Metropolitan Augustinos of Germany has issued a message for the Feast of Pascha, offering words of hope and comfort to the faithful in the region.
In his Easter message, the Metropolitan reflects on humanity’s joy and unconquerable spirit in the face of Christ’s victory over death, emphasizing that the Resurrection of the Lord calls us to live a life filled with hope, without fear, and with God’s unwavering presence at our side.
The Metropolitan also highlights the importance of faith in the Resurrection as a source of strength and light, guiding our daily lives and granting us true joy and peace.
Read below the Easter Message of Metropolitan Augustinos of Germany:
“Rejoice! … Do not be afraid!”
(Matthew 28:9-10)
Dear Orthodox Christians of Germany,
In the early hours of the third day after the death of Jesus on the Cross, some of His female disciples went to see His tomb and anoint His body with spices, as was the Jewish tradition. There, they were the first to witness His Resurrection and were called to be the first to deliver the astounding news to the Lord’s disciples.
As they emerged from the tomb, as the Evangelists testify, they were overcome by two emotions: fear and great joy. Fear from their encounter with the angel of the Lord, whose appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow, and from the empty tomb. But also great joy, because the Teacher, as He had assured them before His Passion, had risen from the dead.
And while they were on their way to tell the disciples, Jesus met them and said to them three words: “Rejoice!” and “Do not be afraid!” and then urged them, after proclaiming the news to the disciples, to go to Galilee to see Him.
We, too, are called to meet the risen Christ, but also to become witnesses of His Resurrection with our lives. As Orthodox Christians, having venerated the Lord’s Passion, we now glorify His Resurrection. This is Christ’s gift to all of us, “a gift that radically changes our disposition toward every situation in this world, even toward death. … Our faith is that through His death, Christ changed the very nature of death. He made it a passage into the Kingdom of God, transforming the greatest tragedy into an eternal triumph, into victory.”
Here, in the Resurrection of Christ, are rooted the joy and the absence of fear in our lives. Our innate and deep joy is rooted in the expectation of our own Resurrection, in the faith that “nothing can separate us from the love of God for us.” For this reason, our joy is “inexpressible.”
And the absence of fear in our lives is based on the presence of Christ beside us, exactly as He promised us: “And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” In all the storms of our lives, no matter how fierce they may be, the same voice that spoke to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee speaks to us: “Be of good cheer, it is I; do not be afraid!” And even when “from all sides, we are surrounded by difficulties, external wars, inner anxieties and fears,” we do not falter. We love Christ, who through His death trampled death, and we know from experience that “perfect love casts out fear.”
Dear Orthodox Christians of Germany,
May our lives be filled with the light of the Resurrection, and may we walk through it with joy and without fear, just as it befits those who love God, He who “first loved us.” “The whole creation is filled with joy”: Christ is risen!
Bonn, Holy Pascha 2025
Your Metropolitan
Augustine of Germany
[1] Matthew 28:3.
[2] Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent – Journey to Pascha, translated from the English original by Eleni Ganouri, Akritas Publications, 1991, p. 14.
[3] Cf. Romans 8:39.
[4] 1 Peter 1:8.
[5] Matthew 28:20.
[6] Matthew 14:27.
[7] 2 Corinthians 7:5.
[8] 1 John 4:18.
[9] 1 John 4:19.
