“FEAR NOT”
Saint Mark 16: 1-9
The Feast of The Resurrection of The Lord: 12 April Anno Domini 2020
Archbishop John Chrysostom with minor editing by Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Let all Pious men and women, and all lovers of God, rejoice in the splendor of this Feast; let the wise servants (Christians) blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord; let those who have borne the burden of Lent, the anxiety over disease, illness, and pandemic, now receive their pay, and those who have toiled since the first hour, let them now receive their due reward; let any who came after the third hour be grateful to join in the feast, and those who may have come after the sixth, let them not be afraid of being too late, for the Lord is gracious and He receives the last even as the first. JOY this morning for those who have been able to come on Sunday and those who have not been able to come—out of prudence, caution, medical warnings, and love for you their neighbors—their family. He gives His Peace to all! He gives rest to him who comes on the eleventh hour as well as to him who has toiled since the first: yes, He has pity on the last and He serves the first; He rewards the one and is generous to the other; he repays the deed and praises the effort.
Your God died for you. Your God is no longer dead. Jesus The God/Man is raised from the dead. He Lives. You live. Your departed brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, children—THEY LIVE. Jesus is not the God of the dead but of the living.
Come you all: enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward; you rich and you poor, dance together; you sober and you weaklings, you frightened ones like the Magdalene and the Myrrh Bearers (at least at the first), celebrate the day; you who have kept the fast and you who have not, rejoice today. The table is richly loaded: enjoy its royal banquet. The calf is a fatted one: let no one go away hungry. All of you enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the riches of his goodness.
Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave; let no one fear flu, Covid 19, other hideous and mundane diseases, OR death itself, for the death of our Savior has set us free: He has destroyed it by enduring it, He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom, He has angered it by allowing it to taste of his flesh. That taste was the snapping of Satan’s neck and the crushing of that foul serpent’s skull.
When Isaiah foresaw all this, he cried out: “O Hades, you have been angered by encountering Him in the nether world.” Hades, Hell, is angered because it is now eternally frustrated, it is angered because it has been mocked, it is angered because it has been destroyed, it is angered because it has been reduced to naught, it is angered because it is now captive. It seized a body, and lo! it discovered God; it seized earth, and, behold! it encountered heaven; it seized the visible, and was overcome by the invisible. You will now have a Body laid on your tongue: a living, enduring, remitting, and eternal life-giving Body. God first discovered you at + the Font, and now bids you to Table that you would discover again the Peace passing all fear, care, worry, and weakness.
O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Christ is risen and life is freed, Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead: for Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of those who had fallen asleep. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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