SOUTH AMERICAN DIOCESE: May 6, 2022
Paschal Epistle of Bishop John of Caracas and South America

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

...when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you (John 20 19).

As we can see, the first words that our Risen Lord spoke to His disciples were Peace be unto you. It is this peace that was and is indispensable, not just to see Him, but to recognise and know Him as the truly Risen Lord, in the flesh, and not some apparition or phantom. It is this peace which he imparted to His disciples on the eve of His Crucifixion, saying Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you (John 14:27).

Dear brothers and sisters, if we do not receive Christ’s peace into our hearts, but reject it, replacing it with worldly values, interests and convictions, whether personal, social, political or national, and direct our life, not according to Christ’s everlasting Gospel of peace, but by selfish egotism on a personal level, and on the larger scale, by chauvinistic nationalism, we can never hope to know the Truly Risen Christ, and the age-old paschal greeting will be just empty words.

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

John, Bishop of Caracas and South America,
The Passover of the Lord, 2022