The permanence of the soul, its continued life after death, was not in contention among the early Christians. Indeed, thanks in part to Plato, some form of belief in a spiritual afterlife was quite in fashion in the Greco-Roman culture where the Apostles proclaimed the Gospel.

The Apostle Paul, for his part, certainly anticipated an afterlife immediately following death. This persuasion prompted him to

“desire to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23).

This immediate afterlife was not, however, the true goal of Paul’s striving, which was, rather, to “attain to the resurrection from the dead” (3:11). Anyway, no early Christians—as far as we can tell—contested the expectation of an immediate afterlife.

When the Apostles proclaimed Jesus as risen, however, they did not mean that he had somehow survived in a spiritual state after his death on the Cross. They meant, quite plainly,

“he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4).

It was an event, not a static condition.

Also, it was emphatically physical, not in the sense of induced by physical forces, but in the sense that it happened to the body. Had this not been the case, the Resurrection of Jesus would not have happened “according to the Scriptures.” The Resurrection-hope held out by Holy Scripture had to do with the body. When Isaiah prophesied, “Your dead shall live,” he went on to specify,

“their corpses will arise” (Isaiah 26:19).

It was this physical quality of the Christian hope that proved to be too challenging for some of the brethren at Corinth. They summarized their argument with the sarcastic query.

“How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” (1 Corinthians 15:35)

What those individuals contested was not a belief in an afterlife, but the physical cosmology implicitly contained in the thesis, “the God of our fathers raised up Jesus” (Acts 5:30). They were unable to grasp that the Gospel proclaimed this truth as a vindication of the whole created order.

Holy Scripture, after all, had not declared, “God approved of all the spiritual things He had made,” but,

“God saw everything (kol) that He had formed, and indeed it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31).

It was in refuting the skeptics at Corinth that the Apostle Paul came to understand the Resurrection of Christ as God’s historical act for the purpose of rectifying the evils inflicted on the created order by Adam’s Fall. The Resurrection had to be physical, because death and corruption were physical.

Although it was a single event in history, the “logic” of the Resurrection implied that the whole material world, starting with the bodies of Christians, was destined for restoration and transformation through the risen and glorified flesh of Christ. This meant that the true and ultimate afterlife anticipated by Christians was not based on the immortality of the soul, but on the resurrection of the body.

In answering the Corinthian skepticism, Paul established the “logic” of the Resurrection in a chain of short hypothetical syllogisms. Within 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, the word “if” appears nine times, leading to the final inference,

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

At this point, Paul is ready to move from apologetics to theology, and he marks the transition with a formal “now”:

“But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (15:20).

To speak theologically means to address truth through the categories, the images, the questions, and the declarations of Holy Scripture. The Resurrection of Christ was not just a bare fact. It was a theological revelation. It happened “according to the Scriptures.” Because this was so, Paul consulted Holy Scripture, in order to grasp what the Resurrection meant.

It is most significant that the first Scripture he consulted on this matter was Genesis. Whereas St. Peter consulted the Book of Psalms for this purpose (Acts 2:24-36), Paul went back to one of the earliest episodes of biblical history, the account of the Fall:

“For since death came through a man, through a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive”

(1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

© 2011, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

The Holy Apostle Paul made it abundantly clear that the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of our faith when he wrote to the Corinthians:

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Cor. 15:14).

It would be fair to say that one who does not believe in the Resurrection of Christ cannot be called a Christian.

But what does it mean to believe in the Resurrection of Christ? What is resurrection in the Christian understanding and what are the undeniable and essential theological implications of the Resurrection of Jesus as reflected in the Holy Scriptures and the whole Tradition of His historical Church?

The Resurrection is Present Not Future

In a conversation with Martha of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, our Lord Himself revealed the true nature of this resurrection when He corrected Martha’s limited understanding. When the Lord assured Martha that her brother would rise from the dead, Martha responded in this manner:

“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (Jn. 11:24).

In other words, Martha understood the resurrection as a future event, a reality that would occur (only) at the end of the age. As a typical and pious Jew, she could not conceive of the resurrection as something to be participated in now. In her mind the resurrection was a static event relegated to some “time” in the future, not an organic reality made possible through relationship with the God-Man, Jesus. The Lord then corrects her, seeking to change the whole paradigm of her understanding, saying,

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (Jn. 11:25).

