In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is risen.

It is sad for me as I travel around now in Pascha time, because wherever I go, there are many new people coming from Russia, and I see how quickly they have become Canadianised in a negative way. When I say “Christ is risen” to them they say: “Indeed He is risen” very quietly. That is the Canadian way. Canadian ways are all right in some ways, except when it comes to “Christ is risen”. When someone says: “Christ is risen”, this is the centre of our life. We have to say: “Indeed He is risen”. We have to say it with strength, not just the Canadian: Yeah, sure, He is risen. If we are Orthodox Christians, what is this about? This is the centre of our life – the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s why we are here today. That’s why Russia survived seventy years of persecution, death, destruction. That’s why the Orthodox Church is alive today in Russia. The Church is being resurrected.

So it’s very good that I have a chance this year to come in the Paschal season because I see this happening here, and I have a chance to say: Wake up, remember who you are – Orthodox Christians who live by the Resurrection. Live by the Resurrection: be strong in your Orthodox faith, and show it by how you respond on these days.

The Acts of the Apostles is today talking to us about the diaconate: what is the meaning, the purpose of the diaconate, and how it came to us. The Apostles, as we heard, were very busy with preaching the Gospel. However, they were also so busy feeding widows, distributing food to the hungry, and everything else, that they had no time to do their first responsibility, which was to preach to the world about Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostles, and told them to set apart deacons. The deacons were to do the work of caring for those who were in need in any way. That’s exactly what deacons are doing, and are supposed to be doing until this day (even though our Church has become a little bit forgetful in North America, and does not have nearly enough deacons).

However, God by His mercy is raising up men to become deacons, and they are serving in the footsteps of Stephen, Timon, and Parmenas, and all the others that we heard of today. Their responsibility is to lead people in worship (as they do, and as they have always done), but also, to care for the people who are in need, to watch in the parish, to be the eyes, and ears of the priest, to see who is sick, who is in need, who has problems one way or another, to make sure that somehow these persons’ needs are seen to. That’s what deacons are supposed to be doing. They are supposed to be helping the priest like this, so that the priest can bring the sacraments to them, but also so that the parish council can make sure that if someone is in a particularly tight spot, maybe the parish, as brothers, and sisters in Christ, can help that person in whatever way that might be. The way of Christ is all about service. First of all, we love Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ loves us. We are here exactly because of that. However, it does no good (and you see it in the Gospel, and Epistles all the time) for us just to say: I am a Christian; yes, sure, I love Jesus Christ. It has to be shown in concrete ways.

Earlier this week, we had the reading from the Acts about Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). They were two early Christians. In those days, everything was held in common. By agreement, Ananias and Sapphira fell into a temptation. They were selling their property. Ananias and Sapphira, as the Acts tell us, decided that they would only give part of what they got for this property to the life of the Church, and they hid the rest from the Apostles. So when Ananias came, and laid at the Apostles’ feet the proceeds from this property, and said: This is all there is, the Lord taught the Apostle Peter that this was not true. The Apostle said (to paraphrase): You are not telling the whole truth here. Did you not sell it for so much? Well, that was true, and because that was the case, Ananias fell down dead. Sapphira came in later, and so the Apostle Peter said: “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?” She agreed in the lie her husband had told, and said: “Yes”. The Apostle said: “The feet of those that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out”. And she died also.

The problem here is not that Ananias and Sapphira did not give everything, because that could have been allowed. It could have been agreed that they would keep part of the proceeds for whatever they had to do with these proceeds. The problem is that they told a lie. They told a lie, and this lie is what brings death. That’s what happened with Adam and Eve in the first place. When they disobeyed the Lord, and took the fruit of the serpent, they hid from God. Then of course, Adam blamed Eve—it was really bad. They began to lie, because to hide from God means I accept fear, and I run away. We can’t be like that. The way of Christ is not like that.

The way of Christ is about living the Truth. Living the Truth. We see written above where I am standing (it is Jesus Christ, Himself, speaking): “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6). Jesus Christ, Himself, is the Truth. We are living in that Truth. There is no other truth. That’s another crazy Canadian idea, that there can be many different sorts of truths: there is this truth for you, and that truth for you. That is all just stupid. There is only one Truth. There is only one. Just by definition, truth is truth, and it’s only one. If there are alternatives, then there is no truth; it is only ideas. There is only one Truth, and the one Truth is Jesus Christ, whom God the Father sent to us. When Saint Arseny had those words put on that wall, he knew what he was doing for you, and for me. Ever since I became acquainted with those words many, many years ago, I became impressed with the importance of them. St Arseny left us a great legacy just in those words, no matter what else he did. We are living in Jesus Christ, who is the Truth.

This gives me again another opportunity to make a correction, in case anyone fell into a trap. Today we heard how Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome – the Myrrh-bearing Women – came to the tomb of Jesus Christ, in order to anoint His body with spices. However, instead, they found that He had risen. These women are the first witnesses of His Resurrection. Because there is so much lying going around about St Mary Magdalene these days, I must say that St Mary Magdalene, equal to the Apostles (who indeed was the woman who had seven demons cast out of her), was not a prostitute, as The Da Vinci Code tries to pretend. The Scriptures never said that. The Apostles never said that. The Church’s tradition never said that. That is an invention of some Europeans in the Middle Ages. That is not an Orthodox understanding, and it is not the truth. Mary Magdalene was not the woman in the Scriptures who was a prostitute, and who was healed. St Mary Magdalene was delivered of demons, and that is quite a different thing.

