Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Constantinople:
Grace, Peace and Mercy from Christ, who has Risen in Glory
Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,
We wholeheartedly address you from the See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the joyous greeting “Christ is risen!” The resurrection of Christ is the center of our Orthodox faith. Without the resurrection, our faith is in vain (1 Cor. 15:14). Through His resurrection, the divine Word rendered humanity – created in the image of God but wounded and stained by sin – incorrupt and deified, granting us once again the possibility of achieving divine likeness, of which we were deprived through disobedience.
However, what does the feast of Pascha signify as the victory of life over death in a world of violence and war, especially in the name of religion and God?
Many philosophers endeavored to find a solution to the problem of death and to overcome death with various theories. We Orthodox Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the dead and boldly declare the destruction of death. We know that it is the Word of God who bestows life and in whom“was life (John 1:4). We have the joyful experience of the Church, that death was conquered through the resurrection of Christ. “All things have been filled with joy, having received the experience of resurrection.” This faith brightens all expressions of church life and culminates in the divine Eucharist. The fact that, in the Christian world, it is especially the Orthodox Church that preserved the divine Eucharist as the center of its life and spirituality is inseparably related to the fact that the resurrection is the nucleus of our faith, worship and ecclesiastical ethos. For this reason, the Eucharistic liturgy is always festive, joyous, and primarily linked with the Lord’s day as the day of the resurrection.
The most striking expression and interpretation of the resurrection as well as of its regenerative power is the image of the descent of our Lord Jesus Christ to Hades, as this is wonderfully depicted at the Chora Monastery in Constantinople. The Lord of glory descends to the depths of Hades, destroying its gates, arising victorious and resurrecting Adam and Eve in Himself, and in so doing resurrects the entire human race from beginning to end. “Now, all things have been filled with light, heaven and earth and all things beneath the earth.” Creation rises from the dark realm of death to the heavenly kingdom, whose light has no evening. The faithful, as participants in the resurrection, are called to declare the Gospel of freedom in Christ to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).
The Mother Church, which lives the mystery of the cross and the resurrection simultaneously, today invites us “to approach with lit candles” “and together to celebrate the salvific Pascha of God.”
Through the resurrection of our Savior, all of humanity has become one people, united in one body. Through His cross and resurrection, Christ definitively destroyed all existing hatred. Thus, the Orthodox Church, as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, is the Church of the reconciliation of all, the Church of love toward all, friends and enemies. Reconciled, filled with new life, filled with true life, we all become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (cf Eph. 2:15-20).
Unfortunately terrorism, war, and bloodshed continue to this day. The lament and agony of victims, particularly as these are rapidly disseminated through modern technological means, tear the world apart and break our heart. This is why the world’s leaders – political, religious and church – are obliged and compelled by love to do everything that is possible to avoid such unacceptable conditions.
In the midst of this modern “irrational world,” we Orthodox Christians are called to offer a positive witness of love and sacrifice to our fellow human beings.
For us as Orthodox faithful, Pascha is not a fleeting moment of escape from the ugly reality of evil in the world; it is the unwavering conviction that Christ, who trampled down death by death and rose from the dead, is with us always, to the close of the age (Matthew 28:20).
Beloved brothers and sisters, such is once again this year the message of the resurrection from the most holy Apostolic and Patriarchal Ecumenical Throne, the sacred center of Orthodoxy, to all people: that Christ has risen and the power of death was abolished; the authority of the powerful over the weak has been destroyed. “Life reigns” and the nurturing love, profound mercy, and endless grace of the risen Christ cover the whole world, from one end to the other. It is sufficient for us to realize that Jesus Christ is the true light, that in Him is life, and that this life is the light of all people (cf John 1:3-4). This is our message to all political and religious leaders of the world.
Therefore, approach and receive the light from the unfading light of the Phanar, which as the light of Christ and the light of love shines upon all; in Him there is no darkness (cf 1 John 1:5). Let us hear this Gospel of joy and light; and let us Orthodox alleviate the pain of today’s world with our own love and sacrifice.
Glory be to Him who bestows life, who has shown the light and love and peace to the world as well as to each one of us. Glory to Jesus Christ, the king of glory, the conqueror of death and champion of life.
