…in this way, He gloriously accomplished our salvation and fulfilled the promise made to the patriarchs and dissolved the old disobedience – the Son of God become the Son of David and the Son of Abraham: for, in accomplishing and recapitulating these things in Himself, in order to obtain life for us, “the Word of God became flesh” by the economy of the Virgin, in order to undo death and to vivify man, for we were in the prison of sin, we who have become sinners and fallen under [the power of] death. Rich in mercy was God the Father: He sent the creative Word, who, coming to save us, was in the same place and situation as we were when we lost life, breaking the bonds of the prison; and His light appeared and dispelled the darkness of the the prison, and sanctified our birth and abolished death, loosening the same bonds by which we were trapped. And He demonstrated the resurrection, becoming Himself “the firstborn from the dead,” and raising in Himself fallen man, raising [him] above to the highest heaven, to the right hand of the glory of the Father, as God had promised, by the prophets, saying, “I will raise up the fallen tabernacle of David,” that is, the flesh [descended] from David: and our Lord Jesus Christ truly accomplished this, gloriously achieving our salvation, that He might truly raise us up, saving us for the Father.

Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, On the Apostolic Preaching, 37.

It’s rather late to wish people a blessed Pascha, but Pascha is not yet over, and I’m afraid that I have been occupied with things other than blogging, so “Christ is Risen!” Although I have been neglecting Saint Irenaeus, I love this quote which resonates with so much in the texts that we sang last weekend. Last Easter I said that the longer I am Orthodox the more I realise the truth of Archimandrite Cyprian Kern’s statement that “The church choir is a chair of theology.” And I suspect that I will probably go on saying that for the rest of my life!

Finally, if anyone is interested, here is the Paschal troparion in Afrikaans (and Greek):