Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord!

In today’s Gospel reading we heard about two extraordinary miracles – the raising of Jairus’ daughter as well as the healing of the woman with an issue of blood. Christ said the following words to the woman: “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace,” while to the desperate father He said: “Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.” Both times our Lord Jesus Christ emphasizes that what is most important in our lives, what is most important for our salvation is faith. Of course, not just faith that everything will turn out fine, but faith in Christ!

For many weeks already we have been discussing death and life after death, but we have said little about why we need Christ. We haven’t talked much about the role of Christ in the death, judgement, and eternal life of a person. Today let’s try to say at least a little bit about this.

The main thing that we can take note of is that we people are not the most capable when it comes to spiritual living, but on the contrary are more worried about earthly cares and, as a consequence, often fall into sin. These sins, naturally, separate us from God and lead us to death. There are no sinless people and therefore we all die. We could say that in this way we all fall short of fulfilling our assignment in life, that is, joining ourselves to God, and as a consequence we are judged to death, and not simply death, but also a dark existence after death. A person on his own cannot escape this trap because, as we already said, there are no people who have lived and not sinned. Jesus Christ is the only exception, the only one who does not fall under this universal truth. He, not simply as a man but as the incarnate God, did not sin and as a consequence, although He fell into the trap of death, He could not be held by it and arose on the third day. In such a way, that awful and unnatural for mankind trap of death was broken by Jesus Christ. After the death of our Saviour, death no longer has the power to enslave and hold the dead. There will be a general resurrection and eternal life, and all of this is a consequence of the death and resurrection of Christ.

This does not mean that every person will find themselves in a state of blessedness, not everyone will free themselves from this trap. To inherit an eternal and blessed life, one must have faith in Christ, and of course, follow after Him. Our Saviour destroyed the power of death; He, one could say, found a path to freedom through the darkness of hell. To have faith in Christ means to stretch out one’s hand to Him so that He can grab it and lead us through the dark nooks and crannies of hell. How do we do this practically? Christ gives us His help through the sacraments of the Church, especially through baptism and communion, but also through Holy Scripture in which we read, in the most literal sense, the words of our God directed towards us with instructions as to how to reach and enter the Heavenly Kingdom.

Today, while there is still time, let’s take hold of the hand of our Saviour, that is, let’s participate in the sacraments of the Church and readily read and study the Holy Scriptures, so that after our death our Lord and God leads us out of the prison of death and settles us in the Kingdom of Heaven with all the saints.

priest Alexis