The Gospel of Resurrection

Fr. Georges Florovsky

Death is a catastrophe for man; this is the basic principle of the whole of Christian anthropology. Man is an amphibious being, both spiritual and corporeal, and so he was created by God. Body belongs organically to the unity of human existence. And this was perhaps the most striking novelty in the original Christian message. The preaching of the Resurrection as well as the preaching of the Cross was foolishness and a stumbling–block to Gentiles. St. Paul had already been called a "babbler" by the Athenian philosophers just "because he proclaimed to them Jesus and the resurrection" (Acts XVII:18, cf. v.32). The Greek mind was always rather disgusted by the body. The attitude of an average Greek in early Christian times was strongly influenced by Platonic or Orphic ideas, and it was a common opinion that the body was a kind of a "prison", in which the fallen soul was incarcerated and confined. The Greeks dreamt rather of a complete and final disincarnation. And the Christian belief in a coming Resurrection could only confuse and frighten the Gentile mind. It meant simply that the prison will be everlasting, that the imprisonment will be renewed again and for ever. The expectation of a bodily resurrection would befit rather an earthworm suggested Celsus, and he jeered in the name of common sense. He nicknamed Christians a "philosomaton genos", a "flesh–loving crew" (ap. Origen, Contra Celsum, V:14 and VII:36). The great Plotinus was of the same opinion. "The true awakening is the true resurrection from the body, not with the body. For resurrection with the body would be simply a passage from one sleep to another, to some other dwelling. The only true awakening is an escape from all bodies, since they are by nature opposite to the nature of the soul. Both the origin, and the life and the decay of bodies show that they do not correspond to the nature of the souls" (Plotinus, Ennead. III: 6:6). With all Greek philosophers the fear of impurity was much stronger than the dread of sin. Indeed, sin to them just meant impurity. This "lower nature", body and flesh, a corporeal and gross substance, was utterly resented as the source and vehicle of evil. Evil comes from pollution, not from the perversion of the will. One must be liberated and cleansed front this filth. And at this point Christianity brings a new conception of the body as well. From the very beginning Docetism was rejected as the most destructive of temptations, a sort of dark anti–gospel, proceeding from the Anti–Christ (I John IV: 2–3). And St. Paul emphatically preaches "the redemption of our body" (Romans VIII:23). And again: "not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed, that what is mortal may he swallowed up by life" (2 Cor. V:4). This is just an antithesis to Plotinus’ thesis…

St. John Chrysostom commented: "He deals a death–blow here to those who depreciate the physical nature and revile our flesh. It is not flesh, as he would say, that we put off from ourselves, but corruption. the body is one thing, corruption is another. Nor is the body corruption, nor corruption the body. True, the body is corrupt, but it is not corruption. The body dies, but it is not death. The body is the work of God, but death and corruption entered in by sin. Therefore, he says, I would put off from myself that strange thing which is not proper to me. And that strange thing is not the body, but corruption. The future life shatters and abolishes not the body, but that which clings to it, corruption and death" (De resurr. mortuorum, 6). St. Chrysostom, no doubt, gives here the common feeling of the Church. "We must also wait for the spring of the body", as a Latin apologist of the 2nd century put it, "expectandum nobis etiam et corporis ver est" (Minutius Felix, Octavius, 34). One Russian writer, speaking of the catacombs, aptly recalls these words. "There are no words which could better render the impression of jubilant serenity, the feeling of rest and unbound peacefulness of the early Christian burial place. Here the body lies, like wheat under the winter shroud, awaiting, anticipating and foretelling the otherworldly eternal Spring" (V. Ern, Letters on Christian Rome, 1913). This was the simile used by St. Paul. "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption: it is raised in incorruption" (I Cor. XV:42). The earth, as it were, is sown with human ashes in order that it may bring forth fruit, by the power of God, on the Great Day. "Like seed cast on the earth, we do not perish when we die, but having been sown, we rise" (St. Athanasius, De Incarnatione, 21). Each grave is already the shrine of incorruption.

The resurrection, however, is no mere return or repetition. The Christian dogma of the General Resurrection is not that eternal return which was professed by the Stoics. The resurrection is the true renewal, the transfiguration, the reformation of the whole creation. Not just a return of what had passed away, but a heightening, a fulfillment of something better and more perfect. "And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body which shall be, but bare grain… It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Cor. XV:37, 44). A profound change will take place. And yet the individual identity will be preserved. St. Paul's distinction between the "natural" body ("soma physikon") and the "spiritual" body ("soma pneumatikon") obviously calls for a further interpretation. And probably we have to collate it with another distinction he makes in Phil. III:21: the body "of our humiliation and the body of His glory"... Yet the mystery passes our knowledge and imagination. "It has not yet appeared what we shall be" (I John III:2).

