OUR LIFE CHANGES WITH THE RESURRECTION

Fr Luke A Veronis

Christ is risen. He’s alive. Darkness did not prevail. Evil did not have the final say. Death is no longer the destiny of all humankind. And the world has changed because of it. If we embrace His Resurrection, our lives will change. Everything in life changes because of Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead!

Do you think this sounds like a bit of a religious overstatement? Well, it’s not!

From now on, if we live in the light of our Lord’s Resurrection, we can never look at anything the same! Nothing that life brings will darken the reality that Christ is Risen. This joyous Good News forms a new worldview and radically changes the way we perceive, interact and live life. We no longer allow any darkness or evil to hold us under its influence.

Always remember that from the moment of Christ’s Resurrection, we have a choice to make. We either choose to live under the reign of His victorious love and life, following the Giver and Source of Life, OR we choose to continue living under the sway of this fallen world with all its confusion and anxiety, with all its stress and despair, with all its sin and evil, with all its darkness and death.

We choose how to live our lives. We can’t choose what will happen to us in this mystery of life. Life happens. Life is a deep mystery that will bring many surprises. Life is full of unknowns. And life will surely bring unexpected challenges and struggles, suffering and tragedy, even plenty of fears and worries. But we have a choice whether we will face whatever happens in life in the light of the Resurrection or in the darkness of the world. Even when we face injustice and persecution, darkness and evil, sickness and death, we still have a choice how we will respond to each of these circumstances and temptations.

Will we choose to live in the light of Christ’s joyous resurrection? Which means will we choose to live with the hope that His victory over evil, darkness, sin and death brings? Will we choose to participate in His victory?

Think about it. When the apostles and saints faced whatever life brought - including terrible suffering, persecution and sometimes even the most horrible death, they chose to live in the light of the Resurrection and this brought them joy, hope, and even peace in the midst of their struggles. They endured life’s greatest challenges with joy and peace precisely because Christ is Risen. They faced their torturers and could forgive them and show them mercy precisely because Christ is Risen. They understood in the depths of their hearts that the sufferings of this life could not compare to the glory of an eternity with God!

Christ is risen and He has changed the world!

Christ is risen and He has transformed our suffering into something new!

Christ is risen and He has changed our life today!

I look around the world and see so much confusion and darkness, so much anxiety and despair because people have lost their connection with the Good News of Great Joy that Christ is Risen!

I want all of us to remember what happened tonight in the Church and carry this memory with you throughout the year and throughout your lives. Earlier tonight, the Church was darkened. This darkness represents the darkness of the world with all its evil and injustice, with all its pain and suffering, with all its confusion and lostness. Yet in the midst of that darkness, I came out carrying the eternal light of our Risen Lord Jesus, crying out:

 “Come receive the light from the light that is never overtaken by night and glorify Christ who is Risen from the dead.”

We choose whether to receive the eternal light of Christ or not. In the Gospel reading of the Liturgy, it’s interesting that we don’t read one of the accounts of Christ’s Resurrection but instead we read from the beginning of the Gospel of John, which says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Why do we read this gospel on the night of the resurrection? Because the resurrectional light of Christ can pierce the greatest darkness, any and every darkness, in the world! This is the Divine Light, the Resurrectional Light that we want to shine brightly in our hearts.

Choosing to live in the light of resurrection means that every time we feel overwhelmed by life’s circumstances we remember the darkened church on Pascha night, we remember Christ entering into the darkness of Hades and Death itself, and then we celebrate Him and us as the Victor!

Christ is Risen! Darkness will not prevail! Let us rejoice and celebrate in the light of the Risen Jesus!