May - June 2006
year XXXI
RESURRECTION
by Vicki Petrakis
Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachtani! /
‘Father, Father, why have You
abandoned me?’ In the depths of
His suffering the perfect Human
cried out to the Father in despair,
in solitude and anguish, Eloi, Eloi,
lama Sabachtani! For those of us
‘crippled’ Christians who walk
these days leading to Holy Easter
with hope that we too will be
saved some day, what comfort
have these words to give us? If
Christ despaired on the Cross,
what hope do we have, and yet, the
promise of the Resurrection cannot
be accomplished without the
Passion.
The event of the Resurrection
which the Orthodox Church
celebrates each year is the
highlight of Orthodoxy and the joy
which the Church feasts by
dressing herself in white; lighting
candles in the midst of the night
and chanting Χριστὸς ἀνέστη ἐκ
νεκρῶν θανάτω θάνατον πατήσας
καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς µνήµασι ζωὴν
χαρισάµενος / ‘Christ is risen from
the dead, trampling down death by
death, and upon those in the tombs
bestowing life!’ But all this joy
and celebration is meaningless if
the Passion had not taken place; it
was a necessary event having been
foretold by the prophets of the Old
Testament.
The mission of Christ as
Messiah on earth was never meant
to be a peaceful event. Christ did
not come to earth for a cup of tea
and a quick ‘hello’. Perhaps it may
have been like that if humanity had
understood at the outset what its
relationship to God and the rest of
humanity entailed. However,
having embraced the earthly as the
only reality we alienated ourselves
from God. The plan for salvation
therefore lay in God Himself, He
came by sending His Son, His
Word to fulfil our destiny in Him.
He paid the price for our sins by
His suffering, why then should we
be amazed by the words, Eloi,
Eloi, lama Sabachtani! All that He
suffered, he suffered in His
humanity, which felt the pain, the
thirst, the humiliation and the fear
of the annihilation of the soul to Rejoice! Christ, our
the Unknown. Christ suffered and
for this reason Eloi, Eloi, lama eternal joy, is risen!
Sabachtani! should not intrigue us, Presbytera Eisodia Menis
but humble us, maybe even bring
tears to our eyes! Why not? It was The Athonite Gerontikon in-
not anybody who assumed my cludes a story of a simple elder
sins, our sins, but God Himself, the called Father Thomas. In 1935,
‘I AM’. after the Liturgy of the Resurrec-
Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachtani! are tion, Fr Thomas was asked by his
words that we all exclaim at one Abbott to go to the ossuary to
point at least in our lives, and yet greet the (dead) fathers with the
the God who transcends nature, paschal declaration: “Christ is
who is known to man by all that Risen!” He duly obeyed without
He is not, does not forsake us. St second thought. Astonishingly, the
Gregory of Nyssa tells us in The relics moved, replied “Truly the
Life of Moses that when we least Lord is Risen” and returned to
believe or know God, that is when their silence. The brotherhood
He is standing next to us, carrying celebrated a unique Pascha that
our burden. Moses came closest to year with their praises to God re-
Him in the darkness of a cloud; doubled.
when things no longer made sense Being deeply moved, they sang a
to Moses was when God was hymn from the Matins of the Res-
closest to Him. urrection:

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Sunday School / Şcoala de duminică

7 May / mai 2006

Romanian Christian Wisdom

ÎnŃelepciune Creştină Românească
Revd / Preot Doru Costache

Ce Ńie nu-Ńi place, nobody think to others’ needs. prayer Our Father. There it is told:
altuia nu-i face! Dezechilibrul constă în faptul că And forgive us our sins,
What you dislike, toŃi oamenii se gândesc exclusiv la As we forgive those who sin
do not do to somebody else! interesele lor, în timp ce aproape against us.
nimeni nu se gândeşte la nevoile Acest principiu este inspirat de
This represents one of the most altora. rugăciunea Tatăl nostru. Acolo se
simple and efficient moral princi- spune:
ples. If we do and give to people what Şi ne iartă greşelile,
Acesta reprezintă unul din cele mai we expect for ourselves, this im- Precum şi noi îi iertăm pe cei care
simple şi eficiente principii morale. balance disappears. greşesc faŃă de noi.
Dacă facem şi le dăm oamenilor
Tensions between people come ceea ce aşteptăm pentru noi înşine, The principle is almost literally
from a lack of balance in their be- acest dezechilibru dispare. taken from Luke 6:31:
haviour. Do to others as you would have
Tensiunile dintre oameni vin dintr- For instance, we have to forgive them do to you.
o lipsă de echilibru în the others if we want to be for- Acest principiu este luat aproape
comportamentul lor. given. literal din Luca 6:31:
De exemplu, trebuie să-i iertăm pe Ce vreŃi să vă facă vouă alŃii, faceŃi
The imbalance consists in the fact alŃii dacă dorim să fim iertaŃi. şi voi la fel pentru ei.
that all people think exclusively to
their own interests while almost This principle is inspired by the

