PASCHAL LETTER OF ARCHBISHOP LAZAR (RET.)
To the faithful of St. Nicholas Metochian,<br>
and the Metochian of St. John the Theologian.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and
believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John
5:24)
This year as we celebrate Holy Pascha, I would like to reflect on the
life of Saint Mary of Egypt. There are so many aspects to this deeply
moving story that are not always explored. Too often we think of the
Resurrection as a moment in history that assures us of a moment in
the future. Our resurrection begins, however, even before our death.
In the life of Saint Mary of Egypt we see the power of addiction that
can take complete control of a person's life. When we work at
counselling people who are addicted, we begin to have a deeper
understanding of the life of Saint Mary of Egypt and also of the
nature of hell. She had begun as a prostitute and become totally
addicted to sex. As with most addictions, the promises that create
them can never be fulfilled. They begin to consume a person's whole
life to such a degree that one begins to experience hell already in
this life. We have repeatedly seen how true this is in working with
people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Our addictions can so
consume our lives that we may become spiritually dead while we are
physically alive.
It is easy to think of addictions as relating to something dramatic
such as narcotics, but most people who are addicted are not using
narcotics or even alcohol.
Let us look for a moment at the meaning of the word "passion." It
does not mean "sin," but rather "suffering." Every passion arises
from a normal emotion or need such as hunger, which can become
gluttony. When an emotion becomes so strong within us that it begins
to control our lives, and we begin to suffer from it, then it is
called a passion in the negative sense. Such a passion can become an
addiction so that we develop a psychological or physical bondage to
it. In such a case, we are not living an authentic life, and we begin
to die spiritually. We can become addicted to material possessions,
to food, to having our own way, to vanity. Even care about our
appearance can become an addiction. All these things can consume our
lives. They can destroy our relationships with other people and even
separate us from God, making us self-centred and indifferent to
others. They rob us of life itself.
The Holy Church has given us the periods of fasting as a way of
helping us to break our addictions or even to prevent them from
developing. The life of prayer and fasting, which the Church teaches
us, is designed to renew us spiritually, emotionally, mentally, even
physically. As with Saint Mary of Egypt, who, with God's help,
struggled against her own addiction, our own repentance and spiritual
struggle begins the process of resurrection in our lives. It not only
prepares us for the Heavenly Kingdom, which we will experience in the
future, but it makes God's Kingdom present to us already. The paschal
Mystery becomes clear to us only through repentance in which we
experience a passage from darkness to light, and from a spiritual
death to a spiritual life. Jesus Christ has provided for us the
possibility of an authentic life and the Holy Church has given us the
means for acquiring it.
Like Saint Mary of Egypt, we can pass from death to life in our
present earthly existence. We can experience the Paschal Mystery
daily, even while we anticipate the General Resurrection and the
complete manifestation of the Heavenly Kingdom. In order to do this,
we must look honestly and sincerely at our own addictions, at those
things which consume our lives, which make us self-centred,
emotionally insecure and spiritually cold. It is the unselfish love
of Jesus Christ for mankind that makes liberation from bondage
possible for us, but it is only the acquisition of unselfish love in
ourselves that makes it possible for us to participate in that
liberation.
Brothers and sisters, we have come through the journey of Great Lent
in which fasting and prayer have helped us to break the power of some
of our addictions and demonstrated to us that it is possible to break
such power. If we will complete the course of this fast with a
sincere self-examination and repentance, we can come to Holy Pascha
with the realization that Christ's Resurrection and victory over
death can be experienced in our daily lives and that we can even now
pass from death to life, from an illusion of life to an authentic
life daily throughout our earthly existence. The joy of the Heavenly
Kingdom can be ours already in some measure. The holy martyrs had
such an experience and such a certainty of everlasting life. The life
of Saint Mary of Egypt reveals to us that this joy and this certainty
are available to all who will pursue it with faith and repentance.
Let us, therefore, come to the holy feast of Pascha with rejoicing as
ones who have already passed from death unto life.
Truly He is Risen!
- Archbishop Lazar (Ret.)
Pascha, 2004