Easter Message (2023) by Metropolitan Jeronymos of Kampala
Video from Uganda Orthodox Church - Holy Metropolis of Kampala / Facebook
My beloved children in Christ,
Christ is Risen.
“I am the resurrection and life” (Jn. 11:25).
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, came to earth to give us new life.
This new life, is first and foremost, found in God, the true and living
God. Here on earth, it is the life of saints. However, for this life to
come about, it requires a clear knowledge of the true and living God.
Christ revealed Him to us. One who has acquired it, is full of love and
is in communion with this God, fellow human beings and creation. Most
importantly, this new life is based on living according to the will of
God, and away from sin. The fact is where there is sin, there is death.
God who dwells in saints call us for constant repentance to be worth of
His kingdom of heaven, His eternal life. Here, our Lord and Savior seals
it by saying “I am the resurrection and life (Jn. 11:25)”, a special
calling for Orthodox Christians.
That is why the Orthodox Church gives the resurrection of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, a great importance. This feast is extremely
important on the Orthodox Church Calendar. It is the feast of feasts,
and the center of feasts. With the light from the source of light,
Orthodox Christians celebrate the feast of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ with great joy. It is a joy whereby everything is filled with
life, the life from the empty tomb. This very life is the vision of a
living reigning Lord. Giving everyone courage, hope, love and faith.
Christ resurrected is all and in all. Mankind attains victory over
death, in other words attains eternal life. The Church of Christ, which
is the body of Christ, is to lead us to eternal life.
One has to visit Christ on the cross in order to grasp the depth and
width of this new life. Truly speaking, Christ on the cross sheds His
blood for the remission of our sins. He redeems us and reconciles us
with God. At the entrance in Christ’s Church, we are born again by water
and spirit. In the Church, our chief drink and food, as Orthodox
Christians, is Christ’s blood and body. In communion, we get the
remission of sins and everlasting life. Here one realizes the
resurrection and life of Christ since in communion, Christ cleans our
conscience and life and transforms our nature. Christ neutralizes the
poison of sin and the bites of the devil. We are set free and drafted as
sons and daughters of God, the Father, by Grace.
In the resurrection of Christ lies the hope for beloved country
Uganda. As we confront the challenges of our great nation, the free sons
and daughters of God the Father, by Grace, are ready and empowered with
the vision of the resurrected Christ to raise this nation from heights
to heights. Central to their being is the message of resurrection. It is
a message of victory, victory over death and victory for eternal life.
This victory is to bring about the quality of life for Uganda and indeed
for all Ugandans. It is a message where love prevails in our communion
with God, fellow citizens and creation. This message justifies our motto
“For God and My Country”. And it puts Christ’s uniqueness and
exclusiveness, as saviour able to give us true life, in the midst of our
corrupt life, to the national agenda. We do re-orientate our hope to
surpass the impassable which chokes our life. Let us shout loudly that
Christ is Risen, each and every one in Uganda is free.
CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED, HE IS RISEN!
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OBUBAKA BWA PASIKA (2023) ERI E’GGWANGA
Easter Message From Bishop Nektarios (Kabuye) of Gulu and Northern Uganda
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY, HE IS RISEN!
Dear Brethren,
We celebrate this triumphant event in these words of the Troparion. Christ is Risen!
Resurrected joy is experienced and radiated regardless, of the
favorable or unfavorable surroundings, even in conditions of poverty,
disease, persecution, war and uncertainty. And we urgently need it right
now that everything is set to drown us in the fume of death. This joy
multiplies while it offers love where hatred abounds, and hope where
despair prevails. Second, “we rejoice in the Lord who crushed the state
of death and enlighten the race of men.” Let us draw courage by living
the joy of our Church, despite the oppressive problems we faced, despite
the trials we are going through. The resurrected Christ has the power
to dispel every shadow of hell; to crush the state of death brought
about by violence, injustice, arrogance, and the fury of destruction. He
offers an insurmountable light to those who believe in and love Him.
Christ is Risen, my brethren! “This day has been made by the Lord. We
rejoice and rejoice in it. To the pure, transparent truth, that the
Gospel has been proclaiming for centuries: Certainty shared by billions
of people over the centuries.
