THE 1996 PASCHAL ENCYCLICAL

In one of his sermons given many years ago, Metropolitan Philaret of blessed memory quoted one of the troparia of the Paschal Canon, composed by Saint John of Damascus:

In this sermon, His Eminence considers what the significance of these words could be, especially when we see the apparent triumph of death all around us. Friends, relatives, spouses, children — all in common are swept away by the inexorable and irresistible torrent of death.

What is more distressing than this is that there are some who, though calling themselves Christians, do not accept that Christ Himself arose from the dead.

But if even "the Vanquisher of death" is Himself vanquished, what hope can there be for anyone else? Life, then, becomes completely pointless. It is simply an experience that, if one were to take all of its joys and griefs into account and average them out, would result only in what one scientist termed "moderate unhappiness," succeeded by death. Then, as Metropolitan Philaret observed, "What would there be to hope for? For our earth would have become one vast cemetery, and all of the best intentions of the soul, all holy endeavors and high hopes of the heart would have vanished into the grave with man. How could one speak of virtue then, and why should one have tried to achieve it, if everything had one inescapable, hopeless and terrible end?" This, indeed, would be the unavoidable conclusion if we were to accept the premises of the "culture of death" that now seems to pervade our society.

As Christians we know that after the Resurrection of Christ, although death acts outwardly in the world, its actual power has been destroyed, and, for the faithful children of the Church it has become an interval of peace and repose before the awakening that will come with the resurrection of all mankind. This destruction of death’s power was reflected even in the language of the Greek-speaking Christians. In the centuries before Christ, the Greek word for "sleeping room" was kemeterion, while the word for "burial ground" was necropolis ("city of the dead"). But under the influence of the Christian teaching of the resurrection, the word necropolis fell into disuse, whereas kemeterion (whence comes our English "cemetery") came into use to indicate not any longer the place where people sleep in a house, but the place where those who have reposed await the Second Coming.

I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that, He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present day, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen by James, then by all the Apostles.

Furthermore, not only our Saviour, but also His all-holy Mother, the Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, holy Hierarchs, righteous Monastics, both men and women after their physical departure from this temporal life, and even children who have received the crown of martyrdom, have appeared to the faithful on countless occasions throughout the centuries, down to our very own, to confirm again and again the joyous proclamation that Christ is truly risen and death is vanquished, and that for all those who have taken up their cross and followed Him faithfully, this radiant Paschal day is indeed the justification for us to "celebrate the death of death, the destruction of Hades, the beginning of an everlasting life."