In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, I greet you from my heart
on this bright day of Pascha. We're preparing
now for a bright Monday, and then bright Tuesday,
and Wednesday, and all through the week. One
week of Pascha. It's exhausting, isn't it? And
we feel our human weakness. About now, we celebrated
in the night. So much labor went into the celebration.
Any great celebration, any party, any gathering
that's worth anything is going to have some work
put into it. And if it's for God, and if it's
from our heart, if it's for... Honoring the resurrection.
And not just honoring the resurrection. But entering
into the reality of Christ's resurrection. And
our own baptism. Which is what Pascha is all
about. Our own death with Christ. We have died
to sin. Death has no more dominion over us. And
we have risen to Christ. And his life. And now
we walk with the spirit. Anything like that.
is going to have such a tremendous amount of
work. Decorations, the flowers, the Easter eggs
hanging from the chandelier, the continual lighting
of lamps and extinguishing of lamps, the live
streaming, which we never had before last year.
People in church, which we didn't have last year.
How wonderful this is. This has to be the most
joyous Pascha ever. For many reasons, one of
them is that. The message of the cross, the message
of the resurrection, has to be something new,
vital, and radical for each one of us. This isn't
a celebration of life after death. This is the
celebration of the goodness of creation. Because
God made us body and soul. He created this world.
Yesterday we heard that incredible canticle.
Praise him, stars and light. Praise him, waters.
Praise him, oceans. Praise him, mountains. Praise
him, frosts and cold and heat and summer heat.
Everything praising God, the creator of all things.
The resurrection is the... validation of the
goodness of creation. And only Christ is the
leader of that. And that's why it's radically
different and new for us. We will be raised in
glory. The state of our soul is up to us. Oh,
of course, the Lord's grace is given to us. But
we have to act and respond. Synergy. Responding
to God's grace. And so if our soul is filled
with holiness and goodness and the life of repentance
and the kingdom of God, then when our body is
raised, what glory we will experience. We say
at the Panikita, O Lord, grant rest to the soul
of thy servant with the saints. in the bosom
of Abraham, where there's neither sorrow or sighing
or sickness, and death is no more. But that's
just the waiting period. Today, we are... Living
as if we have passed the waiting period and we
are in the time of the resurrection. We are in
the time when Christ has already come. This is
what today is about. This is what Pascha is.
That's why we put all this effort into this.
And the message of the gospel is quite realistic.
How did it end? It didn't end with the story
of Christ, triumphant. It didn't end with the
story of the apostles. Going out and preaching
the Lord. It ended with Thomas saying. Unless
I say. I will not believe. That's the message
for Thomas Sunday. Next week too. But the message
for today. And Thomas Sunday continues. And Christ
appears to him. But the message for today is.
How deep and hungry. Are we for faith. And knowledge
of God. How much do we want to know the Lord?
Has he appeared to us in our soul? In any way
whatsoever? Through someone else? Through the
scriptures? Certainly at the Divine Liturgy and
the Eucharist. For we sing, having beheld the
resurrection of Christ, we sing like we saw it.
So we must have had an experience. And in that
case, we can answer Thomas' question. And his
statement, unless I see, I will not believe.
I didn't see the Lord. Show me. The apostles
could not. Because they were as yet unchanged.
But we've been changed. We've been transfigured.
We have been given the Holy Spirit. We've been
given the life of the kingdom of God. We see
Christ has risen. trampling down death by death.
How many times do we have to hear that he has
defeated the devil, number one, that he has overcome
the poison of sin by his death on the cross,
number two. This was just in the hymns we just
heard. And number three, by being raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, he has gathered
us all up into himself, and we will be raised
with him. So this is the message. This is why
we rejoice so much. And we continually sing all
week. And we go through all this beautiful effort.
The singing. The decorating. The chanting. The
eating. That's part of it too. Because we have
fasted. Oh, you have fasted. And you who have
been negligent of the fast. We heard last night.
The table is richly laden, but don't make the
mistake. There are two tables. It's the table
of the kingdom in which we're fed by Christ himself,
and then we rejoice and we go home and we share
the riches that he has given us with everyone
else. Acts told us last night, the reading from
the book of Acts, said, be ye witnesses. What
have we seen? What have we witnessed that we
can speak of Christ? Let that be something that
you ponder in your souls, brothers and sisters.
Christ is risen. He is risen.