|
Site Map
Contact Fr. Gregory
© Copyright - material in this site may not be
reproduced in any media without the express permission of
the Web Master.
Care has been taken by this site to ensure that
all necessary copyright permissions have been obtained. If this is not the case in any
instance, this is an inadvertent error. Please contact the Web Master and this will be
rectified.
Disclaimer & Credits
|
Living
the Paschal Victory
What happens when we truly
believe in the Resurrection
according to the Scriptures ....
There is no fear of death
This is an unholy fear born out of the consciousness of our sin,
our nakedness, the poverty of our mortal nature apart from God. When we believe in the
resurrection we know that death has no more dominion over us. The long reign of sin is
ended by virtue of the Father's grace and mercy and, moreover, by the power of the Holy
Spirit in disarming death and granting us eternal life, incorporate in the Body of the
Risen Lord, (which is the Church). This makes the Christian life a victorious and vigorous
calling. We can do anything for God, knowing that whether we live or die, we belong to Him
and He will bring us home to His Kingdom provided that we persevere to the end.
There is nothing to harm us
Christ being Risen has conquered utterly all opposing powers; He
has stripped them and lead them captive in his victory procession. The faithfulness and
power of God manifest by the Spirit in His Son urges to take hold of His promises and
believe that in Him is our life and nothing will harm us so long as we take this to be the
rock of our faith within the Church whose gates are firmly closed to hell. The Christian
life is, therefore, one of great adventure and daring provided that we trust in Him, obey
His commandments and stay resolutely within His all-protecting Body, the Church, the Ark
of Salvation. In this endeavour the most Holy Mother of God is always there for us, urging
our closer walk with God and nurturing within us a deeper obedience to the will of Her
Son.
Life makes sense
This generation has disbelieved itself into the absurdity of life without God. In a
recent documentary, Peter France recounted his journey into Orthodoxy by exposing
ruthlessly his own logic about life before he entered the Church. As soon as life ceases
to be useful, he once believed, it is better to end it oneself. "Useful" in his
context meant making an intellectual contribution to society. It could easily have defined
by anyone else on any other grounds. What is common to the godless notion of life is its
utter futility. Because the eyes have been darkened to the true life of Man, (which is
God), modern secular people face only the absurdity of death or the mad dash for one's own
interests and pleasures. Hedonism or despair await those without the Kingdom. True life, a
full life, a purposeful life is only to be found in the God who raises from the dead all
those who call upon Him in faith.
This is truly good!
God created the world and called it good. How is it then that even some who
call themselves Christians can support abortion, defend the indefensible in war, rape the
environment, call for consensual euthanasia or attempt to "improve" life through
genetic engineering? Still others despise the body by abusing themselves or abusing others
through drugs, fornication or violence. Some, less spectacularly, perhaps consign the body
to the waste bin of history through spiritualism, the occult, New Age or reincarnation.
What all these heresies deny is the fundamental goodness of the body, the created order
and all living things. In some sort of "super-spiritual" state the peddlers of
this deadliness justify their beliefs by pointing away from this world to somewhere else.
But Christ came to save this world, to renew its potential to give glory to God by
delivering the material realm from its slavery to death. The resurrection of the body,
is, therefore, a subversion of all attempts to reduce the scope of our salvation in
Christ, and, thereby, introduce new (and some not-so-new) evils by the back door. In that
Christ was raised from the tomb, bodily, the whole Universe as well as our bodies
will be glorified in the New Creation which is the Kingdom of God.
We are not talking to ourselves!
Finally, and on a personal note, Christ, being raised means that we are not
"talking to ourselves." For the last two thousand years Orthodox Christians,
(and, no doubt others without opportunity to join the Church), have lived and died for the
sake of the Son of God who was born lived, died and was raised from the dead for them. In
this we have been utterly right or irrevocably mad. When we love and serve the Saviour we
are in a personal and communal relationship with the Living One, not a figment of our
imaginations but a real flesh and blood relationship with Christ, kindled by the Spirit
and serving the God whom we invoke as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The resurrection of
Christ makes all this possible. As St. Paul said, if Christ has not been raised, then we
are of all men most to be pitied. Pity us not! As it is, Christ lives, He dies no more,
and we live now and shall live for ever in Him!
Fr Gregory
Letters to the Editor
orthodox@clara.net
return to Teaching Archive page |
