The joy of the resurrection is something
which we, too, must learn to experience, but we can experience it only if we first
learn the tragedy of the cross. To rise again, we must die. Die to our
hampering selfishness, die to our fears, die to everything which makes the
world so narrow, so cold, so poor, so cruel. Die so that our souls may live,
may rejoice, may discover the spring of life. If we do this then the
resurrection of Christ will have come down to us also.
But
without the death on the cross there is no resurrection, the resurrection which
is joy, the joy of life recovered, the joy of the life that no one can take
away from us any more! The joy of a life which is superabundant, which like a
stream runs down the hills, carrying with it heaven itself reflected in its
sparkling waters.
The
resurrection of Christ is reality in history as his death on the cross was
real, and it is because it belongs to history that we believe in it. It is not
only with our hearts but with the totality of our experience that we know the
risen Christ. We can know him day after day as the Apostles knew him. Not the
Christ of the flesh, but the ever-living Christ. The Christ of the spirit of
whom St Paul speaks, the risen Christ who belongs to time and eternity because
he died once upon the cross but lives for ever.
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh Meditations
on a Theme (Mowbrays, 1972) 119–20 [adapted]
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