| Bulgarian Patriarchate
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and on those in the tombs bestowing life!
(Paschal troparion)
Beloved in the Lord children of our holy Church,
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Wondrous and great, splendid and priceless is each gift with which the Man-Loving God endows His greatest and most favourite creation – the man, who He created according to His holy image and whom He determined to reach God-likeness as well. Innumerable are God’s gifts for us, but the greatest and the most generous among them is the gift of the Resurrection. The victory over death, which the God-Man our Lord held over darkness and the whole all-consuming and ruinous power of the evil is the culmination, the greatest and the most categorical manifestation of God’s love for us and for the whole creation.
The resurrection of the human nature in its primordial purity, beauty and entirety, which the Only-Begotten Son and Son of Man did, He did not for Himself, but for us and for our salvation. This glorified human nature He raised to the Heavens and in this way He paved the way to the Kingdom of light and life for all those who are His, who hear His voice and follow the way shown by Him.
In this is also all our faith and hope, all our trust; the joy which He Himself first heralded to us and which nobody can take away from us: “Rejoice!” (Matt. 28:9). And also: “Rejoice, and be extremely glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (Matt. 5:12). “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, rejoice!”, exclaims the Apostle of the people (Phil. 4:4), because this joy in its deepness and in its content is one of its kind, incomparable to any other. Only with it and only thanks to it we can be spiritually healthy and complete. It is what gives us the strength we require to overcome each trail and temptation during the days of our life on earth.
With the Resurrection of Christ the Saviour death was trampled and it no more has that power with which it enslaved men. Christ’s Resurrection assured us that light and life triumph powerfully over darkness and death. The empty tomb in the morning on the third day attests not only the truthfulness of God’s promises, but also to what is prepared for us – the ones who believe in God and the ones who put their trust only on Him, because God “by raising Jesus from death, he has given us new life and a hope that lives on” (1 Petr. 1:3). This hope is always with us and in us – pure, bright and unclouded. By it and by the faith in the Resurrected from the dead we “walk […], not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). With faith and hope in God, by Whom “we live, and move, and have our being!” (Acts 17:28).
This salvific faith and this bright hope have been supporting all the righteous – even since the very beginning of the history of the human kind until today. In the era of the Old Testament, the time of the inmost and secret anticipation, they were known only by few people. Now, after God’s Incarnation and the Resurrection of Christ our Lord, they are already known by everyone and it only depends on us to take advantage of the salvation endowed to us by God. Now, however, although having distress in the world (cf. John 16:33), although persecuted for righteousness’ sake and reviled, and mourning (cf. Matt. 5:4, 10-11), although still subject to death, which according to the words of St. Paul the Apostle is “the last enemy that will be abolished” (1 Cor. 15:26), the faithful to Jesus Christ live in foretasting the future benefits, because for the apostle, as well as for all of them “living is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).
As Orthodox Christians we are expected to live with the clear consciousness for these basic truths of our salvific faith, which we need so much particularly now, when around us there is still so much injustice, violence and death. Let us pray to Christ, Who alone is our way, our truth and our life (cf. John 14:6), to endow His salvation and eternal life to all who passed away from this world with firm faith and hope in the Resurrection. Let us pray to Him for our close relatives and friends, but also for our enemies, as He Himself teaches us and appeals (cf. Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27-28, 35). May the Resurrected from the dead give them light, joy and eternal life.
On this brightest day, may the Resurrection of Christ illuminate every soul and every heart, chase away from us every disbelief and doubt, despair and hopelessness, because here we can see: “Christ has been raised from the dead! He did become the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
We are fatherly greeting with the holiday of the Resurrection all faithful children of our Orthodox Church – those in our Motherland and those far away from it, as we are wishing everyone bright and abundant Paschal joy and every good from the Lord.
May to all of us be the peace and grace of our Resurrected from the dead Lord Jesus Christ
and the communion with the Holy Spirit!
CHRIST IS RISEN!
DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE HOLY SYNOD AND A DEPUTY HEAD OF THE WIDOWED THRONE OF SOFIA DIOCESE
† Metropolitan GRIGORIY of Vratsa
MEMBERS OF THE HOLY SYNOD:
† Metropolitan YOSIF of USA, Canada and Australia
† Metropolitan GRIGORIY of Veliko Turnovo
† Metropolitan IGNATIY of Pleven
† Metropolitan GAVRIIL of Lovech
† Metropolitan NIKOLAY of Plovdiv
† Metropolitan ANTONIY of Western and Central Europe
† Metropolitan YOAN of Varna and Velicky Preslav
† Metropolitan SERAPHIM of Nevrokop
† Metropolitan NAUM of Rousse
† Metropolitan CYPRIAN of Stara Zagora
† Metropolitan DANIIL of Vidin
† Metropolitan YAKOV of Dorostol
