Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, Alleluia!)

‘For they were afraid.’

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Our Lord, having been buried, has arisen from the dead and mounted up to the heights of heaven. The women stand in terror before the angel at the tomb, who announces to them, ‘He goes before you.’ They cannot comprehend what they hear. Yet the regal proclamation is made none the less. This proclamation, now made to every generation, the announcement of righteous and final victory:

For when the Lord had clothed himself with humanity, and had suffered for the sake of the sufferer, and had been bound for the sake of the imprisoned, and had been judged for the sake of the condemned, and buried for the sake of the one who was buried, he rose up from the dead, and cried aloud with this voice:

“Who is he who contends with me? Let him stand in opposition to me. I set the condemned man free; I gave the dead man life; I raised up the one who had been entombed. Who is my opponent? I, he says, am the Christ. I am the one who destroyed death, and triumphed over the enemy, and trampled Hell under foot, and bound the strong one, and carried off man to the heights of heaven, I, he says, am the Christ.

Therefore, come, all families of men, you who have been befouled with sins, and receive forgiveness for your sins. I am your forgiveness, I am the Passover of your salvation, I am the lamb which was sacrificed for you, I am your ransom, I am your light, I am your savior, I am your resurrection, I am your king, I am leading you up to the heights of heaven, I will show you the eternal Father, I will raise you up by my right hand.”

This is the one who made the heavens and the earth, and who in the beginning created man, who was proclaimed through the law and prophets, who became human by the blessed virgin, who was hanged upon a tree, who was buried in the earth, who was resurrected from the dead, and who ascended to the heights of heaven, who sits at the right hand of the Father, who has authority to judge and to save everything, through whom the Father created everything from the beginning of the world to the end of the age.

Now all who receive His liberation, who join His conquest; now all who share in His divine Sonship, hail the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end– He who is an indescribable beginning and an incomprehensible end. Lift up your hearts to the Christ, to the king, to Jesus. This is our master, who holds the field forever. This is the Lord. This is the one who rose up from the dead, him who sits at the right hand of the Father. He bears the Father and is borne by the Father, to whom be all glory, honor, and dominion, now and forevermore.

AMEN.

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