Resurrection...  page 1 spirit….that mystery of movement Rejoice... page 1

unintelligible to the senses for You
The Resurrection is the hope have no taste other than your Your Resurrection, Christ Sav-
that we all have as Christians, no sweet manna; You have no smell iour, Angels sing in heaven; grant
matter how much we avoid this other than Your myron; You have that we too, who are on earth,
glorious occasion by the lives we no visibility other than the eyes may with pure hearts give glory to
live. First do we fully understand You sent me; and to touch You is you.
about our personal resurrection in to feel the gentle breeze of the There are similar stories in
this life and in the next? I for one wind telling me Your spirit is other monastic anthologies. In
am certainly perplexed by the close; ah but to hear You that is this bright time of the paschal sea-
former and amazed by the latter; my longing; to hear You Lord, to son the story is enriching. Seeing
perhaps revealing my personal understand You, to concur with the words of the monks’ song, I
reaction to Christ’s words, Eloi, Your will so that we may live in returned to the Matins to read
Eloi, lama Sabachtani! Once peace together. them once again in their context.
again this Pascha, as I approach May we with pure hearts, they
the joy of the Resurrection, I As I approach Your resurrection say, give glory to our Lord.
cannot help but wonder: Lord, the mind is no longer moved Again the Matins of the Resur-
by thoughts but numbed by the rection teaches us:
what is this Resurrection Lord that mystery of You….all around me is Let us purify our senses, and in
in Your perfect humanity You You as I recall Your own words to the unapproachable light of the
make a mockery of death; You me… personally, “Love God and resurrection we shall see Christ
transgress the laws of nature and love your fellow man”. Who are shining forth, and we shall clearly
come back to life and not to this You Lord that I should want to hear him saying ‘Rejoice!’, as we
one that I am familiar with but to know You? sing the triumphal song.
another….a place of the

Parochial Life | may - june 2006 |


Discerning the Paschal Mystery
PASCHAL MYSTERY 1
Christ is risen!
The night of the Holy Pascha is
one among the many beginnings
which compose the liturgical
year. It represents the Christian
version of the Jewish Simhat To-
rah, a festival of ending and start-
ing again the reading of the Torah
in the Synagogue during a year.
In a similar way, the Eastern
Christian Pascha represents the
moment when the annual circuit
of the readings from the New Tes-
tament begins.
The indicated readings for this
period are the Gospel according
to St John and the Acts of the
Apostles. The first celebrates and
proclaims the ecclesial vision of
Christ, while the second pro-
claims and celebrates the new life,
as experienced by the Church of
Christ.
The feeling is similar. During
Simhat Torah, the Synagogue
chants our Torah is a Tree of Life
for everyone. In the night of the
Holy Pascha, the Church chants
the joy of the new life in Christ,
the latter being the Tree of Life
PASCHAL MYSTERY 2
Christ is risen!
At the end of the first paschal oc-
tave (i.e. the first week of eight
days), the two readings end by
speaking of life. this repre-
sents the most appropriate exege-
sis of the paschal mystery.
Acts 5:19-20: during the night an
angel of the Lord opened the
doors of the jail and brought them
out. “Go, stand in the temple
courts,” he said, “and tell the
people the full message of this
new life”
Parochial Life | may - june 2006 |
by Revd Dr Doru Costache
http://revdcostache.livejournal.com/
John 20:31: Jesus did many other
miraculous signs in the presence
of his disciples, which are not re-
corded in this book. But these are
written that you may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that by believing you
may have life in his name
At the end of the larger paschal
octave (i.e. the eighth Sunday of
the Holy Pascha), we receive the
Holy Spirit, the shared Life of the
Life. The paschal mystery is the
proclamation and celebration of
the eighth day of creation, which
is the mystery of plentiful life
PASCHAL MYSTERY 3
Christ is risen!
Why the day of the resurrection is
the day of the Pascha?
It is because this day
we celebrate the resurrected
Christ, who truly is the Pascha
(Passover). It is the celebration of
a person, not just of an event in-
volving that person. The person is
the key of our sur-vival (living in
a superior way, not just surviving
an unfortunate event): he is the
ladder (cf. John 1:51), he is the
way, the truth and the life (cf.
John 14:6), he is the mediator be-
tween us and God (cf. 1 Timothy
2:5), he is our participation in the
divine life (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). The
event is just the manifestation of
all these…
Christ is the new Pascha, we re-
cite, like summarising the open-
ing strophe of the canon:
The day of the resurrection! Re-
joice, people! Pascha of the Lord,
Pascha! Christ our God passed
us from death to life and from
earth to heavens, those who chant
the hymn of victory
page 3
Christ is the/our passing from
slavery to freedom, from sinful-
ness to virtue (cf. Romans 6 – an
explanation for the reason why,
during the ancient times, baptisms
were performed in the night of the
Pascha), from darkness to light
(cf. 1 Peter 2:9). It is not by
chance that during the paschal
liturgy we hear: the light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness
has not overcome it (John 1:5)
PASCHAL MYSTERY 4
Christ is risen!
The liturgy of the resurrection
reveals simultaneously the iden-
tity and the outcome of the Pascha
the identity: In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He
was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were
made; without him nothing was
made that has been made (John
1:1-3). The Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory
of the Only-Begotten of the Fa-
ther, full of grace and truth (John
1:14).
The outcome: all who received
him, those who believed in his
name, he gave the power to be-
come children of God—children
born not of natural descent, nor
of human decision or a husband's
will, but born of God (John 1:12-
13). From the fullness of his
grace we have all received
one grace after another (John
1:16).
The Son of God became the Son
of Man that the sons of man be-
come sons of God

