Christ is risen. Pascha is so solemn, so enthusiastic,
so celebratory that there's a danger when we
leave here on Sunday, go back to work and family
cares and responsibilities. that we might fall
into some kind of, I don't know, Paschal slump.
Especially after experiencing Lent and Holy Week
and that structure of services and fasting and
prayers. But the church knows this. Great is
the Lord's strength and great is his power. And
of his understanding, there is no measure, we
sang a whole number of times. And we believe
that. And the church gives us this day and these
particular reunions to excite us again, to give
us some enthusiasm about our faith, and to question
it too. If you recall on Sunday on Pascha at
the Vespers, where the gospel left off, it was
with Thomas saying, unless I see it, I'm not
going to believe it. And again, I will point
out, as I have a number of times, finally we
have this fresco of that scene, Thomas coming,
and it's called The Belief of Thomas. He gets
a bad rap doubting Thomas, but his doubt, which
was not toxic doubt, was not terminal doubt,
led to faith because he questioned something.
He questioned the apostles. So that's where we
left off. And I think it's worth saying that
no arguments from those men who had run away
from Christ in his hour of need, fallen asleep
in Gethsemane, and then left Golgotha. No arguments
were going to confess St. Thomas about some kind
of new life. You heard what the angel said in
Acts to the apostles. Go out there into the temple
and preach all the words of this new life. Don't
be afraid. The angel had released them from prison.
Well, Thomas knew that a Roman execution squad
knew how to beat, crucify, and kill a person,
and they knew when a person was dead. Jesus wasn't
revived. somehow in the tomb without medical
attention, beaten up so bad, and then just came
back. No, he was killed by the Romans. The cross
was a weapon, was a tool of death, and a frightful
one at that. Thomas could not believe the news
of the apostles. Why? They were not yet changed.
They were still the same. They were not transformed.
They were not bearers of the resurrection. But
we can believe the apostles. We can believe the
saints. We can believe the liturgy. We can believe
the scriptures. Seeing how the church has survived
despite whatever opposition and persecution and
martyrdom came, the church flourished. We can
believe. that Christ has risen by looking at
the monastics, by the extraordinary peace of
those who have Christ within them, the holiness,
the countless miracles, the saints after saints
after saints, who all stand and say, my Lord
and my God. All these stand as radiant witnesses
to us of the Lord's resurrection, because Christ's
victory, the gospel story, is the victory over
the most wicked and devious and horrible tyrant,
the devil. And the death that this tyrant, the
devil, promotes as good. Our joy, our boundless
joy, our love for God, is founded how? On an
historical event of God entering this world.
Father Michael used to love this phrase, the
inrushing of God into creation. He was crucified,
buried, and rose again. That's the event. Our
faith starts with an event in history which tells
us that our faith is not about speculation. It's
not about theory. It's not about religious searching
or fuzzy mysticism or myth. It's about the historical
event of the resurrection and those that believed
that it took place. Pascha. And those apostles,
those saints, those martyrs, you brothers and
sisters are witnesses too of the resurrection.
And when we embrace this witness in the life
of the church, We see that the entire purpose
of our life, you might be able to say it boils
down to one thing. To be united to the risen
Christ, the God -man. To see him, not with these
eyes, but like the blind man knew it was Jesus.
To see him in the heart. On Pascha. And every
Saturday night, if we had matins, or Sunday morning,
if we had matins, we would sing, having beheld
the resurrection of Christ. Did you catch that?
Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let
us worship the Holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless
one. And we sing these words on Pascha, and again
and again during Bright Week, if we were doing
matins. How do we see? These words tell us. Let
us purify our senses, and we shall see Christ
shining in the unapproachable light of the resurrection,
and we shall clearly hear him say, rejoice, as
we sing the song of victory. How do we see with
the eyes of our heart, and how do we purify our
senses? What has Lent been about? Usually, our
senses, eyes, taste, touch. hearing, are all
finely attuned to the things of this world. That's
okay. They should be. But when we pursue touch,
taste, sight, and hearing, when we pursue it
as a pursuit of an ongoing goal of pleasure,
then the other sense that we have, the vision,
You see what I mean? The vision is buried. We
have to go the way of the cross. Fasting and
prayer, forgiveness, vigil, these things are
all putting to death the old man and the corruptions
of the flesh, the grabbing and pulling into our
heart, which disfigures that heart. We cannot
see the resurrection. of Christ. It's not just
believing the historical event. It's having Christ
within our soul and living the resurrection.
And because we can do that, and we can, this
is not lofty. This is our goal. This is what
we are here for. Today, to receive Christ within
us, to behold the resurrection as we receive
his glorified body and blood, and to praise him
for his wondrous and amazing work of salvation.
And that power, which we share now, we share
now in baptism and communion and repentance,
that power and our own eventual rising from the
dead tells us something. This is my second point.
That's essential. We do not forget, because in
the world now, there is a powerful opposition
to this thought, to this teaching, which is what?
That what God has made is good. That what God
has made can be holy, can bear the spirit, can
carry the spirit. Yes, we start with our broken
and sinful souls and bodies. That's our starting
point. But we don't normalize sin, the sinful
world within us or around us. We can't normalize
sin. We can't say it's okay. We have to struggle
to keep the commandments, that is to carry the
cross, to deny ourselves, to confess our sins.
Who doesn't feel the pain, the fallenness of
the human body, our brokenness, if I could use
this phrase, our dysphoria. We are not in paradise,
not yet whole, not yet as we should be, not yet
as we will be. The devil tricks us in this most
basic sense that we have that not all is correct.
and offers us and the world all kinds of options.
Transhumanism, you think it's nothing now. It's
coming down the road. Not to mention the assault
on our biology, the body that God has made. Indeed,
things are not the way they will be, but we shall
be, says St. John, as he is, as Christ is in
the resurrection. Don't let sin, don't let current
morality dehumanize you and those that you love.
In all areas of our life, all areas, food, what
we watch, what we listen to, how we comport ourselves,
how we treat our body, especially if this is
clear in terms of sexual morality and sexed bodies,
we remain a creation of God bought with a price.
You are not your own, says St. Paul. You have
been purchased with the precious blood of the
Lord. And we discover at Pascha and this week,
little by little, with some effort, that the
resurrection of Christ proves to us that what
God created in the beginning, when he said, it
is good, It is indeed good. It is godly and capable
of holiness. Such holiness. God has made us body
and soul. In the beginning he created us male
and female. In his image and in his likeness.
And our struggle is not to find ourselves. Which
is what those who are lost always say. I need
to find myself. There's truth in there. Yes.
But looking in the wrong place will bring you
to spiritual death. Find myself how we have been
buried with Christ in holy baptism and died with
him. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives
within me and loves me. This is vital to accept,
brothers and sisters, since the world absolutely
rejects this foundational good news teaching
about our human nature, that by the resurrection,
everything will be healed and as it should be.
St. Paul powerfully says this, be not conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewal
of your mind that you may prove what is good
and acceptable and the perfect will of God. Jesus
Christ gives us the starting point and the ending
point. You heard it in the third week of Lent.
Deny yourself. You will find yourself. If you
try to save yourself, you will lose. You will
lose it all. Pick up your cross and follow the
one who will lead you to the resurrection. He's
leading us to the only place that we can go to
be made whole. That is to be holy as he is holy.
Christ is risen.