In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Christ is Risen!

 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the northern regions, where the polar night lasts very long, the common aphorism is: “We have nine months of winter, and the rest of the year is summer.” And everybody is looking impatiently forward to the moment when the sun appears above the horizon to illuminate and enliven all around. Christ is like the sun not only for our land, but for the whole universe.

Life-giving rays of eternal truth and love of Christ penetrate the human heart and eliminate the dark night of sin and unbelief. In the place of night there comes a bright day of a happy life with Christ.

As the Troparion of the Nativity of Our Lord says, “Christ is the Sun of Righteousness.” All life, and light, and joy of the soul are in Him and come only from Him. This Sun had risen 2000 years ago over the Holy Land, first enlightening the small town of Bethlehem, where, according to the promise of God’s prophetic Word, Jesus Christ was born; then It illuminated the Galilee, Judea, Samaria … and later on – the whole world.

Before it happened, people did not know the truth of God: they lived in idolatry, ignorance and sin. And only when Christ, Our Savior, came to earth (as the Gospel tells us): “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of deathLight has dawned.” (Matthew 4, 16).

Centuries have passed since the time Christ said about Himself: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:11-13) This verity remains true till nowadays. No one could or ever can catch Christ in lying…. His Heavenly Call has always been heard – today as distinctly as in the past- on all the continents of the Earth. But, alas! How many people want and try to shut up or eradicate this call…

Christianity would not exist without the Resurrection of Christ. The Apostle Paul writes directly: “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile… Then we are of all men the most pitiable – if there were no Resurrection of Christ,” – then we are no different from all other people; then, really:“if the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (1 Corinthians 15:16-19; 32) This is like “Feast or Famine.” If there is no resurrection – the life makes no sense, it loses the meaning and the purpose. What is the use of the sufferings of Christ, with all his moral teachings and all the sublime gospel ideas – if there is no resurrection?

The Resurrection of Christ – is the source of eternal life for every person. That is why from the times of the foundation of Orthodoxy Resurrection of Jesus Christ is considered to be the greatest Holiday, greater than any other. There are a lot of wonderful Feasts in the Orthodox Church, but this is the greatest, the only one of its kind, “the Feast of feasts and the Triumph of triumphs”.

If the Jewish Passover is celebrated as the feast of physical liberation, the Orthodox Easter symbolizes, primarily, spiritual freedom, which was attainted only through the death and sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

While searching for the meaning of Easter, we obtain the belief that one day something similar to what happened to Jesus Christ, will happen to us: we, also, will be resurrected. The name “Jesus” means “God saves“. Christ is called “Savior” because He went to His Cross for the sake of our salvation.

The Bible states that the man’s death occurs as the consequence of his sin. But Christ, in whom there were no sins at all, should not have become the prey of death. He died on the Cross, therefore, in order to destroy death in Himself and defeat it by His own Resurrection.

Think about the fact that the man abandoned God, but God, in all His amazing love, went after the man through sufferings and death into the world where people bully and are being bullied, execute and are being executed, kill and die and, most grievously, while being ruled by unimaginable ignorance, still reject God…

For the last 20 centuries there were a lot of great teachings… Even the French emperor Napoleon wanted to found a new religion in the world. In his exile on the island of St. Helena he bitterly admitted though: “Alas, possessing all my regiments and armies, I could not achieve what Jesus Christ did, when, without all these great forces, He made people love Him for centuries…”

Christ is risen in order to be present everywhere in our lives, and today everyone can find Him. He is not only a historical person, who may be either remembered or forgotten. Yes, he lived two thousand years ago, but He did not only exist in the past… He still exists now – and in His everlasting Existence lays the key secret of Christianity and explanation of its power.

The apostles taught that everything would be different – enlightened and transformed – after the Resurrection, and “the Lord Jesus Christ will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. 3, 21). We do not know how it will be, we humbly bow in front of this mystery: “Then He who sat on the throne said: “Behold, I make all things new…there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away…” (Rev. 21, 5, 4).

Let us turn to those of our kinsmen who are already resting in the cemeteries in their graves, warmed by the sun and, as grains, ready to break the ground and ascend to the new life. Let us pronounce for them solemn and triumphant words of the Paschal Troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” Truly He is risen! Amen!