Resurrection Sunday Blessings
From Israel Adam Shamir
I am
now in Moscow, which once again became a holy city, with hundreds of
churches and monasteries that were resurrected from ashes for last
twenty years. The churches are all different, some gold and baroque
paintings in 19th century style, some harking back to Ivan
the Grim days, decorated with murals floor to ceiling, and some even
older, millennia-old, stuffed with hand-painted icons, their small and
large onion domes a-blazing of gold and azure. Moscow may be compared
with Florence, Cusco, Katmandu as a prime city of worship, but it is
much bigger and much more alive with its ten million residents.
Yesterday, Saturday night, the churches were full of worshippers - they
stood inside and outside the edifices, holding their lit red candles,
preparing themselves to the glorious moment, a few minutes after
midnight, when the priests are coming out and calling Christ is Risen,
and the congregation responds with Verily He is Risen. Huge cross-street
boards announce that Christ is Risen, blissfully unaware of political
correctness limitations.
I
came here from the Holy Land, which is also a wonderful place for
Easter, but Moscow has something that even Jerusalem has not got: the
totality of experience: non-Christians are not that plentiful to
interfere. Here it is the feast for everybody, by everybody, and you can
bless everyone you meet with ‘Christ is Risen’ without giving a thought
to his possible persuasion.
Jerusalem is not forgotten here: in every church, there is Holy Fire
brought on Easter Saturday by plane from the Holy Sepulchre. According
to the Palestinian custom, the Fire breaks out of the Empty Tomb just
after midday on Saturday. It stands and burns in an oil lamp amidst my
Moscow church, calm and complacent after the long journey. I remember
accompanying my priest, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, in the dangerous quest
of bringing the Holy Fire through the Israeli army checkpoints to
Ramallah and Tubas.
In a
Moscow church, one understands why Christ fulfilled the Law. It is not
only the Holy Fire of Jerusalem. They do not need just one temple which
demands al Aqsa mosque to be demolished: every church is modelled on the
Jerusalem temple of old, and it is much more beautiful than bare and
often squalid synagogues. The priests wear red today, and so many
worshippers carrying red Easter eggs. The liturgy tells of the Children
of Israel crossing the Red Sea. The old message of Israel is fully
universalised.
This
year the feast united the Christians of the East and the West, and such
years are doubly auspicious. They allow us to remember the eternal and
profound unity of the Church. Otherwise, when the feasts move far apart,
I do by the modern Palestinian custom and celebrate Christmas with the
West, in the West, and Easter with the East, in the East. Try and do it
next year, or any other year, until voracious modernity will swallow the
last glimpse of spirit.
The
name of the feast is important too. It is not that I object to the old
pre-Christian name of Easter. It calls to the East and reminds of
Astara, or Astarte, the spouse of Yahweh, so it has long roots. The
Old-Testament-style name of Pascha means Sacrifice, and it is also fine,
for Christ was the sacrifice. But even better name is Resurrection
Sunday, or Anastasis in Greek. It reminds us much more vividly of the
reason for the feast, and I bless you, my dear reader, with the blessing
of Resurrection. This is a great word, a great idea: usually, we walk
around like dead zombies, captives of the lower world, and Resurrection
is something we do need badly, Resurrection that is Awakening, Coming
back to life, recognising ourselves. Japanese call it satori.
2
I
have been invited to speak on the Russian TV, announcing my belief that
there is no confrontation between Christianity and Islam, though enemies
of both faiths try to create it. Political problems are just that –
political, and not theological. And in the political sphere, Palestine
is a powerful uniting knot. Yes, we want Palestine to be saved, but its
suffering is not in vain if it keeps our friends united and our enemies
in disarray. Without Palestine, it would be much easier to unleash
Christians upon Muslims, Shias upon Sunnis, Russians against Chinese and
Arabs against Iranians. This is the Christ-nature of Palestine and its
fate.
I
came to Christ ten years ago, when I recognised this Christ-nature. It
was preached by Father Ateek of Jerusalem. I was visiting Washington DC
then. I repeated his preaching and I was almost crucified by the
enemies. Since then I wear the red mark of an enemy of Jews, and still
no regrets: thus a butterfly is an enemy of caterpillar for it denies
caterpillar’s finality.
I
came to Moscow when she suffered the bomb attack. By God, Russians are
different: there was a very responsible, calm and compassionate
coverage, none of hysterical frenzy we are accustomed to in Israel – or
in America. They tried to keep repercussions down to minimum; though
security is beefed up in anticipation of possible follow-up, but the
city remained calm.
This
calm gives the lie to rumours spread by the usual suspects that the
explosions were somehow orchestrated by local forces keen to suppress
citizens’ liberties. In Israel, or in America such explosions would be
utilized by the state to unleash their fury on defenceless Gaza or
Afghanistan, to attack and profile Muslims, to bring in new laws
muzzling people by Patriot acts. Nothing of this sort happens in Russia.
The civil rights are not infringed. The attacks were meant to undermine
the position of the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is responsible
for general security. Their second objective was to facilitate Russian
vote against Iran. These goals point out the guiding hand: it is surely
to be found well beyond Caucasus Mountains.
I’ve
met today with Russian Muslims, including the Mufti; all of them condemn
the acts, all of them stress that it was not in their interests. The
Mufti correctly said that the Russian Muslims have no single will; they
are not united on any question; things done by people who happen to be
Muslims are not done because they are Muslims. Likewise, IRA bombings
were not done because the Irish nationalists were Catholic.
Some
of our friends refer to Chechen plight. No doubt, the first Chechen war
was a crime perpetrated by the West’s appointee Boris Yeltsin. But this
is past long gone. Now Chechens have all the rights, the Chechens in
Moscow are a highly visible and prosperous community, with a status that
Palestinians would be extremely lucky to achieve. Now there is no reason
for confrontation, and there is every reason for healing. Alas, some of
the Chechen rebels joined the path of CIA stooges of al-Qaeda. It is
better to give up on them like we gave up on Tamil Tigers.
Much
in our world depends on Russia. Together with China, she can save Iran
and the world. The Russians believe that the plans of attack on Iran
were shelved indefinitely, judging by Diego Garcia Bunker Buster
airlift, but who knows? Russian anti-Putin dissidents led by Kasparov
and Bonner call to distance Russia from China, to support the West
against Iran, and stand by Israel against Palestine. There is a place
for dissent; much of internal Russian politics are in shambles, the gap
between the rich and the poor is too big; income tax stands at
ridiculous 12%, oligarchs are as rich as ever, neoliberalism is still
alive and kicking. But one should be cautious and support the right
(meaning the left) sort of dissent. The dissidents I would embrace are
those who join the ships for Gaza and who will tax the oligarchs to
oblivion. Such ones are quite rare in Russia – and in Iran.
We
are going through a very important and tricky patch; this is a wrong
time for relaxing and wait-and-seeing; this is the time to act, to act
for peace. Not a fake peace of surrender, but the true peace of victory.
Its best example is the Christ’s victory over Death.
I’ll
conclude with the traditional blessing: Christ is Risen!