« PASCHAL MESSAGE OF ARCHBISHOP ELISEY OF SOUROZH TO THE PASTORS AND ALL FAITHFUL CHILDREN OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND »

 

 Dearly Beloved in the Lord, 

honourable pastors and God-loving lay people,

dear brothers and sisters!

As we share in the universal celebration of the Pascha of the Lord, which delivers the creation from bondage to corruption and leads it to the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rm 8:21), please accept my heartfelt congratulations and the exclamation of ‘eternal joy’.

CHRIST IS RISEN!

May the paschal joy of the Resurrection of Christ lead us to the way that opens a fresh, new source of faith in our life.

Our faith is founded on testimony; whether that of personal experience, or of ancient sayings, or on the witness of the Church:  about ‘that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;  (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us)’  (1 Jn 1, 1-2).

Contrary to the widespread opinion that faith arises from fear, the basis of faith is in fact a life-affirming principle: ‘God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son’ (1 Jn 5:11). Where there is faith in eternal life, there is no fear, for he who abides in love abides in God, and perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn 4: 16-18).

It is natural for human beings to fear many things in the world, but above all we fear death. The Lord, however, delivers us from this fear of death. ‘Fear not!’ – these were the first words spoken by the Lord to the women who had come to His tomb and found Him, not dead, but alive (Mt 28:10).  ‘He is risen indeed!’ – this answer proceeds not from fear, but from faith.

Faith in the Resurrection, which is given to us by the Risen Christ, the Son of God, frees us from the illusions that prevail in a life founded on a superficial relation to the world. ‘Like as the smoke vanisheth, so let them vanish away’ – these sacred words of the Church hymnography we hear during the days of Holy Pascha. If there is no faith in God, in His Life reigning in us, then the appearance of life, which is only an imaginary well-being that superficially accompanies us, will soon disappear and be replaced by the dark emptiness from which the contemporary man so often suffers.

Christ, however, penetrates this darkness with the light of His Resurrection, He fills empty human vessels with the fullness of His Life. He, the Conqueror of darkness, inspires us to strive for the true Light, so that our souls might blossom with a fragrant flower, the flower of the true beauty of holiness, the seed of which was planted in us from conception, in our mother’s womb. 

Such is the Pascha of Christ – filled with the joy of spiritual attraction to the virginal source of eternal life and holiness. To this pure image, the Life-Giving Spring – the Most Holy Virgin and Mother of God, are addressed our Paschal exclamations: 

‘Rejoice! Sanctified divine habitation of the Most High, rejoice! We who are given joy through thee, O Mother of God, cry out: Blessed art thou among women, All-undefiled Lady!’

In the spirit of this glorious, common and universal rejoicing in the Church, I greet with great Paschal joy all of you, dear brothers and sisters, who have your saving refuge in that fold of the Russian Orthodox Church whose earthly boundaries are those of Great Britain and Ireland!

I greet also those who celebrate Pascha only by tradition and who do note yet have a personal, authentic experience of relation to God. Authentic Life begins with authentic Love. May our faith begin and be regenerated on the basis of that witness to eternal life and the Love of God which appears to us in the Resurrection of Christ. ‘We love him, because he first loved us’ (1 Jn 4:19). 

CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!

ARCHBISHOP OF SOUROZH 

Pascha of Christ, 2010

            London