Among other things, Jesus was telling Martha that in Him the Resurrection will be a reality available in the present to those who are joined to Him. By His death He would destroy Death as it had existed up to that time, transforming it from the inside out, filling up Death with Life by entering into it Himself as Man and overcoming it as God through His Resurrection. Through Him, Resurrection would be a function not of time but of relationship. Death is overcome NOW by all those whose humanity is joined to the Resurrected Humanity of God!

Implications of the Resurrection

It is not surprising then that the immediate consequence of Christ’s Resurrection was that

“the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matt. 27:52-53).

This raising of the righteous was not a mere “show” of God’s power to bolster the ranks of his disciples. Rather it reflects the new Reality of the Resurrection, the transformation of the condition of death and of human nature through Christ.

The appearance of the “dead” to those in Jerusalem as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew is the very same phenomenon which occurs so often in the life of the Orthodox Church, typically but not exclusively with those recognized as “Saints.” Therefore in recent times we hear of appearances by Saint John Maximovich of San Francisco and Saint Nectarios of Aegina in Greece to “many” in need of healing or help, or for some other purpose in the will of God.

Yet many who claim to believe in the Resurrection unknowingly share a similar understanding of resurrection as did Martha of Bethany. Some believe in “soul sleep,” the idea that people are unconscious after death, only to awake at the Second Coming of the Lord. Others hold there can be no relationship or communication with the dead, even with those who are

“dead in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:16).

Somehow these Christians have placed a barrier between heaven and earth that is not found in the New Testament.

Resurrection: The Unity of Heaven and Earth, Living and Dead

Quite the opposite, the New Testament proclaims the unity of

“both things which are in heaven, and things which are on earth” (Eph. 1:10).

If no such unity exists, and if it is not a unity that is actualized and made present in the Church of God, we must wonder what in the world

“an innumerable company of angels,”

and

“the spirits of just men made perfect”

were doing in the churches of St. Paul’s time (Heb. 11:22-23). After Jesus’ crucifixion the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, but not just to show the abolition of the Law. It was torn “from top to bottom” to show that the separation of heaven and earth was abolished in Christ. Speaking of the Liturgy of the Church in the 4th century, St. John Chrysostom agrees with the Holy Apostle Paul, when he says,

“This Eucharist of ours liberates us from earth and transports us to heaven.”

Mother Gavrilia, an undeniably holy woman of the 20th century was once asked to speak to a Protestant group in America. Of all things, she chose to speak about the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. After her talk, time was allotted for question and answer. A man got up and said, “How can you speak of ‘praying to Mary,’ after all, she’s dead?! Mother Gavrilia immediately quipped,

“Oh, we believe in the Resurrection!”

While her answer may seem to some overly simplistic, it could not be more profound. If we follow to their logical end the implications of the Resurrection of Christ, who is the

“first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20),

we will not be able to separate those who are “living” and those who are “dead” in Christ, for His Resurrection has changed everything! Rather we can only allow for separation between those who are in Christ and those who are not. As our Lord testified to the Saduccees who did not believe in the resurrection,

“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt. 22:32).

And Saint Paul teaches the same:

“For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14:9).

In the Parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Lk. 16:19-31), a “great gulf” separated the rich man from Lazarus. However there is no such gulf mentioned between heaven ( or “the bosom of Abraham”) and earth, only that the rich man’s brothers would not believe even if someone came to them from the dead. On the Mount of the Transfiguration, our Lord conversed both with Elijah, who did not die but who was taken up bodily into heaven in a fiery chariot, as well as with Moses who did die and was buried with his fathers.

The unity of heaven and earth is nowhere more obvious than in the Revelation of St. John. For instance in chapter 5 we are allowed to peer into the liturgy which continually takes place in God’s kingdom, where the church of heaven is actively praying for the church on earth:

“Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints [on earth]” (verse 8).

Rupture and True Resurrection

Not long after the Great Schism, the West began to forget the nature and importance of the Resurrection as a result of its myopic focus on the Crucifixion. Thomas Aquinas, revered as one of the greatest saints and doctors of the West, wrote that the Resurrection was only necessary to confirm that Christ is God. In this mindset the Resurrection has no real theological meaning and no organic connection with the salvation of human persons through the glorification of human nature in Christ. Aquinas also believed that through the sin of Adam, man’s will had become fallen, but not his mind. This further contributes to the perception that faith is a function of thought, of logic, of philosophy, rather than being a function of the transformation of human persons through their union with the Resurrected Humanity of Christ.

