Thousands of faithful present at the Joy Hill received in front of the Patriarchal Residence and Cathedral the Holy Light brought from Jerusalem. The Resurrection service was celebrated by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, assisted by a group of servant priests and deacons of the Patriarchal Cathedral.
The Resurrection of Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith
His Beatitude emphasised in the speech addressed to the faithful present that the Resurrection of Christ means the victory of His pious merciful love over hate and envy, over treason and fear, over sin, hell and death.
“This moment we live the ultimate sense of our life, history and of the entire universe, and this is why the chants that will follow tonight say “Now all are filled of light, the heaven, earth and those beneath”. Everything was filled with sense, everything has a meaning because the last Word is not the grave, but the eternal life, the heavenly eternal life. The Resurrection of Christ means the victory of His pious merciful love over hate and envy, over treason and fear, over sin, hell and death. The Crucified Christ rose from the dead trampling death by death giving life to those in the graves. The Resurrection of Christ is not the return to the earthly life, it is not the reanimation of a dead body, but the beginning of another life, a new eternal life, with no death, and this is why tonight we shall sing “Now we celebrate the killing of death and beginning of a new life, the eternal life”. The Resurrection is the good news for Christians, because there is no Gospel without the Resurrection of Christ, the faith is useless and the apostles’ preaching is useless without the Resurrection of Christ, says Saint Paul the Apostle. Therefore, the Resurrection of Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith, namely the good news, the only absolute good news, that the sin, hell and death can be defeated”, His Beatitude said.
The Patriarch of Romania has also shown that any candle that the priest uses to share the resurrection light to those present has the same value as the light of the Holy Sepulchre.
“On the Easter night we have candles in our hands because we received light from the Light of Christ, we have not brought the burning candles from home, but we received light. This year too, the Holy Light from the Holy Sepulchre of the Resurrection of Christ was brought by God’s mercy, but any Easter candle that the pries uses to share the resurrection light to those present has the same value as the light of the Holy Sepulchre because, in fact, it is Christ present in His Church, He gives eternal light as a foretaste of the glory and light of the eternal Kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity” His Beatitude also said.
The Light of the Resurrection is the light of the sense of our life
His Beatitude has also spoken about the etiology of the name of the Pascal feast showing that the passage from the death to life is in Jesus Christ. The Easter feast means passage, it comes from the Jewish people and it means the anniversary of the passage of the people through the Red Sea from bondage to freedom, from the bondage of Egypt to the Promised Land. In Jesus Christ passage means not passage through the Red Sea, but through the bloody sacrifice of the Holy Cross, passage from death to life, from sufferance to victory and hope, passage from the temporary earthly life to the eternal heavenly life. If everything is temporary around us, what is eternal? It is the light of the Holy Easter. Therefore, we are all temporary, but we can become eternal if we believe in Christ, if we love and confess Christ through word and deed. This is why the Light of the Resurrection is the light of the sense of our life. So, we believe in Resurrection because we want to live forever. Thus, we understand that the Easter Light is the light of our soul wishing eternal life. When somebody asks us why we believe in God, in Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected, we must answer: I believe because I want to live forever, not only up to the grave, but to live forever with whatever has eternal life and this is the Resurrection and Life, Jesus Christ.
A merciful deed is a resurrection candle
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel urged us to be during this period near those who suffer and spread light around us through good deeds. “On these days of feast we must spread light around us, the light that we receive in our souls. How can we spread light? It is through any good word, any good deed and especially through the prayer for other peoples, for those who do not know how to pray, for those who cannot pray anymore because of too much sufferance, and for those who need our help when they feel lonely and disappointed. A merciful deed, a presence near a sick, poor human is a resurrection candle secretly brought in lowliness where the merciful pious love is missing”, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church said.
“We pray Jesus Christ, our Lord, Risen from the dead to bless us with the joy of the joy that the women of myrrh had when they met the Risen Christ and He told them: “Rejoice, do not be afraid”. May Christ, our Lord, give us peace of the peace that He gave to the holy disciples who were lonely and afraid when He told them: Peace to you! Do not be afraid! Thus, the joy and peace of Christ must be asked for, received and made fruitful around us for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for our salvation”, His Beatitude said.
The feast of the Resurrection of the Lord continued with the celebration in the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel assisted by a group of servant priests and deacons of the Patriarchal Cathedral, in the presence of hundreds of faithful.
The answers to the Divine Liturgy were given by “Nicolae Lungu” chorus of the Romanian Patriarchate.
To end with the Divine Liturgy, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church thanked the faithful for attendance and offered them the pastoral letter for the Holy Easter, a red egg, a cake and a small icon of the Resurrection of Christ, our Lord.
