Answer: “Arise, O God, and be judge of the earth, for You shall inherit all nations.” The clergy and faithful sing this verse time and time again on Holy Saturday Morning proclaiming the “First Resurrectional News” as the priest scatters flower petals and bay leaves throughout the church. This sacred gesture is a symbol of the victory of our Lord’s Resurrection. He defeats Death by His death, breaking the doors of Hades, hinges and all, releasing all the imprisoned souls there. The Gospel Reading (Matthew 28:1-20) at the Holy Saturday Liturgy of St. Basil contains the first angelic announcement of Jesus’ Resurrection.

From the moment when Jesus bowed His head in death upon the Cross and the moment when the bonds of death were broken and He rose triumphant, Jesus was not resting from His labors. He was still about His Father’s business. He went and preached to the souls in prison. Thus from Saturday morning we wait in joy for the Resurrection Service and Easter Liturgy on Holy Saturday at midnight.

Even if you show up in body at church for every single Holy Week service, but have your mind on the latest text message you received, the income tax papers you must prepare, etc. the meaning of the worship is eroded. For people in a world with an increasingly short attention span, focusing on one thing, even if it’s the dramatic events of Christ’s trials and tribulations more than 2,000 years ago, is no small feat.

Holy Week is the opportunity for all Orthodox faithful to exercise their ability to focus on an important spiritual experience, and recall how it is part of their own personal Christian identity. It is a reminder of how each Orthodox Christian fits into a bigger whole, a chance to tap into an annual religious cycle that takes place, with only minor changes of date each year, generation after generation.

Introducing our children to not just Easter, with its fun red eggs, chocolate bunnies and games, but also to Holy Week, with its less “fun” story of suffering and redemption is important in their understanding what their Orthodox Christian faith is really about. They learn by watching, just as you did. They observe, little by little, how Easter’s message of hope and resurrection is pinned on Christ’s difficult journey. It is also a time to remember the past. How many of us don’t find in the repetition of each day of Holy Week memories flooding into our thoughts of our yiayias with their lips moving in prayer, singing in a way that may have embarrassed us then (but now touches us) or of our mothers with tears actually rolling down their checks as they “live” the experience of Christ’s Passion.

It was perhaps easier for previous generations, especially those in the villages, where the entire community’s life centered on the local parish during Holy Week, to be able to focus. But we can, amidst all our shopping, consumptions and endless strings of wants, try to tap into that old wisdom too.

Fasting is an important aspect of Holy Week. The discipline of refraining from your usual food habits for even a week, is a reminder that this isn’t just any week. Holy Week isn’t life as usual. Having the discipline to control what crosses your lips is just part of a bigger lesson, and one of the many ways to focus on the importance of the days.

The Greek Orthodox midnight Resurrection Service and Easter Liturgy begins in darkness and ends in light. It begins in sadness and ends in jubilation with the life giving words “Christ is Risen!” Every Orthodox Christian, from age 1 to 100, should be in attendance for the entire service. To not be in church on this night or to come and leave minutes after the announcement of the resurrection is a sin! You basically are denying Christ and His victory over darkness and sin. Hear the words that are being chanted as people begin to leave: “Let God arise and His enemies be scattered, and let those who hate Him flee from His presence…So let the sinner perish from God’s presence, and let the just rejoice.” You turn your back on the gift of salvation that has been bought and given to you with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. You condemn yourself by your actions at the very moment salvation is at hand!

“Come all of you and receive the light from the unwaning Light and glorify Christ, Who rose from the dead.”

There are many reasons why we love and honor our Blessed Mother. In the Orthodox Tradition, we celebrate her many feast days according to the events of her life. As a result, we properly remember her obedience, holiness, purity, and her ability to act on our behalf because due to her special relationship with God.

But there is still more that the Mother of God can teach us. For example, in today’s gospel, Mary’s reaction when she was first confronted by Gabriel was fearful. This reminds us that the message of salvation, and God’s unique purpose for us can still be scary no matter who we are – even if you are the Theotokos!

Isn’t it incredible that Mary overcame her fears by being obedient, and faithful to God’s message as it was proclaimed to her by the archangel? Also, think of how amazing it is how Mary also became a messenger of salvation as she proclaimed (and as we still proclaim to this day): “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior!” (Luke 1:46, 47)

Forty days, however, is a long time, and while the spirit if often willing, the flesh is always weak! Our initial zeal for adhering to the Lenten disciplines that the Church prescribes for us quickly wanes. Our journey to Pascha becomes a great struggle.

The Church realizes this, and in her infinite wisdom, she offers us a symbol of hope each year on the 3rd Sunday of Lent: THE CROSS. It is placed before us on this day as a means of encouragement. Just as we may rest under the branches of a beautiful tree while travelling along a difficult road, the Church calls on all of us to refresh ourselves under the Tree of Life as we continue to draw closer to commemorating Christ’s Passion and His ultimate Resurrection.

Indeed, the Cross serves to remind us of God’s great love for us. It was for our sake and for our salvation that Christ suffered upon the Cross. If we carry our own cross with courage and dedication, we can be assured that we will reap the spiritual benefits of our Savior’s victory, which He achieved on the Cross. May the words of the hymn sung repeatedly on this day be on our lips for the remainder of Lent: “YOUR CROSS WE VENERATE, O MASTER, AND YOUR HOLY RESURRECTION WE GLORIFY!”