At the Phanar, Holy Pascha 2016
Your fervent supplicant before the risen Christ,
+ Bartholomew
Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome
and Ecumenical Patriarch
* * *
Patriarch Theophilos III, Jerusalem:
mother of Churches,
dwelling of God;
For you were the first to receive
the absolution of sins
through the Resurrection”
(Vesper’s sticheron of the Resurrection, tone d).
There was, in the early morning hours, darkness engulfing the tomb where the Crucified Jesus Christ the Nazarene, king of the Jews, had been buried. Abounding darkness too in the minds of Mary and the other women who had gone with her to the monument. Added to the sorrow of the Cross was the bewilderment before the view of the stone taken away, perplexity at the sight of the empty tomb, and despair because They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they had put him! (Jn 20:2).
But God was faithfully “administering salvation on earth”. God, who had wanted to save mankind through the incarnation and crucifixion of His Son the Monogenes, did not leave Him in the tomb to waste away. Christ, crucified and buried, was resurrected by the power of the Father and His divine competence. He vanquished the forces of the darkness and Hades, the devil, and rose from the dead, encountering Adam and his genus.
This hopeful message “by a pair of light-bringing angels” inside the tomb was proclaimed to Mary Magdalene and her accompanying women, transforming their sorrow to joy. This joy was infinitely augmented by the view of Jesus Himself, with the wounds of the nails upon His palms, resurrected, bright and glorified, telling them Greetings, upon which they took hold of His feet and worshipped Him (Matthew 18:9).
Eye witnesses of this supernatural fact of the resurrection of the Crucified Jesus Christ from the dead were not only the Myrrhbearers but also the Disciples, who had rushed to the tomb and they too saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself (Jn 20:7).
To confirm His Resurrection to the apostles whom the Lord had chosen, He gave many convictions that He was alive”(Acts 1:2-3), as in the gallery on the evening of that first day of the week (Jn 20:19), on the way to Emmaus, when He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself (Luke 24:27), and when He blessed the bread (Luke 24:30) on the Tiberian Sea, when He asked them for something to eat and on His instruction they hauled in the net full of fish (Jn 21:5-6) and He took the bread and gave it to them and He did the same with the fish (John 21:13) and when He led them out to Bethany (Luke 24:50) and before the eyes of the disciples, He was taken up to heavens (Acts 1:9) and sat on the right of the Father and sanctified, glorified and deified our human nature.
Then, fulfilling His promise, the Lord sent from the Father another Paraclete that illuminated their intellect in tongues of fire and they spoke in other languages (Acts 2:3) of the greatness of God, first in Jerusalem and from there to the ends of the earth, entrancing the world and attracting with their preaching several peoples aboard the ship of the Church.
The Church, the Holy Body of Christ, acquired by His honest blood, springing by Him on earth and sealed by the Holy Spirit, has been assigned to perform His redeeming work across the world. The Church preaches dialogue, reconciliation and peace; it heals man’s wounds, it sanctifies and saves him, consoles him spiritually and relieves him materially, shares its bread with the poor and the needy and offers tangible support to castaways, refugees and victims of violence and terrorism.
The Church of Jerusalem, the Holy Sion, the first to receive absolution of sins through the Resurrection, guardian of the Holy Lands as silent witnesses to the appearance of Christ on earth, extends wishes from the Most Holy and Life-giving Sepulchre, to its flock and to pious pilgrims: health, peace, stability, prosperity and a joyful festive period, proclaiming in unspoken joy “Christ Has Risen”!
With Paternal and Patriarchal blessings,
Ardently blesser in the Lord,
THEOPHILOS III
Patriarch of Jerusalem
* * *
“Christ is risen, trampling down death and raising the dead. Rejoice, all you people!”
(Paschal Canon, Ode 9)
Let us celebrate today, dear brothers and sisters, our Lord God, For He has visited and redeemed His people (St. Luke 1:68) and with the light of His Resurrection He enlightens the entire universe! Let us glorify our Lord who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). Let us glorify our Lord Who, having become a man for us, has died so that by His Resurrection he could open to us doors of new life! For all of us who have been baptized into Christ, in Christ we have died to the old man, so that resurrected, reborn, renewed in Him, we can live with Him forever. (cf. Romans 6:8) Christ is risen from the dead and has become the Firstborn of the dead (cf. I Corinthians 15:20), so that we too who have died in Adam, may be made alive in Christ, becoming a new creation.
That is why we, on this bright Day, sing the song of victory to Him Who has conquered the power of death, to Him Who has conquered the seeming wisdom of the wise men of this world and by His Resurrection has saved those who believe in Him. (cf. I Corinthians 1:21) We have seen the fulfillment of the words of the prophets and together with the Apostle Paul we say: We have come to know the love of Christ which surpasses understanding and have been filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:19) For just as the power of death, after the Fall of the first parents of mankind into sin, entered into this world, so likewise Christ the Lord, as the New Adam, has received the wounds of sin upon Himself, voluntarily, and died for us and destroyed the power of death and has returned man to his original glory. That is why we through the Resurrection learn the meaning and goal of God’s creation, for the Lord has brought everything from non-existence into existence so that it could eternally and without corruption live in Christ, His Only-begotten Son. Saint Maxim the Confessor being inspired by God teaches that we are born into the body, by baptism we are reborn, and by the Resurrection we are eternally born in Christ Who, as the First-Born of the dead, renews the entire creation and bestows upon it immortality. By His Resurrection Christ unites this world with paradise, and in paradise He receives before everyone else the repentant thief, giving us all hope that our living in repentance is not in vain. In celebrating the resurrection of Christ, we are celebrating and singing the miraculous Mystery of God Who created us to be eternal partakers of the Divine nature, that is, of Divine life, in His Son, the Incarnate, Crucified and Resurrected Christ the Lord. (cf. II Peter 1:4)
Before Christ’s Resurrection, all went after death into the dark regions of hades, where there is no one to glorify God, and in that way the senselessness of death kept all of creation in chains. (cf. Psalm 6:6; Isaiah 38:18) Christ God descends into the lower regions of hades and destroys the eternal chains that kept everything locked up. (Paschal Canon, Ode 6) Hades was emptied, and our Lord brings our forebears and the righteous ones out into the light of new life. Since then death is only a dream. It no longer signifies the end, but rather the door into eternal life in Christ. That is why the Apostle Paul boldly exclaims: For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
Having purified all our senses with fasting, let us look at the unapproachable light of the Resurrection; let us look at Christ Who shines in our hearts! Forgiving each other of everything, let us be renewed by the Resurrection into the new life! Let us live with the Resurrected Christ so that we already in this life may experience others and ourselves as One Body, One Church of God! Even though we live in a difficult time, full of unforeseen events and tragedies, we must not, following the example of the ancient Christians, stop rejoicing, and with Christ’s love we must love not only each other, but our enemies also, so that nothing separates us from the way of life which was granted to us by Christ Himself. Our Lord teaches us that if we do not forgive each other, we will not be forgiven, and if we judge, we are already judged. Without forgiving and without seeing our own transgressions towards our neighbors, friends and enemies, we will not be able to receive the light of the Resurrection, nor will we become the recipients of the hope of eternal life where there is no fear, sighing nor sadness. Let us not fear this world, brothers and sisters, for Christ has conquered this world! Let us fear only leaving the light for darkness, and leaving the joy of God’s Kingdom, by which we should live here and now, for the maze of worldly ideologies, bitterness, disunity, hatred and violence! We Christians are not afraid of death; rather we bless those who persecute us. We deeply believe that we are not of this world even though we live in it. Christ, the Eternal Pascha, has opened to us the doors of God’s Kingdom, which is our true fatherland, and we in this world are only passengers who are traveling through time and space, witnessing to Christ with our life. Let us, therefore, never forget in Whom we are baptized and for Whom we live, so that our life’s race is not futile and that our hope is not placed in empty and vain idols of this world and age. (cf. Galatians 2:2)
Our dear spiritual children let us not neglect love! For precisely according to our mutual love everyone will recognize us as Christ’s disciples. (cf. St. John 13:35) Let us be co-sufferers with those who suffer, let us weep with those who are weeping and let us comfort them with hope in the Lord! Let not our service to God be as a new edition of pharisaic external faith in God! For what reward will we receive? Let us sacrifice for our neighbor! Let us give to those in need! Let us glorify God with humility and with the words of the repentant publican who was forgiven and justified! The people of God today are dispersed throughout the world, but that which unites us and makes us One Church is not a transient ideology of this world, but a deep consciousness that we are united in Christ, in Whom we are baptized and of Whom we partake in the Eucharist, Holy Communion. Let us therefore make every effort that those who have not come to know the light of Christ’s teaching may see in us the way and recognize in us true successors of the apostles and saints of Christ! The entire Serbian people looks in this spirit to St. Sava, who unmistakably has shown us the way of Christ as the only way of life. The shrines of the Nemanjic's have shone for centuries as lighthouses in the fog of our history, directing us to the all-encompassing spiritual horizons of God’s Kingdom, which is not of this world. That is why no suffering and no injustice of this world’s mighty ones can or should disunite us or set us against each other.
