Pascha, the Eighth Day, and the kingdom of God within

(Icon: the Resurrection or ἀνάστασις.)

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

And I appointed the eighth day also, that the eighth day should be the first-created after My work, and that (the first seven) revolve in the form of the seventh thousand, and that at the beginning of the eighth thousand there should be a time of not-counting, endless, with neither years nor months nor weeks nor days nor hours. (2 Enoch 33:1)

The Eighth Day is coming—a day of no counting, of no hours, or minutes, or seconds, and of no months or years. All matter will be transfigured and delivered from the curse of corruption and entropy. That is the day without time, for "there should be no more time" (Apocalypse 10:7); it is the life without death—the life of the Age to come.

Christ gave a foretaste of this day when, on Pascha, the eighth day of Holy Week, He rose from the tomb. In doing so, He robbed Hades of those whom death held captive. In the Orthodox Christian tradition we count all of "Bright Week" after Holy Week to be a single, unending day, mirroring the Last Day that is to come.

In that day, each lifetime is but a moment, and each moment a lifetime, for time no longer has measure. Nor is the past lost, nor is the future uncertain; past, present, and future will, in a way, be no more. What is before will come after, and what is after comes before, and all things are summed up in God. "I am the Alpha and the Omega" (Apocalypse 1:8), says God, for all began with Christ and all will end with Christ.

Nothing will be truly lost; all things will persist. In Paradise there will be no death nor decay, nor pain or sorrow, because nothing will be lost.

Yet even now the Christian may gain a foretaste of this Day, by dying to himself and rising with Christ, for the kingdom of God is upon earth. "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21), if you will find it there.

The kingdom of God is in the heart, filled with love; for the heart has become the heart of the Son, and knows the Father, and is filled with the light of the Spirit. To be in the kingdom is to pass beyond this world, and to dwell in heavenly truths. The passage of time ceases to trouble the heart; the Spirit gives the gift of patience, and stillness or rest (hesychia, ἡσυχία). 

The illusion of dull matter is pulled aside as a drape from a window, or as a veil, and the light enters, and the true purposes (logoi, λόγοι) of material things revealed. They acquire their sacramental value in the eye of the heart, which now sees clearly. The divine has been united to the created, the invisible to the visible, and all things have been made holy. What is below has become as above, all things being done in type. 

It is in such a state of being that the Christian may walk in Paradise even in this life. For having entered into rest through faith and trust in God, and having left his life behind—having crucified himself—the turbulence and change of this world no longer sways him, but he walks upon the waves of the world like St. Peter upon the sea. Like a rock in a raging sea, the water cannot move nor break him, but rather the waves break upon him. The grass bends gently for him; the trees freely yield forth fruit for him; the animals may even become tame around him. Death to him is revealed to be nothing but a shadow; for though a shadow may appear frightening, it lacks real substance. And so the Christian begins to taste the timeless reality even now.

For now, for but a little while, we are caught up in time. But this life will pass like a single breath, and then in a mystery we will awake to the everlasting Day in the sunlight of the eternal Son. But even now we may enter into this mystery in this life, through the Cross, through Baptism with Christ, and achieve for ourselves the rest of the seventh day, "a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9)—a foretaste of that Eighth and final Day. 

And in the coming weeks we arrive at Pascha, the celebration of this Eighth Day, when Christ by the Cross and Resurrection made a path for all life to Paradise. 

With you, Lord, each lifetime is like just another day, and sometimes each day is a life in its own. There is only the eternal present, a single instant. It has no measure. So then why do we measure years, days, hours, minutes, seconds? I do not know what tomorrow brings. Each day is different from the next. I place no expectations on the days, and in turn the days place none on me. So it all passes along in peace. There, in that eternal present, in Your presence, I find the true kingdom within the heart.

Time is passing, yet eternity is already here.

Have a blessed last week of Lent.

If Christ were to walk in this world today...

(Icon is of Blessed Fr. Seraphim Rose.)

If Christ were to walk in this world today, do you know what would happen to Him? He would be placed in a mental institution and given psycho-therapy, just as would His Saints. The world would crucify Him today just as it did two 2000 years ago, for the world has not learned a thing, except more devious forms of hypocrisy. And what would happen if, in one of my classes at the university, I would one day tell my students that all the learning of this world is of no importance beside the duty of worshipping God, accepting the God-man who died for our sins, and preparing for the life of the world to come? They would probably laugh at me, and the university officials, if they found out, would fire me—for it is against the law to preach the Truth in our universities. We say that we live in a Christian society, but we do not: we live in a society. (Attributed to Fr. Seraphim Rose)

The dandelion

The kingdom of heaven is like a dandelion, which at the end of its life sends up a stalk upon which its seed hangs. See Who the Seed is, and what the stalk is. When a breath or wind comes, the seed is carried off the stalk and buried in the ground. In those places with good soil, a new dandelion with the same image grows, which in turn yields many more seeds. And this seed spreads until it fills an entire field.

