Rising with Christ in Resurrection amidst Covid-19

In the name of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus

As the majority of Christian believers celebrate the feast of Pascha (Resurrection) of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and our brethren, as they celebrate the Holy Week leading to the Pascha, many of us have celebrated this feast behind closed doors of our homes, being in forced isolation from our families and friends, the feast of Pascha is a season of hope and light in our current situation.

Due to the situation with Covid 19 pandemic, the churches all over the world have been forced to close their doors and adopt newer methods of reaching out to its faithful members. Members of the public have closed themselves inside their homes and taking measures to fight against the unseen enemy. When we compare ourselves to the disciples who fled from being associated with Jesus at the time of His crucifixion, we might find ourselves in a similar situation.

When we look at the story of the Resurrection, the story begins with darkness, in a time of great fear, sorrow and despair. We find the disciples who followed Jesus and expecting Him to overthrow the Roman Empire, frightened of the darkness and covering behind closed doors of their homes, having their hopes crushed and destroyed. We find the people who proclaimed to follow Jesus to the ends of the world, frightened and alone, and rejecting Jesus amid their fears. This description is very similar to the situation of the world we are living in amid the pandemic of Covid-19.

The story of Pascha is the story of victory over death. It is the story of life everlasting found through faith in Christ Jesus. It is the story of the risen Christ meeting His disciples beyond closed doors with the message – “Peace be unto you”. When He rose from the dead on that first Easter morning, the risen Christ brought the light of hope into the darkness of despair. The Paschal story may begin in the darkness, but it ends in the light.

It is only after Christ revealed Himself to the apostles in the Divine Glory of the Resurrection and when they witnessed that glory, a new awareness of life was born within them along with the power of faith which moved them to new deeds in their apostolic service. It led them into a hostile world in which they were to endure suffering and which met their preaching of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ with enmity and scorn. We know that Christ’s apostles carried His holy message throughout the Greek and Roman world and into other lands, preaching Christ, how He had come into the world to save men and how, though Himself God, He had taken human flesh and lived as a man among men, and how, as a man, He had achieved incomprehensible perfection.

In our current situation, we too must remember that Christ has won victory over the ultimate enemy of mankind – death. He has defeated death through death and we have been promised a life eternal with Him. When we look at the numbers of patients who have been tested positive and find ourselves losing hope, let us find hope in the One Who has found the cure for non-treatable illnesses of His time and was also able to give life to dead bodies. Let us find hope that no pain, no sickness, no misfortune is ever greater than the One Who has defeated them all. Let us find strength that through the Resurrection of Christ the Redeemer the Great Work for the redemption of mankind from enslavement to Satan and corruption has been completed; the power of sin is destroyed and Death itself is abolished. The Resurrection of Christ grants every one the right to call himself a child of God; it is the return of Paradise lost, the threshold of the Holy of Holies of immortal life and communion with God. St. Paul tells us that if there had been no Resurrection then our Christian faith would have been deprived of any foundation or value:

If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain,.. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile… .

(1 Cor. 15:14, 17)

The Orthodox Church triumphs, exults and rejoices, magnifying and extolling Christ’s glorious Resurrection, the great and wonderful manifestation of Divine Love and Forgiveness and the beginning of everlasting life. On this Feast of Feasts, this Triumph of Triumphs, the Holy Church exults in her love for her beloved Bridegroom, Who rose from the tomb for our salvation, and summons us, Her faithful children, to this eternal Feast of angels and men. This greatest feast, illuminated by the light from on high, is a divine prefiguration of the general resurrection of all those who have died from the beginning of time. And this is so because, as the Paschal Hymn so triumphantly proclaims: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!

I end with the words of St. Gregory the Theologian

Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him.

Yesterday I died with Him; today I am made alive with Him.

Yesterday I was buried with Him; today I am raised up with Him.

Let us offer to Him Who suffered and rose again for us … ourselves, the possession most precious to God and most proper.

Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us.

Let us become Divine for His sake, since for us He became Man.

He assumed the worse that He might give us the better. He became poor that by His poverty we might become rich. He accepted the form of a servant that we might win back our freedom.

He came down that we might be lifted up. He was tempted that through Him we might conquer. He was dishonored that He might glorify us. He died that He might save us. He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were thrown down through the fall of sin.

Let us give all, offer all, to Him who gave Himself a Ransom and Reconciliation for us.

We needed an incarnate God, a God put to death, that we might live. We were put to death together with Him that we might be cleansed. We rose again with Him because we were put to death with Him. We were glorified with Him because we rose again with Him.

A few drops of Blood recreate the whole of creation!

Wishing you all a very blessed season of the Pascha of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!