May 2008
After the Big Celebration
Another Pascha ... Hopefully, we can once again experience that amazing night, the sea of burning candles, the growing excitement; may each of have been there once again, in the midst--of a service of radiant joy, whose entire content was like one exultant hymn: "Now all is filled with light, heaven and earth and the lower regions. Let all creation celebrate the rising of Christ. In Him we are established." What joyful, victorious words! Everything is united: heaven, earth, the underground kingdom of death. The whole world participates in this victory, and in Christ's resurrection everything in life miraculously discovers its own meaning.
But it passes, the night is over, Bright Week ends, and we reenter the normal, everyday, sober reality of our life. And what do we find? All too often it seems that nothing, absolutely nothing has any connection to the songs we still hear in Church (If we even still come to church as regularly.) The problem has been around for a long time, and I'd like to share some advice given by a saintly bishop just a generation ago:
You ask, "How can one keep the joy received on the feast of Holy Pascha?" In general, we must strive to be collected in our thoughts, not scattered; and we must try not to give way to anything which might wound this feeling of joy. Ultimately, however, the abiding presence within us of this joy depends not upon us but upon the cause of this joy-the Lord Himself. It is He who uplifts us and it is He who humbles us down; when and in whatever way He deems necessary and beneficial for us. He uplifts us when we are humble, and humbles us when we exalt ourselves.
Sofia. 1931
(translated from the letters of Archbishop Theophan of Poltava)
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