Lazarus’ Saturday

The Life-giving Word said: Lazarus come forth’ and the one who slept took on living breath.

And today the Lord of the Living says: ‘I am the Resurrection’, ‘whoever believes in me, though he were dead yet shall he live’.

Palm Sunday

This present day is a prophetic event, a glimmer of the glory of Christ, which will be revealed in all its fullness at the end of the ages.

Today the Lord enters into Jerusalem and the whole city is shaken. On the last day He will come with glory and the entire earth will quake, so that all those things that are shaken may be removed, as ‘things that are made’, and only the things which cannot be shaken might remain, marked with the incorruptible grace of the Almighty Jesus.

During His entrance to Jerusalem, the Jews did not apprehend the real identity of the meek and humble Messiah, who was visiting them riding on a donkey’s colt.

And we now, in order to known the visitation of the Lord, that our house not remain desolate, but learn the meekness and humility of the Saviour God, and through His grace to stand in His Presence and sing ‘Blessed is He who Cometh in the Name of the Lord’.

As the children of the Jews spread out their clothing so Christ the Messiah could pass over it and bless them, thus we also spread out the impulses of our will and our desires so that the Lord may rule over our free heart. Then, His grace will cover us, so that we become His own forever.

Holy Monday

Behold the Bridegroom cometh and blessed is the servant who will be found worthy to receive His saving visitation and put on an incorruptible crown.

The Church prays in these days that no one remain outside of the bridal chamber of Christ where the awesome union of the heart of man with the Spirit of God takes place.

The Apostle Paul has already given us the key today, saying that the Lord is nigh: we must put all our mind and heart on ‘all those things which are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtue and praise’, because this is befitting to Him Who for the sake of our salvation went up to Golgotha to undergo suffering unto death.

Only His undying love is able to heal the wretched desolation of our ingratitude. Ζ

These holy days we do not just commemorate the Passion of the Lord, but through the grace that the Church has bestowed upon us during Great Lent, we become contemporaries of His Passion.

The Lord is the Lamb of God ‘slain from the foundation of the world’. He is continually slain for us unto the end of the ages, so that we, His enemies, might enjoy unending delight in the Body and Blood of His Covenant.

Today, the covenant which the Lord concludes with His people is the covenant of His love unto the end. From our side, this covenant demands resistance to sin unto blood. This is the talent with which we trade in a godly manner, so as to acquire the Lord as Saviour and Friend.

Thus we become His own forever and inherit the boundless freedom of His love, hating only whatsoever opposes it.

The Lord came to send fire upon the earth. As He makes His way towards Golgotha, this fire flares up and transforms whatsoever draws near:

The tax collectors become merciful and give away their possessions. Their heart is enlarged fourfold.

The infants are made wise and perfect a hymn of gratitude to God, Who ‘comes meek, humble and having salvation’ (Zach. 9:9).

The prostitutes are made chaste and the madness of their depraved life is turned into insatiable love for God.

The thief is enlightened and becomes an excellent teacher of the justice of the Cross, so that on the very same day Paradise is opened.

The mystery of the love of Christ is great and incomprehensible, only a burning heart is able to grasp it even a little.

We need a garment of humility in order to come into the quickening presence of the suffering Lord of Glory, and receive the anointing of His saving wisdom.

Holy Thursday

Today is the anniversary of the institution of the Divine Liturgy, which the Lord gave us in a prophetic way before His Passion and sealed with His blood on Golgotha.

The Lord expressed this Covenant through His holy word, saying:  ‘He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me even he shall live by Me.’

The terms of this New Covenant of the Lord are the programme of the life of all who have faith and partake of Christ, who will inherit His Unfading Life: ‘Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint unto you a Kingdom as My Father hath appointed unto Me, that ye may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom.’ Z

Easter

‘Fear not; I am the First and the Last, I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore’ (Rev. 1:17-18). These are the words of the Risen Christ to His beloved disciple, John the Theologian. These words, describe the path of the Lord, but also of man, which goes through death and leads to eternal life.

The Lord loved mankind with a perfect love. He died for all who were condemned to death because of the ancestral sin. The unjust death of the Lord became a condemnation of the just death of all men, bestowing upon them eternal salvation. ‘Christ is risen from the dead, and there is none left in the tomb.’