At the Resurrection Vigil on Holy Saturday, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel addressed the thousands of believers on the Hill of the Patriarchate, highlighting three great truths related to the Resurrection of Christ.

Three great truths about the Lord’s Resurrection

“The first truth. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is not His return to the earthly life before death, but His transition to another mode of existence called eternal heavenly life.”

“The second truth. The risen Jesus is completely free from all the determinisms of the material and social world. No one and nothing can hold Him back, not space, not time, not material wound, not any created being.”

“The third truth. Although ascended into heaven in glory, Jesus, who rose from the dead, is always present in the world, where He is called, that is, in His Church. He is present in the world through His Gospel, the Holy Mysteries and His Saints.”

Another way of existence

Regarding the first aspect, His Beatitude elaborated that the Saviour entered a new way of existence after the resurrection, unknown to humans until Him: “Christ passed through death, but did not remain in death and conquered death from within.”

“The resurrection of Christ, as the beginning of a new life, of eternal heavenly life, is the victory of the crucified love of Christ over sin, over hell and death.”

Completely free

The Patriarch added that after His resurrection from the dead, for 40 days, until his ascension to heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared when he wanted, how he wanted, and to whom he wanted, to entrust his disciples with the knowledge that He—the crucified Jesus—is the risen Jesus.

His Beatitude reflected how Jesus could walk through the locked doors and disappear during the dinner at Emmaus.

“The risen Lord Jesus Christ is so free that he can no longer be restrained even with one’s gaze”, the Romanian Patriarch stressed.

“They recognized Him at the breaking of the bread, and suddenly He disappeared. The door was not heard when he left; the window was not opened. Where did he disappear? He entered the bread of the Holy Eucharist,” Patriarch Daniel explained.

“The risen Lord Jesus shows His disciples that He is no longer an opposite for them, one who is in front of them – but He becomes interior to them through the Holy Eucharist. He becomes the life of their life.”

Permanently present

“Although He ascended into glory to heaven, the risen Lord Jesus Christ is, through the Grace of the Holy Spirit, always present in His Church, through the Holy Gospel, through the Holy Mysteries and His Saints who are bearers of the Grace given to them by Christ.”

“In particular, the crucified and risen Christ is present in His church through the Holy Eucharist, which is given to Christians for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.”

“This glorious presence of Christ in His Church is a source of holy peace, of unspeakable and glorified joy, as the Holy Apostle Peter tells us, as a foretaste of the peace and joy of the kingdom of heaven.”

“We pray that Christ the Lord will help us to feel His humble and merciful presence and love throughout our lives. May Holy Pascha bring the holy peace and the glorified joy of Christ to all of you in your souls and homes. Christ is risen!”