Our Goal in Life - The Resurrection

Our Goal in Life - The Resurrection

It is imperative that we become different persons, not only because we are tyrannized by many fears and many dangers, but because we must be able to find the strength to expel these fears far away from us and to defeat and neutralize all these dangers. We can only do this with faith, a faith in the Resurrected Christ. [Many say that] the Resurrection characterizes the times we live in, and others say the same about the Crucifixion. For us, it is our duty to rise higher above these views so that, from a place that has a multiangled view of things, as faith and common hope has, we can see if there are crosses that exist (and they must exist and do indeed exist). These crosses must always exclaim Resurrection for our People*, and for our families, and for each one of us individually as well…. For the Resurrection is the goal, the final goal of human life, especially for our People.

[We must remember that we, in part, have responsibility for whatever has brought grave and extreme pain to our People and to the world at large.]  The only way that we will be able to free ourselves from this guilt is for all of us come together and communicate and try to understand one another. We must not only join our hands together but also our souls. We must try to rise a bit to a high peak, to the peak of the Passion. There, we must open our arms wide so that the heavens can reopen in order to allow the light of hope and that of final victory to reappear.   

Today’s issues and concerns are not those that make our age an age of crucifixion! They are issues and concerns that call us to disposition – to rid our souls from all the things that burden us. The nails that our neighbors, and unfortunately our friends and enemies have wounded us with, need to come out. They are not to remain in us. They are not to remain up there on the cross. This is what the Disposition – the taking down from the Cross – tells us: that there is always an opportunity for a disposition of all those so-called issues that have gravely wounded us; that have wounded our human dignity, our consciousness, and our historical pride. I deeply believe this – and I say it emphatically: Whatever we consider today as being crucifixion, we must make it disposition and then, from disposition, we must make it a grave for our old painful memories, and then we must make it Resurrection.

Our “Generation” is shaped and chosen by God for days of Resurrection, not for those of Crucifixion. During times of oppression, we lived the crucifixion in all its fullness, but now in our age, we are called to an uprising, and that uprising is to get rid of every type of pitifulness, every trace of perpetual and “eternal” complaints, that someone else is to blame. Moreso, I can say that we must live the moment in all its fullness, reconstituting ourselves, our theories, our world view, our views concerning life, so as to make faith! This is what St. Paul calls us to do when he talks about a “new being”. If the Resurrection means approaching Christ and Christ approaching us and forming a common union, we must see this “new being” as a new creation. Here, Mankind must play a vital role, not like that of Adam and Eve, but one of sacrifice; a role where the person is uplifted and is redeemed by way of the Truth.

I recently read a collection of American poems and one verse said this: “every morning, the world is recreated.” I would like to apply this to the Paschal dawn. At every dawn, every morning, especially Pascha, the world is recreated, a world where we have been designated to hold a primary place has its inheritors; not only because of the Greek Spirit that enlightened the world, but also due to the eternal light of the Resurrection that does not want us downhearted, or dead, but always Resurrected, always strong, always ready for a new beginning.  

Archbishop Iakovos of America (†)
Taken and adopted for the “Pastoral Thought” from an interview given in 1994 to the televised program “The Archodariki” on ERT TV (Hellenic Radio and Television)

* “People” is used for the Greek word “Γένος” which also means “Generation”. We as Christians are the “New Generation” born in Christ. It also refers to the Orthodox People, particularly of each nationality.

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