EASTER PASTORALS (04/04/99)

EASTER PASTORALS

The joy of the Resurrection: the gift of the Father's love

To the Reverend Clergy, the Venerable Monastics and all the devout of the Eparchy of Stamford:

Christ is risen - ïËÒÚÓÒ ÇÓÒÍÂÒ!

As we celebrate the infinite joy of the Resurrection of Our Lord, we may remember the tremendous assurance that Our Lord has given us in the simple words: The Father loves you (John 16:27). By sending us His Son, Jesus Christ, to endure the Passion and Death on the Cross for us and to rise again in glory, the Father has given us the ultimate Sign of His Love. The Father loves you.

In our time, many people feel that no one loves them, that no one cares about them. In search of love, people who feel orphaned and abandoned often turn to empty and destructive substitutes (crime, alcohol, drugs and so on) for the love they have not found. In extreme cases this unsuccessful search for love leads to death: to murder and to suicide. That is the antithesis of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection of Our Lord is the expression and the proof of the Father's love for us. Never doubt that the Family loves you. In Jesus Christ, the Father's love has delivered all of us from sin and death, from slavery to the idols that dominate us and the ideologies that degrade us. In the authentic freedom of the sons of God, we are open to the Father's love for us.

As we celebrate Holy Pascha (Easter) with the most radiant joy, we must be inspired to spread the message of the Risen Lord: the Father loves you. All men and women, all children and young people, need to know that God loves each person whom God has created. The Father loves you now, the Father has always loved you, and the Father will love you no matter what, for all eternity. You can rely on the Father's steadfast love.

We Christians, who know that the Father loves us, must become credible witnesses of the Father's love, in the Church, in our daily lives, in our choices and attitudes, in accepting other people and serving them, and in faithfully respecting God's will and keeping His commandments. So many people need to know that the Father loves them; we can bring them this good news most effectively when we appear and behave like people who know the Father's love.

I pray particularly for parents, who share in God's own work of giving life to new sons and daughters and who strive to teach their children to know the love of the Father. I pray for the priests and deacons, the monks and nuns, who try to bring God's love to everyone. And I pray especially for those who doubt that the Father loves them. Have no doubt, have no fear: the Father loves you! As we shout out and sing our deepest joy in the Resurrection, remember that this joy is meant for you, personally; the joy of the Resurrection is the great gift of the Father's love for you. No matter who you are, remember the words of St. John Chrysostom:

"All of you, come and enter the joy of the Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward. You rich and poor, dance together. You sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day. You who have fasted and you who have not fasted, rejoice today. The table is richly loaded: enjoy its royal banquet. All of you enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the richness of God's goodness. Let no one weep for his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free" (Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom, Ressurection Orthos [translation from Byzantine Daily Workshop. p. 860]).

That is the gift of the Father's love for you, the Father's love for each of us. Enjoy the Father's love to the fullest, and spread this Good News to those around you.

I wish you this unlimited grace and joy in the Father's infinite love, and I ask your prayers for the good of the whole Church as we approach the Great Jubilee. Christ is Risen! ïËÒÚÓÒ ÇÓÒÍÂÒ!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Ý Basil
Bishop of Stamford

May the Risen Lord bring us peace and joy now and forever

Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers, Deacons, Venerable Sisters and Monks, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Christ is risen!

Indeed he is risen!

This 1,999th year is the final year of preparations for the Great Jubilee of 2000. The holy father designated this last year, 1999, as the year to honor God the Father. The whole Catholic Church is doing that. How fortunate are we, Ukrainian Catholics, that Ukraine is now free and independent and that our brothers and sisters there are able to honor God the Father freely. For that fact alone we all should be most grateful by praying every day, by learning our Church Services and participating in them in our parishes, by learning our catechism and living it. What a wonderful way to honor God the Father and to be truly grateful for that blessing alone. However, we have much more to be grateful for and to honor, praise and worship our God the Father.

When Jesus resurrected from the dead He often appeared to His disciples and friends. The very first appearance of the Resurrected Lord Jesus is worth our attention. "When He had risen, early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene..." (Mk.16:9...). Then St. John the Evangelist recorded the following: "Jesus said to her, 'Stop holding on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them I am going to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God'" (Jn.20:17). Let us take a moment and reflect upon those awesome words of our Resurrected Lord: "My father and your father, my god and your God."

Jesus, the Risen Lord, identifies Himself with us humans. He tells us that His God is our God and that His Father is our Father. That God, the Father, is the source of our lives, the fountain of all our blessings, talents and gifts, our everything. For a Father is precisely that, the ultimate source of life. What a profound truth! How great and wonderful is our God! How most grateful we should be and how constantly we should honor and worship Him!

Jesus taught us how to praise and worship Him by saying these words: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt.6:9-10). By doing God's will here on earth we truly worship Him in the highest possible way. To do His will here on earth, as it is done in heaven, should be our primary goal in life here and hereafter. If we can make that our main purpose in life, then Jesus would truly resurrect in our hearts and that would be the most joyous Easter for us all.

May the year 1999 truly be a year dedicated to God the Father, the God of love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life" (Jn.3:16). What a gift! What a loving Father!

May the Risen Lord enter into our lives and lead us to our loving Father, and may the Blessed Mother of God, who so lovingly and willingly accepted the invitation to be the Mother of our Redeemer, teach us to respond in love and willingness to live according to the teachings of our Lord and the commandments of our God.

May the Risen Lord bring us peace and joy as He did when He first appeared to His disciples, and may this peace and joy be with us forever!

Ý Michael Wiwchar, CSsR
Eparch of St. Nicholas Eparchy, Chicago

Ý Innocent Lotocky, OSBM
Bishop Emeritus

Given in Chicago, this twenty-fifth day of March, nineteen hundred ninety-nine, the Feast of the Annunciation.

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