On this bright Feast Day, with our prayers we most especially remember all persecuted Serbs, who already for two decades have not been able to go back to their homes, but also those who remain living on their ancestral homesteads, who together with their shepherds are enduring threats and pressure just because they are Serbs.
We are especially concerned about our brothers and sisters in Kosovo and Metohija. They live and glorify God on Serbian land, from time immemorial, and continue to witness the mystery of Christ’s suffering and Resurrection. How many times have our people suffered, but again with God’s power, have risen and renewed, continuing to walk on the path of Christ! Our holy shrines, and in particular our Kosovo-Metohija shrines, where the holy relics of many of our God pleasing saints rest and upon which is imprinted the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection, indeed teach us this the best. Throughout the centuries our churches, monasteries, villages and cities have suffered, but we have rebuilt them again, having rebuilt ourselves as the living Church of God. That is why instead of crying and sobbing, let us sing the song of victory, for in the light of the Resurrection the cross that we bear is not a symbol of humiliation and shame but a symbol of new dignity and glory. Kosovo and Metohija for us Serbs and for all Orthodox Christians is not only a geographical territory, but above all, it is a spiritual territory that connects us all regardless of where we might be living. Following the Kosovo testament of the Holy Prince Lazar, we cannot forget that the heavenly Kingdom is our ultimate ideal and eternal goal, while everything earthly is perishable and temporary.
Christians today suffer throughout the world, especially those in the Near East and Ukraine. May the example of their faith and their suffering be an encouragement and testimony for us that the Lord will never leave His Church and that the grace of God multiplies where suffering has increased! We cannot forget that the Lord Christ Himself together with the Most Holy Virgin and the Righteous Joseph fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s violence and in this way showed us that we are strangers in this world which lies in evil.
There is, dear brothers and sisters, much bitterness and sadness among our people after all those difficult years of temptation through which we have gone and through which we are going now. But, we in no way should fall into despair. For when he suffers the Christian repents even more before God, and at the same time he rejoices for he knows that the Lord will not overlook a heart filled with hope. That is why we pray to God, our dear spiritual children, that He save us from hatred and evil deeds, and that He may teach us to love with the love with which he has loved this world. If we are able to recognize the pain and suffering of our neighbors and repent of our sins, our efforts will not be in vain, but will be unto our salvation and eternal life.
With prayers we greet our brothers and sisters who live around the world and we call them to turn to each other, gathered under the wings of our Church and in that way to continue worthily to witness to who they are and to what faith and what people they belong.
Let us safeguard the holiness of marriage and family, raising our children in faith and fear of God and purity, without forgetting that the family is a “domestic Church” and a foundation of Christian community! Let us regularly participate in the Eucharistic gatherings, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ and in this way becoming One Body of Christ, a chosen People, the Church of the Living God! Let us not forget that it is our calling after the Holy Liturgy to witness in word and in deed to this miraculous Mystery which continues with faith and love, before all those who love us as well as before those who hate us, in short in every time and place. For the Christian our whole life is a continuing liturgical paschal joy. He who lives by it will not see in another person a stranger; instead, he will recognize in every person the image of our Lord, Who wants all to be saved. Bearing witness to the joyous news that Christ is truly risen is our daily duty for the Lord calls us by His Holy Spirit not to close ourselves in, but rather to bring others into that joy, and to show them the only way to salvation. The Risen Christ calls us not to be a scandal but a light to the world. When we are ready to admit our sins and to correct ourselves in humility we are not being humiliated but we are showing that the Spirit of God dwells in us.
