by Protopresbyter Dr Georgios Lekkas, priest of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium
Christ is Risen! No one need fear death anymore!
Because the world departed from the Kingdom, the Kingdom of God entered into the world in order to win it all back. Death has become the gateway to Eternal Life, suffering is no longer without reason, and Evil becomes self-defeating at the very moment it seems to prevail. The Kingdom of God thus comes stealthily but steadily, until the accursed order of the world is completely overthrow.
Christ is Risen! No one need fear death anymore!
Nothing can resist the Light any longer; it penetrates the walls that separate our homes and warms us all together even when we live as strangers. The light of day embraces all of us and the darkness you were afraid of as a child gives birth to a new light that unites us even more. What we call life is just preparation for permanent exposure to an absolute effulgence of light.
Christ is Risen! No one need fear death anymore!
What if you get old? From the moment of your birth, a bright little person shines inside you, and every day you live, it seeks to become more beautiful. It grows according to its own rhythm, its time does not follow the clocks we use, it rises inside you in a spiral, often in small or even large bursts, and never rests until we are entirely clothed in it, alive or even dead!
Christ is Risen! No one need fear death anymore!
And if one starts loving in the way that Christ loves, one wishes to be completely burned up in order to live differently. Death is now what separates us from Christ and everyone else and life is only what unites us with them. And once someone starts loving Christ, he no longer fears death, because Christ’s love has changed death from a curse into a blessing. With our death only a dim beam fades to shine hereafter in an eternally blinding light.
Christ is Risen! No one need fear death anymore!
