The victory of the resurrected is the beginning of a new era
Patriarch Daniel, as well as the other metropolitans of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, sent the traditional Patriarchal and Synodal Easter Epistle on the occasion of the Resurrection of Christ. « Diary » publishes the message one -to -one:
Christ is risen!
Beloved in the Lord’s Children of our Holy Church,
The news of the resurrection of the Son of God is a joy for the human heart. Our testimony to the victor of death, the crucified and resurrected Lord and the Savior Jesus Christ, is a testimony of joy, of faith and hope. And that is why our sermon for Christ’s Resurrection is a sermon for the celebration of life – for the victory that has been restrained, for us, by our God and the Creator, who is life itself and the only source of life. Who has created the world and man from love and who – again in the expression of his infinite love – became our savior of sin, corruption and death (cf. John 3:16; 10:10).
| On the day of the Resurrection, we glorify the victory of life. |
The faith of the church in the miracle of the Resurrection is a faith that is based on a personal testimony. The voice of the church is still the voice of the Miriers women – these first witnesses of the Resurrection. This is also the voice of the Holy Apostles, who for forty days after Easter communicated with the resurrected savior and became « Eyewitnesses of His greatness » (2 Peter 1:16). This is the voice of the Holy Apostle Thomas, who, after making sure he personally confessed the truth of the resurrection: « My Lord and my God! » (John 20:28). This is the voice of all the saints who, with the grace of Christ, won in the fight against sin and became the parties to the Resurrection of Christ. It is the voice of the Holy Church, which today does not cease to preach and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God accessible to all men, through the belief in the resurrected Savior and life by His commandments.
| From the incarnation and to the very earthly life of the God -man Christ is the fulfillment of the Divine idea, to which the Holy Bible is testified on in its first pages: « Let’s create a person in our image, (s) in our likeness » (Gen. 1:26). |
The image of God, by which we are created, could not rise to God -like, while man, the crown of God’s creation, remained captured by sin and death. That is why Christ is embodied and lives between us – complete « with grace and truth » (John 1:14), perceived our nature -damaged nature – to renew it and glorify it, « those who accepted it, believers in his name » can « to become the children of God » (John 1:12) And participants in this renewal and transformation, which, according to God’s Revelation, we expect in the reality of the new creation and in the sacrament of the universal resurrection.
Happy Resurrection
The work of human salvation has been continuing in those who are Christ for two millennia for two millennia. Following the faith of the Savior (cf. Matt. 28:19), the church does not stop preaching and baptizing, and the Lord invisibly to our eyes continues to add to it (cf. Act 2:47). Continues to act, of course, and « The secret of lawlessness » (2 Sal. 2: 7), of the opposition of God’s will, which nowadays reaches an unprecedented dimensions and scale in human history, but we know that the triumph of the God -related spirit, of evil and sin is already seemingly, since the victory, which is resurrected by the dead and the son of God, is the beginning of a new epoch For in the mystery of the cross, grave and resurrection she was « Awed with Victory » (1 Cor. 15:54).
May the joy of the news of the Resurrection of Christ be invariably with us – as the Savior Himself in the Holy Gospel calls us (cf. Matt. 28: 9) and as his apostles have repeatedly summoned to us: « Rejoice always in the Lord, and I will say again: Rejoice the Lord is close » (Phil. 4: 4-5).
| Even in the deepest grief, hopelessness and despair – rejoice! Even in times of doubt and the most difficult trials – rejoice! Even facing all the seeming power and omnipotence of evil – rejoice! |
Because, as today, the Church solemnly justifies, « Christ was resurrected from the dead, and with death, death is trampling on those in the graves, life gifts » (Passover’s tropar).
We all congratulate all the faithful children of our Holy Church on the holiday of Christ’s Resurrection – within our country and away from it, with archpastor wishes for peace and joy in the Resurrected Lord of Christ.
God’s all -forgiving and all -conquering love and great mercy, grace and communion in the Holy Spirit of God be with all of us!