But as it is, Christ has risen from the dead, the first–fruits of those who have fallen asleep (I Cor. XV:20). The great "three days of death", triduum mortis, were the mysterious days of the Resurrection. As it is explained in the Synaxarion of that day. "on Great and Holy Saturday do we celebrate the divine — bodily burial of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His descent into Hades, by which, being called from corruption, our race passed to life eternal. This was not merely the eve of salvation. It was already the very day of salvation. "This is the blessed Sabbath, this is the day of rest, whereon the only Begotten Son of God has, rested from all His deeds" (Matins of Good Saturday). In His flesh the Lord is resting in the grave, and His flesh is not abandoned by his Divinity. "Though Thy Temple was destroyed in the hour of the Passion, yet even then one was the Hypostasis of Thy Divinity and Thy flesh" (Matins of Good Saturday, Canon, 6th canticle, 1st troparion; the canon is by Cosmas of Maioum). The Lord’s flesh does not therefore suffer corruption, for it abides in the very bosom of the Life, in the Hypostasis of the Word, Who is Life. And in this incorruption the Body has been transfigured into a state of glory. The body of humiliation has been buried, and the body of the glory rose from the grave. In the death of Jesus the powerlessness of death over Him was revealed. In the fullness of His human nature Our Lord was mortal. And He actually died. Yet death did not hold Him. "It was not possible that He should be holden of it" (Acts II:24) As St. John Chrysostom puts it, "death itself in holding Him pangs as in travail, and was sore beset..., and He so rose as never to die" (in Acta, hom. VII; cf. the Consecration — Prayer in the Liturgy of St. Basil). He is Life Everlasting, and by the very fact of His death He destroys death. His very descent into Hades, into the realm of death, is the mighty manifestation of Life. By the descent into Hades He, as it were, quickens death itself. In the first Adam the inherent potentiality of death by disobedience and fall was actualized and disclosed. In the second Adam the potentiality of immortality by obedience was sublimated and actualized into the impossibility of death "for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. XV:2). The whole fabric of human nature in Christ proved to be stable and strong. The disembodiment of the soul was not consummated into a rupture. Even in common death of man, as St. Gregory of Nyssa pointed out, the separation of soul and body is never absolute: a certain connection is still there. In the death of Christ this connection proved to be not only a "connection of knowledge": His soul never ceased to be the "vital power" of the body. Thus this death in all its reality, as a true separation and disembodiment, was rather like a sleep. "Then was man’s death shown to be but a sleep" as St. John of Damascus says (Office for the Burial of a Priest, Stikhira idiomela by St. John of Damascus). The reality of death is not yet abolished, but its powerlessness is revealed. The Lord really and truly died. But in His death in an eminent measure the "dynamis of the resurrection" was manifest, which is latent in every death. To His death the glorious simile of the corn of wheat can be applied to its full extent (John XII:24). In the body of the Incarnate One the interim between death and resurrection is foreshortened. "It is sown in dishonor: it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness: it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body: it is raised a spiritual body" (I Cor. XV: 43–44). In the death of the Incarnate One this mysterious growth of the seed was consummated in three days: Triduum mortis. "He suffered not the temple of His body to remain long dead, but just having shown it dead by the contact of death, straightway raised it in the third day, and raised with it also the sigh of victory over death, that is, the incorruption and impassibility manifested in the body". In these words St. Athanasius brings forward the victorious and resurrecting character of the death of Christ (De Incarnatione, 26). In this mysterious "triduum mortis", the body of Our Lord has been transfigured into a body of glory, and has been clothed in power and light. The seed matures. And the Lord rises from the dead, as a Bridegroom comes forth from the chamber. This was accomplished by the power of God, as also the General Resurrection will in the last day be accomplished by the power of God. And in the Resurrection the Incarnation is completed and consummated a victorious manifestation of Life within human nature, a grafting of immortality into the human composition.

The Resurrection of Christ was a victory not over His death only, but over death in general. "We celebrate the death of death, the downfall of Hades, and the beginning of a life new and everlasting" (Easter Canon 2nd canticle, 2nd troparion). In His resurrection the whole of humanity, all human nature, is co-resurrected with Him: "the human race is clothed in incorruption". Co-resurrected — not indeed in the sense that all are actually raised from the grave: men do still die. But the hopelessness of dying is abolished: death is rendered powerless. St. Paul is quite emphatic on this point. "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen… For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ risen" (I Cor. XV: 13, 16). St. Paul obviously meant to say that the Resurrection of Christ would become meaningless if it were not a universal accomplishment, if the whole Body were not implicitly "pre–resurrected" with the Head. And faith in Christ itself would lose any sense and become empty and vain: there would be nothing to believe in. "And if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain" (v. 17). Apart from the hope of the General Resurrection, belief in Christ itself would be vain and to no purpose; it would only be vainglory. "But now is Christ risen"… and herein lies the victory of Life. "It is true, we still die as before, says St. John Chrysostom, but we do not remain in death; and this is not to die... The power and very reality of death is just this, that a dead man has no possibility of returning to life… But if after death he is to be quickened and moreover to be given a better life, then this is no longer death, but a falling asleep" (In Hebrews, hom. XVII,2). The same conception is found in St. Athanasius. The "condemnation of death" is abolished. "Corruption ceasing and being put away by the grace of Resurrection, we are henceforth dissolved for a time only, according to our bodies’ mortal nature; like seeds cast into the earth, we do not perish, but sown in the earth we shall rise again, death being brought to nought by the grace of the Saviour" (De Incarnatione, 21). All will rise. From henceforth every disembodiment is but temporary. The dark vale of Hades is abolished by the power of the life–giving Cross.

