Paschal Whiplash
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
I pray this message finds you and your family basking in the light of the Resurrected Christ.
This has been a time of true joy and celebration with my family, friends, and colleagues as we celebrate Paschaltide. I cannot believe how fast the time is passing, as we are now more than halfway to Pentecost, and have less than one month of school time before we dismiss ourstudents and faculty for the summer. While summer is less than a month away, it doesn’t feel like it. This spring has been very unusual in Pennsylvania. We had 90-degree weather in April, and freezing conditions in May. We have had rain, sun, sleet, and everything in between it seems. We even had a few small wildfires in the Pocono’s north of the Academy because it’s so dry, and also a tornado watch. This weather whiplash has everyone at the Academy feeling a little unbalanced. This feeling is only compounded because we have emerged from the Lenten
season, and are now between Pascha and Pentecost, which in itself gives us spiritual whiplash.
During Lent, the Church nudges us to examine our innermost selves and deepen our faith as we prepare for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The Church gives us more somber tones for our music, more Liturgical services, and a set of prayers which is season specific (eg. The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem) However, once Pascha has come, this introspection and struggle gives way to 40 days of feasting. Indeed, the Antiochian Orthodox Church highly encourages her faithful not to fast between Pascha and Ascension to celebrate the Risen Lord. While this is a relatively new iteration of this practice, we do know the Church of Jerusalem in the 4 th Century held this tradition as well, with the pilgrim Egeria noting this practice in Chapter 41 of her diary, though she says the non-fasting period lasted all the way to Pentecost. In addition, the Oriental
Orthodox Churches do not fast in this period as well. This break in fasting to feast is wholly in keeping with what we as Christians are commanded to do but is also jarring to some.
On more than one occasion, I have been talking with friends and colleagues in this timeframe where they admit they miss the rigor, regularity, and intensity of Lent. People fall into the rhythm of the services and the contrition of the season with gusto, and the sudden cessation and celebration seems to interrupt the flow of the year. Yet this is exactly the purpose of this sudden shift, to surprise us, and to show that Christ the Bridegroom is with us once more.
One of the complaints of the Chief Priests and Pharisees against Christ and His Disciples, was they did not fast. Christ responded, “Can the friends of the Bridegroom mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them?” (Mat. 9.15). This season is meant to jar us out of our time of contrition and sorrow, and instead convey the joy of the Resurrection. This season intentionally gives us whiplash, showing the dimensions of the faith. Emotionally, we move from despair to joy, which is hard emotional work and is meant to jar us out of the rhythm we have built up over the season of Lent. We have the Bridegroom with us! If we remained in Lenten contrition forever, we would lose sight of the fact that Christ is Risen and our final enemies (sin and death) are overthrown.
Imagine what would happen if we did not have this transition? Where does the season of Lent lead us? The season of Lent is intentionally designed to let us follow Christ to Jerusalem, to death. If we did not cease the season of Lent, we too would be led to death. Lent is physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausting for a reason. If we keep that pace up for the entire year, we would be spiritually burnt out, and lose sight of our ultimate end, being with Christ at the marriage feast of the Eschaton. We cannot lose sight of this, that our labors will be rewarded by the Master, and the Church gives us this season to remind us that our labors of fasting and prayer are not ends in themselves, but tools by which we enter into the marriage feast. We get a foretaste of this feast in Paschaltide because the Bridegroom is with us, and we have had a foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet.
And so, if you find your spiritual life challenged in this period of transition, the season is working on you, giving you a foretaste of what the final transition will be, when we pass through the veil, and enter into the joy of our Lord.
While this spring weather continues to give us whiplash, we will push through to summer. If you find yourself chafing against the transition of this spiritual season, you too will push through, because, the Bridegroom is with us.
As always, in the final words of St. John Chrysostom: Glory to God for All Things.
John W. Heitzenrater, II A.B., M.H.M.
Headmaster
jheitzenrater@chrysostomacademy.org
610-427-2758