The Feast of the Resurrection of Christ is the greatest feast in the Church. The Primate says that the Resurrection of Christ raises a man from all his infirmities, gives light, joy, brings peace.
“Listening to the story of the Resurrection of Christ, we find striking parallels with how we are celebrating Easter this year. It is a feeling that this very special Easter, by God’s amazing design, gives us the opportunity to relive to he smallest details the whole event of Resurrection,” said the Head of the UGCC.
Today we sing the solemn song “Christ is Risen!” in the empty temples. We can even say that in different countries of the world, Easter temples are literally “sealed” by secular authorities like it was in Jerusalem.
But what do these circumstances tell us today? “These empty temples, by all the laws of spiritual acoustics, make our singing, our proclamation of faith in the risen Christ even louder, which echoes to the ends of the earth,” emphasized the preacher.
The spiritual leader of the Ukrainians thanked the faithful who listened to the voice of their Church and met the risen Christ behind closed doors in their home churches. “Today, through the closed quarantine doors, the risen Christ will hasten to you as He had come to His disciples through the closed doors to turn their fear into joy, their confusion into the light of hope,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The Primate notes that perhaps this Easter the Lord God wanted us to have a special experience of His living presence among us. Because it is most difficult for people to change themselves and their stereotypes of behavior. “How often we, Christians, really feel stuck in various personal habits we practice even with regards to our Christian holidays. Perhaps today, God calls us to respect the person rather than our habit, and calls us to see with new eyes our resurrected Lord,” asks the preacher.
The Head of the Church greeted all who are on the front, in the occupied territories of Donbas, in our Ukrainian Crimea, all those who are far away from their family and lonely.
In particular, the Head of the Church sends Easter greetings to the sick, to those who are on isolation, and to our doctors who care for coronavirus patients endangering their lives.
“To all of you, I wish you a happy holiday, a tasty Easter bread and all those dishes that we will consecrate through live streaming from our cathedral at the conclusion of the Liturgy. Let the whole universe sing today: Christ is risen! He is Risen Indeed!” wished His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
At the end of the Liturgy, the Head of the UGCC blessed the traditional dishes that the faithful in their homes prepared for Easter.
The UGCC Department for Information