The Christian world has just been celebrating Lent, Holy Week and Easter. Various segments of Christianity tend to emphasize different aspects of this rich tapestry of events. The Western churches are rather "hung up" on the Crucifixion and the atonement, while the Eastern Christians tend to emphasize the resurrection leading on to Pentecost. For all, it is a wonderful, holy time of the year.

For a number of people, however, all these things may seem rather distant. After all, these events took place 2,000 years ago and halfway around the world in a culture quite foreign to most of us. How do we "connect" to them? How are we to apply them to our lives in the 21st century and in America? Our Lord said "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the earth." Thus, we know that he has made a way for us to make this connection. The key is his church. The church, given his holy spirit at Pentecost, has been made his continuing body and presence on earth.

We enter this living body of Christ through holy baptism. St. Paul tells us that our baptism is our participation in the crucifixion of Christ, and in his resurrection. In the Orthodox Church, it is also a participation in Pentecost. Thus, we in baptism became members of Christ on earth, and together, his corporeal body.

The nailing of our sins to the cross at baptism is decisive and only needs to be followed up by confession and absolution as needed. But in another way, our participation in the Crucifixion is partial, only a beginning. St. Paul calls us to nail, not only our sins, but also our human nature, our flesh, to the cross. This latter is a continuous process, something done over and over through our whole lives. It is our way of obeying the Lord when he said that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow him.

This is rather the opposite of the understanding of many modern Christians, who often see religion as self-fulfillment. While this is true as far as it goes, it certainly is not the point and by itself becomes cheap. The real point is our participation in these things. The point is that we give ourselves to God’s grace and life, not seeking anything for ourselves. Everything is already accomplished. The role of the church in this world is to reveal these things and to apply them to our own lives as we are able to receive them. Father Alexander Schmemann, one of our foremost scholars of the 20th century, warns us that "The danger is to love the Church somehow apart from Christ ... But the Church is Christ, His Life, His Gift."

In holy baptism we are raised in Christ’s Resurrection, our feet are set on a new plane of abundant life _ life in the kingdom. We maintain and go in this life by obedience to the grace of God. It is by walking in the light and grace of God that we grown in his love and in our participation in his life. It is by walking in the light of his divine presence that we become children of light. We become participants in God’s life through the divine, uncreated energies of God, through which he reaches out to us.

And so, through his Resurrection, the Lord calls us to live the life of the kingdom, an abundant life in which and through which we participate in his life. This is our vocation, our calling.

All the while, we must avoid self-interest, even avoiding thinking of our own spirituality. Sentimental and fanatical religiosity, with much thought of "spirituality," fear and slavery, is not only not useful, but also boring. This is the abundant life of the kingdom lowered to pious dullness.

But the point of everything is the Love of God. Father Schmemann has said, " ... both saints and sinners love God. �Religious’ people do not love him and whenever they can, they crucify Him."

Father Kyril Riggs is pastor at St. Innocent’s Orthodox Church in Oneonta.