2010 Patri­ar­chal Pro­c­la­ma­tion for Pascha

B A R T H O L O M E W
By the Grace of God,
Arch­bis­hop of Constantinople-New Rome
and Ecu­me­ni­cal Patri­arch,
To all the Fait­h­ful of the Church:
Grace, mercy, and peace from Christ the Savior Risen in Glory

* * *

Belo­ved bro­t­hers and sisters, dear chil­dren in the Lord,

Christ is Risen!

Once again, the sacred day of Pas­cha has daw­ned in full delight and splen­dor, dis­per­sing joy, com­fort, glad­ness and assu­rance of life to all fait­h­ful, despite the heavy atmosp­here that pre­vails in our world on acco­unt of the mul­ti­di­men­sio­nal cri­sis with all its fami­liar pain­ful con­sequen­ces for our daily life.

Christ has risen from the tomb as divi­nely human; and huma­nity has risen with Him! The tyranny of death belongs to the past. The hope­les­sness of hades’ cap­ti­vity has irre­vo­cably gone. The only power­ful Giver of life, having through His Incar­na­tion volun­ta­rily assu­med all of the mis­fortune of our nature and all that it entails, namely death, has alre­ady “brought death to hades by the ligh­t­ning of divinity,”[1] gran­ting us life – and “life in abun­dance.” (John 10.10)

This abun­dance of life, which was gran­ted to us by the Risen Lord, is cea­se­les­sly slan­de­red and assaul­ted by the devil – indeed, these actions are the source of his very name – alt­hough he is now wea­ke­ned, com­ple­tely power­less, and enti­rely ridi­culous. The devil slan­ders Life by means of the hubris that still pre­vails in the world against God, huma­nity and the cre­a­tion. The devil assaults Life by means of the sin­ful ten­dency that exists wit­hin us like “old rust,” using this to entrap us eit­her into tan­gible sin or delu­sio­nal belief. Hubris is the off­spring of that “rust”, while both com­prise the sini­ster couple respon­sible for dis­rup­ting rela­tions­hips wit­hin our­sel­ves, with others, as well as with God and the whole cre­a­tion. Accor­dingly, it is impe­ra­tive that we purify our­sel­ves of this rust with great atten­ti­ve­ness and care­ful­ness in order that the pro­fuse life-giving light of the Risen Christ may shine in our mind, soul and body, so that it may in turn dis­pel the dark­ness of hubris and pour the “abun­dance” of life to all the world.

This can­not be achie­ved by phi­los­ophy, sci­ence, tech­no­logy, art, or any ide­o­logy; it can only be achie­ved through faith in what God has con­des­cen­ded for us human beings through His Pas­sion, Cruci­fixion and Burial, des­cen­ding to the dep­ths of hades and rising from the dead as the divine-human Jesus Christ. It is also expres­sed in the sacra­men­tal life of the Church as well as through labo­rious and syste­ma­tic spi­ri­tual strug­gle. The Church, as the Body of Christ, uncea­singly and to the ages expe­ri­en­ces the mira­cle of the Resur­rection; through its sacred Myste­ries, its The­o­logy and its pra­cti­cal tea­chings, it offers us the pos­si­bi­lity of par­ti­ci­pat­ing in that mira­cle, of sha­ring in the victory over death, of beco­m­ing chil­dren sha­ped by the light of the Resur­rection and truly “parta­kers of divine nature.” (2 Peter 1.4), just as in the life of every Saint in the past and pre­sent. The thorny weeds of pas­sions growing wit­hin the dep­ths of our heart, pol­lu­ted by the rust of “the old self” (Eph. 4.22) must defi­ni­tely be trans­for­med as soon as pos­sible in Christ, through Christ and for the sake of Christ and His living ima­ges that sur­ro­und us – namely, our fel­low human beings – into a bou­quet of vir­tues, holi­ness, and righ­teo­us­ness. Hence, the sacred hym­no­grap­her chants in timely man­ner: “Let us put on the robe of righ­teo­us­ness, which is whi­ter than snow, and let us rejoice today in the day of the Pas­cha; for Christ, the sun of righ­teo­us­ness that rises from the dead, has showe­red upon us the light of incorruption.”[2] The white gar­ment of righ­teo­us­ness was given to us sym­bo­li­cally on the day of our Bap­tism; and we are invi­ted to cle­anse it con­ti­nu­ally through con­stant repen­tance, con­trol of desi­res, patience in life’s pain, and relent­less effort to ful­fill the com­mand­ments of God, and espe­ci­ally the supreme com­mand­ment of love. In this way, we are able to par­ti­ci­pate in the cross-bearing self-emptying of Christ, in order that the Pas­chal glad­ness, radi­ant light, and joy­ful salva­tion may enter our life and world.

We address this from the Pha­nar, where we expe­ri­ence the suf­fe­ring of Holy Fri­day and the light of the Resur­rection, as we express to you the affection of the Mot­her Church, who­le­hear­tedly wis­hing for all the saving gift and Pas­chal bles­sing of the Lord of Life, who rose from the dead.

Holy Pas­cha 2010
Fer­vent sup­pli­cant for all before the Lord
+ Bart­ho­lo­mew of Constantinople