On the First and Second Resurrection
Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and Hell trembles with fear.
St. Epiphanios of Cyprus - Homily on Great and Holy Saturday
Every aspect of the Church’s liturgical life teaches us something about our own spiritual life. This is abundantly clear above all in the awesome services of Holy Week and Pascha, in which, while glorifying the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, we learn the meaning of our own resurrection: resurrection from spiritual death to Christian life in this world, and resurrection to eternal life with Christ after our death.
Why do we call the service on Holy Saturday morning the “First Resurrection” (i Proti Anastasis)? For two reasons:
- At this Divine Liturgy, we read the first announcement of the Resurrection of Christ in the Holy Gospel, as recorded by St. Matthew (Matt. 28), in which the angels roll back the stone and tell the Myrrh-bearing Women that He is Risen.
- On the day of Holy Saturday, we remember that, as He slept in the Tomb in the body, Our Lord went down to Hades in His human soul united to His divinity, and there he resurrected the souls of all the righteous from the beginning of the world, who had waited sorrowing for ages, looking forward in hope to the coming of the Christ.
This raising up of the souls in Hades preceding the resurrection of Christ’s Body from the Tomb is linked most intimately to the First and Second Resurrection which each one of us must experience in our own lives: We must receive the First Resurrection - the resurrection of the soul - in this life, so that we can receive the Second Resurrection - the resurrection of the body - at the end of the world unto eternal life and rejoicing and not unto eternal condemnation!
Our First Resurrection takes place in Holy Baptism, when the grace of God transforms us from corruptible and mortal creatures to members of the Immortal Body of Christ. We must constantly, throughout our lifetimes on earth, preserve and re-live this First Resurrection - of the soul - through lives of repentance and obedience to Christ’s Gospel. We must constantly receive this Resurrection through the Holy Mysteries and the sanctifying life of the Church’s Liturgy and Her entire praxis.
If we retain the grace of this First Resurrection - that of the soul - until the death of our bodies, then death itself becomes the passage to eternal life. The Christian experiences “a Christian ending to our life, painless, blameless, and peaceful,” and the soul is placed in Paradise to await the Great and General Resurrection of the body on the Last Day.
At this Second Resurrection, the bodies of all who have ever lived will be raised and re-united to their souls. For those who received and preserved the First Resurrection, this Second Resurrection will be unto perfect happiness in union with Christ for all eternity. For those who did not receive the First Resurrection, or who did receive it but rejected it, this Second Resurrection will be unto eternal torment of body and soul.
Let us so live that we can rejoice to hear the sweet voice of Christ: “ Come ye blessed of My Father; inherit theKingdom prepared for you from all eternity!” Here is how St. Epiphanios describes His greeting to Adam and Eve, as He raised them from Hades on that first Great and Holy Saturday:
Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you of the earthly Paradise. I will not restore you to that Paradise, but I will enthrone you in Heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am Life itself am now one with you. The Bridal Chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open.
On behalf of our parish brotherhood, I look forward to greeting you with the joyful CHRIST IS RISEN! - Fr. Steven Allen
Holy and Great Pascha
On the Great and Holy Sunday of Pascha, we celebrate the Lifegiving Resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, which is called Pascha, which translated from Hebrew means Passover.
For this is the day on which God created the world from nothingness. On this day, He delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh’s hands and led them through the Red Sea. On this day, He descended from Heaven and took His dwelling in the Virgin’s womb; now drawing forth mankind held in Hades, He raised them to heaven and brought them to the first-created honor of incorruption. Yet, in descending into Hades, He did not raise all, but only those who had believed in Him. He delivered the souls of the saints held forcibly in Hades for ages and granted them all ascension to the heavens. We therefore celebrate today, rejoicing in the luminous Resurrection which surpasses all nature, prefiguring the joy with which our human nature will be enriched through the compassionate mercy of God. Thus, as we behold the destruction of enmity, and [behold our] unity with God and the angels, let us exchange the traditional kiss of peace.
- from the Synaxarion
Rejoice, O Full of Grace!
“Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” What joy could surpass this, O Virgin Mother? What grace can excel that which God has granted to you alone? What could be imagined more dazzling or more delightful? Before the miracle we witness in you, all else pales; all else is inferior when compared with the grace you have been given. “The Lord is with you..” Who would dare challenge you? You are the Theotokos; who would not immediately defer to you and be glad to accord you a greater primacy and honor? For this reason, when I look upon the privilege you have above all creatures, I extol you with the highest praise. On your account joy has not only graced men, but is also granted to the powers of heaven.
- from a homily by St. Sophronios of Jerusalem
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