Archpastoral Greetings with the Resurrection of Christ 2015, from Constantinople and Beyond

By God’s Mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
To the Plenitude of the Church
Grace, Peace and Mercy from Christ, who has Risen in Glory

Brother concelebrants and beloved children in the Lord,

Christ is Risen!

All Orthodox Christians once again this year joyously celebrate The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and chant: “We celebrate the death of death, the destruction of Hades, and the beginning of another, eternal way of living. And so we jubilantly praise the Cause.” (Troparion from the Paschal Canon).

Yet, while we gladly celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection as the reality of life and hope, all around us in the world, we can hear the cries and threats of death launched in many parts of the planet by those who believe that they can resolve human conflicts by destroying their enemies, which in itself constitutes the greatest proof of their weakness. For, by causing the death of another, by taking revenge on our neighbor, on whosoever differs from us, neither is the world improved nor are our problems solved. After all, as everyone – especially the intellectual people of all periods—admits and recognizes, evil is never overcome by evil, but always by good.

Problems are genuinely resolved when we acknowledge and acclaim the value of every human person and when we respect their rights. By contrast, all kinds of problems are created and exacerbated when we despise human beings and violate their rights, especially when it comes to the vulnerable, who must feel secure, while the powerful must be just in order for peace to exist.

Therefore, Christ arose from the dead and demonstrated in this way as well the inability of death to prevail and bring about any stable change in the world. The various situations caused by death can be reversed because, despite how things appear, they are always temporary, having no root or vitality, whereas Christ, who has forever conquered death, is invisibly always present.

We, who have our hope in Him, believe that the right of life belongs to all people. Life and Resurrection are only offered by Jesus Christ, who has trodden on death and on its power over people; this is why we should only hope in Him and His teaching. Faith in Christ leads to Resurrection, to the Resurrection of all of us, while our faith and application of His teaching lead to the salvation of all, as well as to the confrontation of every challenge in our world.

Beloved brothers and children, the message of the Resurrection, this transcendence of human weakness, is the message of life over the world’s corruption and humanity’s adventure. It is to this message that we invite all people – from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, where by God’s mercy we serve as Primate of Orthodox love in truth – so that they may come to knowledge and experience, convinced that only in this way will they also rediscover our true hope, and the hope of the whole world, which was stolen from us in the turmoil of confusion.

May the light of the Resurrection illumine the hearts of all of you so that you may rejoice with all people in love, peace and concord through the Son and Word of God, who is the Light of the world, the Truth and the Life.

To Him alone, who arose from the dead, the Lord of glory, “who lords over life and rules over death,” who lives to the ages and “grants life to those in the tombs,” belong glory, honor and thanksgiving. Amen.

Phanar, Holy Pascha 2015

+Bartholomew of Constantinople

Your fervent supplicant

Before the Risen Christ

The Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon on the Great and Holy Pascha 2015

To the Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America:

It is the day of Resurrection! Let us be illumined, O ye people! Pascha! The Pascha of the Lord from death to life and from earth to heaven has Christ our God led us, as we sing a song of victory. (Paschal Canon, Ode I)

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!

Today, on this radiant Feast of feasts, let us all rejoice as newly illumined souls, basking in the brightness and joy that is the Resurrection of our Lord! Christ’s triumph over corruption and death is a victory for all people; there is none vanquished but death and wickedness, for it is a victory that has made salvation possible to all. We offer our expressions of joy and exhilaration today; joining the countless Orthodox Christian faithful who, for more than two millennia throughout the world, have bore witness to the Pascha of Our Lord.

Today’s world is yearning for satisfaction, and hungry for love, truth and righteousness. We have a precious responsibility to proclaim Christ Jesus – the Risen One – of Whom Christians of the second century said,

This is the Alpha and Omega! This is the beginning and the end, the ineffable beginning and the incomprehensible end. This is the Christ! This is the king! This is Jesus! This is the commander! This is the Lord! This is He Who rose from the dead! This is He Who sits at the right hand of the Father! He bears the Father and is borne by Him! To him be the glory and the might for ever. Amen! [On Pascha, Saint Melito of Sardis].

Christ’s victory over death and corruption is also our victory, for the divine Pascha of the Lord has brought us who are mortal and earthly “from death to life and from earth to heaven.” It is likewise He, the risen Lord, Who gave us the struggles of the Great Fast, that image of the “narrow path” of life, because indeed, our journey does not end with our Lord’s Pascha. Rather, today we are beginning that journey anew which ultimately leads to our own death, and resurrection at the glorious and awesome Second Coming of Christ. Today’s celebration prepares us for that journey to the eternal Kingdom.

The Resurrection opens for us a path of joyful repentance, so that like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, our heart may burn within us as our Lord opens to us the Holy Scripture, ‎so that truly there is no longer anything standing in our way of knowing Him as “the Resurrection and the Life.”

