Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Christ is Risen!

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord and the Myrrh-Bearing Women!

Last week we read in the Holy Scriptures how the Holy Apostle Thomas, boldly, or perhaps even audaciously, announced that he would believe in the resurrection of Christ not only when he would see and hear Him, but also when he could place his finger into Christ’s wounds. The Lord did not leave His friend in a state of unbelief, but appeared to him and granted his desire.

Today we once again heard about boldness, but this time everything looks completely different. Those women who were constantly close to Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry showed a special type of boldness, courage, devotion, and love when the other followers and friends of the Saviour abandoned Him. The Evangelist Luke relates to us that a multitude of people, amongst whom were weeping women, followed Christ to His crucifixion. We can’t say with certainty who these women were, but perhaps we can suppose that amongst them were the Myrrh-Bearing Women. While the Saviour was being crucified, while He hung on the Cross, the women-disciples stood some distance away and watched over everything. All four evangelists relate this. The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) add that these women also participated, or at least saw, the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ.

After the burial, early in the morning on the first day of the week, when it seems that there was nothing more to do, these wonderful, courageous women with such strong love for the Lord, once again returned to the tomb so as to anoint the Body of the dead with sweet-smelling oil. This was truly a bold decision by these women, for it was still dark, the cave was guarded by frightening and uncouth soldiers, the rock was sealed, and even if it had not been sealed it was too big and heavy for them to roll away on their own. Despite the, you could say, impossibility of completing the task of anointing the Body, they went.

Christ, seeing their great regard for Him, did not leave them without His attention. It was they that first heard about the resurrection, it was they that first saw the risen Christ, it was they that first preached Him! Once a woman, Eve, sinned and lead Adam to death, but here are women who bring to the apostles not sin and death, but news about eternal life!

Let us try to adopt those good characteristics which so brightly shone in the Myrrh-Bearing Women. It sometimes happens that we find ourselves in complicated, even impossible situations. We very much want the war to end, for there to be peace amongst Orthodox peoples, for our children, other relatives and dear ones to come to a deep faith in Christ, for suffering and disease to pass everyone by, for our country, Canada, to return to its correct, past path where Christian moral ideals are valued. It would seem that these are just fantasies and dreams, but nothing is impossible for the Lord. Therefore let’s pray with boldness, with deep faith, with love, and with hope.

priest Alexis