Easter Message of UOC Primate: May the Lord bless us with peace
"May the Risen Christ fill our hearts with the bright hope of salvation and the joy of His great Victory over the forces of evil."
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry addressed his Easter Message to archpastors, pastors, monastics and all faithful members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church published the congratulations of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the main Christian feast – the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is the full text of the Easter Message by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.
“Christ is Risen!
I sincerely congratulate all of you – God-loving archpastors and pastors, pious monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters – on our greatest Christian Feast of the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ!
The Resurrection of Christ is a most glorious and sacred event through which God restored the lost Paradise to humanity; it is an event through which Divine Love shattered Hell and took away the power of death. Through His Resurrection, Christ the Savior once again granted humanity the lost gift of eternal life and bliss.
In wonderful and incomprehensible ways, Divine Love clothes itself in human nature and comes to earth to conquer all human malice and sin.
The God-man Christ takes upon Himself our sins and, as a Man, is crucified willingly for them on the Cross. On the Cross, Christ the Savior tears up the manuscript of human transgressions and frees humanity from the power of the devil, taking humanity from his hands. And when the God-man Christ died as Man on the Cross and descended into hell, then with the human soul of the Savior also descended into hell the Godhead, which in Christ was united forever with human nature. The Godhead, with its radiance, killed Hell (Paschal troparion, verse 2). The Godhead resurrected the Savior's human nature and brought out of hell the souls of all the righteous who lived on earth by faith in Christ to come.
The Resurrection of Christ became the greatest triumph of life over death.
The word of Christ Crucified and Risen was heard all over the world. The holy Apostles, the sincere disciples and followers of Christ, who were witnesses of His teachings, miracles, sufferings, and Resurrection, went throughout the world to proclaim and testify to the bright and all-conquering Resurrection of their great Teacher and Lord, Who by His death trampled our death and by His Resurrection gave life to those who were in the tombs (Paschal troparion). The word of the Risen Christ was powerful and mighty, it transformed the world; it freed humanity from fear, despair, and despondency, and embraced human suffering, grief, and pain with the warmth of bright hope. The Word about the Risen Christ taught people how to build their earthly life so that the Divine will, truth and love prevail.
Today, we joyfully celebrate and prayerfully glorify the Bright Resurrection of Christ, the great victory of good over evil, which was given to us by our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We share this sacred joy with one another and all people of good will. As Christians, we testify and must testify to the Resurrection of Christ not only with our words but also with our lives.
What does it mean to testify to the Risen Christ with our lives?
If a Christian lives piously, that is, according to Christ’s commandments, he becomes a source of pure, living water of God’s grace, flowing into eternal life (John 4:14). Just as the sky is reflected in a clean natural spring, as St. Theophan the Recluse says in his Paschal sermon, so in the pure life of a Christian who lives according to Christ's word, Christ is reflected. Therefore, a pious Christian is a living witness of the Resurrection of Christ. Those who cannot or do not wish to lift their eyes to Heaven can see in the Heavenly glory the Risen Christ reflected in the pure life of a pious Christian, and thus have a good opportunity to change their vain life into a bright and joyful life in Christ.
Let us, dear brothers and sisters, join those Christians who, through their God-pleasing lives, today testify to the world about the incorruptible beauty, greatness, and saving power of Christ's Resurrection. Let us build our lives in such a way that the Name of God, great and glorious in His works, the Creator of Heaven and earth, God, Who in His boundless love descended from Heaven to earth to raise us from earth to Heaven (Akathist to the Savior, 8th kontakion), is sanctified and glorified.
Once again, I congratulate all of you, dear brothers and sisters, on the Great Day of Christ’s Pascha, on the Day of the Bright Resurrection of Christ! May the Risen Christ fill our hearts with the bright hope of salvation and the joy of His great Victory over the forces of evil. May the Risen Christ bring peace to those who are warring against us and bless us with peace.
Truly, Christ is Risen!
Humble
+ Onuphry
Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine
Pascha of Christ
2025
Kyiv
