Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Christ is Risen!

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord!

Last night we heard the fourth Resurrectional Gospel reading (Luke 24: 1-12). In this Gospel excerpt, the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke narrates for us how certain women went to the tomb early in the morning so as to anoint the dead body of Jesus Christ with sweet-smelling ointments. Instead of finding the dead body of Christ in the cave, they discovered an open and empty tomb. Thy were met by two angels who proclaimed to them that Christ had risen. These messengers could not understand why the myrrh-bearing women were seeking One who was alive amongst the dead and reminded them that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself had foretold them His suffering, death, and resurrection. When the women related all of this to the apostles, the latter did not believe them. Despite this, Peter went to the tomb, saw that it was empty, and left in amazement.

Yesterday’s Gospel reading shows us the importance of an active spiritual life. Before us we have an example not of the passive disciples who hid themselves after the arrest of Jesus Christ, but of active myrrh-bearing women. Someone could come to the conclusion that these women did not behave in the most prudent way. For women in the ancient world to leave the house early in the morning, while it was still dark, was not the safest thing to do. We must also remember that they went to the cemetery where Roman soldiers, that is, an occupying force of foreigners, were guarding the body which they wished to anoint. One gets the impression that the apostles, rather than the myrrh-bearing women, acted more logically. Of course, in reality, things were not as they seemed, and as a result of their activity, the women were granted to see angels and were first to hear the news of the resurrection of the Lord. The myrrh-bearing women essentially took the place of the disciples and became the first apostles (the word apostle means ‘one that is sent;’ the women were sent to preach the risen Christ to the disciples).

This morning we heard the Gospel reading about the paralytic, who for thirty-eight years was lying in a state of helplessness, waiting to be miraculously healed. Today it behooves us to think about who we emulate more closely in our spiritual lives – the paralytic or the myrrh-bearing women? Truly, each of us is like the paralytic in the sense that our sins and passions rule our lives. We are spiritually sick and are in need of divine help so as to once again stand on our own feet.

Despite this, we should not simply wait, as did the paralytic, but instead we should take action. We have one and the same goal as the myrrh-bearing women – our Lord Jesus Christ. If we think logically, their actions should not have been crowned with success, but the Saviour accepted their labour and richly rewarded them. Do we take up at least some kind of labours so as to come close to the risen Christ? If yes, glory to God. Let’s wait with patience, as once did the paralytic, knowing that the Lord will not leave us without His attention, and that He will visit us at a moment when we may not even expect it. If we do not labour in the least for the sake of the Lord, let’s take as an example the Holy Equal-to-the-apostles Myrrh-bearing Women and begin to act. Let’s pray, fast, read the Holy Scriptures, serve our neighbour, and put away our phones for at least a short while, and perhaps the Lord will see this tiny, insignificant labour and will reward us not in thirty-eight years, but sometime now.

priest Alexis