Protocol 101P
THE METROPOLIS OF PORTLAND AND THE WEST
His Eminence, Metropolitan Moses of Portland
2007 PASCHAL ENCYCLICAL
of
His Eminence, Metropolitan Moses of Portland
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,
Christ is risen from the dead, by death hath He trampled down death and on those in the graves hath he bestowed life!
We have been blessed to experience the great mystery of our salvation during the recent Holy Week. We began our Savior’s awesome resurrection of Lazarus, who was four days dead. At the entry of our Savior into Jerusalem we cried out with the children, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” We saw the wonders and miracles of our Lord. And yet again we were confronted with how His own people did not respond to His call or accept Him as the Christ, as the Holy Spirit predicted by the Prophet Esaias:
“Hear, you deaf, and look up, you blind, to see. And who is blind, but My servants? And who is deaf, but those that rule over them? Yes, the servants of God have been made blind. You have often seen, and have not taken heed; your ears have been opened, and you have not heard” (Esaias 42:18-20).
Our Savior showered His people with benefactions and for the most part met with betrayal and cowardice and indifference. The very chief priests and elders of the people rejected the awaited Christ out of envy and personal ambition. As it is written in the Gospel of Saint John, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in His name, when they saw the signs which He wrought. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25).
The world came face to face with the wondrous miracles of the new Adam, the God-Man. Yet, even after His mighty miracles, He was betrayed by a disciple, and suffered slander, humiliation, torture and death at the instigation of the elders of Israel. In this strange and awesome way, our Savior came at His first coming, not in His almighty power, but in meekness and in self-sacrificing co-suffering love. This, again, was foretold by the Holy Spirit through the Prophet Esaias:
He beareth our sins and is pained for us; yet we accounted him to be in trouble, and in suffering and in affliction. But He was wounded on account of our sins, and was bruised because of our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and by His bruises we were healed. All we as sheep have gone astray; everyone hath gone astray in his way; and the Lord gave Him up for our sins. And He, because of His affliction, openeth not his mouth; He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb, so openeth not He his mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken away from the earth. Because of the iniquities of My people He was led to death. … Wherefore, He shall inherit many, and He shall divide the spoils of the mighty; because His soul was delivered to death; and He was numbered among the transgressors; and He bare the sins of many, and was delivered because of their iniquities. (Esaias 53:4-12)
The Cross proclaims to us the staggering love of God for us and the path towards the Resurrection. He Who is, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End of all things, has shown us the way to eternal rest and illumination through self-sacrifice and love. In our labors for the Church, we need always to have our gaze upon our Savior and not look to men, who for the most part, display indifference and cowardice.
We are all sojourners on this earth, passing through on our way to either eternal union with God or, if we so choose, eternal separation from Him. God will reward each according to his labors. God will judge.
It is especially during these gladsome days that we are inspired by our Lord and Master to put away all earthly care, to turn away from the darkness of sin and towards the light of love for our God and, through love of Him, to love our fellow man.
The lesson is clear. People will do what they do. It is for us to fix our gaze on God and the longed-for eternal reward of union with Him. From this resting place, as it were, we can then turn towards our fellow man with a love that will not be shaken by human shortcomings and failings. From the vantage place of the Eternal Pascha of Christ, the sacrifice and death and Resurrection of the New Adam, the God-Man, light enters the soul. This is the "Passing Over" from death unto life that we can seek even in this life.
This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad therein.
Christ is Risen!
Your fervent suppliant unto the Lord,
+Metropolitan Moses