On the second day of his visit to Kosovo and Metohija, on Holy Saturday, April 19, 2025, Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Visoki Dečani Monastery.
“Today is Holy Saturday. And behold, what all people have been awaiting from the time of Adam to our own day—something we could not achieve through our intellect, beauty, strength, power, ability, skill, philosophy, science, art, or politics—God has done for us, out of love for us, for He is, by His very nature, love.
He is love in Himself, and He has done this for every human being. What we have always dreamed of, longed for, what is the meaning of our lives but impossible to attain on our own—God has accomplished for us. He has conquered death!” proclaimed Patriarch Porfirije, and he emphasized:
“It is no wonder that today we prayed during the Liturgy, asking God to reconcile nations, to deliver us from fratricidal wars, to free us from the state of enmity in which we find ourselves—toward everyone and everything. Whenever we forget that death is our true enemy, everyone else becomes an enemy.
Even God becomes our enemy in our darkened minds and shadowed hearts. All the true fears, problems, and frustrations we experience within and around us stem from the fear of this very enemy—death. And that is the only certainty! It is the only indisputable fact in the life of every person born. We have no other enemy. All other enemies are of our own making—we create them in our hearts and minds. In reality, they were neither created nor placed beside us to be our enemies.”
“A great writer once said that the boundary separating good from evil runs through the heart of every person. That is where the line lies. Evil doesn’t come from the outside; it comes from within. If we become better—if I become better, if you become better—then everything becomes better. Life becomes better for both me and you. But this is only possible if we understand who our true enemy is.
If we understand that death is the enemy, and that we cannot defeat it on our own—and that we were not created for death. And behold, the Lord has come and destroyed it. Death was deceived. It took the Lord just like it takes each of us, into its jaws, but He became the bait. By swallowing Him, He became the antidote that destroyed death from within.
Today He is in Hades, and all those who were there—all who died before this day—rejoice, for life has come, victory has come over death and over him who held power over death—Satan. This is the victory that has broken his chains. And even today, in this Liturgy, we experience what is called the First Resurrection, a foretaste of Christ’s triumph over death,” the Patriarch reminded, and concluded:
“That is why we are already rejoicing today—and tonight and tomorrow, we will rejoice even more, as we exclaim in glory of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. We will rejoice with a joy that no one can steal, cancel, or diminish—no matter what they think or say about us, no matter what they do to us.
All of that is fleeting, because the Lord triumphs, life triumphs, and we triumph with Him. That is why we will sing a hymn in which we will say to one another: Brothers! We will sing a hymn in which we call ourselves to embrace everyone—even those we see as enemies. Or rather, if we truly belong to Christ, we have no enemies.
We will embrace even those who see themselves as our enemies and behave hostilely toward us, because we will know in Christ that He gave His life for every person—even for them. And so, rejoicing in Him, we will rejoice in everyone; embracing Him, being embraced by Him, we will embrace everyone.”
The Divine Liturgy was concelebrated by Metropolitan Teodosije of Raška and Prizren, Archimandrite Sava with the brotherhood of the monastery, and members of the Patriarch’s delegation: Archimandrite Danilo, Director of the Patriarchal Administrative Office; Protodeacon Dr. Dragan Radić, Deacon Vasilije Perić, and Subdeacon Vladimir Jelić.
Source: spc.sr
