ERP KIM Newsletter 10-04-04

THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TO HER SPIRITUAL CHILDREN
AT PASCHA, 2004

P A V L E

By the grace of God

Orthodox Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of
Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch, with all the
Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church�to all the
clergy, monastics, and all the sons and daughters of
our holy Church: grace, mercy and peace from God the
Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Spirit, with the joyous paschal greeting:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim My death and you confess My resurrection. �I
Cor. 11:26

Gathered today at the Divine Liturgy, we are
proclaiming to the world the death of Christ, and we
are confessing His Resurrection. But we are not
confessing His Resurrection as some event of the
distant past; rather we are proclaiming the risen
Christ Who is present amongst us through the Holy
Spirit at this liturgical assembly. So it has been
since the first appearance of the risen Christ to His
disciples, as they witnessed and left to us as Holy
Tradition (Lk. 24:30-31), and which is found in the
fact that our risen Lord Jesus Christ is with us every
day�until He comes again in His glory�in the
eucharistic assembly of the many around their bishop,
the servitor of this great sacramental Mystery of
Christ. In the words of St. Ignatius the God-bearer of
Antioch, �Where the bishop is, there also let the
people be, for where Christ is, there also is the
universal Church.�

The risen Christ, our only Savior, our Hope, is not
separated from His Body, which we are as the community
of those who have been baptized into His death and
have been raised up with Him into a new life. That is
why where His Body is, there He is also as the Head of
the Body.

Our tradition, our preaching, our dear spiritual
children, is not from men, but from God; and it does
not come simply out of the past and out of the depths
of time so that we might be able to return there and
remember those times past. It came �from above��from
God, the Father of lights, Who by His presence
explains and fills all things. By the good will of the
God and Father and the intercession of the Holy
Spirit, the Son of God comes into history, building
from it a liturgical community by which He takes
creation and unites it to Himself, so making it His
own Body and freeing it from death. The Holy Spirit
does exactly this every time we gather in one place
around one celebrant for the Eucharist, that is, to
make thanksgiving to the Father whose will it was to
bring us from non-existence into being, and to make us
communicants of eternal life in Christ through the
Holy Spirit.

The passion and crucifixion of Christ witnesses to the
terrible tragedy and sickness from which the whole of
creation suffers�and that is death. Death is the
source of all the evils which have befallen humankind
and all of creation from the beginning. When death no
longer exists, neither will there exist either evil
among people or animosity among creatures. We do not
deceive ourselves, our dear spiritual children, into
believing that we can overcome death, that terrible
and final enemy of all creation, by ourselves, without
union with God in the risen Christ. Our own nature, as
well as the nature around us, only gives us the false
impression that it is enduring and eternal, even as
death consumes and transforms it into dust and
nothingness. Therefore we do not put our trust in
nature that it will liberate us from death, since it
itself groans and suffers, in fact expecting us, as
children of God, to free it from bondage to decay. And
we can only do this in the community of love in the
Body of Christ, which is the eucharistic assembly. The
communion of love with the Lord is the only thing
which can make our mortal nature immortal. Hasn�t the
Lord shown us this through our physical birth, which
is nonetheless only an image of spiritual birth, the
birth through the Holy Spirit unto incorruption. Even
physical birth and natural existence is the fruit, not
of itself, but of the union of love.

If we are, then, the Body of Christ and members of
that Body, and if we are risen with Him into the new
life, then, in the words of the Apostle, �let us
deaden our bodies to physical passions� and not behave
as if we will die tomorrow and that will be the end of
everything. Rather, let us live the new life as
citizens of the coming Kingdom of God, which is given
to us by the Father in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Let us live in the communion of love with the Lord
through fellowship with all those who are in His Body,
and also with all those who are not yet so, as though
they are. That community is the Eucharist, which makes
us persons, and not self-sufficient individuals. This
new, liturgical way of created life is the icon of the
divine way of life. Just as the Holy Trinity is a
union of freedom, of the love of the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, so also the Liturgy is the communion of
love of many persons with their Lord Jesus Christ.