This is the characteristic of the Christian experience which defines
and incessantly regenerates the believers. Undeniably, this belief is
freely accepted or rejected. Christ’s “descend into Hades” proclaims
the final dissolution of death and has become a symbol of the
Resurrection in the Orthodox Church.
Every believer associated with the suffering and Resurrected Christ
lives in his personal life the experience of Psalmist: “Thou shalt not
forsake my soul in hell,…You showed me the way to life. Thou shalt fill
me with joy when I am near thee.” (Acts 2:27-28 – Psalm 15:10-11).
Relying on the unceasing presence of the risen Lord, we can even in the
most painful circumstances chant, “O divine, O friend, O sweet voice.
With us, I pray onto the end of ages, Christ: if the faithful anchors
have hope possessed, we rejoice.” The Resurrection is the foretaste of
God’s final victory of love in the end. He brings the future within us
and with the sanctifying energy of the Holy Spirit in the Mystery of the
Church, makes it present.
However, in the light of the Resurrection, all these things are
transformed and can be overcome. “Do not be surprised at the terrible
trial by which you are tested,” advises the Apostle Peter. “On the
contrary, rejoice in participating in the suffering of Christ, for thus
shall you be filled with joy and joy when His glory is revealed” (1 Pet
4:12-13); And in hours of cruel persecutions, he affirms: God “who out
of great mercy reborn us into a new life with the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ,” enable us to truly hope, guards us with His power “until
Salvation comes which is already ready to be manifested in the ends
times. With this thought feel joy, even if you need for the time being
to be distressed for a while by various trials” (1 Pet 1:3-6). At
Easter, we celebrate the crushing of the state of death, the merciless
enemy of man.
With Christ is Risen, we celebrate the most important event of
history, which concerns the depth, the meaning, and the future of man’s
existence. It may be that Various ramifications of death surround us
with their strangest and most diverse masks, with unjust oppression,
debilitating poverty, and unexpected suffering. May the Resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ change our minds, our hearts, our thoughts, our
behaviors and our values as it did to the Apostles and all those who
truly witnessed His Holy Resurrection from the dead two thousand years
ago.
Amen.
Easter Message From His Grace Bishop Silvester (Kisitu) of Jinja and Eastern Uganda
Beloved children in the Lord God.
Christ Is Rsien!
Christos Anesti!
Kristo Azuukidde!
I greet you with this traditional ecclesiastical phrase which
expresses the inexpressible world event ever, i.e., the transcendent
triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ over sin and death. The resurrection of
Christ marks the beginning of a new phase (fundamental change) in the
history of mankind where by the powers of the hades are destroyed and
man is regenerated and according to St. Paul, he becomes a new creature.
However, even though His resurrection fully reveals the immeasurable
love of God for man by keeping His promises He made to the people of
Israel, especially through Abraham and Moses; man has taken it for
granted by misusing this freedom.
Today, the world has developed the ideology of humanism which
encourages one to decide or act freely in his daily life, a situation
that has resulted into relying on distorted truths and freedom with its
numerous consequences one of which is the vice of homosexuality.
We thank God there is still some integrity among people which springs
from God’s image in which man was created as well as His knowledge from
the gospels. The original plan for a person is clear that God created
man and woman and blessed the mystery of marriage for both so that in
unity and happiness provided by God, they may praise and serve Him thus
strengthening the family bond for the solidarity of the society.
Therefore, other forms of marital existence are foreign according to
the teaching of the Church, traditions, as well as human nature and
there are indeed controlled by the power of sin.
We thank God that here in Uganda our people continue to leave a Godly
life and are not supportive of such ungodly, immoral, and unnatural
behaviors in spite of the pressure from those trying to impose such
evils into our societies.
In these circumstances, we pray for those that have been controlled
by sin to be guided and come back to God, to normality as expected of a
person / human being.
As we pray for all people, we must encourage them to repent and come
back to God by denying inhuman behaviors and habits and then be able to
resurrect together with Christ as a “new people” in Christ Jesus; the
citizens of the kingdom of Heaven, living peacefully in the world
together with other people as one godly family.
CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED, HE IS RISEN!
