Monthly Message from Fr. Ghassan - May/June 2026

Monthly Message from Fr. Ghassan - May/June 2026

The Resurrection
The First Appearances After the Resurrection:
What happened after Easter, to whom did the Lord Jesus Christ appear after His resurrection from the dead, what is the context of the events that followed the resurrection as mentioned in the four Gospels, and who were the witnesses?
Before answering this question, we must emphasize that the Resurrection is not limited to the time of Easter alone, but is a salvific continuum that transcends all time, and around which all our prayers, beliefs, and church liturgy revolve.

1- Introduction:

The Resurrection: A Path to Salvation.
The Resurrection is the core of our Christian faith, and we have lived it since the first day of God's incarnation. It accompanies us from the Old Testament to be fully revealed in the New Testament.
Numerous prophecies told us about the salvation of our God, starting with the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, and that someone would come from the lineage of Eve and crush the serpent's head, to the moment when the Angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary the divine conception, that the child would be the Son of the Most High, and the appearance of the angel to Joseph and the naming of the child Jesus, meaning God the Savior, and also the angel's announcement to the shepherds of the birth of the Savior, the transfiguration of Jesus, His miracles, healings, and raising of the dead, the testimony of Moses and Elijah the prophets about the events that would happen to the Lord, Jesus' raising of Lazarus, the crucifixion of Jesus, the empty tomb, His appearances after the resurrection, and the Ascension, in addition to His constant presence with us by sending the Holy Spirit to all who declare Him God and Savior. This entire journey of the Resurrection tells us that we are people of the Resurrection, created for eternal life. Therefore, the Church, in its prayers, strives to make us live this Resurrection and not be absent from it, so that what the Master said to the rich young man will not apply to us: "Let the dead bury their own dead" (Matthew 8:22), and so that we may live in the Kingdom and proclaim it.
From this perspective, the testimonies are divided into two main sections: testimonies before the Resurrection, and testimonies after the Resurrection.

2- Testimonies Before the Resurrection:

The Gospels tell us that the Lord Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, announced to his disciples three times his death and resurrection on the third day. He wanted to prepare the disciples and introduce them to the wondrous mystery of salvation, thus making them living witnesses who anticipate this historical-divine event prepared for the salvation of all humanity from before the creation of the world.
Based on this anticipation, the Church, in turn, introduces us to a pre-testimony of the Lord's Resurrection. On Holy Saturday, the priest, in a loud voice, while scattering laurel leaves on the church floor after changing his vestments and putting on white, proclaims: "Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations" (Psalm 82).
In addition to this, there are prayers throughout Holy Week that introduce the believer to the glorious mystery of the Resurrection. We observe that the funeral hymns are chanted with a joyful melody and combine the crucifixion and resurrection together:
"How did You die, O Lord, and dwell in the tomb? Yet You broke the power of death,
raising the dead from Hades.
O Christ the Creator, when You were laid in the tomb, the foundations of Hades trembled before You, and the tombs of the dead were opened.
In a new tomb You were laid, O Christ, and the nature of creation was renewed
when You rose quickly as God."
"O Christ, when You were laid in the tomb in the flesh, Your mother shed tears, crying out, 'My Son, rise as You told us.'"
Thus, the faithful prepare themselves with these prayers for the glorious and life-giving resurrection of Christ.
The second set of prefigurations comes in two parts:
The first is the raising of Lazarus, and the second is the event of the crucifixion itself.
The Raising of Lazarus: Before we enter the Great Week, which begins with the first Bridegroom service on Palm Sunday evening, we hear a cry that shakes the foundations of Hades, utterly destroys death, and illuminates the darkness of the tombs: "Lazarus, come forth!"
The Lord Jesus addresses this cry to each one of us, saying: "I am the Life, and you will not die by being united with Me, for you are children of Life."
The Crucifixion: The events that coincide with the crucifixion themselves declare that what is happening is from above, not from below. The earthquake, the darkening of the sun, the opening of the tombs and the resurrection of saints, the tearing of the temple veil, the conversation with the repentant thief, and the testimony of the centurion.
These events declare that He who is hanging on the cross is the Incarnate God and the redeeming Savior. 3. Testimonies After the Resurrection:
We observe that the Evangelists, in their accounts of the Resurrection, presented somewhat distinct testimonies; however, this distinction is a source of strength, not weakness.
Firstly, the core of the subject is the same: the empty tomb – the angels – the burial cloths – Jesus is alive.
Secondly, the differences in details confirm the power and greatness of the event. It is not surprising that one speaks of one angel and another of two, for all of heaven descended to earth, and with the coming and incarnation of the Heavenly King, the angels came to glorify and rejoice.

