LITTLE EASTER - By Dr. Augustin Sokolovski

Traditionally, every Sunday is called "Little Easter." We are so accustomed to this name that we usually perceive it as a mere figure of speech. But this is not the case.

It is known that there were at least three ways of celebrating Easter in the early Church. Different churches and communities followed different traditions.

Some celebrated Easter on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox and the full moon. This is the practice of a fixed Easter celebration. Exactly 1,700 years ago, it was declared obligatory by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325). Thus, Easter celebrates its anniversary this year!

Others celebrated Easter regardless of the day of the week. It was a movable feast, dependent on the fourteenth day of the Jewish month of Nisan.

Finally, it was customary to celebrate Easter on any Sunday of the year.

The early Christians expected the immediate Parousia of the Lord Jesus at His Second Coming. Many of them expected one of two things: either the return of the Lord or a close encounter with him in the suffering of personal martyrdom. The realization that general world history might soon end, or that life might soon come to an end, became a mystical experience in which every believer knew that they might simply not live long enough to experience the next Great Easter.

Belief in the Second Coming of Christ is solemnly professed in our Creed. "I believe in the Lord Jesus, who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will have no end."

Recall that the Nazis called their state the "Third Reich." What did they mean by this? Let us pay attention. This, too, is an eschatological call from Orthodox worship. According to the Nazis, the First Reich corresponded to the time of the Old Testament, that is, the kingdom of the Father. The Second Reich is the kingdom of the Son, that is, the time of the New Testament. Thus, in the eyes of these enemies of humanity, the time of the New Testament is also over. Hence the "third era," the Third Reich, the pseudo-kingdom of the Holy Spirit, with which they boldly and foolishly identified themselves. They proclaimed themselves the kingdom of the Holy Spirit, but they were the tyranny of evil, who was overthrown within a few years.

"I believe in the Lord Jesus, whose kingdom will have no end." At every Divine Liturgy, at every Compline—that last service of each day—and at every Midnight Service—the first liturgical service—the profession of faith is obligatory. "If you are afraid, recite the Creed," wrote the Church Father Ambrose of Milan.

By celebrating the little Easter of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Church, as a community of believers on a pilgrimage through history to the heavenly Jerusalem—that is, all of us—is called to be inspired every Sunday by the greatness and depth of Easter.

By calling and celebrating Sunday "Little Easter," we acknowledge ourselves as heirs of Christ's first disciples. It turns out that the words "Sunday is Little Easter" are also a true confession of faith, albeit a very brief one. "The faith of the Church is laconic," wrote St. Augustine. Little Easter is a confession that the Lord's return will come soon.