St. Gregory of Nyssa strongly stresses time organic interdependence of the Cross and the Resurrection. He makes two points especially: the unity of the Divine Hypostasis, in which the soul and body of Christ are linked together even in their mortal separation and the utter sinlessness of Christ. And then he proceeds: "When our nature following its proper course, had even in Him been advanced to the separation of soul and body, He knitted together again the disconnected elements, cementing them together, as it were, with a cement of His Divine power, and recombining what was severed in a union never to be broken. And this is the Resurrection, namely the return, after they have been dissolved, of those elements that have been before linked together, into an indissoluble union through a mutual incorporation; in order that thus the primal grace which invested humanity might be recalled, and we restored to the everlasting life, when the vice that has been mixed up with our kind has evaporated through our dissolution… For as the principle of death took its rise in one person and passed on in succession through the whole of human kind, in like manner the principle of the Resurrection extends from one person to the whole of humanity… For when, in that concrete humanity which He had taken to Himself, the soul after the dissolution returned to the body, then this uniting of the several portions passes, as by a new principle, in equal force upon the whole human race. This then is the mystery of God's plan with regard to His death and His resurrection from the dead" (Orat. cat. 16). In other words, Christ’s resurrection is a restoration of the fullness and wholeness of human existence, a re–creation of the whole human race, a "new creation". St. Gregory follows here faithfully in the steps of St. Paul. There is the same contrast and parallelism of the two Adams.

The General Resurrection is the consummation of the Resurrection of Our Lord, the consummation of His victory over death and corruption. And beyond the historical time there will be the future Kingdom, "the life of the age to come". Then, at the close, for the whole creation the "Blessed Sabbath", the very "day of rest", the mysterious "Seventh day of Creation", will be inaugurated forever. The expected is as yet inconceivable. But the pledge is given. Christ is risen.

Elder Aimilianos: We live in Common

When all is said and done, what is Athonite life? A human society containing God. It is bliss, consisting, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa says, in this: “Having God within oneself ‘. God lives and moves among them.
But what of the world, all of us who make up human society, who is our bliss if not God? The God of all flesh, our God, too?
But you’ll say to me: “We’re swamped every day by the problems of life, by pain, by sickness by sin, by concerns, by the ragged tatters of our past life. We’re worldly”.
All right! So does that mean that since you’re swamped, or that since you’re such sinners – as much as I am, as much as any Athonite – that you aren’t children of God?
But, again, you’ll say to me: “We don’t see God, either as light or as darkness. We don’t have such experiences. They’re just dreams for us. How can we bear up in life? There’s only impotence and dejec­tion around us, only darkness”.
What is all this, dear friends? No! We live in common and we see in common. Why do you think of yourself as an individual and not as a member of Christ? Is the faith and experience of others foreign to us? What did we say before? “It is said that God dwells in darkness”. And the mystic, the heavenly author, goes on to say concerning the Apostle Paul, and this is surely true, that he saw Christ: “And, indeed, the divine Paul is said to have known God”.
What does this mean? It means that the saints say, the Scriptures mention time and again, the Fathers confirm, Paul confesses and the experience of the mystical life proclaims that God dwells in darkness and in light. If you have not seen Him, not recognised him, what does that matter? Are you the touchstone of truth? No. Which is why the experience of the Church has told it, tells it and writes it. And, since you have heard it – which is precisely why it has greater significance – your senses are not deceiving you.
This is why the Mountain insists on a tradition, a pre-eternal trad­ition, so as to have the certainty it possesses. The Mountain is to be believed, because it does not say anything which it has simply produced today. It is authentic because its witness goes all the way back to Christ. It has and gives life and life is God Himself, your God!
Scripture says: “The breath of man is the light of the Lord, Who searches the innermost parts of the belly”". Do you hear that? The light of God is our breath. In other words, we would have died were it not for the light of God, even if invisible. You therefore have the light, so believe in what you have, because at some stage that will place you on the right hand of God. It is enough to recollect and to know: like breath it enters into you and fills your innermost parts with life. Have you then no breath? You have. And yet you do not have light? You do not have God? Impossible. Your breath conceals this light. Catch hold of your breath. You are holding God there! God has come to dwell in us and searches the depths of our souls and sees our desires.
It was a cause of great distress to one monk that, although his Elder was a holy man, he himself did not feel he was experiencing God. And do you know what he did? He would fall down on his knees and kiss the earth, the stool, the door of the Elder’s cell, whatever was inside, and would say: “Christ is here, too. I’m kissing Christ”.
Another used to kiss the donkey which eased his way on rising ground, because it helped him comprehend God, Who gives rest to those who are weary and heavy-laden. You alone are without God?
You, too, can kiss the earth you tread upon. Where your wife treads, your husband, your child, the place where you pray, where you cense, where you cry. Comprehend Christ there, and kiss the place yourself, because it is a sign that God has passed that way.
The Holy Mountain has shown us and tells us that the grace of God is active everywhere. Do you know what Saint John the Damascan calls divine grace? “A vault of God”. That is a leap of God. There where you are sitting, where for years you have been expecting God and not found Him, He all of a sudden leaps and enters you, embraces you, kisses you and fills you with the breath of His nostrils, with His love, His being, His triunity.
It is as easy for God to leap and come into our lives as it is for anyone to jump. Just as He leaps on the peaks of Athos, as He gets into the little boats and caves, the crannies, everywhere, comprehen­ding the desires, the pains and the tears of the Athonites, so He com­prehends the least cry of your soul, of the souls of all.

Condemned to Immortality by Saint Justin Popovich

Men have condemned God to death; God, however, has by His Resurrection "sentenced" men to immortality. In return for their buffets, He offers embraces; for their insults, blessings; for death, immortality. Never have men shown such enmity for God as when they crucified Him; and never has God shown such love for men as He did in resurrecting. Men wish to render God mortal, but God by His Resurrection designed to make men immortal. The crucified God resurrected and overcame death. Death is no more. Immortality has overtaken man and the whole of his world.

