Right Reverend Archpastors, venerable pastors and deacons, all-honorable monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters!
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Addressing you with this life-affirming greeting, I cordially congratulate all of you on the great and world-saving Easter holiday. On this appointed and holy day, we are filled with such spiritual joy and great gratitude to God, we so clearly feel the power and depth of the Creator’s love for man that it is sometimes difficult to find other words to express our feelings, except for those with which the myrrh-bearing wives rushed to the apostles in order to announce to them about the wonderful event that they saw God.
One can only imagine how difficult it was for the disciples of the Savior to believe in the reality of the Resurrection. After all, not long ago they saw with their own eyes how their beloved Teacher was tortured and crucified. Memories are still fresh of how His dead and lifeless Body was put in a coffin and sealed with a heavy stone in a cold cave. And now sorrow is replaced by the affirmation of faith and the triumph of life, and tears of sadness are transformed into tears of joy.
The experience of real communion with the Risen Christ and the unfading Easter joy inspired and inspired the apostles who went to the ends of the earth to preach the forgiveness of sins and salvation that we received through the Lord Jesus who rose from the tomb. Unafraid of adversity and cruel persecution, enduring calamities and misadventures, the apostles unceasingly and boldly testified about Christ, the Conqueror of death.
And for two millennia, the Church has been living on this message of the Resurrection and strives to attach to it every person coming into the world (John 1:9). In the light of Easter, everything really looks different: the fear and sense of hopelessness generated by sorrows, sadness and everyday troubles disappear. And even the difficult circumstances of the current anxious time in the perspective of the eternity granted to us lose their ominous sharpness.
For the testimony of the Risen Savior, it is not necessary to go somewhere far away, like the apostles who spread the Easter message around the world. There are many people around us who need a living example of the Christian faith working with love (Gal. 5:6). God does not require us to perform unbearable feats. He only asks us to show love to each other, to remember that this is how we show love to Him too. A kind smile, attention and sensitivity to those who are nearby, timely words of comfort and support can sometimes become the most important things that we have the opportunity to do for the sake of the Risen Christ.
And today, when the world is torn apart by conflicts and contradictions, and hatred, fear and enmity have settled in the hearts of many people, it is especially important not to forget about your Christian vocation and show true love for your neighbors, which only heals the wounds inflicted by evil and untruth. We must not succumb to the temptation of the enemy of the human race, who seeks to destroy the blessed unity between Orthodox Christians. I fervently pray to the Conqueror of the death of the Lord Jesus and ask you also to offer up special prayers to Him, so that all mediastinum may be overcome, lasting peace will prevail, and the wounds of divisions will be healed by Divine grace.
I congratulate everyone on Easter holiday, I invoke the blessing of the Risen Christ on all of
you and wish you, my dear ones, an ever-lasting bright Easter joy that strengthens us in faith, hope and love. May God grant that this light may never fade in our hearts, that it may always shine to the world (Matthew 5:14). And we, being sanctified tirelessly by the word of God — by reading the Gospel, and communing with Divine grace through participation in the Sacraments of the Church, steadily grew in the knowledge of the Lord and were confirmed in the fulfillment of His commandments, so that people, seeing the light of our good deeds, glorified our Heavenly Father (Mt. 5:16) and they joyfully testified with us that
CHRIST IS TRULY RISEN!
+KIRILL, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
Easter of Christ,
2022