Every year on the great and blessed Holy Saturday a flood of light emerges from the Holy Sepulcher (the tomb of the Lord Christ), and this event raises many questions, especially when the talk turns to saying that the Resurrection is realized at the flood of light. Consequently two problems arise for us: the first is emptying the three-day burial of its theology, and the second is turning theology into a popular faith that rushes toward miracles, so that faith becomes bound to the miracle — in addition to the growth of the idea of a tribal God.
At the outset, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Resurrection from Great Friday, when it chants the dawn hymns of the Resurrection — “God is the Lord and has appeared to us,” the blessings of the Resurrection, and the Great Doxology. And this rejoicing in the Resurrection is the expression of the fulfillment of the salvific economy “It is finished.”” For the Spirit of the Savior descended into Hades and He preached to the spirits who were there (Acts 24:2). For Christ came not only to preach salvation to the living, but also to the dead — even the worst of them, who perished in the flood (1 Pet 20:3). And thus Christ entered Hades and shattered its eternal bolts. Saint John Chrysostom says: “Today the Savior traversed all the regions of Hades; today He tore off the brazen gates and shattered its locks.” So the divine light shone for those dwelling in the land of shadows, and they saw the light.
The Saturday of Light changes concepts: the concept of death changes, and the concept of the tomb changes. Death is no longer darkness, and the tomb no longer symbolizes the abyss and darkness, but rather light shone from it. Thus it is a message to the living that what you believe to be the gate of Hades shines light upon you; and thus not only was the place of darkness illumined, but it overflowed with light.
The appearance of the divine light that precedes the day of the Resurrection does not lead us to proclaim the resurrection of Christ in the body, but to proclaim the resurrection of those in Hades — all the righteous, from Adam and Eve to Abraham to John the Baptist.
Instead of the religious discourse resisting that popular tendency rushing toward superstition by departing from the framework of revelation and knowledge, it rather goes along with it, courting public taste, enamored of everything strange, looking forward to discovering the secrets of the unseen world (one writer).
The principle in religious discourse is to resist the popular tendency toward superstition by departing from the framework of revelation and knowledge, not to go along with it.
For there is a great difference between religion — the sacred revelation in its original texts, which Ali ibn Abi Talib, may God be pleased with him, affirmed “do not speak by themselves, but rather men speak through them” — and the non-sacred religious thought that represents the attempts of the social-historical human mind to understand the meanings of revelation. Thus we must beware of merging the latter into the sacred, and of elevating it above scientific study that reveals what surrounds it of right and wrong, truth and myth — including the heritage of the commentators”.
This phenomenon has become customary in Lebanon and Syria for a recent period, and a public of people has come to await it eagerly. What we fear in this context is that this acceptance among the common people will fall within the framework of the growth of popular religion at the expense of theology and sound ecclesiastical thought. What is meant by popular religion is the religion that stirs people’s emotions with sensory and wondrous matters that touch upon magic and, in many cases, stir dormant instincts. What we also fear is that the phenomenon of the Holy Light will be placed within the framework of affirming religious identity, by reassuring those who believe in it of the soundness of their faith and its superiority over all the other sons of the churches, and of the correctness of its dating of Pascha and the error of the rest of the Christians — and this reinforces the feeling of superiority and arrogance. “Know therefore, O nations, and be defeated, for God is with us” — and the decisive proof has shone from the Holy Sepulcher!