In his pastoral letter for Holy Pascha 2025, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, proclaimed the Resurrection of Christ as the cornerstone of Christian faith and the foundation of hope for all humanity.
Addressing clergy and faithful, the Patriarch described Holy Pascha as the “Feast of Feasts,” underscoring its significance as a pledge of the general resurrection promised to all people, believers and non-believers alike.
The letter, titled “The Resurrection of Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead – Dogmatic and Pastoral Meanings,” highlights Christ’s victory over death as a transformative gift.
Quoting Saint John’s Gospel, Patriarch Daniel reminded the faithful that “the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live” (John 5:25).
He emphasized that Christ’s Resurrection is not merely a historical event but a living reality, experienced through the Holy Eucharist and the Church’s sacred mysteries.
Patriarch Daniel drew on the teachings of Saint Cyril of Alexandria and Saint Dumitru Stăniloae to illustrate Christ’s compassion for humanity’s suffering under sin and death. He explained that Christ assumed human mortality to grant eternal life, transforming death into a passage to divine communion. The letter calls Christians to live in the light of this truth, preparing for the general resurrection through faith and good deeds.
In a pastoral exhortation, the Patriarch urged the faithful to share the joy of Pascha with others, fostering peace and brotherly love, especially toward Romanians abroad. He also expressed gratitude for support toward the National Cathedral’s construction, set for consecration on October 26, 2025, during the Romanian Patriarchate’s centenary celebrations.
Concluding with the traditional greeting, “Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!” Patriarch Daniel’s message resonated as a call to hope, unity, and spiritual renewal, inviting all to embrace the transformative power of the Resurrection in their lives.
Please find the full text of Patriarch Daniel’s pastoral letter for Holy Pascha 2025 below.
The Resurrection of Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead – Dogmatic and Pastoral Meanings
Pastoral Letter for Holy Pascha 2025
Christ is Risen!
“Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25).
Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers,
Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,
The Resurrection of Christ is the foundation and beginning of the resurrection of all humanity. This mystery is the heart or center of the Gospel preached by the Holy Apostles and the essence of the Orthodox faith confessed by the Church. For this reason, the feast of Holy Pascha is called in Orthodoxy the “Feast of Feasts.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, is named in Holy Scripture the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20) and the “firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). The feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a spiritual pledge and prophetic icon of the universal resurrection of all people from all times and nations.
Our Lord Jesus Christ “humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). He assumed our life mingled with death to make us partakers of His eternal life. Before raising His friend Lazarus from the dead, Jesus “wept” (John 11:35), experiencing the pain of the human race enslaved by sin and death. “And the Lord weeps, seeing the man made in His own image marred by corruption, that He may put an end to our tears,” says Saint Cyril of Alexandria.[1]
The holy confessor priest Dumitru Stăniloae described the state of humanity dominated by death thus: “Death is the most dreadful tragedy for mankind. It truly deserves our tears. And even God feels compassion for humanity because of it. For it is not merely a disappearance, but an eternal torment. Therefore, He Himself assumes it to overcome it or enters into it so that we may not remain in it. Death torments man even before it occurs. Christ assumes it, accepts it, but does not remain in it; rather, He makes it a passage to eternally blessed life for Himself and for those who unite with Him and with others through love. Death is conquered by love, by the joy of loving God, the Lover of mankind.”[2]
The Resurrection is the exclusive gift of God to all people. However, this gift is first offered in Jesus Christ, His eternal Son, for “out of infinite longing for mankind, He who exists by nature truly became the beloved one,” that is, man.[3]
What was accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ through His Resurrection from the dead will be fulfilled with all humanity, with all nations and generations, from Adam until the end of the world. The Holy Apostle Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, says that “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7) and “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
All people will rise in Christ, both those who believed and those who did not believe in Him, for the general resurrection is God’s gift to all humanity. However, “those who have done good” will rise “to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29).
To assure His disciples of the truth of His Resurrection from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ appeared multiple times in various places over forty days, from Pascha to the Ascension. First, the Lord appeared to the Myrrh-bearing Women, then to His disciples and others, as testified by the Holy Gospels (Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20–21), the Book of Acts (Acts 1:3), and certain writings of the Holy Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 15:6).
The Risen Christ is present in the Church through the Holy Spirit, illumining the Church to understand the Scriptures, to celebrate the Holy Mysteries, and to keep all that He commanded, ceaselessly guiding the lives of Christians toward the universal resurrection and the heavenly Kingdom of the glory of the Most Holy Trinity (John 16:13).
Specially, Christ the Lord, risen from the dead, is present and offers Himself to the faithful in the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist. Through participation in the Holy Eucharist, we spiritually understand and feel that Christ’s Resurrection is the foundation and beginning of our resurrection, according to His promise: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54), or “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56).
This is why the Resurrection of the Lord is not celebrated only once a year but at the beginning of every week, on Sunday. This day is called Sunday because it is the “Day of the Lord” (Dies Dominica), the first day of the week on which the Lord rose, “the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
Therefore, the Holy Apostle Paul urges Christians to live in the light of Christ’s Resurrection and to prepare for the universal resurrection: “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? […] Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:3, 11).
