Last Sunday I stood infront of the iconostasis at my local Church while preparing for a baptism and I noticed something that struck me to the very depths of my being.
The altar doors which are closed for the most part of the year were open. As I looked cursiously into the altar there was no sign of Christ on the Cross. And I stood there, silently pondering...
Just as the stone was rolled away from the tomb of Christ revealing that Christ was not there anymore, so too the altar doors were open showing an 'empty' altar.
Christ is risen! Truely He is risen!
This is not a question, it is not a theory, it is not a proof, it is beyond reason. "Mystery transcends reason", as St Gregory Nazianzus writes.
This is a statement of faith.
Because we who have become witnesses to Christ's Resurrection have no need of a 'proof'. The Apostles who 'heard, saw and lived' the Truth, as St John writes in his Epistle, have passed it down to us. We only have to make the choice to receive it. Let us then roll away the stone from our own hearts and through Christ's Resurrection be resurrected ourselves. It is only then when we can fully receive and accept Christ as our Saviour. We may very well call St Thomas, doubting Thomas, 'Rational Thomas'. He needed proof.
All Saints Church, Belmore, Sydney
It teaches us that there is more to life than what we can see and hear and feel every day. Yes, the world we live in is still full of beauty and we may live a seemingly full life, but there is more. Often people see Christianity as something which limits one's happiness in life, that there are strict rules one has to obey to 'obtain' heaven. But what it simply teaches is that there is more, and that this exists forever. And if you believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ defeated death by His own life-giving Death, you will be saved. What more can one say?
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