Christ is Risen!
What we’ve prayed for throughout the holy Forty Days and what we’ve asked of our Lord has now been fully granted to us by His grace: We have reached the most honorable days of Christ’s sufferings and now worship His holy and glorious Resurrection! If this feast is joyful on earth, brethren, then how bright and festive it must be in Heaven! Oh, if only we could all attain to that blessed day of resurrection in the same way and partake of that unwaning Pascha in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father, which will have no end! We will all certainly achieve this blessedness if we look at our entire earthly life as Lent, as preparation for the great day of the universal resurrection.
Who can close to the faithful servants of the Lord the doors of eternal life that He has opened? Who can snatch us from the hands of Him, the Almighty (Jn. 10:28)? Was the price paid for us too small? Was not all His Blood shed on the Cross? Was not His entire spirit committed to the Father? Now it’s not only the love, but the very glory of our Savior that demands that we be saved. It’s true that we, like Him, have many malicious and powerful enemies, but on Golgotha, all the powers of hell were depleted and trampled underfoot. And now, with the help of grace, it remains for us not so much to fight the enemies as to pursue them, defeated as they are, and to gather the fruits of victory. Has the world turned against us? It’s defeated in the person of the prince of the world himself: And this is the victory that overcometh the world (1 Jn. 5:4)—the death and merits of our Redeemer have all come to us: Through living faith in His Cross all the temptations of the world will be repelled as with a shield.
Will the flesh betray us? It is weak and inclined downwards; but vigil and prayer can lift even this weight from the ground on their wings and make it strive toward Heaven. Against flesh and blood, perishable and sinful, we now have the Divine Body and Blood which we feed upon in the Eucharist. Moreover, the Spirit of grace sent down to us by the resurrected Lord is a spirit of power and strength; if we acquire it and don’t quench it, then all the fortifications of fleshly temptations will be broken before us. Will the prince of darkness himself dare to stand on our path to Heaven? He’ll do so only to his own destruction, for he’s already been struck on the head by the Cross. He’s now the kind of dragon that, according to the Prophet’s expression, even a small “child”—a babe in Christ—can safely lay a hand upon (Is. 11:8). If he has nothing of his own in us, as he had nothing of his own in our Savior (Jn. 14:30), then all his terrible growling around us will sound like an animal prowling about our homes.
The Risen Savior has given us all the strength we need for life and piety. He’s sent down all the means necessary for preserving ourselves unharmed by the world, the flesh, and the devil. From there, our salvation depends on us, on our faithfulness to our Savior and His Divine teaching. If only we would not bury the talents of grace given to us in the ground of carelessness, and do the work of our salvation while it is day (Jn. 9:4), then He’ll fulfill His promise, guide us into all truth through His word and Spirit (Jn. 16:13), endue [us] with power on high (Lk. 24:49), and send comfort into our hearts amidst all earthly sorrow. If only we, having come out of Egypt—our natural corruption—would not turn our faces and hearts back to it again; that having been freed from slavery to Pharaoh—the god of this age—we would not then place the bonds of sin upon ourselves; that having entered the desert of self-denial, we would not stop at the waters of strife, would not cast golden calves and bow down to them. Then He will not forget His duty—He’ll scatter all the enemies of our salvation from before our face, lead us dryshod through the very Jordan—the stream of death—and bring us into the Heavenly Canaan.
Burdensome and laborious, brethren, is the journey through the desert of this world for those who seek the Heavenly city; but the promised land flows with milk and honey! The six days of earthly labor are long and sometimes gloomy, but the seventh day of eternal rest is full of unspeakable joy! Will we complain about the thorns and thistles that we encounter along the way when we ourselves have sown them throughout the earth and continually nurture them with our sins? Will we put off ascending to Heaven just because we have to get there by climbing the ladder of the Cross? And now, in this land of exile and calamity, it’s pleasing to sing a song of victory over death—although we have yet to make this victory fully our own. How delightful will it be to celebrate the great day of renewal there, in the new promised land, where Heaven and earth and the whole of creation will answer the joyful cry of “Christ is Risen!” with “Indeed He is Risen!”
Let us hasten there in spirit, brethren, having yet to arrive in the flesh! Why sit idle by the rivers of Babylon,content with but the memory of our Heavenly homeland? Look! The Royal Doors are open and the throne of grace is visible to all. This is an invitation home, a call to the supper! Let us hasten, brethren, let us hasten: The risen Savior is calling us!
Amen.
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