Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Christ is Risen!
Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople
Kellia: Deuteronomy 4:32-40 Apostle: Acts 13:13-24 Gospel: St. John 6:5-14
Deuteronomy 4:32-40, especially vs. 39 RSV: "Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that
the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other." At the dawn of each day, for "dawn" is the
meaning of the word "Orthros," the Church sings, "God is the Lord, Which hath shown us light." Do you see that, to etch
this truth on our hearts as the basis for all of life, the Church continues, each day, to call to remembrance what the Prophet
Moses declares in this reading: "that the Lord is God...there is no other" (vs. 39)? Ethnic Israel still recalls that it was God
Who brought them into existence as a nation for Himself from out of bondage "to another nation, by trials, by signs, by
wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your
God did...in Egypt before your eyes" (vs. 34). With great solemnity at their annual Passover meal, they remind one
another: "In every generation it is the duty of each of us to know that it is we - we ourselves - who were saved from the
bondage of Egypt....Passover only becomes real when it is personal; freedom becomes real only when we identify
ourselves within it and strive to spread its fruits to all people, everywhere."
Notice that the language of the Jews conforms to Moses' style by addressing the physical descendants of Israel "as if" they
were the ones actually saved from Egypt. This speaking of history in the present carries forward into our Orthodox
Christian Tradition as well: "Today is the Day of Resurrection! Christ is risen from the dead; by His Death He has
trampled down death, and on those in the tombs He has bestowed life." In this Holy Pascha, we celebrate being the nation
which Christ our God has Himself taken from the midst of many nations, "by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a
mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors," according to all that He did before our eyes (vs. 34).
Let us therefore heed the words of God's great Prophet Moses. The God Who truly is acts today. He is not a mysterious
force inherent in the structure of the Universe. He is the Creator of the Universe, Who stands apart from it, but made it for
us (vs. 32). He reveals Himself by personal action within it. He speaks for our hearing, acts for our eyes, and takes our
nature on Himself that we may understand Him in our terms. All this He has done, is doing, and continues "that [we]
might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides Him" (vs. 35).
In what God has done and is doing we discover His genuine love for us (vs. 37). He is unquestionably faithful in what He
promises (vs. 37), and He is seriously committed to bringing us under Holy Discipline (vs. 34), which is simply healing and
life-giving discipleship, the Way of life that renews and restores our humanity. To this end we were anointed in the
Baptismal Mystery: "Unto the healing of body and soul, unto the hearing of faith. Thy hands have made me and fashioned
me that I may walk in the way of Thy commandments O Lord."
The Prophet presents his entire plan in definite steps. He confronts us with God's Self-revelation in the Exodus from Egypt
as a type of the Lord's ultimate defeat of death on the Cross by His Holy Resurrection. He reminds us that all which God
did He did for us to make us "a holy nation, His own special people, that [we] may proclaim the praises of Him who called
[us] out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). He pleads with us to "lay it to...heart, that the Lord is God in
heaven above and on the earth beneath, there is no other" (vs. 39) - to bring us to our crucial need - to keep God's
commandments that "it may go well" with us (vs. 40).
Blessed art Thou, O Lord; teach me Thy statutes. Blessed art Thou, O Master; make me to understand Thy
commandments. Blessed art Thou, O Holy One; enlighten me with Thy precepts.
