Paschal Epistle of Metropolitan Valentine

[尼古拉前执事]

PASCHAL EPISTLE
Of Metropolitan Valentine of Suzdal and Vladimir 

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND ARCHPASTORS, PASTORS, AND FAITHFUL CHILDREN OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX AUTONOMOUS CHURCH

When Thou hadst fallen asleep in the flesh as one mortal, O King and Lord, Thou didst rise again on the third day, raising up Adam from corruption, and abolishing death: O Pascha of incorruption! O Salvation of the world! (Exapostilarion of Pascha)

CHRIST IS RISEN!

With such sacred and ever-living words we greet each other, sharing our Christian joy in this “truly sacred and supremely festive night.” The risen Christ is the never-fading source of joy for the entire human race. In “this, the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad” in our risen Christ Jesus!

Any Orthodox Christian who has ever experienced the heavenly joy of Pascha, will agree that the heart of any truly alive Christian soul can never grow tired of hearing the paschal greeting “Christ is Risen!” nor of the short but profound troparion of Pascha, nor of the exalted poetry of the Paschal canon, nor of the triumphant “Catechetical Homily” of St. John Chrysostom, which enjoins us all to taste of the Paschal Lamb at the present Mystical Supper.

To some skeptics it might seem that everything that there is to say about Pascha has already been said, and that it would be impossible to find any new way of expressing the sense and meaning of the present celebration. But this is not so! “Every tongue is at a loss,” and human speech is utterly incapable of expressing the full meaning of Pascha. Any word that we might say about Pascha can do nothing more than highlight only one of the many facets of this jewel of a celebration, but to cast light on every facet of it would be impossible. The inexhaustibleness of Pascha is the inexhaustibleness of the Divine Nature Itself, about which St. John the Theologian said, “that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

Those of us unto whom the Lord will vouchsafe the eternal life of bliss in the Kingdom of God, will go from “strength to strength” in this divine knowledge in becoming one with God, but will never be able to reach the end of this process—for eternity is endless. And in like manner, it is impossible to follow Pascha through to its end. We can only stop dead in our tracks and stand in holy fear before the mystery of the Resurrection which has been opened before us, and out of the surplus of feeling in our hearts, our mouths cannot but repeat, over and over again, “Christ is RISEN from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in their graves bestowing life.”

For many, even for many of those who formally belong to the Church, the ineffable joy of Pascha remains unattainable. Of course, the universal rejoicing of the Church of Christ cannot leave them completely indifferent; however, they continue to understand Pascha only as a “Great Feast” with eggs and kulichi, as an “ancient national custom,” or as an “historical event from the Gospels.” From whence does such a superficial understanding of the mystery of Pascha arise?

The main cause of such an approach to Pascha is insufficient familiarity with the life of the Church, with the events that she relives and in which she takes part during the Great Fast, and especially, during Holy Week. The joy of Pascha is a continuation of the sorrow of Great and Holy Friday and the mystical and universal silence of Holy Saturday. “Yesterday, was I crucified with Thee, O Christ, yesterday I was buried with Thee, and today I arise with Thine arising,” as it says in the Paschal canon. Whoever is not crucified together with the Savior, whoever is not sealed in the tomb with Him, cannot possibly rise with Him on the holy day of Pascha.

There is yet one more unfortunate error among many in the Church crowd—and that is their understanding that the events of Holy Week and Pascha are only a “commemoration” of events that happened once upon a time, many hundreds of years ago. No, dear brothers and sisters, it is not only a commemoration, but a participation and an initiation into these events!

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not in an illusory way, not just outwardly, really and completely became man, while yet remaining God, and united with Himself all of our human nature. And so we are called, while yet remaining human, to be united through grace, with God, and to become sharers in His Divine life.

Should we be but bystanders at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, then we shall be like the mean-spirited crowd of Jews, or at the very most, like the soldiers who guarded His tomb.

No, we must be crucified and rise together with Christ, just as the Church prompts us in the services before Pascha and at Pascha. When we come to church for the services, we leave the world in which we live, we step out of time, and are translated to the place where Christ is all, and in all.