We especially wish to convey to you that on the feast day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the completion of Christ’s economy of salvation of the world and mankind, in June of this year, on the Apostolic island of Crete, a Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church will be convened. It is the duty of all of us to pray that this spiritually exceptional event of the Holy Spirit will be a verbal confirmation of the unshakable unity of the Holy Orthodox Church in the faith once and for all delivered to the saints (cf. Hebrew 3), which means to all true Christians, that it may be a call to all who in believe in Christ to again be one in the only Savior and our Lord, in fulfillment of His prayer “that all may be one,” in accordance with the example of the unity of the Holy Trinity, the One and Only God, that the world may believe (cf. St. John 17:18-24), that they may be witnesses to the joy of salvation through the Cross and Resurrection, the greatest gift of the God of love, before all people, all nations and every created thing, but above all that this great pan-Orthodox Council be a part of the eternal Good News of the Church about the Kingdom of God as the meaning of everything that exists – in one word, that it be to the glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Living and True God.
Let us not forget, dear brothers and sisters, that we are called, wherever we may be and whatever we are doing, to be peacemakers and in so doing to witness to God Who grants us peace and is our Peace. Even though we are distinct from each other, we can never overlook the fact that we are all created in the image of God and that we are called to be one in Christ. That is why it is necessary to give a hand to him who stumbles instead of pushing him into a deeper perdition. Likewise, we should visit the sick and care for them and to those that are lost we need to show the right path. In doing so, we will have the Lord manifested in our works, Who Himself told us to be the light of the world. But above all else our spiritual children, may our life be a constant thanksgiving to God for everything and for all! For what else and what greater offering can we offer to the Resurrected Christ, Who brings us from darkness to the light of knowledge and from death into life eternal? Therefore, together with the angels and with all the saints in heaven, and together with our brothers and sisters on earth, let us sing the victorious song and in festal joy greet each other with the greeting:
Christ is Risen!
* * *
would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles
(Acts 26:23)
Christ is Risen!
Jesus Christ our Saviour urges us to announce both to the faithful and to those outside the Church the truth that He passed through death and defeated it. The suffering body of Christ was not decayed in the grave because it was united with the Divinity of the Eternal Son and Christ’s soul was not kept in Hades also because it was united with His Divinity.
Thus, the wounds caused by the passions of the Crucified Christ were healed through Resurrection. Although they do not bleed any more, they are signs which confirm and communicate His humble love for the world stronger than sin and death, in order to show us that the sufferance and tribulations of the believer in his fight against sin in history are not forgotten by God in eternity. We are confident that the living relationship with the Risen Christ eternally alive is the source of salvation, as Saint Peter the Apostle teaches us when he says: and even though you do not see Him (Christ) now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:8-9).
In today’s society marked by instability and incertitude, by violent conflicts, disagreements and poverty, which force many of our fellow human beings leave their native places, the faith in the Crucified and Risen Christ helps us change concepts and juridical principles into life giving principles, materialized into acts of love, respect, forgiveness and help among people.
We pray God that the Holy Feast of the Resurrection of Christ may give you many years of life with peace, good health and salvation, with rich fruits in the missionary, pastoral and social work you unfold.
With brotherly love in Christ, the Risen Lord,
† DANIEL
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
* * *
I greet you, my beloved brothers and sisters, with the great joy of the bright Feast of Christ’s Resurrection. Today we arise at the rising of the sun to “bring unto the Lord a hymn instead of myrrh,” and to behold Christ, “the Sun of Righteousness, Who causes light to dawn for all” (Paschal Canon).
Today, we awake with joy to a new and divine reality. Today, our life continues with the same hope in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we had yesterday, but with renewed spirit and purpose, inspired by the life given to us by the Lord, Who came to us in the flesh, was lifted upon the cross, descended into the grave, was raised on the third day, and ascended into heaven so that we might have that life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
We know that, just as the servants in the Gospel were called to account for the use of their talents, so each of us has received talents in this life for which we must give account. Whether it is the gift of being kind, loving, caring and patient, or being a good and faithful parent, child or sibling, these talents blossom more fully through the death and resurrection of Christ by giving us the opportunity to reclaim the gift of eternal life even in our earthly struggles.
