Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!
We celebrate the greatest event of history, the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. Through His death on the Cross, Jesus Christ, our Lord, defeated our archenemy, death. On Easter Day, He rose from the dead and secured our own resurrection from the dead at the appropriate time. For this reason, we rejoice and are glad when we sing, “Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling upon death, and to those in the tombs He granted life.”
We vicariously participate in the death and resurrection of Christ during Holy Week and Easter. Each one of us strives to discipline our body to become a willing instrument of the spirit. Now body and soul willingly participate together in the glorious message and eternal hope of the resurrection.
Christ is indeed Risen, and He lives, regardless of what the atheists and doubters of all ages say. Christ’s Resurrection is a fact of history and trustworthy witnesses have borne witness to this life-giving fact and have signed it with their own blood.
Christ’s Resurrection will always be the center of our Faith and will occupy the throne of our hearts and souls. When Easter approaches we throng to our Church, to hear afresh the message of Resurrection and experience the joy and power of Christ’s victory over death for us. Ultimately our own eternal destiny depends upon His victory over death.
Christ is Risen! These three words summarize our victorious Faith and certain belief in life everlasting. We made them into a Creed that we recite every Sunday: “I look forward to the Resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.”
St. John Chrysostom, repeating the words of Saint Paul, wrote, “O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
We celebrate Christ’s victory on Easter--and in anticipation our own victory, and thus, we will always joyfully sing, “Christ is Risen, Christos Anesti, Christos a Imviat, Hristos Voskrese, Maseeha Ahm, Christi U Njgall, Hristos Tenasaah.”
Indeed Christ is Risen! Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
With love, Fr. John. P. Angelis
