Christ is Risen, Hallelujah! Yes, he is truly Risen, Hallelujah!
This truth changes everything, changes my life, your life, changes the history of mankind. This truth has saved us. It is not vain words. Our feelings or our ideas can’t save us. What saves us, what saves the world, what saves history, what saves all men and the universe is that: Christ is Risen, Hallelujah! Yes, He is truly Risen, Hallelujah!
We did not just celebrate an event that occurred 2,000 years ago. We celebrated a fact, an event that inaugurates the time of God’s victory over sin, over death, and over all evil. We are celebrating, welcoming, living the event that establishes and inaugurates a new time, the time of God’s victory over sin, over your sin and mine, over death, over the evil that often bites our heel! Today a new era has began. Today a new time has been inaugurated, the time where Jesus Christ at His cross and His resurrection definitely won over sin, death and all evil.
Sin no longer commands the world! Sin no longer commands me, it no longer has the power to command! We were slaves of sin but now Jesus has liberated us. Sin does not command the world anymore, it does not rule us anymore. Death does not command anymore. Now, it is the merciful love of the Risen one who commands me and all those who believe and confess that Jesus is the Lord. He commands us. Sin does not command anymore! Selfishness does not command anymore. It may still exists and if you feed it, it becomes stronger, but now it is weak, because it was overcome by the cross and the resurrection of Christ. Selfishness does not command anymore. Impurity does not command anymore. Pride does not command anymore. Resentment does not command anymore. Vanity, idolatry, superstition, jealousy, hatred, ambition, discord, envy, avarice, self-indulgence no longer rules. Because theses things don’t command us anymore, we do not have to live as their slave anymore. Now, there is a force, a power within us. My brother, this is true!
What commands now is the love of Christ with forgiveness, with charity, with joy, with peace, with patience, with kindness, faithfulness, mildness, temperance, purity, self-sacrifice. These should prevail now, should rule our lives! We have strength and power to live a new life. This strength and power is the resurrection of Christ by the Holy Spirit given to us. We need to believe and embrace the resurrection of Christ.
Moysés Azevedo