Beloved in the Lord, who struggle and labor in many
spiritual efforts to reach holiness and eternal life,
do not forget that the only Holy One is our Lord Jesus
Christ, and that it is only in union with Him that we
may become heirs of His holiness. For only he who
stands in the Lord stands in virtues; for the Lord is
the source of every virtue, as the Apostle says, �God
is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became
for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption.� (I Cor. 1:30) And that
is only possible if we are in union with the Lord and
with our brothers, for the Lord is only present here.
Let us not replace the living Lord with laws and
things, and let us not act as if the Lord has not come
in the flesh and become a man. Let us not search for
the Lord except as a man, that is except as those who
have become His Body and from whom the Lord is not
separated. Love towards people and service to them
means service and love towards God.

Let us turn to our brothers who have gone astray and
are in schism with love, that they may have only one
thing in mind: If they think that they are doing what
they are doing by the Holy Spirit, they are mistaken,
for they do not know that the Spirit leads us into
unity with all those who are with Christ, but does not
tear apart or disunite the Body of Christ. In the Body
of Christ all are one: there is neither Greek nor Jew,
neither slave nor free. Therefore, let us not confuse
the living Christ, Who became a concrete human being,
with anything or anybody else: neither with
nationalistic symbols, nor political ideologies. Let
us unite ourselves in the Lord, in the Liturgy, by
communion with concrete human beings, and not in ideas
and dead symbols and passing things. Let us not tear
apart the Body of Christ because of love for power.
Let us remember that in the Church authority consists
in something which we cannot become without each other
� neither as Christians, nor as bishops, nor as
priests, and that authority is found in serving one
another.

Let us remind all such � with concern for their
salvation � not to commit the same sin which was
committed by the contemporaries of Christ, that
because of the weakness of their brother they do not
recognize in him our only Lord and Savior. In
separating themselves from their brother because he is
weak, let them take care that they do not separate
themselves also from the Lord Himself, the only Source
of life, and so become slaves to the law and the dead
words which kill and lead to death. �For you see your
calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to
put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak
things of the world to put to shame the things which
are mighty.� (I Cor. 1:26-27) No matter how unworthy
our brothers may be according to our standards, in
them is present the crucified and risen Lord, Who is
the only Judge; and He shall judge everyone when He
comes in His glory.

Young people, our consolation in the Lord, do not
allow your youth to mislead you and give you the false
hope that you might be able to realize your freedom
and your happiness on your own by yourselves, or even
in the natural world without Christ, that is, apart
from the Divine-human community of love with others.
Be aware that other people are your brothers and
sisters and your fellow sufferers in the struggle
against death, but also be aware that that struggle
will not bring freedom. No one can liberate us from
death except Christ Who is the communion of love in
the Holy Spirit.

You who are old and sick, do not grieve and despair,
for our Lord Himself suffered, died and rose again.
Alleviate your suffering by the Resurrection of
Christ, for we are not made for this passing life, but
for eternity.

Our dear spiritual children who by human hatred have
been exiled from your homes in Kosovo and Metohija and
other areas � from your ancient homesteads to be
scattered throughout the world, and you who have
emigrated in search of a better life, rejoice today
and do not grieve. All of us, together with all
honorable people throughout the world, have been
deeply shaken by the latest pogrom against our people
in Kosovo and Metohija, and by the destruction of our
holy places. These are new wounds on the Body of the
crucified Christ. Therefore even now, during this new
crucifixion, just as at all times, we have only one
true hope � the risen Lord, around Whom we need to
gather and congregate. All of us who hope and believe
in the Lord simply need to remind ourselves that we
are all here without a permanent home and that we are
all in exile in both time and place, until the Lord
comes again to gather His people from all the corners
of the world. Therefore do not grieve; we are never in
exile as long as we are members of the Church and as
long as we carry our holy shrines within our hearts.
The earth is the Lord�s, and He will return and give
it as an everlasting inheritance only to the who
belong to Him.

