Paschal Message – Pascha 2005
My Brethren,
Christ is risen!
Today we celebrate the greatest event of history: the resurrection of Christ! Christ, who had been dead, raised Himself up again. Is this not astonishing? Is this not a unique and unrepeatable event?
The rulers and mighty men of that time who had put Christ to death and sealed Him in a tomb with a guard thought they had rid themselves of that dangerous Person. They considered Him more dangerous than Barrabas to their religious and social establishment – so they wanted Him dead.
But Christ, who had been dead, proved to be stronger than the whole world by His holy resurrection. He conquered not only His own death, but rather trampled down the death of all men, granting life to everyone who had died in every age. The Church proclaims this historic event every Pascha when She sings the marvelous hymn “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and on those in the graves bestowing life.”
God made man to be happy. He placed Him in the Paradise of Eden and wanted the whole earth to be Paradise. God did not create death. Death is our own choice; it is the result of sin, the consequence of the fall of our first-fashioned parents, which they chose of their own accord. That is why it is so bitter.
Behind death is the devil, who led our first-fashioned parents into the fall because he hates man. He envies the blessedness that man will inherit in the next life, and wants to destroy him, to kill everyone. That is why the Evangelist John says that the devil “was a murderer from the beginning.”
Before Christ came into the world, (that is, before He became incarnate, was crucified, died, and rose) the devil, using death as his weapon, terrorized men to make them sin. The result was that before Christ, everyone feared death and no one escaped its power. Everyone, including the saints of the Old Testament after their deaths, was lawlessly and temporarily held captive by the devil in the pits of Hades. It was from this tyranny that Christ freed man through His resurrection, for He descended into Hades as soon as He had given up the ghost on Golgotha.
Christ by His resurrection put death to death, abolished Hades, and trampled down the devil. Only, for a short time until the second coming of Christ, the devil continues to control a portion of the world, keeping his followers, “the rulers of the darkness of this world.” (Eph. 6:12)
The devil is the first terrorist! He is the ring-leader of all terrorists! He incites everyone who will listen to commit similar acts of terrorism. Both our country and others bear these indelible and agonizing wounds which the children of the devil inflict.
Today, all mankind is tense with the fear of terrorism. It struggles to free itself, but cannot. The only weapon capable of victory is Christ. The Risen Christ! – not the Christ of the heretics, who deny or subvert the Resurrection.
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The risen Body of Christ is the Orthodox Church. The Church makes a man a child of God, a member of Christ’s Body, an enemy of violence and terrorism. That is why the devil and his instruments make constant war on the Church. The target of the visible and invisible powers of darkness is Orthodoxy, for they wish to wipe out faith in the risen Christ.
Our Church here in America is fully conscious of the threat and of Her responsibility. This is why She seeks more effectual organization, a project which with God’s help will be undertaken at the First Clergy-Laity meeting this coming October.
May the unwaning light of the Resurrection illumine the souls of us all, granting peace to the whole world, justice on earth, freedom and fairness in Cyprus, joy and happiness to our families. Finally, we pray, may it protect and bless our Orthodox Church, that it may always remain the Ark of our salvation.
Christ is Risen! Truly the Lord is Risen!
+ Archbishop Paul of America