serb-pascha

Gathered today at the Divine Liturgy, we are proclaiming to the world the death of Christ, and we are confessing His Resurrection. But we are not confessing His Resurrection as some event of the distant past; rather we are proclaiming the risen Christ Who is present amongst us through the Holy Spirit at this liturgical assembly. So it has been since the first appearance of the risen Christ to His disciples, as they witnessed and left to us as Holy Tradition (Lk. 24:30-31), and which is found in the fact that our risen Lord Jesus Christ is with us every day-until He comes again in His glory-in the eucharistic assembly of the many around their bishop, the servitor of this great sacramental Mystery of Christ. In the words of St. Ignatius the God-bearer of Antioch, "Where the bishop is, there also let the people be, for where Christ is, there also is the universal Church."

The risen Christ, our only Savior, our Hope, is not separated from His Body, which we are as the community of those who have been baptized into His death and have been raised up with Him into a new life. That is why where His Body is, there He is also as the Head of the Body.

Our tradition, our preaching, our dear spiritual children, is not from men, but from God; and it does not come simply out of the past and out of the depths of time so that we might be able to return there and remember those times past. It came "from above"-from God, the Father of lights, Who by His presence explains and fills all things. By the good will of the God and Father and the intercession of the Holy Spirit, the Son of God comes into history, building from it a liturgical community by which He takes creation and unites it to Himself, so making it His own Body and freeing it from death. The Holy Spirit does exactly this every time we gather in one place around one celebrant for the Eucharist, that is, to make thanksgiving to the Father whose will it was to bring us from non-existence into being, and to make us communicants of eternal life in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

The passion and crucifixion of Christ witnesses to the terrible tragedy and sickness from which the whole of creation suffers-and that is death. Death is the source of all the evils which have befallen humankind and all of creation from the beginning. When death no longer exists, neither will there exist either evil among people or animosity among creatures. We do not deceive ourselves, our dear spiritual children, into believing that we can overcome death, that terrible and final enemy of all creation, by ourselves, without union with God in the risen Christ. Our own nature, as well as the nature around us, only gives us the false impression that it is enduring and eternal, even as death consumes and transforms it into dust and nothingness. Therefore we do not put our trust in nature that it will liberate us from death, since it itself groans and suffers, in fact expecting us, as children of God, to free it from bondage to decay. And we can only do this in the community of love in the Body of Christ, which is the eucharistic assembly. The communion of love with the Lord is the only thing which can make our mortal nature immortal. Hasn't the Lord shown us this through our physical birth, which is nonetheless only an image of spiritual birth, the birth through the Holy Spirit unto incorruption. Even physical birth and natural existence is the fruit, not of itself, but of the union of love.

If we are, then, the Body of Christ and members of that Body, and if we are risen with Him into the new life, then, in the words of the Apostle, "let us deaden our bodies to physical passions" and not behave as if we will die tomorrow and that will be the end of everything. Rather, let us live the new life as citizens of the coming Kingdom of God, which is given to us by the Father in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Let us live in the communion of love with the Lord through fellowship with all those who are in His Body, and also with all those who are not yet so, as though they are. That community is the Eucharist, which makes us persons, and not self-sufficient individuals. This new, liturgical way of created life is the icon of the divine way of life. Just as the Holy Trinity is a union of freedom, of the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so also the Liturgy is the communion of love of many persons with their Lord Jesus Christ.

Beloved in the Lord, who struggle and labor in many spiritual efforts to reach holiness and eternal life, do not forget that the only Holy One is our Lord Jesus Christ, and that it is only in union with Him that we may become heirs of His holiness. For only he who stands in the Lord stands in virtues; for the Lord is the source of every virtue, as the Apostle says, "God is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." (I Cor. 1:30) And that is only possible if we are in union with the Lord and with our brothers, for the Lord is only present here. Let us not replace the living Lord with laws and things, and let us not act as if the Lord has not come in the flesh and become a man. Let us not search for the Lord except as a man, that is except as those who have become His Body and from whom the Lord is not separated. Love towards people and service to them means service and love towards God.

