Attaining the Resurrection

Attaining the Resurrection
HG Bishop Youssef


If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)


On this glorious day, as we commemorate the blessed Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, I would like to extend my hearty wishes to all, praying to the Risen Lord to grant us His Resurrection and make it real in our life.

What is the Holy Resurrection?
The Lord Jesus Christ is considered the firstborn, the first fruit risen from the dead. The Holy Book of Revelation (1:5) describes our crucified and resurrected Lord as …“Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead.” He was not raised by the prophets like Elijah and Elisha, but rather is and remains, the only person raised from the dead by the power of His Divinity, the Father in Heaven and the Holy Spirit. It is difficult for even the most scholarly to truly fathom the dimensions of the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the Holy Cross and His Resurrection and the impact of these insurmountable events on humanity in order that the faithful may experience eternity, the heavenly grandeur of the Father’s glory.

The Lord Jesus Christ was divinely heroic and heroically divine in His Holy Crucifixion bearing torment for our sins. Concerning the Holy and Glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, St Peter teaches…
“he [David], foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ that His soul was not left in Hades, not did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2: 31-32).

How did the Lord’s Resurrection become our Resurrection?
St Paul writes concerning our resurrection, “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in Glory” (Colossians 3:4). St Polycarp (c. 135) taught, “If we please Him in this present world, we will also inherit the future world. For He promised us that He will raise us again from the dead.”

Our Lord is the only One who has risen in a glorified body, risen never to die again, risen and ascended into the heaven of heavens, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. This Holy Resurrection is not confined to the Lord alone but through His unconditional love, He extended it making it available to all those who believe in His name. Truly as one seeks to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ, to live according to His Word, and to participate and grow in the Holy Sacraments of our blessed Church, one will experience resurrection, newness, a new individual growing into perpetual perfection striving to become in His likeness.

How do we attain Resurrection?
Resurrection, for the believer is experienced through obeying God’s commandments and participating in the Holy Sacraments of the church. In Baptism, we attain the resurrection in “a newness of earthly life”. In Confession and Communion, we receive the potential of the second of resurrection, that of our Lord Jesus Christ “anticipating newness in the eternal life to come.” Through the cherishing of the Holy Sacraments one becomes virtuous, bearing love for others, and striving to obtain perfection in the Divine worship of God thus travelling down the path to the eternal life.

Loving those nearest to us involves the heart. The Lord Jesus Christ was full of love for those that believed in Him, accepted His Holy teachings and accompanied Him during His earthly journey.

What kind of worship befits God? It is one in which love is manifest through a humble and pious worship that incorporates both the heart and mind. Such a type of worship requires liberation from all unworthy worldly entanglements living a life of love, humility, piety and poverty of the Spirit. As St Paul says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth” (Colossians 3:2).

How can we maintain the Lord’s Resurrection?
St Clement warns us that… “After we have departed this world, no further power of confessing or repenting will belong to us” (Second Clement c. 150).

After departure from this earthly life everything will avail to nothing except for the virtuous, good deeds. The Lord Himself uses the parable of the poor and rich man to show that the value of humility and poverty supersedes that of pride and wealth. The endearing love to the Lord as shown by Lazarus secured him a place in Heaven with Abraham alongside him. On the other hand, the rich man with all that he had possessed could not purchase Heaven.

With the Lord’s death we also died, but to the world only, and with His Resurrection we were resurrected to Heaven only. As St Paul says, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Along with worshipping with piety and humility comes the power of the church sacraments. The Holy Sacrament of Confession and Repentance presents a powerful shield and armor that deserves to be put on through frequent practice.

During this time of the Holy Crucifixion and the Glorious Feast of the Resurrection, let us reflect upon the anticipated and completed sacrifices of the Lord Jesus Christ for our future spiritual glories. During the Glorious Feast of the Resurrection, let us all give thanks that we can partake in the resurrection of eternal life with the full knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered for us all to conquer and abolish death, in order to bring us to His Father in Heaven with His great and perpetual love.

The Book of Life will judge us all according to the measure of our striving and seeking of those eternal things. May the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord implant in our hearts the desire to see the Lord Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God, our Heavenly Father.


