Christ is Risen! Death was overcome by its own devices; it no longer reigns supreme. That which ends our temporal existence has come to and encounter the immanent eschaton, revealing that it too has its own limit, its own end. Death has been deconstructed. It still plays a role in temporal history, but that role has been changed, for it now has become the gate by which all living things go through in order to come to Christ. It is the end which we all face in order to come to the presence of the one who is the eschaton itself, the beginning and the end, so that as we come to him, we can be taken in by him and brought to new life. Christ is risen, love is more powerful than death, and now, we are called to celebrate with gladness and joy the reconfiguration of all things revealed in the resurrection:
Enter all of you, therefore, into the joy of our Lord, and, whether first or last, receive your reward. O rich and poor, one with another, dance for joy! O you ascetics and you negligent, celebrate the day! You that have fasted and you that have disregarded the fast, rejoice today! The table is rich-laden; feast royally, all of you! The calf is fatted; let no one go forth hungry!
Let all partake of the feast of faith. Let all receive the riches of goodness.[1]
Christ is risen, and all are called to experience the glory of the resurrection. No one has been predetermined to be rejected. Everyone is called. Christ loves all. He wants everyone to come to their share of eternal life. No one is given special preference. Everyone, despite their background, is given the same call, and all the categories which we try to use to separate people are transcended by the resurrection:
Let no one lament his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn his transgressions, for pardon has dawned from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Saviour’s death has set us free. [2]
Sin embraces the power of death, using the destructive powers of death to destroy those who would follow its dictates. Now the sting of death is no more: it has been overcome by the resurrection of Christ. We have been freedom from the shackles of sin. All that comes before the resurrection, all the temporal conditions and temporal way of life which lies outside of eternity and eternal life, are as naught. No one who has responded to Jesus’ call should fear that they will be rejected. All are called to the feast, all are called to the celebration, all are called to find their place in the kingdom of God.
Jesus, the Word of God, has always been with God, for the Word is God, the Son of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (Jn. 1:1-2 RSV). In the new beginning of the resurrection, Jesus, the Word made flesh, is affirmed by the Father. We are shown that despite all that he suffered, he was not rejected by the Father. The Word is still with God, indeed, has always been with God and will always be affirmed and loved by God the Father. In him, in the Word, all the things were made. “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (Jn. 1:3 RSV). Now, in the incarnation, all things are also in him, having been assumed by him, so that they find themselves remade in him thanks to his resurrection from the dead. They now can be free from the corruption of sin, for truly, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn. 1:5 RSV):
He that was taken by death has annihilated it! He descended into hades and took hades captive! He embittered it when it tasted his flesh! And anticipating this Isaiah exclaimed, “Hades was embittered when it encountered thee in the lower regions.” It was embittered, for it was abolished! It was embittered, for it was mocked! It was embittered, for it was purged! It was embittered, for it was despoiled! It was embittered, for it was bound in chains! [3]
The darkness of death could not snuff out the light of the giver of life; though he had indeed died, though he had descended into hell, hell itself could not hold him. The light is stronger than the darkness, and now that he has gone throughout the full range of being, to the edge of being itself, the light shines, overcoming the darkness of sin in all creation. The light is also shining in us; we can and should embrace it so that by doing so, we will find ourselves participating in the light of life, receiving by it the glory of eternal life for ourselves.
All are called. All are welcome. The glory of the resurrection is not a few chosen people, for a few spiritual or worldly elites, but for all, as the Paschal Homily attributed to St. John Chrysostom proclaims:
“O death, where is thy sting? O hades, where is thy victory?”
Christ is risen, and you are overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in a tomb!
For Christ, being raised from the dead, has become the First-fruits of them that slept. [4]
We, then, are called to the feast, to experience it for ourselves. We can and will do so temporally through our reception of the eucharist, a reception which participates in and anticipates the glory we will experience when we find ourselves transformed from temporal to eternal life. For we are called to be united with Christ, a unity which will imitate and follow the unity found in the Trinity. Christ will be in us even as we will be in Christ, and so, through Christ, we will be able to participate in the glory of the kingdom of God, a glory revealed to us in Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
Christ is Risen! Let us heed the call and receive what the love of God has in store for us!
[1] Paschal Homily attributed to St. John Chrysostom, from the translation found Orthodoxwiki.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
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