Let us turn to our brothers who have gone astray and are in schism with love, that they may have only one thing in mind: If they think that they are doing what they are doing by the Holy Spirit, they are mistaken, for they do not know that the Spirit leads us into unity with all those who are with Christ, but does not tear apart or disunite the Body of Christ. In the Body of Christ all are one: there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither slave nor free. Therefore, let us not confuse the living Christ, Who became a concrete human being, with anything or anybody else: neither with nationalistic symbols, nor political ideologies. Let us unite ourselves in the Lord, in the Liturgy, by communion with concrete human beings, and not in ideas and dead symbols and passing things. Let us not tear apart the Body of Christ because of love for power. Let us remember that in the Church authority consists in something which we cannot become without each other - neither as Christians, nor as bishops, nor as priests, and that authority is found in serving one another.

Let us remind all such - with concern for their salvation - not to commit the same sin which was committed by the contemporaries of Christ, that because of the weakness of their brother they do not recognize in him our only Lord and Savior. In separating themselves from their brother because he is weak, let them take care that they do not separate themselves also from the Lord Himself, the only Source of life, and so become slaves to the law and the dead words which kill and lead to death. "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty." (I Cor. 1:26-27) No matter how unworthy our brothers may be according to our standards, in them is present the crucified and risen Lord, Who is the only Judge; and He shall judge everyone when He comes in His glory.

Young people, our consolation in the Lord, do not allow your youth to mislead you and give you the false hope that you might be able to realize your freedom and your happiness on your own by yourselves, or even in the natural world without Christ, that is, apart from the Divine-human community of love with others. Be aware that other people are your brothers and sisters and your fellow sufferers in the struggle against death, but also be aware that that struggle will not bring freedom. No one can liberate us from death except Christ Who is the communion of love in the Holy Spirit.

You who are old and sick, do not grieve and despair, for our Lord Himself suffered, died and rose again. Alleviate your suffering by the Resurrection of Christ, for we are not made for this passing life, but for eternity.

Our dear spiritual children who by human hatred have been exiled from your homes in Kosovo and Metohija and other areas - from your ancient homesteads to be scattered throughout the world, and you who have emigrated in search of a better life, rejoice today and do not grieve. All of us, together with all honorable people throughout the world, have been deeply shaken by the latest pogrom against our people in Kosovo and Metohija, and by the destruction of our holy places. These are new wounds on the Body of the crucified Christ. Therefore even now, during this new crucifixion, just as at all times, we have only one true hope - the risen Lord, around Whom we need to gather and congregate. All of us who hope and believe in the Lord simply need to remind ourselves that we are all here without a permanent home and that we are all in exile in both time and place, until the Lord comes again to gather His people from all the corners of the world. Therefore do not grieve; we are never in exile as long as we are members of the Church and as long as we carry our holy shrines within our hearts. The earth is the Lord's, and He will return and give it as an everlasting inheritance only to the who belong to Him.

Let us all rejoice today, for we have had a foretaste of eternal life, just as we rejoice each Sunday as we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ in the liturgical assembly. Whoever does not rejoice today when the Church of God cries out, "Christ is risen" is like the prisoner condemned to death who, on receiving the news that he has been pardoned, continues to grieve. Nevertheless, let us not forget that the Kingdom of God has not yet come in its fullness. Let us not remember the Resurrection of Christ just when the holiday comes around. Christ's Resurrection is our life and our resurrection and our participation in the joyous mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. For, in the words of the Apostle, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming." (I Cor. 15:22-23)

Let us pray to the God and Father that the Lord will come to us quickly in power and glory, for then with Him will come to us complete liberation from death through the general resurrection of the dead, and the Kingdom of God in its fullness, which will confirm all the truths of history and human life. In the words of the Apostle, "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen." (I Cor. 15:13)

With this hope in the Lord, we once again greet you with the most joyous greeting,