The Resurrection Letters
THE RESURRECTION LETTERS
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob" (Isa. 2:3).
Such a feast as this is not for impure people, nor should sinners plan to be there. It is for virtuous and persistent people who have the same goal as the ancient saints. For, "Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. He who has not given his soul over to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully to his neighbor. For he," the psalmist adds, when he goes to the holy place, "shall receive a blessing from the Lord" (Ps.
24:3-5). This, of course, clearly refers to what the Lord gives to those at His right hand when He says, "Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you"
(Matt. 25:34).
But deceitful people with impure hearts, having nothing pure about them (as Proverbs 13:13 says, "To a deceitful man there is nothing good"), shall not be considered worthy to eat the Passover. They are foreigners, ofa different race from the people of the Lord's church, and "a foreigner shall not eat of it" (Exod. 12:43).
Thus Judas, even though he thought he was keeping the Passover, was actually alienated from the apostles and the heavenly city because he conspired against the Savior. The Law, you see, commanded that the Passover should be eaten with attention to its meaning. But he, even while he ate it, was "sifted by the devil" (cf.
Luke 22:31), who had entered his soul.
MOSES, DAVID, AND DANIEL
Therefore, let us not just keep the Feast on earth, but rather in heaven with the angels. Let us glorify the Lord by temperance, by righteousness, and by those other virtues that go with them. And let us rejoice — not in ourselves, but in the Lord — so that we may be co-heirs with the saints.
Let us keep the Feast as Moses did. Let us watch through the day and night like David, who seven times a day (Ps. 119:164) and in the middle of the night gave thanks for the righteous judgments of God. And let us be early, as David said, "In the
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morning I will stand before You and You will see me and You will hear my voice" (Ps. 5:3). Let us fast like Daniel. Let us pray without ceasing as Paul commanded, all of us carrying out the times of prayers, especially those who are honorably married.
Then, when we have used these things to properly prepare ourselves for the Feast and have learned what we should from them, we will be ready to enter into the joy of our Lord in the kingdom of heaven.
THE LENTEN FAST: A PREPARATORY
PURIFICATION
Israel, on its way to Jerusalem, was purified in the wilderness — trained to forget the customs of Egypt. Similarly, the Word has graciously prescribed the holy fast of forty days for us. Let us make it a time of purification and purging, so that after the fast we will be prepared to go to the upper room (cf. Luke
22:12-16) and eat with Him—and indeed to be partakers of the joys of heaven. There is no other way for us to be prepared to go up to Jerusalem and eat the Passover but to apply ourselves to the forty-day fast.
THE DATES OF THE EASTER SEASON
We begin the forty-day fast on February 25, fasting every day except Saturday and Sunday until March 31. Palm Sunday is
April 1, and of course the following week is part of the fast, which comes to an end late in the evening of Saturday, April 6.2
Then comes Easter Sunday (April 7), from which the glorious light of the grace of Christ shines all through the seven festal weeks to Pentecost Sunday. When we rest on that day, we will have completed the Feast of Easter by our observance of the 2At that time neither Saturdays nor Sundays were fast days during Lent, with the exception of the day before Easter. The fast was usually ended shortly before midnight on the day before Easter.
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whole season. And all this by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom, to the Father, be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
All the brothers and sisters who are with me greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
THE SEVENTH LETTER
A.D. 335
SINNERS CONTRASTED
WITH THE RIGHTEOUS
INTRODUCTION TO
THE SEVENTH LETTER
Athanasius here turns evangelist, writing a strong message of contrasts, comparing the condition — now and forever
— of the wicked with that of the righteous. Not only do the wicked miss the blessed privilege of knowing the Lord, but they are making themselves miserable. And in the end, "the wicked shall be turned into hell."
But what a contrast to all this are the real followers of virtue who are confident in the Savior! Only they can glorify God in the way that it is meant to be done in a holy day. Only those who live in union with Christ can praise and bless God. So if wicked people keep the Easter Feast and speak words of praise,
God rebukes them and calls all those beautiful words evil.
