We call on the current authorities in Montenegro to correct the mistakes of their predecessors and make a decision to restore the chapel on Lovćen and fulfill Njegoš's legacy, so that his holy relics rest in the church he built and dedicated to Saint Peter of Cetinje, said Metropolitan Joanikije of Montenegro and the Littoral in his Easter message.
He also said that Montenegro progressed the fastest in every respect and achieved the greatest international reputation while it had religious education in its schools.
Joanikije also said that "if Montenegro is not ready to respect the legitimate rights of all, including those of its citizens who want their children to have religious education in state schools, as is the case in most European Union countries, it is thereby undermining its secularism and showing that in this regard it is unable to renounce the dark achievements of the totalitarian communist system."
We are publishing the Easter message of Joanikije, delivered by the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral (MCP), in its entirety:
"Risen on the third day from the grave,
Christ the Life-Giver!
Christ is Risen, let the heavens rejoice and let the earth rejoice! All the visible and invisible worlds celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, the Feast of Feasts and the celebration of all other celebrations. Let us cleanse all our senses, let our spiritual eyes be enlightened by the eternal light of God, so that we may see the glory of the Resurrection of Christ and hear the angelic joy. From the tomb, Christ, the sun of righteousness, has shone upon us and illuminated everything with the divine radiance of his Resurrection.
The weeping of Good Friday turned into triumph, celebration and victory. We watched with pain in our souls the suffering of Christ. We suffered mockery and humiliation with Him, we shared His Crucifixion, we experienced His life-giving death and burial, and now our souls are filled with the abundance of comfort and joy that we received from His three-day Resurrection. With Christ we passed through fire and water, with Him we passed from death to life. The ancient crossing of the Jews under Moses' leadership through the waters of the Red Sea was called Passover, but that event, although miraculous and saving, is only a picture and prototype of our walk with Christ from His suffering, cross and death, to His and our Resurrection. That is why this Feast is called the New Passover that surpasses the old one, as much as the sun surpasses the light of the stars with its light. In the old Passover, Moses proved himself as a faithful servant of God and mediator of the temporary deliverance of the faithful people from death, and in the New Passover, the Son of God Jesus Christ personally leads and officiates our salvation, revealing to us the glory of his divinity through His victory over death. The salvation and deliverance he gave us is not temporary like Moses', but eternal. In Him is the fulfillment of the meaning of the Old Testament Passover, and through the New Passover, He gave us Himself as eternal life, joy and fullness of meaning. That is why the Church of God celebrates the Resurrection of Christ as the New Passover, and congregationally, with one mouth and one voice, sings "The holy Passover shines on us today, the Passover is new and holy, the Passover is mysterious, the Passover is sacred, the Passover is Christ the savior, the Passover is blameless, the Passover is great, the Passover of the faithful, the Passover which opens the doors of heaven for us, the Passover is the sanctification of all the faithful".
Appearing to the myrrh-bearing women who, together with the Most Holy Theotokos, had drunk the cup of sorrow and bitterness on Golgotha, the Risen Savior consoled them with the words Rejoice! Do not be afraid! Their hearts, until then filled with deep sorrow, were suddenly filled with inexpressible and inalienable joy. These good news, which the Conqueror of death announced to the myrrh-bearing women, are addressed not only to them, nor only to the apostles, but also to every believing soul, to the whole world. Not only to ancient generations, but also to us and future generations. For all those who are marked by the Cross of Christ, there is no longer any sorrow or grief, no suffering that the Lord the Risen One cannot remove. There is no repented sin that He will not wash away, nor a spiritual wound that He will not heal. His boundless love for humanity, sealed by His baptismal sacrifice for the salvation of the world, shone forth with the Resurrection. From His open tomb it poured out like a mighty river upon the entire world, upon the righteous and upon sinners, upon all the children of God.
We see how the Lord gathered his disciples after his Resurrection, although on Good Friday all, except Saint John the Theologian, fled when they saw his suffering, and Peter, due to human weakness, denied him. We see the boundless condescension of his love to the human weaknesses of the apostles and to Peter's sincere repentance. As touching as his meeting with the apostles was, it is even more glorious and significant, because on that occasion the apostles became true eyewitnesses and witnesses of his Resurrection. He made them, until then subject to weakness and cowardice, fearless and invincible. Having made them worthy to be witnesses of his Resurrection, he filled their hearts with the peace of God and the fiery gifts of the Holy Spirit, thus giving them heavenly authority to preach his good news and victory over death to the whole world.
We Orthodox Christians, who recognize ourselves by the holy and pure apostolic faith, gather in these bright Paschal days around the Risen Christ in the temples of God, at holy services, to unite with the Lord through His holy mysteries and with one another in the same faith, hope and love. Knowing that the boundless condescension of the Savior's mercy towards our numerous weaknesses and shortcomings, for which we sincerely repent, strengthened by spiritual strength, we overcome our mutual misunderstandings and senseless enmities, reject hatred, renew our communion and brotherly love.
