As we celebrate the glorious feast of Pascha, it dawns on me that the Call to Holiness is a call to be an authentic Christian, that is a person who embraces the truths of our faith as a guide and a blueprint for living our lives. God literally “recreated” all things when He became incarnate as a human. He revealed in a very unique way, according to our   beliefs, a truth about created reality: All beings and things have their existence from and in Him. He revealed through Pascha His unique connection to His creation, especially to humanity. Humankind finds its existence in and through Him and is sustained in existence because of Him.

It is the deep belief of our Church that all things have been impacted by the Resurrection of Christ. This speaks of the unique union (communion) that all things have with God. It is His understanding of how all things are joined that pervades the entire universe because the structure and essence of all things are present to His awareness and thought (to use human terms). Our God is not somewhere different than where we are. We are not separate from Him, albeit He gives us and all things our own separate identities.

All of this speaks to God’s great love for His creation, especially humankind. He loves us so very much that He gives us not only free will but also our own individuality. This is precisely how we are made in His image. He also gives us the potential to become unto His likeness as seen in the Person of Jesus, the Christ.

In order for us, however, to become unto His likeness, we may cooperate with Him and voluntarily commit ourselves to do all in our power to become like Jesus Christ. This means that we must take time to honestly assess our attitudes, ways of thinking and behaviors and make a judgment as to what we must do in order to bring them more into conformity with the attitudes, thinking and behavior of Jesus. While we can’t merit the fullness of life, this doesn’t mean that we don’t have to work at becoming like Christ.   Хрїстóсъ воскрéсе!