Athanasius pictures a distinct chasm between the wicked and the good. Those who do not seek the true Bread
— Christ the Lord — cannot keep the Feast. The fact is that whatever they eat, and however much, they will never be satisfied. Ah, but to the one who belongs to Christ, "as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). Yes, the lives of God's people are fulfilled here and now, and in the end they inherit eternal life.
Now consider, says Athanasius, the parable of the prodigal son. His father took him back as a son, and with great rejoicing.
Thus, the wicked can be assured that if they come to God, if they repent, then God will satisfy their hunger and thirst. They will inherit eternal life.
INTRODUCTION TO RESURRECTION LETTER VII
Today we seem so preoccupied with the benevolence of God that we can think only of calling people to experience His love.
But sinners will not respond to God's love without understanding what they are leaving as well as what they are coming to.
After all, there is everlasting punishment for the wicked, so they had better repent!
As I read this letter by Athanasius, I was reminded of a clear and strong statement by John of Damascus four centuries later:
And the Devil and his demons, and his man, which is to say, the Antichrist, and the impious and sinners will be given over to everlasting fire, which will not be a material fire such as we are accustomed to, but a fire such as God might know. And those who have done good will shine like the sun together with the angels unto eternal life with our Lord Jesus Christ, ever seeing Him and being seen, enjoying the unending bliss which is from Him, and praising Him together with the Father and the Holy Ghost unto endless ages of ages. Amen.
Yes, that is the message we need today. You who are far off, return, and you shall receive life and the kingdom from our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Blessed Lamb! On Calvary's mountain Slain to take our sin away:
Let the drops of that rich fountain Our tremendous ransom pay!
Sacred Savior! Sacred Savior!
Humbly at thy feet we pray.
Blessed Lamb! Vouchsafe us pardon, In thy love our souls confide:
By thy groans within the garden By the death which thou hast died, Let thy Passion—let thy Passion Evermore with us abide!
1The Orthodox Faith, Book 4, Ch. 26, Fathers of the Church series, Vol. 37, (Washington, D.C.: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1958).
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So shall peace, sweet peace be given, Purchase of thy precious pain; So shall earth but lead to heaven, Since for us the Lamb was slain:
Dear Redeemer! Dear Redeemer!
Thou canst not have died in vain.
—M. Bridges (1800-1894)
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A.D. 335
Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he always bore in his body the death of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:10). And he did not say it as if only he could make that boast, but also they, and we as well.? Let us, then, follow St. Paul in this: Let it be the regular boast of all of us all the time. David participated in it, for he said in the Psalms, "For your sake we die all day long; we are considered sheep for the slaughter" (Ps. 44:22).
This attitude is good for us, especially at the time of the Easter Feast, when our Savior's death is celebrated. For a person who has become like Him in His death also takes care to live as he should. He has the members of his body under control, so that they are dead to evil lusts (Col. 3:5). Such a person lives in the Spirit and is in harmony with the Spirit (cf.
Gal. 5:25). He pays attention to God, never forgetting Him, and never participating in the works of death.
That is why St. Paul, wanting us to bear in our bodies the death of Jesus, immediately adds concerning such fellowship,
"having the same spirit of faith as is described in the words 'I believed, therefore I spoke,' we also speak according to what we believe" (2 Cor. 4:13). Then he adds, speaking of the grace that comes from knowing the Lord, "For He that raised up Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us before Him with you" (2 Cor. 4:14).
2Those of us who have been baptized into Christ "have been buried with Him through baptism into death" and "united with Him in the likeness of His death
(Rom. 6:3-11).
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THE WICKED AND THE GOOD
When, by such faith and knowledge, the Lord's people have embraced this true life, they surely receive the joy of heaven.
