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Has the World ever heard words of such momentous significance, which are true, and which also announce that all of us, will be resurrected when Jesus returns in full glory in His second coming!

The Angel at the tomb, in brilliant white, announces to the myrrh-bearing women: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here – but is risen” (Lk 24:5-6).

Since then, Orthodox Christians on the day of Pascha and the 40 days that follow, greet one another with unique spiritual joy: Christ is Risen!

But the greeting “Christ is Risen” is followed by an equally important announcement: “through His death, He trampled down on death, and gave life to those in the tombs“!

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This second statement declares that death is no longer the tyrannical event that follows every human being throughout his life. It is no longer the end of every human ambition and the end of one’s life. Death now becomes a transient event in our life, since we will be raised, like Jesus Himself, when He returns in due course, to ask everyone to give an account of his actions whilst living on earth. This implies that those who lived according to His will, will inherit Eternal Life in His Kingdom, and will live there in the presence of God, Jesus, the Saints and the pious souls, and where life is eternal bliss and permanent peace.

The greeting “Christ is Risen” confirms that Jesus is alive and our person will have the same fate – we will be resurrected at the appointed time, and then our raised bodies will be perfect, free from defects, weaknesses, or illness, light and versatile, causing us no difficulty and needing no care on our part. All these truths fill us with untold spiritual satisfaction, courage, mental resilience and power, which knows no fear, or inhibition, in preaching the name of Jesus and the personal experience we have of our Faith.

When the ceremony of the Resurrection is over, and we all return to our mundane, daily life, we find nothing in common with the meaning, and depth of the hymns we heard in Church.

If at one moment in time in the history of the world, this unheard victory against death took place, which it unquestionably did, then everything in the world became different and new, irrespective whether people know this or not. Then, all of us faithful, having enjoyed and celebrated this momentous event, we have the responsibility to help others to believe as well, to hear and to see the victory and the joy of the Resurrection.

The early Christians believed the Resurrection, was the source of transformation of their life. The truths they were taught at the catacombs, they shouted them freely to others: “what you hear on the ear, preach from the housetops” (Mat 10:27). But our rational mind says: “What can I do? I am weak, I am only one, a grain of sand lost among the masses”. But this is the terrible, demonic lie, of our times. Because the world has come to believe that power comes from big numbers, huge crowds and public opinion.

Whoever has lived the joy of the Resurrection should forget the big numbers, the crowds and public opinion, and convey his joy and faith to someone else, to another soul. He would help start immediately, here and now, today – the transformation of the life of the World, according to the Will of the Risen Christ.

 

Source: April – May 2016 Lychnos Edition