WRITTEN BY: Catechist Branislav Ilić, editor of the portal “Kinonia”
Faith in Christ’s Resurrection has always been the cornerstone of the Church, that without which it would completely lose both its meaning and its power. “For if Christ has not been raised,” said the holy Apostle Paul, “our faith is in vain.” Without the Resurrection, all our preaching and missionary labour are in vain, as well as all our knowledge, our joy, our beauty, and our love; in vain are our birth, our life, and our death; in vain is everything that is ours, and another’s, and everyone’s; every desire is in vain, every thought, every name—and everything is in vain! If there is no Resurrection, then man is the most sorrowful being “in all the worlds,” a slave of “nature,” with which it toys, deceiving him with a little life, only to ultimately reveal him as nothingness. If Christ has not risen and conquered death, then there is no life—only absurdity remains, and an unquenchable hunger for life and love.
The foretaste of eternal life in the Kingdom of the Risen Christ confirms us in the conviction that behind all falls, failures, and partial successes, behind all temporary triumphs of death over life that accompany human earthly existence—behind all this stands the eternal victory of Life over death, Good over evil, Joy over sorrow. Faith in the Resurrection, together with the experience of the beauty and joy of life that accompanies it, constitutes the most radiant jewel of the human spirit, a priceless treasure stored in the hidden chambers of human existence. From there it radiates divine power, granting man the strength to love anew and to create for eternity. To deprive man of this treasure would mean to abandon him to the meaninglessness and darkness of nothingness. To leave man without faith in the Resurrection is tantamount to killing him. For it means to deprive man of meaning, and thus—to dehumanize him.
The goal of missionary service is the proclamation of the Resurrection; this is our foundation and our purpose. The Resurrection of Christ is, according to the words of Saint John of Damascus, “the only new thing under the sun,” because it has broken the monotony of the endless cycle of birth and death. Therefore, in the Church everything breathes with the youthfulness of Christ’s life. Anointed by His grace, the Church, through all epochs and historical changes, is kept always fresh and always new by the Holy Spirit. Kingdoms pass, civilizations change, yet the Church, regardless of external transformations, remains in its essence, in its relationship to its Head, the Risen Christ; the Church, therefore, remains always the same, always faithful to itself, and—sanctifying and renewing all things in every age—always contemporary and always young. The youthfulness of the Church, the Bride of Christ, lies in this: that she is the eternal spring of the Spirit and the eternal flourishing of life.
Through His Cross and Crucifixion, the ineffable Mystery of divine love is revealed to us and given to us. God is manifested to us as eternal, true love, as love that sacrifices itself for others—for people and nations, for the whole world. There is no greater love, nor can there be. On the Cross, Christ, the Son of God, reveals Himself as the God who not only calls to love, but demonstrates love in deed, sacrificing Himself for others without exception.
The Golgotha sacrifice of Christ is the revelation of the great mystery of self-sacrificial divine love by which God embraces and cherishes the entire created world. It is in the nature of love—even of ordinary earthly love—to give joy and to bring forth new life. Earthly love is such because it is a reflection of divine love, which created the entire world and breathed its breath into all creation. The more love on earth, among people, resembles divine love, the more true and profound it is. And there is no greater or truer love than for one to lay down one’s life for one’s neighbour. Such was and remains the love of Christ. Such is also the love of all His followers. Therefore, only those people who live by this cruciform-resurrectional love may consider themselves spiritually alive and are worthy of eternal life.
The Resurrection of Christ is the Feast of feasts because it most profoundly determines the life of the Church. Not only this day, but every Sunday of the year—as the day of the Resurrection—gathers the faithful in the Church, into the communion of the Lord’s Table. The Risen Christ, our only Saviour, our Hope, is inseparable from His Body, which we are—the community of many baptized into His death and raised with Him into new life. And therefore, where His Body is, there He is also, as the Head of the Body.
By the good pleasure of God the Father and through the Holy Spirit, the Son of God enters history, forming from it a liturgical community through which He takes creation and unites it with Himself, thus making it His Body and freeing it from death. The Holy Spirit accomplishes this every time we gather in one place around one celebrant for the Eucharist, that is, for thanksgiving to the Father, whose will it was to bring us from non-being into being, and to make us participants in His eternal life in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
These are sacred truths which continually remind us that the joy of the Resurrection remains unextinguished in our hearts if we live a liturgical life actively—every Liturgy is the proclamation of the Resurrection. If we ground our life in the Liturgy, the Paschal joy will shine eternally from our hearts.