The wicked, on the other hand, since they don't care about the Lord's life, are rightly deprived of its blessings. For, "let the wicked be taken away so that he shall not see the glory of the Lord" (Isa. 26:10, Septuagint). In the end they, like everyone else, shall hear the universal proclamation of the promise,
"Awake, sleeper, and rise up from the dead" (Eph. 5:14). They shall rise and knock on the doors of heaven, saying, "Open to us" (Matt. 25:11). The Lord, however, will rebuke them for rejecting knowledge of Him, and will tell them, "I do not know you" (Luke 13:25). And the Holy Spirit speaks against them,
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Ps. 9:17).
We may say of the wicked that they are indeed dead. They are not, however, dead in the same way that the Lord's people are — by a discipline opposed to sin. For they do not bear the Lord's death in their bodies as His people do. Instead, they bury their souls in sins and foolishness, feeding them on things that are dead. They are like young eagles that dive down upon the carcasses of the dead and eat them. The Law, you will recall, pronounced everything unclean that eats the dead: "You shall not eat the eagle nor any other bird which feeds on a dead carcass" (Lev. 11:13). In that command there was a figurative directive against those who do things that will kill their souls.
But these wicked people go right on killing their souls with all kinds of lusts. They just say, "Let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (Isa. 22:13). The prophet Isaiah described the fruit of such pleasure-loving lives: "But the Lord of Hosts has revealed these things to me: that this sin will not be forgiven you till you die" (Isa. 22:14). Yes, even while they live they shall be ashamed, because they consider their belly their lord.
And when they die, they shall be tormented for having made such a boast about death.
Paul also told us the same thing: "Food is for the belly and the belly for food, but God shall destroy both" (1 Cor. 6;13).
LETTER VII
And long ago, the Holy Scriptures declared concerning the wicked, "The death of sinners is evil, and those who hate the righteous commit sin" (Ps. 34:21). Evil people inherit a bitter worm and a tragic darkness.
But the saints, the real followers of goodness, "make the members of their earthly bodies dead to fornication, impurity, wicked passions, and evil desire" (Col. 3:5). As a result they are pure and spotless, trusting in the promise of our Savior, who told us, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"
(Matt. 5:8). Having become dead to the world and having renounced all its goods, they come to an honorable end, for "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Ps.
116:15).
Further, the saints are able, like St. Paul, to say, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). Real life is a life lived in Christ. And although the Lord's people are dead to the world, they live, as it were, in heaven. They think about those things which are above. As one lover of heaven put it, "While we walk on earth, our dwelling is in heaven."
Those who live that way and participate in such goodness are the only ones able to give glory to God—and that is what really constitutes a feast and a holiday. For the Feast is not indulging in a lot of food, nor dressing up in lovely clothes, nor enjoying days of leisure. It is acknowledging God and offering thanksgivings and songs of praise to Him.
SINNERS CANNOT OBSERVE THE FESTIVAL
But this applies only to the saints, to those who live in Christ.
For it is written, "The dead shall not praise You, O Lord, nor any of those who go down to hell; but we who live will bless the Lord, from now on forever" (Ps. 115:17,18). That's the way it was with Hezekiah, who praised the Lord because he was delivered from death: "Those who are in hell cannot praise You; the dead
3This statement is not an exact quote of any Scripture, but it captures the thought of St. Paul in Phil. 3:17-20.
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cannot bless You; but the living shall bless You, as I do today"
(Isa. 38:18, 19).
Only those who live in Christ can praise and bless God, and it is by means of this that they go up to the Feast. The Passover does not belong to the Gentiles nor to those who are Jews in the flesh, but rather to those who acknowledge the truth in Christ.
That acknowledgment is given in St. Paul's proclamation, "Our Passover, Christ, is sacrificed" (1 Cor. 5:7).
