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11-04-2015 EASTER 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!
I greet you all most warmly with the Great Feast of Holy Pascha! The Good News of the Resurrection, of eternal Life which is already alive in us, like a wave surges towards us with its grace-filled warmth that fills all of us and the whole world with the manifestation of the divine power that is contained in our paschal exclamation:
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Christ our God enters our hearts as light, penetrating the darkness. He is Life, breaking through the inert shell of our souls. In the vivid hymnody of the holy Church that we hear today, Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death, crushing it by His Resurrection for those who have believed in Christ and followed after Him.
The Easter celebration spiritually and mystically nourishes our faith, which so wonderfully changes our condition from our usual deadness to a vivifying cooperation with God, the source of our life.
A vivid impression of spiritual authenticity is now conveyed by the words of Christ: ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die’ (Jn.11:25). In response, we bear witness together with the apostle: ‘This is the true God and eternal life’ (1 Jn 5:20).
Life in union with the Risen Christ is for us that task which gives meaning to our birth into this world and enriches the ineffable spiritual beauty and joy of our existence.
Contemplating the icon of the Descent of Christ into Hell, we see how the Risen Saviour stretches out his hand to Adam, drawing him out from the abyss of Hell. In the same way the Lord stretches out his hand to each of us, no matter how far we may have fallen from holiness, into whatever abyss we may have descended in our falls into sin.
The resurrection is not given against the will of man. For that reason we pass through the cross of our life with all our temptations and labours in order to demonstrate our will to live in God. Our earthly life is made interesting and beautiful by the experience of spiritual growth, perfection in virtue and confirmation in love.
In the bright days of the Passover of the Lord we are filled with thanksgiving to God for His gift of life eternal, for His Resurrection which gives life to us! Let us give one other joy and purity of heart. May the melody of paschal prayer resound within us! As a ray of the sun, may it illumine all the old shadows of our relations one with another. In the Resurrection let us forgive those who hate us and so we shall joyfully greet one another:
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!
May the harmonious union of our faith and the grace of God lead us into the joy of our Lord, filling our souls with the Light of His glorious Resurrection.
With love in the Risen Christ
+Elisey
ARCHBISHOP OF SOUROZH
Pascha of Christ, 2015
London