PASTORAL LETTER
AT THE FEAST OF THE LORD’S RESURRECTION, 2026
† IOAN CASIAN
By the mercy of God
Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada
To our Beloved Clergy and Orthodox Christians,
peace and joy from Christ, the Risen Lord,
and from us, hierarchical blessing!
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.’”
(John 11: 25-26)
Most Reverend Fathers,
Beloved brothers and sisters,
Christ is risen!
The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the central feast eagerly awaited each year by all Christians of the Orthodox Church. Around this feast revolves the entire liturgical rhythm of the Church year. It reveals to us that the event of Christ’s Resurrection is the one that orders everything in human life and in the entire universe.
On the Paschal night of light, the Christian proclaims together with the whole Christian community: “Christ is risen!” This proclamation is addressed not only to Christians but to all people throughout the world, because Christ rose for every human being; He rose to offer the possibility of repentance, redemption, and salvation; He rose to reopen the gates of Paradise that had been closed since the fall into sin.
How and through whom is this wonderful work of our resurrection accomplished?
“For Almighty God will raise us from the dead through our Lord Jesus Christ,” - say the Apostolic Constitutions -, “according to His unchanging promise, and He will grant us resurrection together with all those who have fallen asleep since the beginning of the world. And thus, we shall be as we are now in our present form, but without imperfection and corruption. For we shall rise incorruptible: whether we die at sea, whether we are scattered upon the earth, or torn to pieces by wild animals or birds, He will raise us by His power. For the entire world is held together by the hand of God.”[1]
The beginning of our resurrection is the work of God. The experience of humanity before the coming of Christ was one of profound suffering because of the fragility of human nature, sin, and the weakness that man felt amid the adversities of life. The Prophet David summarizes this reality and expresses it in the cry he raises to God: “Lord, I cry unto You; hear me. Give ear to the voice of my supplication when I cry unto You” (Psalm 140:1). The Church has adopted this prayer and this dialogue with God as a community, expressing it in the service of Vespers. At the same time, humanity has always felt the blessing and providential care of God: “Lord, You have been our refuge from generation to generation. Before the mountains were brought forth and the earth and the world were formed, from everlasting to everlasting You are” (Psalm 89:1–2). And in another psalm it is said: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness before the nations” (Psalm 97:1–3).
Thus, the texts of Holy Scripture progressively lead us to the conclusion that humanity needs God in every circumstance of life. The teaching of the Holy Apostles, based on the concrete experience of their encounter with Christ—the incarnated, crucified, and risen Son of God—shows us that at the foundation of our restoration and resurrection stands first the providential care of God. The Resurrection of Christ, with the human nature He assumed from the Virgin Mary, offers humanity the possibility of returning to its original splendor, to the image and likeness of God for which we were created.
It was—and still is—a long path for each person to fulfill this personally. It was long because humanity experienced for thousands of years weakness, suffering, and death, but also the joy, blessing, and help of God. The foundation of our resurrection to eternal life has already been laid through Christ’s resurrection on the third day from the tomb. Yet there is still a long road until the resurrection of all from the dead, until the final judgment and eternal life, which will come at the appointed time.
If the foundation of our resurrection and perfection has already been laid through the resurrection of Christ, the Son of God, it still remains for us to fulfill our personal and communal duty of faith and action, as Saint Paul says, “to fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, that is, the Church” (Colossians 1:24). All these things take place through the providential care of God with our personal participation.
If God accomplishes our resurrection in Christ, in what way does the human being participate in God’s work?
“Once He explained the power of His mystery and clearly showed that He is by nature life and the true God,” - says Saint Cyril of Alexandria -, “He asks for the assent of faith, thus establishing a model for the churches. We must confess the great mystery not by throwing empty words into the air, but by rooting faith in the heart and mind, and our confession must be the fruit of this.”[2]
Through faith, the human person can enter even here on earth into the experience of a foretaste of eternal life in the Church. God offers us faith as the bridge connecting Him and humanity, connecting the new life restored in Christ with the daily life marked by sin. Christians and ecclesial communities begin to shape and live their lives according to the word of God born from the encounter with Him. Faith in God, in the Resurrection of Christ for our salvation, becomes the founding element and the foundation of our new life at every moment. Before this moment, human life was guided by earthly concerns and worries, by small preoccupations without any clear perspective of eternity. But from the moment of Christ’s Resurrection and faith in Him, human life gains a new perspective and strength. Words that were once empty of grace become bearers of confession and messengers of God’s saving message through Christ in the Holy Spirit.
Saint Cyril of Alexandria says that human faith must not remain an abstract formula or an empty confession. Faith in general—and especially faith in the Lord’s Resurrection—must be rooted in the mind and the heart. In this way our life and our actions become expressions of this faith reflected in deeds. Our witness to Christ’s Resurrection thus becomes the expression of our deepest belief and experience. It will become visible on our faces and in our actions. Human life becomes a new life transfigured in the likeness of Christ’s face revealed to the three Apostles—Peter, James, and John—on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration.
