Eastern Orthodox faithful celebrate Easter

Apr. 24—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — While many Christians celebrated Easter on April 17, those of the Eastern Orthodox rite who adhere to the Julian calendar will keep the observance on Sunday.

The faithful have been observing Holy Week, during which clergy and church members have been doing what they call "reliving the great mysteries of salvation," which culminate with the celebration of the Holy Resurrection.

Easter, or Pascha, is perhaps the most important day to Christians, as it provides the basis for faith.

Throughout Holy Week, parishioners have participated in a variety of public prayers at divine services.

Praying, fasting and almsgiving have been the Lenten theme, and those practices are intensified during Holy Week.

The Very Rev. Protopresbyter Robert Buczak, dean of Christ the Saviour Cathedral, 300 Garfield St., said throughout Holy Week faithful are on a holy pilgrimage that will never disappoint, and it leads to the holiest of all holy days.

"We are joining Jesus Christ on the the road to his passion and to his holy resurrection," he said. "We participate in this journey as if it is the first time we are doing it in our lives. We partake in the Mystical Supper, we partake in the crucifixion, we partake in the taking down of his body and laying it in the tomb and we ultimately partake in his resurrection."

Buczak said the Resurrection is the feast of feasts.

"As St. Paul says, 'If it weren't for the Resurrection our faith would be in vain,'" he said. "If we didn't have the Resurrection of our Lord there would be no sense in being Christians, there is nothing to believe in."

At 8 p.m. Saturday, Matins of the Resurrection will be celebrated.

"We start in a darkened church and we carry candles and leave the church in procession and read the gospel of the resurrected Lord," Buczak said. "We pound on the door representing Christ pounding on the gates of Hades, and we enter singing 'Christ is risen' over and over again. All the lights are on and everything is bright and glorious."

On Sunday, Hierarchical Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 9 a.m.

Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa, of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, which is headquartered in Johnstown, requested that his message to all the parishes of the diocese be delivered at the conclusion of Divine Liturgy.

"On great and holy Pascha, we behold the triumph of Christ, as he rose from death to life, from darkness of the tomb into the light," Gregory writes. "With the Resurrection of Christ, all creation is filled with a new light of life and joy. On this feast of feasts, this holy day of holy days, we all proclaim the only truth that matters, the truth that Christ is risen."

He writes that we gather in joy and love and sing with one voice the triumphant hymn "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life."

"This beautiful hymn captures in three verses the fundamental message of the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ," Gregory writes.

"It is a message of victory, of love and of hope in everlasting life. On this day and throughout the Paschal season over the next 40 days, we proclaim this message of victory, of love and of hope together in song through this hymn at the beginning of every divine service in our church."

He writes the first verse expresses the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"St. Paul expresses this idea to the Corinthians, 'If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins,'" Gregory writes. "He declares unequivocally that Christ has been raised from the dead, that he appeared after his resurrection to as many as 500 people at a time. The reassuring words of this epistle continue to provide us today with their intended effect, which is that our faith in Christ is not futile and that because of the reality of his Resurrection, we are no longer held captive to our sins."

He writes the second verse explains the extraordinary manner by which Christ conquered death's dominion over us.

"When Jesus was crucified, he took on the sins of all humanity and suffered the intensity of which remains truly incomprehensible to us as human beings," Gregory writes. "This demonstrates the unending love of our God, who took on human flesh and who died on a cross for our salvation. By submitting himself to death, Christ not only annihilated sin but also death.

"The final defeat of the archenemy death could not happen but only through death itself, not an ordinary death however, but the death of God who became man."

He writes the final verse reveals the essence of the feast as it encapsulates the full consequence of Christ's Resurrection from the dead.

"This is a day of promise and of hope for everlasting life with him," Gregory writes. "This last verse reiterates the message that St. Paul was communicating to the Romans when he wrote that as Christians we are dead to sin, but alive in Christ, 'We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God, we too might walk in newness of life.' This is the message of our Orthodox Christian faith which we celebrate on this day of Pascha and indeed every day of our lives here on earth."

Bright Week will be held Sunday through April 30, and it's a week set aside by Orthodox Christians for the celebration of the Resurrection.