It is easy to see how such a position can devolve into mere “belief-ism,” the idea that “if we believe in Jesus we get to go to heaven when we die.” Such a stance has little to do with the good news reflected in the Holy Scriptures. Because real Christian belief and faith is more than an intellectual assent to certain doctrines; it is a union and communion with the Resurrected Lord through His Body, the Church. The doctrines are primarily necessary to promote and nurture this union. Therefore, the Lord Jesus ties life and salvation to the Sacrament of Sacraments, the Holy Eucharist.

“If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

The life that comes through Holy Communion is a result of being joined to His Resurrected Humanity, which is Itself joined to His Divine Nature. Only inasmuch as we organically incorporate into our souls and bodies this life of resurrection, now in this life, can we say we are

“being saved” (1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15).

If salvation is not a real participation in the resurrected life, the glorified and grace-filled Humanity of Christ, then there is no practical function or need for prayer, for fasting and ascetical effort, nor even love for neighbor. Without it, “Christianity” becomes a mere moral compass for this life by which we view ourselves as “good” people.

But if indeed Christ is risen, Christianity can never be reduced to this.

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When Flavius Josephus misrepresented the faith of the Pharisees—claiming they believed in the transmigration of the soul, instead of the resurrection of the body—he did so to avoid ridicule from contemporary Greco-Roman pagans. Although the latter differed among themselves with respect to an after-life, none were disposed to take seriously a belief that the dead would really rise.

Even the most broadminded of pagans—those Athenians who

“spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing”

—were unable to tolerate the notion that the dead would rise. It is true that they were prepared to sit and listen patiently while the Apostle Paul discoursed on every aspect of God and man, but

“when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said,’We will hear you again about this’” (Acts 17:22-32).

Paul had strayed well past the wide boundary of their tolerance.

From Athens, Paul journeyed to Corinth, where his efforts met with apparently better results. He catechized the Christians there for eighteen months (18:11). Yet, five years or so after leaving them, Paul discovered that some of those Gentile Christians still did not truly believe in the resurrection! He questioned them,

“Now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

Paul went on to argue that this belief was absolutely essential to Christian faith:

“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (1 Corinthians 15:12-13).

At one time those Corinthian Christians had confessed the Resurrection of Jesus. Otherwise, they would not have been baptized. Paul had handed on to them, as a matter of highest importance, that Christ

“was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (15:4).

They knew this.

Yet, these same Christians still persisted in the pagan persuasion that resurrection from the dead was impossible! Elementary logic had not yet disclosed to them the massive inconsistency in their minds.

It was necessary, then, for Paul to take them through a simple series of hypothetical syllogisms:

“If the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (15:16-19).

Had these Corinthians “spiritualized” the belief in Resurrection of Christ, regarding it as simply a metaphor for the immorality of the soul or some other form of spiritual survival? Perhaps. We do know that some members of that church regarded themselves as pnevmatikoi, “spiritual people” (2:14-16). Perhaps these were the ones whom Paul accused of denying the resurrection from the dead.

Whoever they were, Paul regarded these people as courting spiritual danger. Had their original belief been in vain? Paul recognized the possibility:

“I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain” (15:1-2).

“In vain” here means “empty words.”

The merely verbal declaration of the Lordship of Jesus was insufficient for salvation without the doctrinal affirmation—inwardly seized and adhered to—that God raised him from the dead:

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Belief “in the heart” means that the believer’s mind grasps and adheres to the doctrinal content of the verbal affirmation. In this case, the heart knows and holds fast to the fact of Jesus’ Resurrection.

This fact, Paul argued, was not simply a matter of history. It necessarily implied certain truths of metaphysics, psychology, and cosmology. Specifically, it denied, at a radical level, the widespread pagan persuasion that only the soul was ultimately important.

As a Pharisee, Paul had always believed in a resurrection from the dead.

At Corinth, however, he discovered certain Christians who believed less than the Pharisees!