As we continue on our path to salvation, we are given the Resurrection as a motivation and strength to accomplish every good thing necessary to expand His earthly Kingdom, the Church. Each of us is worthy of our calling to strengthen our personal faith in the risen Lord - and, like the disciples after the Resurrection, to share it in love and joy with all who would accept it.

There are still those, either by choice or circumstance who continue to sit in darkness - hungry, naked, alone, imprisoned, and in desperate need of Christ’s love and compassion. As St. Tikhon of Moscow wrote to his new flock in America, “It is our obligation to share our spiritual treasures, our truth, our light and our joy with those who do not have these gifts. And this duty lies not only on pastors and missionaries, but also on lay people, for the Church of Christ, in the wise comparison of St. Paul is a body, and in the life of the body every member must take part.”

It is my prayer today on this Feast of feasts, that this Holy Day of holy days, this Triumph of triumphs will strengthen all of us to embrace, continue and expand the mission of our Lord. And that He will give us the courage and fortitude necessary to engage the world with Christ’s message of love and salvation, and proclaim to all:

Christ is Risen!

With my archpastoral blessings and love in the Risen Lord,

+TIKHON
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada

+IRINEJ

By the Grace of God
Orthodox Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch, with all the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church to all the clergy, monastics, and all the sons and daughters of our Holy Church: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, with the joyous Paschal greeting:

Christ is Risen!

“Though Thou didst descend into the grave, O Immortal One, yet didst Thou destroy the power of Hades, and didst arise as victor, O Christ God, calling to the myrrh-bearing women, rejoice, and giving peace unto Thine Apostles, O Thou Who dost grant resurrection to the fallen.”

(Paschal Kontakion)

This song of immortality, our dear spiritual children, we sing ceaselessly during these days of our celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, which occurred, as the ancient seers of God's mysteries witnessed, on the same day of the week on which God created in the beginning - out of nothing - heaven and earth.

On that same day, according to those same mystery-perceivers, the Lord delivered His chosen people from Egyptian slavery; hence, we call it Pascha – that is, the passing-over from slavery into freedom in the Lord through the Red Sea.

His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox

Church: Jesus Christ’s Resurrection—The Light of Eternal Joy

Christ Is Risen!

Highly Devoted and Pious Fathers,

Dear Christian believers,

For the Orthodox world, the celebration of the Holy Easter is an icon of light of eternal joy in the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet, this joy springs from Jesus Christ who was crucified and who resurrection, the Defeater of Sin, Hell and Death. (…)

The liturgical beauties and the sacred meanings of the Holy Easter celebration rise our minds and hearts to the undying light and glory of God’s Kingdom, where the Right ones and the Saints will live after the Community Resurrection. (according to Apocalypse 21, 23).

Here are a few of the sacred meanings of the Resurrection Mass and of the Christian Easter tradition:

In the night of the Holy Easter, the darkness, created by putting out the light and the candles in the church as place of worship, precisely at midnight, symbolizes the “outer darkness” (Matthew 25, 30) of death and hell, where Jesus Christ has descended with His human soul (according to 1 Peter 3, 18 – 19). Moreover, the living godly soul of Christ descended into hell is symbolized by the sole votive light kept burning in the church, which is the votive light on the Sacred Table, in the Sacred Shrine, because the Sacred Table symbolizes Our Lord Jesus Christ’s tomb, of which he had resurrected. When the leader (the bishop or priest) sets the Easter candle alight in the icon lamp on the Sacred Table, he exits the shrine and lifts the candle for everyone to see, which signifies the mystery of Christ’s rising or resurrection from the death (in Greek, resurrection is reflected by the word “anastasis” which means rising. Then, from this sole candle held by the priest, all candles of clergy and believers are lighted, and by this liturgical act, they symbolically share the truth that The Sacred Son of God Jesus Christ is “the firstfruits (of the resurrection, editor’s note) of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20), “the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians, 1:18), “the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8, 29), “the first to proclaim light both to Jewish people and to the Gentles (Acts 26: 23). Therefore, we understand that the resurrection of God is the beginning and the base of the resurrection of all people, of the resurrection of the community. Out of this reason, the proclamation of Christ’s resurrection is made outside the edifice of the Church, for all people to hear and see, because resurrection and victory upon death is God’s gift to all people.

The joy of Resurrection is a greater joy than suffering and death, because it is not a joy produced by the world enslaved in sins and death, but it is a joy springing from Resurrected Christ, the Defeater of Sin and Death. The joy of resurrection is the joy of a man entering the glory and happiness of God’s eternal Kingopm. Out of this reason, just like souls cleansed and renewed through fasting and prayers, through repentance and eucharistic communion, liturgical Easter clothes are white like light, and Orthodox believers are wearing new and beautiful clothes, after having painted and decorated their homes, so that they would be filled by light and beauty.

Easter candles symbolize the light of resurrected Christ shared to people. And the red or decorated Easter eggs represent beautiful life lived in humble and sacred love, a life stronger than sin and death. The cross united with the Resurrection candle shows the victory of crucified and resurrected Christ above the evilness of the demons (according to Colossians 2:15), but also the victory of His crucified love upon the hatred, envy and violence of people who crucified Him.

