Ref. No: 053/2024
THEODOROS II
BY THE GRACE OF GOD POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA AND ALL AFRICA
TO THE FULLNESS OF OUR APOSTOLIC AND PATRIARCHAL THRONE
GRACE AND MERCY AND PEACE FROM OUR LORD AND GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST WHO IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD
Beloved and blessed children of the Lord,
The venerable passion of the Lord and His world-saving resurrection, which our Church once again honors and celebrates, are the only way to the true redemption of man. The voluntary sacrifice of the Word of God takes on meaning with His rising from the dead. Death is defeated, the human soul is redeemed and has the potential to enter the kingdom of Heaven. This is the purpose of man’s life on earth.
These Holy days of Great and Holy Week lead us to an emotional and spiritual elevation, to an inner rebirth. The Lord’s path of martyrdom shows us that meekness, humility, patience, the ability to forgive, love, lead man closer to God.
And after His voluntary sacrifice, the resurrected Lord first appears to His disciples with a greeting, which shows God’s great gift to man, the most important characteristic of our soul, peace. With the greeting “peace be upon you” Jesus appears twice to His troubled and frightened disciples.
This virtue of peace in individuals, in the family, in society, in nations, in humanity does not need to be developed for us by others, in order for us to learn it. None of us wants himself and his household upset and disturbed. And those, who do not have the happiness of having their hearts and families at peace, realize by themselves their own great calamity.
But we humans alone are not capable of giving ourselves peace. Thus, one of the reasons and purposes of Christ’s presence in the world, is to make peace possible through faith, love and moral strength, elements which His faithful derive from His sacrifice. World peace is unstable, hypocritical, full of small transient interests and a myriad of other evils. Because there cannot be peace only because there are no wars with an external enemy, when internally spirits, souls, marriages, morals are disturbed and there are daily murders, thefts, infidelities, riots, lack of gratitude, hat is the peace of Christ, which Ηe offers us through Ηis resurrection? It is the restoration of man to God and man to man through the mediation and grace of Christ the Peacemaker, from whom and through whom we make reality a life of repentance, love and justice. The peace of Jesus resides in the heart and mind, it is accompanied by justice and love, it creates among believers’ solidarity, mutual ministry and mutual help in all the purposes of life, it is followed by long-suffering and meekness. The peace of Jesus in our soul is the sweetest companion of our life, by day and by night.
The Resurrection of the Lord calls us to Church. Raising our eyes on the evening of Great and Holy Thursday to Him who was Crucified, our soul felt the peace of the suffering Lord and asked for a port of salvation. The Risen Lord shows us the way to salvation with the joyful greeting “peace be with you”.
My beloved and blessed children, Greeks, Arabs and Africans throughout the African land,
During these holy days, when the people are sighing in Ukraine, in Palestine, in the wider region of the suffering Middle East, in regions of long-suffering Africa and elsewhere, I call on your paternally to all join our fervent prayers for a settlement and a state of peace of the global world. Peace based on the unshakable love of the Risen Christ and not on the threat of modern murderous weapons. Unshakable peace according to the loving gift of the God-man Lord of Eternal Life “my peace I give to you” (John 14:27).
Christ is Risen! The Lord is truly risen!
† THEODOROS II
Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa
In the Great City of Alexandria
Holy Pascha 2024