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From the beginning, the proclamation of the Gospel has always involved a claim that the full weight of universal human wisdom declares to be impossible: the resurrection of a man who had been dead in his grave for a couple of days—as distinct from the resuscitation of someone apparently dead

This claim, without which there is no Gospel, is the primary component of the “folly” mentioned by the Apostle Paul as inevitably characteristic of the Christian message. That is to say, those who proclaim the Gospel declare to have happened a thing everybody knows cannot happen.

For this reason, those who believe the Gospel inevitably find themselves separated from what the rest of the human race considers normal and sane. They willingly place themselves outside of every premise and expectation common to the race of men. From the minute they accept the Gospel thesis, they implicitly declare that they no longer care a fig about what the rest of the world thinks; they are prepared to be regarded as fools on the earth. Believers go for broke. They have burned their bridges with respect to this world. All their eggs are in the Easter basket.

On the other hand, this detachment from the expectations of the world is the source of an immense practical freedom for the Christian people. Liberated from mankind’s most fundamental premise and most tenacious preconception—namely, the impossibility that the dead should rise—Christians start from scratch with respect to human opinion on any matter whatever. If they refuse to concede to human wisdom at least that primary premise, there is never again a compelling reason to concede any point to human wisdom.

The first preachers of the Gospel were completely aware of this fact, being quite familiar with the world’s ingrained prejudice about the finality of death. They faced the problem squarely, armed only with the convictions of conscience.

They were especially careful not to let the Resurrection of Christ become some sort of “spiritual” experience. Had they spoken of the risen Christ as a kind of incorporeal vision or phantom, someone spiritually who “lived on” after death, their message would surely have met acceptance from many of their contemporaries. Christians did not succumb to that temptation, however. They insisted that Jesus rose in his very body, the body numerically identical to the one in which he died on the cross.

The Gospel accounts—in the measure they reflect Christian apologetics—are emphatic on this point. The risen Jesus commands his friends:

“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:38).

The post-Resurrection accounts depict Jesus as being touched (John 20:27), embraced (Matthew 28:9), and clung to (John 20:17).

These experiences were physical. The Apostle Peter later described them to the friends of Cornelius:

“God raised him up on the third day, and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God—to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead” (Acts 10:41).

One of those meals was a hot breakfast, which the risen Jesus prepared for his friends (John 21:9). There was nothing incorporeal or visionary about that breakfast picnic on the beach.

At the same time, those who preached the Resurrection of Christ did not think he had simply been restored to what he was before. He was not a resuscitated corpse. They knew him to be alive in an entirely new way—alive beyond the reach of death. He was risen, said the Apostle Paul,

“in power” (Romans 1:4).

To those who believed in the Gospel, the physical body of Jesus, risen from the grave, was proof that death had been definitively conquered:

“Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. In that he died, he died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God” (Romans 6:9-10).

Even though Jesus’ risen body was physical, therefore, those who bore witness to it also mentioned that it had been set free from the usual physical limitations. Just as it was free from the domination of death, so it was liberated from ordinary physical restrictions, such as those imposed, for example, by closed doors. That is to say, rising from the dead, Jesus showed himself completely free from every human expectation—not only death, but even the laws of physics.

© 2011, admin. All rights reserved.

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

“Brethren, see to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

Brethren, do not let philosophy enslave us, which by conjecture, says that there is no eternal life nor resurrection from the dead. For we do not arrive at the Truth through the conjecture of man, but by God’s revelation. That which we know about the truth we know from Truth Itself which was revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ and which was communicated to us through the faithful and wise witnesses of the Truth: the apostles and the saints. If we, because of our sins, were to reject these witnesses and accept the conjecture of humans, we will fall into the dark and bitter slavery of nature, of the body, to sin and to death.

Brethren, let us not be deceived by the empty myths of men, from men and according to men as though another world does not exist or if another world does exist, we, so to speak, do not know anything about it. Behold, we know with confidence that another world does exist. We know this not from conjecturers or deceivers but from the Lord Jesus Himself Who, on Mount Tabor, appeared to His disciples with Moses and Elijah who long ago departed this world and Who Himself, appeared to many of His followers after His death. We also know about this from the apostles, saints and numerous discerners to whom, because of their chastity and sanctity, God revealed the ultimate Truth about the other world. If, because of our sins, we do not believe these holy and the truthful witnesses, we will then have to believe those unholy and false men and we will be slaves to darkness, sin and death.

