Paschal Pastoral Encyclical 2026
Christ is Risen!
The day of Christ’s Resurrection is a day of light, because Christ is the true Light, according to His unfailing declaration: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and this Light is His divinity. It is the uncreated Light, not the created light of the sun. If the created light of the sun gives life to creation, the uncreated Light of the divinity grants true life to those who are united with it. The Evangelist John constantly speaks about the Light of Christ, which illumines all creation, both spiritual and perceptible. He himself was the beloved disciple of Christ and was called the Theologian; he remained until the very end at the Cross of Christ on Golgotha, received the Mother of Christ at His command, saw the Risen Christ, and indeed, according to his own testimony, “he came first to the tomb,” since “he outran Peter” (John 20:4).
In his Gospel he continually speaks of Christ as the true Light. He knew this from his presence on Mount Tabor (Matt. 17:1–13), and, of course, from his encounters with the Risen Christ. Therefore, he writes at the beginning of his Gospel: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:4–5). And he adds: “And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This glory is the Light.
Thus, this Evangelist, John the Theologian, in his First Catholic Epistle gives the confession that “the message” which he heard from Christ and proclaims to Christians is that “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). This he heard from the very mouth of Christ, who said: “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). As Light, He fills all creation — the heavenly intelligences, that is, the angels, human beings, and all creation. In this Light there is no darkness, no ignorance, nothing impure. This Light is the glory of God.
The consequence of this “message,” this proclamation, is that “if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6). Communion with God is communion with the divine, uncreated Light, which is the uncreated energy of God. A person cannot commune with God through reasoning, imagination, or speculation — as is done in Western scholastic theology — nor through a dark, unrepentant life. Therefore, in the Divine Liturgy, after receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, we confess triumphantly: “We have seen the true Light,” which is the experience of the saints.
Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite explains: “Those who believe in God, if we truly desire and love to have communion and participation in His Light, must have luminous thoughts and luminous works; and thus, being wholly filled with light, we are able to approach the Light of God, partake of His rays, and be united with Him. For everything that is alike has the natural property of sharing and being united with what is like itself.” If we say “only with dry words and with mere bare faith” that we have communion and participation in the Light of God, while we walk in darkness, that is, we have works of darkness and a sinful way of life, then indeed we are liars and speak falsehood, and do not speak the truth.
Then the Evangelist John the Theologian writes theologically: “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Our communion with God takes place in the Light — if we walk in the Light, if we live with repentance and pure prayer, not with speculations, reasonings, and imaginative thoughts. And when we have communion with Him in the Light, then we also have communion with one another, and then the blood of Christ cleanses us from every sin.
In this theological passage of the Evangelist John, it becomes clear that the true communion of man with God takes place in the Light, and when a person participates in the Light, then he has real communion with others who also participate in the Light, and then his participation in the mystery of the Divine Eucharist cleanses him from every sin. Within this theological perspective, we speak of communion with those who are united to God, the saints, and of true communion in the mystery of the Divine Eucharist through the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Beloved brethren,
These are the true prerequisites for our communion with the Risen Christ, with the Church of the Risen Christ, and with the friends of the Risen Christ, who are the saints. Thus we understand the unity of the faith, the union among human beings. Thus we interpret what Orthodox theology is, and what the communion of the saints is. Those saints who have communion with the uncreated Light of God, in varying degrees, which purifies, illumines, and deifies human beings, they know the Risen Christ; they possess Orthodox theology; they have communion with the other saints; and they truly participate in the mystery of the Divine Eucharist, confessing: “We have seen the true Light; we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the true faith; worshipping the undivided Trinity, for He has saved us.”
Therefore, those who speak of a “communion of persons” and not of communion in the uncreated Grace of the Light, those who speak of Eucharistic ecclesiology and eschatology outside of this theological perspective, are outside the resurrectional Orthodox truth.
Unfortunately, we live in an age of confusion in thought, theology, and life, and for this reason the word of the Evangelist John the Theologian concerning the communion of man with God, with our fellow human beings, and with the Eucharistic life “in the Light” is the truth of our faith.
Christ is Risen, brethren,
With warm Paschal wishes and paternal love
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
