Acts 11:19-30; John 4:5-42 Christ is Risen! The good news of our Lord’s resurrection was entirely unexpected and challenges many of our deepest assumptions about life in this world. If the God-Man has entered fully into death and conquered it, making even the grave an entrance into eternal life, then reality is radically different from what we typically assume. If death is not an inevitable and complete loss from which we need…
Acts 9:32-42; John 5:1-15 Christ is Risen! During the season of Pascha, the Church calls our attention to how particular people responded to our Lord, Who rose from the dead on the third day. Thomas did not believe until he saw and touched the wounds of the Risen Savior. Joseph of Arimathea took Christ’s body down from the Cross and, with the help of Nicodemus, buried Him. The Myrrh-Bearing women became the…
Acts 6:1-7; Mark 15: 43-16:8 Christ is Risen! As we continue to celebrate our Lord’s glorious resurrection on the third day and victory over Hades and the tomb, it should be obvious that we too often live as though death still reigned. We do so especially when we fall prey to fear rooted in anxiety about how weak, insignificant, and insubstantial we are, especially in light of death. We build ourselves…
Acts 5:12-20; John 20:19-31 Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! Today we continue to celebrate the most fundamental and joyful proclamation of our faith: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! He is our Pascha, our Passover, from death to life, for Hades and the grave could not contain the God-Man Who shares with us His victory over corruption…
Philippians 4:4-9; St. John 12:1-18 The Desert Father Saint Antony the Great once tested a group of monks by asking them, beginning with the youngest, the meaning of a certain passage of Scripture. In response to their answers, he said, “You have not understood it.” Finally, he asked Abba Joseph, who said, “I do not know.” Then Abba Antony said, “Indeed Abba Joseph has found…