Through the Resurrection of the God-Man, the nature of man has been led irrevocably to the path of immortality, and death has thus become fearful. For, before the Resurrection of Christ, death was something feared by man; but after the Resurrection of the Lord, man has become something fearful for death. If a man lives in Faith within the Resurrected God-Man, he lives above death. He stands impregnable by death. Death is transformed into a "footstool beneath his feet": "O death, where is thy victory? O Hades, where is thy sting?" (I Corinthians 15:55). Therefore, when a man in Christ breathes his last, he sheds only the shell of his body, to be clothed with it once again on the day of the Second Coming.

Until the Resurrection of the God-Man Christ, death was the second nature of man; the first was life, the second death. Man had become used to death as something natural. But with the Resurrection of the Lord, all things changed: immortality became the second nature of man. It has become something natural to man, whereas death is rendered unnatural. Just as before the Resurrection of Christ it was natural for man to be mortal, so after His Resurrection it has become natural for man to be immortal.

Through sin, man was made mortal and limited; through the Resurrection of the God-Man, he becomes immortal and eternal. In this precisely lie the power, the dominion, and the omnipotence of the Resurrection of Christ. Moreover, without the Resurrection of Christ there would be no Christianity at all. Among miracles, the greatest of all is the Resurrection of the Lord. All of the other miracles spring forth form the Resurrection and are centered within it. From it spring forth faith, love, hope, prayer, and godliness. The fugitive Disciples, they who fled far from Jesus when He died, returned to Him when he resurrected. And the Roman centurion, when he saw Christ resurrect from the tomb, confessed Him as the Son of God. It was in this way that all of the early Christians became Christians —because Christ resurrected, because He conquered death. This is that which not one other religion has; it is this, the Resurrection, which exalts Christ above all other men and above all other gods. It is this which, in a singular and indisputable manner, shows and proves that Christ is the only true God and Lord of all the seen and unseen worlds.

By the grace of the resurrection of Christ, by the grace of His conquest over death, men became, are now becoming, and will in the future become Christians. All of Christian history is nothing other than that of one singular miracle, the miracle of the Resurrection of Christ, which is eternally contained within the hearts of Christians from day to day, from year to year, and from age to age, until the Second Coming.

Man is truly born, not when he is brought into the world by his mother, but when he comes to believe in the Resurrected Savior, Christ; for then he is born into immortality and eternal life, while the mother brings a child only into death, to the grave. The Resurrection of Christ is the mother of all of us, all of us Christians —the mother of all who are deathless. By his faith in the Resurrection of Christ, man is born anew, born into eternity.

This is impossible, the skeptic responds. And the Resurrected God-Man replies: "All things are possible to him who believes" (St. Mark 9:23). And one who believes is he who, with all of his heart, with all of his soul, and with all of his being, lives according to the Gospel of the Resurrected Lord Jesus.

Our Faith is the victory in which we conquer death; faith, that is, in the Resurrected Lord. "O death, where is thy victory? O Hades, where is thy sting?" "The sting of death is sin" (I Corinthians 15:55-56). By His Resurrection, the Lord "removed the sting of death." Death is the serpent and sin is its sting. Through sin, death injects its poison into the souls and bodies of men. The more sins that a man has, the more powerful the sting by which death injects its poison into him.

When a wasp stings a person, the person makes every possible effort to extract the stinger from his body. But when he is stung by death —this sting of Hades—, what should he do? He must, with faith and prayer, call upon the Resurrected Savior, Christ, that He may take from his soul the sting of death. And He, compassionate as He is, will do so, for He is the God of Mercy and Love. When many wasps set upon a man's body and wound him with their stings, a man becomes poisoned and dies. The same thing happens when a man is wounded by the many stings of manifold sins. He who is not resurrected from sin succumbs to death.

By conquering the sin within him through Christ, a man conquers death. If a single day passes and you have not yet conquered at least one of your sins, realize that you have become all the more mortal. If, however, you have overcome one, two, or three of your sins, you have become more greatly renewed in that newness that does not age: immortality and eternity. Let us never forget that, for one to believe in Christ, this means that he must struggle ceaselessly against sin, evil, and death.

A man demonstrates that he truly believes in the Resurrected Lord by his struggle against the passions and against sin; and if he so struggles, he must know that he struggles for immortality and for eternal life. If he does not struggle, then his faith is in vain. For, if a man's faith is not a struggle for immortality and eternity, then what is it? If by faith in Christ one does not attain to immortality and victory over death, then to what end our faith? If Christ is not resurrected, this means that sin and death have not been conquered. And if these two things have not been overcome, then why should anyone believe in Christ? He who, through faith in the Resurrection of Christ, struggles against his every sin, however, has profound reinforcement within himself of a sense that Christ is in fact resurrected, that He has in fact removed the sting of death, that He has in fact conquered death on all fronts of battle.

Sin deeply scars man, draws him near to death, and transforms him from something immortal to something mortal, from something incorruptible and unbounded into something corruptible and limited. The more sins a person has, the more mortal he becomes. And if a man does not feel himself immortal, it is obvious that he is wholly mired in sin, in short-sighted thought, and in dead feelings. Christianity is a call to a struggle to the last breath against death, until, that is, the final victory over death. Every sin is a falling-away, every passion a betrayal, every evil deed a defeat.