In the light of the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, we accept every person, faithful and unfaithful, people of other faiths, different and opposing opinions and beliefs, as our neighbors, respecting them as unique and free individuals. Bearing in mind that all people of good will, in their conscience, seek good and strive to achieve it, we are ready to work together with them to multiply good in our lives and in this world entrusted to us by God.
With the celebration of this Feast, we will begin the celebration of great and significant anniversaries in the Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral, first of all the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, to lovingly remember the virtues and merits of its 318 holy fathers and to be spiritually enriched by their divinely inspired teachings. We will also celebrate Njegoš's anniversaries - 180 years of "Luce Mikrokozma" and his tomb church - Lovćenska Kapela, with the solemn celebration of the centenary of its renovation in 1925. We remind and admonish all of Njegoš's spiritual descendants, in Montenegro and all over the world, that we are obliged to fulfill Njegoš's last will and testament that he left us! We know how the communist authorities sinned against Njegoš when they demolished his church, thus destroying his legacy and desecrating his grave, and therefore we call on the current authorities in Montenegro to correct the mistakes of their predecessors and make a decision to restore the Chapel on Lovćen and fulfill Njegoš's legacy, so that his holy relics may rest in the church that he built and dedicated to Saint Peter of Cetinje. We also remind everyone of the dying cry for Montenegro of the blessedly departed Metropolitan Amfilohije to restore the Chapel on Lovćen to its original appearance from 1845, to place Njegoš's holy relics in it, with the current mausoleum being preserved as a monument. We hope that modern Montenegro will fulfill this cry of our great predecessor and fully fulfill Njegoš' legacy, thus invoking his blessing upon itself and all who live in it.
Seeing the horrific and apocalyptic scenes of war in Ukraine and Palestine every day, let us multiply and unite our prayers for the establishment of peace between the conflicting countries. We experience the dialogue that has begun between the most influential countries on the cessation of hostilities and the restoration of peace among the conflicting peoples as a grace of God that gives us hope for the final return of peace. Let us pray fervently, dear brothers and sisters, to the Risen Lord to bless those who have begun the aforementioned dialogue, to bring them to reason with His wisdom, to establish a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and Palestine. In order to achieve such peace, it is necessary to immediately stop the violence against the clergy, the seizure of temples, the desecration of holy places, and the threat to religious rights and freedoms that the current authorities in Ukraine are carrying out against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, the same pattern is being followed by state terror against the Estonian Orthodox Church, where the authorities there are preparing a law to ban that Church, which has a centuries-old history of evangelical activity in that country. The persecution of the Church in the aforementioned countries with the aim of forcibly changing the religious identity of Orthodox peoples represents a shame for the entire enlightened world, especially for Europe as the cradle of civilization and legal order.
When we talk about the violation of religious and other human rights, we must pay attention to the long-standing threat to the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija by the Pristina authorities. In that promised land, Serbian Palestine as Njegoš called it, Orthodox Serbs still suffer violence and property seizures, unjustified arrests and daily intimidation. Despite all the resolutions and agreements valid on paper, in practice they have been left without any legal security. This is evidenced by the many unsolved murders, persecutions, beatings, robberies and other violence that Albanian terrorists have committed against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija with impunity over the past 26 years. However, despite all the injustices they suffer every day, they have remained faithful to their holy places and the homes of their fathers, enduring injustices and suffering for the sake of Christ. It is a great consolation to us that the faithful people from Montenegro are always ready to help and support our brothers and sisters in crucified Kosovo in every way and that they are wholeheartedly devoted to the great shrines on that holy Serbian land. By doing so, we follow our greatest teachers Saint Peter of Cetinje, HIM, King Nicholas and the blessed Metropolitan Amfilohi.
These days, a controversy has developed in the Montenegrin public about the return of religious education to primary and secondary schools, which is opposed by prominent human rights advocates and alleged defenders of a civil and secular Montenegro. Regarding this important issue, we remind all participants in this controversy that Montenegro progressed the fastest in every respect and achieved the highest international reputation while it had religious education in its schools. In addition, the right to education is a fundamental human right and cannot be respected unless it also includes the right to religious education. If Montenegro is not ready to respect the legitimate rights of all, including those of its citizens who want their children to have religious education in state schools, as is the case in most European Union countries, it is thereby undermining its secularity and showing that in this regard it is unable to renounce the dark achievements of the totalitarian communist system.
Celebrating the Feast of the Resurrection, the Feast of Christ's victory over death, the devil and all evil, the Feast of the light and glory of God, the Feast of forgiveness, peace and brotherly love, let us open our souls and hearts to all people, our neighbors and those far away, especially to children, orphans and the poor, to the sick and the grieving, to all those who suffer and endure injustice in this world. Let us embrace one another, share with everyone both good and evil, so that, united with everyone in love, we may unite even more closely with Christ - the Source of eternal life and love, eternal light and joy, to whom all glory, honor and worship befits, together with His Beginningless Father and with His Most Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit.
Congratulating our spiritual children and all people of good will on the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, we invoke the paternal and archpastoral blessing upon the entire clergy, venerable monasticism and all the pious faithful people of the Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral with the festive greeting "Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!", said Joanikije.
Bonus video:
