Easter 2014

"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing life!"

April 20th, 2014

To My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Hristos Voskrese! Christ is Risen!  A Happy Easter to all!  We reach the end of Great Lent, and now can rejoice in Christ's victory over death!  We are now freed from the fast, and the rigor involved in such, as we move into Bright Week, and can finally return to a normal prayer schedule, eat anything we want, etc.  If I know my audience correctly enough, I believe we are all at the age where we realize that Easter has been secularized almost as much as Christmas in modern society.  The more we can remove ourselves from this secularization the more we can bring ourselves closer to the true focus of the Great Feast: Christ's Resurrection!

Our faith is beginning to be persecuted in this country.  It is not said that Christianity is socially unacceptable, but it is starting to reach the point where the pillars of Christianity are.  More and more groups, sports teams, and performers are having meetings, practices, and rehearsals on Sundays, casually requiring people to miss Church (or worse, stop people from attending on any sort of regular basis).  Evolution and mythology are taught in public schools, yet it is not acceptable to teach the True Faith.  As stated before, both Christmas and Easter have become secularized and commercialized to the point where the true meaning of the holidays has become lost to many of us.  

In my opinion, the strongest persecutions come from the encouraging of sin.  For those who do not approve of many sinful practices, including homosexuality (condemned in Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9), and abortions (condemned indirectly in Exodus 20:13; Amos 1:13; Galatians 1:15), they are silenced, and criticized by society for not being accepting.  God does not teach us to be accepting of other beliefs.  He teaches us to "love one another", but also to "make disciples of all nations".  The United States was founded on freedom of religion, not the absence of religion.  We can be true to our roots while strong in the Lord.

St. Paul writes to Timothy in his second letter, "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution," (3:12).  That has been true for all eternity, and is true even today.  I am not calling for all of us to become monks and nuns (though I would greatly honor anyone willing to devote themselves to such), but I am warning you.  Our society is heading in the wrong direction spiritually, and we as Christians need to make sure that we do not head in the wrong direction with it.  We also need to encourage one another that we do not stumble.  This need be our creed.

I wish to conclude with a story that most of you are likely not familiar with.  St. Macarius the Great of Egypt was walking, saw a skull upon the ground, and asked it who it was.  The skull replied that he was the chief priest of the pagans, and was currently tormented in hell.  St. Macarius asked if there were worse torments.  The skull replied, "Down below us are located those, which did know the Name of God, but spurned Him and kept not His commandments. They endure yet more grievous torments".  None of us want to be tormented in hell.  I urge to to keep the faith and trust in the Lord.  We are all sinners in Christ, including myself, but that is not a reason to ignore the Lord's commandments.

Grace be with you all.  Pray for each other.

-NM

To My Fellow Non-Christians,

Greetings!  If you have not been living under a rock, you know today is Easter, a Christian feast day that marks the Resurrection of Christ, our savior, after he was crucified and killed, and of His triumph over death in the Resurrection.  In the true fashion of the holiday, there are no adorable bunnies involved, though it would not shock me if some of you have reached the point where you venerate the easter bunny's arrival.  Personally, I believe the easter bunny stands for gluttony, and try to keep myself away from it as much as possible.

For those of you who were once Christians, but have fallen away from the faith, I encourage you to read the last paragraph of my letter above.  I realize many of you probably did already.  Those who do not believe that God does not exist have not observed what is around you, and are unaware of the many miracles that have occurred in his name, and the many witnesses of Christ.  For those of you who feel the God is not worthy of worship deny their own existence, and the existence of the world around them.

Many of you have been raised outside of Christianity, and have simply never been exposed to the faith. To you, I wish to give a brief introduction.  I include here the first 17 verses of the Gospel according to St. John.  John was a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God in his three year ministry, and his Gospel, or Good News, is one of four books of the Holy Bible that details the Life of Christ.  He is not the John mentioned below, as that was St. John the Forerunner.  The passage below was read today in Orthodox Christian Churches everywhere, and serves as a prelude to the history told in the later chapters.

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. He was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
4. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7. This man came for a witness, to beat witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.
8. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
10. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
11. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
12. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
13. who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14. And the World became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This is He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'"
16. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
17. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

And then there are those of who are officially considered christians, but read this letter, and maybe questioning whether they have earned the title.  I commend you for doing this.  Even if you believe only in justification by faith (which I personally find ridiculous), you must acknowledge that Faith in God is more than belief.  The faithful servant does not only believe, but believes and obeys.  We are called upon to do good in the world, and to love both God and each other.  Some of us call ourselves Christians, but rarely pray, never attend services, ignore the fasts, and put greater importance into worldly matters.  I ask you, is this the Christian way of life?  We are all called to be disciples of Christ, and we must live up to what it is to be called a Christian.

Grace be with you all.  We pray that you may find Christ.

-NM