Category: Pascha and Pentecost

The Myrrh-bearers —Third Sunday of Pascha

This Sunday presents us with the proclamation of the resurrection according to St. Mark.

We are first confronted with the death of our Lord. Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate to reclaim the body. Pilate wonders that he died so quickly, while Joseph entombs his body with great care and love. As Christians we must confront the reality that Jesus died as a sign of his love. His glory was the Cross, making the Christian faith unique – love is found in sacrifice, life is found in death, power is found in service. And St. Paul’s words are read on Good Friday: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.’” (1 Corinthians 1:18-19). Believing in the Resurrection, we are confronted with the Christian paradox that the world cannot understand.

The women go to the tomb on the third day, but Jesus is not there. The young man announces to them: “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him” (Mark 16:6). The women are told to announce the resurrection, but they fail to do so, “They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8). This too is a challenge to our faith. Where do we seek the Christ? Can we today complete the mission the women were entrusted with, can we proclaim the resurrection? Do we understand the gospel and commit ourselves to the Lord, “who trampled upon death by death.”

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

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Easter Sviachene May 5, 2019

The traditional Easter parish “SVIACHENE” will be held on May 5, following the 10:30 Divine Liturgy. We will celebrate only one Divine Liturgy this Sunday.

We will be running a raffle. If you would like to donate any items to be raffled, please bring them to our church hall on Wednesday evening at setup or before “Sviachene” on Sunday, May 5.

Tickets are $25.00 for adults, $10.00 for youth from 12 to 18. Free for altar boys, and under 12.

Remember if you can donate homemade cakes for deserts, please do so. Fresh and healthy!

Thomas Sunday

Today is the eighth day of the celebration of the eighth day. Pascha! The Resurrection of our Lord! The Feast of Feasts!

It is a time of absence and presence.

Absence – when the risen Messiah comes to his apostles through locked doors, by divine providence, Thomas is not with them. May he come through the locked doors of our hearts!

Presence – when the risen Messiah comes to Thomas a week later, the doubting apostle gives the proclamation of faith that resounds through the ages: “My Lord and my God!

Absence – when the women come to the tomb, the body of Jesus is not there. “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” the angels ask.

Absence – the disciples on the road to Emmaus do not recognize the Lord.

Presence – they do recognize him in the breaking of the bread, “were our hearts not burning when he explained the Scriptures to us?”

Absence – we do not stand in the presence of the Lord in the same way as the apostles did.

Presence – the Lord is with us in Holy Communion, as he comes to us more intimately than we could imagine.

Absence – “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you” (John 16:7).

Presence – “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Today the Gospel tells us – “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Our celebration of the Resurrection, therefore, is not simply a historical report or remembrance, it is the truth of God-with-us today, challenging us to live in Christ.

Are not our two Christian greetings exactly the same:

Christ is risen! Indeed, he is risen!
Christ is among us! He is and he will be!

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

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PASCHA – The Feast of Feasts

At the Resurrection Matins, there is a procession where the people walk around the church. This procession recalls the way the women went to the tomb. The people stop in front of the Church doors and listen to the priest announce “Christ is Risen!”

The church bells ring, and the priest and people sing, “Christ is Risen!”

The doors are opened, and the church is filled with light.

The Holy Shroud is on the Altar as a sign that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. The people walk into the church singing, “Christ is Risen!”

There are many changes in the church. The doors on the Icon Screen are open. They will remain open from Pascha until after Divine Liturgy on Bright Saturday. This is to remind us that He opened the gates of Heaven and granted us eternal life.

The priest blesses a special bread called the Artos. The Artos is Christ – the Bread of Life.

It will remain in the church all of Bright Week. It will be distributed on Thomas Sunday.

People greet each other with – “Christ is Risen!” And respond with – “Indeed He is Risen!”

Pentecost

Pentecost is the fiftieth day, “the last and greatest day of the feast.” In the New Testament, this story is told only in the Acts of the Holy Apostles (Acts 2:1-12). On this day, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the form, “as of fire” and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:3) From this event, some observations can be made:

-This fulfills the promise made by the risen Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, “And[behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49)

-This was in the upper room, where the risen Lord came to the disciples through locked doors.

-There were twelve apostles, Matthias having been elected to replace the traitor Judas, as “a witness to [Jesus’] resurrection (Acts 1:22).”

-There were about one-hundred and twenty people present. Perhaps this was a symbolic number, for ten people were needed for a prayer group, hence, twelve apostles plus ten people for each apostle. The Spirit comes upon this gathering of communities.

-“As of fire,” the fire indicates the light of faith and the warmth of love.

-By the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles are transformed from frightened followers to fearless witnesses. To be a Christian means to be a witness to life, to the Resurrection, this can be done only by the grace of God.