No one should ask why it is that the Christian succumbs to bodily death. This comes about because the death of the body is a kind of sowing. The mortal body is sown, St. Paul tells us (see I Corinthians 15:42ff), and is raised in power, becoming immortal. Like the seed that is sown, so too the body dissolves, that the Holy Spirit might give it life and perfect it. If the Lord had not resurrected in the body, what benefit would we have taken in this from Him? He would not have saved the whole man. Had He not resurrected the body, then why was He made flesh? Why did He take upon Himself a body, were it not to give to it of His Divinity?

If Christ did not resurrect, why should anyone then believe in Him? I confess sincerely that I would never have believed in Christ, had He not resurrected, had He not conquered death, our greatest enemy. But Christ was resurrected, and He gave to us immortality. Without this truth, our world is nothing but a chaotic display of odious stupidities. Only with His glorious Resurrection does our wondrous Lord and God free us from despair and senselessness. For without the Resurrection, there is nothing more senseless in the heavens or under the heavens than the present world; nor is there greater despair than this life without immortality. For this reason, in all the world there is no more misfortunate a being than a man who does not believe in the Resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead (see Corinthians 15:19). "Better for that man if he had not been born" (St. Matthew 26:24).

In our mundane world, death is the greatest torment and the most hideously cruel thing. Freedom from this torment and cruelty is precisely what salvation is. Such salvation was given to the generation of man only by the Conqueror of Death, the Resurrected God-Man. Through His Resurrection, He revealed to us the whole mystery of our salvation. Salvation means to be guaranteed immortality and eternal life for the body and for the soul. But how do we succeed in this? Only in the life of the God-Man, in the life of the Resurrection, through the Resurrected Christ.

For us Christians, life on this earth is a school in which we learn how to secure for ourselves immortality and eternal life. For of what benefit is this life, if we cannot attain to eternity within it? But for a man to be resurrected with Christ, a man must first die with Him and live the life of Christ as his own. If he does this, then on the Day of Resurrection he may say, along with St. Gregory the Theologian: "Yesterday I was crucified with Christ, today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him, today I am given life with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him, today I rise with Him."

And in a few single words we may summarize the four Gospels of Christ: "Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!" In each of these words one can find the Gospel of Christ, as in the four Gospels one may find all of the knowledge of the whole of God's world, both known and unknown. And when the feelings of man, along with all of his thoughts, are centered on the thundering din of the Paschal greeting, "Christ is Risen!," then the joy of immortality moves all things, and all things in rejoicing proclaim the Paschal miracle: "Indeed He is Risen."

Yes, Christ is indeed risen! and a witness of this is you; I am a witness; every Christian is a witness of this, beginning with the Apostles and reaching up through the Second Coming. Because only the power of the Resurrected God-Man Christ can give —and continually gives now and will continually give in the future— the power to each Christian, from the first to the last, to conquer all that is mortal, and by this death itself; all that is sinful, and by this sin itself; and all that is demonic, and by this the devil himself. For simply by His Resurrection, the Lord, in the most convincing way, showed and proved that His life is Eternal Life; His love, Eternal Love; His good, Eternal Good; His truth, Eternal Truth; and His joy, Eternal Joy. He also showed and demonstrated that all of these things He gives, in His incomparable love of mankind, to every Christian in every age.

With regard to these things, there is not a single event, not only in the Gospels, but in the entire history of the human race, to which greater testimony has been given, in a manner so forceful, so unimpeachable, and so undisputed, than the Resurrection of Christ. Without doubt, Christianity, in all of its historical reality, in all of its historical force and omnipotence, has been established on the fact of the Resurrection of Christ, that is, on the Hypostasis of the God-Man Christ in Eternal Life. And to this all of the long and ever-miraculous history of Christianity bears witness.

Indeed, if there is one fact with which one could summarize all of the events in the life of Christ and of the Apostles, and more generally in all of Christianity, that event would be the Resurrection of Christ. Moreover, if there is a reality which summarizes all of the realities of the New Testament, that reality would be the Resurrection of Christ. And finally, if there is one miracle in the Gospels which can be said to summarize all of the miracles reported in the New Testament, that miracle would be the Resurrection of Christ. For only within the light of the Resurrection are the person of Jesus Christ and His work made miraculously known. Only within the light of the Resurrection are the miracles of Christ, all of His truths, all of His words, and all of the events of the New Testament fully explained.

Up to the time of His Resurrection, the Lord taught about eternal life; but in the Resurrection, He shows us that He Himself is Eternal Life. Up to the time of His Resurrection, He taught about the Resurrection from the dead; but in the Resurrection, He showed that He Himself was indeed the resurrection of the dead. Up to the time of His Resurrection, He taught that belief in Him took one from death to life; but in His Resurrection, He showed that He Himself had conquered death and had thus assured those afflicted by death of passage from death to resurrection. Yes, O indeed, yes: the God-Man Jesus Christ, by His Resurrection, showed and demonstrated that He is the only true God, the only God-Man among all humankind.

