Your Graces, archpastors, reverend fathers, venerable monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters!
CHRIST IS RISEN!
By the mercy of the All-Bountiful God we have been granted to reach the radiant Paschal night and again rejoice in the glorious Resurrection of Christ. I cordially congratulate all of you, my dear ones, on this great feast and celebration of celebrations.
Almost two thousand years separate us from the event commemorated today. Yet every year the Church celebrates the Resurrection of the Lord with unchanging spiritual awe, tirelessly bearing witness to the uniqueness of what happened in the burial cave near the walls of ancient Jerusalem.
The whole earthly path of the Son of God — from His miraculous Incarnation to His sufferings and terrible death on the Cross — is the fulfillment of the Creator’s promise once given to our first parents. God promised to send into the world One Who hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows (Isa. 53:4) and shall save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). The Lord confirmed this promise many times through His prophets. He remained faithful to this promise even when the chosen people departed from the covenant and violated the will of the Creator.
In the Resurrection of Christ the love of God is revealed in its fullness, for death has at last been overcome — the last barrier that estranged man from the true Source of life. And although physical death exists and kills human bodies, it can no longer kill our souls, that is, deprive us of eternal life in communion with the Creator. Death has been cast down — its sting has been plucked out (1 Cor. 15:55). He led captivity captive — the Lord (Eph. 4:8) — and cast down hell. With God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37) — truly He is risen, as He said (Matt. 28:6)!
This year the peoples of the Earth are passing through special trials. A deadly pestilence has spread throughout the world, reaching our countries as well. The authorities are applying restrictive measures to prevent an explosive growth of the epidemic. In some countries of the pastoral responsibility of the Moscow Patriarchate, public services, including the Divine Liturgy, have been halted. However, we Orthodox Christians must not lose heart or despair in these difficult circumstances, still less give in to panic. We are called to keep inner peace and remember the words of the Savior spoken on the eve of His redemptive sufferings: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Pascha became for mankind the passage from slavery to sin to the freedom of the Kingdom of Heaven, into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:21). Only through the Resurrection of the Savior do we acquire true freedom, of which the all-praised Paul testifies, calling us: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Gal. 5:1). How many times have we read or heard these words? And now let us consider: are we not living today as if there had been no Resurrection of Christ at all? Are we not exchanging the riches of eternity revealed to us for endless cares, again captivated by the vanity of this world, giving in to passing fears and forgetting the incorruptible spiritual treasures and the true calling of a Christian to serve the Lord in holiness and righteousness before Him (Luke 1:75)?
However, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father (James 1:27) consists precisely in this: following the example shown to us in the Gospel by the Good Shepherd, to condescend to one another in love and patience, and to help and support one another in trials. No external restrictions should break our unity and take from us that true spiritual freedom which we have all acquired through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who conquered death and gave us the opportunity to be called and to be the children of God (1 John 3:1).
One heart and one soul (Acts 4:32) belong to all the faithful children of the Church, for individually we are members, and together the Body of Christ, and nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:39). Therefore let those who today, for objective reasons, are unable to come to church and pray know that they are remembered and prayed for. Faith gives us the strength to live and, with God’s help, to overcome various ailments and trials, including the one that has come into our lives through the spread of a dangerous virus.
I fervently call on all of you, my dear ones, to intensify our common prayers that the Lord may grant us, despite all difficulties, to remain partakers of the grace-filled liturgical life of the Church; that the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist may be celebrated and the faithful may approach with boldness the true Source of Life — the Holy Mysteries of Christ; that the sick may receive healing and the healthy be protected from dangerous infection.
We believe that the Risen Savior will not abandon us and will send down to us firmness and courage to stand unshakably in the faith and to pass salvifically along the earthly path to eternal life.
I cordially congratulate all of you, my beloved brothers and sisters, on the bright feast of Holy Pascha and call on you unceasingly to show the image of true disciples of the Savior, setting a good example to the people around you and proclaiming the praises “of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9), so that all the days of our life we may testify by deeds to the enduring power and truth of the Paschal words:
TRULY CHRIST IS RISEN!
+KIRILL, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
The Pascha of Christ, 2020
Moscow