The other lie that is going around, associated with The Da Vinci Code (this is terrible; this is really bad), is that Jesus Christ did not die on the Cross; He only pretended to die, but by a clever trick, He appeared to rise from the dead; He got married to Mary Magdalene, lived in the south of France, and had children. That is such an evil story. It is really evil. It is especially evil in North America because people are so lost from the Christian faith in North America that they easily believe this lie. They are taken away by this lie.

You, and I, Orthodox Christians, are responsible, because we live in Him who is the Truth, and we know the Truth. We know the truth about the Truth. It is our responsibility when people say that they believe what this crazy fantasy book says, to correct them, and say that it is only a fantasy, and not history. The real history, which is demonstrated in the writings of the Church, and in some documents, is that St Mary Magdalene lived, died, and was buried in Ephesus. She went with the Mother of God, and the Apostle John, in fact, and died in the same area. Her final resting place was in Constantinople, not France. Please remember that her relics ended up in Constantinople.

More important than St Mary Magdalene, however, is that Jesus Christ did, in fact, die, and rise from the tomb. He rose bodily from the tomb, and we know it because there are so many eye witnesses to this fact recorded in the Scriptures. There are so many other witnesses, until this day, of Jesus Christ, who makes Himself known to millions and millions and millions of Christians. Then, finally, we know it because millions and millions and millions of Orthodox Christians in the former Soviet Union were prepared to die for Him, for love of Him, for Him who is the Truth, because of their experience of the Risen Jesus Christ.

We, who are Orthodox Christians, must remain faithful to all of these believers who knew, and do know, the Truth. We know the Truth, too, and when we hear these lies spoken about, we have to correct them. It’s not our responsibility if people don’t believe us. That’s their problem. We have to speak, and correct them.

Now, back to the Myrrh-bearing Women, who were the first to see the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. At the end of the Gospel, it is said that they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. Wouldn’t you be, under those circumstances? Put yourselves in the feet of those Myrrh-bearing Women going to anoint His body, and finding that He was not there. The stone was rolled away. At first you think that someone had stolen Him, and then you find out from the angel that He is risen from the dead. An angel speaks to you, and says: “Tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him”. Wouldn’t you be shaken up considerably? I have no idea how I would react under circumstances like that.

The Myrrh-bearing Women in the end did talk. They did tell the Apostles. Thomas was not there when the other Apostles encountered the Risen Christ. The Apostle Thomas is called “Doubting Thomas”, but he is not alone. You recall that the other Apostles didn’t believe unless they saw, also. The other Apostles also had to see. And the doubt was good in this case, because when Jesus Christ appeared to the Apostles, and showed Himself risen from the dead, it confirmed their faith. They were unswervable after that.

The Myrrh-bearing Women, themselves, were giving to the rest of us an example of what the way of a Christian is all about. Christ, at the last supper, washed His Apostles’ feet. And He said that you, and I are supposed to live our lives in the same way. We are supposed to be caring for each other, not demanding to be cared for. The Lord said (to paraphrase): I am the Master, but I am among you as a servant (cf. Luke 22:27). All we Orthodox Christians are in this world as servants. Those women came to the Saviour as servants, loving Him, wanting to give Him the last rites, as it were, the last anointing, because there was no time when they buried Him to finish the ritual of anointing, and properly bury Him. They came out of love, and service.

In the whole of the history of the Orthodox Church, who has been the example of service? We have deacons, men that are supposed to be the living examples of servants to the rest of the Church from the time of Christ. But who are really living out this service in the history of the Church? The women of the Church, following in the footsteps of all those women in the Scriptures.

Women in this parish held this place together year after year. It is women in all sorts of parishes who, out of love for Jesus Christ, make sure that the Church has what it needs. The Church is looked after. It is women’s groups who have cared for children, and made sure that they had money for education. In many parishes, the women would make sure that they knew the dates of the birthdays, and name-days of the children, so that they would send them a card from the church to remind them that they are prayed for, and remembered. It was women very often in our past who made sure that people who were in the hospital had a flower or a card, and had someone among the women to go, and visit, besides the priest. Yes, it’s the job of the priest, and the deacon to go, and visit. However, often a person lying in a hospital bed will say in his heart: It’s nice that you come to see me, but it’s your job. When my brothers or sisters from the parish come to see me, it really gives me extra encouragement, extra joy (or words to that effect). This is the way. It is women who have in the past embodied this.

Brothers, and sisters, our life is a life of joy, a life of love, a life of service, a life of living in the Truth. Let us ask the Saviour to renew our hearts in His love, so that having confidence in Him, we will not be afraid to step out, and do, and say things that He asks us to do, and to say, because He said: “I am with you always even to the end of the ages” (Matthew 28:20). That’s not just until the end of the world, as it says in so many Western translations. It’s until the end of everything. When we are alive in Him, there can be no end. His Resurrection means for you, and for me that when we are alive in His love, there is no end. God is love, and there is no end of His love. Let us, therefore, brothers, and sisters, step forward in faith, and in love, and glorify our Saviour, Jesus Christ, together with His Father, who is from everlasting, and His all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America