And something further: without the Resurrection of the God-Man, it would be impossible to explain the witness of the Apostles, or the martyrdom of the Martyrs, or the confessions of the Confessors, or the holiness of the Holy, or the ascetic labor of the Ascetics, or the wonders of the Wonder-Workers, or the faith of the Faithful, or the love of those of love, or the hope of the hopeful, or the prayer of the prayerful, or the repentance of the repentant, or the mercies of the merciful, or any Christian virtue or labor.  Had the Lord not risen as the Resurrected One and had He not filled His Disciples with life-giving power and miraculous wisdom, what could have brought these cowardly and fugitive men together, giving them the courage and the strength and the wisdom so fearlessly to preach and to confess the Resurrected Christ and to go with such joy even to death on His behalf? And if the Resurrected Savior did not fill them with His divine power and wisdom, how could they have ignited in the world the inextinguishable fire of the New Testamental Faith, these simple, unlearned, and poor men? If the Christian Faith were not a faith in the Resurrection and, as a consequence, in the Eternally-Living and Life-Giving Lord, who would have been able to inspire the Martyrs in the feat of martyrdom, the Confessors in the feat of confession, the Ascetics in the feats of asceticism, the Unmercenaries in the feat of penury, the Fasters in their feats of abstinence, and any Christian in any Christian feat?

Thus it is that all of these things are true for me and for every human being —through the Resurrection of Christ. The Wondrous and Sweet Jesus Christ, the Resurrected God-Man, is the only Being under the heavens in whom man here on earth can conquer death and sin and the devil and come to blessedness and immortality —becoming a partaker, indeed, of the Eternal Kingdom of the Love of Christ. For the human being, the Resurrected Christ is the all in all throughout mankind: all that is Beautiful, Good, True, Precious, Harmonious, Sacred, Wise, and Everlasting. He is all of our Love, all of our Truth, all of our Joy, all of our Life, the Eternal Life unto all the sacred eternities and infinities.

Saint Kosmas and Resurrection

The Lord went to Hades and brought out Adam and Eve and our race. He rose on the third day. He appeared twelve times to his Apostles. There was joy in heaven, joy on earth, and in the entire world.

If our Christ hadn't been buried in a grave, he wouldn't have watered eternal life and the resurrection. Can't you see clearly how God raises the grass from the earth each year? We don't have the knowledge, my fellow Christians, to see everything. God has given us everything. So for the present, I beg you, my brethren, to say for all the dead three times: "May God forgive them and have mercy on them."

Saint George: Witness to our Lord's Resurrection!

And it came to pass that an angel of light appeared to him in prison in the middle of the night, and there was a great earthquake and the city was moved to its very foundations. And behold God came into the prison with thousands of his holy angels, and the whole place was filled with exceeding precious incense. And God called to Saint George, saying, "George, my beloved, rise up healed and without corruption, from the couch on which thou sleepest;" and he straightway leaped up without any pain in his body, and he was like one who had risen up from a royal feast. Then he cast himself down and worshipped the Lord, but He took him by the hand and raised him up, and saluted him lovingly, and laid His hand upon all his body, and filled him with strength, and said to him, "O beloved one, be strong and of good cheer, for I will be with thee until thou hast put to shame these lawless kings. I swear by Myself, O George My beloved, that as there has never arisen among those born of women one greater than John the Baptist, so there shall never be any one among the martyrs that can be compared with thee, or be like unto thee. And behold these seventy lawless kings shall torture thee for seven years, and thou shalt do many mighty deeds, and shalt die three times, and I will raise thee up again: but on the fourth time I will come to thee on a cloud of light with the celestial hosts and the Prophets and the Apostles and the holy Martyrs, and I will bring thee to the place of safe keeping which I have prepared for thee." When the Savior had said these words to him, He gave him the salutation of peace and filled him full of joy; and He went up to heaven with His angels. And the blessed man was looking after Him and rejoicing greatly and blessing God until day-break by reason of the words which God had spoken to him…

…I will make all creatures upon earth to enjoy this day; and I will crown the fruits of the earth on the day in which thou art crowned; and on the day of the dedication to thee of the first-fruits of the earth, which is the seventh day of Athor, thy name, O My beloved George, My valiant soldier, shall be exalted in heaven and glorious upon earth forever and ever, Amen." And when the Lord had said these things to him, He filled him with power and joy, and the blessed man rejoiced greatly and exulted, saying, "I thank thee, O my Lord Jesus, that thou hast honored me more than I deserve;" and the Lord made the sign of the cross over him, and disappeared from his sight. Then the holy man roused the soldiers, saying, "Come, my brethren, and perform that which has been commanded you:" and he straightway stretched out his neck and the soldiers took off his holy head, and there came forth from it blood and milk. And the Lord caused Michael to receive the blood and milk in his garment of light, and the Lord received his soul in to His own hands, and embraced it, and He wrapped it in the purple of the aether and ascended into the heights with it. And the whole firmament was filled with the holy angels and the company of the saints, and they hymned it until the Lord gave it as a gift to His Good Father and the Holy Spirit. And He put upon it a garment of light and an excellent diadem of gold set with precious stones, and there were seven crowns upon the diadem wreathed with the flowers of the tree of life, and the Lord wrote his name with the first-born forever. And He caused the whole company of heaven and all the bands of the saints to seat him upon a throne and to celebrate a festival with him in the heavenly Jerusalem.



"Χριστός ἀνέστη!" by Pavlos Nirvanas

Once — many years ago— when I happened to celebrate Easter and the Resurrection in a little mountain village of the Peloponnese, I had noticed an old villager who was holding a lit Easter candle with his arm outstretched upwards, towards the stars that adorned the skies of that Resurrection night, and, as though addressing me, I heard him gently murmur:

“The Heavens, my child, were tamed on this night….”

