EASTER PASTORAL (04/23/00)

EASTER PASTORAL

May the Risen Christ dwell in your hearts

Year 2000 Pastoral Letter for the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord

To the Reverend Clergy, the Venerable Monastic Orders and Our Beloved Faithful:

Peace in the Lord and our archiepiscopal blessing!

Christ Is Risen!

In the Acts of the Martyrs, written in the third century, we are told that when St. Marina, a martyr in Antioch, was brought to judgement because she professed the Christian faith forbidden by the Emperor Diocletian, the magistrate maliciously declared, "What nonsense to acknowledge a person as God who was so shamefully crucifixed on a cross."

St. Marina questioned him, "And how do you know that He was crucified?" The magistrate replied, "From your own Gospels, which you regard as holy texts."

St. Marina responded, "Yes, that is so! We regard the Gospels as holy books. Nevertheless, the same Gospels that tell us that Christ was crucified on a cross, testify to this also, that on the third day He rose from the dead. By dying on the cross, he confirmed that He was indeed a human being: but by His resurrection from the dead, He clearly proved that He is indeed God. This is why we acknowledge Him as our God and gladly offer our earthly life, to live with Him forever."

Beloved in Christ! The glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, proclaimed unanimously by all four Evangelists, constitutes the basis of our faith, and establishes the undeniable fact that Christ is truly "the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in His name." (Jn. 20:30). The great mystery of the Resurrection is thereby inseparably united with the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God. In reality the resurrection is the fulfillment of the mystery of the incarnation, when God became man, and of "all that Jesus did and taught" (Acts 1:1). "He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him." (Heb. 5:9)

During His earthly life, Jesus Christ readily called Himself "the Son of Man" (Jn. 3:13), as the prophets so identified the promised Messiah (Daniel 7:13). Nevertheless, on other occasions, He also proclaimed "I am the Son of God" (Jn. 10:36). Through the multitude of miracles He performed during His earthly life, He provides unequivocal proof that in Him "dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily" (Col. 2:9). The holy Apostles, therefore, as eyewitness to His many miracles, time and again acknowledge that He was "truly the Son of God" (Mt. 14:33). One of the clearest professions of faith is made by St. Peter, when he says to Jesus "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16).

Despite all the miracles that Christ performed in the presence of so many witnesses, the Scribes and Pharisees did not believe that "He was sent by God" (Jn. 11:42); they still demanded a "sign from heaven" (Mt. 16:1), something extraordinary, something hitherto not seen. Our Divine Savior assured them that the extraordinary "sign from heaven" for them would be His Resurrection from the dead, which He called "the sign of Jonah" (Lk. 11:39). He explained, "Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights" (Mt. 12:40). And then, he stated "on the third day He will rise from the dead" (Lk. 9:22). In our Easter Resurrectional Matins, we remember this prophecy by singing, "On the third day, as Jonah came from the whale, you arose from the grave" (Irmos of the 6th ode).

Jesus Christ stressed that His Resurrection from the dead must be regarded as the most important proof of His divinity and, therefore, whenever He predicted His sufferings, He always assured His apostles that "on the third day He would rise from the dead" (Lk. 18:33). The high priests and the elders of the people were well aware of this and, consequently, when the body of Christ was placed in the tomb, they sealed the entrance to the grave and demanded from Pilate that a guard be placed there, lest the disciples of Christ "come and steal Him and say to the people, 'He has been raised from the dead.'" (Mt. 27:64-65).

However, neither the seal nor the Roman guard at the grave had any effect, for at dawn on the third day there was a sudden earthquake and an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and, sitting on the stone, proclaimed to the women, "He has been raised just as he foretold" (Mt. 28-2-6).

The disciples of Christ are truly the infallible witnesses to His Resurrection. After He rose from the dead, "for many days He appeared to them" (Acts 13:31), confirming thereby that He was truly the Son of God. Everyone, therefore, "who believes in Him may have eternal life, and I shall raise Him on the last day" (Jn. 6:49). Together with St. Paul, we may likewise proclaimed, "I know Him in whom I have believed" (2 Tim 1:12), for the Risen Christ becomes "the Resurrection and the life" (Jn. 11:25), for all of us who believe in Him.

In light of the Resurrection of Christ, our death, like the death of Jesus Christ, also appears as "pascha," that is, the new passover, a passover from death to eternal life. In the Easter season we joyfully sing the "hymn of the triumph" over death, for by His death Christ "conquered death" and "brought us from death to life, from earth to heaven" (Paschal canon). Therefore, St. Paul appropriately calls Christ, "our paschal lamb" (1 Cor. 5:7), Who having risen from the dead, assures us, "I live and you shall live!" (Jn. 14:19).

The resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ thus fills our hearts with new hope of eternal life in heaven. We express this hope in concluding our Creed with these words, "I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen" (The Creed). May our daily prayer always include the prayer of St. Macrina, "I thank you, Lord, that You freed us from the fear of death, and made the end of our earthly life the beginning of the true life, the eternal life"

Beloved in Christ, may the Risen Christ, dwell in your hearts through faith" (Eph. 3:17), filling them with joy and the hope of future life. United in this belief, may we all share in the glorious Resurrection of Christ and be born into eternal life.

Christ is Risen!

Ý Stephen - Metropolitan-Archbishop
Ý Walter - Auxiliary Bishop

Given in Philadelphia, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Mother of God, on the day of the Venerable Alexis, man of God, the 17th day of March in the Year of Our Lord 2000.

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