(English translation by Daniel Olson)
Paschal Epistle
of
The Most Reverend George,
Archbishop of Chisinau and Moldavia
Christ is Risen!
It is the day of resurrection.
Let us be illumined, O ye peoples!
Pascha! The Lord's Pascha!
For from death to life and
from earth to heaven,
Christ God hath brought us,
who sing a hymn of victory
(irmos of the canon of Pascha).
God-loving brothers and sisters! The holy Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, writes: As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive (I Cor 15:22). In these words, the Apostle speaks to us, not only about the physical rising of men, but first of all about spiritual rebirth.
And truly, each of us knows that death is twofold – physical and spiritual. And the resurrection is likewise spiritual and physical. Spiritual resurrection consists in the fact that we, by God’s mercy, have believed in the Son of God. In the Mysteries of holy Baptism and Chrismation, we were born for spiritual life. Through the Mystery of the Eucharist, we became partakers of Christ and His Holy Orthodox Church. We have become capable of living by means of the highest, heavenly "interests" and of perceiving them. In other words, we try and we learn to live according to the Gospel commandments, and with the help of the grace of God, knowing our sinful weakness, we endeavor to perfect ourselves in virtue. And this, dear brothers and sisters, is the best confirmation that we are, by God’s mercy, partakers of the regenerating power of the Resurrection of Christ.
Not by chance does the Holy Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, gladdening Christians, remind us that we, in contrast to unbelievers, have already come alive with Christ: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God (Col 3:1). According to the interpretation of Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, the Apostle: “…convinces us that if you are resurrected with Christ, then after that you must be on high, where He also is, you must think of the heavenly (for just as baptism, as death, is depicted through immersion in water, so too the resurrection is depicted through rising out of the water)".
Truly, for all people, dear brothers and sisters, spiritual resurrection is revealed, already in this life, as a solid foundation of bodily resurrection in Christ, which will occur by the power of God on the last day of this perishable world. Then all departed people will come alive, their souls will return to their bodies. And the appearance of the resurrected will reflect their inner state. Some will look joyful and radiant, others – terrible: And [they] shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:29).
Dear brothers and sisters! The solemnity of our Christian Pascha is always met joyfully by us, because the Resurrection of Christ has poured heavenly, Divine life into our human nature, damaged by sin. The authority of the devil, death, sin and hades has been laid low, the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven are open to us: We celebrate the death of death, the destruction of hades, the beginning of another life eternal, and leaping up we hymn the Cause: the only blessed and exceedingly glorious God of the fathers(paschal canon).
From my whole heart, I greet all of you, brothers and sisters, on the feast of the Resurrection of Christ! I wish everyone zeal to hold fast to Christ and to the path of the Gospel way of life, especially in our society that has departed from Christ. Let us not become discouraged and let us not despair, thinking that sin and the world that lies in evil are stronger than us. Let us try, by the power of the Vanquisher of hades, sin and death, to uproot in ourselves all the roots of evil. Let the gracious gifts of the Resurrection of Christ become for us the source and pledge of the coming rising from the dead. Amen.
Christ is Risen!
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