How does our life appear from this new perspective of the inner work of God
through His Son?
Saint Athanasius the Great presents Christ in one of his homilies as the meaning and content of the new life of the restored human being: “I am the voice of life that awakens the dead. I am the sweet fragrance that removes the foul odor. I am the voice of joy that drives away sorrow and grief. … I am the rest of those who suffer. To those who are Mine I give joy. I am the joy of the whole world. I give joy to all My friends and rejoice with them. I am the bread of life.”[3]
The great Alexandrian Father emphasizes in his words the very essence of what Christ is for us. He is what humanity lost through sin and regains through the Resurrection. First of all, He is the true life, the divine life that humanity lost through the fall into sin. By turning away from God through disobedience, humanity distances itself from the very source of life. This immediate impoverishment is felt by humanity through the shame of hiding from the face of God—a shame that continues to echo in the conscience as a permanent shadow weighing upon it. Eternal life, lost through death which entered through sin, is restored through Christ’s Resurrection.
With death we know that passion and the foul-smelling work of sin entered human nature. Through Christ’s Resurrection, the good fragrance of eternity begins again to be felt in human life. It begins in the Church through the Holy Mysteries and the entire sanctifying work in which the Christian participates. In them is present the redeeming and saving work of Christ.
From this new life shared with us by God flows the joy of the light of eternal life. The first thing Christ wishes to share with the myrrh-bearing women early in the morning is joy: “But as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, ‘Rejoice!’ And they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him” (Matthew 28:9). Joy springs from the encounter with the Son of God who grants us salvation. It is the shared joy of communion once lost and now rediscovered in Christ. It removes sorrow and distress, signs of separation from God.
The consequence of tasting divine joy is the attainment of spiritual rest. Once the central and foundational bond of human existence—the bond with God—is restored, the human being finds rest from all turmoil. Worries, anxieties, insecurity, and human shortcomings fade because the sense of God’s providential care reappears through His Son and His Holy Spirit. Christ bears the whole of humanity upon His shoulders, and the Holy Spirit transfigures it through divine grace working in synergy with human will.
Christ is the joy of the whole world because He is the source of all things. Through His Resurrection humanity and the world rediscover their true life and breath; they rediscover the radiance and natural state they received at creation.
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
We are in the Solemn Year dedicated to the pastoral care of the Christian family and the Commemorative Year of the holy women of the calendar (myrrh-bearers, martyrs, venerable women, wives, and mothers).
The family is the foundation of our society. It is the environment in which each of us first saw the light of day, grew up, and received the first rudiments of life. The Christian family offers the first elements of faith through the practice and way of life that children see from the very beginning in the example of their parents. The family is also the first form of communion reflecting God’s generosity among us. Parents are the first to give of their time and goods to their children in order to help them grow and develop.
The Saint Confessor and Priest Dumitru Stăniloae once said about the family: “The principles of life planted in us in the parental home, through the example and encouragement of parents, persist in our soul with a tenacity that cannot be permanently overcome by any later influence… What is received in the parental home remains within you unshaken and precious.”[4] This shows how important the family is for each of us. Therefore, let us give of our time to those closest to us for spiritual growth and strengthening.
The commemorative year 2026 is dedicated to the holy women who bore witness to the Christian faith in different ways, often in contexts unfavorable or even hostile to the Church. They had the good courage of faith. They sailed upon the sea of this life with its hardships and its ideological, social, and political storms, yet they overcame through their witness and their life. In this way they became examples and images of divine light reflected and embodied in their humble lives, often ignored by the powerful of their times or by those around them, yet lives that remained upright and steadfast.
Let us use this year dedicated to the family and to the witnessing example of holy women for strengthening both our families and our personal lives according to the example of those whom we especially honor during this year.
In this period illuminated by the feast of the Resurrection, we are called to draw closer to Christ, receiving with open hearts the gifts He offers us. Let us live with gratitude the joy of life and salvation that He grants in the Church and may the light of His Resurrection renew our souls and bring peace, hope, and blessing into the life of each one of us.
“Grace be with you all. Amen.” (Hebrew 11:25-26)
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Your brother in prayer to Christ the Lord,
† IOAN CASIAN
Saint-Hubert / Montreal 2026
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[1] The Apostolic Constitutions 5.1.7, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (New Testament IVb / John 11–21). InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, USA, 2007, p. 14, col. 1.
[2] St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John (Vol. 2). InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, USA, 2015, p. 88, col. 1.
[3] St. Athanasius the Great, Homily on the Resurrection of Lazarus, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (New Testament IVb / John 11–21). InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, IL, USA, 2007, p. 13, col. 2.
[4] Dumitru Stăniloae, Culture and Spirituality (Vol. 1). Basilica Publishing: Bucharest, 2012, pp. 180–181.
