The title just about says it all, but a little extra general information:
My father is a Russian Orthodox priest, and these are the sermons he gives during Sunday Divine Liturgy.
I know this is a little late, but finally getting around to sharing Father's sermon for Pascha:
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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is Risen!
"In the grave bodily, but in Hades with Thy soul as God: in Paradise with the thief, and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit wast Thou Who fillest all things, O Christ the Inexpressible." --The Paschal hours.
On Holy Saturday, while the Creator rested in the tomb, having finished his work on earth, and fulfilling the Law of the Sabbath, his soul descended into Hades (Old Testament Sheol) the abode of the dead. As Isaiah foretold, "the people who walked in darkness saw a great light and the shadow of death on them the light hath shone. " So it was that Christ, the Light of the world, descended into the depths of darkness, and like the sun illumined every dark, murky corner of Hades. He smashed the gates and shouted to the spirits in prison, "Go forth!"; and to them that were in darkness, "Show yourselves"! Then the chains of darkness that bound them were broken (in the icon we see chains, etc. and locks flying about) and the prisoners came forth to meet their great Benefactor.
Thus Christ emptied hell of all its captives. St. Cyril of Alexandria says that Satan was left all alone and lonely in Hades after Christ loosed its prisoners. Such a pity--NOT!
When we consider that heaven and hell are not so much places as they are spiritual states, Christ's descent into Hades takes on a new light. There is "something of God" in every man as the Quakers say. And that something of God is his own image, which he could not bear to see lost. Therefore Christ descends into our hearts in search of the lost coin that bears his image, that he might raise up that image which is fallen, just as he did to the souls in Hades. He calls us by name and extends to us his nail-scarred hands, even as he did to Adam and Eve, as depicted in the icon. St, Macarius of Egypt tells us:
"When you hear that the Lord in the old days delivered souls from hell and prison and that He descended into hell and performed a glorious deed, do not think that all these events are far from your soul... So the Lord comes into the souls that seek Him, into the depth of the heart's hell, and there commands death, saying: 'Release the imprisoned souls which have sought Me and which you hold by force'. And He shatters the heavy stones weighing on the soul, opens graves, raises the true dead from death, brings the imprisoned soul from the dark prison... Is it difficult for God to enter death and, even more, into the depth of the heart and to call out dead Adam from there?... If the sun, being created, passes everywhere through windows and doors, even to the caves of lions and the holes of creeping creatures, and comes out without any harm, the more so does God and the Lord of everything enter caves and abodes in which death has settled, and also souls, and, having released Adam from there, [remains] unfettered by death. Similarly, rain coming down from the sky reaches the nethermost parts of the earth, moistens and renews the roots there and gives birth to new shoots."
So why do we still sit in darkness when Christ offers us light? Do we want to keep the devil company. God forbid! "Awake thou that sleepest and rise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light!" But our deliverance is a lifelong process. What happened instantaneously for the dead in Hades happens only gradually by degrees for us who are bound by earth and time. That is why the Church uses liturgical remembrance of the events of our salvation according to the daily weekly and yearly cycles, so that with each time around we might enter more deeply into the reality of what Christ has done for us.
In Orthodoxy Pascha is a communal event (Harrowing of Hades icon vs Western depictions of the Resurrection)
As the Prophet Isaiah foretold :
"Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." --Is 26:19
One intriguing foreshadowing of Christ's three-day resurrection is found in Joshua 1.
"Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel."
The name Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua. Joshua, we know, was the successor to Moses, even as Jesus as the New Lawgiver succeeded and superseded Moses. Joshua is called "the son of Nun" in Scripture, which means "son of eternity"--another allusion to Christ the Eternal Son of the Eternal One. God commands Joshua to "arise" together with all the people and cross over Jordan. So there we have the communal resurrection. In verse 11 it specifies the time frame in which this would occur: "within three days". And as Joshua led the children of Israel into their earthly inheritance, so likewise Jesus leads the Church into the inheritance of the saints in light, even things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither entered into the heart of man which he hath prepared for them that love him.
But not only is Pascha and all it entails a communal event, it is also a personal event unto each of us as individuals:
Yesterday I was buried with Thee, O Christ. Today I arise with Thee in Thy resurrection. Yesterday I was crucified with Thee: Glorify me with Thee, O Savior, in Thy kingdom
Christ's death is our death, and Christ's resurrection is our resurrection. As one priest points out, "Christ does not die 'for us,' in the sense of 'substitute.' For we still die. Our suffering has not been removed by His suffering, nor was our suffering ever properly understood as a punishment from God. Christ dies 'for us,' in that He takes our death (all death) into Himself and makes it His death." And so it is with the resurrection. His resurrection is not a substitute for ours, but we take his resurrection into our selves and rise together with him. All of this is consummated in us individually in the Mystery of Holy Baptism when we unite ourselves to him who united himself to us. As the apostle explains:
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. --Romans 6:3-11
And so mankind has been restored to Paradise. The good thief was the first to partake of the tree of life, the cross of our Lord and enter into paradise restored And now, we, too, are given to eat of the fruit of that tree, which is the Eucharist, the very body and blood of our Lord. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ!
