Reverend Fathers, Venerable Monastics, and Pious Faithful of the Western American Diocese:

Christ is Risen!

“This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 117:24)

I greet you once again with the Feast of Feasts: Christ’s Glorious Resurrection from the dead. In the Resurrection we, the Lord’s most unworthy servants, experience the full power of His love and the selfless compassion He bestows on us. “We have seen the Resurrection of Christ,” and we feel ourselves duty-bound — though in reality it is no burdensome duty: it is our greatest joy — to proclaim Christ’s triumphant victory over death with exultation in our hearts.

Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) spoke in 1957 about our Paschal proclamation: “In these words, ‘Christ is Risen!’, we express the fullness of our faith, all of our strength and steadfastness of hope in our Lord God, the realization of the sweetness and blessedness of life with our Sweetest Saviour.” Such is the enormous depth, and the full spiritual significance, of this phrase which so many say lightheartedly and nonchalantly, as a matter of tradition and custom!

Let us live out the joy of the Resurrection more deeply! Let us instead say these words with deep understanding, with awe, and with the magnitude of indescribable delight that led St. Seraphim of Sarov to greet all, year round: “Christ is Risen! For this is my joy!” And so, my beloved flock, may the love of Christ that is treasured in our hearts, enflamed in us through His Resurrection, enable us who hear this greeting to answer in full knowledge and faith: Truly, He is Risen!

Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America
Pascha 2016