Holy Pascha - Feast of Feasts
Christ is Risen! Indeed, he is Risen! As we celebrate
today this joyous Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, we greet one another in these words and embrace one another in Christ,
thereby demonstrating our Savior’s victory over death, our reconciliation with God, and our inheritance of eternal life.
The feast itself is called “Pascha”, which is derived from the
Hebrew word which means “passover”, because Christ has enabled us to pass over from death to eternal life.
It might seem strange that the Gospel reading today is not one of
the Recreational accounts, but rather the Church gives us the Prologue of
the Gospel according to John: “In the beginning was the Word…….” Perhaps the reason for this choice
is the prediction of Eastern Christianity for what takes place “in the spirit”: beyond the Resurrection of Christ,
there is the victory of light over the darkness, and thus we hear this deep
and striking abridgement of the whole Christian message.
Ther reading from the Acts of the Apostles speaks of the fact of the Resurrection.
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The readings below are Sunday, April 13, 2025
Today's Epistle reading: [Acts 1.1-8]
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was
taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented
himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And
while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he
said, "you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this
time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father
has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses
in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."
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Today's Gospel reading: [John 1.1-17]
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God;
all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the
light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to
bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.
The true light that enlightens every man
was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to
his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to
become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John bore witness to him,
and cried, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.’") And
from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ.
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