Beloved faithful,
Our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended into glory, offers Himself to the world in the Church through a twofold movement of love: on one hand, the human heart of Christ, the Son of God, is the receptacle of all the sufferings and the entire life of humanity in the world; on the other hand, the divine-human life of Christ, crucified, risen, and ascended into glory, is communicated to the world through the Holy Mysteries and sacred services of the Church, as a foretaste of the peace and joy of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 28:20).
If there were no resurrection of the dead, human life, as a rational, free, and loving being, would be reduced to a limited biological horizon that ends at the grave. Without resurrection, as the victory over sin and death, all human ideals of truth, justice, goodness, and merciful love would lack eternal support and existential meaning.
From this perspective, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ offers several meanings of the Resurrection for Christian life:
1) The first meaning of the Resurrection for humans is the spiritual or mystical meaning. Our Lord Jesus Christ, through His Gospel, first calls people to the resurrection of the soul from the death caused by sins: “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).
Thus, the resurrection of people is not reserved only for a future age at the end of this world but occurs now in the souls of those who hear and receive the Word of God: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live” (John 5:25).
2) The second meaning of the Resurrection is the biological or physical meaning. Out of merciful love for those grieving the death of loved ones, our Lord Jesus Christ raised the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11–16), the daughter of Jairus (Matthew 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43; Luke 8:40–56), and His friend Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary of Bethany (John 11:1–46).
These three young persons returned to ordinary earthly, biological life, and at old age, they died like all people. However, during the raising of Lazarus, our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to his sister Martha the truth that the soul of a person who believes in Christ remains eternally alive, even if their body dies. In this sense, the Lord Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25–26).
3) The eschatological or ultimate meaning of the Resurrection. The Resurrection of the Lord Christ is not a return to earthly, biological, or natural life but an entry into a new mode of existence, unknown to humanity until Christ’s Resurrection, namely, His passage with soul and body into eternal heavenly life in the Kingdom of Heaven, where there is no more sorrow or death (Revelation 21:4).
Christ, risen from the dead, destroys death, putting an end to it, “trampling down death by death,” as the Paschal Troparion proclaims. Therefore, the Holy Apostle Paul says of the risen Christ that death no longer has dominion over Him (Romans 6:9). So it will be with the universal resurrection. Thus, the light and joy of Christ’s Resurrection give meaning to the universal history of humanity and the entire creation, directing it toward eternal life and a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1).
Those who are still alive when our Lord Jesus Christ returns in glory and great power (Matthew 16:27; 25:31) to judge the living and the dead at His Second Coming will be changed in a moment (1 Corinthians 15:51–52). That is, they will experience a transformation from the corruptible, biological human condition to an incorruptible, spiritual, transfigured state.
4) The universal resurrection will be followed by the Last or Universal Judgment, the spiritual evaluation of the life and freedom of all people from all times and places, based on the criterion of merciful love toward those in need (Matthew 25:31–46).
Those who, during their earthly lives, responded to God’s humble and merciful love will be eternally blessed in communion with the merciful God. Those who freely rejected the call to God’s merciful and generous love will experience the spiritual emptiness of refusing God’s love, as shown in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, chapter 25.
From this chapter, we learn that Christ the Lord so deeply respects human freedom that, in total humility, His presence is mystically hidden in the poorest, most suffering, marginalized, neglected, and despised people living in the world on the edge between life and death.
However, on the Day of the Last Judgment, our Lord Jesus Christ will reveal His glory and freedom as the Creator of the universe and humanity, establishing eternal heavenly communion of love and happiness with all humble and merciful people.
Thus, the universal resurrection is the final goal toward which the Church and all humanity are directed. This explains why the Orthodox Creed concludes with this confession: “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.”
The fact that we confess in the Orthodox Creed that we “look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come” shows that all stages of life are directed toward resurrection, that our time on earth is a time of preparation for resurrection, and that death is not the final stage of our life, for Christ has transformed death into a pascha, a passage to eternal life.
Therefore, Christians must be filled with hope and joy. They firmly believe that physical death is merely a passage or transition to heavenly life, and that humanity’s ultimate future is the Kingdom of God, the entry of the humble and merciful righteous into the joy, peace, and light of the Most Holy Trinity (Romans 14:17).
Right-believing Christians,
Pascha is an outpouring of joy that perpetuates the joy of the disciples who saw our Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Therefore, the joy that death has been conquered and eternal life granted to humanity in pledge is the greatest joy of faith, surpassing all fleeting joys in human life on earth.
In these days of festivity, light, and joy for our Christian life, we exhort you all, with fatherly and brotherly love in Christ, to manifest the light of the true faith and good deeds wherever you are, sharing with others the joy of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray for peace in our country and throughout the world. Let us show signs of brotherly love to all Romanians living among strangers.
In the context of the Solemn Year of the Centennial of the Romanian Patriarchate, we express special gratitude to all those who have supported so far and those who will support, through word and deed, the construction of the National Cathedral – the Cathedral of the Romanian People’s Salvation, so that it may be consecrated on October 26, 2025.
On the occasion of the Holy Days of Pascha, we extend to all of you warm wishes for health and happiness, peace and joy, together with the Paschal greeting: Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!
Your intercessor before Christ the Lord,
† DANIEL
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Notes:
[1] Adapted from Saint Cyril of Alexandria’s commentary on John.
[2] Paraphrased from Father Dumitru Stăniloae’s reflections on death and Christ’s victory over it through love.
[3] Saint Maximos the Confessor, Ambigua.
Photo: Wikipedia
