2011 Patri­ar­chal Pro­c­la­ma­tion for Pascha

+ B A R T H O L O M E W
By the Mercy of God
Arch­bis­hop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecu­me­ni­cal Patri­arch
To the Ple­ni­tude of the Church Grace, Peace and Mercy
From the Savior Christ Risen in Glory

Belo­ved chil­dren in the Lord,Once again, in a spi­rit of joy and peace, we address you with the delight­ful and hope­ful gre­e­ting: “Christ is Risen!”

The occur­ren­ces and events of our time may not seem to justify the exul­ta­tion of our gre­e­ting. The natu­ral destruction cau­sed by sei­s­mic tre­mors and oce­a­nic swells, toget­her with the lur­king deva­sta­tion from pos­sible nuclear explo­sion, as well as the human sacri­fi­ces resul­ting from mili­tary con­flict and ter­r­o­rist action, reveal our world to be in hor­rible torment and angu­ish from the pres­sure of the natu­ral and spi­ri­tual for­ces of evil.

Nevert­he­less, the Resur­rection of Christ is indeed real and grants to fait­h­ful Chri­sti­ans the certainty – and to all huma­nity the pos­si­bi­lity – of trans­cen­ding the adverse con­sequen­ces of natu­ral cala­mity and spi­ri­tual perversity.

Nature rebels when the arro­gant human mind endea­vors to tame its bound­less for­ces endowed by the Cre­a­tor it its see­m­ingly insig­ni­fi­cant and ina­ctive ele­ments. In con­si­de­ring from a spi­ri­tual per­spective the gri­e­vous natu­ral pheno­mena that plague our pla­net repe­a­tedly and suc­ces­si­vely in recent times, we appre­ci­ate and ack­now­ledge the belief that these are inse­pa­rable from the spi­ri­tual and ethi­cal devi­a­tion of huma­nity. The signs of this devi­a­tion – such as greed, ava­rice, and an insa­ti­able desire for mate­rial wealth, alongside an indif­fe­rence toward the poverty endu­red by so many as a result of the imba­lan­ced afflu­ence of the few – may not be clearly rela­ted to the natu­ral occur­ren­ces in the eyes of sci­en­ti­sts. Yet, for someone exa­mi­ning the mat­ter spi­ri­tu­ally, sin dis­turbs the har­mony of spi­ri­tual and natu­ral rela­tions alike. For, there is a mysti­cal con­nection between moral and natu­ral evil; if we wish to be libe­ra­ted from the lat­ter, we must reject the former.

Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, the new Adam and God, con­sti­tu­tes the model for the bene­fi­cial influ­ence of a saint on the natu­ral world. For Christ hea­led phy­si­cal and spi­ri­tual ill­ness, gran­ting com­fort and hea­ling to all people, while at the same time brin­ging calm and peace to stormy seas, mul­tiplying five loa­ves of bread to feed the five thous­and, the­reby com­bi­ning the recon­ci­li­a­tion of spi­ri­tual and natu­ral har­mony. If we want to exert a posi­tive impact on the cur­rent nega­tive natu­ral and poli­ti­cal con­di­tions of our world, then we have no other alter­na­tive than faith in the Risen Christ and ful­fil­l­ment of his saving commandments.

Christ has risen and given new life to the per­fect ethos of humankind, which had dar­ke­ned this ethos. Christ became the first-born and pio­neer of the rege­ne­ra­tion of the world and the whole of cre­a­tion. The mes­sage of the Resur­rection is not empty of mea­ning for the qua­lity of human life and the balan­ced fun­ction of nature. As we com­ple­tely and pro­fo­undly expe­ri­ence the Resur­rection of Christ in the depth our heart, our exi­stence shall favorably impact upon all huma­nity and the natu­ral world. The natu­ral sci­en­ces may not yet fully have under­li­ned the rela­tions­hip between the rege­ne­ra­tion of huma­nity and the renewal of cre­a­tion, but the expe­ri­ence of the saints – which should be the aim our own expe­ri­ence – con­firms the expe­ri­en­ti­ally proven fact that, indeed, a per­son reborn in Christ resto­res the har­mony of the natu­ral world dis­tur­bed by sin. In Christ, the saint can move moun­tains for the good of the world, while the sin­ful per­son, who oppo­ses the ways of God, can shake the earth and raise destructive waves.

Let us appro­ach the san­ctity of the Risen Christ in order, through His grace, to calm the natu­ral and moral waves that trouble our world today.

May the grace of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, belo­ved chil­dren in the Lord. Amen.

Holy Pas­cha 2011
+ Bart­ho­lo­mew of Con­stan­ti­nople
Fer­vent sup­pli­cant for all
before the Risen Christ