|
© 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. |
The Monthly WordPascha in the West and the East
by
His Eminence, Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
The Orthodox Church is the Church of the Resurrection, because it gives
prominence to Christ's victory over death. Pascha is the overcoming of
death, the passage of the Word to the human nous* and not the diffusion of
the nous to human reason and senses.
When one examines the "ethos" of the Orthodox, one finds that it sheds the
"spirit" and the life that comes out of the Tomb: the "life in the tomb" as
the hymns say. It is a blaze and
ecstasy of life. This is where the difference between western Christianity
and the Orthodox Church can be seen:
*Saint Francis, in Kanzantzakis' biography, reaching the highest degree of
spiritual life by feeling "God crucified" in his body.
He said, "It's a cross, Brother Leone, man's body is a cross - open
your arms and you will see, God is crucified upon it". And he prayed, "My
Christ, my love, I ask one favour of you, one favour for me before I die -
that I may feel in my body and soul, as far as possible, Your pain and Your
Holy passion..." He reached the point of seeing the wounds of the Cross on
his body, and while asked for another, greater, experience, he heard a
divine voice saying: "Do not ask for more; this is where man's ascent ends
at the Crucifixion!"
*On the other hand, an Orthodox saint, St. Silouan the Athonite, saw the
Resurrected Christ and experienced Pascha within his being and within
creation. Following the vision of Christ resurrected he said, "I was living
in a paschal feast. Everything was beautiful; the world was grand, people
were pleasing, nature was unspeakably lovely, the body changed and became
light, strength was added ... the soul overflowed with joy,
it
had compassion on people and prayed for the whole world."
This difference between Western and Eastern thinking is seen in the
difference between Sartre and St. Serpahim of Sarov. The former (Sartre)
disillusioned by western Christianity said "The other is my hell!". The
latter (saint Seraphim of Sarov) addressed everyone who met him with the
greeting "Christ is Risen, my joy". Each and every 'other' is not
'different' a 'stranger' a ‘foreigner’, but a brother. The experience of the
Resurrection overcomes death, neutralizes selfishness, and abolishes Hades.
Otherwise, man is enclosed in his own personal hell.
Mortal problems
In
celebrating "our Pascha" as "the feast of feasts" and as "the death of
death, the first-fruits of another life that is eternal" we feel within
ourselves and around ourselves the scent of spiritual death, of life that is
before the Resurrection of Christ. We live biological life simply as survival, and indeed, mortal. We chant "Christ is Risen!", we celebrate on the outside, but the bitterness of Hades rules within us, often even in church life. The remembrance of death is bitter, so too the pain of loneliness. The venomous constraints in the field of Christianity are bitter, even in the Church itself, which continues to be the Church of the Resurrection and to preach the mystery of the Resurrection.
Our various passions keep us away from the existential festival of life. The
various pressures make church life feel different. Christians divided by
various political considerations, the Orthodox with various rivalries
amongst themselves, does not remind us of the Resurrected Christ at all.
The crucifixion of the Orthodox Church continues. The wounds of the Cross of
the Church in Jerusalem, from internal weaknesses and external influences
blacken the "Holy Fire" that comes from the Sepulchre of Christ. The
political opportunism, the nationalistic racists with all too human passions
do not allow the joy of the Resurrection to shine out as light to the people
around.
The domineering powers that can be seen in all Christian confessions drain
away the "Joy to all", the "Peace unto you", the "be of good cheer", because
they are ruled by other alien powers, foreign to the "spirit" of the
Resurrected Christ. Unfortunately, politics, often in ecclesiastical dress,
are the nails of the crucified Church, the bride of the Resurrected Christ.
And the worldly-led pressures take place in the name of the term "mother
Church".......
The True Pascha of the Church
Our Pascha, as the victory over death and the experience of life, is lived
out today despite the secular-minded powers and tendencies. It is
experienced by those who live humbly and existentially within the sphere of
the Church, away from secularisation, racism and political considerations
and can be clearly seen in the relics of saints.
Normally, the bodies of those saints that have fallen asleep, which are a
just mass of cells, within which are included the cells for ageing, should
rot away. However, the power and grace of the Resurrection does not let them
break up, something which proves they have overcome death. The saint is a
person who is asleep awaiting the last wake up call.
This is our Pascha, as a mystery of the Resurrection, and not as a
Christianity of religiosity with the passion of love of precedence, of
division, of rivalry. 'Our Pascha' cannot be replaced by 'our Religion',
which lives under the rule of death. Resurrected Christ cannot be made up of
political expressions of Christianity, and the power of the Resurrection
cannot fit within "Christian States". It is experienced apophatically,
hesychastically, with eros, and humility. Footnotes * heart, eye of the soul |