So although wicked men keep the Feast and even praise God and intrude into the church of the saints, God rejects them. For He asks, "Why do you talk of my laws?" (Ps. 50:16). And the gentle Spirit rebukes them, saying, "Praise is not pretty in the mouth of a sinner."4 Sin simply does not have anything in common with the praise of God. The sinner, however, cannot help saying wicked things. As the Proverb puts it, "The mouth of the wicked pours out evil things" (Prov. 15:28).
How could we possibly praise God with an impure mouth when things that are contrary to each other cannot exist in the same person? As that great minister of the gospel, St. Paul, asked, "What communion is there between righteousness and iniquity? What fellowship is there between light and darkness?"
(2 Cor. 6:14).
Consider, then, the case of sinners and everyone else who is alien to the catholic church, such as heretics and schismatics.
Since they are excluded from taking part in the praise and thanksgiving made by the saints, it isn't proper for them even to continue to be observers of the Feast. On the other hand, the righteous man, even though in the eyes of the world he is dying, says simply, "I shall not die, but live and tell all Your marvelous deeds" (Ps. 118:17). For God is not ashamed to be called the God (Heb. 11:16) of those who put to death the members of their earthly bodies (Col. 3:5), but who live in Christ. He is, after all, the God of the living, not of the dead.
And He, by His living Word (Christ the Son), gives life to everyone, and gives Him to be food and life to the saints. That is why the Lord exclaimed, "I am the bread of Life!" (John
4Fcclus. 15:9.
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6:48). The Jews, unable to understand, having minds unused to goodness, and not being ready to accept the Bread He talked about, spoke out against Him because He said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven and gives life to men"
(John 6:51).
CHRIST TRULY SATISFIES THE BELIEVER'S
DESIRES Sin, you know, has her own special "bread," too—the bread of her death. Therefore she calls to those who love pleasure and lack discernment, " "Touch with delight secret bread, and sweet waters which are stolen' " (Prov. 9:17). The person who merely touches them is not aware that people who are bound to earthly things perish along with sin.
But alas! Even when the sinner looks for gratification, he doesn't find the fruit of his sin pleasant. As the wisdom of God says in another place, "Bread of deceit is pleasant to a man, but after he eats it, his mouth will be filled with gravel" (Prov.
20:17). And, "Honey drips from the lips of an adulteress, and for a time it tastes sweet, but in the end you will find it more bitter than gall and sharper than a two-edged sword" (Prov. 5:3,4). So he eats and is quite pleased for a little while. Then, when it is too late, when he has cut off his soul from God, he rejects it.
But the fool does not know that those who are cut off from God shall perish.
Because of this the prophet, attempting to keep the sinner from going too far, warned, "What are you doing on the road to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? And what are you doing on the road to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?"
(Jer. 2:18). And the wisdom of God, who loves mankind, also issues a prohibition, "But depart quickly, do not tarry in the place, nor fix your eye upon it; for in that way you shall pass over strange waters and depart quickly from the strange river."®
She (wisdom) then calls people to herself. "Wisdom has built 5This quotation is from Prov. 9:18 in the LXX (Septuagint) version. It is not found in the Hebrew version.
THE RESURRECTION LETTERS
her house and supported it on seven pillars; she has killed her sacrifices and mixed her wine and prepared her table; she has sent out her servants, loudly calling people to the table, saying,
'Whoever is naive, come to me.' And to people who lack understanding, she says, 'Come and eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed for you' " (Prov. 9:1-5).
And what does wisdom expect in return? "Forsake your folly and live, and seek understanding that you may continue to do so" (Prov. 9:6). For the bread which wisdom gives is living food, as the Lord said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever" (John
6:51). When the people of Israel ate manna, even though it was very good and quite nourishing, they still died. Not one of those who ate it lived forever as a result; all of them died in the wilderness. In contrast, the Lord says, "I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which came down from heaven so that people could eat it and not die" (cf. John 6:48-51).
