Everything is beautiful for the Feast of Ressurection , says His Eminence Bishop Photios of Zvornik and Tuzla, stating that this feast brings victory over death, hope of eternal life, the victory of good over evil, truth over lies, justice over injustice, light over darkness in the life of one person and one nation, of all nations and all the people.
This is something that cannot be darkened, but on the other hand, historically speaking, the world is facing the third world war that started in Ukraine. We rely on the opinions of the elders of Mount Athos, ascetics who have gifts то "see" by Gods grace through history, that have higher gifts of knowledge than us, ordinary ones who don't have.
He points out that this is not something to worry about, but it is our reality.
We have hope, and our hope is Christ, and the resurrection of Christ, that cannot be darkened even with the atomic bomb. Оur reality as well, is that the modern world is saturated in evil. Never enough, with full stomach, drunk, some have billions and still desire more. They have lots of space, but yet, they want to occupy the North Pole, even a single one island, that's incredible insensitivity, and then, of course, there has to be a conflict of interests.
He follows with concern what is happening in Ukraine.
The war is unfortunate, churches are attacked and looted by heretics, schismatics, priests and monks are physically attacked. The most sacred Lavra of Kiev monastery is under threat and there is a possibility of overtaking it. And the entire Western cultural world listens and see this and yet does nothing to stop it, but the lawlessness continues daily.
The Church faces great temptations that are overcome by faith in God.
God is present with us and carries our cross, in Republic of Srpska and in the mother country of Serbia, in Montenegro and North Macedonia, everywhere where there are trials and where people and shrines are suffering. For them, we need to increase our prayers the most, that by Gods will ends it, and that the faithful get saved. Recently, they lived under communism, which also persecuted the Church in many ways, but now they are destroying everything, burning down, sparing neither the holy shrines nor the ancient monasteries, it is a terrible situation.
EUROPE IS DOING WHAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED
It is outrageous that Russian books and writers are banned in Europe today.
It was something that had never happened before, until recently it was hard to believe that cultural Western Europe could do something like that. It was related to non-democratic systems, like Hitler's.
Now, however, even these supposedly normal systems work like that, which shows that it is not easy to acquire virtue
A virtuous and just state system must have solid foundations, otherwise it easily slips into some kind of non-democracy, tyranny or powerlessness.
Unfortunately, due to the conflict in Ukraine, Europe is tending towards such a thing, the complete destruction of all values. Most people that swear in Western culture as the foundation of culture, freedom and human rights, and here it is, all disappeared overnight. No one mentions human rights any more, human freedom can be abolished in one minute, someone gives an order and that's it.
Аll intellectuals have failed, all free-thinking people.
They have simply retreated in the face of threats, fear, state terror, of reprisals, of the possibility to lose their jobs, of being sanctioned.
And they are silent, as silent as mules, no one says anything. Today, unfortunately, intellectuals are the most silent about Kosovo, they are nowhere to be found, like ostriches, they stuck their heads in the sand and remain silent. We people from the Church speak as much as we can, and as much we know, we cry out in prayer, we cry out to God above all, to save Kosovo and Metochia. Because it is the foundation of our spirituality, national identity and culture.
Kosovo is important for people in Australia, Canada and America as it is in Europe.
For us in the former Yugoslavia, especially for the Serbs, it is the Covenant of Kosovo, therefore we need to talk about it during the Pascha, to remind ourselves of the importance of these things, of our holy places, that the Kiev Lavra monastery also belongs to us, which we cannot lose, or give it away, nor can it be taken away from us by force.
YOU SHOULD BE WISE, NOT TO KEEP WISELY SILENT, BUT TO ACT WISELY
On the Paschal eve, Bishop Photios called on faithful Serbs to follow the path of resurrection, the path of St. Sava, the Holy great Martyr Lazar of Kosovo and the holy martyrs and saints throughout our history.
History is being revised, the culture of memory has been eroded in a totalitarian, globalist age that, like an excavator, flattens everything in front of it and, if we don't manage it, we are lost. That is why we should be wise and try to preserve our tradition and value system. We need wise people, but not those who wisely remain silent, but who wisely act for the good.
In the global world, what has been problem in Africa, suddenly is a problem in the Balkans, problem in Ukraine, becomes a problem for the whole world.
Earlier, poets used to say - all the wounds of our race hurts me, now I can freely say that all the wounds of the entire humanity hurts me.
But we in the Republic of Srpska, since we are small, we should take care of our pains and troubles, and that is a constant battle for the preservation of the Republic of Srpska. Preservation of our property and our identity. To live as Orthodox people, to raise our children as Orthodox people, with such ethics, beliefs and moral codex.
We should not accept false teachings from the West, about gender theory that erases the differences between the sexes, erases parents, that there are no more mother and father, rather than parent one and two.
Foreign teachings are imposed on us that are not from the Orthodoxy, not from Serbian traditions. We cannot protect ourselves, our institutions must protect us, that's why there should representatives of the our authorities attend Paschal services, and Holy liturgies in general. So they can hear what the Church teaches, not to remain in their office sphere, and to be separated from the people.
