Sunday, April 08, 2007

Happy Easter! The Lord Is Risen!


The Sun of Justice that had disappeared for three days, today rises and shines on the whole creation. Christ in the tomb for three days and in existence before the centuries! He comes up like a vine and fills the earth with joy. Let us look at the rising sun that will never set; let us anticipate the day and may we be filled with the joy of this light!

The gates of Hell have been broken by Christ, the dead wake up from sleep. Christ rises, he, the resurrection of the dead, and comes to wake Adam up. Christ, resurrection of all the dead, rises and comes to free Eve from malediction. Christ rises, he who is the resurrection, and he transfigures in all its beauty what had “no stately bearing to make us look at him." As a sleeper the Lord woke up and confounded all the trickeries of the enemy. He was raised and gave joy to the whole creation; he was raised and the prison of Hell was emptied; he was raised and transformed what is corruptible into incorruptible. The risen Christ clothed Adam with incorruptibility, his first dignity.

Through Christ the Church today becomes a new heaven, a more beautiful sky to contemplate than the visible sun. The sun that we see every day cannot compare with this Sun: as a servant filled with respect, he eclipsed in front of him, when he saw him hanging on the cross. It is of this Sun that the prophet said: “For you who fear my name, there will arise the Sun of Justice with its healing rays”...Through him, the Christ, Sun of Justice, the Church becomes a beautiful sky filled with plenty of stars, that come out from the baptismal waters in their new light. “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad," filled with the joy that comes from God.

-Saint Epiphanius of Salamis

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