Parochial Life | may - june 2006 |


PASCHAL MYSTERY 1
Christ is risen!
The night oI the Holy Pascha is
one among the many beginnings
which compose the liturgical
year. It represents the Christian
version oI the Jewish Simhat To-
rah, a Iestival oI ending and start-
ing again the reading oI the Torah
in the Synagogue during a year.
In a similar way, the Eastern
Christian Pascha represents the
moment when the annual circuit
oI the readings Irom the New Tes-
tament begins.
The indicated readings Ior this
period are the Gospel according
to St John and the Acts oI the
Apostles. The Iirst celebrates and
proclaims the ecclesial vision of
Christ, while the second pro-
claims and celebrates the new life,
as experienced by the Church oI
Christ.
The Ieeling is similar. During
Simhat Torah, the Synagogue
chants our Torah is a Tree of Life
for evervone. In the night oI the
Holy Pascha, the Church chants
the joy oI the new liIe in Christ,
the latter being the Tree of Life

PASCHAL MYSTERY 2
Christ is risen!
At the end oI the Iirst paschal oc-
tave (i.e. the Iirst week oI eight
days), the two readings end by
speaking oI life. this repre-
sents the most appropriate exege-
sis oI the paschal mystery.
Acts 5:19-20: during the night an
angel of the Lord opened the
doors of the fail and brought them
out. 'Go, stand in the temple
courts,` he said, 'and tell the
people the full message of this
new life`
1ohn 20:31: Jesus did manv other
miraculous signs in the presence
of his disciples, which are not re-
corded in this book. But these are
written that vou mav believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that bv believing vou
mav have life in his name
At the end oI the larger paschal
octave (i.e. the eighth Sunday oI
the Holy Pascha), we receive the
Holy Spirit, the shared LiIe oI the
LiIe. The paschal mystery is the
proclamation and celebration oI
the eighth dav of creation, which
is the mystery oI plentiful life

PASCHAL MYSTERY 3
Christ is risen!
Why the day oI the resurrection is
the day oI the Pascha?
It is because this day
we celebrate the resurrected
Christ, who truly  the Pascha
(Passover). It is the celebration oI
a person, not just oI an event in-
volving that person. The person is
the key oI our sur-vival (living in
a superior way, not just surviving
an unIortunate event): he is the
ladder (cI. John 1:51), he is the
way, the truth and the liIe (cI.
John 14:6), he is the mediator be-
tween us and God (cI. 1 Timothy
2:5), he is our participation in the
divine liIe (cI. 2 Peter 1:4). The
event is just the maniIestation oI
all these.
Christ is the new Pascha, we re-
cite, like summarising the open-
ing strophe oI the canon:
The dav of the resurrection' Re-
foice, people' Pascha of the Lord,
Pascha' Christ our God passed
us from death to life and from
earth to heavens, those who chant
the hvmn of victorv
Christ is the/our passing Irom
slavery to Ireedom, Irom sinIul-
ness to virtue (cI. Romans 6 an
explanation Ior the reason why,
during the ancient times, baptisms
were perIormed in the night oI the
Pascha), Irom darkness to light
(cI. 1 Peter 2:9). It is not by
chance that during the paschal
liturgy we hear: the light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness
has not overcome it (John 1:5)

PASCHAL MYSTERY 4
Christ is risen!
The liturgy oI the resurrection
reveals simultaneously the iden-
tity and the outcome oI the Pascha
the identity: In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He
was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were
made, without him nothing was
made that has been made (John
1:1-3). The Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glorv, the glorv
of the Onlv-Begotten of the Fa-
ther, full of grace and truth (John
1:14).
The outcome: all who received
him, those who believed in his
name, he gave the power to be-
come children of Godchildren
born not of natural descent, nor
of human decision or a husband´s
will, but born of God (John 1:12-
13). From the fullness of his
grace we have all received
one grace after another (John
1:16).
The Son oI God became the Son
oI Man that the sons oI man be-
come sons oI God

 page 4
Discerning the Paschal Mystery
b, Rera Dr Dorv Co.tacbe
btt¡:,,reraco.tacbe.tire;ovrvat.cov,


Parochial Life | may - june 2006 |
page 4
PASCHAL MYSTERY 5
All the time, everyday, St Sera-
phim oI Sarov greeted everybody
with: Christ, my joy, has risen!

PASCHAL MYSTERY 6
Christ is risen!
The Holy Pascha represents the
feast of the bodv. It celebrates the
salvation of the bodv, not Irom the
body. Many have thought that
salvation is the escape oI the soul
Irom the body. Some went too Iar
with this philosophy... Lucian
Blaga jokes in a poem on a monk
who mocked so much his body,
than it became impossible Ior him
to Iind his body at
the eschatological resurrection oI
all...
The Iacts are this: the Logos took
upon himselI a bodv; he lived in
this bodv what belongs to human
liIe; he transIigured and resur-
rected this bodv, with all that
represents human liIe.
The Holy Pascha celebrates the
passing oI the body into a new
existential dimension
deiIied, but still a body nonethe-
less

PASCHAL MYSTERY 7
Christ is risen!
Trampling down death bv death:
the only hope Ior a resurrection is
by assuming the deIeat. But this
is just one side oI reality. The su-
perIicial, though not necessarily
lacking heroism. From another
perspective, one has to kill his/her
own prejudices in order to acquire
a wider horizon and a more realis-
tic understanding. For instance,
we all are desperate to live. And
this precisely is the cause oI our
inexorable death.
Jesus understood this and went
glorious towards death, killing
step by step his Iears. Eventually,
when he breathed Ior the last
time, not the liIe was deIeated it
was the death itselI, acknowl-
edged and experienced as nothing

PASCHAL MYSTERY 8
Christ is risen!
1ohn 1:14: we have seen his
glorv
1 1ohn 1:1-4: that which was
from the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seen
with our eves, which we have
looked at and our hands have
touchedthis we proclaim con-
cerning the Word of life. The life
appeared, we have seen it and
testifv to it, and we proclaim to
vou the eternal life, which was
with the Father and has appeared
to us. We proclaim to vou what
we have seen and heard, so that
vou also mav have communion
with us. And our communion is
with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ. We write this to
make our fov complete
Celebrating Holy Pascha is to
open our eyes to see the unseen.
The Resurrected opened the eyes
oI his disciples (cI. Luke 24:30-
31 & 45).
Adam and Eve closed their mind-
eye and unwisely opened the sen-
sible, allowing themselves to get
drunk with the beauty oI the
world. Only this beauty is ephem-
eral, and existentially neuter. One
cannot become a better person by
just seeing beautiIul things.
Celebrating Holy Pascha is to
keep open the sensible eye, and
more to open again the mind-
eye. This may provide us with the
opportunity oI seeing more, oI
seeing beyond, oI getting trans-
Iormed into what we see. And
then, oI transIorming everything
else we see.
To those unable to experience this
alchemy, nothing could be bright,
luminous.
Rejoice! The light shines in the
darkness, but the darkness has
not overcome it.
Discerning... page 3
editor:
Rev. Doru Costache, PhD

Iayout design:
Ìon Nedelcu (Bucharest)

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