His Grace Bishop Youssef is Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States (www.suscopts.org)



WATANI International - 4 April 2010 - 26 Baramhat (Parmhat) 1726 (Coptic Calendar) - 19 Rabie al-Akhar 1431 (Arabian Calendar) - Year 10 - Issue 477.
WATANI - 4 April 2010 - 26 Baramhat (Parmhat) 1726 (Coptic Calendar) - 1st Issue Year 52 - No. 2519 - 2nd Issue Year 9 No. 485
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Glorified Through Suffering

Glorified Through Suffering
H.G. Bishop Youssef

Crucifixion entailed extreme suffering and excruciating pain. The thoughts of being nailed to a cross through ones ankles and wrists makes a person envision horrific agony. Death, slowly overcoming a person through suffocation after becoming too exhausted to pull oneself up in order to breathe, makes one wonder how could our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ have to suffer this form of execution. This manner of bringing about death was only set aside for the most violent of criminals in ancient Rome.

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke about His suffering to come as "an hour of glory." Such glory that perhaps only He could set the precedent for. This "hour of glory" would be one which would manifest the supreme Divine splendor of God. Immediately before the Lord Jesus Christ's suffering, He said, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified" (John 12:23). The Lord Jesus Christ did not mean the glory found within the Resurrection, but the actual suffering as "an hour of glory". The next verse in the Holy Gospel of St. John tells us, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain" (John 12:24).

Truly there is no glory within the actual suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can dispute this fact. But what occurred in His hour of suffering and what the Lord Jesus Christ completed on the Holy Cross glorified God the Father and His Son the Lord Jesus. Only this glory can be associated with His suffering. In the Lord Jesus Christ's prayer to the Father, He prayed, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that Your Son also may glorify You" (John 17:1). Definitely, the hour of Crucifixion was this hour.

The Lord following His glorious Resurrection spoke of His glory of Crucifixion to the Disciples on the road to Emmaus. "Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" (Luke 24:26). How did the Lord achieve His glory? Clearly, glory was achieved through His suffering.

The apostle St. Paul explains to us further the concept of glory which followed the Lord Jesus Christ's suffering. "...looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrew 12:2). What this means, "who for the joy that was set before Him" is that the Lord Jesus Christ was anticipating the glory which followed the suffering upon the Holy Cross. For the glory He endured the Holy Cross, its shame, and its pain.

Another example of St. Paul illustrating that the glory followed the suffering can be found in Hebrews 2:9,10, "Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Apparently St. Paul's message here was saying that suffering and glory will follow one another.

For us as children of God, suffering on this earth should represent only one side of life, the earthly. The glories which will follow suffering represent the other, the Heavenly. Suffering cannot be viewed separately from glory. They both go hand in hand.

To serve and worship God is how we glorify Him here on earth. Heavenly glory is what we strive for. St. Paul said to the Romans, "if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:17). Again to the Ephesians St. Paul teaches about the Lord Jesus Christ, "and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). For the faithful, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and was crucified and "He raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places."

In the Holy Book of Revelations St. John reveals this great and magnificent vision of heavenly places to us,
"And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?'"

"And no one in Heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But, one of the elder said to me, John, 'Do not weep. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."

"And I looked, and behold, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain."

("A Lamb as though it had been slain" represents the Lord Jesus Christ in this context)

"Then He came and took the scroll. Now when He had taken the scroll, the heavenly creatures each having a harp, and they sang a new song, saying, 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals';

(Why?)
"For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." They said with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!'

"And every creature which is in Heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, 'Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!" (Excerpts from Revelation 5)
Truly this is very strong imagery and clear evidence of the suffering on the Holy Cross and the glory behind His suffering.

Let us pray that as we all contemplate the sacrifice of the Holy Crucifixion and the liberation of man from death by the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that we also reflect upon the glory brought about through the manifestation of the two events.

His Grace Bishop Youssef is Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States (www.suscopts.org)


WATANI International - 19 April 2009 - 11 Baramouda 1725 (Coptic Calendar) - Year 9 - Issue 427.
WATANI - 19 April 2009 - 11 Baramouda 1725 (Coptic Calendar) - 1st Issue Year 51 - No. 2469 - 2nd Issue Year 9 No. 435
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