Christ is risen!

“Christ is risen indeed!” – this joyful answer to the exclamation “Christ is risen” characterizes the Easter days no less than all singing.

Sorrow and grief accompany all our life but they are always followed by joy. So on these days joy bursts into our soul after sorrowful tears and great grief during the Passion Week.

In earthly life of Jesus Christ many pious women accompanied his Mother during His travelling, and in every way possible served Him. They followed Him, weeped when He was being taken to Golgotha, stood near Him during His death on a cross, and looked at His Disposition in the Tomb. As they didn’t manage to anoint the Most-Pure Body of the Lord with chrism on the occasion of the Old Testament Passover, they wanted to do it in the morning on the first day of the following week, and for their diligence they were called Myrrh-bearers. Among Myrrh-bearing Wives the Holy Church glorifies Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, Mary – the mother of James the Younger and Josiah, Salome, John – the wife of Chuza, Herod’s familiar, Mary and Martha – sisters of Lazarus, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Susannah and many others.

To understand Myrrh-bearing Wives one must live through their great grief and great joy. To try to understand them is deeply instructive. There was deep grief in their soul and along with it there was expectation of something joyful the soul was striving to. Of course, they didn’t see clearly what they expected, but they felt that it wasn’t the end, that the death couldn’t be the end, and therefore they came to the grave. Grief and joyful expectation seem to be incompatible feelings but they live in the women’s hearts.

And if we could also live in sorrow and joy and had a feeling of Christ approaching us! This must be always like this, and if we have such expectation only on holy days of Passion and Easter Weeks, then our faith is not abiding. It is difficult to explain compatibility of grief and expected joy, it’s better to remember the Mystery taking place on these days. This compatibility is reflected in our Divine Service. In the Service there is as if fear to break the joy of resurrection, the singing takes us back to sorrow we had in the past, and then the singing is again joyful and touching, and sorrow doesn’t confuse our joy giving it only a touching effect.

But now thinking of Myrrh -bearing Wives we recall their feelings when they were witnesses of Christ’s passions. From all eternity there hadn’t been so grief on the earth, even powers of nature couldn’t stand it. And we can easily imagine that they felt relief when they heard from the Cross, “It is finished”.

And you also rejoice at this moment. This feeling must be repeated in the soul. Sorrow which we feel these days differ from sorrow we have in our everyday life.

The more is our sorrow for Christ and Christ passions, the stronger we are attached to Christ, and as Myrrh-bearing Wives joyfully expected Christ, so will expect Him, and we will meet Him the same way as they did. Grieving for Him the same way as they did, we are also worthy of celebrating His resurrection. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here”. He is not in the grave.

There is no more death as such. Death is no more a dungeon without exit for all who found themselves there. We must only by means of faith both in life and in our death join the Incarnate Christ who died and resurrected for us, and then death will be only for us a dark door towards another bright and everlasting life. If we die with Christ, we will resurrect with Him; and then the words said by the angels to the Holy Myrrh-bearers about Christ bears a relation to the death of each of us: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” Glory to Christ victory – God-man, crucified and resurrected – unto ages of ages. Amen.