Catechesis · Inquirer
Holy Pascha
Catechesis · Inquirer
Holy Pascha
Pascha is the Feast of Feasts — the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. It is not merely the most important feast of the year. It is the event that all other feasts point t…
Question
What is Pascha?
Pascha is the Feast of Feasts — the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. It is not merely the most important feast of the year. It is the event that all other feasts point toward and flow from. The entire liturgical year is an unfolding of the Paschal mystery. The entire Christian life is a living of it. Pascha is the sun around which everything else orbits.
The word Pascha comes from the Hebrew Pesach — Passover. The Christian Pascha is the fulfillment of the Jewish Passover: as Israel was delivered from Egypt through the blood of the Passover lamb, humanity is delivered from sin and death through the blood of the Lamb of God. The old Passover was a type; the new Pascha is the reality it pointed toward.
The feast of feasts
The night that never ends — the Paschal mystery in liturgy
The Paschal service begins in complete darkness. The faithful gather at midnight, each holding an unlit candle. The priest lights his candle from the flame that has been burning before the tomb in the altar, emerges from the royal doors, and proclaims: "Come, receive the light from the Light that is never overtaken by night." The light passes from person to person until the whole church blazes. Then: "Christ is risen from the dead!"
The Paschal Canon — attributed to St. John of Damascus — is sung throughout the night and Bright Week. Its first ode: "The day of Resurrection! Let us be illumined by the feast! Let us embrace one another. Let us speak, O brothers, even to those that hate us, and forgive all things on account of the Resurrection." Pascha is simultaneously personal (forgive your enemies), ecclesial (embrace one another), and cosmic (all creation is illumined).
The day of Resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad! The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God! From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky, our Christ hath brought us over with hymns of victory.
John of Damascus opens the Paschal Canon with a cosmic proclamation. "Earth, tell it out abroad" — the good news is for the whole creation, not just the Church. "From death to life eternal" — this is the direction of the movement: not just from sin to forgiveness, but from death to life, from earth to heaven, from the old creation to the new. The Resurrection is the most comprehensive event that has ever happened.
St. John of Damascus
Paschal Canon · c. 720 AD
Holy Scripture
"He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay."
Matthew 28:6
"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
1 Corinthians 15:54–55
Christ is Risen
What the Paschal proclamation means for the rest of your life
"Christ is risen" is not a historical statement. It is a present-tense declaration: He is risen — now, always, forever. The Resurrection did not happen and then become past. The risen Christ is alive right now. And because He is alive, everything He accomplished — the destruction of death, the opening of the Kingdom, the gift of divine life — is not a finished legacy. It is a living reality, offered now, available now, transforming now.