In recent years we have heard it said that lives matter. While this is not a new concept for those who today are celebrating the triumph of life over death, we need to remind ourselves that the life which Christ offers us today is offered to all of humanity. It is also a gift that holds us accountable. What matters most is how we use the abundance of life given to us through the Cross and Resurrection, and whether we choose to simply live or to live an abundant life overflowing with love, mercy and compassion.
Today we are filled with joy both serene and overwhelming. At the same time, we face the awesome responsibility of sharing this great joy and this abundance of life with the world around us. Through the Cross, our cup overflows with life (Psalm 23:5), enough life to share with all of those around us; enough love to fill up all those who are alone and afraid; enough mercy and peace to bring a measure of joy to those suffering.
I sincerely wish that all of you will convey this Paschal joy to your children, your neighbors, to all those in your families and communities, and also to those who do not as yet know that Pascha in the Orthodox Church is the “Feast of feasts, the Triumph of triumphs, wherein let us bless Christ forevermore.”
With my archpastoral blessing and love in the Risen Lord,
† TIKHON
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada
* * *
During the celebration of Easter we participate in the final events of the Redeemer’s life: his going up to Jerusalem, his betrayal, suffering, death on the Cross, and in witness to the Resurrection.
After having lived alongside the Redeemer during Great Week, no member of the Church can be neutral! Whoever is not for me, is against me (Matthew 12:30).
The significance of the words of the Gospel of Matthew unfolds when we believe that Jesus really descended to Hell and broke the chains of those imprisoned there. Hell is not a symbolic place. It is still a prison for all of us in a moment of despair in our life. The Gospel of Matthew speaks of this abandonment: we cannot be neutral, when we choose to remain in the despair of Hell or to grasp the hand of Jesus, who pulls us up to freedom.
The journey from death to life lies at the core of Easter. It is a leap from emptiness to fullness, from death to life, from darkness to light, from hate to love. The world does not know the experience of the empty tomb of this Easter morning, although it is here in front of us.
The Easter hymns of our Church describe the “new birth” as a feast. This means that in the Holy Spirit we are born and rise to the heights together, the Cross lifted up, risen from the grave and raised up to heaven in this promise: And when I have been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all unto myself (John 12:32).
Easter begins our journey toward our promised homeland: heaven. On Great Friday we hear the words: In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have said that I go to prepare a place for you? (John 14:2). The Church of Christ is a small flock whose task is to bear witness to the world of the promise of the Resurrection.
The light of Easter will not shine on the world without us. Therefore, we sing to all our Easter morning proclamation, in the Resurrection sticheron. It says to whose side we bear witness as Church this Easter.
“Day of Resurrection! Let us celebrate the feast of joy and embrace one another. Brothers and sisters, let us also say to our enemies, ‘Let us forgive everyone because of the Resurrection.’”
Leo
Archbishop of Karelia and All Finland
* * *
Matthew 28:6
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Χριστός Ἀνέστη! Christ is Risen!
On this glorious and holy Feast of our Lord’s Resurrection, we shine in the brilliant light and exhilarating joy of His presence and grace. We sing hymns of praise to the One who gives us new life. We proclaim the defeat of death and triumph over the tomb, as Christ is risen, resplendent and victorious.
In our worship on this Feast of feasts and highest holy day of the year, we hear in our hymns the story of those who went to the tomb: “The myrrh-bearing women at deep dawn drew nigh to the tomb of the Giver of Life” (Hymn of Matins). In the Gospel of Luke we read how they found the stone rolled away but did not find a body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how He told you…that the Son of man must be crucified and on the third day rise.” (Luke 24:4-7)
One focal point in this passage and as it is recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark is on remembering the voice of Christ. He is risen as He said (Matthew28:6); there you will see Him, as He told you (Mark 16:7); and remember how He told you (Luke 24:6). The angels called the women and the disciples to remember His voice and His words; to reflect on all that had happened and to recognize that the promises of the Lord had been fulfilled, death and the tomb could not hold the Son of God, and just as He said, He is the resurrection and the life!