The closest unification with Christ takes place in the Mystery of the Eucharist, through the reception of His Body and Blood. All of our divine services revolve around this communion, initiating us into the divine life of Christ. The paschal service is primarily a Eucharistic one. In the time of the Old Covenant, the sacrificial lamb was immolated at Pascha. This was a prefiguration of the innocent Lamb of God—our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The joy of our present-day Pascha is intensified for us, the true Orthodox Christians of Russia, and for her children of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church abroad, by the news that our persecution in the courts, which has been going on for the last three years in Suzdal, has finally come to an end, although, of course, it is too early for us to speak of a complete cessation of persecution against Holy Orthodoxy in Russia.

In this world, where evil yet reigns, those who desire to live piously, in accordance with God’s commandments, with the precepts of the holy Fathers of the Church, and with the canons of the Orthodox Church, will always be persecuted. The holy Apostle Paul warned Christians that even if the Lord does at times send a small respite from troubles on the Church’s path of confessing the Faith, we should use this time to prepare for yet greater persecutions, and to strengthen our faith and our resolve. In no way should we allow ourselves to fall into laxness. A Christian must always “keep the divine watch,” and “not give sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eyelids,” but stand spiritually at the ready.

In our stand in the Truth, we must be firmly aware of and reinforce our remembrance of the fact that nothing in this world can withstand the power of Christ. The petty liars who challenge it, who are nothing more than protégés of the new atheists, and hirelings of the Moscow Patriarchate, who send their “documents” with their forged stamps and seals to addresses all over Russia and beyond, seem especially sad and pitiful. They seek to destroy the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, which they once betrayed, receiving in exchange for their treachery their falsely-named awards and temporary “happiness” in this perverted world.

The Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, at home and abroad, is a Church, not a human institution, in contrast to all of their “religious organizations, unions, and movements.” It is pointless to fight against God. The Church of God has stood forever, and will stand forever, radiating the purity of its confession, no matter how much she is persecuted.

The fate of those who war against God and the Church will be deserving of many tears. For this reason, our goal consists, insofar as we are able, in trying to turn them and their organizations away from such a disastrous, satanic, endeavor, which they have taken up in ignorance.

Most unfortunately, in our human weakness, it sometimes starts to look like our enemies are stronger than we are, and the flock of faithful and loyal Christians is becoming smaller and smaller. It is unbelievably difficult to bear all of the sorrows, the slanders from false brethren, and to be in an absolute minority in this world. But let us not succumb to despair!

Let us remember how the Myhrr-bearing Women, by their selfless love for the Lord, by their undeterred desire to follow Him on His path of suffering, became the first to hear from the risen Life-giver Christ Himself, the greatly comforting word, “Rejoice!”

Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, warned us that we would have sorrow in this world, but that our sorrow would quickly turn into joy. And it is already turning into joy, for our Lord has conquered death! “Hades reigns, but not eternally,” but the Truth of Christ is eternal! And if we wish to be together with eternal truth, then we must not betray it by even as much as one iota, turning away from all of the temptations of this contemporary world and from ecumenical, so-called “World Orthodoxy,” with the Moscow Patriarchate at its head.

We, the Orthodox, just as our forefathers in the first centuries of Christianity, are called to be lamps of goodness and compassion, sympathy and love, so that the light of our good deeds should glorify our heavenly Father and His Only-begotten Son, the risen Christ.

May this sacred calling be for us ever a living one; and may the Lord Who has called us into His wondrous light, enlighten us by the light of His resurrection; and may the risen Life-giver turn the present Paschal feast into unfading spiritual joy, which no one shall ever be able to take away from us.

TRULY CHRIST IS RISEN!

Lowly Valentine
Metropolitan of Suzdal and of Vladimir.

Pascha
2004
In the God-preserved city of Suzdal

[尼古拉前执事]

Here is the epistle from last year if anyone is interested:

THE PASCHAL EPISTLE (2003)
Of His Eminence VALENTIN, Metropolitan of Suzdal and Vladimir
To the God-pleasing flock of the Russian Orthodox Church

CHRIST IS RISEN!

