Let Pascha Become Our Way of Life
While there have been countless articles written about the joy of Christ’s Resurrection as our promise of salvation it bears repeating so that we understand why this event, our Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection is so significant for not only us as Orthodox but for all of Christianity. Of course, our Christian faith can no more be expressed in the content of a single article as could the works of our savior Jesus Christ. “If every one of them were written down, not even the whole world would have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25). However, that shouldn’t stop us from being able to express some of the central themes that gives evidence to the claim that we as Orthodox are a light unto the whole world. So, in light of Christ’s glorious Resurrection let’s outline what Orthodoxy asks from her faithful.
· Belief in a Trinitarian God
· Living in freedom
· A liturgical and communal experience
· An eschatological understanding of our faith
· A way of life
Orthodoxy understands itself as Trinitarian in its essence. The influence of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is reflected in all aspects of Her being. The Orthodox Divine Liturgy begins with the words Blessed is the Kingdom, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, reminding us that everything begins from above, from God’s very Essence experienced in His Energies, and does not begin from man, as is proclaimed in many New Age philosophies. Oftentimes in Western Christianity this Trinitarian expression seems unbalanced where the focus is only on Christ while downplaying the ever-communal operation (in Greek περιχώρησις) of all three Persons (Υπόστασεις) of the Holy Trinity…