Pascha 2022

Pascha (Easter), the most glorious and radiant event in all of human history, commemorates the Resurrection of Christ. Pascha is the Feast of Feasts, the Triumph of Triumphs, and in the Orthodox Church, Pascha is not listed among the Twelve Great Feasts, but it stands individually above them all.

This Paschal Joy is the Triumph, which is enjoyed by our Lord, the Risen Christ, as well as by us all. Nearly 20 centuries have gone by since He died and rose from the dead. And yet, year after year, we follow Him step by step though all the stages of His suffering and death, in order that on the Festive Day, we call all people to exclaim in one jubilant voice: “Christ is Risen!” It is the Resurrected and Highly Exalted Christ who is present among us today. And if Pascha is to be associated with any single emotion of the human soul it is to be that of joy or gladness. “For this is the Day which the Lord has made, so let us be glad in it!”

We cannot enter upon the joys of Pascha without viewing those moments of wonder of the “chosen Disciples of Christ.” These Disciples though they fled from Him in the hours of His trial, waited in love and mingled in fear near His tomb. As with puzzled expressions and doubting steps they come today ever so slowly face to
face with the Risen Master. The Resurrection of Christ brought to them, as it brings to us, the gift of Eternal Life!

Jesus Christ, who was so cruelly insulted and tor- tured, He upon Whom they spat, mocked, derided and nailed to the Cross, He, Whom they killed by crucifixion, enters triumphantly into our midst today. Christ is Risen from the Dead! As through one man, sin and death had come into the world, so through another, the Risen Christ today, there came the Life of God, Eternal Life and immortality to the souls of humankind that life upon the face of the earth.

Pascha is the Day of the Resurrection. Let us be glo- rious in the splendor of the Festival and let us embrace one another. Let us speak also to those who hate us and in the spirit of the Resurrection let us forgive all things. And let us cry out: Christ is risen from the dead, by death He has tram- pled down death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life.

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

+ Fr Christopher P Foustoukos