Highly Reverend and honorable Fathers, dear in the Lord Brothers and Sisters!
Lovingly, I am addressing you with my wholehearted Paschal greetings on the thrilling and salvation-granting celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, starting my message with the apostolic exclamation: «Christ is Risen! Χριστος Aνεστη! Христос Воскресе! Christus resurrexit!»
On the Pascha Service today we repeatedly hear the remarkable call of the Church to the bright happiness and spiritual bliss: «In this day, that the Lord had created, let us rejoice and be glad!» (Psalm 117: 24). Our souls cheer up, because Pascha reminds us about immortality that can lead us to the Kingdom of Christ, if we conduct the true church life and live according to the Evangelical Precepts. This annual joy of Pascha strengthens our faith that Christ had truly risen and has been living and dwelling in our Church since that time.
That is why we are so overjoyed at this Great Paschal Feast, although it is Christ, who had risen – and not us yet; only over Him death does not longer possess any power: «Christ, after having risen from the dead, does not die anymore; death does not any longer have dominion over him» (Rom. 6: 9). Risen Savior has become invulnerable to the laws of earthy nature: His body no longer needs food, sleep or rest; He passes through the closed doors, suddenly appears and disappears. As the Christian Teaching promises, our own transformed bodies will be like this after the general Resurrection.
Resurrection of Christ from the dead has become the second after Christmas – and an even more important step towards our salvation! It destroyed the absolute power of death. Death is trodden, trampled and crushed by Christ. Now death does not any longer separate God-believers from The Source of Life – Jesus Christ. In our days everyone, who is «dying in the Lord» (Rev. 14:13), does not disappear in hell, but transits, following Christ, into eternity, and transforms into the state of being similar to that of The Risen Saviour.
St. John Chrysostom, in his famous sermon on the Holy Pascha describes for us the destruction of death in a following way: «Let no one fear death, for the Saviour’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it». Christ crushed death, when it held Him a prisoner. It had never happened before in history that someone imprisoned and held bound tightly with ropes and iron chains, could not only free himself, but also defeat the enemy! Christ, by His dead flesh having gotten into the subterranean stronghold of hell, disarmed there the chief spiritual terrorist of all ages – the devil. He snatched out of his hands a terrible weapon that brings death – the sin. This could have been performed only by the Almighty God! Since that time, the death for those faithful to the Risen Christ (as the root of the Slavic word «уничтожить» – «to annihilate» literally says) turns into «nihil», or «nothing», «zero». That is why today, according to Saint John Chrysostom, «let no one be fearful of death: the death of the Savior has liberated us!» The main meaning of Pascha for us is in this liberation from sin and death.
«… From death to life and from earth to Heaven, Christ, Our God, had brought us, – [as we today are] victoriously singing…», – says the Irmos of the first song of the Paschal canon. Our Pascha is the transition from the temporal death to the eternal Life – Risen Christ; from the earthy slums into the heavenly palaces. And Risen Christ – as once Moses the prophet, who was leading the people of God in the Sinai desert on their way to the Promised Land, – leads all of us to this goal – immortality.
With the help of Christ, the blessed victory over sin and death had already been attained by the saints, who «have crucified themselves together with Him and risen together with Him» (Romans 5: 6-8.). Their faces, as, for example, the faces of Venerable St. Seraphim of Sarov and Silouan of Mount Athos, were shining with light and joy of the Resurrection. And once – in the clear morning of the Universal Resurrection – we also will beam with light and joy of a new life! Then all those, who believe in the Lord, will see Risen Christ coming in glory, and will rejoice! Nothing can deprive us from this eternal joy, as Our Lord Jesus Christ is Risen Indeed! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! Воистину Воскресе! Vere Resurrexit!
With Paschal greetings and episcopal blessing, yours in the Risen Jesus Christ,
Iov (Job), Bishop of Kashira,
Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in Canada.
Great and Holy Pascha, May the 1, 2016. Edmonton. Canada.
—-
To download the Epistle please click the icon below