In those few words, that innocent villager had succinctly enclosed the most profound meaning of the Christian miracle. “The Heavens were tamed”.

Without the supreme Christian miracle of the Resurrection, the heavens would have continued (for the cowardly soul of the simple person and for every human soul generally) to be the abode of a dreaded God; a fair judge, but also one without leniency, and a merciless vindicator. Such were the gods of all other religions. They reigned supreme over their creations, instilling fear in them. They were omnipotent tyrants, who remained at a great distance from their peoples; they had never acquainted themselves with their worshippers’ weaknesses, they had never suffered the pain that their believers suffered and had never been tormented by their believers’ torments. They had never mourned like their believers mourned. They were incapable of compassion, of sympathy or forgiveness. How could the heavens that are inhabited by such gods not be perceived as “savage”, in the eyes of awe-struck mortals?

In that calm spring night, as the old villager’s lit candle was lifted to the heavens like a greeting towards the twinkling, resurrected stars, the heavens indeed seemed tamer. They were no longer the abode of a God estranged from His people, seated far, far away “up there” on His terrible throne. There now resided a lovable God; one Who had savored all the sufferings that mankind suffered: He had acquainted Himself with all the injustices of the world, He had undergone every kind of scorn, He had paid for every single kind of ingratitude. He was abused, laughed at, spat on, dragged through the streets in bonds as though He were the worst of criminals, and was crucified. He had hungered, thirsted, and had beheld the horror of death. For a moment, He had even seen Himself as forgotten by God Himself, who was His Father: “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?” There was no pain that He had not become acquainted with; no heartache that He had not felt; no misery whose poison He had not tasted. He drank every kind of bitter drink that a person could ever drink in this world. And, on a night like tonight, this suffering and tortured person had risen to the heavens and had seated Himself, all-powerful, at God’s Throne, to govern the entire world. How could the Heavens not become “tamed”? An infinite goodness had now engulfed the Firmament.

“Why should any sinner tremble in fear from then on?” the old man must have thought to himself. “He who had forgiven the whore, the robber - and even those who had crucified Him - is now “up there” and He can see the sinner’s tears of repentance and forgive him. Why should any sick person feel desperation? He who had healed the blind and the paralyzed is now “up there” and can heal him also. Why should the poor and the wronged feel resentment? He, who had hungered and thirsted is now “up there” and is fully understanding of his misery too. Why should any mother worry anxiously about her child? Up there, in the Heavens, is a caring Mother who has also endured maternal suffering and who will beseech (on that mother’s behalf) Her Son, who governs the entire world, to bestow His mercy on her. And why should any white-haired elder tremble during his hour of death? For him - as for every soul – there awaits a resurrection…”

The Heavens were indeed tamer on that spring evening. And the old man’s candle had indeed been raised as a greeting – and as a thanksgiving – towards those ‘resurrected’ stars.

—“Christ is risen, grandpa”.

—“He is God; He is the Lord, my child”.
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Κάποτε —ἐδῶ καὶ πολλὰ χρόνια— ποὺ μοὔτυχε νὰ κάνω Ἀνάσταση σὲ κάποιο ὀρεινὸ χωριὸ τῆς Ρούμελης, ἕνας γέρος χωριάτης, ὑψώνοντας τὴ λαμπριάτικη λαμπάδα του, σὰ χαιρετισμό, πρὸς τ' ἀναστάσιμα ἄστρα, μοῦ εἶπε σὰ νὰ μιλοῦσε μὲ τὸν ἑαυτό του :

—Ἡμέρεψαν ἀπόψε, παιδί μου, τὰ Οὐράνια.

Στὰ δυὸ αὐτὰ λόγια ὁ ἀθῶος χωριάτης εἶχε κλείσει, ἐπιγραμματικά, τὸ βαθύτερο νόημα τοῦ χριστιανικοῦ θαύματος. «Ἡμέρεψαν τὰ Οὐράνια». Ὁ οὐρανός, χωρὶς τὸ μεγάλο χριστιανικὸ θαῦμα, θὰ ἐξακολουθοῦσε νὰ εἶναι γιὰ τὴν περίφοβη ψυχὴ τοῦ ἁπλοϊκοῦ ἀνθρώπου —γιὰ κάθε ἀνθρώπινη ψυχὴ— τὸ κατοικητήριο ἑνὸς Θεοῦ τρομεροῦ, δικαιοκρίτη χωρὶς ἐπιείκεια καὶ τιμωροῦ χωρὶς ἔλεος. Τέτοιοι στάθηκαν οἱ θεοὶ ὅλων τῶν θρησκειῶν. Κυβερνοῦσαν τὰ πλάσματά τους μὲ τὸν τρόμο. Τύραννοι παντοδύναμοι, μακρυσμένοι ἀπ' τὸ λαό τους, δὲν εἶχαν γνωρίσει ποτὲ τὶς ἀδυναμίες του, δὲν εἶχαν πονέσει ποτὲ τὸν πόνο του, δὲν εἶχαν βασανισθεῖ ποτὲ ἀπ' τὰ βάσανά του, δὲν εἶχαν κλάψει ποτὲ τὰ δάκρυά του. Ἀνίκανοι νὰ συμπονέσουν, νὰ λυπηθοῦν καὶ νὰ συχωρέσουν. Πῶς νὰ μὴν εἶναι «ἄγρια» — ὅπως τάβλεπε τὸ μάτι τοῦ φοβισμένου ἀνθρώπου —τὰ οὐράνια, τὰ κατοικημένα ἀπὸ τέτοιους θεοὺς;

