Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen!
It is with this greeting, the Easter proclamation of our faith, that I extend to you, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, my most affectionate sentiments. I implore the Risen Lord to strengthen your faith that He is the Saviour and that apart from Him there can be no salvation.
When the angel moved the stone from the entrance to the tomb, there gushed forth, as it were, streams of grace. The Risen Lord bestowed upon us life in all its fullness, and, the possibility of theosis – becoming like God. Just as we are reborn in the waters of baptism, so in the Resurrection there springs up within us a river of life. From that time on God, in His compassion, fills us with His Holy Spirit.
At the Resurrection there dawned an endless day, and the light which shone forth from the tomb of our Master, continues today unconquered. Indeed, it is the darkness which has been overcome, which has been driven out and which can never return. In the Paschal Mystery, an eternal light now shines upon us. "Let us rejoice and be glad, for this is the day the Lord has made.”
We believe that the Resurrection is the ultimate sign of God’s power, as He is Life and the Source of life "and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Eph 1:19) The Jewish leaders demanded His crucifixion because they believed that He blasphemed by claiming to be the Son of God and equal to the Father. The Resurrection was the glorious proof that Jesus was indeed the Word of God. In it, He "was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4)
The Resurrection is the only sure way by which the Faithful find salvation "because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9) Thus, we cannot be authentic Christians if we do not believe and confess that Jesus is truly risen, and, that in his life-giving Death and glorious Resurrection He justifies us because "(he) was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.” (Rom 4:25)
Following the Resurrection, the Believers were able to experience His presence with us – indeed, He is with us and in us, we are able to walk with Him, to live with Him, to speak with Him and to proclaim what He said and taught. He granted us the grace to rest against Him, as did the beloved disciple, John, at the Mystical Supper. He made us members of His own household so that we can say with the author of the Book of Revelation, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev 21:1).
It is my fervent hope that the Resurrection will enter into your lives and homes. In the Resurrection of Jesus we find the promise that His Resurrection will be ours. It is from His Resurrection that we draw our very lives and our faith.
It is my heartfelt prayer for us all that the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, will be our companion on our earthly pilgrimage, journeying with us, and opening our eyes just as He did for the two disciples at Emmaus. Then, with Him living in our hearts, we will be able to announce to the whole world that Jesus is risen from the dead.
Let us raise our prayerful supplications to the Most Holy Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin, asking her to help our little faith, so that we might understand that her Son’s Resurrection is the promise and guarantee of our resurrection. May she teach us that through Him and with Him we have become children of the Resurrection.
And to the Lord Jesus Christ, Risen in Glory, we ascribe all dominion, honour, worship and thanksgiving.
Your brother and servant in the Lord,
Issam John Darwish, BSO, DD
Eparch
From our Eparchy at Greenacre
Holy and Glorious Pascha, 2010