I come in with a Mystery, bringing with me the Day as
a good defender of my cowardice and weakness; that He Who today rose again from
the dead may renew me also by His Spirit; and, clothing me with the new Man,
may give me to His New Creation, to those who are begotten after God, as a good
modeller and teacher for Christ, willingly both dying with Him and rising again
with Him.
Yesterday the Lamb was slain and the door-posts were
anointed; Egypt bewailed her Firstborn; the Destroyer passed us over; the Seal
was dreadful and reverend, and we were walled in with the Precious Blood. Today
we have clean escaped from Egypt and from Pharaoh; and there is none to hinder
us from keeping a Feast to the Lord our God—the Feast of our Departure; or from
celebrating that Feast, not in the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but in
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, (1 Cor 5:8) carrying with us
nothing of ungodly and Egyptian leaven.
Yesterday I was crucified with Him; to-day I am
glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him; today I am quickened with Him;
yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise with Him. But let us offer to Him
Who suffered and rose again for us— you will think perhaps that I am going to
say gold, or silver, or woven work or transparent and costly stones, the mere
passing material of earth, that remains here below, and is for the most part
always possessed by bad men, slaves of the world and of the Prince of the
world. Let us offer our-selves, the possession most precious to God, and most
fitting; let us give back to the Image what is made after the Image. Let us
recognize our Dignity; let us honour our Archetype; let us know the power of
the Mystery, and for what Christ died.
Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like
us. Let us become God’s for His sake, since He for ours became Man. He assumed
the worse that He might give us the better; He became poor that we through His
poverty might be rich (2 Cor 8:9); He took upon Him the form of a servant that
we might receive back our liberty; He came down that we might be exalted; He
was tempted that we might conquer; He was dishonored that He might glorify us;
He died that He might save us; He ascended that He might draw to Himself us,
who were lying low in the Fall of sin.
Let us give all, offer all, to Him Who gave Himself a
Ransom and a Reconciliation for us. But one can give nothing like oneself,
understanding the Mystery, and becoming for His sake all that He became for
ours. Amen.
Orthodox Heritage-Vol. 12, Issue 03-04
http://apantaortodoxias.blogspot.gr/2014/04/on-death-resurrection-of-christ-by-st.html
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