Easter: Knowing the Love of God

The one theme which stands out above all during Great Lent as we approach Easter is how much God loves us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17). God loves us infinitely more than we can imagine, and this is why He also gave us the Holy Spirit to be our comforter, and as He said, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). This is the focus of our faith. We believe that God became man, so that by dying on the cross, Christ can save us, and by rising from the dead, He can offer us eternal life. Christ’s love for us draws us to Him. Why would anyone want to resist such a love?

According to John, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). That is a powerful force, which comes against us. The “wicked one” only knows how to lie, hate and destroy. This means that we need to be able to discern truth from among all the world’s lies. The truth is that Jesus is God and He loves each and every one of us. When we fully understand that truth, we cannot help but be in awe of what God has done through His Son. Christ was not just some man who happened to be executed because He wanted to be King of the Jews. Jesus was the only human who was perfect, never having sinned even once. He was pure goodness and love. Christ demonstrated His divine power through amazing miracles, including raising people from the dead. He often performed these miracles with thousands of witnesses present. Christ was God, who humbled Himself and willingly accepted crucifixion because He loves each and every one of us and wants us to be with Him for eternity.

As Christians, it is our responsibility to develop our spiritual maturity by cultivating a relationship with Christ. The best way to do that is through prayer, or in other words, just talk to Jesus. Prayer is the most available means to cultivate our relationship because it is always accessible, no matter where we are. Your prayers do not have to be too long or involved. Just express what is on your heart.

 Another way to develop our spiritual maturity is by participating in the Sacraments, especially taking Communion. The whole purpose of Communion is to receive remission of sins and to be united with Christ. It is a mystical union, which we experience through the Holy Spirit. Receiving the Eucharist is one way we energize the Holy Spirit within us, who brings us closer to God. During Lent, we should also participate in Confession. I have to confess, myself, that until this last year, I had only gone to Confession once in my life. I was terrified, especially because there were decades of sins I had never confessed. If you have reservations, one thing I can tell you is that only by facing a human being, like a priest, do we truly feel repentant of our sins. Confessing to a God who we cannot see is easy! I genuinely experienced the love of God when I participated in Confession and knew my sins had been forgiven.

We can also develop our spiritual maturity by remembering what we ourselves say each time we recite the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Preparing for Easter requires us to forgive all those who have sinned against us and hurt us. After all, by reciting the Lord’s Prayer, we are basically telling God to only forgive our sins, if we forgive others. That means God may not forgive our sins. Before approaching a person who you need to forgive, spend some time thinking about your own sins. Ask yourself, if you committed similar sins, and maybe even committed those same sins against the same person. If you really think about it, none of us is any better than someone else. We have all sinned. That is exactly why we must forgive others their sins. We show them compassion by forgiving them. Reconcile with anyone you are estranged. This may also mean that you must ask someone for forgiveness yourself. 

When you have prepared yourself during Lent, Easter will be much more joyous! In our Orthodox tradition, we spend Holy Week at church, attending services that recreate the events of Christ’s betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection. The prayers and Bible passages are intended to remind us of the sacrifice Christ made for us. They are intended to put us in the right frame of mind, so that when Easter arrives, we have a deeper understanding of why we are so thankful that God offered us a way to Heaven. The Orthodox services during Holy Week are unique to our faith, particularly the services on Holy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. On Thursday, Christ is placed on the cross. On Holy Friday afternoon, He is taken down from the cross and in the evening, we follow in a funeral procession to bury Him in His tomb. On Saturday morning we joyfully anticipate the Resurrection and at midnight we jubilantly sing “Christ is Risen,” while a darkened church is set alight by the flames of our candles. We experience the joy of Easter by reliving it!

© 2019  Helen Kamenos  All rights reserved

http://www.helenkamenos.com/

The Awe and Mystery of the Crucifixion and Resurrection

As Christians, we have heard time and time and time again, the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, perhaps so many times that Holy Week and Easter have become times of fasting and feasting without the awe and mystery of the events, which occurred two thousand years ago. To truly appreciate the magnitude of these events, we must contemplate the person of Jesus Christ. We must comprehend who He is? Jesus is called the Word by John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made…He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth…No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (made him known)” (John 1:1-18 KLV). Jesus of Nazareth is a mystery to us because we cannot fully comprehend God, yet, as Christians, we know Jesus is God. We cannot fully know God, but we can know God through Christ.

As best as you can, take a moment and envision God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, together as one in eternity. Paint a picture for yourself of the three as one, planning to create our universe, knowing that the pinnacle of their creation would be man who would reject God’s love and choose evil. It was at a time when there was no time that God chose to sacrifice Himself to save us, long before we even existed. Christ, the Son of God, seated on His throne of glory, immeasurably loved by His Father and worshipped by angels, would choose to take on flesh and become a human being, knowing that He would suffer betrayal, rejection, and crucifixion. Have you ever been betrayed or rejected by someone you loved deeply? Knowing this, would you choose the horrifically painful death on the cross for that person? 

When we stop and contemplate our all-powerful God, who willingly took on flesh for us, so He could die on the cross and save us, we are in awe! Reverence and wonder fill our spirits! We drop down to our knees in humility and gratitude and fear! “For God so loved the world (each and every one us) that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). Amazingly, God offers us an invitation to live eternally in His love. “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Incredibly, He chose to die for us, even though we are not worthy of His love. We are not able to love Him perfectly as He loves us, for each time we sin, we reject His divine love and choose evil. When we come to realize this, we are stirred by a profound repentance for our sins. Our flesh may be weak, but our spirit loves our Lord. “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1). Even as sinners, God desires a relationship with us, not just a friendship, but rather, He wishes to call us His sons and daughters! “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:5-6). What a good and loving God He is!

The cross, an inhumane means of suffering a painful, shameful, public death, was meant to produce fear. God transformed this instrument of execution into a symbol of hope, life and salvation. Through the Resurrection, God confounds evil by recreating the cross into a glorious banner of our faith. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled, “he will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8). Consequently in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, Paul triumphantly declares:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?

    Where, O death, is your sting?”

We are astonished and in awe that Christ rose from the dead to reveal Himself as God, to free us from sin, and to offer us eternal life through salvation! Through the resurrection, we possess the hope of eternal rewards in the presence of God, cleansed from all evil, in communion with His infinite love, destined to live in unimaginable joy and peace. Paul refers to the prophecy in Isaiah 64:4 when he asserts the mysteries of our heavenly blessings (1 Corinthians 2:9):

“But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him.”

As Easter approaches, ask the Holy Spirit to reintroduce you to those feelings of childlike wonder in the awesome mysteries of the crucifixion and resurrection. Allow yourself to experience God’s infinite love revealed to us through the cross of Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to you in all His humility, meekness, and mercy, for this is the kind of love He offers us. God humbled Himself and offered to wash our feet as He washed the feet of the disciples. He offers Himself to us each time we participate in Holy Communion. We receive the blood and body of Christ to spark that mystical union we have through the Holy Spirit who lives within us as Christians. When you go forward to receive the Eucharist, know with all your being that Christ lives in you!

If you have not known Christ, ask God to reveal Him to you! God knows what it takes to make Himself real to you. Open your heart! He will create a miracle within you, and you will rejoice in experiencing His overwhelmingly, infinite, divine love firsthand. There is nothing else like it!         

© 2017  Helen Kamenos  All rights reserved

http://www.helenkamenos.com/