BISHOP SOPHRONIY’S PASCHAL EPISTLE
CHRIST IS RISEN!
“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
Matthew 28:20-20
In today’s Paschal days, we will repeatedly hear the testament of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
What deep meaning these words have! Notice that Christ does not say that He was or will be with us, but that He is always with us. In everyday life, we lose the meaning of these words because we rely more on our own strength. We think that it is we who have achieved a career at work with our own minds, earned and received something in this world through our efforts. But whatever we achieve in this world, will remain in this world, only the spiritual will we take with us. To do this, we need to take a conscious (and not out of habit) participation in the Holy Sacraments, to study our Faith again and again. It is no coincidence that all four Gospels are read in church before Easter, so as to remind us of all the ways to our salvation. In and of itself, knowledge of God’s commandments, unconscious going to church does not bring us closer to salvation, only a conscious church life and the fulfillment of the commandments gives us the opportunity to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-20).
Jesus Christ is the testator of the kingdom of heaven and of His glory. When we believed in Him, we learned that He had included us in His will. Our names as testamentary heirs were made public, but to be included in the will and to enter into the right of inheritance are not one and the same. Unfortunately, how do we behave? Being only declared heirs, we behave as if we have already entered into the right of inheritance. And this testament is for those who were with the deceased both during his lifetime and at his death. Not everyone who is called will remain among the elect: “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” (Matthew 20:16)
He has prepared for us a kingdom that flesh and blood cannot inherit, which means that we can find Him only by testament – through the death of His flesh, which means the mortification of our flesh. The One for whom Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, will not be able to be where He is if He follows a different path. “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;Having the same conflict which ye saw in me and, now hear to be in me.” (Phil. 1:29,30) Bypassing Christ’s sufferings, it is impossible to receive the glory that follows! Whoever drank the cup of His sufferings with Him and experienced similar things in his life, according to His election, will be worthy to accept His will, since the days of sorrow in us are a testimony of death with Him, and according to His word, of our resurrection in Him!
“And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” (Hebrews 9:15). Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13). Thy testimonies I have received as an inheritance forever: for they are the gladness of my heart. (Psalm 118:111)
Many of us live automatically, unconsciously spend time. But for us, with the dawn from the Lord’s Sepulchre, a new time comes, to which the Spirit of Christ has pointed and is pointing. And now the events are coming, which are prescribed in the testament for every believer to survive with his heart!
Precisely to every believer, otherwise any testimony to the resurrection of Christ is false testimony, if viewed from the world’s perspective.
And if we believe that the Lord will not forsake us until the end of time, then we must also believe that even in our days the Lord appears to those who believe in Him and love Him and bestows upon their hearts His Divine joy and His preeminent peace. The God-Man has left Himself wholly in His Church, and the Church “Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23). The Lord united us into a single organism, and now the bond between us and God is the closest, constant, and indissoluble. And despite our sins, this Divine bond remains all the days until the end of time.
He is the East from above, the Sun of righteousness. Leaving such a testament to us through the Apostles, the Lord also encourages us with words about the end of the age, so that we may look not only at present sorrows, but also at future endless blessings. The closest friends may withdraw from us, but the Lord is always close to those who call on Him. We are not alone with Him, and if we gradually accustom ourselves to this thought, we will never feel lonely again. Encourage your spirit (at times despondent) with these words, with fervent prayer, with diligent instruction in the word of God, with good deeds according to the commandments of the Lord, and most of all with ardent love for Him Who died for you and the Risen Christ.
I greet all the venerable and beloved pastors, monastics and laity of our diocese with the solemn Paschal hymn:
CHRIST IS RISEN!!!
† Sophrony, Archbishop of St. Petersburg and Northern Russia
Pascha of Christ,
April 7/20, 2025.