5:11-12).
Death comes as a result of our
fallen human experience: "We all die in Adam, but we are all brought to
life in Christ." (I Corinthians 15:22) St. Paul, in his first letter to
the Thessalonians (4:13-17) warns the faithful to balance their grief over
their dead with the truth that death is not final. "We want you to be
quite certain about those who are fallen asleep, to make sure that you do not
grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope. We believe that
Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have fallen
asleep in Jesus, God will bring them with him." These few words,
"Jesus died and rose again," are the heart of the Gospel, the
"Good News."
Saint John Chrysostom chides us:
"What is death at most? It is a journey for a seasons a sleep longer than
usual. If you fear death, you should also fear sleep." We do not fear
sleep nor do we fear death, for through Christ we have overcome the fear of
death, live a new life free of this fear and look forward to the life which is
to come. This is why the Paschal Tropar, "Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling death by death, bestowing life on those in the tombs," is
repeated over and over today and throughout the forty-days before his
Ascension. It is both a hymn of praise
to him who conquered death and gives eternal life, the beginning of which is
now in the sacramental life in the Church and, it is a theme-song, a battle-cry
for us to strengthen our faith in Christ, the "Prince of life" (Acts
3:15).
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, (On
the Holy Pascha, Ser. 2) states: "This is the Day of Resurrection. Let us
offer to God a sacrifice, which is ourselves. Let us, as his most precious
acquisition, give to the Image (God) that which was created in his image. Let
us acknowledge our worth. " This statement, "to acknowledge our worth,"
is of the utmost importance in our day. Human life is portrayed as expendable,
because its value is only the here and now. We confess that Christ came to
"reclaim" us for God to live a new life on earth and prepare us for
eternal life. As Son of God, he reminds us of our worth as children of the Most
High. We are of such worth that God sent his Only-begotten Son to save us both
in this life and for the life to come.
Our lives, our goals, our very
existence have meaning only when we appreciate and acknowledge the sacrifice on
the cross and the despoiling of death by Christ's own death and our call to
eternal existence. We will be resurrected and not die again, instructs Saint
Gregory Palamas.
There is a difference between
those who like Lazarus, and others who were temporarily brought back to life,
and the resurrection of Christ himself. The final and universal resurrection
will come at the end of time. "I believe in the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen." In this way can Christ be called
the "first born of the dead," for unlike those who were temporarily
raised and died again, he will not die again. Saint Paul is adamant: "We
know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again, he is
the first fruit. Death has no power over him any more. For by dying, he is dead
to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God. In
the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in
Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:9-11)
Let us share with the world this knowledge of our worth as
children of God, saved by his Son, sealed by the Holy Spirit and call others to
the joy of this day and to a new life in Jesus. Let us awaken from apathy and
from complacency to renewal in our risen Lord. Let the fervor of the women
disciples who told the apostles that "He is risen!", the fervor which
carried this news far and wide to this very moment in time, let it be enkindled
in our hearts--- the joy of this evangelical proclamation that, "Christ is
risen! Truly, he is risen! And with him all of mankind from the beginning of
time.
+ NATHANIEL,
Archbishop