Good afternoon! Later, I probably would say Good Evening! and you might reply Good Evening to you too! These are all rather formal greeting phrases. There are informal ones too. In Dublin you might hear “Story!”. In Cork, “Howya boy!” or in Belfast, “How’s about ya!” Around here, perhaps “How’s it going?” To each of these greetings there are a variety of responses “I’m good!” “Great!” “Grand!” “Mighty!” “Struggling!
I am not sure if you are aware of it or not but there is special Easter greeting that Christians have used for centuries. The greeting is “Christ is risen!” The response is “He is risen, indeed!” It is still quite commonly used in Eastern Europe during the eight days after Easter Sunday. In Ireland, I suspect its use would be met with a blank stare and the suggestion that you were somewhat overly religious. However, I like this ancient Easter Greeting. In its simplicity, I think it has a lot to teach us. Let’s try it. I say, “Christ is risen!” you respond, “He is risen, indeed!” “Christ is risen!” … “He is risen, indeed!” This Easter Greeting is both a proclamation of fact “Jesus is risen!” and an acclamation of faith “He is risen, indeed!”
As a proclamation of fact – it calls to mind that first Holy Week well over two thousand years ago. Jesus must have had an extraordinary effect on those who encountered him. He was someone who not only brought them close to God but also someone who gave their lives a meaning and a purpose. Their world was turned upside down by his arrest and condemnation as a common criminal to the blood barbarity of crucifixion. Many of them fled, suspecting that they were next. For those that stayed, they gave him a hasty burial in a borrowed tomb not far from Calvery.
As soon as they could, some of the heartbroken women among the group returned to the tomb to complete the customary funeral rituals. The stone was rolled away – the tomb was empty, the grave clothes folded up. Mysterious messengers told them: “He is not here. He is risen. He has gone before you home to Galilee.” In the days to follow, many of his closest friends and many others would testify that they had met and spoken with that same Jesus who had died and was buried. He was now transformed, present and alive in their midst. They struggled to find words to express the depth of what they had experienced. Their downhearted doubt and darkness had been replaced by exuberant hope.
Fear that they might meet the same fate as Jesus had been transformed into an almost foolhardy urge to tell everyone what they had experienced, no matter what the consequences. In due course, all of the twelve apostles, bar one, were to die the deaths of Martyrs rather than deny what they had experienced. For the early Christians –the resurrection of Jesus had become his defining hour. It showed forth what they had failed to understand for so long. That in Jesus and through Jesus, God himself had definitively entered our world on the side of light rather than darkness, of hope rather than despair – on the side of life rather than death. For them the proclamation of fact that “Christ had risen!” had become an acclamation of faith. They believed with every fibre of their being that “he had risen indeed!”
This Easter Morning as we hear once again the story of the Resurrection of Jesus proclaimed as fact let us renew our faith in the risen Christ. He is alive today and present among us. Let us bring to him those dark areas of our world, our families and our lives that need the transforming presence of God at this time. Today, I think of the indescribable suffering of the martyred people of Gaza, the battered people of Ukraine, the death and destruction wrought in South Sudan and every war-torn and famine ravaged region of our world. I think of displaced peoples of migrants and refugees. I think of those who find life tough going at this time, those who are plagued by illness, loneliness, addiction or depression. Those who are poor, homeless, lost in life. Those who have gone down dark roads, broken trust, hurt others or who have been hurt themselves. I think of those who live in fear, uncertainty and crippling anxiety – those who feel unloved, unwanted and who are plagued by dark thoughts. I think of those who mourn the loss of loved ones.
Although at times, it may be difficult to fully grasp and even accept, the message of Easter, the message is the same as it has been since the beginning. God himself stands with those who find themselves in darkness. Into that darkness, no matter how deep it may be, he will ultimately bring light and transformation and new life if not in this world certainly in the next. This is the hope that springs forth at the heart of Easter. This is the hope that an often-weary world longs to hear and it is this hope that today we so rightly rejoice on this Easter morn.
In continuity with the ancient tradition of that Easter Greeting, let us not be afraid to proclaim this hope and to respond in faith. For “Christ is risen!” … “He is risen, indeed!” “Christ is risen!” “He is risen, indeed!” “Christ is risen!” “He is risen, indeed!” Amen