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Discerning... page 3 was the death itself, acknowl-

edged and experienced as nothing
PASCHAL MYSTERY 5
All the time, everyday, St Sera- PASCHAL MYSTERY 8
phim of Sarov greeted everybody Christ is risen!
with: Christ, my joy, has risen! John 1:14: we have seen his
glory
PASCHAL MYSTERY 6 1 John 1:1-4: that which was
Christ is risen! from the beginning, which we
The Holy Pascha represents the have heard, which we have seen
feast of the body. It celebrates the with our eyes, which we have
salvation of the body, not from the looked at and our hands have
body. Many have thought that touched—this we proclaim con-
salvation is the escape of the soul cerning the Word of life. The life
from the body. Some went too far appeared; we have seen it and
with this philosophy... Lucian testify to it, and we proclaim to
Blaga jokes in a poem on a monk you the eternal life, which was
who mocked so much his body, with the Father and has appeared
than it became impossible for him to us. We proclaim to you what
to find his body at we have seen and heard, so that
the eschatological resurrection of you also may have communion
all... with us. And our communion is
The facts are this: the Logos took with the Father and with his Son,
upon himself a body; he lived in Jesus Christ. We write this to
this body what belongs to human make our joy complete
life; he transfigured and resur- Celebrating Holy Pascha is to
rected this body, with all that open our eyes – to see the unseen.
represents human life. The Resurrected opened the eyes
The Holy Pascha celebrates the of his disciples (cf. Luke 24:30-
passing of the body into a new 31 & 45).
existential dimension Adam and Eve closed their mind-
deified, but still a body nonethe- eye and unwisely opened the sen-
less sible, allowing themselves to get
drunk with the beauty of the
PASCHAL MYSTERY 7 world. Only this beauty is ephem-
Christ is risen! eral, and existentially neuter. One
Trampling down death by death: cannot become a better person by
the only hope for a resurrection is just seeing beautiful things…
by assuming the defeat. But this Celebrating Holy Pascha is to
is just one side of reality. The su- keep open the sensible eye, and
perficial, though not necessarily more – to open again the mind-
lacking heroism. From another eye. This may provide us with the
perspective, one has to kill his/her opportunity of seeing more, of
own prejudices in order to acquire seeing beyond, of getting trans-
editor:
a wider horizon and a more realis- formed into what we see. And Rev. Doru Costache, PhD
tic understanding. For instance, then, of transforming everything
we all are desperate to live. And else we see. layout design:
this precisely is the cause of our To those unable to experience this Ion Nedelcu (Bucharest)
inexorable death. alchemy, nothing could be bright, address:
Jesus understood this and went luminous. 64 Linthorn Ave,
glorious towards death, killing Rejoice! The light shines in the Croydon Park,
step by step his fears. Eventually, darkness, but the darkness has NSW 2133.
phone: (02) 9642 02 60
when he breathed for the last not overcome it. www.geocities.com/sfmaria_sydney
time, not the life was defeated – it

Parochial Life | may - june 2006 |