May 3, 2013
Paschal Epistle of His Grace Jerome, Bishop of Manhattan
"Enlightened by the divine and life
giving rays of the
resurrection of
thy Son, O Most Pure Mother of
God, is the
congregation of the devout."
CHRIST IS RISEN!
The
congregation (i.e., the Church) of the devout, is enlightened by the
divine and life-bearing rays of the Resurrection of Christ, and is
filled with joy!
We, too, are filled with joy, insofar as we are enlightened by the
light of holy Pascha! And that joy is not for Easter cakes; not for
the feast on the table; not "Goodbye, Lent;" not the visits of our
friends and relatives; not for the all the holiday events; although,
to be sure, all that can be part of it. We rejoice because on this
day we truly feel that death is overcome, along with the powers of
evil of this world. And we know that eternal celebration awaits us
with the Risen Christ, if only we are worthy of His Kingdom, where
there is no pain and no end.
Indeed, the longer we live on this earth, the more sorrows, crises,
even horrors, we encounter. At times, we could repeat the words of
the Psalm (119/120:5), "Woe is me, for my sojourning is prolonged,"
or, in the KJV, "Woe is me, for I dwell in Meshech." Mosoch or
Meshech is a name that can denote all that is false and evil against
us in life: and yet, with the triumph of Jesus Christ over evil and
death, "There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude, lying dead –
they that caused their terror in the land of the living" (Ezekiel
32:26).
It is beside, not in, the tents of the Cedars (the dwellings where
happiness is found), that we find ourselves. "For here we have no
continuing city" (Hebrews 13:14). When bitterness and grief come to
us, then we are all the more aware of being "wanderers and
outsiders:" but, at best, we also feel like pilgrims. And in this,
our wandering and our pilgrimage, the holy Church our way-station
and refuge.
God fully knows that without this help, without the support of such
a grace-filled house of refuge, we would be lost. We would perish on
our life’s journey. What we need, more than anything else, is that
"congregation of the devout" and house of God, the gates of Heaven,
filled with the joy and the foretaste of resurrection for eternal
life with Christ our God, where the divine and life-giving rays of
His triumph over death and hell will always fill us pilgrims, with
spiritual joy on our path.
+JEROME
Bishop of Manhattan
Vicar of the Eastern American Diocese
Holy Easter 2013
Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese
