Orthodox Christian Pascha occurs one week after "Latin" Easter this year. I want to introduce my evangelical brethren to the wonderful Easter invitation of Patriarch John Chrysostom, which is read in Greek and English in most Greek Orthodox churches in America at the conclusion of the Paschal midnight liturgy between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday (April 22-23, 2006). The text I am using is NOT the one normally heard in church, but rather a more amplified translation by Walter Mitchell, found in the book "Early Christian Prayers," © 1961 Longmans, Green & Co., London.
Are you his servant, knowing his wishes? Be glad with your Master, share his rejoicing.
Are you worn down with the labor of fasting? Now is the time of your payment.
Have you been working since early morning? Now you will be paid what is fair.
Have you been here since the third hour? You can be thankful, you will be pleased.
If you came at the sixth hour, you may approach without fearing: you will suffer no loss.
Did you linger till the ninth hour? Come forward without hesitation.
What though you came at the eleventh hour? Have no fear; it was not too late.
God is a generous sovereign,
treating the last to come as he treats the first arrival.
He allows all his workmen to rest,
those who began at the eleventh hour,
those who have worked from the first.
He is kind to the late-comer,
and sees to the needs of the early,
gives to the one, and gives to the other:
honors the deed and praises the motive.
Join, then, all of you, join in our Master's rejoicing.
You who were the first to come, you who came after,
come and collect now your wages.
Rich men and poor men, sing and dance together.
You that are hard on yourselves, you that are easy,
honor this day.
You that have fasted and you that have not,
make merry today.
The meal is ready: come and enjoy it.
The calf is a fat one: you will not go hungry away.
There's kindness for all to partake of and kindness to spare.
Away with pleading of poverty:
the Kingdom belongs to us all.
Away with bewailing of failings:
forgiveness has come from the grave.
Away with your fears of dying:
the death of our Savior has freed us from fear.
Death played the master: he has mastered death…
The world below had scarcely known him in the flesh
when he rose and left it plunged in bitter mourning.
Isaiah knew it would be so.
The world of shadows mourned, he cried, when it met you,
mourned at its bringing low, wept at its deluding.
The shadows seized a body and found it was God;
they reached for earth and what they held was heaven;
they took what they could see: it was what no one sees.
Where is death's goad? Where is the shadows' victory?
Christ is risen: the world below is in ruins.
Christ is risen: the spirits of evil are fallen.
Christ is risen: the angels of God are rejoicing.
Christ is risen: the tombs are void of their dead.
Christ has indeed arisen from the dead,
the first of the sleepers.
Glory and power are his for ever and ever. Amen.
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