My beloved brothers and sisters in Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!
Christ is risen from the dead by death trampling
upon Death, and has bestowed life to those in
the tombs.
APOSTICHA. Second Tone
Thy Resurrection, O Christ our Savior, enlightened
the whole world, and recalled Thine own creation.
Almighty Lord, glory to Thee.
A sacred Pascha has been today shown forth to us. A
new and Holy Pascha; a mystic Pascha. An All-Venerable
Pascha; A Pascha which is Christ the Redeemer. A spotless
Pascha, a Great Pascha, a Pascha of the faithful. A Pascha
which has opened to us the gates of Paradise. A Pascha
which hallows all the faithful.
Come from that scene, O women, bearers of good tidings,
and say to Zion: Receive from us the tidings of joy, of the
Resurrection of Christ. Exalt, rejoice, and be glad, O
Jerusalem, for thou dost see Christ the King as a Bridegroom
come forth from the tomb.
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THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD IS THE RENEWAL OF HUMAN NATURE, AND THE RENEWAL, RE-CREATION AND RETURN TO IMMORTALITY OF THE FIRST ADAM who was swallowed up by death because of sin, and through death went back to the earth from which he was formed. In the beginning nobody saw Adam being made and brought to life, for no one existed yet at that time. However, once he had received the breath of life into him by God (Genesis 2:7), a woman was the first to see him, for Eve was the first human being after him. In the same way, no one saw the Second Adam, that is the Lord, rising from the dead, since none of His Disciples were present and the soldiers keeping the tomb had been shaken with fear and became like dead men. But after the Resurrection it was a woman who saw Him first of all, as we heard in Saint Mark’s Gospel. “Now when Jesus”, it says, “was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene” [Mark 16:9].
The Evangelist Mark seems to be telling us clearly that it was early morning when the Lord rose, that He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, and that He appeared at the very time of the Resurrection. However, this is not what he says, as will become clear if we look more carefully. A little earlier Mark, together with the other Evangelists, says that Mary had also come earlier to the tomb with the other myrrhbearers, and finding it empty, they went away [Mark 16:1-8]. So the Lord had risen long before that hour of the morning when she saw Him. When the Evangelist Mark indicates the time of the earlier visit, he does not say simply “early”, as he does here, but “very early in the morning”. There they called the first hint of pale light on the horizon sunrise, as John shows by saying that Mary Magdalene came “early when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre” [John 20:1].
There is something which the Evangelists tell us in a veiled way, but which I shall reveal to your charity. As was right and just, the Mother of God was the first person to receive from the Lord the Good News of the Resurrection, and she saw Him risen and had the joy of His Divine words before anyone else. She not only beheld Him with her eyes and heard Him with her ears, but was the first and only person TO TOUCH WITH HER HANDS HIS MOST PURE FEET. If the Evangelists do not say all this openly, it is because they do not want to put forward His Mother as a witness, lest they give unbelievers grounds for suspicion.
The Myrrhbearers are those women who followed the Lord in company with His Mother, who stayed with her at the time of the saving passion, and were intent upon anointing the Lord’s body with myrrh…The Virgin Mother of God, returned in the company of other women to the place whence she had come. And behold, as Matthew says, “Jesus met them saying, All rejoice.” Notice that the Mother of God saw Him Who for our salvation suffered in the flesh, was buried and rose again, even before Mary Magdalene. “And they came”, it says, “and held him by the feet and worshipped Him” (Matthew 28:9). When the Theotokos with Mary Magdalene, heard the Good News of the Resurrection from the Angel, only she understood the meaning of the words. In the same way now when, in the company of the other women, she met her Son and God, she was the first of them all to see and recognize the risen Lord, and falling down before Him she grasped His feet and became His apostle to the Apostles.
It is pointless for someone to say that he has faith in God if he does not have the works which go with faith. What benefit were their lamps to the foolish virgins who had no oil (Matthew 25:1-13), namely, deeds of love and compassion? What good did calling Abraham his father do to that rich man frying in the unquenchable flame for his pitilessness toward Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)? What use was his apparent obedience to the invitation that man who had failed to acquire through good works a garment fitting for the divine wedding and the bridechamber of immortality? He was invited and approached because he clearly believed, and he sat down alongside those holy guests, but when he was convicted and put to shame for being clothed in depraved habits and deeds, he was mercilessly bound hand and foot, and cast into hellfire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 22:11-14).
May no one called by Christ have this experience, but may we all display a way of life which goes with our faith, that we may enter the bridechamber of unfading joy and spend eternity with the Saints in the dwelling place of all those who rejoice. Amen. [Source: Saint Gregory Palamas. The Homilies)
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!
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“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in Our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 