Even wicked people want that kind of bread, for sick souls do hunger. But only the righteous, being prepared for it, will be satisfied and able to say, "I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I see Your glory" (Ps. 17:15). A person who has once eaten divine bread always wants more, and anyone who has such a hunger receives a never-failing gift, as wisdom promises: "The Lord will not allow the soul of the righteous to hunger' (Prov. 10:3).
There is a similar promise in the Psalms: "I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread" (Ps.
132:15). And then, in the Gospels we hear our Savior saying, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matt. 5:6).
Thus it is a good thing that the saints, those who love life in Christ, build up a longing for this kind of food. One of them earnestly requested, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for the living
God. When shall I come and see the face of God?" (Ps. 42:1).
And, "My God, my God, I seek You early; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh yearns for You in a dry and pathless land where
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there is no water. Thus, I came before You in holiness to see Your Power and Your glory" (Ps. 63:1,2).
With this in mind, dear friends, let us subdue the appetites of the members of our bodies (Col. 3:5) and receive nourishment from the Living Bread by faith and love to God, for we know that without faith it is impossible to be partakers of this Bread.
Our Savior, when He called everyone to Himself, said, "If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37). Then
He immediately spoke of the faith that is necessary if we are to actually receive such food: "He who believes on Me, as the Scripture says, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).
Remember also that He continually nourished His believing disciples with His words and gave them life by His closeness.
But when the woman from Canaan asked for help, he didn't answer her (Matt. 15:22,23) because she was not yet a believer
—even though she desperately needed food from Him! He did not behave this way because He despised her; far from it. For the Lord is loving and good to mankind. That's why He went to Tyre and Sidon in the first place. No, it was because she did not believe, because she was an impious woman who had no idea of God's requirements.
What He did was most appropriate, brothers and sisters, because it wasn't right for her to put her request before faith.
Rather, she needed to support her prayer by her faith. For "he who comes to God must first believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him; and that without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb. 11:6). That is what Paul teaches.® The Lord shows that this woman was an unbeliever, an unholy person up to that point, when He says, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to dogs" (Matt. 15:26). At that point she was convinced by the power of the Word, and thus having abandoned her unholy condition, she acquired faith. Then the Lord no longer treated her like a dog, but talked
Athanasius apparently considered St. Paul to be the author of the Letter to the Hebrews.
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with her as a human being, saying, "O woman, great is your faith!" (Matt. 15:28). Thus, when she believed He immediately granted her the fruit of that faith, saying, " 'It will be done as you wish.' And her daughter was healed immediately" (Matt.
15:28).
CHRIST: FOOD OF THE ANGELS
The righteous person, fed by faith and knowledge and doing what the Lord commands, always has a healthy soul. That is why we are commanded to "accept the one who is weak in faith" (Rom. 14:1), even if he isn't able to eat bread yet, but can only take vegetables ("for he who is weak eats only vegetables').
Even the Corinthians couldn't handle such bread, because they were babes, and like babes they drank milk (cf. 1 Cor. 3:1). For, according to the godly writer, "everyone who partakes only of milk is unable to handle the word of righteousness" (Heb. 5:13).
The apostle Paul, in his first letter to his beloved son Timothy, urges him "to be nourished with the word of faith and the good teaching which he had been following" (1 Tim. 4:6).
And in his second letter, "Hold to the example of the sound words which I taught you, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 1:13).
Dear friends, it is not only here that the Bread is the food of the righteous. Nor are the saints on earth the only ones who are nourished by such Bread and such blood. We shall eat them in heaven, for the Lord is the food also of the exalted spirits and of the angels. Indeed, He is the joy of the whole heavenly host.
He is everything to all and He spares all according to His lovingkindness. The Lord has already given us angels' food, and He gives a great promise to those who stand with Him in His trials: "As my Father has promised Me a kingdom, I promise to you that you shall eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke
22:29, 30).
Oh, brothers and sisters, what a banquet that is! And how great is the harmony and joy of those who eat at this heavenly table! They enjoy food which produces life everlasting, not that