The more difficult, the more saving it is. The more difficult, the closer the victory.. Suffering must be clothed in white garments as before Pascha. We mast hear the Paschal singing. Fr. Dimitry Dudko

And We Too Must Rise

 Christ Who arose from the dead conquered Death, and he who believes in Christ does not die. This faith in immortality gives meaning to our life….The remembrance of death does not frighten the faithful. It is unbelievers who are so fearful at the very remembrance of death. And even of certain contemporary diseases. Faith in the Resurrected Christ makes us courageous, powerful, not fearing anything. And indeed, what is there to fear if every difficulty in earthly life carries with it eternal joy? What is there to tear if Christ is with us, to Whom all power is given in heaven and on earth? Me who believes in the Resurrection from the Dead knows why he lives and what there will be after our physical death. And he lives rejoicing because our life is Christ and death is gain (Phil. 1:21).

“Christ is risen, my joy,” said St. Seraphim to everyone who came to him. For the believer, another man is joy and he rejoices at every man because Christ has risen, be- cause we will live eternally. We will Jive eternally. Let us think about these words and understand their meaning. We should embrace everything and everyone.  The Kingdom of God has already begun. It is in your souls, as Christ said.

One might ask, “Why do you, O man, ruin life for yourself and others with your unbelief” Christ is risen for all of us, so that we might live eternally and rejoice. God made man for joy. Through the envy of the devil death entered into the world, as it is said in the New Testament. Let us overcome this envy of the devil. Let us find the lost faith and let us rejoice. There is eternal life, there is the Resurrection from the Dead, there is the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven. We are not alone. With Christ we have everything, because we have all of this. Faith is greater than anything else.

One must believe. Unbelief is a frightful misunderstanding, a misunderstanding which is filled with frightful consequences. Let us open our eyes and look and see what we have lost with out unbelief. We are mistrustful of each other, intolerant, unloving, slanderers; we have laid waste to everything. One cannot live with unbelief. Unbelief only destroys both the material and spiritual values Because unbelief is death.

“I do not believe”-that means that I do not believe anything good, anything living. “I believe”-that is, I believe that there is life, that there is God, that we are all brothers. Why should we fight with each other over earthly goods which sooner or later will become dust, if there are eternal good things for which we do not have to offend one another? which are prepared for us by God? We are bought with a high price, the death of the God-man. Let us not be redeemed from slavery only to fall voluntarily into the slavery of death and corruption. Man is free to choose for himself the freedom of eternal life. Life or death? God has given us the choice. Let us choose life. Let us go towards this rife. Life is given with difficulty. The kingdom of Heaven is attained with difficulty,

as it is said in the Gospel, and only those who labor for life enter into it, into the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.

We’ve become lazy  We’ve become corrupt through unbelief and satiating ourselves with earthly goods. Let us become sober. Let us look at the Cross. Here is Christ Who has been crucified for us so that we might live eternally. Let us not fear the difficulties on the cross. All our powers should be used for the resurrection from the dead. Christ was crucified in this world, but this is not death. Christ resurrected for another world for which we too must live. Through the Crucifixion we must see the Resurrection from the Dead…

We need the Resurrection from the Dead so that our family might come to life, so that our society might come to life, so that the Church might be considered not a relic from the past, but a holy thing towards which one. Must be reverent. We need the Resurrection from the Dead so that from our life drunkenness, hooliganism,and moral corruption might disappear. We need the Resurrection from the Dead so that people might not be in such a hurry, suffocating each other, enjoying themselves to death, but so that they might live, loving each other, and- that blessedness might be there    On earth we are under way, we are strangers and pilgrims and we should not be enjoying ourselves here, but we should be helping each other somehow to pass through the path of labors and wanderings, the path of sorrows, so that boredom might not eat us up, so that death might not be the only reality for us, but that the Resurrected Christ might be seen by us.

It is the day of Resurrection, Let us be radiant, O people

 The Day of Resurrection is a day of remembrance.to us not only of the yearly feast of Pascha, but of the eternal Pascha when, after earthly labors, we will rejoice and be blessed eternally. Amen.

 (Excerpts from Fr. Dimitry Dudko’s Resurrection Sermons, translated by Pr. Seraphim Rose.)

Fr. Dimitry Dudko