To the Reverend Clergy and Faithful of the Diocese of the West,

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

The journey of Great Lent to Pascha is long and arduous by design. Our spiritual lives are revealed at the beginning of that journey as weak and fragile. Our prayer is often perfunctory, mumbled with inattention. Our hearts are shown to be cold and indifferent to Him, loving the things of this world more than the Beloved. Our faith wavers more often than we care to admit. Our fasting is less a crushing of the self and more a checklist of things to do and not do. Our trust in the Lord is exposed as paper thin, hoping more in our own efforts and designs. So the journey is long, because the destination is so far away and we must battle, feed ourselves at the Table of Immortality for strength, and slay the beasts within us using the tools given to us by the Church. Only then can we faithfully arrive at the Empty Tomb. But arrive we have!

The journey is also long and arduous because Great Lent is a microcosm of life itself. We are born and pray for length of days because the battle to see the Kingdom of Heaven as our true home is life-long. We move through life day by day struggling to remain faithful. We face easy times and we face times of great difficulty. We pick up the great tools of the spiritual life in our journey — prayer, fasting, almsgiving, liturgy, and repentance — but if we are honest with ourselves (and with God), we confess that we use these tools weakly and sometimes not at all. So we trust in Him to forgive us, strengthen us, and help us carry this cross called life. Only then can we faithfully arrive at the Empty Tomb. This Tomb is the promise of life eternal. His Pascha becomes our Pascha.

If one pays attention to the readings at the services of Passion Week, it becomes obvious that restoration is a theme woven throughout both Old Testament and New Testament. That restoration is the scriptural icon of the saving act of our Lord in His death and resurrection. Darkness becomes light, suffering becomes a saving entrance into the Cross, death becomes life. We have already participated in these acts through our baptisms. At the Vespers of Holy Friday, after more than 40 days of fasting and walking through the horrors and darkness of the Passion, the final words of the Book of Job are read — moments before we place the winding sheet bearing the body of our Lord in the tomb. These words are a description of the multitude of blessings bestowed on Job after his patient suffering and dependance on the Lord. Job is us! The words are an icon of what awaits all of us in the Kingdom in the Pascha. At the first proclamation of the Resurrection at the Holy Saturday liturgy, we are sealed, if you will, with the baptismal words of the Apostle Paul:

We are baptized. We are already dead. We are already risen. We live the life of Christ here and now, so our death becomes the death of Christ, and we will be raised to the Kingdom of Heaven.

My beloved children, this is my last Paschal Message to you as your father. I have loved you all as Archpastor for these many years. I will always continue to love you. I pray that I might someday hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” My ailment and retirement is not an occasion for mourning, for Christ is Risen! It is not a time for sadness, for Christ is Risen! Death is overthrown and life reigns! May each and every one of you rejoice in the glory of the Resurrection!

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Yours in the Risen Christ,

☦ Benjamin

Archbishop of San Francisco and the West