On May 6, 3:05=A0pm, nick cobb <ni...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Mystery of the Risen Christ
> Written by the Very Rev. Boris Bobrinskoy
>
> The entire message, indeed the very essence of Christianity can be
> summed up in the Church's triumphal cry on the night of Holy Pascha:
> "Christ is truly risen!"
>
> It is precisely in the light of Pascha that Jesus of Nazareth reveals
> Himself and offers Himself to the world. It is specifically to Christ's
> death and resurrection that Christians bear witness by their faith, just
> as they experience His presence in wor****p and sacraments, in sharing
> with one another and in rendering service to those in need.
>
> All of Christian theology, like all of the two thousand year old
> treasure of Holy Tradition, is nothing other than a ceaseless meditation
> of this "One Thing Needful" (Luke 10:42). This is true in every aspect
> of the Church's life, whether it be the theology of the Holy Fathers and
> the Ecumenical Councils, biblical exegesis, liturgical theology,
> Christian hymnography, or the spiritual experience of the saints, which
> is the experience of the People of God as a whole. Everywhere and at all
> times the Mystery of Christ is the most fundamental Christian reality,
> in which every symbol of faith is grounded and from which all the
> richness of Church tradition flows forth.
>
> Everything within the Church refers to Christ and is given meaning by
> Him: theological language, icons, and various forms of wor****p all
> possess a Christological foundation. Because the Word of God assumed the
> fullness of human nature, to renew it within Himself, human language
> can, from this point forward, address itself personally and directly to
> the Object of its concern. That is, persons renewed in the power of the
> Holy Spirit can now "speak" to God the Father, as they can to Christ, in
> and by the Spirit of Truth and Life.
>
> At the heart of the mystery of Christ and of His historical work of
> salvation there lies the Paschal mystery itself. This is the unique
> mystery of the sacrificial love of the Holy Trinity, which reveals
> itself in the passion and glorification of Jesus, in the humiliation and
> exaltation of the Son of God, in the "passage" or Paschal movement from
> death to Resurrection. The paradox, the unbearable contradiction,
> contained in these two aspects of Jesus' life - humility and exaltation,
> death and life - find their resolution in the victorious cross, the
> life-giving tomb, the triumphant descent into hell, and in the wounds of
> the Resurrected One.
>
> Over and above theological and liturgical language, Christian life
> itself is ineffably marked by a fundamental union with the crucified and
> resurrected Christ, from the sacred acts of baptismal initiation through
> the entire sacramental life, whose most intense expression is found in
> Eucharistic communion. The Eucharistic memorial incor****ates us into the
> very mystery of the Lord's Pascha, into His death and resurrection
> together with His ascension to the right hand of the Father. It
> nourishes us and preserves us in the deepest communion with Christ, by
> bestowing on us the permanent gifts of the Holy Spirit. Thereby the Son
> and the Spirit lead us in a movement of deification, into the intimacy
> of the Heavenly Banquet, which is already inaugurated for us through our
> participation in Christ's life-giving Body and Blood.
>
> In the end, the mystery of death - which is the sacrament of the
> ultimate Pascha - introduces us once and for all into an eternal
> communion with the Resurrected Lord, when our mortal bodies will clothe
> themselves with light and immortality. Expectation of this "passage,"
> this sacred Pascha, gives meaning to the whole of our life, as we follow
> the narrow pathway that leads toward the heavenly Kingdom, there where
> praise to the Risen One will resound forever.
>
> Protopresbyter Boris Bobrinskoy is professor and dean emeritus of St
> Sergius Theological Institute, Paris, France. This meditation recently
> appeared in the journal Le Bulletin de la Crypte, published by the
> parish of The Holy Trinity in Paris. (Translation by Fr John Breck)
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