Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!

Easter Sunday 

Alleluia! He is Risen!
Indeed He is Risen!

This is the antiphonal Paschal Greeting which Christians had for centuries used to greet each other on Easter Day and during the Easter season. The first part was the greeting, to which the recipient will reply with the second part. Though it is no longer practised among Catholics these days, this continues to be a widely practised custom by our Eastern brethren: "Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!". The greeting is imbued with the Easter excitement and joy that the Lord is risen, that He has conquered death, that all His promises made to His disciples are validated and that life, not death, has the final word.

But for many, the excitement and joy of Easter seem absolutely foreign. Anxiety seems to be the great problem of our age, both individually and collectively. Fortunes are made selling medications and providing therapies to help people overcome their fears, anxieties, phobias, and neuroses.

If ours is an age of anxiety, it is because it is an age in which the Lord Jesus is either not known or not believed. He may be talked about—dozens of books may be written about Him and hours upon hours of television and radio programming may be devoted to Him, but in practical terms, how Jesus lived and died, and what He taught about how to live and die, have negligible impact on the course of world events. In a recent podcast interview, the grandfather of the podcast movement, Adam Curry, was explaining to the atheist Joe Rogan on the latter’s show how he had embraced Christianity. Joe had found the topic interesting enough to feature it on his show, but like so many folks of modern times, could not make the connexion between faith and reality. He could not understand the former’s “leap of faith.”

Why are Christian beliefs considered alien to many? Why is Easter still a mystery, only to be reduced to popular cultural symbols of bunnies and eggs? St Paul gives us this answer: “How can they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14) Christians claim to believe in Jesus, but don’t believe Him or take Him at His word, the living Christ has become all but invisible to the world. Because Christians continue to try to be the guardians of their own existences, instead of being the extension in time and space of the body of the Crucified One, the God who wants to protect them has become unknown to the rest of humanity, which consequently continues to look for a saviour - Another wonder drug? Another technology? Another political ideology or economic theory? Another political leader or commercial whiz-kid billionaire? Another messiah?

We have experimented with so many ideas, things and persons but none of them is able to deliver ultimate human fulfillment or ultimate security against death. What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, touched by the power of the resurrection, who have seen the empty tomb and recognised its meaning and are capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end.

When we sing our great paschal anthem, “Christ is risen,” we note that Jesus “has given life,” not survival, “to those in the tombs.” For the past three years, we have been taught and we have learnt that survival – our own individual survival and that of our loved ones and even of the human race is paramount and is dependent on a prescription of masking, social distancing and vaccinations. We were even willing to forgo and sacrifice our religious obligations, that which guaranteed eternal life, for a few more years of surviving this earthly existence. But, many of us have forgotten that it is Eternal Life, not survival, that our Lord teaches. It is life, real life, true life, Eternal Life that only God can give, that enables us to live in joy and to experience the “peace that surpasses all understanding,” and which can take us beyond this “valley of tears.” Nothing can substitute for it, and it can only be accessed by faith.

Recently, a tragic shooting in a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a crazed transgender individual, had shocked Americans from both sides of the political aisle, though both had divergent views on the cause of this tragedy and the remedy which would prevent such future madness. Three adults and three 9 year old children, including the daughter of the pastor whose church ran the school, were killed. The one line statement of the father sums up the faith of Christians: “Through tears we trust that she is in the arms of Jesus who will raise her to life once again.” Christians are not immune to tragedy and loss, even for a father who is a Christian pastor. But Christians possess something which others do not. Christians possess an Easter faith that doesn’t take away the pain but gives us the ability to handle the pain; a faith that doesn’t always take you out of the storm, but calms you in the midst of the storm.

Yes, the life we celebrate today, the life which Christ has won for us through His death and resurrection, is more than just survival, or a life free of troubles, pain, ailments or failures. It is everlasting life. This is the life worth living and worth dying for. This is our hope and it is this which gives us the courage to face the uncertainties of the future and the dark shadows of the past.

Every nation has an anthem, a song to sing to inspire its followers and keep their hearts afloat in difficult times. Our Church too, has an anthem, the anthem of our resistance to evil, death and despair. It is an anthem so short, but so powerful, that it can be, and indeed is, repeated many, many times as we observe what Christ has done for us:

Alleluia! He is Risen! 

Indeed He is Risen!