Thirdly, the Evangelists wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and in the light of the Resurrection, and therefore did not simply copy information from one another.
The Empty Tomb: On the day after the Sabbath, that is, on the first day of the week, at dawn, some women from Jesus' group came to Jesus' tomb: Mary Magdalene (mentioned in all four Gospels), Mary the mother of James (mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Salome (mentioned only by Mark), and Joanna.
and other women. They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" as they carried spices to anoint the body. They looked up and saw that the large stone had been rolled away. And behold, they found themselves before an empty tomb. Wonderful is your tomb, O Lord, for it has transported us from Saturday to Sunday.
Wonderful is your resurrection, O Lord! The women came to anoint your body, but you anointed them with your light.
Wonderful is your burial, O Savior! The women arrived to mourn a dead man, but they found him alive, proclaiming that the truly dead are those who do not know the resurrection of the Lord, who conquered death by his death. Note:
None of them, nor anyone else, saw Jesus coming out of the tomb; only the apocryphal gospels describe Jesus' emergence from the tomb.
- The Gospel of Matthew speaks of three things:
The first: The arrival of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary at the tomb, and their conversation with the angel who rolled away the stone. He informs them of the Lord's resurrection and asks them to tell his disciples. (Matthew 28:1)
The second: The encounter of both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary with the resurrected Jesus, where they grasped his feet and worshiped him, and he instructed them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee to see him there.
The third event: Peter and the other disciple come to the tomb and seeing the empty burial cloths. (John 20:3)
The fourth event: Mary Magdalene weeping and seeing two angels sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where Jesus' body had been laid, and they simply said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
"But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her: 'Woman, why are you weeping?' She said to them, 'They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.'" (John 20:11-13)
the fifth event: Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene immediately after the angels finished speaking with her:
"When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?' Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.' Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' She turned and said to him in Aramaic, 'Rabboni!' (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, 'Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."'" (John 20:14-17).
Note: Three times Mary Magdalene thought that Jesus' body had been stolen, meaning she still considered him among the dead.
The sixth event: Jesus appearing to the disciples hiding in the upper room. “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’” (John 20:19-24)
Seventh event: Jesus appears again to the disciples in the presence of Thomas. (John 20:26-29)
Eighth event: Jesus appears to the seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee. (Chapter 21)
- Acts of the Apostles:
Jesus appears to the disciples for forty days, and to Paul on the road to Damascus. (Chapter 9)
“As he traveled, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
- The Epistles:
His appearance to Peter and the disciples (1 Corinthians 15:5), to more than five hundred disciples (1 Corinthians 15:7), and to James.
Summary:
The journey is not yet over, for every moment we repent, we rise with the Lord.While the Old Testament stated that anyone who touched a grave became unclean and needed purification, today, in the resurrection, the opposite is true. Everyone who runs to this empty tomb is purified, enlightened, and meets the risen Lord.
The first day in the Book of Genesis is the day God created light, but in the New Testament, the first day of the week extends into a resurrection day, becoming the eighth day, the day of the Kingdom outside of time, which God inaugurated in His glorious resurrection, and to which we are all invited.
The angel sits on the tomb, proclaiming victory and the good news of the defeat of the power of hell, hoping that he will sit on the tomb of our sins and roll away the stone from the door of our hearts, so that there may be a true resurrection in all our souls.