Brethren, let us not be led astray by worldly teaching, which examines animals, plants and stones and say it has not found God among these things and, from that, arrogantly attest that there is no God. Behold, we know that the Creator cannot be, as a thing among things, rather He is above all things and different from all things. We know this, as much by spiritual understanding and conscience, as well as by the obvious revelation of the Lord Jesus Himself, Who appeared in the body of a man as the Lord of all created things, as well as through the witness of the apostles, many other saints and discerning men.

Rather, let us glorify the Lord Jesus resurrected from the dead.

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The seasons blush varied with the flowery, fair weather, and the gate of the pole lies open with greater light. His path in the heaven raises the fire-breathing sun higher, who goes forth on his course, and enters the waters of the ocean. Armed with rays traversing the liquid elements, in this brief night he stretches out the day in a circle. The brilliant firmament puts forth its clear countenance, and the bright stars show their joy. The fruitful earth pours forth its gifts with varied increase, when the year has well returned its vernal riches. Soft beds of violets paint the purple plain; the meadows are green with plants, and the plant shines with its leaves.

By degrees gleaming brightness of the flowers comes forth; all the herbs smile with their blossoms. The seed being deposited, the corn springs up far and wide in the fields, promising to be able to overcome the hunger of the husbandman. Having deserted its stem, the vine-shoot bewails its joys; the vine gives water only from the source from which it is wont to give wine. The swelling bud, rising with tender down from the back of its mother, prepares its bosom for bringing forth. Its foliage having been torn off in the wintry season, the verdant grove now renews its leafy shelter. Mingled together, the willow, the fir, the hazel, the osier, the elm, the maple, the walnut, each tree applauds, delightful with its leaves. Hence the bee, about to construct its comb, leaving the hive, humming over the flowers, carries off honey with its leg. The bird which, having closed its song, was dumb, sluggish with the wintry cold, returns to its strains. Hence Philomela attunes her notes with her own instruments, and the air becomes sweeter with the re-echoed melody. Behold, the favour of the reviving world bears witness that all gifts have returned together with its Lord.

For in honour of Christ rising triumphant after His descent to the gloomy Tartarus, the grove on every side with its leaves expresses approval, the plants with their flowers express approval. The light, the heaven, the fields, and the sea duly praise the God ascending above the stars, having crushed the laws of hell. Behold, He who was crucified reigns as God over all things, and all created objects offer prayer to their Creator.

Hail, festive day, to be reverenced throughout the world, on which God has conquered hell, and gains the stars! The changes of the year and of the months, the bounteous light of the days, the splendour of the hours, all things with voice applaud. Hence, in honour of you, the wood with its foliage applauds; hence the vine, with its silent shoot, gives thanks. Hence the thickets now resound with the whisper of birds; amidst these the sparrow sings with exuberant love. O Christ, Thou Saviour of the world, merciful Creator and Redeemer, the only offspring from the Godhead of the Father, flowing in an indescribable manner from the heart of Thy Parent, Thou self-existing Word, and powerful from the mouth of Thy Father, equal to Him, of one mind with Him, His fellow, coeval with the Father, from whom at first the world derived its origin! Thou dost suspend the firmament, Thou heapest together the soil, Thou dost pour forth the seas, by whose government all things which are fixed in their places flourish. Who seeing that the human race was plunged in the depth of misery, that Thou mightest rescue man, didst Thyself also become man: nor wert Thou willing only to be born with a body, but Thou becamest flesh, which endured to be born and to die. Thou dost undergo funeral obsequies, Thyself the author of life and framer of the world, Thou dost enter the path of death, in giving the aid of salvation.

The gloomy chains of the infernal law yielded, and chaos feared to be pressed by the presence of the light. Darkness perishes, put to flight by the brightness of Christ; the think pall of eternal night falls. But restore the promised pledge, I pray Thee, O power benign! The third day has returned; arise, my buried One; it is not becoming that Thy limbs should lie in the lowly sepulchre, nor that worthless stones should press that which is the ransom of the world. It is unworthy that a stone should shut in with a confining rock, and cover Him in whose fist all things are enclosed. Take away the linen clothes, I pray; leave the napkins in the tomb: Thou art sufficient for us, and without Thee there is nothing. Release the chained shades of the infernal prison, and recall to the upper regions whatever sinks to the lowest depths. Give back Thy face, that the world may see the light; give back the day which flees from us at Thy death. But returning, O holy conqueror! Thou didst altogether fill the heaven! Tartarus lies depressed, nor retains its rights.

