There is another outstanding Greek Father of the Church whose writings we should all be aware of, that is St. Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria. He wrote much on the resurrection of the human body.

It has been said that unless Christ was raised from the dead, unless the tomb of the Lord was found empty, the Christian message would indeed be useless. St. Paul actually wrote this: If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain.

But why do the saints and the Fathers speak about the Resurrection in such uncompromising terms? Quite simply, because if the Lord’s Resurrection is merely a beautiful metaphor, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished, and we are of all men most miserable, for nothing but death and corruption – nothing but non-being – would await us.

Christians know that Christ is risen; and they know that His Resurrection signifies our resurrection and so         together with St. Paul they affirm that now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The Resurrection of Christ the New Adam, then, is a foreshowing of our own resurrection, of our intended place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

However, within the mystery of Christ’s glorious Resurrection is also contained the mystery of the way in which we have been called to share in the very Life of God the Holy Trinity; and it is here that we arrive at the fundamental doctrine of the Church concerning the resurrection of the body.

Put simply, the whole of our humanity – body as well as soul – has been called to live eternally with God. This is the significance of the salvific work of Christ: that by His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension, Christ has raised human nature to the right hand of God the Father, to the level of Divine Being.

Fundamental to Eastern theology, God came in the Person of Jesus in order to reveal to us how we might cooperate with His grace (help) in order to become more unto His likeness, having been made in His image. As I have shared with you, the Eastern Church teaches us that God, having given us free will, has, through life, also given us opportunities to grow in His likeness – to live like Jesus!