WE DO NOT SEE CHRIST BUT BELIEVE IN HIM

WE DO NOT SEE CHRIST 

BUT BELIEVE IN HIM

“Whom having not seen, you love, though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable” (1Pet. 1:8).

We have not seen Him, yet believing we rejoice!

     Peter the Apostle beheld Christ with His eyes and loved Him and in this passage he is praising those who love Him but have not seen Him with their own eyes. We may think that seeing Christ with our eyes make it easier to love Him. But love without physical sight is special, beautiful and sublime. For whether we see Him or not has no affect on our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who formed us in our mother’s womb, suffered and went to the Cross for us and is the  nourisher of our entire lives. 

     We died with Christ  to the old man in triune  baptism, and coming up from the water with the risen Christ into His glorious Resurrection!  We receive Him into our being by communicating with His body and blood. We keep Him in our minds and hearts with the fervent longing to be with Him to the close of the age, and for eve    !  We can frequently communicate with  Him, study and  absorb His words in the Holy Scriptures.

We also intensify our love for Christ by praying to Him together in the church and also in our homes. We love him by beholding His eternal presence with the Father and are enlightened by His light which illumines our souls. Christ is the life and light of Orthodox Christ filling our minds with light and warming our hearts with His infinite love.

     Although we have not physically seen Christ, we can certainly have Him dwelling within us just as we can always dwell in Him. Christ is seen not only with our eyes but with all our being for He is our God and Creator and the source of our being.

     Our relationship with Christ depends mostly on the intensity of our love for Him, and we can check our love in the following way. Each day during our prayers we can examine our love, by how well we keep His commandments during our daily lives. For He says to us all:  “If you love me keep my commandments.”   By conducting our lives according to His teaching we show our great respect and deep love for Him, for He is our kind and merciful Teacher.

     We can do as did the woman who is betrothed to a wonderful husband, and while he is away she remains completely faithful and yearns for his return. When we conduct our lives a according to Christ by knowing and keeping all His commandments we show the love in our hearts for Him who  we do not see with our physical eyes, yet His great love continuously fills our minds and hearts. 

     Knowing Christ to be the eternal Son of God born eternally from the Father and in time as the Son of man born in time of the Holy Virgin Mary and we glorify Him, the only Godman..

     Loving Christ fills our souls with great comfort and consolation for there can be no greater love in our entire lives than the love of Christ, our King and our God. We rejoice  seeing His image in the Holy Icons, on the Cross, or in His Mother’s arms. We partake of Him in His precious flesh and blood. Experiencing His great love us, we are overcome with His gladness which nourishes our hearts and enlightens our minds.

     On the great and holy Feast of Pascha we joyfully join everyone in singing: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death; and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.”  “Pascha! Great and Holy Pascha!” This Feast of feasts continues for a whole week, and we sing the Paschal “Christ is risen . . .” m hymn for forty days after Pascha,

     We praise the Holy Virgin and we sing: “Magnify my soul Christ the Lifegiver, who rose from the tomb on the third day.  Shine, shine, O New Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Dance for joy and be glad, O Sion. And you pure Theotokos rejoice in the rising of your Son.”