Still Recovering

It has been almost three days since we celebrated the glorious resurrection of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. As a priest, the past ten days have been the most inspirational and the most exhausting days of the year. In fact, every year I find myself not wanting the week to end despite the physical and emotional toll. Suffice it to say, I’m still recovering.

I have always suggested that as Orthodox Christians we gain the most by ‘living’ the feasts and fasts of the Church. We benefit by allowing the Church calendar to shape our experience through the ups and downs of life. Last week was a combination of both as the services of Holy and Great Week brought our soul to great heights and deep lows before finally pulling out all the stops for the Paschal Vigil. I feel like I just came back home from a long day at the amusement park.

I don’t mean any disrespect by my comment. I only mean to say I’m exhausted! The past ten days have me feeling like I just spent a long day in the sun riding the world’s largest and fastest roller coaster. Based upon the Gospel accounts of the Disciples’ experience of the Resurrection, they must have felt similar. One day their Lord was in front of them, and the next they thought He was gone forever. It was still Pascha Sunday, and I was wanting it to be Holy Monday again.

Alas! We cannot go back in time. Our Lord’s Passion is behind us and has been for more than two thousand years. We move on, but thankfully because of Pascha, we have our Lord with us in the Church. We have Christ in our hearts. We are more blessed than the Holy Apostles, because we experienced Holy Week knowing the rest of the story. The sadness we felt was because of our sin rather than thinking Christ was gone forever.

The best way for us to recover from the past ten days, isn’t just to feast but to Live A New Life In Christ. That is what the Apostles did, and that is what we should do.