Archpastoral Paschal Message of His Grace Bishop Irinej
IRINEJ
THE GRACE OF GOD BISHOP OF EASTERN AMERICA THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
CHRIST IS RISEN!
MOST BELOVED CLERGY AND MONASTICS, SONS AND DAUGHTERS, FAITHFUL CHILDREN OF THE DIOCESE OF EASTERN AMERICA OF OUR MOST HOLY CHURCH,
We greet you on this great and most radiant Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, with the ever inspiring inquiry of the heart, which emanated and emanates from encountering the Risen Lord:
They asked each other, ‘were not our hearts burning within us
while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’
(Luke 24:32)
May that joyful, Paschal burning of the heart, which the Holy Apostles Luke and Cleopas experienced on the road to Emmaus, in like manner, with the living presence of the Risen Christ, fill all our hearts, most beloved, this day and for all. So that the Risen Lord may open the eyes of our hearts, it is important in living our daily lives, that we free ourselves from prejudice, and be cured of every blindness. In order for us to overcome ourselves and our imperfections, we must remove every hurdle of a slow heart, and allow Him, Who is the Life and Resurrection, to realize in us, our own personal resurrection.
However we are witnesses that, despite the omnipresence of the victory of the Resurrection, sorrow and sighing continue to exist in this world. Why? Because many amongst us refuse to accept Christ’s victory over sin as their personal victory and, thereby, are not capable of giving themselves wholeheartedly to Him, the only Vanquisher of Death. Often we cannot visualize, through the prism of rampant secularism, how the dark deeds of this world weigh upon our spiritual and even physical ruin.
Precisely one year ago, on Pascha, May 1st, 2016, one of our greatest shrines, the Saint Sava Cathedral in New York City, was engulfed by a catastrophic fire, the flames of which engulfed our hearts, igniting a universal reaction. That raging fire and its demonic flames, which pierced the sacred calm of that Paschal evening, devoured the resplendent interior of our historic, one hundred and sixty five year old Cathedral. An entire epoch, consumed forever.
Who could not react to such devastation? No one, not even an ardent, unbelieving heart, could bear such pain without heaving an agonizing sigh. Even the stone foundations and soaring walls cried out from under the weight of their burden, let alone a heart of stone. As we helplessly witnessed that roaring inferno destroying our priceless history and with it part of our very being, only that comforting light which emanated from young Prince Rastko’s spiritual transfiguration at midnight before closed monastic gates, as the very rays of Christ’s glorious Resurrection radiated from His Life-giving Tomb, flashed before our very eyes, providing the only rays of hope.
Today, standing together before the threshold of the first anniversary of that fire, throughout the entirety of our Diocese, and indeed throughout the vast expanse of the oikouménē, spiritually united as one in the Resurrection of Christ and all that it promises wounded humanity, let all call to mind to the comforting words of the poem, ‘God Knows’ – I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way’ (Minnie Louise Haskins).
Beloved, so that we can realize our own personal resurrection, and thereby transfigure every disaster and temptation into His Victory, by entering into the Light of Christ’s Resurrection, for according to the words of St. Gregory Palamas, temptation cleanses the soul, becomes the cause for humble and very useful prayers. Truly, only a life in Christ represents an alternative to all that which is sinful and bears the marks of death, both spiritual and physical.
Therefore, in spite of everything that besets us, and precisely because of everything that the Crucified and Risen Lord brings us through the Resurrection– Rejoice always,pray without ceasing,in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you(I Thess. 5:16-19).
We greet you with the all joyous Paschal salutation, from the fullness of our paternal heart, which burns with the triumphant and ever salvific words: Life lives!
CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED, HE IS RISEN!
Given in New York, at Pascha in the year 2017.
YOUR FERVENT INTERCESSOR BEFORE THE RISEN CHRIST,
IRINEJ
BISHOP OF EASTERN AMERICA
THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