Christ is born. Glorify Him!

 

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. (Isaiah 9:2)

Merry Christmas and Happy Nativity! 

Christ is born. Glorify Him!

The days of evil are numbered

A house in which the wood has rotted finally collapses when the wind and rain come. In the same way, the days of evil are always numbered. Its plans are frustrated, its power opposed. By its own nature does it bring about its demise. 

They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made. Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends. (Psalm 7:15-16)

If the seed of a lie is sown, even in good soil, that seed produces an unhealthy plant. That sickly plant may in turn produce seeds, which fall and then bring forth more unhealthy plants of their own. But at last, when a strong wind comes, these plants, being sickly, are swiftly uprooted, and they lay wasted in the field and wither. In this way, the sickly plants perish and the seed of the lie are no longer produced. 

In contrast, even a single kernel of truth, if it falls in good soil, produces a healthy plant, which bears many more kernels. These kernels fall in turn, landing in the soil, and produce healthy plants of their own. Now, not even a strong wind may pull these plants out of the ground, since they are healthy. In the same way, the kernel of truth is beneficial to all who receive it. 

So the lie perishes and the helpful Seed endures, so that in time the Truth spreads until it fills an entire field, or even the entire world. So will it be at the end of the age. 

The refining of the saints

Iron is not removed of its impurities without smelting it in a furnace. A steel sword is not tempered and strengthened without putting it in fire. Diamonds are counted among the most beautiful of gems and the most difficult to destroy—indeed, a diamond blade will cut through steel and rock, with no harm to the blade. Yet diamonds are formed only under extreme pressures and heat. Should you be like the graphite in a pencil tip, then, which is flaky and falls apart when handled even lightly? But take that graphite, and put it under great pressures and temperatures, and it will stop being graphite, and turn into diamond. In this way, the saints are forged in the furnaces of trials and sufferings, and sin is burned away by the fire and grace of the Holy Spirit. 

The Apostle St. Paul writes “We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3-4)

God gives grace and comfort in secret to those who suffer. Though we bear crosses, this is not so that we should bear them alone, but so that Christ may step in and bear our crosses for us, and with us, "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:30). In this way we learn to lean on God for all things. I do not carry my cross by my own strength—which is weakness—but by the strength of God. Yet God does not remove the trial from me. We are promised tribulations and sufferings: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Christ has overcome the world! So we fear no trial that the world burdens us with. We are subjected to these trials for a little while, in this life, so that they may produce in us faith and hope. Trials often purify the heart, opening it, so that the heart may more readily perceive the light of God. My suffering causes me to turn to God, to cry out for a good Creator, to say, “O God, where are you?”. I fail to cry out for Him and to seek Him when I am sated and filled, and entertained by pleasures. Then I forget about him. And what worse fate is there, than to forget about God? Hell is for those who forget God, who do not even recognize Him.

And as by fire we are refined and purified; by correction we are disciplined and set right in all things.

So the saints do not fear suffering, but are forged in it. For these present sufferings are for but just a little while, and for good purpose, as God says “I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined” (Zechariah 13:9). It is not that God intended such suffering; yet because it exists, He has brought it to serve Himself, having “made a footstool of His enemies” (Psalm 110:1).

Thus fear not fire and pressure, and sufferings, but even give thanks for them, as they are the furnace in which the saints are refined, and God carries us by His strength through all tribulation.

On wealth and those who toil for riches

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:24) 

The rich are poor in understanding. For in Paradise God provides all things for Adam, and Adam in Paradise did not labor in order to eat or to clothe himself. To those who suffer God gives comfort, and to those who are poor in worldly riches, God gives heavenly riches. Those who toil for riches have no rest. But those who rely on God, though they be poor in the eyes of the world, will have their daily bread provided for them, and they shall be granted rest from their labors, and they shall see God.

Your great wealth does not profit you. For you worry only about your life in this world; you have no hope for the next, and no thought to the hereafter. Wealth only profits a man when he gains, but when he loses, it brings him sorrow. Even when he gains, what has he gained? It is hard to fly with the weight of gold in one’s pockets. For he spends his days counting his riches and taking care of the great many things he has accumulated, such that he has no time for the joy of contemplating God. The clutter he stores up for himself becomes clutter in his mind; it gives him no peace. 

But love profits a man even when he must part with what he owns. His mind is at peace; it is not disturbed by a loss, for from the love in his heart, he counts even a loss as a gain. For when I give to my brother or sister in need, I also receive. What have I parted with? I lose only an earthly good, but I gain a heavenly reward. For when my brother or sister profits, whom I love, so do I profit as well. I lose only what will return to dust and ashes, but I gain joy. And in Christ, what is my brother's is also mine, so that I have lost nothing at all.

Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease! (Proverbs 23:4)

There is one alone, without companion: he has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, nor is his eye satisfied with riches. But he never asks, “For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?” This also is vanity and a grave misfortune. (Ecclesiastes 4:8)