240 "Heavens! Heaven!"

As everyone who has read the Holy Scriptures knows, the Jewish people are very connected with Egypt and its history. The descendants of Jacob lived in this country for four hundred years. The Son of God fled there and from there returned to the land of Israel in the arms of His Mother. New Testament history is also connected with Egypt through the history of monasticism and the miraculous feats associated with it. All this, of course, is not accidental. Surely there must be some traits in Egypt's culture and religion that have made it so significant in sacred history. After all, it is not for nothing that it is Egypt, and not China, not India, not the Aztecs. It seems to me that the attitude towards death is the main feature that distinguishes the Egyptians from the rest of the world.

Only the deaf or insane have not heard of Egyptian mummies. Since childhood, we read and hear about the strange customs that reigned in this country. About how a person after death was subjected to complex ritual and medical manipulations with the idea that he would be resurrected. Egyptian anthropology in general is very complex. If today man has to prove that he has a soul and it is immortal, then the ancient, "wild" Egyptian saw in man the immortality of the soul, and the separate existence of the name, and many other things that we cannot even talk about due to the paucity of mental concepts. And it was to this complex and cunning country (not to China or India) that the Lord led His people and blessed them to live there. It is obvious to me that the religion of Egypt is the religion of the Resurrection, albeit in conjectures and vague insights, even in the form of mythology and pagan rites, but still the Resurrection. The body is sacred, the body is eternal, and it is mine. "I will not be incarnated into a mosquito or a mammoth, and a burdock will not grow out of me" (Bazarov). I will be resurrected in my flesh, with which I have sinned or tried to do good.

The coming Paschal days make us talk about the meaning of life and about the future Resurrection. That is why we started with Egypt. They began with what was obvious to the ancient pagans and what today is closed by an impenetrable veil from millions of "literate" people who fly on airplanes and have a bank account.

Such a bright thought – everyone will be resurrected! Such a miracle – we are eternal! Even if we don't want to. It is we who are with both soul and body. True Christianity stands in amazement before the empty Sepulchre of the Saviour. It looks at His neatly rolled swaddling clothes, it listens to the strange word of the Angel: "He is not here. He has risen." And despite its fascinated constraints, it brings this joy to all corners of the Universe.

What has been said concerns Orthodoxy. Because Catholicism also stands fascinated, but not at the empty Sepulchre, but at the Cave of the Nativity. Western intellectuals and ordinary parishioners meditate on this topic. "Bambino Jesus", Child Lord, Emmanuel. This is the main theme of Catholicism – God on earth, God among people. Anyone who has been to the West or has been interested in the religious life of Western Christians knows how many songs and poems, fairs, attractions, sermons are devoted to Christmas, and how few are devoted to the Resurrection. Eastern Christianity (which is also true) looks at Christmas as a step, a stage. It may be wonderful, unique, surpassing even the creation of the world, but still a stage. But Easter is the crown. This is no longer a betrothal or a marriage in the registry office, this is the marriage of God with people in its fullness. The Kingdom of God will not be brought down to earth, but the earth and those who dwell on it must grow to the Heavenly Jerusalem, must ascend from earth to heaven, just as the Jews once made the exodus from Egypt to Palestine. Here is the main difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The Catholic wants to clothe the Kingdom of God in visible forms, as familiar as possible. The Orthodox do not seek Paradise on earth. On this earth Christ was crucified. The Orthodox, joyful and bright, on the day of Pascha again feels that his home is not here, that there is another life, that we are still guests and have not yet given us ours.

Metropolitan Veniamin Fedchenkov in one of his sermons on Easter remembered Columbus and his crew. Seeing a strip of land on the horizon, the weary sailors galloped like children on the deck and shouted: "Land! Like them on Easter, an Orthodox Christian is ready to dance and jump, exclaiming: "Heaven! The sky!" If you like, this is similar to the words of a famous singer: "The sky is getting closer."

In the light of the Resurrection and precisely in it (even more categorically, only in it!) one can forgive the offender, one can share not only the superfluous, but also the necessary, one can do all that the lives of the saints are full of and that is so difficult to comprehend in the consciousness of a person without grace. The light of Christmas gives hope, calls to think, read, pray. But there is no celebration in it. There is an expectation of the Cross, spitting, blows, and uncertainty about what will come after. Resurrection is an explosion. An explosion that does not hurt anyone, but pierces everyone through and points everyone upwards.

What a pity for those who think that death will come - "only meat - into the pit". Neither the reviving field, nor the trees covered with greenery, nor the butterflies coming out of the cocoon, say to man today: "And you will be resurrected." Adam's son became deaf and blind. But the tree of life is eternally green. And in thousands of simple parishes, and hundreds of convents and men's monasteries, people sincerely sing these days about the resurrection from the dead of their beloved Savior. As long as they sing, the earth's axis will not move from its place, and bored libertines continue to sluggishly enjoy life, and stupid businessmen burn all megawatts of their energy in vanity. Everything in general lives and breathes, as long as Orthodoxy sings.

Christ is Risen!

Answer, please.

241 Great Lent