My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody! Awake my soul!
Psalm 108:1
I hope everyone had a beautiful celebration of Holy Week and Pascha! For the final Prayer Team message related to Holy Week 2026, I would like to share the homily I offered on Holy Saturday evening, right before the Resurrection Service. May God bless each of you this Paschal season.
We began the Holy Week journey on Palm Sunday by examining two existential questions: What is my destiny? And what is my purpose? While each of us is unique, the answers to these two questions are the same for each of us. Our destiny is to stand before God and be judged worthy of eternal life, or eternal punishment. Our purpose is to prepare for this destiny by placing faith in God, and serving others. Faith includes knowledge of God, obedience to the commandments, connection with God through prayer, Scripture reading and worship. It includes trusting in God even when life doesn’t make sense. Serving others includes charity, generosity, and forgiveness, even when we don’t feel like it, even when someone else doesn’t deserve it.
There is a third thing each of us has in common, in addition to a common destiny and common purpose, and that is a common origin. In Genesis 1:26-27, we read, Then God said, ”Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God made us in His image by creating us with a soul, a part of us that will live forever, like God. Every human body will eventually die, no matter how righteous we are. The soul is the part that lives forever, either with God, or separated from Him. The soul contains a Divine imprint unique to each person. It is what gives us our unique sets of talents and our unique personality. Because of sin, each soul must battle for God. This is the conscience, where we must battle daily to hear the voice of God, amidst the voice of temptation. This is the common struggle we all face.
We’ve heard the word “soul” many times this Holy Week. We read Psalm 103 at many services, which begins with the words Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. This would be the ideal life, to bless the Lord with all that we have within us. In Psalm 88, which is generally read right before Psalm 103 in the Orthros services, we read For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. (Psalm 88:3) Jesus knew that feeling, as we saw Him kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying to His disciples, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.” (Matthew 26:38)
The state of every soul in church tonight is a little bit different. There are some whose souls are blessing the Lord with everything they have. And there are others whose souls are full of troubles, and still others whose souls are sorrowful, they are wondering how they will take another step.
The theme of our Lenten journey this year was “Awake my soul: A Journey through the Psalms.” We chose this because the Psalms contain all the human emotions. We can look at the state of our souls at any moment and there will be a Psalm to match it. There are two thoughts I want to leave you with this evening, as we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. The first is that there is a Divine imprint in us. All of us have it. If we could look for that Divine imprint in each other, it would be a lot easier to love, forgive and serve others. If we could remember the Divine imprint within each of us, that I am created in the image and likeness of God, that I bear the Divine imprint within me, it would be a lot easier to love, forgive and serve others.
The second thought is that tonight is a night to awaken our souls, to renew them and recalibrate them to their original purpose, which is to radiate the light of Christ with whatever unique talents we have and in whatever unique circumstances we find ourselves.
When Christ prayed in the garden, and cried that His soul was sorrowful, even to death, He didn’t just fold up into a ball and quit. He found the strength to keep going. Even when His disciples, His friends, fell asleep and couldn’t watch with Him, He didn’t despair and quit. He stayed steadfast towards God and God sent an angel from heaven to comfort Him. When He hung on the cross, abandoned by the world, His soul found the strength to forgive those who were killing Him, not for what they had done, but for what they were doing. He was showing us in this example that the soul remains steadfast when it finds the capacity to forgive. As His breath left Him and His life slipped away, His final words reflect a soul that trusted the Lord: “Into Your hands, I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) The hardest four words of Prayer are from the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done.” And Christ demonstrated that by entrusting not only His life, but His soul, to God.
The intention of this Paschal celebration is to once again receive the Light of Christ, and to awaken our souls. To awaken the Divine imprint in each of us, placed there by God Himself. To be able to find joy even in disappointment, to be able to forgive the unforgivable, to be able to get through what seems unsurvivable, to recommit to our purpose, to affirm our destiny. Because that’s what the hymn of the Resurrection is all about—that Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down death and to those in the tombs, He has granted life. And it can begin in a single moment. Like it did for the thief on the cross who looked to Jesus and asked to be remembered, and was promised he would enter Paradise that very day. Like it did for the centurion, when he realized he had killed the Son of God, and turned his life around to be a saint. Like it did for Joseph of Arimathea, when he took courage and went to Pilate to ask to bury the Body of Jesus, not even twenty-four hours after his colleagues demanded it be destroyed.
In a moment you will receive the Light of Christ. And you’ll have a choice to make. Will it be a ritual where you light a candle, sing a hymn, and that’s it? Or can it be an awakening of your soul, a defining moment of remembering the Divine imprint, and honoring it long after tonight is over? I pray it will be the latter. I pray that for you. I pray that for me.
I’ve highlighted one or two figures from the Holy Week narrative in each sermon this week. And the final character to highlight tonight is you. What role will you play in the story of salvation? Will it be one of betrayal like Judas? One of denial, like Peter? One of abandonment, like the disciples? Or will it be one of repentance, like the thief? One of correction, like the Centurion? Or one of courage, like Joseph? Because while the Holy Week journey ends, the journey towards our destiny continues, the purpose of life remains the same, and the Divine imprint resides in each of us, ready to be set ablaze with joy, with purpose, and with love—for God, and for each other—with whatever unique talents we have, and in whatever unique circumstances we find ourselves. As we conclude our Lenten Journey, let us pray the words of Psalm 108:1, our theme for this year: My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake my soul!
Resurrection Day! O peoples, let us brilliantly shine! Pascha, the Lord’s Pascha! For Christ our God has out of death passed over into life, and likewise from earth, to heaven, as we now sin unto Him a triumphal hymn. (Katavasias, Orthros of Pascha, first ode, Trans. by Fr. Seraphim Dedes)
Have a blessed and bright week!
+Fr. Stavros
