Χριστός Ανέστη! Christ is Risen!
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 3:12
June is traditionally the month for winding down. The school year concludes and June means that summer vacations are around the corner. June is also the month in which the Paschal season of the Church gives way to our preparation for Christ’s Ascension forty days after Pascha, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, fifty days after Pascha. Yet even though the Paschal feast is waning and our last “Christ is Risen!” for 2021 will soon be proclaimed, the Paschal theme of light will actually be enhanced during June. In the Church’s great wisdom, the Light of Christ’s Resurrection is intended to illumine our hearts and minds throughout the entire year!
Who can forget the glorious beginning of the Resurrection service of Pascha night, when we stand and anxiously await the chanted invitation to “Come receive the light from the Unwaning Light?” Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead, and has brought His Light to the darkened world. The joy of Pascha lasts through the night and into Bright Week. The theme of Christ’s saving Light will also come to us from several liturgical perspectives for a few more weeks. Light is the main theme of the Sunday of the Blind Man, the Sunday before the Ascension of Christ. In this Gospel story, Jesus Christ heals a man born blind, giving the blind man’s eyes physical light, but also giving the blind man spiritual light, making him a true son of light. With his newly illumined spiritual eyes, the man shouts: “Lord, I believe!” and worships Jesus. (John 9:1-38).
On the Sunday after the Ascension of Christ, the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council are honored. The hymns of that Sunday call them “beacons” (φωστῆρας) because they were responsible for shining the Light of Christ on the world by affirming the truth, against the Arian heresy, that Jesus is one with the Father (ὁμοούσιον) in His divinity. The Creed they developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit affirmed with absolute clarity that Christ is the Light of the world (John 3:12) and He is “True God of True God.”
These themes of light prepare us for the illumination coming to the entire Church in the celebration of Holy Pentecost on June 20. The Great Feast of Pentecost commemorates the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the inauguration–or birthday--of the Church. The hymns of Pentecost remind us that in Christ’s sending of the Holy Spirit, simple fishermen were spiritually enlightened and became “all-wise.” It was this Light of Christ which the Apostles took into the world as beacons of His Gospel. It is this Light that spread Christianity throughout the world, because Christ’s Light is the only Light that can conquer darkness.
These Great Feasts–Pascha, Ascension, Pentecost—are not just presented as historical events to remember something important, like Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. Rather, these Great Feasts are presented annually in the liturgical life of our Orthodox Faith to actually change us! Like the Man Born blind in John 9, “one thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” (John 9:25) we too are given the ability to gain greater sight of the truth of Jesus Christ, through growing in our Faith. We too, are reminded at Pascha of our own Baptism or “Holy Illumination” dying and being raised with Jesus Christ. And like the Apostles at the Feast of Pentecost after Christ’s Resurrection, we have also been given the gifts of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to see with spiritual eyes the joy of Christ’s conquering of evil, death, destruction, and despair, to bring us closer and closer to the joy of His saving Light. We proclaim this joy at every Divine Liturgy following our communion in the Holy Eucharist: “We have seen the True Light, we have received the heavenly Spirit.”
There are many joys to celebrate this June as we remember that Jesus is the Light of the world. The seasons and feasts of June are joyful ones, uplifting, and bright. And June itself has the longest day of the year–the summer solstice--the day with the most sun. The world, too, is moving out of its darkest season in recent memory, toward a brighter reality, and our churches are once again becoming gathering places to celebrate these Christian joys together. May June bring you closer to Christ’s Light, and the consolation that in Christ “we will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 3:12).