Just a few things:

1. Vespers at 5:00 p.m. this Saturday.

2. Divine Liturgy: Hearing of confessions and the reading of the hours at 9:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

3. This Saturday is the WOCA Sponsored Youth Bowling Tournament at Roxy Lanes on Henderson Hwy. 2-4 p.m. Please come and join us for a really fun afternoon. If you have any carpentry work to be done, let Fr. Evan know, because he will be hammering pins all afternoon long.

4. Mother’s Day is fast approaching. In honor of that, Holy Cross will be collecting baby layette items for new mothers in need for the Thelma Wynne Project located in Winnipeg. The Thelma Wynne Project has been in existence in one way or another for over 50 years. For much of that time it has been located within St. Matthew’s church building. Dedicated women from Anglican churches in the city make or collect items and then prepare layettes for newborns. The layettes are distributed through social agencies in the city to new mothers who need them. The project has evolved somewhat over the years but originally was started by Thelma Wynne after whom it is named. The items are to be new and include: diapers, blankets, sleepers, caps, booties, baby soap, lotions, etc. Holy Cross will be collecting these items for the month of May until May 30. You can bring your donation to Holy Cross on Sundays or you can contact either Fr. Evan or Sylvia Kitzul at 256-8370 and we can arrange a pick up.

5. I often wonder what it must have been like, those first few days after Christ’s crucifixion. The confusion, the sense of despair, the fear. The disciples going into hiding, wondering if the man they chose to follow was truly the Messiah, the Son of God or did they “back the wrong guy”? I understand the going into hiding. They were scared. They knew they would be “guilty by association”. Heck, even Peter, they disciple who answered Christ’s question,”Who do you say I am?” with “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” would end up denying that he knew Christ. Everything in their world was turned upside down and the feelings of comfort and understanding that they might have had from the words we hear in the Gospel of John, chapters 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 were forgotten. The very words Christ spoke to His apostles, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1 Their hearts were troubled, they could not trust.

But Christ’s death and burial affected not only His apostles, but all those who followed Him. And we see a contrast between the actions of the apostles and the myrrh-bearing women whom we commemorate this Sunday. The apostles ran and hid. The myrrh-bearing women, on the other hand, went to the tomb to anoint Christ’s body, to fulfill the traditions of anointing the dead, to give Christ the honor and respect due to Him. These women show great courage, great love and great devotion to Christ.

Often in life, when we are faced with troubles, the fight or flight instinct kicks in. One of two things will happen. We will face the problem or we will run from it. We will lock ourselves behind a big door, with a big lock, and hope the problem will not get to us, that it won’t find us. That is what the apostles did.

Or we can fight. We can be like the myrrh-bearing women and we can walk that path to the tomb of Christ. I don’t know if they were scared. I think they were. All the events that preceeded the crucifixion, the arrest, the trial. I believe it was not an easy journey. To go to the tomb of the man they believed was the Messiah, the Saviour, and they were going to annoint His dead body. It required courage to go to that tomb.

And their courage was rewarded. They were the first to hear the good news, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.”

We will all face troubles in our life. We will have the choice to run or fight. We can face those difficulties because we have heard the angel’s voice, “He is risen. He is not here.” Every day of our life is a journey to the tomb of Christ, and the path will not always be easy. There will be dangers in many different forms, dangers that will challenge our faith and our conviction, undermine our trust. But we carry the knowledge and the comfort of knowing the tomb is indeed empty. That our trust has been rewarded, like that of the myrrh-bearers. “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death. And upon those in the tombs, bestowing life.” That, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is where we get our courage from.

Answer to last week’s question:
How many times is Jesus called “Son of David” in Matthew’s Gospel? 10 times.

This week’s question:
True or false: In Chapter 9 of John’s Gospel, Jesus says He is the light of the world?

See you in church.

In Christ,

Fr. Evan