Christ is Risen!
In my first post, That Feeling, I proclaim that what I truly want in life is that feeling of joy that one feels on the night of Pascha/Easter as we sing Christ is Risen! I want it all the time!
We spend 7 weeks + walking with the church to this glorious exciting moment where all over the world we ring in Christ is Risen! Trampling down death by death! It is such a joyous feast. We walked with Christ through His passion to come to this day and now we stand with Him in song! Christ is Risen!
Just as I stated in that post, though, Christ is Risen every day! We must focus our attention on the risen Christ every day. He broke the chains and conquered death. He broke the chains and conquered all evil.
Yesterday I came across an article titled “Pascha is over—Now What?” on myocn.net. This is a very good article and really speaks to how I feel. He reminds us that “The life-changing news of the Resurrection is omnipresent throughout the entire yearly cycle of services.”
You see, each and every Sunday of the year we remember the resurrection of Christ. It is there in all the hymnography, cycled through 8 tones and 11 gospel readings. Every Sunday we hear a different reading of the Resurrection at Matins. (If you don’t go to Matins you miss the proclamation of the Resurrection!)
Last Saturday evening at Great Vespers we sang this:
Tone 3 (for the Resurrection)
By Thy Cross, O Christ our Savior,
death’s dominion has been shattered;
the devil’s delusion destroyed.
The human race, being saved by faith,//
always offers Thee a song.
Next Sunday we will sing this:
Tone 4 Troparion (Resurrection)
When the women disciples of the Lord
learned from the angel the joyous message of thy Resurrection,
they cast away the ancestral curse
and elatedly told the apostles:
“Death is overthrown!
Christ God is risen,//
granting the world great mercy!”
Christ God is Risen!
This is JOY!
This, my friends, is where it all begins. Where it really matters is this knowledge that Christ is Risen! “Death’s dominion has been shattered”. And we need to remember this every single day of the year. Not just on Pascha/Easter.
The article says:
By believing and proclaiming The Resurrection, we are pulled by God’s grace into the ark of salvation that restores in us the potential of the first man. This is why Christ has died, that we are saved and the two are forever linked with each other. We cannot look at Christ externally, and say, He was a great man, He did this and that, but yet remain separated from Him. He did not die outside of us. He died in our midst and for our sake. We are involved with Him by the resolve of His intent. “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
This is JOY!
He continues on by saying: (emphasis is mine)
According to the calendar, the Paschal season may have ended again for this year, but for us Pascha never ends. It is embedded in our existence as Christians, and we [should] carry it in our hearts at all times and in all places. Through it, the promise of the Kingdom to come is reality here and now for all believers.
This brings me JOY!
Christ is Risen!
This is the chosen and holy day, first of sabbaths, king and lord of days, the feast of feasts, holy day of holy days. On this day we bless Christ forevermore (Irmos 8, Paschal Canon).
Kindler of Joy! 