For the disciples the voice of Christ was a very real experience. They were present for all of the miraculous events and His teaching. Following His Resurrection and Ascension, they could not but speak of all the things they had seen and heard for those full years being with Him. (Acts 4:20)
In receiving the Gospel by faith, we affirm and proclaim the power and truth of His Passion and Resurrection as well. Through our worship and His power and presence in our midst, we hear His voice, we affirm the fulfillment of His promises, and we proclaim to the world the salvation and abundant life found in Jesus Christ, our risen Lord. We see and hear, and we become the voice of Christ!
Today, in our festival of joy, light and life, we proclaim to the world a sacred Pascha. We sing of a new and holy Pascha, a Pascha that has opened unto us the gates of Paradise. We see a new dawn as the bridegroom comes forth from the tomb, abolishing the power of death, lifting us up from corruption, ransoming us from sorrow, so that we chant joyously the hymns of salvation and life everlasting. We see the glorious Resurrection of our Lord. And as the angels said to the women who marveled at the empty tomb, we hear Him say, “Go quickly and proclaim to the world that the Lord is risen!” Christ is risen indeed!
With paternal love in the Risen Lord,
†DEMETRIOS
Archbishop of America
* * *
Metropolitan Joseph, Bulgarian Diocese of USA, Canada, Australia:
Dearest Beloved,
Today is the holy Resurrection Day – the Feast of the Feasts, the Solemnity of Solemnities!
It surpasses not only those that are secular and worldly in character, but even excels, as the sun outshines all stars, those feasts which are dedicated to and are celebrated in honor of Christ, Himself.
Today we gather in our Orthodox Churches on the holiest day in the Orthodox Christian year. We affirm that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God the Father. We sing: “Christ is risen!” to reaffirm that no one else is more important than Him and no event more significant than His Resurrection.
All of history is divided into two parts – B.C. or Before Christ, and A.D. – Anno Domini or “In the Year of our Lord”.
Let us look at it this way. Every one of our lives is divided into B.C. and A.D. Until every one of us meets Christ, every one of us is living a B.C world. The Holy Pascha is our chance to meet Christ. Will we? Will we cross over today into the land of Anno Domini?
As your Diocesan Metropolitan I want you and your families to think about that profound message today.
Please, don’t leave that message in your parish church. Don’t leave it in the empty tomb. Live the message. Teach it to your children. Don’t alter the message. Don’t water it down. Let no person, no persuasion, no allegiance, no ideology, no friendship, no promise, no temptation ever get in the way of that saving message.
Let us be like Christ, for He was like unto us. Let us become divine since He became man for our sake.
Christos Voskrese!
Chestito Voskresenie Hristovo!
With love in the risen Lord,
+ Metropolitan JOSEPH
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Holy Synod of Ukrainian Orthodox Church-USA:
There is no event and no greater news that is more joyful in the life of the Christian than the news of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ for the Orthodox Church is the Feast of Feasts and the Festival of Festivals because the Resurrection of our Lord is the victory of life over death, of love over hatred, of truth over falsehood, of good over evil, of humility over pride, of faith over hopelessness, and of holiness over sin.
St. Paul says: If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14).
The Lord’s Resurrection fills our lives with meaning and purpose for which we can even forsake all that is temporary so that we may attain that which is eternal. Whatever we are suffering, whatever illness and misfortune we endure, whatever cross we bear to our personal Golgotha, we must know that our resurrection awaits us if we believe in the Lord, if we love Him, and if we hope in Him. He rose from death for us. With His death, He conquered death for each of us. He opened the way to eternal life for each of us by His Resurrection.
The darkness of the tomb is illuminated, and in the words of Saint John Chrysostom: “…for pardon has shone forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Saviour’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. Death, where is thy sting? Christ is Risen, and life reigns. Christ is Risen, and no dead remain in the grave” (Paschal Epistle of St. John Chrysostom).
God not only grants us a life here on earth, but today we celebrate and praise God’s unfathomable grace and love for us all, because through the power of the Risen Lord corruptible mortality has put on incorruption and mortality has put on immortality (1 Cor 15:54). Immortality is granted to us by the Lord, the source of the boundless joy of our faith because no one in our life can grant us anything more valuable and more important than the immortality given to us by the Risen Lord.
