CHRIST IS RISEN!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“For behold, through the Cross joy has come to all the world.”

In the beginning, “God said let there be light: and there was light. He saw that the light was good and He divided the light from darkness” (Genesis 1:3-4). God has brought all things from nonbeing into being and from the darkness of chaos to the light of life.

And though today evening passes to morning and the day passes back to night to cycle through over entire millennia, it has been foretold that this movement, or journey, from darkness to light will ultimately lead to the unwaning Day of God’s Kingdom, of the never-ending Light and “Glory of the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14), “radiant with the unapproachable light” (Ode 1, Paschal Canon).

man was created good and he intrinsically seeks good. Yet in the distortion of his fallen nature, he often elects that which is harmful, while identifying it as good. He chooses evil, preferring darkness to light. And so, we hear in the Scriptures on “this sacred and all-festive and saving night” (Ode 7, Paschal Canon) of the Feast of Feasts: Christ “was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own and His own received Him not” (Jn. 10-11).

We are His, yet so many of us receive Him not. It is illogical for a beneficiary to assault his benefactor. Yet, sadly, this is our condition. The gift of freedom has been bestowed upon us, and we freely chose to love ourselves rather than our Creator and Redeemer.

Love, light, joy… we all seek these things. All these things are meant for us. Yet they illusively escape from us no matter how hard we chase after them when we have the wrong approach.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, we are created to participate in a great mystery, a mystery that confounds by its power and wisdom (I Cor. 1:24). We all participate in the Life of Christ, in His Light and in His Love, when we bear our cross. “Yesterday I was crucified with Thee: do Thou Thyself glorify me with Thee, O Saviour, in Thy Kingdom” (Ode III, Paschal Canon). “But as many as received Him (and His Mystery of the Cross and Resurrection), to them gave He power to become sons of God, even that believe on His name” (Jn. 1:12).

“We celebrate the death of Death, the destruction of hades, the beginning of another life eternal, leaping for joy, we hymn the Cause, the only blessed and most glorious God of our Fathers” (Ode VII, Paschal Canon).

Archpriest Paul Vomensky, Rector
Pascha, 2026