Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24
Christ is Risen!
The Orthodox Church marks the week after Pascha as “Renewal Week” or “Bright Week.” The week is “Bright” because it begins in the glow of candles at midnight at the Resurrection service. Bright colors replace the dark colors of Great Lent. The mood brightens from sorrow to joy. The strict fast is replaced for this week with no fast at all.
“Renewal” refers to a state of being, not just an event. To “renew” something is an event. To renew a library book, as an example, denotes an event when the life of the original time granted for one to use a book is renewed, given an extended period to use it. To renew the book refers to the event where the time is extended. The extended time period would be the period of renewal, the period where the one who checked out the book is living with a new lease on the book.
On Pascha, the ritual of lighting a candle is something that is supposed to renew us. The church was darkened, all lights extinguished except one, the light on the altar in front of the tabernacle, where Christ resides. This light is called the “Akimiton Fos,” the light that never sleeps. This act reminds us of a couple things related to the struggles of life. First, as long as there is light, there cannot be darkness, as darkness is the absence of light. When it is dark, it is hard to see, however dark and darkness are two different things. A room can be dark and one can still see, just not very well. Darkness is where there is total absence of light. The church, at midnight on Holy Saturday night, was dark, but there was still one light, and thus the church wasn’t filled with darkness. The second lesson is that light can overwhelm where it is dark. We lit candles in our church, hundreds of them, and even without turning on a single light, the candlelight created a bright glow over the church. We didn’t need chandeliers and spotlights to illumine the church. The candles did a great job. Likewise, the Light of Christ can illuminate the world. It doesn’t need spotlights and gimmicks in order to do that. The Light of Christ shines where there is truth, nobility and integrity, purity, kindness and love.
Walking away from this experience is supposed to create a sense of renewal in us. We don’t light candles only as part of an elaborate and beautiful ritual. We light them spiritually with the idea that we will be renewed in faith, purpose, focus, energy and joy. The whole Lenten journey builds towards Holy Week, and the Holy Week journey builds to this climax of renewal.
There are two questions to ponder today: Were you renewed at the Resurrection Service? And if so, are you still living in that state of renewal today? Let’s briefly examine each.
Were you renewed at the Resurrection service as you received the Light of Christ? The answer is probably found in reflecting on whether we received the light of a candle, or if we allowed ourselves to behold that light as the Light of Christ; whether we took light from a candle to light our own candle, or if it was more than that, if we allowed the light to not only light our candle but to light our souls as well. As a priest, as I reflect on Holy Week, I spend much of my effort on offering the services. The physical and mental toll tends to leave me more exhausted than renewed. However, I do allow myself (and God provides moments, for sure) for me to feel renewed, even as I am “working.” I can say personally that I felt a sense of gratitude and this led to a sense of renewal. I’m grateful to have lived another year and to complete one more Holy Week journey. I don’t take these for granted. There is also some sense of the power of God, symbolically to be able to illumine the church because people were eager to pass the Light along. Similarly, the power of Christ can illumine the world, if we have the same eagerness in passing the Light along to others. Symbolically, most people stood waiting to receive the light, as opposed to going forth and receiving it. However, you were prepared to receive it—you had a candle, and when the light came near, you reached out that candle to receive the Light. It’s the same thing in life, we may not think we have a lot of Christ’s light burning in us, but when we prepare ourselves, it becomes easier to receive Light when we see it.
Are we still living in that state of renewal today? This is a tough question. Back “at work” it seems that the light of the Resurrection, not even four days in the background, has faded a little bit, at least for me. In thinking out the metaphor of renewing the library book, no one renews a library book with the idea of leaving the book sitting around. We renew the book in order to keep reading. And this is where renewal becomes something personal to each of us. We receive renewal merely by being present at the Resurrection Service. This renewal is more pronounced if we’ve been faithfully attending the services of Great Lent and Holy Week. In whatever amount we feel a sense of renewal, it is important, as with the renewed library book, that we keep reading. If you haven’t prayed yet today, take a moment and offer a prayer. If you haven’t read the Bible this week, take a few minutes and read. It is interesting to note that on Pascha, the Orthodox Church has its lectionary (readings of the Epistle and Gospel) go to the beginning of the Gospel of John and the Book of Acts. We begin again the Gospel from it’s beginning, and the Book of Acts is a history of the early church and we take that also from the beginning. Both are worthy books to read during this season of Pascha. If you read one chapter a day, first reading the 21 chapters of John, and then continuing to the 28 chapters of Acts, you will have finished both by the time we get to Pentecost.
To renew is to restart. Renewal is a state of being in restart mode. Renewal denotes a time of action, not a set event that we sit on.
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faith, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31
Going back to the metaphor of the library book, we all got our faith renewed on Pascha—those who came from the beginning of Great Lent and those who just showed up for Pascha. Live in a state of renewal. “Keep reading” deeper into the story, so that the sense of renewal carries on in your life long after Renewal Week is over.
