Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, Now and Ever and Forever. Amen!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Христос Воскресе! Воистину воскресе!
(Khristos voskrese! Voistinu voskrese!)
My beloved in Christ,
Today, we celebrate the power and glory of our great God and Father who raised Jesus from the dead. This is a great miracle worth a lifetime of contemplation, but I offer you here a short reflection for your spiritual edification.
Picture yourself in the sandals of the Apostles, my brethren, the man with whom you ate and drank, laughed and cried, the man who whispered in the ears of your heart “Follow me” has just been crucified. You watched as they beat him, traded him for a criminal, and you heard his grunts and cries of agony as he suffered in anguish. You watched as each of the other Apostles, even the Blessed Rock, scattered and watched their Lord take his last breath and give up his spirit. This was the disposition of the disciples on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The heartache and the anguish of Good Friday and the utter silence of Holy Saturday, made even more unbearable by the rejoicing of his critics as he was killed and buried. O how the blessed Psalmist captures the disciple’s heart’s cry when he proclaims, “I shudder at the enemy’s shouts, at the howling of the wicked; they bring misery crashing down on me, and vent their fury on me. My heart aches in my breast, Death’s terrors assail me, fear and trembling descend on me, horror overwhelms me, and I say, ‘Oh for the wings of a dove to fly away and find rest, and make a new home in the desert!’ (Psalm 55 (54)).
All hope, for a moment, had been lost because the Son of Man was gone, swallowed up by the darkness, but only for a moment, my beloved, only for a moment. For he who was swallowed by the darkness said, ‘Behold, I am the Light of the World’ and the Beloved Disciple reminds us that the light that dwelt with us could not be overcome by the darkness! Amen!
As Jesus’ female disciples approached the tomb, the earth shook, as it had when he died. The stone had been moved, and the tomb was empty! And an angel clothed in light spoke to them, saying, ‘You look for Jesus of Nazareth, but he is not here, for HE IS RISEN as he said.’ Brethren, this is truly a great gift, for the hope of the disciples was reignited. They saw their hope first in the angel, clothed in white, showing them the glory of the heavenly hosts, and then they saw their blessed hope: the glorified, resurrected body of the Savior. In Him, in his very flesh, pierced for our transgressions, they saw the fate that awaits the just through endurance, faith, repentance, and trust.
Beloved, let us remember the joy of the woman who saw Christ, the hope that His sight brought to them, the faith lit on fire by his rising again, and the love He offers to all who proclaim His resurrection!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, Now and Ever and Forever! Amen!
Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed
Христос Воскресе! Воистину воскресе!
Penn Epistle 