“I am the light of the world: he that followeth me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”
(John: 8, 12)
Your Graces hierarchs,
Righteous priests and deacons,
Reverend monastic,
Faithful Christians,
Christ is Risen!
We celebrate liturgically this night the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and for this reason the Church Tradition calls it “this great and holy day;… a Feast of feasts and holiday of holidays in which we bless Christ for ages”. Thus, this is the great Day of the Lord: “Pascha of the Lord – Pascha” that Christians celebrate not only annually, but also weekly, on every first day of the week – Sunday.
The week and the year in the life of a human being are small cycles of existence, and everybody sees in them an opportunity for the renewal of life. A person has a habit to think, even to make own plans, on how to start a week, a new year positively, in order to avoid what is not good and to continue only with the things that were beautiful and holy in past.
The Church suggests us to start everything in the light of the Resurrection of Christ!
The Pascha of the Lord is the beginning of a human beings renewed life!
The Resurrection of Christ is by no means only a successful conclusion of a tragic story. On the contrary, it is a good beginning. A beginning of a new history, a new life, a Life in Christ.
Let us also renew our life in the Light of Christ.
The Light of Christ shines to everyone!
So, let us open our hearts to God, like some windows through which His Light shall shine, and brighten our thoughts, and make our life holy.
Only purifying our feelings, in the manner that the Church proposes to us in the Paschal Canon, can we drink “the new beverage” – “Abundant life” that comes from the tomb of the Resurrected Christ.
Experiencing hard and severe times, let us not fall in despair, but remember that Christ who died on the Cross also Rose from the tomb.
His death was not a just victory over the evil expressed by the violence of the powerful ones of the time. Christ defeated death by His forgiving love to all those who “did not know what they were doing”. He defeated death not running away from it, but finishing with it, and even using it to open a new way to Life – the life eternal in His Kingdom – for all faithful ones.
Right-faithful sons and daughters of the Resurrection of the Lord,
“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (James 4: 8). In this time difficult for entire humanity, time marked by the pandemic, this call of the Holy Apostle James becomes more and more actual for everybody. Let us seek to meet the Risen Christ, and the voice of the Lord will not hesitate to comfort us: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world!” (John 16: 33).
As Christians, sons and daughters of the Resurrection of the Lord, He who overcame death, calls us today to become the heralds of the joy of His Resurrection.
Let us come and witness the Lord of Life, helping and supporting those who are sad and abandoned, those who are sick and spiritually weakened, those who are our neighbours.
I especially address my arch-pastoral thoughts of profound gratefulness and piety to all doctors and medical workers from our country, for their abnegation in the fight for the lives of those in sickness and disease, assuring your of the prayers of the mother-Church.
On this glorious Feast of feasts, I paternally congratulate all members of our Holy Church, those in the country and abroad, wishing you health and achievements, peace and joy that come from the Light of the Resurrection.
May the Risen Christ enlighten us!
Indeed Christ is Risen!
† VLADIMIR,
METROPOLITAN OF CHISINAU AND ALL MOLDOVA
Resurrection of the Lord,
Year of salvation 2021,
Chisinau.