Bright Saturday; The Holy Priest-Martyr Simeon, Relative of the Lord; Our Venerable Father Stephen, Bishop of Volodymyr in Volhynia (1094)
Bright Week. No fasting or abstention from foods.
Read
Acts 3:11-16; John 3:22-33
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Did you know that Pascha (Easter) is more than a one-day celebration? It is the Feast of feasts, the Festival of festivals, of all solemnities the greatest. It actually takes us EIGHT days to celebrate this feast. Each day of Bright Week is the same as the previous Sunday. We revel in the great and mighty work that our Lord has done for our salvation; we constantly sing His praises throughout the day! We entered this new life of salvation through the waters of Baptism—that event whereby we die and rise with Christ Jesus and begin to partake of the divine life of the Kingdom of God. Every Pascha is an opportunity for us to renew our baptismal vows (to flee from Satan and join ourselves to Christ).
Today’s Gospel reading speaks of different baptisms. John baptized as a sign of repentance in preparation for the Messiah. Jesus baptized making disciples (followers). These baptisms are not the same as Christian Baptism (as the spirit had not yet been sent). John, however, gives us something that is key to being a disciple of Christ and to live our baptism. That key principle is this—He must increase, and I must decrease. John didn’t want eyes on himself; we learn later in the Gospel that he directed his own disciples to follow Jesus. John knew that there was only one Messiah and he was not Him. Jesus is the Messiah.
This key is important in our day to day lives as Christians. Our world tends to have us constantly look at ourselves—look at me, look at what I am eating, look at what I am doing (even when that doing is very good). As disciples of the Saviour, our gaze cannot be on ourselves but on Him who saves, and upon Him whom we find in others, and the poor, and the forgotten. Through His grace, during this Bright Week, let us renew this key principle in our lives. He must increase, and I must decrease.
mw