The people who make decisions on the key issues of this nation, must be responsible in order to preserve the nation.
PRESERVING THE FAMILY, THE VILLAGE AND HELPING THOSE NEEDS
In the Republic of Srpska, there were no problems with the Church property, but we did not manage to return the largest properties in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because the law on restitution and return of property was not passed. And that has been standing in a vacuum for years. In city Tuzla, we have 36 of our buildings and lots that we cannot register or use because of that.
Priests also talk about the problem of villages being emptied, because people leave them for cities or move abroad, even though villages are a source of natural beauty, health, households, healthy food and a healthy life in general must be protected.
Nowadays less people are born than those who die, in principle, few children are born. The family with more children should be helped by both the state and the Church. We help our priests who have more children financially and in other ways, so that they can be an example to others. In our Diocese, we have several priests who have six and seven children, four have a large number of them, there are also many priests with three children each.
Society in Republika Srpska is a traditional community that needs to be preserved, especially the family and young people, and one of the ways to do that is religious education in primary and secondary schools.
If we have better people and more stable families, without divorce and excesses, quarrels and tragedies that exist in families nowadays, without drug addiction among youngsters, without great vices, it means that religious education had a positive impact, but it is a process and it takes time.
The church acts in this direction in the media, lecturing . The diocese print, prints three magazines for children and Orthodox youth.
When someone greets me on the street, I see the influence of religious education, or if children greet an elderly person on the street, or stand up to an elderly person on a city bus, it means that they have learned something positive. We would be happy if all children who study religious studies came to church on Sundays and lived practically as Christians the way they learned.
Spiritual labor of SOC in the region
On the former Yugoslavian territory, the most drastic situation for the SOC was in Montenegro, when the Church could not register its property and become its owner, because the regime prevented it, despite the normal practice in Europe.
It's not like that now, thank God. There were problems in North Macedonia as well, but they became the canonical Orthodox Church again. This is very important, so that particular part of the Church would not go into heresy, into the Union, so that it would not lose its Orthodoxy. Some people do not understand it, they see it more rather from the national or cultural aspect, than from the spiritual one, but for us the spiritual and church view is the most important.
The spiritual labor is present, everywhere in the countries of the region they are struggling with similar economic problems, with migration and with the consequences of war.
After the bombardment of the Serbian people with depleted uranium, our people are increasingly suffering from malignant diseases and leukemia, these are all trials that the Church is facing. However, we do not allow it to oppress the joy of the resurrection, which is stronger and more significant, which includes everything. We do not deny or forget all this reality in which we live, which we should talk about and show people how to find answers to their life problems.
The church and a well-organized society should enable everybody to help everyone and everyone should provide help and support to everybody.
Even now, we all need to help each other to survive, to protect ourselves, to support the needy. The Diocese has a charity organization ``Trojeručica'' that helps Serbs in Kosovo and Metochia and their kitchens for needy, it is our expression of care and love for them, because we are in a better economic situation than they are.
Our Church have sent aid to Ukraine, also significant funds to Turkey is sent after the earthquake, to Syria and many other places as well.
God always gives us the opportunity to do a good deed and it is actually a work of resurrection, when we help someone, when he is rejoiced, his faith in life and in Christ is restored. Christ is our life.
SERMON IN VERSES
Bishop Photios says that lately he has been writing poetry, because he can express himself more easily through verses, it is more accessible to people when he says it with few words.
- Now young people only read the title and subtitle, a poem with one or two stanzas will be read somehow, a novel with 200 pages will be read only by few. But the deepest theology is written in songs.
The songs are on ecclesiastical themes, аnd lives of the Saints, but also on secular themes that affect the everyday life.
One poem is about a peasant and how he live his patched up life, in all state systems. He doesn't rob or steal, but lives off his work, survives but doesn't abound, he is patched up but honest, for him that's more important than a suit. I also have a song about birds, about a parrot named Chiro who has been with me for about fifteen years. Parrot have learned to say ``I'm a Serb''. I bought him in Zagreb, Croatian capitol, he was with me in during my episcopal duty in Dalmatia.
In the Western culture, Christmas is now more dominant because of the lovely customs that accompany it, but the Resurrection is still the most important, in the dogmatic sense and in the sense of Salvation.
Because we believe in Christ who was crucified on the cross, but rose again, defeated death. Death is no longer the same as before Christ's resurrection, for us death is a passage to eternal life. That is why faith in the resurrection permeates all our other holidays.
The great Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov, greeted people who came to him every day of the year - Christ is risen, my joy! He truly lived in resurrection joy, in spirituality and in the feeling of the presence of the resurrected Christ every day.
Resurrection is everything, the essence of our faith. It is good that we Serbs gather in our Church on Feast of Resurrection and on major feasts, to be on prayer with our bishops and clergy. May they be representatives of all professions and may everyone thank God for the Resurrection of Christ, for the gift of new and eternal life in Christ, and on the other hand, may God give us strength for further work, that we may be graciously filled with the energy and power of the Resurrection.
Says Bishop Photios in an interview for Srna.