Let us all rejoice today, for we have had a foretaste
of eternal life, just as we rejoice each Sunday as we
celebrate the Resurrection of Christ in the liturgical
assembly. Whoever does not rejoice today when the
Church of God cries out, �Christ is risen� is like the
prisoner condemned to death who, on receiving the news
that he has been pardoned, continues to grieve.
Nevertheless, let us not forget that the Kingdom of
God has not yet come in its fullness. Let us not
remember the Resurrection of Christ just when the
holiday comes around. Christ�s Resurrection is our
life and our resurrection and our participation in the
joyous mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. For, in the
words of the Apostle, �As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his
own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who
are Christ�s at His coming.� (I Cor. 15:22-23) Let us
pray to the God and Father that the Lord will come to
us quickly in power and glory, for then with Him will
come to us complete liberation from death through the
general resurrection of the dead, and the Kingdom of
God in its fullness, which will confirm all the truths
of history and human life. In the words of the
Apostle, �If there is no resurrection of the dead,
then Christ is not risen.� (I Cor. 15:13)

With this hope in the Lord, we once again greet you
with the most joyous greeting,

CHRIST IS RISEN!

Given at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade at
Pascha, 2004.

Your intercessors before the Crucified and Risen Lord,


Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci
and Serbian Patriarch PAVLE

Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana JOVAN
Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Coastlands
AMPHILOHIJE Metropolitan of Midwestern America
CHRISTOPHER Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosna NIKOLAJ

Bishop of Shabac-Valjevo LAVRENTIJE Bishop of Nish
IRINEJ Bishop of Zvornik-Tuzla VASILIJE Bishop of Srem
VASILIJE Bishop of Banja Luka JEFREM Bishop of Budim
LUKIJAN Bishop of Canada GEORGIJE Bishop of Banat
NIKANOR Bishop for America and Canada (New Gracanica
Metropolitanate) LONGIN Bishop of Eastern America
MITROPHAN Bishop of Zica CHRYSOSTOM Bishop of Backa
IRINEJ Bishop of Great Britain and Scandinavia DOSITEJ
Bishop of Ras and Prizren ARTEMIJE Retired Bishop of
Zahumlje and Hercegovina ATANASIJE Bishop of Bihac and
Petrovac CHRYSOSTOM Bishop of Osijek and Baranja
LUKIJAN Bishop of Central Europe CONSTANTINE Bishop of
Western Europe LUKA Bishop of Timok JUSTIN Bishop of
Vranje PAHOMIJE Bishop of Sumadija JOVAN Bishop of
Slavonia SAVA Bishop of Branicevo IGNATIJE Bishop of
Milesevo FILARET Bishop of Dalmatia FOTIJE Bishop of
Zahumlje and Hercegovina GRIGORIJE Bishop of Budimlje
and Niksic JOANIKIJE Bishop of Australia and New
Zealand (New Gracanica Metropolitanate) MILUTIN Vicar
Bishop of Hvostno ATANASIJE Vicar Bishop of Jegar
PORFIRIJE

The Orthodox Archdiocese of Ochrid Metropolitan of
Veles and Povardara JOVAN, Patriarchal Exarch of the
Autonomous Archdiocese of Ohrid Vicar Bishop of Velic
and locum tenens (administrator) of the Diocese of
Polos-Kumanovo JOAKIM Vicar Bishop of Dremvic and
locum tenens of the Diocese of Bitolj MARKO

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ERP KIM Info-Service is the official Information
Service of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and
Prizren and works with the blessing of His Grace
Bishop Artemije.

ERP KIM Info Service works in cooperation with
www.serbian-translation.com [serbian-translation.com] as well as the Kosovo
Daily News (KDN) News List

Additional information on our Diocese and the life of
the Kosovo Serb Community may be found at: http://www.kosovo.com