EASTER SUNDAY

John 1:1-17

Απόσπασμα από βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου «ΣΤΑΓΟΝΕΣ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΥΔΩΡ ΤΟ ΖΩΝ»!  Για την Κυριακή του ΠΑΣΧΑ.
Η μετάφρασι στα Αγγλλικά έγινε από τον ακούραστο εργάτη και αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του π. Αυγουστίνου, π. Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.  Προσφέρεται ταπεινά και με την εν Χριστώ αγάπη είς ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απανταχού της γης και επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας του σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου
προς δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού.

GOD’S CHILDREN

But as many as received him to them gave he power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name.

Imagine, beloved, that on some street of a big city there is an orphan child who has been abandoned by relatives and friends and is hungry, barefoot, and dirty. No on pays any attention to the plight of this child.  A king suddenly comes by on that street.  His carriage stops.  The king gets out.  He feels compassion for the child and approaches him.  He speaks to the orphan with much love and makes the child weep with emotion.  The good king isn’t satisfied with just words, he shows the child actual love.  He takes the child in his arms, puts it in his coach, and takes him to his palace.  There he gives an order that the child should be bathed, clothed in new clothes, and let to the royal table.  He adopts the child.

The story is parabolic.  Who is that naked, hungry and dirty child who sat on the street corner, frozen by the cold, asking for help from passerbys, his body shaking from spasms of crying?  Who is the king, that oh so good king, who took the ragged child to his palace, cleaned him, clothed him, fed him, and adopted him into his own family?
The child in a miserable condition is anyone who has descended from that first-created pair, Adam and Eve.  As we know, the first people were created “according to the image and likeness of God”.  For a dwelling place, the Creator gave them paradise.  The first couple had everything: clean air, crystalline water, trees heavy with fruit, sweet singing birds, and above all a pure and continuous communion with God.  Man was very happy in paradise, physically and spiritually.

Bud man didn’t stay there, he sinned.  Man lost paradise, and his heart became infected by sin.  He became spiritually unclean and started to commit all sorts of transgressions.  He lived far from God, spiritually finding himself in a miserable condition.  He was glued to the darkness of error and transgression and was like that unclean, miserable child whom we saw in the parable.  It wasn’t just one man but all of mankind.
Man unclean!  He may appear externally rich and glorious.  He may dress in bright clothes.  But the soul, which is the main man, is unclean and stinking.  What is the value of external appearance?  Before Christ man felt his wretchedness, groaned, and asked for cleansing and redemption.
After many centuries, the dawn of the great day came.  The king came – not an earthly king, who is only a shadow no matter how great he may be before the actual king, who created the world from nothing and who governs and directs the universe.  The king is Christ.  He is the “king of kings”, and the “lord of the lords”.  Do we believe it?  Then, let us fall down and venerate him, and with gratitude, let us say:  “Hail, our king.”  The soldiers said these words with scorn. But let us say them with deep faith and endless gratitude.

Christ!  He is the king who saw man as wretched, unclean, and miserable – in a worse condition than the abandoned child.  He pitied man and, in his compassion, washed him in his priceless blood, clothed him with the bright robe of resurrection, and made him a child of God.
Man, wretched and unclean, smelling worse than a dead dog, because of the crucified and resurrected Christ, the all-ruling king, was purified, brightened, and raised to heaven to become a child of God.  What an honor, what a glory!
What we write is not a fantasy.  It is a reality.  Today’s Bible reading of the Resurrection preaches that man was raised from darkness to light – from the depths to the heights of heaven – from wretchedness and hell to paradise.

Let us look closely at the verse that speaks about the effects of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection for the world.  “But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become sons of God, even to them that believe in His name”.  Do you hear?  Christ does not discriminate.  Anyone, man or woman, Greek or Jew, slave or free, whatever the country of his origin, whatever his tongue, from whatever age he may live in, if he believes in Christ and is baptized, that man shall see the great miracle.  Inside that man, a transformation that only the angels and archangels can see shall take place.  That transformation means that the man is adopted and becomes a child of God.
The Christian a child of God!  Do you know what that means, my dear Christians?  If a poor, ragged child is adopted by a rich and powerful man, and one day shall become heir to a vast fortune, he is called fortunate by the people of his age.  How much more blessed is the Christian, who has been adopted and becomes a child of God – an heir to God and co-inheritor with Christ.
The Christian a child of God!  This means that he is under the omnipotent presence of God.  What can he be afraid of now?  Nothing.  With him is He who surpasses in power the most powerful on earth:  He is the omnipotent God.  A Christian doesn’t fear death, which so many people in the world fear.  For the unbeliever, death is frightening.  For the believer, death offers no fear.  Christ rose from the dead, and with his resurrection, destroyed the might of death.  The Christian is no longer that unfortunate child who cried before death.  He is the blessed child of God.

What a great blessing Christ gave to man with his coming to earth, with his death on the Cross, and with his resurrection!  To Christ, then, belongs glory and honor to the ages of ages. Amin.