The Light of the Resurrection

By Fr. Joseph Huneycutt

I believe I was about eleven years old when, sleeping one night in my darkened room, I awoke to a repetitive moaning sound:  “Woo-oo-oo!  Woo-oo-oo!”  On and on it went.  At eleven years old, I lay there thinking to myself, “What should I do?”  Eventually I mustered up all the courage I could and I swung my fist through the air and – BOOM.  Did I mention that my four year old brother was sleeping with me?  Well, my fist hit the pillow he was waving in the air, and then it hit my bother, and then there was a big noise!  It was only when my mother came rushing in and the light came on that I realized the truth.  I wasn’t being visited by a ghost, it was my own brother.

About thirty years later, I was visiting a monastery and, as a priest, I was allowed to stay in the monastic quarters.  However, the only room they had available was, they said, not a good one to stay in; I might rather get a hotel room.  This room was called “the cave” – it was downstairs, had no windows, and when you closed the door, honest to goodness, you could not see anything.  They’d never been able to keep a monk in that cell.  I didn’t want to stay in a hotel, so I opted to stay in The Cave.  The monks said that I should keep the door cracked so that I could, at least, see something. 

So, I’m sleeping, I’ve got the door cracked, and there was barely a sliver of dim light by the door.  Early in the morning, around two or three o’clock, I awoke to see, over in the corner, something that resembled an energetic shadow, waving and hovering, up and down.  I stared at it for a while and, realizing that I was in a monastery, I thought this might be an otherworldly visitor – a Saint, even a demon.  I stared at the gray cloud that kept wavering and moving and I thought I understood why no monk could endure this cell.  I finally worked up enough courage to get up and turn on the light.  Someone had thrown an apple core in the trash and there must have been 500 fruit flies circling it! 

All around the world Christians, just like you, have been coming to confession during Lent, and everyone confesses the same thing.  Oh, our sins may be different, but the whole reason we’re coming to confession is to say:  “I’m dark; I wish I was closer to the Light.  How can I be closer to the Light?”  Also, this time of year, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the devil knows that it’s Lent.  You might not follow the Church Calendar but the devil does.  And this time of year brings temptations that seem to be magnified by our unworthiness.  True, we are unworthy, but the devil tempts us to think that we might just be unworthy enough that we ought not to be found in church; we’re not even worthy to be called a Christian; we’re not worthy to be a father, a mother, a husband … These are lies.  The light of the resurrection disperses the darkness and changes all of that.  No matter what co-worker you’re having trouble with, what marital problems you may be having, what problem child you have – or what problem parents you have – the light of the resurrection changes those relationships.

I’ve never met anyone who came to a Pascha service and said, “Boy, I wish I hadn’t done that.”  But the only way that we can fully appreciate the bright light of the resurrection, the only way we can truly appreciate Pascha, is by going to Jerusalem – and being beaten, and spat upon, and crucified – which all begins with Holy Week.  In the end, all things look different in the light of the resurrection even, according to the hymns we’ll sing, the way we see our enemies will be changed by the Light.

Without light, our darkened minds can play tricks on us.  It takes the light to show us the truth.  Our Lord is the Light.  He is the Light and soon we are going to participate in the greatest event in the history of the universe:  the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But first, we must go to Jerusalem.  Beginning with Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, this is what we are all called to do:  go to Jerusalem.  Why?  Are we going to Jerusalem to be beaten, spat upon, and crucified?  Sure.  But the real reason we’re going to Jerusalem is because the light of the resurrection shines from there.  And the light of the resurrection changes people.  Beatings, scourging, crucifixions; they don’t really change you.  You may suffer; we all suffer in this life.  But the light of the resurrection changes things.  Things look different after the resurrection.

Jarolsav Pelikan, a prominent Protestant theologian who converted to Orthodoxy late in life, once said:  “If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen -- nothing else matters.”  The choice is ours, you see.  Let’s go to Jerusalem.

Fr. Joseph Huneycutt serves at St. George Antiochian Church in Houston, Texas. He can be read via his blog, "Orthodixie," or heard through his podcast of the same name on Ancient Faith Radio. Having grown up in the South as a Southern Baptist, Father Joseph wrote a book to encourage struggling converts, titled One Flew Over the Onion Dome. His publisher, Regina Press, recently released his second book, Defeating Sin. Fr. Joseph and his wife Elizabeth are the parents of three children.