On Pascha and Our Own Resurrection

On Pascha and Our Own Resurrection

by Raphael Masterjohn

The following are excerpts from different writings of Raphael Masterjohn (+2018) on Holy Week and Pascha.  It is our hope that you will find them to be not only edifying but genuine words of life.

Today, with increased faith and love, and my life filled with hope as an Orthodox Christian, despite many sins and failings, I realize that I have not yet achieved the goal for which I ardently yearn, the goal for which we must all struggle - eternal life. This goal is expressed in the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos: “Rejoice, Rock that has refreshed those thirsting for life!”  Yes, I have a great thirst for eternal life, which I already feel within me. Beloved, let us all thirst for this life that never ends, for our souls are thirsting for the living water of eternal life. If we make this present effort to enter Christ’s Passion, we can expect to go through the door of death into the Life that never ends.  “I shall not die, but I shall bless the name of the Lord.” 

Jesus is the only Lover of Man and, being God, He also became man.  Born of a pure Virgin, He then accomplished the greatest work ever done, which we can understand only in part. The great power of His suffering during His Passion and Crucifixion was the greatest destructive weapon ever devised, making Him the Conqueror of death. Through the Cross, He overthrew the authority of the Devil and put death to death, granting us the victory and great mercy. 

Orthodox culture and western culture clash; they are mutually opposed.  Many Orthodox are unaware of the treasure they possess. We are baptized into the death and Resurrection of Christ, sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, communed with the Body and Blood of Christ and thereby God is easily accessible to us. Also, Christ reminds us: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”  But to reach Him, we must know ourselves and turn inward, realize our many sins, and humble ourselves.  Preventing us from reaching the Kingdom are our self-opinions and egoism, which are contrary to the mind of Christ.  Western culture exalts these things but Christ denounces them. To gain everlasting life, we need to listen, not to the West but to Jesus Christ. Western thinking exalts man, puffs him up, and this separates him from the humble Christ, for the unrepentant proud can never approach Christ. When we humble ourselves, we will begin to abandon our pride and self-centeredness, which prevents communion with God, for God listens to the humble-minded and exalts them. The importance of this virtue is seen in Christ's extreme humility, for this was the weapon with which he defeated the proud devil. He teaches us: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble in my heart.”  Humility is a short and direct path to God.  

As we hear the Gospel accounts or hymns that describe the insults hurled at Christ, let us feel them with Himt. When He is crowned with a crown of thorns, let us feel them and taste the bitterness and the pain as we co-suffer with Him. Let us sympathize and feel His agony, if only a little. The robber on the Cross was a co-sufferer with Christ and His sympathy swung open the door of Paradise. Our attention needs to be concentrated on the suffering of our Master, the KIng of Glory.  If we choose to experience His Passion even mildly, He will gladly show us His glorious Resurrection. Then we can exult and sing:  We worship your Passion O Christ; show us your glorious Resurrection.”  Let us also, like Christ, forgive our enemies and those who do evil to us, and say, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

This Holy Week is indeed the true reality into which we are entering, for the world is not reality, but rather, the suffering and crucified Lord is. The world will one day be gone and a new world will appear, but Christ is one of the Holy Trinity!  We must rouse our souls and open our hearts to deeply feel and experience the events taking place before us, not merely remembering the historical events, but the reality which is present for us.

During the Twelve Gospel readings on Holy Thursday evening, let us keep focused, stand firmly and absorb everything. Breathing in the atmosphere of His terrible sufferings for the sins of men, let us cling to every word, standing as participants and not merely spectators; it is possible to bring our souls into the reality of these events, as we feel with Him the words of hatred. We can feel the attacks and abuse of the One Who loves us, as they hurl blasphemous insults against Him.  Let us feel their bitter and harsh words as they shamelessly cover Him with spittle.  Considering Him unworthy of life, they mercilessly scourge the back of the God-man. Let us sympathize and weep for the One Whom we love as He undergoes this malicious and murderous assault.  Before our eyes suffers the One who is setting us free, our beloved Bridegroom and Saviour. There is no question that if we suffer with Him, and extend our faithfulness and love for Him during His Passion, He will also show us His glorious Resurrection. 

Pascha, with its beauty and divine majesty, is not clearly visible to those who neglected to accompany Christ as He suffered in His voluntary Passion and Crucifixion during the days of Holy Week. However, both those who fasted and followed His Passion and those who ignored His Passion are invited to share and celebrate this day, entering into the joy of His Resurrection.  In the Holy Resurrection, everyone and everything is forgiven, and Pascha is a new beginning. The celebration of Pascha surpasses every other celebration, for by it every man can return to Paradise, which was lost by our foreparents and by our own sins.

We rejoice in His glorious Resurrection because in it we see our own eventual resurrection.  If this were not so, there would be sadness, not rejoicing.  We know that as Christ rose from the dead, we too shall rise, if we walk in the newness of life in Christ.  St. Paul confirms this saying: “for if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like his…”

One of the purposes of Christ’s life on earth was to teach us how we must conduct our lives and what our goal is in this present life. We are the Body of Christ, and though we remain individuals, we need to mutually acquire the same mind and heart, learning to love what He loves and hate what he hates, that we may become an image of Christ.

What do we see in the Resurrection?  Before the Crucifixion, Pilate cried out to the Jews: “Behold the man!”  Concerning Him, they cried: “Away with Him. Crucify Him!” Pilate is gone and those Jews are gone, but we see in the Resurrection, not the man, but the God-man, risen from the dead!

Yesterday, I was buried with you; today I rise with your arising.  Yesterday I was crucified with you; glorify me, O Savior, with you in Your Kingdom.”  The resurrected man is the man who arises in the resurrection, the man whom God conceived from the beginning, and who gradually becomes more and more His image and likeness. Christ speaks of such men: “be holy, for I am holy.  Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Pascha is not of this world, but a continuous state of being for the resurrected man, who was raised above this world, having chosen to live in the kingdom, and his closest friends are the Theotokos and the many saints and martyrs.  

This resurrected life is a life of frequent prayer, reading of uplifting books, primarily the Bible every day. It is attending Church services and receiving, with fear, faith and love, the Holy Mysteries, the medicine that eradicates sin within us and is the source of spiritual power and immortality.  Where does this resurrected life lead?  Happiness and uninterrupted joy every day of our lives regardless of circumstances. Hope that warms our hearts and causes us to always give thanks to God for everything!  May we all become children of the Resurrection and find ourselves welcomed by Christ into the future eternal Pascha!  Christ is Risen!

We must listen intently to the Lord by digesting His Holy Scriptures, like a spiritual meal every day of our lives.  Then we must bear fruit by our words and actions.  We must listen to God in the psalms and hymns, making melody in our hearts, rejoicing in the delight of being a temple of God.  The present season of Pascha will last another month as we celebrate singing: “Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs, bestowing life.” 

Let us always be prepared to witness Christ to all, and never be ashamed to confess Him before men.  “For whoever confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in Heaven.”  When we Orthodox testify to Christ and the truth, even when persecuted, there is great joy in heaven and celebration by the angels who sing:  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill among men!”  It is the good will of God that we become His holy temple and keep His commandments. As living temples of the most high God, let us continuously celebrate Holy Pascha and look ahead to the joy of everlasting life, where there is no sorrow or tears, but joy beyond description.