Pascha and the Liturgical Present
Written by M.C. Steenberg.
'Yea, the Time has Come': Holy Pascha and the Mystery
of the Liturgical Present
Thou, O Lord, shall rise up and have pity
upon Sion, for it is time to have compassion on her. Yea, the time has come.
(Alleluia verse, Paschal Liturgy)
It is a long and laborious journey that leads to
Pascha. Ten weeks, if the pre-Lenten period is taken into account, of fasting,
of alms, of lengthened services and expanded vigils. The Psalter has been gone
through fifteen times. Genesis and Proverbs have been read aloud in their
fullness. The Gospels have been chanted over the grave of Christ and the Acts
read in anticipation of His waking therefrom—for that waking shall be the
foundation upon which the apostolic preaching will be grounded.
It has been in many ways an arduous journey. The
blackness of sin and death have become ever more evident along the way, and in
the latter days of Passion Week we have clad temple and priest alike in black
garments symbolic of this vision. Sin and death are not avoided in the Lenten
walk: they are met head-on, face to face in the overwhelming mystery of their
dark reality. 'O my Saviour, why art Thou sleeping?' we asked as Christ was
laid in the tomb. Our hope, our expectation, has been born out of the true
substance of our world, torn apart by our sins, our lack of love, which cast
love Himself into the grave. Where I have sinned, there has He walked.
But now, now at the end of this long anticipation, the
time has come for the fulfilment of our hope. On Easter night, after all the
lights of the church have been extinguished and true darkness overwhelmed our
senses, the faithful leave the church into the cold of midnight. In procession
behind the Gospel book they chant, 'Deem us on earth worthy to glorify Thee
with a pure heart', circling the church or monastery in slow reverence. The
procession at last ends before the doors of the church, firmly closed.
It has all come to this.
The Fast is now complete, the Triodion has
been closed. We stand before the doors of the temple with nothing left to offer
in preparation. We have fasted—many of us poorly, but such as we were able. We
have kept waking vigil. We have even, at this final moment, cast ourselves out
of the house of God—a liturgical excommunication of all humankind. There is
nothing left for us to do. Only the Lord can transform Lent into Pascha. It is,
in the most real way, 'time for the Lord to act'.{footnote}The deacon's
exhortation to the priest (or bishop) at the beginning of the Divine
Liturgy.{/footnote}
Thou, O Lord, shall rise up and have pity
upon Sion, for it is time to have compassion on her. Yea, the time has come.
The time has come. Since first we sinned in Eden, not
only we but the whole cosmos has groaned for salvation to arise. As we were
cast from paradise, so have we longed ever after for return. It is the event
for which the whole world longs. And on this night, from the midst of our own
fallen lives, we proclaim a mystery beyond comprehension: 'The time has come'.
Can this be so? Can I, who in the past weeks have seen
so manifestly the terrible extent of my sin, be the one to proclaim in my own
day that now is the time of redemption? Abraham in all his
glory did not see this day; how, then, shall I! Yet the Church calls even such
as us to attention:
Cast thine eyes about thee, O Sion, and
behold! For lo, like divinely radiant luminaries thy children have assembled
unto thee from the west, the north, the south and the east, blessing Christ
unto the ages. (Troparion of the Eighth Ode, Paschal Matins Canon)
If we do thus cast our eyes around us to behold, we see
a sight of immense wonder. The unfathomable mystery of this day is that it is this day
that salvation is come upon the world. Today is the 'auspicious day of the
Resurrection',{footnote}Troparion of the Eighth Ode, Paschal matins
canon.{/footnote} today the 'dawning of the life of
all'.{footnote}Irmos of the Fifth Ode.{/footnote} Here, in our midst, is the
glory of redemption. 'Christ is risen, and life doth reign!'.{footnote}From the Paschal homily of St John Chrysostom.{/footnote}
The transcendence of sacred, liturgical time is a hard
reality to grasp, and it is difficult precisely because the truths it proclaims
are so fearful to accept. 'Today I see Thee crucified, O Christ; today I
see Thee buried'. If such words are more than mere liturgical poetry, if they
relate to us something fundamentally real about our worshipping, liturgical
life, then they are terrifying indeed. It is here, in my presence, that the
great offering of life is made by the eternal Son. It is before my face that
His love is revealed. Now is the time in which these great events of God's
economy are wrought, for in the mystery of sacred time we are always in the
present. Christ is in our midst, ever and always, and His life is that which is
present among us. This may be the source of great awe and wonder in the
terrible 'today...' proclamations of the passion and crucifixion, but more
terrifying still is the proclamation that 'Today is the day of
Resurrection',{footnote}From the stichera at the Praises, Paschal
Matins.{/footnote} that 'the Lord's Pascha, that all-venerable Pascha, has
dawned for us'.{footnote}ibid.{/footnote} It must be with a spirit
of inexpressable awe that we say, in the words of the megalynarion, 'Today the
whole creation is glad and rejoices, for Christ is risen and hell has been
despoiled'.{footnote}Megalynarion of the Ninth Ode.{/footnote}
There can be no greater blessing in the life of any
member of Adam's race, than to be able to say in truth that today 'the time has
come'. Our salvation appears before us. That procession by which we earlier
departed the church does not end there before the closed doors. The time has
come, but those locked doors and that darkness are not the end of the Lenten
story. In the culminating moment of all our preparation and anticipation, the
doors of the church are re-opened and we return therein to find the house
filled with light. What was, moments ago, a dark grave is now the shimmering
image of paradise. Or even more, as we say in the Paschal Hours:
How life-giving, how much more beautiful
than paradise and truly more resplendent than any royal palace proved Thy
grave, the source of our resurrection, O Christ.(Sticheron at the Hours)
Even beyond the glories of Edenic paradise is the
reality of God's Kingdom which on this day has triumphed over death—the final,
great foe. The time for God's compassion is at hand, is now, and in our midst
and lives the hope of Adam and all our race is accomplished. Nothing greater
could ever be longed for or received. So do we all cry out with St John in his homily:
Christ is risen, and thou, O death, art
overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be glory and dominion
Unto the ages of ages.
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be glory and dominion
Unto the ages of ages.
(Text by M.C. Steenberg, 2004)
