Great, Holy, and Glorious Pascha
The Resurrection of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ
1st Vespers Palm Sun: Genesis 49:1-2, 8-12 Apostle: Acts 1:1-8 Gospel: St. John 1:1-17
St. John 1:1-17, especially vs. 14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." "Let God arise, and let His enemies be
scattered! Today a sacred Pascha is revealed to us. Pascha new and Holy, Pascha mystical, Pascha all laudable, Pascha
which is Christ the Redeemer." What a blessing to celebrate this bright and beautiful season by reading through St. John's
Gospel, for this mystical work is a Feast to satisfy the insatiable hunger of our spirits, a luminous banquet of joy.
St. John's Gospel opens with a magnificent Prologue that announces Pascha as light and life. It discloses the fulfillment of
the Forerunner John's testimony and illumines the nature of grace and truth as the Person of Jesus Christ. "Come let us
drink from the fount of incorruption!"
Notice that the Prologue begins within eternity, exactly where the Word or Logos, the eternal Word of God, is and was and
shall be forever (vss. 1,2), for in the Logos, in Him, lies the source of "light and life." The Evangelist John declares that
everything that can be called "light and life" wells up and flows out from Him: "All things were made through Him, and
without Him nothing was made that was made" (vs. 3). It is clear - God the Word is no creature, nor a product of God's
fashioning. He is God, the One alone Who creates and fashions. And on this Day of Resurrection, when the world is made
new, we discover once again that He is Light and Life Who creates, illumines, and re-generates us in His image (vs. 4).
St. John the Forerunner was the last of the Prophets of the Old Covenant to bear witness to the Light (vss. 6-8). He was
also herald of the New Covenant, one who introduced the themes of the "great symphony" which the Master Musician then
executed on behalf of all nations. The Lord Jesus developed His message from St. John's first statement of the theme:
"Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (compare Mt. 3:2 and 4:17). Pascha is the Kingdom which St. John
declared to be "at hand" and which the Lord of Life brought "upon" all mankind (Mt. 12:28).
In the Prologue, take note of the frenzy of denial and ignorance which was raised against the Lord and culminated in His
Crucifixion: "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to
His own, and His own did not receive Him" (Jn. 1:10,11). However, there were, as there still are, the humble and the meek
who, by the grace of God, hear the great theme. These understand the life-giving message. These embrace Incarnate Life
and Light. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God" (vs.12). Pascha holds
an irony: for the People who were "His own" rejected their Passover from God. Children of God, receive your living
Pascha!
Pascha, above all, "is Christ the Redeemer." He is no ideal, nor a metaphor, nor a spiritual truth. Pascha is the Person of
God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. O Faithful, let us touch Him (1 Jn. 1:1), for "The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us" (Jn. 1:14). This same Word has burst forth from the tomb, for death cannot hold "His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father" (vs. 14). The Apostles received His fullness, "grace upon grace," overflowing (vs. 16). Christ
is risen, and, like them, we are endowed with Life Himself. Let us love and serve Him Who first loved us, "for grace and
truth" have come to us. Christ is risen!
It is the Day of Resurrection, be illumined for the Feast and embrace one another. Let us speak, brothers, even unto those
who hate us, and forgive all for the sake of the Resurrection. And together let us cry out: Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death; and, upon those in the tombs, bestowing life.