In Search of Meaning - The Easter Resurrection

I love this holiday. It feels especially close to my heart. Because it's the holiday of unexpected joy. And I love unexpected joys the most. I imagine the excitement with which the early Christians greeted each other with the words "Christ is risen." A greeting in which conviction and wonder, reality and fantasy intertwined... But we need to believe in the miracle. It's as if we intuitively sense that life is not just what we see, that it extends far beyond our notions of it.

What does Resurrection mean to me? It's primarily renewal, rebirth, casting off the old. But it's also a return to myself, to my essence... I feel it whenever I discover something new within myself, whenever I manage to surprise myself (how rarely that happens lately: is it because I know myself well, or am I mistaken?), whenever I achieve something desired, whenever I overcome what pushes me back, whenever I feel filled with life and warmth, whenever I conquer passions and fears... Because without passions, there is no Resurrection.

We all understand the struggle of overcoming inertia, prejudices, and weaknesses. It demands significant effort and time to surmount the internal and external barriers that obstruct our journey towards becoming the individuals we aspire to be. It's more comfortable to tread familiar paths than to embark on the uncertain journey of exploring something new and unknown. To take the risk of walking the path to ourselves and to others, without fearing what we might find there.

I have always been a supporter of the Orthodox idea that not only our faith saves us, but also our personal moral efforts and actions. Without them, there are no victories, only mirage and self-deception... What would Christianity be if Christ had abandoned His Cross? Perhaps one of the many moral teachings that existed before Him - beautiful, but barren, and far from reality.

Christianity is a religion of human dignity. By showing great respect for the individual person, it does not absolutize them, turning them into a self-sufficient system, but directs us towards our neighbor, towards the person next to us who needs our presence, our goodness in the present moment. I don't believe in goodness "in principle". The morality of people who are willing to take a lot of money out of their pockets for some vague charitable cause while neglecting their lonely elderly neighbor who needs a warm word, attention, and a bowl of lentil soup seems questionable to me...

If it has made an impression on you, more than once Christ has told His disciples that He will die and rise again. But they did not understand what He was saying. Because they were not mature enough for it. To understand the Resurrection, we must grow up. To feel our own resurrections, we must be ready for them. To be sensitive enough, to know ourselves well. To allow life to be Life, not aimless wandering... Only then can each of us reach our Easter!

Happy Easter to all Orthodox Christians!