In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
What effect does the Gospel of the Resurrection have on your lives? What effect does it have on mine? We have heard of the victory wrought by Christ against idolatry, against sin and even against death, and that,
as many as receive him, to them he gives the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name:
John 1:12–13
who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
What effect does the Gospel of the Resurrection have on our lives? We have been freed from confinement to idolatry, freed from imprisonment to sin, freed from captivity to death, and in my freedom I try to continue in my life as if nothing has changed. And the Church will be there as and when I need her.
“Among other most wicked actions, not to be expressed, which their own historian, Gildas, mournfully takes notice of,” St Bede the Venerable tells us,
they added this that they [the British] never preached the faith to the Saxons or English, who dwelt amongst them; however, the goodness of God did not forsake his people whom he foreknew, but sent to that nation much more worthy preachers, to bring it to the faith.
St Bede, ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People,’ I, 22
And I am forced to address my presumption: will the Church be there when I need her? Because if I am unwilling to build up the Church—by offering my time, my talents, my energy and my money—will she still be there? The Church in Britain was, perhaps, held back by not preaching among the English, events in the last century show that while the gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church, (Matthew 16:18) certain local churches can disappear.
For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel!
First Corinthians 9:16
And we take these words of the Apostle and apply them to our common life, not that each of us must be preachers, but that we must all work together so preaching may be done. And we see this in action by St Photini, the Samaritan Woman. She does not go preaching, but she says to the people of her city, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” And by her words, by her testimony, many came to Christ.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what effect does the Gospel of the Resurrection have on our lives? Is it a convenience, a useful addition, a break from the trials and tribulations of our lives? Or does the Resurrection vivify us, enlighten us and send us out to bring all the more to the Lord so that the Church continues in our land, preaching the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and inviting all to come to greater knowledge of the Father through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us then, dear brothers and sisters, work together and offer what we have to the Lord that we may be worthy of the name Christian and draw closer to Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
That we may offer all praise, honour and worship to our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who arose that we may have Life, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit. Amen.
In those days, those apostles who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabos stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world; and this took place in the days of Claudius. And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea, and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
— Acts 11:19–30
At that time, Jesus came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he. Just then his disciples came. They marvelled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “What do you wish?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him food?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour; others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour. Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony. “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard ourselves, and we know that this is indeed Christ the Saviour of the world.
— John 4:5–42