EASTER MESSAGE (2013)
Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine F i l a r e t

To Reverend Archpastors, loving shepherds
venerable monks and all faithful
of the  Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate

Dear brothers and sisters!

Christ is Risen!

Over the Easter liturgy we hear the words of the Church, addressed to believers: "We celebrate the  destruction of death ... and the beginning  of another, eternal life "(7th song of Paschal canon). What kind of death is it about? It is about the spiritual death and the bodily death. On the cross, Christ the Savior overcame the spiritual death and His Resurrection defeated the bodily death.
Spiritual death comes when God by His Divine grace departs from a man. The reason for the diversion of God from a man is sin. Adam and Eve immediately felt that God abandoned them when they sinned. It was a spiritual death.  Bodily Adam died in 930 years. Therefore, a person can be physically alive but spiritually - dead, because in his soul there is no divine grace, but sin is alive. For this reason, among us, the people, there are many living dead. Not by chance, our Lord Jesus Christ said to the man who asked him to let him bury his father, and then follow Him, "Leave the dead (i.e. spiritually dead) bury their dead" (Matt. 8: 22).

Jesus Christ on the cross of hard sufferings overcame sin in our nature. He was sinless and should not have suffered because suffering is a consequence of sin. But Christ suffered - and not only in the body but also the soul. Evidence of his mental suffering was bloody sweat that came out of His body when He prayed to God the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. The cause of his suffering was our sin that He took upon Himself. He willingly suffered for our sins. Suffering, Christ cried unto the Father: "My God, my God! Why hast thou forsaken me? "(Matt. 27: 46). Why did God the Father forsook His Son? Because of our sin, which the Son of God as a man voluntarily took upon Himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ endured all things for us: the mental and physical suffering.

Having endured it, he exclaimed, "It is finished." What was finished? What finished was the overcoming of sin in the nature of the Second Adam - Christ. If sin was defeated, now the Son of God as a man cried with a loud voice, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Lk 23: 46). By these words Christ as if said to God the Father: because of the sins of man, which I willingly took upon Myself, You left Me, but now when I have suffered everything for people’s sins, receive my Spirit in union with Thee, receive My spirit as a person.

Having overcome spiritual death, our Lord Jesus Christ had to win the bodily death too. But in order to overcome it, he had to die first. As spiritual death came instantly into his nature after the fall of Adam, and natural death - later, Christ the Savior first won spiritual death (i.e. sin), and then He won bodily death.

Christ is risen from the dead. Death is defeated! Why is it defeated? Because it can not hold in its arms Him who conquered sin. For death entered our nature by sin. There is no sin - there is no death. Christ's resurrection is victory over physical death, and it is - the final victory, because it completes the victory over spiritual death. The Apostle Paul gives of the Resurrection unbeatable value. He says, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless: you are still in your sins" (1 Cor. 15: 17). And, indeed, without the Resurrection there is no Christianity. The essence of Christianity is the Resurrection. Who does not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, he can not even be called a Christian. He is worse than an unfaithful.

But the apostle Paul confidently states that "Christ is risen from the dead" (1 Cor. 15: 20). Not only  Paul is confident of Resurrection. All the apostles are convinced, and women-myrrh-bearers, and more than five hundred brothers who saw Him risen. They not only saw but also touched his resurrected body. He ate before them. It was not his spirit, but true resurrected body. Even the enemies of Christ, not the apostles, didn’t accuse that they told a lie when they preached of the Risen Christ. They only asked: asked, but not ordered and threatened, the Apostles not to preach on Resurrection. The apostles preached "about - as the Evangelist John writes - what was from the beginning, which we have heard, seen with our own eyes that looked and then touched with our hands" (1 Jn. 1: 1).

Yes, we believe in the resurrection of Christ! Therefore, on the greeting "Christ is risen!" We confidently reply: "He is risen indeed!". And if you do not believe in the Resurrection of Christ, then why to say: "Truly He is risen!"? In this case, do not be a hypocrite and do not lie.

If we truly believe that Christ is risen, and, indeed, rejoice of that, then what value it has for each of us? We will also resurrect from the dead, as Christ. All will Resurrect: believers and non-believers, Christians and non-Christians. Why will all rise? On what grounds? This question is answered by apostle Paul. He says: "As death, by a man (referring to Adam) or through a person and resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive "(1 Cor. 15: 21-22). So we will all be resurrected because Christ was risen. Adam died through sin , and we were dying with him and because we were born from him. Christ raised himself in human nature. And we all belong to it, so we will resurrect.

Today, with the Apostle Paul we’ll joyfully exclaim: "Death! Where is thy sting? Hell! Where is thy victory? ". For Christ is truly risen!

Resurrection of Christ gave us faith that is stronger than suffering. It gives us the power to overcome them, because the joy of the Resurrection for all Christians is a source of light, courage and strength. Let no one think that the only people worthy of the joy of the Risen Lord are the saints, hermits, ascetics. This joy is bestowed upon us, weak and sinful children of the Heavenly Father.
 St. John Chrysostom in his Easter speech says: "Let no one mourn about sins ; as forgivness shone from the tomb."

This year Ukraine with all Ukrainian churches solemnly celebrates the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus at the national level '. I congratulate you, reverend archpastors, loving pastors, venerable monks, dear brothers and sisters, with the holiday of Easter Sunday -  Christ’s Resurrection! I congratulate with Easter of Christ  the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian government, the armed forces of our country, the Christians of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. I cordially congratulate with the luminous holiday all the Ukrainians in all countries, on all continents. Celebrating the Feast of Easter, we will keep Easter joy of Resurrection  in mind and heart. Holy Church calls us to live in peace, love, in all piety and purity, to serve by honest work our neighbors, all Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian state, so that on the day of our resurrection to be worthy of eternal joy with the Risen Lord and our Savior, to whom belongs the glory, honor and worship with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Truly Christ is Risen!

Filaret,
Patriarch of Kyiv
and all Rus-Ukraine

Easter of Christ
2013
the city of Kyiv