Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou
‘And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb.’[1]
Just before His Passion, the Lord promised the inalienable joy of the Resurrection to His disciples and all those who loved Him, ‘I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.’[2] As He went forth to His incomprehensible Passion, setting His face to derision and extreme humiliation, He promised that the joy of the Resurrection would become imperishable in the souls of all who belong to Him. This joy of the Resurrection enflamed the hearts of the Apostles during the forty days before the Ascension, when the Lord ‘was seen of them’[3], and will be imparted until the end of time to the faithful who follow Him taking up their cross.
The Lord’s word, ‘I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice’, has a paradoxical character. The psychological man, who rejoices at the physical presence of the beloved, would hope to hear: ‘You will see me again and your heart will rejoice.’ Christ puts everything on another basis, saying, ‘I will see you again.’ It is not important whether man sees the Lord or not, but rather that the Lord’s merciful gaze should fall on him. The natural sun, the eye of the visible world, shines unceasingly and quickens creation; whether man sees the light or not, he receives its beneficial effects. Something similar occurs with respect to the hallowed Sun of Righteousness, the Light that knows no eventide, the Almighty Jesus. The wounds of His Passion and His sacrifice become sources of eternal Light. His eyes pour out Light that illumines the entire spiritual world.