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CHRIST
IS RISEN !
He
is alive, He is the Life, He grants us life. What can be larger
than the joy for resurrection, the joy for the transformation
of the entire Universe?
“The
life I live in the body,” says Paul in his epistle to the Galatians
(2:20), “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.” I live, but truly, “I no longer live,
but Christ lives in me.”
As
the Risen lives in us, then we, too, exist in resurrection,
in the movement of resurrection until the day he comes to transform
our humble flesh and make it like His own (Philippians 3, 21).
Let
us remember the beautiful sermon left us by Saint John Chrysostome:
He will make no difference between the workers called on the
first and the eleventh hour: everybody will be invited to the
Party by Christ: those, whohave prepared and those, whohaven’t.
And the same applies to us. One great orthodox spiritual teacher
has written: “We – or at least most of us – are far from having
sipped from the Chalice of suffering. We did not help Jesus
to carry the Cross. We have not died with him. We slept fast
at the time of his agony; we abandoned him; we have denied him
with our numerous sins. And yet, no matter how poorly prepared
or impure we were, Jesus invites us to share the joy of the
Passover Feast.”
Because
in his generosity he has mercy to our weakness. “Having loved
his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent
of his love” (Jh 13: 1). Till the end, fully, perfectly, comprehensively
and finally. Up to his suffering on the Cross, that was the
culmination of his love. So that even if we do not fuly partake
in the glory of resurrection, it will nevertheless be also our
share. This will bring us directly to the jubilation of Resurrection.
Beloved
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
There
is no more that can intimidate us, since we have experienced
the love of God towards us.
Now everything has a meaning.
Even suffering and death have meaning and they guide us to Life.
Already now, everybody is alive.
Because Christ is risen !
All
praise and glory for Him, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Amen!
+STEPHANOS,
Metropolitan of Tallinn and all Estonia
Easter A.D. 2007
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