We live in the 21st century. It would seem that humanity has achieved much and has actually made great strides in scientific and technical progress. Many people and nations live in material abundance. And the world should have also become wiser based on its historical experience. Unfortunately, war, hatred, and violence continue. Those with greater strength dominate over those who are weaker. Individuals and entire nations ignore God and His Commandments and show that we are living in eschatological times.
Material wealth or the desire to acquire material wealth does not always provide a guarantee for people that they will have a quiet and happy life. Instead, these can often cause troubles for others, and may even lead to self-destruction. The loss of a sense of sin and holiness leads to tragedies in people’s personal and public life. People do not know what they live for and often do not see the meaning of life.
The meaning of life for every Christian is found in the words contained in the joy of Pascha: “Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs, bestowing life” (Paschal Tropar). The Risen Lord is the way, the truth, and the life for all of us (Jn 14:6). God has granted us the right to choose to live with Him or without Him. He is the way. Let us not doubt for a second, but choose the road that leads to Him. He is the Truth. Let us know that our heart can find peace only in Him. He is the life. Let us know that through His death on the Cross and His Resurrection, He grants immortality to all of us.
We, the episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Beyond the Borders of Ukraine, prayerfully appeal to the Risen Lord that He grant peace, joy and spiritual renewal to our God-loving Ukrainian people in Ukraine, in the North and South Americas, in Western Europe, and in Australia and New Zealand. Beloved in the Risen Christ “on this chosen and holy day, the Feast of Feasts, and the Festival of Festivals, we bless Christ to all the ages” (Paschal Matins, Canticle 8).
Truly, Christ is Risen!
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Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!
Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and Hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He Who is both God and the Son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won Him the victory.
St. Epiphanius of Cyprus
These wonderful words from Saint Epiphanius on the Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ make mention of a “great silence and stillness.” Because “God has fallen asleep in the flesh.” As we celebrate the Pascha of our Lord this year, it would be good to reflect on the mystery of silence, and how it leads us to salvation, and how it can lead us down the wrong path. When God the Word is silent in having fallen asleep He is still mystically freeing those held captive by the power of death. He does so by approaching them with the Cross, “the weapon that had won Him the victory.”
How important it is to encounter this Divine Silence. But how can we encounter it when the idea of being still and silent ourselves scares us to the point that we need to stay busy to avoid the inner noise of our lives? We avoid because as long as we do, we never have to encounter the restlessness and anxieties in life that plague us. This stops us from hearing God’s silence. We will never enter into real communion with God by prayer unless we first hear this silence. The silence will lead us on a pathway of crying out to Him all the more and will mold the virtue of perseverance in us. We should not be afraid of this Divine Silence, because it was the Silence of the Tomb that liberated all held captive by death, which was a consequence of sin in our life.
Yet there is another kind of silence that leads to condemnation, and that can be best termed as the silence of inaction towards others. During the course of Holy Week, at Tuesday’s Presanctified Liturgy, we heard this in the Gospel of Matthew:
Then He will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to Me’ Matthew 25:41-45.
Those mentioned in this gospel are not condemned because of the common sins we may hear about in life. They are condemned for their failure to act, the silence of inaction. They failed to see Christ suffering in the needs of the people God daily brought into their lives, whether they were family, friend, neighbor, stranger, or enemy. We were reminded of the following at the Bridegroom Matins of Holy Tuesday:
You have heard the condemnation, O soul, of the man who hid his talent. Do not hide the Word of God! Proclaim His wonders, that, increasing the gift of grace, you may enter into the joy of your Lord!
Now that the Divine Silence of the Tomb has raised us from death, let us no longer be paralyzed by the silence of our inaction. We have been baptized into Christ and put on Christ, the celebration of our Pascha on this day as well. As Basil the Great states in his Liturgy, “Thou hast given us all things!” Let us be empowered to share this gift with others in word and in deed; grounded in the love of Christ that calls upon us to love one another as He has loved us. Let us not hide the talent God has given us. Let us use that talent that we may glorify our Father in Heaven through His Only-Begotten Son Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ is Risen!
With love in Christ,
+Paul
Bishop of Chicago and the Midwest