When the Archangel Gabriel went to the Virgin Mary to proclaim to her the purpose of the Incarnation that was before the ages she was terribly frightened. To fully understand her fear, we must picture this pure and innocent maiden alone in her room. The Archangel Gabriel announces to her superhuman things. How can a virgin give birth to a son? Can we truly imagine the fear Mary felt when the Archangel told her that God, whose throne was in heaven, would be contained in her womb? In fear, Mary accused Gabriel of deceit. For indeed, how could she bear a son when she had known no pleasure with a man and had not considered marriage? Yet her doubt was put to rest when Gabriel assured her that, “When so God wills, the order of nature is overcome, and that which is superhuman is accomplished! For with God nothing is impossible.” Gabriel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Highest would overshadow her, and thus the holy child that would be born of her would be called the Son of God. He told her that she should call His Name, Jesus, and that He would rein over the house of Jacob, forever, and that his Kingdom would never come to end.

Thus when all the doubt, fear and confusion settles, we see emerge the great condescension of God. Truly the Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin Mary. For in Mary, God and man unite into one being, our Lord and God Savior, Jesus Christ. And as a reward, for her obedience to God on our behalf, we must exalt and praise eternally the Virgin Mary as the Lady “Theotokos – the Bearer or Mother of God, for she is more honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim.”

Even Gabriel, himself did not fully understand the full impact of that holy moment. He was confused and wondered how God, who is incomprehensible, would want to be born, in the flesh, from a virgin. How could God, whose throne is in heaven, and whose earth is His footstool, be contained in a woman’s womb? How could God be happy to take flesh from the Virgin Mary by only a word, the same God whom the Cherubim and Seraphim cannot even gaze upon? Yet, in his obedience, Gabriel finally accepted that the One who is coming is indeed the Logos or the Word of God. Therefore, the humble maiden Mary can truly be called Full of Grace, Spotless Virgin, Groomless Bride, and the Mother of Life. For truly is the fruit of her womb blessed, for God the Lord is with her!

Thus, the Virgin Mary becomes our ladder from earth to heaven. It is only through her gift to mankind, the human body of Christ, that we can have any hopes of ascending that ladder to heaven. For she is indeed the eternal Virgin, as the Church proclaims her as “ever-Virgin,” and as the Prophet Ezekiel proclaims: “this gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel has entered by it and it shall be shut.” Thus through the Virgin Mary, God has become one with man, and man has obtained the possibility to become one with God. It is for this reason that our Lord became like us in all things, even in taking on our flesh, so that he might become our merciful and faithful High Priest before God that He might appease God atoning for the sins of His people.

For just as Christ came in the flesh and suffered and was tempted, so too, when we ask Him, He will be able to help us in our sufferings and in our temptations.

We need to see ourselves as the boy in the story, giving to Jesus our time, talents, and treasure, however small they may be, Jesus receives them, blesses them, and accomplishes so much more with them than you or I could ever imagine.

How wonderful is our Lord Jesus, Who takes and appreciates our gifts, multiplies them, and makes it possible for us to be His eyes, ears, mouth, mind, hands and heart, empowering us to serve Him in the world for which He sacrificed His life on the hard wood of the Cross.

The Church bases its teaching on God’s revelation in the Sacred Tradition that comes to us from Christ and His Apostles, through the Church Fathers to present.  The Orthodox faith maintains the teaching of the early Church without essential change from the past to the present for two thousand years.

The political state bases its laws on human constitutions and laws that change according to various philosophies of life.  At one time, in the Roman Empire, abortion was legal and encouraged.  After the rise of Christianity, abortion was made illegal, and its practice was limited.  In recent years the influence of unbelief in Christianity reasserted itself, and abortion was again legalized.  With the development of new medical techniques, the practice of abortion has become a business of tremendous proportions not only in ending the lives of millions of unborn babies, but of selling their body parts to companies for commercial exploitation.

From the beginning days of Christianity, abortion has been seen by the Church as the immoral murdering of an innocent life.  In the “Epistle to Barnabas” a Christian writing of about the year 100 A.D., we are taught, “You shall not kill a child by obtaining an abortion.  Nor, again, shall you destroy him after he is born.”  The writer Athenagoras, writing in 175 A.D. says: “we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder.”  The 4^th century “Apostolic Constitutions” order, “You shall not slay your child by causing abortion, nor kill the baby that is born.  For, ‘everything that is shaped and received a soul from God, if it is slain shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed’ (Ezekiel 21:23, Septuagint O.T.).”  St. Basil the Great (330-379) teaches, “The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder.  The hair-splitting difference between formed and unformed makes no difference to us.”  And the Sixth Ecumenical Council, one of the highest canonical authorities in the Orthodox Church orders, “As for women who furnish drugs for the purpose of procuring abortions, and those who take fetus killing poisons, they are made subject to the penalty for murderers.”

Writing to the Christians of Corinth, St. Paul said, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the truths that have been freely given to us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:12-13).  As Orthodox Christians we have criteria and standards that are not “of this world.”  Abortion is legal in America, but for us who are “taught by the Spirit,” it should not be a course of action.