And this sea of lit Easter candles, which is blown about by the spring night breeze, is the reply of the believers to the nonsense and empty words of disbelief and agnosticism, the answer to the wretchedness of doubt and of atheism….
The Gospel reading from the Gospel according to Mark ( 16:1-8) – the 2nd “Eothinon” Gospel – is the scriptural pronouncement that Jesus the Nazarene, the Crucified, “has arisen, He is not here”, in the strangers grave that is, which had given Him hospitality. This trumpet blast of the rising of Christ from the dead is given wing by the bright and joyful plagal first tone of our Byzantine music, and is announced to all the worlds visible and invisible: Christ is risen from the dead, by death He has trampled on death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life”… The night hears it and celebrates. The trees hear it and “clap their branches”… The “night-flowers” and the “holy –vine” (aromatic flowering plants) hear it and pour out their aroma from joy..
