EASTER PASTORALS: The "Feast of all Feasts" (04/16/06)

EASTER PASTORALS

The "Feast of all Feasts"

Pascha (Easter) pastoral letter of the Permanent Conference of the Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops Beyond the Borders of Ukraine.

To the Priests, Deacons, Monastics and Faithful of our Holy Ukrainian Orthodox Church beyond the borders of Ukraine, all entrusted to our archpastoral care:

Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

We greet you, beloved brothers and sisters, on the occasion of the joyous and holy day, the luminous Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ is risen! This solemn greeting can be heard throughout the world and we join in it wishing you all health, happiness and joy.

Pascha - the Resurrection of our Lord - is the crowning event in all divine care for the redemption of the humanity from sin, curse and death. It is the assurance of our own future resurrection the strong foundation of our faith. As Christ said: "I am the Resurrection and the Life."

The Feast of Pascha is the "Feast of all Feasts." It is especially during Pascha that the firmness and the purity of our faith are revealed in us and our hearts open up to the unattainable love and charity and the greatness and holiness of the Christian faith are strengthened. The feast unites all of these qualities at the highest level. It is the feast of the highest solemnity in our faith, the highest morality, faith and love. On this day the earth and our hearts are filled with the incomprehensible joy by the radiance of the Resurrection of the Son of God.

Nature reflects the Resurrection in its spring awakening. Every spring foretells the future spring of the entire world. The warmth of life vanquishes the cold death of nature. The seed planted in the soil sprouts and presents to us the concept of our own resurrection. In the light of Christ's Resurrection our departed loved ones are alive - to God and to us - and we share with them our Paschal greeting as a certification of their future resurrection.

The Resurrection of Christ has enlightened the entire world with the glory of God: the Conqueror of Hades, sin and death is, Himself, radiant in glory, as are the angels and sinful humanity, because we have become children of God and inheritors of the Kingdom of God. Let us remember how, having physically suffered as a mortal, the Master of life - Christ - descends into Hades, to free the souls of the righteous ones of the Old Testament from the shackles of hell. And behold, they are pass through the gates of paradise to the incorruptible, real life, singing praises of the eternal Pascha.

The earthly world however is still engulfed in gloom, horror, sorrow and tears. The cross still stands on Golgotha; the stone still bars the entrance to the grave. Dreadful pain and grief deeply pierce the heart of the Mother of God. The myrrh-bearing women are gathering early in the morning preparing to anoint the body of the Divine Teacher.

The blessed moment is, however, drawing nearer. The heavenly joy is transmitted to the earth, which is convulsed to its core by a strong earthquake. The vibrant Messenger from Heaven appears in the tomb, shining with the unapproachable and radiant light of the Resurrection.

"Rejoice!" says he to the myrrh-bearers. To the one "Full of Grace" he says: "Pure Virgin, rejoice, your Son is Risen!" From one end of the world to the other, from generation to generation the joyful response resounds and will forever resound: "Indeed He is risen!"

The joy of this great Feast of Feasts enables us to rejoice together with our loved ones. During the Paschal liturgical celebration of the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit opens our hearts to joy and love through the Paschal kiss and the greeting: "Christ is risen!" At this moment all personal grievances, offenses and ill feelings disappear. In the Paschal love we come closer to comprehending God's Love, which defies all understanding.

May the myrrh-bearers teach us to preserve and to pass on to our descendants all the freshness, purity and fragrance of this Paschal joy. May they instill in us their great love for the Savior, a love, which made them, even though weak in the flesh, more courageous than the apostles, a love, which irresistibly led them without fear through the crowds of our Lord's worst enemies, to Golgotha and to the doors of the tomb. It was a love that gave them the courage and the bravery, ignoring all danger and prepared to sacrifice all, to rush to the sealed tomb, a love which made them the first to carry the news of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In her sacred hymnography our Holy Church compares the most radiant day of Resurrection/Pascha with other most radiant feasts and refers to it as the first "morning", the forerunner of another, which will shine with the unapproachable Light, a day without end, a day that has no evening. Let us, therefore, our dear and beloved, honor this first morning of the future eternal day, so that its sun does not set before our eyes, leaving us in an impenetrable darkness. Let us turn with feelings of love and fellowship in Christ, with sincere hearts to all our brothers and sisters - the children of or Holy Church - and say: "Christ is risen, and we shall live! Christ is risen and has conquered death, and we shall conquer the falsehood and bondage to sin. May God rise, and His enemies be scattered!"

On this great holy day, let us not mention enemies, or better yet, let us call them "brothers" and greet them also with the Paschal greeting: Christ is risen! Even when they might say: "Christ never existed, He was never incarnated and He certainly did not rise from the dead," we shall respond with even greater faith and with mutual conviction: "Not only did Christ exist, but He exists forever, He is alive forever. Christ is risen!" Even if Satan himself and through his servants, would slander the Risen Christ - our Life, our Light and our Hope, we shall bravely respond to him with a sense of almighty victory and the certainty of his doom: "Christ is risen!" To all who live and breathe, to all God's creation we shall say today: Christ is risen!"

Amongst us, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in sincerity and in the love of Christ, let us forget all disagreements, let us embrace one another and walk in one spirit along the road to the strengthening of our Holy Church, to the resurrection and a blessed life for our nation. May Christ, our True God, Who has risen from the dead, who has trampled down death by death and upon those in the tombs has bestowed life, through the prayers of His All-Holy Mother, the holy and glorious apostles and all the saints, have mercy on us and save us, because He is merciful and He loves mankind.

Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

Ý Constantine, Metropolitan
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. and Diaspora

Ý John, Metropolitan
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

Ý Antony, Archbishop
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A.

Ý Vsevolod, Archbishop
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A.

Ý Ioan, Archbishop
Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Diaspora Eparchy of Australia and New Zealand

Ý Yurij, Archbishop
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

Ý Jeremiah, Bishop
Ukrainian Orthodox Eparchy of South America (UOC of U.S.A.)

Ý Andrew, Bishop
Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Diaspora - Eparchy of Great Britain and Western Europe

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