Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! (Khristós Anésti! Alithós Anésti!) These are the triumphant words of the Paschal Greeting, with which Eastern Christians greet each other with great joy during the Easter Season. “Christ has risen! Truly he has risen!”
I had the privilege of attending a Greek Orthodox Easter service with the family of a close college friend of mine back in 2010, and I have never forgotten that liturgy. Unlike the very practical, functional Roman context in which our Mass developed, the Eastern Christian liturgies are full of ceremony and repetition. Why do something once, when we can do it three times? Why go directly from Point A to Point B, when you can do a procession through Points C through Z instead?
I happen to like our relatively simple Roman liturgical tradition … except for Easter. On Easter, the joy of the Resurrection cannot be contained! It should burst forth from our churches and from our hearts like a tidal way, overwhelming everything in its path! Our bells should be ringing, our trumpets should be blaring, our voices should be shaking the rafters. Jesus is risen! He is truly risen! Just saying those words should bring us incomparable gladness, because those words are the source of all of our hope. Because Jesus has risen (because Jesus has truly risen!), we have nothing to fear, not even death itself. We are free from anything that could ever harm us, because Jesus has won the ultimate victory. Amen! Alleluia!
I know that this year, particularly, it is hard for us to feel the joy of Easter. We still feel confined to our tombs and find it harder and harder to believe that Jesus has won a victory over anything, let alone sin and death.
Dear Christians, so not despair! Our Easter hope has been renewed yet again! And even if we are stuck in our homes, the power of the Resurrection reaches even there. In Christ is our hope, and our hope does not disappoint!
May the risen Lord bless you and your families always!
(P.S. If you would like to exclaim the Paschal Greeting like a good Latin Catholic, one person exclaims “Christus Resurrexit!” and the other responds “Resurrexit vere!”)
Fr. Moore 