Resurection

Christ is risen...hide the EGGs!!!
Why does our country insist on secularizing everything that the church esteems? Matrimony, Nativity, and the most arrogant of all, "Easter," the Celebration of the Risen Christ. In the 6th hour our the blessed Good Friday service (in the Coptic Orthodox Church) we do a ceremonial walk around the church in a clockwise manor. Regularly these processions are done with joyful tunes, loud cymbals, and most importantly, in a counterclockwise direction around the church. When in the church we are more than symbolically considered to be in God's house or His heavenly kingdom; as we pray in the Lord's Prayer: "on earth as it is in heaven". The saving Ark of Noah is likened to the church in that while in the ark, humanity survives yet while outside the vessel, humanity parishes. The counterclockwise movement around the church is symbolic of the church's opposition to the way of the world and its pursuit of hope through Christ rather than by the means of world. James 4:4 reads "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Going back, in the 6th hour of Good Friday we walk with the direction of the world in a clockwise manor to symbolize Judus and his betrayal of the Son of God for 30 pieces of silver. But later, in the Liturgy celebrating the Feast of the Resurrection, or more notable, "Easter", we joyously walk against the world and proclaim the living God with hymns and procession. Yet and old sunday-school lesson, with seasonal implications arises: when we're outside the church walls and yet still carrying the joy of the rinses Christ, which direction are we in fact walking?
The question I then pose, is what happens to our spiritual lives after the countless hours of church services, spiritual reading and meditation, and training in self control after the 55 day fast is over. Granted, after Liturgy, we have made it customary, although not correct, to go home and indulge in the foods that we left behind during the fast; the 8 week period of spiritual and physical progression quickly changes over to a 45 minutes session of gluttony followed by a two hour session of temporary paralysis. And for a lot of us, the loss of self does not stop there. We lose and forget all the beneficial practices that we acquired during the time of the fast and preparation; what then were we preparing ourselves for? Pope Shenouda writes in his papal address to the lands of immigration: "In the period of the fifty days, the focus is on prayer, spiritual reading, contemplation, praising and hymns, deep spiritual meetings, exercises of repentance and spiritual growth." The time of lent should be taken as a chance for each of us to find our weakness, work on it, and regardless of if we come out cleaner on the other end or not, the important aspect is that a relationship with the Helper was formed along the way. The post-lenten period is then the time where the preparation and retooling of the self should be implemented. We should be more aware of God throughout the day, more aware of Christ in our actions, and significantly more aware of our own weakness. If a solider retreats from a battle, he spends his time back at the base camp restocking the necessary supplies, and when he goes back out into battle he is well armed and ready for the enemy. If its not already too late, if we haven't yet wasted the "blessing" that "we fought with God" for, then this is our time to recover from our lapse in responsibility to ourselves and to the world. This is our brightest hour. At no other time does the Christian light shine so brightly. At no other time does the Light of the World so strongly magnify our actions. Will we still insist on walking against it?