The Troparion of Resurrection: „Christ has resurrected from the death / stepping with death upon death / and to those from graves / He gave life”, sang in the fifth voice, is a song of victory and joy that also becomes the confession and spiritual breathing of the church for 40 days, starting on Easter Night and until the celebration of Our Lord’s Ascension. This troparion brings joy and light in our souls, both by simplicity of form and richness of content. It concentrates the entire Gospel or the Good News of God’s endless and merciful love to the world, but also the entire faith and hope of the Orthodox Church, and feeds itself out of the joy of Christ’s Resurrection.

The short version of the troparion of resurrection is the Easter greeting: “Christ Has Risen!” “He truly has risen!” we address one another at this time. The Easter greeting we address one another at this time of the year is a confession of faith, that shows that truth of Christ’s resurrection was received by us in order to send it forward to the world. Therefore, each Orthodox Christian becomes a herald of God’s resurrection, following the example of the Myrrh-bearers and of the Holy Apostles, who had met resurrected Christ.

Dear spiritual sons and daughters,

The celebration of the Holy Easter shows us the love of God for people and for the entire universe. The Light of God’s Resurrection grants meaning to daily Christian life because Christ resurrected due to His Holiness is mysteriously present and active in His Church until the end of centuries: “Here, I am with you every day, until the end of centuries” (Matthew 28:20). The light and joy of Christ’s resurrection grant meaning to the universal history of humanity, because they lead it to universal (community) resurrection and to universal judgment, more precisely towards the spiritual evaluation of the life of all people of all times and all places, according to the criterion of merciful love to the needy (as shown in Matthew 25: 31 – 46). The Light of Christ’s Resurrection gives meaning to the entire creation, the entire universe or cosmos, because it straightens the present universe that is getting old, to “a new sky and a new earth”, where “death will be no longer”. (Apocalypse 21: 1 and 4). Therefore, the Orthodox Church is singing in the Easter night: “Now, everything is filled with light, the sky, the earth and things under the earth.” Which means that now, everything was filled with meaning and hope, because the human existence and the entire creation will be freed and healed of the absurdity and perishableness of death (according to 1 Corinthians 15, 51 – 58). (…)

Beloved brothers and sisters,

In a world filled with instability and insecurity, violent conflicts and disagreements between nations, many people are saddened and hopeless. This is why we have to seek more intensely the joy brought by the meeting with Christ the Resurrected, Who defeated sin and death, and to share this joy with saddened people, by praying, granting help to the needy and showing solidarity.

The joy of the presence of Christ the Resurrected’s merciful love in the hearts of Christians inspires philanthropy or merciful and generous love that softens the sadness of people who feel unloved by people they once met, but who are loved by merciful God.

Therefore, each of us are called to be witnesses and servants of peace and the joy of Resurrected Christ, especially in hospitals, orphanages, prisons, asylums for the elderly and homes of people who endure suffering, poverty sadness and solitude.

Let us show around us light from the light of Christ’s Resurrection, let us see the face of each man in the light of Christ’s Resurrection, as a Holy Easter candle lighted in the world by Christ’s love of humans.

Let us say a prayer for all Romanians far away from their country, among strangers, to keep their ancient Orthodox Christian faith and to cultivate the love for our Romanian spiritual and cultural values.

May the peace and joy brought by Christ Our Lord to apostles and myrrhbearers in the Day of His Resurrection fill the hearts and homes of each of you, so that together we will hail the richness of Our Lord’s love and mercy for people, by our good words and good deeds.

We pray to God that the Holy Easter Holidays would bring you long, peaceful and happy lives, health and redemption, and we also address you the Easter greeting: “Christ Has Risen!”

Yours, praying to Our Lord Jesus,

+Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church

Pastoral Message for Great and Holy Pascha

April 12, 2015

Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad, as is meet; and let the whole world, visible and invisible, feast; for Christ hath risen to everlasting joy.
(from the 1st Ode of the Paschal Canon)

Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!

We greet you with great joy and love as we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Resurrection of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. We are reminded by the hymn quoted above that the entire universe rejoices in this singular event which brings new life to all creation. Even the current state of violence and hatred which plagues this world is shattered to pieces by the Lord's descent into Hades and his resurrection from the dead. We ask all of the faithful to continue to pray for the two abducted bishops, Metropolitan Paul, and Archbishop Youhanna, and the victims of violence around the world, especially in Syria and in the entire region. The victory of our Lord Jesus Christ over the powers of death, and the hope of new life are indeed our only consolation during these troubled times. The triumph of this Paschal season strengthens our faith and renews our hope. Let us therefore rejoice with the heavens and celebrate with the entire universe on this, the Feast of Feasts!

Praying that the Light of the Empty Tomb will bring us the joy and peace that can only come from above, I remain,

Yours in Christ,

+JOSEPH

Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archidiocese of North America