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Holy Week of Easter/ MESSAGE OF ARCHBISHOP JOAN: VICTORY OVER DEATH

2025-04-17 11:43:00, Aktualitet CNA

In the Great Week of Easter, His Beatitude John conveyed to all believers the important message that Easter is the commemoration of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fundamental truth of our faith and life.

"His victory over death is a universal victory, for all times and for all peoples, a victory in which every person can rejoice," emphasizes Archbishop Joan.

Archbishop Joan's message

To the clergy and the hopeful people

Dear children in God,

The

Easter is the commemoration of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fundamental truth of our faith and life. If there had been no Resurrection, if death had not been possible, then our Christian preaching and faith would be in vain (I Cor. 15:14), emphasizes the great apostle, because only through the Resurrection of the Lord did our human nature receive its true significance and meaning.

His victory over death is a universal victory, for all times and for all peoples, a victory in which every person can rejoice. Every other victory in the world has created division and continues to divide people from one another. When one wins, another loses. One rejoices and another grieves. While in the victory of Christ's Resurrection, everyone should rejoice, because death, the common enemy of all people, is defeated.

This Easter we do not have our beloved Archbishop Anastasius among us. But our hearts are comforted knowing that he now intercedes for us before God, for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Mt. 22:32). We believe that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new life in God. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most miserable (1 Cor. 15:19).

The resurrection of Christ strengthens us and gives us all faith, gives us life from His Life, a holy life, a life that conquers even death itself, a life without end, where the earthly power of death no longer has power. We have faith, and our faith is not just an emotion, or just a desire, but it is a certainty founded on the rock, which is Christ. His Spirit and Word sowed the seed of life where death reigned, spread light where there was darkness, and gave joy wherever there was fear and sadness. He passed through the human cemetery, spreading the flowers of eternity.

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But we are aware of the difficulties of this life. In the world there are injustices and wars, poverty and suffering, illness and death, which can often lead a person to despair. Selfishness and greed have poisoned and deformed relationships between people, alienating and isolating them from each other. The departure from values, from love, justice, compassion and, especially, from the presence of God in our daily lives, creates a spiritual darkness, clouding the human mind and distorting the meaning of life. Spiritual darkness is the greatest obstacle to entering into life and true liberation.

But the greater the darkness, the more light is needed. On this holy day, we are all invited to participate in this joy, because only by experiencing the liberating light of the Resurrection in our lives can our being be transformed and reach its full dimension.

We have the assurance that His love is stronger than hate, life in Him, stronger than death, and that our hope in Christ is stronger than despair. He is our hope, and those who hope in the Lord, says the Prophet Isaiah, will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint (Is.40:31).

If the light of resurrection is lit in our lives, then interpersonal relationships will also be illuminated. We were created as communal beings and are called to live in community with one another and to help one another, preserving the dignity of every human person, especially those in need and in difficulty. Sacrifices, like medicine, are not easy, but they are necessary for our healing. For if we do not experience the pain of the cross, we will not experience the joy, life, and light of the Resurrection.

III

Dear brothers and sisters!

During Easter we sing: Run and proclaim to the world how the Lord is risen, destroying death; He is the Son of God, the Savior of the human race! Perhaps today, more than ever, our world needs the message of Easter, because the Resurrection is not just a past event, but a continuous experience for every time, for every generation and for every person, which gives hope, light and joy to our lives and does not allow us to drown in the sea of ????sorrow. No matter how difficult our problems may be, the Resurrection of Christ promises us a completely different future.

The Resurrection of Christ is not an event and a celebration that is only about Him, but also about us, because He made us partakers of His Resurrection, through the fullness of His human nature.

His Resurrection touches and transforms all people, giving human existence a new life and becoming the sign of the final fulfillment of our human nature. He who is risen today , - writes St. Gregory the Theologian, - will renew me in spirit and clothe me with the new man. For Easter we are called to embrace one another and, because of the life-giving Resurrection of Christ, to forgive one another in everything, so that we may cry out with a pure heart: Christ is Risen!

With love in the Risen Lord,

JOANI, Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania./ CNA