EASTER MESSAGE
FROM METROPOLITAN PAVEL OF MANILA AND HANOI TO THE GOD-LOVING FLOCK OF THE PHILIPPINE-VIETNAMESE DIOCESE.
“If anyone is pious and God-loving, let him enjoy this good and bright celebration.”
St. John Chrysostom.
My dear and beloved in the Risen Christ, venerable fathers, dear brothers and sisters!
On “this special and holy day” our souls are illuminated by the ineffable joy of Easter. Today, rejoicing with all our hearts, we meet the great saving feast of the Bright Resurrection of Christ and enter into the joyful Easter days, filled with a great spiritual celebration.
With love for the Risen Lord, I address to each of you the jubilant good news of our Savior risen from the grave:
CHRIST IS RISEN!
The great Easter celebration visits us again and again, gathered to glorify the Risen Christ the Savior! The Lord, unjustly condemned and suffered, the Lord crucified and buried – has risen in His great Glory!
The Easter joy also calls us to the greatest responsibility for our own spiritual life, to the need for its constant renewal and transformation in the light of the risen Christ.
And therefore, on this wondrous and holy night, may there be no place in our hearts for enmity and anger, malice and hatred, fear and despondency, irritation and envy, lies and hypocrisy. For all this is melted and scorched by the purifying fire of Divine Love, the radiant light of the all-joyful and glorious Resurrection of Christ.
In the ineffable Easter joy the Church affirms: “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered, and let those who hate Him flee from His face.” Can we be despondent if we know for certain that the price of Christ’s victory is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
“We are saved in hope,” says the Apostle Paul. This means that everything promised by Christ will come true: the bitterness of separation will be replaced by the joy of meeting, and the Lord will wipe away every tear from the eyes of the grieving, and illnesses will disappear, and death itself will be abolished, and the endless joy of eternal life will come! The Holy Church calls us to rejoice spiritually, because Christ, having risen Himself, also renews us spiritually and resurrects us with Himself. From the moment of His resurrection, nothing can hinder our spiritual resurrection, our inner rebirth. All obstacles on the path to Christ have been removed, all doors to Him are open. Now everything depends on our faith, on our determination.
St. John Chrysostom says in his sermon on Easter: “Go to the feast of faith, not weeping over your wretchedness, not crying now over your sins, for ‘forgiveness from the grave has been sent down to all’.”
Our Lord the Savior has now united us all with His all-forgiving love. No one is forgotten, no one is deprived. “Now all is filled with light, heaven and earth and the underworld, so that all creation may celebrate the resurrection of Christ.”
The resurrection of Christ transforms everyone and everything. We believe that by the power of the Resurrection, our diligent work and deep prayer, we will be clothed in the virtues of love and obedience, humility and brotherly love, peace and patience, and we will drive out from our midst everything that hinders harmony, we will drive out all enmity and hatred, lies and untruth, anger and envy.
And therefore we must seek, preserve and increase above all treasure that which our Risen Lord Jesus Christ wished for the apostles and which they treasured all the days of their lives: “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36; John 20:19, 21, 26).
It is precisely peace that every soul thirsts for. St. Seraphim of Sarov spoke of this saving and heartfelt Easter peace when he reflected on the salvation of people. With love and joy in the Risen Lord, our Savior, I congratulate you all on the bright holiday of Christ’s Pascha, beloved fathers, brothers and sisters.
I wish you God’s help throughout your earthly journey. May the joy of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ always abide in your hearts, warming them in the days of life’s difficulties.
Again and again I greet you all with the holy Easter kiss, passed down from generation to generation, from generation to generation:
CHRIST IS RISEN!
BY GOD’S GRACE,
METROPOLITAN OF MANILA AND HANOI
Christ’s Pascha
2025