The ruler of the lower regions, insatiably opening his hollow jaws, who has always been a spoiler, becomes a prey to Thee. Thou rescuest an innumerable people from the prison of death, and they follow in freedom to the place whither their leader approaches. The fierce monster in alarm vomits forth the multitude whom he had swallowed up, and the Lamb withdraws the sheep from the jaw of the wolf. Hence re-seeking the tomb from the lower regions, having resumed Thy flesh, as a warrior Thou carriest back ample trophies to the heavens.

Those whom chaos held in punishment he has now restored; and those whom death might seek, a new life holds, Oh, sacred King, behold a great part of Thy triumph shines forth, when the sacred layer blesses pure souls! A host, clad in white, come forth from the bright waves, and cleanse their old fault in a new stream. The white garment also designates bright souls, and the shepherd has enjoyments from the snow-white flock.

The priest Felix is added sharing in this reward, who wishes to give double talents to his Lord. Drawing those who wander in Gentile error to better things, that a beast of prey may not carry them away, He guards the fold of God. Those whom guilty Eve had before infected, He now restores, fed with abundant milk at the bosom of the Church. By cultivating rustic hearts with mild conversations, a crop is produced from a briar by the bounty of Felix. The Saxon, a fierce nation, living as it were after the manner of wild beasts, when you, 0 sacred One! apply a remedy, the beast of prey resembles the sheep.

About to remain with you through an age with the return of a hundred- fold, you fill the barns with the produce of an abundant harvest. May this people, free from stain, be strengthened in your arms, and may you bear to the stars a pure pledge to God. May one crown be bestowed on you from on high gained from yourself, may another flourish gained from your people.

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Our venerable and God-bearing father Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022) is one of three saints of the Orthodox church to have been given the title of Theologian (the others are St. John the Apostle and St. Gregory Nazianzen). Born in Galatia and educated at Constantinople, he became abbot of the monastery of St. Mamas. His feast day is celebrated by some on March 12, the date of his repose, while others commemorate his feast on October 12, because March 12 falls within Great Lent.

Most men believe in the resurrection of Christ, but very few have a clear vision of it. …That most sacred formula which is daily on our lips does not say,

“Having believed in Christ’s resurrection,”

but,

“Having beheld Christ’s resurrection, let us worship the Holy Lord Jesus, who alone is without sin.”

How then does the Holy Spirit urge us to say,

“Having beheld Christ’s resurrection,”

which we have not seen as though we had seen it, when Christ has risen once for all a thousand years ago, and even then without anybody’s seeing it? Surely Holy Scripture does not wish us to lie? Far from it! Rather, it urges us to speak the truth, that the resurrection of Christ takes place in each of us who believes, and that not once, but every hour, so to speak, when Christ the Master arises in us, resplendent in array and flashing with the lightnings of incorruption and Deity.

For the light-bringing coming of the Spirit shows forth to us, as in early morning, the Master’s resurrection, or, rather, it grants us to see the Risen One Himself. Therefore we say,

“The Lord is God, and He has given us light” (Ps. 118:27)

and we allude to His second Coming and add these words,

“Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord” (Ps. 118:26).

Those to whom Christ has given light as He has risen, to them He has appeared spiritually, He has been shown to their spiritual eyes. When this happens to us through the Spirit He raises us up from the dead and gives us life. He grants us to see Him, who is immortal and indestructible. More than that, He grants clearly to know Him who raises us up (Eph. 2:6) and glorifies us (Rom. 8:17) with Himself, as all the divine Scripture testifies.

These, then, are the divine mysteries of Christians. This is the hidden power of our faith, which unbelievers, or those who believe with difficulty, or rather believe in part, do not see nor are able at all to see.

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© 2010, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.

Our father among the saints Gregory I, also known as Gregory the Great, was the Pope of Rome from September 3, 590, until his death on March 12, 604. He is noted for his writings.

Also, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts has been attributed to him.

© 2010, Fr. John A. Peck. All rights reserved.