Vigils Reading

WE ARE ALL WITNESSES

By Fr Paul Evodokimov4

◊◊◊

There are no half measures, no intermediary formulas. We are in the

presence of the fundamental evidence of Jesus risen from the dead. A God who

does not present his charter as lover of <humanity>, a God who is not love

crucified in order to radiate “life, death of death“, as St. Augustine says, is not

really God. In following St. Paul’s thought to its conclusion, we could say that

all religion exists only by the resurrection and mystically leans on this event. If

Christ is risen, this is of interest for all… If the Christian testimony to the risen

Lord is suppressed, no religion will survive on the level of the modern world,

for outside the Gospel every religious message stops halfway.

The Gospel’s transcendent end is God become a risen <Human being>.

This fact does not concern just a few witnesses only; the risen Christ in

becoming the contemporary of all <humanity> means that every <one> is

contemporary with the eternal Christ. This makes all the events of history

essentially Christological. Christ is risen as head of the human body, and now

all religions and all <individuals> can and ought to seek their life in him. This

testimony alone determines the ecumenical mission of the Church in the midst

of all religions and in the great meeting between East and West. History places

the Christian faith in the risen Christ as the crossing point of all ideologies that

now reformulate the only important question — that asked by Pilate –– ” What

is truth?” It obliges faith to say its yes, going if need be as far as the confession

of martyrdom, that unique answer that resounds universally. Christ is in agony,

and eternity is impatient to hear this answer.

The apostolic kerygma announces the event of Easter, the intervention of

God raising up Jesus; this alone gives a definitive meaning to the existence of

<humankind> in history. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s “Amen” to his

promise, an “Amen” full of the Holy Spirit who manifests it. “Amen” comes from

the Hebrew heemin and it means an unshakable base of operations. Those who

proclaim it—the apostles and martyrs—claim the right to proclaim the event

before the magistrates of the earthly city.

Likewise the Apologies of Justin, Athenagoras, and Aristides present to

emperors the same decisive message and warn them of the imminent judgment.

Their kerygma is of interest to all <humanity>. It is preached in the presence of

angels and concerns all of creation: the kingdom of God has already arrived; we

are contemporaries of the one who sits at the right hand of the Father. Here is

the lamb immolated and risen and here is his kingdom. He is here and it is the

fullness of time. All religions are ways by which <we> seek God. They are

numerous. However, the Christian revelation is unique for it is God who finds

<humanity>. The preaching of St. Paul is of capital importance for the theology

of religion. In deciphering the monument to the unknown God and in giving it

the name Jesus Christ, the apostle integrated with Christ the religious

aspiration of all times and gave it value in Christ.

4 Paul Evdokimov, The Struggle with God, New Jersey: Glen Rock, 1966, pp.66-68.11