Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as the feastday of St. Alexander Nevsky!

At the end of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul proceeds to sorting out the main problem that was worrying the Corinthian Church. Some of the Corinthians, who had come to faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ, doubted the teaching of the Church on the general resurrection of every person at the end of time. These types of doubts are natural, because we don’t usually see deceased people returning to the world of the living. Our whole earthly experience shows that death is forever; more so for people from past times when death, even the death of young and healthy people, was a part of everyday life. Although our experiences may hint at this, the Holy Church, in the Symbol of Faith, teaches us that, on the contrary, there will be a general resurrection. Without this our faith, our good works, everything that we do for our salvation, everything that our Saviour did for us (became a man, suffered on the cross and arose from the dead), stands for nothing, because we have no future.

The Apostle Paul begins to convince the Corinthians that all of them, and each person in general, will arise from the dead by reminding them that Jesus Christ most assuredly resurrected. Today during the Liturgy we heard about this. The Apostle says that there can be no doubt that the Saviour arose from the dead, because very many people saw Him after His resurrection. He names Peter, the other apostle, five thousand men, and himself as witnesses.

We, people of the 21st century, like the ancient Greeks, are accustomed to trusting things or people based on our experiences, and therefore can at times fall into doubt. It’s difficult for us to just believe. Today’s Epistle reading should strengthen our weak faith, for very many people came to believe in Christ because they personally saw Him resurrected. Since they saw the risen Saviour, let’s put aside our skeptical thoughts and instead stand firmly in the true Orthodox faith.

Priest Alexis

P.S. In a week’s time a federal election will be held in Canada. When you decide for whom to vote, perhaps it would be good to consider not only the usual questions, but also the following two things. First, consider who out of all of the candidates will look most favourably on Christians. As we saw this spring, when unknown people were burning down churches in Western Canada, some MPs had absolutely no reaction to these sacrilegious attacks on the faithful, as if nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. Probably these apathetic anti-Christians do not deserve our vote. Secondly, it wouldn’t be bad to think about questions of bioethics (abortions and euthanasia) and the education and upbringing of children (gender issues in schools, etc.). It’s clear that in Canada there is much that we faithful people can only call evil, but which is considered good or normal by many, and that these immoral things will not disappear anytime soon. Despite this, we can consider who out of the candidates will do the least harm in these spheres, and, as much as it is possible in today’s world, preserve a Christian understanding on life and the human person. Probably there are no ideal candidates, therefore it may become necessary to vote for the better of a poor lot.