Saturday, April 26(13), 2025
Bright Saturday
Acts 3:11-16; Jn. 3:22-33

We have two lives: carnal and spiritual.  Our spirit is in a sense buried in our flesh.  Once it is called to life by God’s grace, it begins to emerge from the bondage of the flesh and appears in its purity; it begins to gradually, part by part, rise from the dead.  When at last it liberates itself completely, then it comes forth, as if from a tomb, in the new life.  Thus, the spirit gains independence from the flesh: it is now alive and active by itself, while its former tomb, the flesh, is dead and inactive, ─ even though both the spirit and the flesh belong to the same person.

This is the secret behind St. Paul’s words: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” [2Cor. 3:17].  This is the freedom from corruption which besets our incorruptible spirit, freedom from passions which corrupt our nature.  The spirit which gains the freedom of God’s children is like a splendid butterfly emerging from its cocoon, colored in a magnificent rainbow of joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance [Gal. 5:55-23].  Would not such a beauty of perfection inspire us to pursuing it?

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