Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Homily by Fr. Ruslan Babii on the Third Sunday after Easter
May 3, 2025
The Holy Scriptures say that the kingdom of heaven is won by effort. This effort is our courage to trust God, to do what is right out of love for God regardless of fear, overcoming our unbelief! And so let us enter into the joy of Christ’s resurrection in good faith that we too will be raised with him!
Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!
At the beginning of today’s Gospel, we read about the courage of Joseph of Arimathea. How he came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus to be given to him for burial. All this happened in a hurry to make it to the Sabbath. The women, whom we today call the Myrrh-bearing women, watched as Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus taken down from the cross and laid it in a new tomb, blocking the entrance with a large stone. They also knew about the guard.
The Myrrh-bearing women were imbued with a deep sense of love and pity for Jesus. For them, he was a Teacher. Their action is expressed in a sacrifice similar to Joseph’s; they buy myrrh and go through the darkness and danger to anoint the body of Christ, regardless of obstacles such as a stone or a guard.
Regarding their action, as well as that of Joseph, who was also a secret disciple of Christ, we can say that it is courage, boldness, based on true, effective love. It was discipleship (faith in the word of the Teacher-Messiah) that revealed this virtue in them. They wanted to act for the sake of Christ, devotedly and sacrificially, bravely, without fear and confusion. Where there is the love of God, fear disappears.
Being a disciple is the calling of each of us. We live in a time when we can clearly express our religious preferences; we are not persecuted for our faith, but we do not have the courage to express our Christian position, and sometimes we are even ashamed of it.
So, boldness comes from a deep desire to be with God, a deep love for him. We do not need to be too intelligent. We do not need to be theologically insightful, but we must desire to know the things of God. I would say that it is impossible to be courageous if we do not develop our love for God through prayer, through fasting, through reading the Holy Scriptures, through listening to homilies, and participating in the Divine Service. Otherwise, our hearts become cold. We may know something about faith, but we will compromise in our lives and not even realise it. This is often the case. Or when we realise it, we are afraid to speak the truth at that moment.
Today I want to emphasise courage, omitting any logical criticism of the fear that arose in the minds of the myrrh-bearing women after meeting with the angel. So they were afraid to fulfil this task—to announce the good news of the resurrection of Christ to the apostles; in this, their unbelief is similar to that of the apostle Thomas. However, I want to argue, justifying their imperfection by God’s providence. I do not justify unbelief, because Christ said to Thomas, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And again: “Blessed are those who have not seen but have believed!” The Myrrh-bearing women did not see the resurrected Christ in the tomb, but in my opinion, they saw a rather majestic sign—the image of an angel—but still did not believe, because they were afraid that if they said aloud to everyone, “Christ is risen!” it might turn out to be untrue.
So, let us develop our love for God and understand that we are called to serve. The Holy Scriptures say that the kingdom of heaven is won by effort. This effort is our courage to trust God, to do what is right out of love for God regardless of fear, overcoming our unbelief! And so let us enter into the joy of Christ’s resurrection in good faith that we too will be raised with him!
