Paschal Epistle of the President of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

+Metropolitan Philaret Pascha, 1982

 It is the day of resurrection! Be ye enlightened, O people! Pascha, the Pascha of the Lord! For from death to life, and from earth to Heaven hath Christ God led us who chant a hymn of victory!

Thus does the Holy Church chant in the words of the venerable John of Damascus during the radiant days of Holy Pascha. Ended are the great and holy days of Passion Week – days during which the Church commemorated the accomplishment of Salvation and the sufferings of the incarnate Son of God, which it was His good pleasure to take upon Himself in His incarnate state “for the sake of us men and for our salvation.” All of the divine services of Passion Week, compunctionate and profoundly edifying, are dedicated to these holy commemorations In performing these divine services, the Church, as it were, follows after her Lord and Savior step by step; and each step, each moment of His redemptive sufferings she prayerfully, sorrowfully and thankfully hymns in prayers, liturgical rites and sacred rituals which correspond to them

But Passion Week is ended! Once the saintly hierarch Arch bishop Innocent of Kherson, one of the truly remarkable preachers in the Russian land, of whom there were many others, exclaimed in his inspired sermon on the occasion of Great Friday, the day of the suffering and death of Christ the Savior on the Cross: “Again Gologtha and the Cross Again the tomb and the winding-sheet!; . . But, lo! we perceive that the tomb is empty, and that the winding- sheet no longer covers anyone. Christ is risen, and to take the place of sorrow and grief, that joy is come which the Resurrected One Himself foretold to His disciples, (saying): ‘Ye now, therefore, have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you’ (John 16:22).” And this joy is joy in our risen Lord. He has risen from the tomb as the vanquisher of hell and death; everything is flooded with the blinding light of His glorious Resurrection, and the joy which He foretold to His disciples has now become the possession of all the faithful children of His Church.

Each year the Church of Christ discovers this joy of the Resurrection anew, from year to year, during the radiant days of Pascha. And the faithful children of the Church listen to her glad tidings and rejoice and hold festival. Yet the Savior’s words in the Holy GospeI , “Fear not, little flock” (Luke 12:32), we do not consider to be without purpose. In our day – terrible days, days of apostasy from all the bases of faith and morality, as we see even now the number of true believers really constitutes a little flock in comparison to the majority of mankind, which in fact has lost the faith and has trampled underfoot the fundamentals of Christian morality! Now people who have completely forgotten Christian purity, meek ness and chastity are not only coming forward, but are maintaining that all the abominations and filth which fill contemporary life are somehow licit, natural and deserving of approbation! in view of this, there come unbidden to mind the words of the sacred Scriptures which speak of man being “compared to the mindless cattle, and (becoming) like unto them” (Ps 48:21). Nay, he has not only become like them, he has become even worse than them, for cattle know nothing of the abominations which the Apostle said “it is a shame even to speak of” (Eph. 5:12); but now the sons and daughters of men, having lost all shame and conscience, are doing just such things.

Yet let my mouth “not speak of the works of men” (Ps 16:4). Let us address ourselves to the radiant feast of the Resurrection.

In the Gospel lection which we listened to on Pascha night at the Divine Liturgy, are the words: The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness overcame it not (John 1:5). The divine Light shineth amid the darkness, and the darkness cannot encompass it; cannot extinguish it Thus also the light of Christ’s Resurrection shines; it shines forth amid the world and the darkness of man’s errors cannot dim or extinguish it. The Lord Jesus Christ, when conversing with His Apostles at the mystical Supper, said to them: In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer’; I have overcome the world (John 16:33) He was then only just preparing to go forth to His task of redemptive and saving sufferings; but in His divine omniscience, He saw that labor as some thing already accomplished, and as a victor He spoke of it to His disciples, encouraging them. And in accordance with His infinite loving-kindness and goodness, He makes all who believe in Him participants in this victory; this is why the Apostle says: Thanks be to God, Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:57). And in the sacred book of the Apocalypse we read: He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be Myson (Rev. 21:7).

Rejoice, then, O Christians! And do not fall into despondency when you see how evil is spreading throughout the world! Of course, it is grievous for the Christian soul to see this overflowing of evil, filth and malice. Even that great righteous man St. John of Kronstadt in his time pointed out to us that one of the most grievous trials the Christian is subject to is the victory and spreading of wickedness and injustice, and the impossibility of stopping them. Yes, there are such times in life. The Savior Himself pointed this out in the garden of Gethsemane, when He said to those of His enemies who had come to arrest Him: This is your hour, and the power of darkness (Luke 22:53). And they laid hold of Him. But their time passed; the power of darkness came to an end; the light of Christ’s Resurrection shone forth; Life vanquished death; Good triumphed over evil; Truth conquered falsehood!

During the radiant days of Pascha, the faithful of the Russian Church often have occasion to recall how the great favorite of God and wonderworker St. Seraphim of Sarov, throughout’ the whole year, and not only during the paschal period greeted all who came to him with the joyous salutation: “My joy, Christ is risen!” In his vast and weighty spiritual experience, the great ascetic realized all the power and dominion of evil in the world. But he also knew the triumphal power of the radiant Resurrection of Christ, before which evil is impotent. And being ever filled with the radiant and triumphant joy of Pascha, he shared it with those who came to him with their sorrows and afflictions, pouring this joy, as it were, into their despondent and troubled hearts.

How beautiful is our Orthodox Faith! With what clear, unfading light it illumines our life which is full of sin and vanity! Yet all of its power and light is in the Resurrection of Christ. If Christ the Savior had not risen but had remained in’the grave, life would have turned into a dreadful, evil and intolerable nightmare. But the Resurrection of Christ did take place; and the Church calls upon all of her faithful children to rejoice and celebrate His Resurrection. For therein we “celebrate the slaying of d e at h, the destruction of hell, and the beginning of a new life which is everlasting.”

CHRIST IS RISEN!