Australian and New Zealand Diocese (ROCOR)

†
Paschal Epistle
of His Grace, Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney
Australia & New Zealand

The Lord’s Pascha 2007

Beloved in the Lord, Clergy and Faithful
of the Australian & New Zealand Diocese!

C h r i s t . i s . R i s e n !

With great joy and spiritual gladness Orthodox Christians in all corners of the world radiantly glorify today the Vanquisher of death, our Lord Jesus Christ Who rose from the dead. For those who believe in Christ, death no longer evokes fear, for death is no more, it has been destroyed by His death on the Cross at Golgotha and by His glorious Resurrection.

For a Christian, who has purified himself from the burden of sin through repentance and fervent prayer, and has been enlightened and sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the end of this earthly life, which is so replete with difficulties and maladies, is a much-longed for passage to the true and blessed life of the Kingdom of Heaven. The great Apostle Paul desired with all his soul to leave this world of sin and vanity as speedily as possible and to be with Christ alone. “Now if we died with Christ, ” he wrote to the Christians of Rome, “we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him” (Rom. 6:8-9).

Christ the Giver of Life repeatedly promised resurrection and eternal life to those who would believe in Him. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life” (John 6:47). “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54).

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26), declared our Saviour, comforting Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, who had been lying in the tomb four days; by His Divine power He raised back to life Lazarus who was decomposing and putrefying in the grave. Why did the Saviour perform such a wondrous miracle? The Evangelist John the Theologian explains, quoting our Lord, “that you [i.e. we] may believe” (John 11:15).

The holy fathers of the Church see in the person of Lazarus, who had been in the grave for four days, an image of the human race, which, being spiritually dead, decaying and emitting the foul smell of sin, is in need of the saving and vivifying power of Christ the Redeemer. Through faith and sincere repentance publicans, harlots, thieves, and the greatest of sinners have received forgiveness of sins and resurrection to eternal blessed life, even while still abiding here on earth. Therefore, let us not despair, beloved brothers and sisters, of our salvation, when we see within ourselves an abundance of sins and the absence of good deeds. Let us humble ourselves by recognising our unworthiness and, with faith and repentance, let us beseech the Lord to forgive us and raise up our fallen, sinful soul.

Do we not likewise see today the wonderful rebirth of Chrisian faith and the Orthodox Church in the much-suffering Russian land, following the cruel suffering for many years of the episcopate, clergy, monastics and the multitudinous choir of the faithful laity, and the abundant rivers of their martyric blood? The Church in Russia has arisen and is continuing to rise up from the ashes to great spiritual glory, through the prayers of her holy New Martyrs and Confessors. She has gained victory over her enemies by the Divine, resurrecting power of Christ, Who promised that the gates of hell would never prevail against His holy Church.

In this auspicious year, on 17 May, on the feast of the Lord’s Ascension, by the will of the Holy Spirit and the Conciliar resolution of the Episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, following lengthy and careful bilateral negotiations by theological commissions, the reestablishment of Eucharistic communion between the separated parts of the Local Church of Russia – the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate – will take place in the city of Moscow.

Beloved in the Lord, faithful children of the Australian and New Zealand flock, greeting all of you with the Holy Pascha of the Lord, I appeal to you to offer up fervent and ardent prayers for the God-pleasing fulfillment of the long-awaited process of the reestablishment in spiritual unity, of the divided and scattered much-suffering Orthodox Russian people in the homeland and the Orthodox Russian people dispersed throughout the world by the cruel consequences of world history. However, it is not only the Orthodox Russian faithful who will be participating in this joyous event; also celebrating will be the large throng of people of all nationalities and races, who have accepted the holy Orthodox faith through the witness and missionary labours of the Russian Church and have found their home in her salvific bosom.

Was it not of this joyous day that St Anatole, the elder of Optina, was speaking, when his prophesying lips uttered the following amazing words: “There will be a storm. And the Russian ship will be shattered. But people can be saved even clinging to boards and debris. Not everyone will perish. And what happens after a storm? After a storm there is a calm. Then a great miracle of God will be made manifest. All the boards and debris will come together and be united, and again the great ship will appear in all her beauty!”

Christ is Risen! – Truly He is Risen!

+ Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney, Australia & New Zealand