The Pascha is the feast of feasts. Our church year and our whole life revolve around it. It exists in time and space and far beyond, in history and philosophy. It is both material and ideal, practical and abstract.
On this day, we remember the three days in 33 AD that changed this world, and with it the fates of every living person for generations to come. It showed us the reality of our immortality. Our Lord the Creator had promised it to us millennia before, but we, His injudicious children, never listened. He sent His son, who shed His blood for us, died and resurrected, showing even to the least credulous of us that death has no power over us. Christ's gift of immortality was not a discovery of the human mind. It was not the result of some grand experimental project. Immortality is the truth, like life itself. As Christ has said, "With the breadth of the hand I have marked off the heavens and the earth."
The Pascha is a miracle in space. Our imaginations bring us to the Navel of the Earth at the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Here, the unfathomable wonder of the Holy fire unfolds only once a year, on the night preceding the Holy Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The fire of Jesus descends to remind every living person on this Earth of the pains and torments He endured to bring us eternal life. He suffered slander and derision, flagellation and betrayal. Yet He resurrected, to lead to Heaven all his people down to the very last sinner, the condemned robber.
Spiritually, the feast of the Pascha is all around us. From every direction, we hear ‘Christ is risen!' We hear it in the ripple of the river, the chirping of the birds and the rustling of the new leaves of the spring. The world is coming back to life, and so are we, as we forgive people their wrongs and forget our sorrows. Angelic music is playing in our hearts, and its sweet sounds prevail over the darkness of the sin that distorts our nature. The day of the Pascha seems longer than all others, brighter, more joyous and blessed. They are full of deep meaning and genuine joy.
Welcome our everlasting life. Welcome our resurrection, and His gift of eternal life!