-Bystanders from every nation heard the apostles in their own language. The scripture does not tell us that the apostles spoke simultaneously in a variety of languages, but that the listeners heard them in their own language. What we appropriate, then, is the witness of the apostles to the resurrection and faith in Jesus. This is the wellspring of our faith, which we profess always in “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”

-Can we accept this witness in our lives without fear.

-Today is seen as the birth of the Church, and the East sees it also as the beginning of ordination.

-Mary, the Mother of the Church, is present.

“We have seen the true light, we have found the true faith, and we worship the undivided Trinity, for the Trinity has saved us.”

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On the Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension

The Resurrection and the Ascension are two separate concepts. This was known by the Gospel writers, particularly St. Luke. St. John also distinguishes the two, when Mary Magdalene meets the Risen Lord. Jesus says to her, “Stop holding [traditional: “do not cling to me”] on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17). The Resurrection is the restoration to life of his human body, the Ascension is the glorification of Jesus, both God and man, at the right hand of the Father: “… the angels marveled at the sight of a human being more exalted than themselves. Today, the Father receives again in his bosom the one who was in him from eternity” (First sticheron at Psalm 140, Feast of Ascension).

The Ascension is the completion of the Paschal Mystery, the descent in humility, the exaltation again into glory. This serves as the model for every human life. It was necessary that in Christ the full glorification of the human nature be already fulfilled. Jesus did not continue to live among us in a historical sense, for our sanctification lies in accepting the Paschal Mystery of death and resurrection in faith, as our Lord told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. (John 20:29)” This, again, is the divine oikonomia. [Paraclete comes]. Jesus is already “King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14, 19:16), and reigns at the right hand of the Father.

St. Athanasius gives the fundamental Christian interpretation of the Ascension, “Since, then, the Word was an image of God and was immortal, he assumed the form of a slave and underwent death in our behalf as a man in his own flesh, so that through this death he might, on our account, bring himself home to the Father. For this reason he is also said as a man to have been exalted on our account, and for our sake, so that, just as by his death we have all died in Christ, so conversely in Christ we may be exalted, roused from the dead and going up to the heavens, ‘where Christ entered as our forerunner’ (Hebrews 6:20); Against the Arians 1:37-43 in ACD (Ancient Christian Doctrine) 3, 163).

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Sunday of the First Ecumenical Council

“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are” (John 17:11).

This Sunday commemorates the first ecumenical council (council of the whole Church), held in the city of Nicea, near Constantinople, in the year 325. The Gospel read on this Sunday is the final part of Jesus’ last teaching discourse to his disciples, just before he was arrested, as recorded by John. This gospel tells us about the whole divine plan for our glory and salvation.

Jesus first tells his disciples that he must leave them. Leaving them, however, does not mean abandoning them. Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. (John 14:18-19)” First, Jesus is going because he is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6). Second, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be” (John 14:3). Jesus tells us, “It is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). Why? Because “when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth” (John 16:13).

The climax of everything is that we will become like God, one in the Holy Trinity, “now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are” (John 17:11).

This is the glory of God, to bring all together in unity, for God is one. This does not mean that we will all be the same, for God has created us in a wonderous diversity, but we will all be united because there is only one truth, and we must live in the one truth. This is why the Council formulated the one truth about the one God, in the Holy Trinity. Each and every one of us must glorify God in the one truth, in “one mind and one heart” (Anaphora).

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Ascension of the Lord

The ascension of our Lord into glory is the seal on his resurrection. Jesus taught Nicodemus, “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13). St. Paul further explains that the ascension is the sign of his victory over the Hades, the kingdom of death, “What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:9-10).

As God, the Lord does not change, for he reigns with his Father in glory forever. But in the ascension, Jesus in his human nature, one person as the Word of God and Son of God and incarnate man, lifts up our human nature to the right hand of the Father in the hope of life and deification. St. John tells us of this hope, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2-3).

The liturgy of the Church teaches us the same mystery, “Ascending in glory today from the Mount of Olives, through your great love, you lifted up our fallen nature and enthroned it with the father on high” (Vespers). This was done out of love for us, “Having so loved human nature, you granted that it may be enthroned with you. In your compassion you united it with yourself, in union with it you have suffered, and by your passion you glorified it, O God, beyond all suffering” (Vespers).

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

Ascension Thursday

“…He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.”
 
Tomorrow, May 10th, is Ascension Thursday, a holy day of obligation. The Divine Liturgy will be offered at 9:00 a.m. (in Ukrainian) and at 7:00 p.m. (in English).
 
“It is no exaggeration to say that the feasts of Annunciation and Christmas have their exact counterpart and, indeed, their fulfillment in the Ascension. Christ united himself to our nature in order to raise us up to God. The Word became flesh and made his home among men, but through the Ascension, “the head of our human race is at home, where only God is at home.” And he ascended, not to abandon the earth—much less his flesh—but to fill all things with himself” (Hieromonk Herman (Majkrzak)).