It is the Day of Resurrection!
Let us be illumined with the solemn Feast!
Let us embrace one another.
(From the Paschal Stichera)

Beloved fellow-workers - Archpastors and pastors, God loving brothers and sisters!

In these days - the most joyous ones in the life of a Christian - we do not simply remind ourselves of the historical event of the Resurrection of Christ, which happened in Palestine and became a central event in the whole of human history, but rather, thanks to the Church of Christ, which has existed without interruption since the earthly life of the Savior even to this day, we become the witnesses of Christ's Resurrection. We imitate the Apostles, the heralds of the world-wide joy of Holy Pascha. We join the resurrected Savior Himself by consuming the Paschal Lamb of the New Testament - His divine Body, entering His sacramental Divine life in the same manner as He enters the life of every one of us and enlightens it with the "Divine radiance of Resurrection". From this comes our special joy, which is absolutely incomprehensible and unattainable by the godless world that surrounds us.

In the Paschal night, which as the ancient Christians said, is "brighter than the brightest day", we receive the pledge of the future resurrection of every one of us. In re-living the experience of the Resurrection of Christ, renewing the joy of the resurrected Lord, the Giver of Life, we sense that if we will truly live with Christ here, on earth, then we will be resurrected with Him there, in the Heavenly Kingdom.

Christ arose, not simply because God-incarnate can die and be regenerated, but because it was the only way to redeem fallen human nature from the curse of sin and death, only in this manner was it possible to grant it eternal life.

Our Lord rose by the power of His Divinity, but since He is not only True God, but also True Man, in Him arose also human nature, the Bearer of which He became when He became incarnate of the All-Holy Virgin Mary. If prior to the Resurrection of Christ, Old Testament humanity had a very obscure hope for eternal life, was aware of all the horror of death, from which there was no way of escape, then after the Resurrection every man received the certain possibility of eternal life.

The Lord has done everything needed so that we inherit it - He came down to earth, was incarnate, suffered persecution and sacrilege, was crucified on the Cross, arose and ascended to the invisible Divine world, to His Father. Now it is up to us; we have to follow Christ, fulfill His commandments, live according to the Gospel, and through the Mysteries of the Church be united with God. And when we and Christ will become one, then we will rise with Christ into eternal life. But if we do not unite with Christ, all our faith will be in vain and, terrifying to consider, the glorious Resurrection of Christ itself might be to no purpose for us.

In order that this does not happen, the Holy Church of Christ shows us the spiritual path, directed toward union with Christ, our Savior. The basic daily task of this spiritual life is the struggle with sin, with our sinful habits and inclinations, with all that attracts us to the world and distances us from God. The main tools in this struggle, as the Savior Himself said in the Gospels, are prayer and fasting.

The Church lives and breathes prayer "seven times in a day" [Ps. 118], performing magnificent services and during those periods in between them, constantly calling us to unceasing prayer to God with the words of the Jesus Prayer. But in order to strengthen prayer, fasting is necessary - to acquire the habit of abstinence (self-denial).

How wisely the Holy Fathers arranged it, that prior to the worldwide festivity (on Pascha), there be a 7-week long strict Great Fast! Those of us who have observed this Fast according to all the Church regulations, or at least have sincerely sought to do so, have received from the Lord visible spiritual gifts: internal peace of mind, meekness, humility, abstinence, love, charity.

Christ's Pascha is a universal holy day: not only our hearts, but also our minds participate in it, or rather all our (human) nature and, more broadly, all the world, "Heaven and the earth and that which is under the earth", as is sung in the Canon of Pascha. On this day, as we all see, all of nature is renewed (figuratively speaking, "is resurrected") - the trees become green, the birds sing, even the brooks, freed from ice, joyfully murmur.