Καὶ μέσα στὴν ἀνοιξιάτικη ἐκείνη νύχτα, ποὺ ἡ λαμπάδα τοῦ γέρου χωριάτη εἶχε ὑψωθῆ σὰ χαιρετισμὸς πρὸς τὰ λαμπρά, ἀναστάσιμα ἄστρα, τὰ οὐράνια εἶχαν ἡμερέψει. Δὲν κατοικοῦσε πιὰ ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω ὑψωμένος στὸν τρομερὸ του θρόνο, ἕνας θεὸς ξένος γιὰ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους. Κατοικοῦσε ἕνας γλυκύτατος θεός, ποὺ εἶχε πονέσει ὅλους τους πόνους τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ποὺ εἶχε γνωρίσει ὅλες τὶς ἀδικίες τῆς γῆς, ποὺ εἶχε τραβήξει ὅλες τὶς καταφρόνιες, ποὺ εἶχε πληρώσει ὅλες τὶς ἀχαριστίες. Τὸν ἔβρισαν, τὸν ἀναγέλασαν, τὸν ἔφτυσαν, τὸν ἔσυραν δεμένο στοὺς δρόμους, σὰν τὸ τελευταῖο κακοῦργο, τὸν σταύρωσαν. Ἐπείνασε, ἐδίψασε, κουράστηκε, ἀντίκρυσε τὴ φρίκη τοῦ θανάτου. Γιὰ μιὰ στιγμὴ εἶδε τὸν ἑαυτό του λησμονημένο κι' ἀπ' τὸν ἴδιο τὸ Θεό, ποὺ ἦταν πατέρας του. «Θεέ μου, θεέ μου, ἵνα τί μὲ ἐγκατέλιπες;» Δὲ στάθηκε πόνος, ποὺ νὰ μὴν τὸν γνώρισε, καρδιοσωμός, ποὺ νὰ μὴν τὸν ἔννοιωσε, δυστυχία, ποὺ νὰ μὴ γεύθηκε τὸ φαρμάκι της. Ἤπιε ὅλα τὰ φαρμάκια, ποὺ μπορεῖ νὰ πιῆ ἄνθρωπος σ' αὐτὸν τὸν κόσμο. Καί, τὴ νύχτα ἐκείνη, ὁ πονεμένος καὶ βασανισμένος αὐτὸς ἄνθρωπος εἶχε ἀνέβη στοὺς Οὐρανοὺς καὶ εἶχε καθήσει παντοδύναμος στὸ θρόνο τοῦ θεοῦ, νὰ κυβερνήση τὸν κόσμο. Πῶς νὰ μὴν «ἡμερέψουν τὰ Οὐράνια»; Μιὰ ἀπέραντη καλωσύνη εἶχε πλημμυρίσει τὸ στερέωμα.

Γιατὶ νὰ τρέμη πιὰ ὁ ἁμαρτωλός; θὰ συλλογιζότανε ὁ γέρος. Ἐκεῖνος ποὺ συχώρεσε τὴν πόρνη, τὸ ληστὴ κι ἐκείνους ἀκόμα ποὺ τὸν σταύρωσαν, εἶναι τώρα ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω, γιὰ νὰ ἰδῆ τὰ δάκρυα τοῦ μετανοιωμοῦ του καὶ νὰ τὸν συχώρεση. Γιατί ν’ ἀπελπίζεται ὁ ἄρρωστος; Ἐκεῖνος ποὺ γιάτρεψε τὸν τυφλὸ καὶ τὸν παράλυτο, εἶναι τώρα ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω γιὰ νὰ τὸν γιατρέψη. Γιατί νὰ βαρυγκομάη ὁ φτωχὸς καὶ ὁ ἀδικημένος; Ἐκεῖνος, ποὺ πείνασε καὶ δίψασε, εἶναι τώρα ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω καὶ καταλαβαίνει τὴ δυστυχία του. Γιατὶ νὰ λαχταράη ἡ μάννα γιὰ τὸ παιδί της; Ἐκεῖ ἀπάνω στοὺς Οὐρανοὺς εἶναι μιὰ Μαννούλα, ποὺ δοκίμασε τὸν πόνο της, γιὰ νὰ παρακάλεση τὸ παιδί της, ποὺ κυβερνάει τὸν κόσμο, νὰ τὴν ἐλεήσῃ. Καὶ γιατὶ νὰ τρέμη ὁ ἀσπρομάλλης ὁ γέρος τὴν ὥρα τοῦ θανάτου; Εἶναι καὶ γι' αὐτόν, εἶναι γιὰ κάθε ψυχή, μιὰ ἀνάσταση.

Τὰ Οὐράνια εἶχαν ἡμερέψει, ἀλήθεια, ἐκείνη τὴν ἀνοιξιάτικη νύχτα. Καὶ ἡ λαμπάδα τοῦ γέρου εἶχε ὑψωθῆ σὰ χαιρετισμὸς καὶ σὰν εὐχαριστία, πρὸς τὰ ἀναστάσιμα ἄστρα.

—Χριστὸς ἀνέστη, παπποῦ.
—Ὁ Θεός, ὁ Κύριος, παιδί μου.

Proto-Myrrh Bearer

Icon by the hand of Georgios Kordis