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Passing Over …. The Orthodox name for Easter is "Pascha" which is based on an Aramaic word, (the language Jesus spoke), and it is also the same as "Pesach" in the Hebrew language of the books of Moses. It means Passover. "Easter" on the other hand is pagan in origin, deriving from "Eostre" ... a central European Spring goddess of fertility. This Christian Passover or Pascha celebrates Christ's triumph over death and is prefigured in the deliverance of the People of God out of bondage in Egypt, through the baptismal waters of the Red Sea to the Pentecostal freedom of fruitfulness in the Promised Land. The Old Testament readings of the Vigil Liturgy pick out precisely the types and symbols of the far greater Passover which is Christ God Himself and His Resurrection victory over Hades and Death. This is our true Passover and in this service we begin to anticipate a freedom not only for ourselves, not only for our fellow Christians but also for the whole of Creation. It is this Creation perspective of Pascha to which the Blessed Apostle St. Paul refers in Romans:- "…creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." [Romans 8:21] Death was a curse brought upon by Man’s primeval disobedience against God that afflicted not just the whole of humanity for all time but also the whole created order. The reversal of that curse in the infinite blessing of Christ’s victory heralds a New Creation, in one sense more significant than the first ... which before Christ had been subjected to futility and corruption. This New Creation is the life of Christ, pre-eminently to be found in His Body, the Church but not limited to that sacred realm. In Baptism and Chrismation we receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit, the New Creation life, the resurrection power of God. However, the Christian life is not just about receiving. We are called to use this Gift according to the measure of our sanctity and work tirelessly for the Kingdom. Orthodox Christians, therefore, are unambiguously "pro-Life" in all its aspects. Our labours, even perhaps unto death, are orientated toward confronting all the demons of human savagery, neglect, cruelty and despair, and in the Name of the Risen Christ dispelling them by the Word of His Power. In an age where many well meaning but heterodox or misinformed Christians commit either the error of a graceless activism or a useless pietism Orthodoxy stands out as a beacon of truth for something else. The Greek word is synergeia. It captures sublimely the truth that human transformation is achieved by two active and harmonious principles subsisting in one … like Christ Himself in fact … the human and the divine. Synergeia means that the New Creation power of Pascha is realised through the active offering of our whole life to the Blessed Trinity. If we uphold this principle daily in our lives, working with the Paschal grace of God, we shall become powerful instruments of the New Creation in ways of which we can only perhaps dream. Isn’t that worth living for? Indeed, isn’t that worth dying for? Behold the dawn of Christ’s New life awaits us all. May we respond always with joy and hope and be worthy of our high calling; worthy of the name, "Christian." Fr Gregory |
