“And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold,
                          two men stood by them in shining garments.” – Luke 24:4

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Χριστος Ανεστη!  Christ is Risen! 

On the NASA Perseverance spacecraft which recently landed on the planet Mars, special lights were built on each of its vehicles. All aspects of Perseverance’s hardware was equipped to handle the intense blackness of deep space due to the lack of sunlight. As any object traverses further and further away from the sun, the darkness is greater and greater. Yet even the smallest, tiniest amount of light can penetrate the blackest void, as other NASA missions have discovered when leaving our solar system.  

Saint Nikolai Velimirovic said that “no amount of darkness can ever extinguish a single candle,” and “a candle does not lose any of its light when lighting another candle.” In the same way, the light of Christ can penetrate even the darkest heart, and the greatest evil. In our parish, we celebrate the light of the greatest feast of all time, the Resurrection, and know that what we celebrate is nothing less than the destruction of death itself. If even a small candle can eliminate the darkness in a room, how much more can the light of Christ illumine the darkness in our lives! No matter what challenges we face, the brightness of the Resurrection has already overcome our hardship, and brought us light in darkness.

In the same way that the angels at the empty tomb wore bright, white robes, the Lord reminded His disciples by saying “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) Let us embrace the light of the Resurrection in our own lives, and bring light to even the darkest corners of the “space” in our lives, and those of others.

With love in the Risen Lord,

Father Niko Bekris
Proistamenos