Our pious ancestors have established a multitude of paschal customs that permeate the national way of life. One of the most ancient customs is the preparation of special paschal foods, colored eggs, kulich, "cheese pascha". The most ancient of these, and filled with a deep significance, is coloring eggs red, the color of the Blood shed by Christ on the Cross. This custom is connected with the Equal to the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, who, according to tradition, stood before the Roman Emperor Tiberius and handed him an egg with the words: "Christ is Risen". The emperor doubted that a mortal could rise from the dead: "It is as difficult to believe in this as to believe that a white egg might become red!" and the white egg immediately (a symbol of the birth of life) became red. In such a way, the customs carefully handed down to us by our fathers and grandfathers connect us with the most ancient periods in the existence of the Church of Christ.

Now, when we rejoice in this beautiful church and with joyful hymns meet "Christ the Life-Giver, coming forth on the third day from the tomb", the world surrounding us is submerged in the darkness of ignorance: it does not know the true God and true Church and cannot participate in our holy joy. When the Lord arose, His enemies, the Scribes, Pharisees, torturers and crucifiers no longer saw Him. Their spiritual descendants - the pseudo-priests and the mistaken souls that follow them - also do not see the risen Christ. Many of our unfortunate contemporaries also do not see Him, not only those who in their insanity call themselves "atheists" ("without God"), but also those who formally call themselves Orthodox, even while they do not know what true Orthodoxy is.

Unfortunately, during recent years in our country the conception of Orthodoxy has become wide-spread that it is a "national-cultural phenomenon" , a matter of folk customs, ancient traditions. Certainly, Orthodoxy permeates our entire national culture, but it is not restricted to that. An Orthodoxy that is not linked with the rejection of the world, with the meek following of Christ and the fulfillment of His commandments - is a lie; it only comforts the weaknesses and supports the sinful inclinations of man. Many people, as the Savior Himself has warned, confess Him with the mouths, but their hearts are far from Him. Let us not be like them!

Among the unfortunate people who do not celebrate Christ's Resurrection now with the Church the enemy of the human race creates his kingdom of hostility, hatred, lies and revenge. But we believe that even into this dead kingdom the ray of glory of the resurrected Christ will penetrate.

From time immemorial the powers of Hell cannot reconcile themselves to the good news of the Resurrection of Christ; they lead an irreconcilable war against It. They imagined that when they killed the confessors of Christ's Resurrection, they could annihilate the preaching itself. But this preaching is impossible to silence! It is not said in vain that "the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church". Every new martyr is not a defeat, but a victory of the Church, it is a proof that faith in the Resurrection is stronger than life and for this reason it is worth dying in order to rise again and live eternally with the Lord. The example of such a death the Lord Himself has given us! Therefore, let us be ready to be persecuted for the Faith of Christ and God's Truth and let us accept this with joy and gratitude, because Christ from Golgotha is offering us an incorruptible crown.

Beloved in the Lord, co-workers in prayer and in podvig on the fields of Christ!

From the bottom of my heart I congratulate you on the occasion of the bright and joyful feast of Holy Pascha. I pray to the resurrected Christ, the Life-Giver, that He grant to every Orthodox Christian, every suffering family, every one who weeps, the comfort of peace and serenity!

The sorrows will disappear, the wars will stop, the blood will no longer flow, injustice will perish, the slandered will be justified, the offended will forgive and all will be happy. This is the way in which life will be arranged in the "new world" and under the "new heaven" - in the Heavenly Jerusalem, in the Kingdom of God. It will be so arranged because Christ has risen and there is no more death. Just a little longer and there will be no evil and injustice - the insignificant fruits of death. Let us suffer a bit more, let us preserve faithfulness to Christ even unto death and we will be eternally with Him!

Let us, beloved, after returning to our homes from this Paschal feast of faith, to this complicated life, bring into it a particle of the inaccessible light of Christ's Resurrection! Let us be living witnesses that Christ has risen, let all people know of it - those near and those afar off! Let people know of the limitless happiness that the Lord has granted us, so that they will thank their Creator and Redeemer!

Truly Christ is Risen!

May the Lord's blessing remain with all of us!

The President of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church

+VALENTIN, Metropolitan of Suzdal and Vladimir

Christ's Pascha 2003,
in the God-preserved city of Suzdal

[尼古拉前执事]

Pascha is over so I am unstickying this.