Agape Vespers 2021

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, I greet you from my heart

on this bright day of Pascha. We're preparing

now for a bright Monday, and then bright Tuesday,

and Wednesday, and all through the week. One

week of Pascha. It's exhausting, isn't it? And

we feel our human weakness. About now, we celebrated

in the night. So much labor went into the celebration.

Any great celebration, any party, any gathering

that's worth anything is going to have some work

put into it. And if it's for God, and if it's

from our heart, if it's for... Honoring the resurrection.

And not just honoring the resurrection. But entering

into the reality of Christ's resurrection. And

our own baptism. Which is what Pascha is all

about. Our own death with Christ. We have died

to sin. Death has no more dominion over us. And

we have risen to Christ. And his life. And now

we walk with the spirit. Anything like that.

is going to have such a tremendous amount of

work. Decorations, the flowers, the Easter eggs

hanging from the chandelier, the continual lighting

of lamps and extinguishing of lamps, the live

streaming, which we never had before last year.

People in church, which we didn't have last year.

How wonderful this is. This has to be the most

joyous Pascha ever. For many reasons, one of

them is that. The message of the cross, the message

of the resurrection, has to be something new,

vital, and radical for each one of us. This isn't

a celebration of life after death. This is the

celebration of the goodness of creation. Because

God made us body and soul. He created this world.

Yesterday we heard that incredible canticle.

Praise him, stars and light. Praise him, waters.

Praise him, oceans. Praise him, mountains. Praise

him, frosts and cold and heat and summer heat.

Everything praising God, the creator of all things.

The resurrection is the... validation of the

goodness of creation. And only Christ is the

leader of that. And that's why it's radically

different and new for us. We will be raised in

glory. The state of our soul is up to us. Oh,

of course, the Lord's grace is given to us. But

we have to act and respond. Synergy. Responding

to God's grace. And so if our soul is filled

with holiness and goodness and the life of repentance

and the kingdom of God, then when our body is

raised, what glory we will experience. We say

at the Panikita, O Lord, grant rest to the soul

of thy servant with the saints. in the bosom

of Abraham, where there's neither sorrow or sighing

or sickness, and death is no more. But that's

just the waiting period. Today, we are... Living

as if we have passed the waiting period and we

are in the time of the resurrection. We are in

the time when Christ has already come. This is

what today is about. This is what Pascha is.

That's why we put all this effort into this.

And the message of the gospel is quite realistic.

How did it end? It didn't end with the story

of Christ, triumphant. It didn't end with the

story of the apostles. Going out and preaching

the Lord. It ended with Thomas saying. Unless

I say. I will not believe. That's the message

for Thomas Sunday. Next week too. But the message

for today. And Thomas Sunday continues. And Christ

appears to him. But the message for today is.

How deep and hungry. Are we for faith. And knowledge

of God. How much do we want to know the Lord?

Has he appeared to us in our soul? In any way

whatsoever? Through someone else? Through the

scriptures? Certainly at the Divine Liturgy and

the Eucharist. For we sing, having beheld the

resurrection of Christ, we sing like we saw it.

So we must have had an experience. And in that

case, we can answer Thomas' question. And his

statement, unless I see, I will not believe.

I didn't see the Lord. Show me. The apostles

could not. Because they were as yet unchanged.

But we've been changed. We've been transfigured.

We have been given the Holy Spirit. We've been

given the life of the kingdom of God. We see

Christ has risen. trampling down death by death.

How many times do we have to hear that he has

defeated the devil, number one, that he has overcome

the poison of sin by his death on the cross,

number two. This was just in the hymns we just

heard. And number three, by being raised from

the dead by the glory of the Father, he has gathered

us all up into himself, and we will be raised

with him. So this is the message. This is why

we rejoice so much. And we continually sing all

week. And we go through all this beautiful effort.

The singing. The decorating. The chanting. The

eating. That's part of it too. Because we have

fasted. Oh, you have fasted. And you who have

been negligent of the fast. We heard last night.

The table is richly laden, but don't make the

mistake. There are two tables. It's the table

of the kingdom in which we're fed by Christ himself,

and then we rejoice and we go home and we share

the riches that he has given us with everyone

else. Acts told us last night, the reading from

the book of Acts, said, be ye witnesses. What

have we seen? What have we witnessed that we

can speak of Christ? Let that be something that

you ponder in your souls, brothers and sisters.

Christ is risen. He is risen.