Christ is risen! Indeed, he is risen!

This article is being written to appear on the Friday, three weeks before Easter Sunday as it appears on the Gregorian or civil calendar, which is the calendar most of the world uses these days. But for those Christian churches which still adhere to the Julian Calendar, Easter Sunday will not be until May 1.

But that isn't the important fact of this, the greatest and holiest day of the year. No matter which date we celebrate, what we are celebrating is the most important fact. We are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, the only-begotten son of God.

Jesus experienced quite a week, that last week just before his death. He rode into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey and the people greeted him by strewing cloaks and palm branches in the roadway as he approached them. They were overjoyed to meet him and to greet him.

They didn't understand that he had come particularly to die for them. His only purpose was to fulfill the will of his father, to offer himself as a victim that the house of Israel might be reconciled to the God who had named them as chosen people. He tried to teach them for about three years, he had lived among them, and he had provided them with lessons on how they should live, explaining the sacred writings of their faith and how those teachings and writings were about him and his mission. And while they heard him, they really didn't understand him at all.

He spent time with those who had tried their best to comprehend what he was teaching them and with those whom he had personally chosen to spread his message. He celebrated the Passover Seder with those 12. He instituted the sacrament which we call the Eucharist or communion at this meal and only one of them betrayed him. In only a few hours after this meal, he was arrested and hauled before those who would put him to death.

After his scourging, after his being mocked, after his crowning with the wreath of thorns, after his crucifixion, he spent three days in the tomb. And then he rose from the dead! What greater proof could he have offered to prove that he was what he said he was – the son of God? How much greater testimony could he have given?

They did not want to believe in him and his mission. They wanted someone to get them out from under the Roman rulers. They wanted a conqueror who would make them the great nation they had been in the time of David the king and Solomon. What they didn't want was a man of peace, a man who taught them that they should love their neighbor as they loved themselves.

As the time for celebrating this feast grows closer, regardless of when we celebrate it, let us all remember that the theme of the feast is reconciliation and Christ's victory over death and our freedom from death to be able to attain eternal life.

We are approaching that day of days – the day that the Lord has made, let us indeed rejoice and be glad in it!

Christ is risen! Indeed, he is risen!

Happy Easter to all!

Metropolitan Kyril,

Holy American Orthodox Church