EASTER PASTORAL LETTER

The Risen Christ brings hope of achieving His "new life"

To the Clergy, Religious and Beloved Faithful of the Eparchy of Stamford:

The peace and joy of the Risen Savior be with you! Christ is Risen!

My dear brothers and sisters in the Risen Lord:

On the first Easter morn the sorrowing women come to anoint the body of Jesus and are greeted with the astonishing words of the angel: "Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? He is not here. He has been raised up" (Luke 24:5-6).

What marvelous "good news." The confidence of Jesus in His Father is rewarded with the ecstatic conquest of Easter. Easter is a time of great joy. Christ, our hope, is risen! Imagine the joy of the apostles, the women, the disciples, and of Mary, His Mother. All of them ready to go around the world singing His glory and announcing His message of redemption and salvation.

We are the children of God. Today this victory is ours if we embrace with faith the Easter event - Jesus risen from the dead for you and for me. Henceforth, we will be people who are "eastered" through life. In the Risen Jesus, God comes into our lives. He shapes our destiny. He cares for us, loves us, heals us, strengthens us, walks with us on our pilgrim way.

The challenge of Easter is to decide whether we want to live in the Risen Christ or not. The life and joy and peace of Easter are ours for the asking. Let us ask God today to move us to accept the Easter message into our hearts. Let us ask Him to make us Easter people - people who are God-centered, people who follow Jesus, people who serve the Church.

We need this celebration now more than ever because we need to concentrate on the values, the faith and the truth that Easter reveals to us. We need to know them, be convinced of them and live by them. We should not allow the trials and challenges of this life destroy our hope in the life guaranteed to us by the Easter Good News.

While we struggle to make this world respond to God's expectation for it in justice and peace, and while we struggle to banish oppression, hunger, disease and war from the face of the earth, we must always nourish, through prayer and service to others, the hope we have through the Risen Christ for achieving His "new life" (Cor 1,15:15). This is hope in the true and real promise of the Gospel, the possession of everlasting life in joy and peace with God. Let us ask the Lord to make us peacemakers in our homes and in our society.

Let us ask Him to make us true Christians who live the Gospel, who love the poor and care for the needy. Let us be people whose primary purpose is to build up the Kingdom of God, which is "justice, law and peace," so that the true meaning of Easter will be realized in the lives of humankind. On this Easter Sunday the Risen Lord says to each of us, "Peace be with you" (John 20:29). May we know and cherish that peace and love in its vision every day of our lives.

Truly He Is Risen!

Joyfully in Christ,
The Most Rev. Basil H. Losten, D.D.
Bishop of Stamford
(New York and New England)

Given on March 24, 2003, Feast of the Annunciation, St. Vladimir Cathedral, Stamford.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 13, 2003, No. 15, Vol. LXXI

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