How does Christ’s Resurrection take place within us?

Saint Symeon the New Theologian

Brethren and Fathers, Easter is now here, the festive day that brings us joy and gladness, the day of Christ’s Resurrection, which comes round once a year, or, to put it better, occurs daily and perpetually in those who know its mystery, filling our hearts with joy and inexpressible elation. At the same time, it marks the end of the efforts of the holy fast, or, better, has perfected our souls and has, at the same time, comforted them. So, as you see, it has summoned all the faithful to rest and thanksgiving.

Let us therefore give thanks to the Lord, Who has helped us chart the sea of the fast and has brought us, full of joy, to the haven of His Resurrection.

A Paschal Homily of Blessed

Saint Justin Popovic

Sentenced to Immortality

Man sentenced God to death; by His Resurrection, He sentenced man to immortality. In return for a beating, He gives an embrace; for abuse, a blessing; for death, immortality. Man never showed so much hate for God as when he crucified Him; and God never showed more love for man than when He arose. Man even wanted to reduce God to a mortal, but God by His Resurrection made man immortal. The crucified God is Risen and has killed death. Death is no more. Immortality has surrounded man and all the world.

A Paschal Homily

by St. Justin Popovich

Our father, Archimandrite Justin Popovich (1894-1979) was a theologian, a champion, a writer, a critic of the pragmatic church life, a philosopher, and archimandrite of the Monastery Celije, near Valjevo.

Homily on the Descent into Hades

by St Epiphanius of Cyprus

Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began.

The Joyful Sorrow of Pascha 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos 

One of the strongest and most expressive words encountered in our tradition is the word "joyful-sorrow" (χαρμολύπη). All things in our life are mixed with sorrow and joy. Life is not a theater with scenery changes, but an experience that is both joyful and sorrowful, where sorrow turns to joy and at the point where joy culminates, sorrow emerges, due to the mortality of our passionate nature. 

The First and Second Resurrection

 By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

 

The Resurrection of Christ, which we festively celebrate after several days of fasting, repentance and prayer, is the central mystery of faith and the life in Christ. Without the Resurrection of Christ we would be under the power of death, sin and the devil and there would be no way out of life. That's why the Apostle Paul declares: "If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile and we remain in our sins" (1 Cor. 15:17). Christ by His Resurrection gave Grace to us to be spiritually resurrected in this life, as well as bodily at the Second Coming of Christ, as we confess in our Symbol of Faith: "I expect the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the future age." 

The Risen Christ, A Test of Logic

By Photios Kontoglou

A Christian's faith is tested with the Resurrection of Christ as gold in the furnace. Of the entire Gospel, the Resurrection of Christ is the most unbelievable thing, totally incomprehensible logically, a true torture for it. But because it is a thing altogether incredible, this is why our whole faith is needed to believe it. We humans often say that we have faith, but we only have it for what is believed by the mind. But then there is no need for faith, since logic is enough. Belief is needed for the unbelievable.

The Mystical Resurrection of Christ

The following discourse is from the catecheses of St. Symeon the New Theologian to the monks of the Monastery of St. Mamas, where he served as Abbot. It is translated from the Greek edition by Archbishop Basil Krivoshein, Syméon le Nouveau Théologien,Catéchèses, Vol. II, Discourse 13, (Sources Chrétiennes, No. 104; Paris: Cerf, 1964), pp. 191-202.

Concerning the Resurrection of Christ: In what it consists, or how Christ’s resurrection takes place in us, and in it the resurrection of the soul. The mystery of this Resurrection. Delivered on the Monday of the second week of Pascha.

The Meaning of the Cross and the Resurrection

The following interview was conducted by George Vassiliou with His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos. It was originally published in Επίκαιρα της Αιτωλοακαρνανίας, then republished in  Paremvasis (April 1998).

He Raises the Very Earth with Him to Heaven

Georges Florovsky

He arose in a body of glory, immortal and incorruptible. He arose, never to die, for “He clothed the mortal in the splendor of incorruption.” His glorified Body was already exempt from the fleshly order of existence.

On Pascha We Receive an Invitation to Eternal Life

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)

From an interview published in Trud, Pascha 2012.

* * *

There is no death

—Father Tikhon, why is Pascha celebrated each time not as the anniversary of the Resurrection of Christ but as the Resurrection itself?

—The Apostle Paul made an astonishing revelation about two thousand years ago. He said, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever (Heb. 13:8).

A Brief Comment on the Icon of the Resurrection

Athanasios Moustakis 

We shall try here to point out the main features of the Orthodox icon which is entitled “The Descent into Hell”. The first thing to note is that it is entirely different from the Western-style depiction, which shows Christ emerging triumphantly from the tomb, holding a little flag. The astonished guards have fallen to the ground.

The Western-style icon presents a scene that no-one ever saw. The moment of the Resurrection is a concealed secret. The Orthodox approach is entirely different. It depicts the results of the event of the Resurrection for people and for the world.

HOLY WEEK AND PASCHA IN JERUSALEM

by the Monk Parthenius

That We Must Meet the Lord Jesus Christ in this Life!

Recently, I read a passage from St Maximos the Confessor that 

brought a lot of hope to my heart. Our Orthodox Church Fathers, 

like St Symeon the New Theologian and teachers such as Fr John 

Romanides instruct us that we must meet Christ in this life. The 

eye of our soul, our nous, must be opened before we depart this life,

in order to see our Lord in the next.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Orthodox Easter Resurrection: 

The Gift of Liberation and Call to Compassion

The nativity of the Paschal Christ

Written by M.C. Steenberg.

We Ought To Rejoice in the Resurrection Joy of the Theotokos

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Reflect, my beloved, that we have a duty to rejoice with the Virgin Panagia, who upon seeing her Son and God risen, was filled immediately with such great joy which was as great as her grief experienced during His Passion.

Her pains and sorrows were measured with the knowledge that she had of the infinite worthiness of the incarnate Logos, and of her love for Him, not only as God and as a child of her womb, but also as the only begotten Son and because she only was His mother without a father. All this did not allow her love to share in other things, but it focused only on her sweet Son.

A Clear Vision of Christ's Resurrection

by St. Symeon the New Theologian

Leo the Great of Rome, Homily 72: On the Lord's resurrection, II

Leo the Great of Rome, Homily 71: On the Lord's resurrection, I