CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY, HE IS RISEN!
Dear Brethren,
We celebrate this triumphant event in these words of the Troparion. Christ is Risen!
Resurrected joy is experienced and radiated regardless, of the favorable or unfavorable surroundings, even in conditions of poverty, disease, persecution, war and uncertainty. And we urgently need it right now that everything is set to drown us in the fume of death. This joy multiplies while it offers love where hatred abounds, and hope where despair prevails. Second, “we rejoice in the Lord who crushed the state of death and enlighten the race of men.” Let us draw courage by living the joy of our Church, despite the oppressive problems we faced, despite the trials we are going through. The resurrected Christ has the power to dispel every shadow of hell; to crush the state of death brought about by violence, injustice, arrogance, and the fury of destruction. He offers an insurmountable light to those who believe in and love Him. Christ is Risen, my brethren! “This day has been made by the Lord. We rejoice and rejoice in it. To the pure, transparent truth, that the Gospel has been proclaiming for centuries: Certainty shared by billions of people over the centuries.
This is the characteristic of the Christian experience which defines and incessantly regenerates the believers. Undeniably, this belief is freely accepted or rejected. Christ’s “descend into Hades” proclaims the final dissolution of death and has become a symbol of the Resurrection in the Orthodox Church.
Every believer associated with the suffering and Resurrected Christ lives in his personal life the experience of Psalmist: “Thou shalt not forsake my soul in hell,…You showed me the way to life. Thou shalt fill me with joy when I am near thee.” (Acts 2:27-28 – Psalm 15:10-11). Relying on the unceasing presence of the risen Lord, we can even in the most painful circumstances chant, “O divine, O friend, O sweet voice. With us, I pray onto the end of ages, Christ: if the faithful anchors have hope possessed, we rejoice.” The Resurrection is the foretaste of God’s final victory of love in the end. He brings the future within us and with the sanctifying energy of the Holy Spirit in the Mystery of the Church, makes it present.
However, in the light of the Resurrection, all these things are transformed and can be overcome. “Do not be surprised at the terrible trial by which you are tested,” advises the Apostle Peter. “On the contrary, rejoice in participating in the suffering of Christ, for thus shall you be filled with joy and joy when His glory is revealed” (1 Pet 4:12-13); And in hours of cruel persecutions, he affirms: God “who out of great mercy reborn us into a new life with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,” enable us to truly hope, guards us with His power “until Salvation comes which is already ready to be manifested in the ends times. With this thought feel joy, even if you need for the time being to be distressed for a while by various trials” (1 Pet 1:3-6). At Easter, we celebrate the crushing of the state of death, the merciless enemy of man.
With Christ is Risen, we celebrate the most important event of history, which concerns the depth, the meaning, and the future of man’s existence. It may be that Various ramifications of death surround us with their strangest and most diverse masks, with unjust oppression, debilitating poverty, and unexpected suffering. May the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ change our minds, our hearts, our thoughts, our behaviors and our values as it did to the Apostles and all those who truly witnessed His Holy Resurrection from the dead two thousand years ago.
Amen.
+ His Grace, Bishop Nektarios Kabuye