Sermon on the 3rd Sunday after Easter [2012]

My Beloved,

Christ is risen!…

And gave us to see how looks the man transfigured, deified…

But today, our Church shows us and how the true Orthodox zeal looks…in the person of the Saints Myrrh-bearing Women.

These left early in the morning at the tomb of the Lord…that to anoint His body with myrrhs…in spite of the fact that the tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers…and the stone rolled at the door of tomb was very huge for them.

But they went to the grave full of longing…and for this they have been the seers of God.

Of course that, the believing women enjoys today. For that after what we talked about the entrusting of Saint Apostle Thomas…today, we talk about longing for God that manifested through works.

For faith is not a purely intellectual fact but it employs our whole being. We live the faith with our whole being and not just mentally.

Therefore, the faith is dynamism for that is the love of God.

And who loves God, he manifests in mode plenary as a man of faith.

This is the motive for that in Orthodoxy the faith is not a cold speech, distant…but the theological action.

And we do one thing because it is motivated theologically…and for that, thanks it, we grow spiritually.

But, in the same time, today we talk about the traditional perspective on human. For man and woman are not antagonistic beings but with proper roles and complementary.

Whether they are laymen or monks…faithful people can accomplish in their relationship with God…because the family is not a handicap for salvation…after how the remoteness from the world is not an advantage for the Kingdom.

What imports is the zeal and genuine love for God. And namely: the continuous dynamism, the active longing for Him.

About the names some of the Saints Myrrh-bearing Women speaks us the Synaxarion of the day.

And those mentioned here are the following:  Mary Magdalene, from which Christ took out seven demons, Salome, daughter of Saint Joseph, the fianc of the Most Clean, Ioana, the wife of Huza, Mary and Martha, sisters of Saint Lazarus of Bethany, Mary of Cleophas and Susanna… ie 7 names.

But emphasizes in Synaxarion [Penticostar, ed. BOR 1999, p. 101] the fact that, were more women which served of Christ and His Apostles from their wealth.

Besides all these holy women is the Mother of God…named in the Gospel right „mother of James the Less and of Joses”, ie „mother of the sons of Joseph” [Ibidem].

…And the Mother of God, according to Tradition, was the first that saw her Son after His resurrection from the dead. After that saw Him and the Saints Myrrh-bearing Women…

But His sight is a result of His love, which is listening to His commandments.

His sight is full of love…and this is the message of the day! Because without a real attitude to Christ does not exist a human fulfillment.

Only if we feel His presence in our lives, that changes us and stimulates us, we can say that we are faithful people.

Faith includes all…and without this sentiment we can not hope at the eternal life.

We are still in the feast…in the feast of the Resurrection of Lord…and must behave as children of the resurrection.

Because only such we can give to others the theological witness of our lives. And I want that we, with all, to give the good testimony to the society in which we live: that we are new people in Christ and we live in the rhythm of the continue resurrection. Amen!