Dear fathers, brothers and sisters! Dear friends!
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Over almost two millennia this Good News of Easter has been flying to all corners of the earth, filling people’s hearts with joy, comforting them in the most difficult moments of life and giving them hope.
The Resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of our faith, the triumph of the victory of good over evil and life over death. In Christ each one of us becomes a partaker in this victory – ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (Jn. 3:16).
The Resurrection of Christ underlies our personal spiritual transformation, the awakening of spiritual aspirations and moral perfection. Each one of us in the joy of a loving heart can together with the light of the Russian land, St Seraphim of Sarov, at any moment of life turn to his neighbour with the greeting, ‘Christ is Risen, my joy!’, Recalling the main joy of all people, in which our sorrows dissolve, for sorrows are always temporary while Easter joy is eternal.
The Good News of Easter becomes even more significant in times of difficulties and trials. Last year went down in history of Russian and Russian-speaking diaspora worldwide as one of the hardest periods in its life. It became a test of our integrity, of our willingness to defend our identity in the most complicated and sometimes openly hostile circumstances and defend the spiritual values, which are part of our people’s tradition and were largely formed under the influence of Christianity.
Dear brothers and sisters, may the Resurrected Saviour help us all ‘keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’ (Eph. 4:3), and may the news of the Lord’s Resurrection on these Easter days warms our hearts with joy and jubilation, for Christ is truly Risen!
+ ANTHONY
Chairman
Of the Department for External Church Relations
Of the Moscow Patriarchate
Metropolitan of Volokolamsk
