The core of our Christian proclamation is “Christ is risen, he is truly risen!” In the Orthodox Church, this Easter greeting is exchanged during the liturgy and throughout the Easter season — sparking something of the excitement of the feast.
This is what we celebrate today. We look into the empty tomb and the tide of our understanding gently turns with the realization we too are meant to be part of this new life which lies beyond death. It is the Resurrection that validates all our hopes, turns sorrow to joy, replaces fear with trust. It is the Resurrection that blesses the struggles of life with refreshment and unflagging vision. Nowhere is this better captured than in one of St. Augustine’s Easter sermons:
“Here we have such joy, my brothers and sisters, joy in your coming together (this Easter Sunday), joy in the psalms and hymns, joy in the memory of Christ’s passion and resurrection, joy in the hope of future life. If what we are still hoping for fills us with such tremendous joy, what will it be like when we actually possess it? Just look how these days, when ‘Alleluia’ is ringing in our ears, our spirits soar? … If these days fill us with such tremendous joy, what will that day be like when all the saints are gathered together there in unity in such a way that a friend is never lost, an enemy never to be feared”. (Sermon 229B, 2)
If this is to happen we must repeat the triumphant greeting “he is risen”, rather than grasp at the levers of control. Our attachments – to health, well-being, comfort, loved ones, and most of all, self-possession – must be allowed to pass through the transition of dying to ephemeral satisfactions in order to achieve eternal ones.