(What) God Be With You (?)

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

If you have ever visited an Eastern Orthodox church, you have seen an unfamiliar picture of God, the Bible, and the world presented before your eyes. Instead of plain white walls, patterned after stoic German congregations, their walls are cluttered with pictures. You might almost feel that all the angels and saints are elbowing each other for space. They paint the picture of salvation on three levels.

On the lowest level – ground level, you might say – is Christ with His apostles celebrating the Holy Communion, John the Baptist baptizing, and other such scenes. This is the level on which we, the Church, now live. Our religious life, our life together as Christians, reaches its apex in embracing Christ within the Divine Service. He who lived and ate with His disciples now lives and eats with you in the Supper of His Body and Blood. The Blessed Sacrament is for us a living icon, the visible Word.

Earthquakes

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“I feel the earth move under my feet / I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down / I feel my heart start to trembling / Whenever you're around.” This opening stanza from Carole King's 1971 rock anthem might well be the words of the soldiers posted at the tomb of our Lord that first day of the week, the day of our Lord's resurrection.

They felt the earth move under their feet as the Lord of Life broke the bonds of death once for all and the tomb that could not hold the Living God was burst open and the Prince of Life who died strode forth in immortal splendor. He is not dead; He has risen!

Of course, this is not the first earthquake in these few days of history.

Ending and Beginning

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice! Tonight the holy penitential season of Lent is ended. Fasting and weeping are put away. Tears and sorrow are removed. Your salvation is completed.

And yet, this is but the end of the beginning. For on this holy night, we keep solemn vigil. We keep watch for the One who comes in the Name of the Lord, the coming King. St. Augustine wrote:

In that life for the attainment of the peace of which we labor, and which Truth promises to us in the resurrection after the death of this body or at the end of this world, we shall never sleep, just as we shall never die. For what else is sleep but a daily death which does not completely remove man hence nor detain him too long? And what else is death but a very long and very deep sleep from which God arouses man? Therefore, when there is no death, there is likewise no sleep, the image of death. Finally, there is no sleep except that of mortals.

This is the catholic Faith

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith.” With its opening sentence, the Athanasian Creed lays down the line regarding who will or will not be saved. Only those who hold the catholic faith can go to heaven. But what is the catholic faith? What does it mean to be catholic? To be catholic, in the true sense of the word, is much more than to be under the Bishop of Rome.

This is not a new question. In the fifth century, the Church was embroiled in a great many scandals and controversies, and a solution was sought as to what made one a part of the one holy catholic Church. What was the measuring rod that determined whether a teaching newly propounded was worthy of acceptance? To this question, St. Vincent of Lerins proposed an answer, accepted by the Church, which has been handed down to us under the name of the “catholic principle”. St. Vincent wrote, “In the catholic Church itself, every care should be taken to hold fast to what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”

If Christ Had Not Been Raised...

Christ is risen. Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Many people in this world doubt the facts of the resurrection. To some, it is an article of blasphemy. To others, it is simply a physical impossibility. Many people consider bodily resurrection a flight of fancy, to be dismissed with witches and leprechauns.

Islam says that Jesus was not crucified. The Quran says that Jesus was only a human prophet, born like anyone else, son of Mary and not God. Allah supposedly promised Jesus that he would not die a shameful death, which certainly means that he did not die on the cross. To Muslims, the idea that Jesus would have risen from the dead is blasphemy, because no one rises from the dead.