Paschal Joy

As Jean was leaving church yesterday, she said to me: "Let's do it all again next week, Pastor!" And in a sense we will, and in a sense we won't. The joy of Pascha fills every Sunday, for each Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection victory. Even more so, in the Great 50 Days (from Easter Day to Pentecost), the joy of the Resurrection literally shapes the Church's assemblies more intensely than at any other time of the year. And yet there is something that is utterly unique about the Day of Resurrection itself. Here is how one of our hymns describes it:

Now the queen of seasons bright
With the day of splendor
With the royal feast of feasts
Comes its joy to render,
Come to gladden faithful hearts
Which with true affection
Welcome with unwearied strain
Jesus' resurrection. 478:3

The Great 50 Days is the queen of seasons bright, but the day of splendor, the royal feast of feasts, that is Easter Day alone. I'm glad of the gold marking off the day (and its "after" days - Monday through Wednesday). It sets the Feast apart as utterly unique, irreplaceable, it's own day that is unlike any other in the Church's life. It makes us all witnesses to the resurrection as it imparts the paschal joy - the beginning of the renewal of creation itself released from bondage to decay. Each Feast or Festival of the Church shines with the light of Christ, but it is as if on this day the door to the Kingdom is wide open and the light of the unending 8th day pours out and transfigures us and the world around us.

Mighty victim
From the skies,
Hell's fierce pow'rs beneath You lie.
You have conquered in the fight.
You have brought us life and light.
Alleluia!

Now no more
Can death appall.
Now no more
the grave enthrall.
You have brought us paradise,
And in You Your saints shall rise.
Alleluia.

Easter triumph,
Easter joy,
This alone can sin destroy.
From sin's pow'r, Lord, set us free
Newborn souls in You to be.
Alleluia!