Metropolitan Tikhon

Metropolitan Tikhon This is Metropolitan Tikhon's Page. Metropolitan Tikhon is the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America and a member of its Holy Synod of Bishops.

Christ is risen!Today Christ opens the eyes of a man born blind, and the blessedness, the happiness, of such a miraculou...
05/17/2026

Christ is risen!

Today Christ opens the eyes of a man born blind, and the blessedness, the happiness, of such a miraculous event seems self-evident. Yet the Pharisees react with hostility, and the formerly-blind man’s parents react with fear. What are we to make of this?

Christ says that he is the Truth, and that the truth will set us free (Jn. 14:6, 8:23). When he opens the blind man’s eyes to see the bright world that he made, the latter is no longer subject to the lies he was told, to the misconceptions that he nurtured, when once he was blind. When Christ opens his eyes, he is no longer subject to the false narratives woven by others; he sees clearly past the distortions of those Pharisees who desire to rule and control.

This is why, throughout the ages, the tyrannical authorities of oppressive regimes have hated the Christian faith. From the centuries of the Roman Empire to the decades of the Soviet Union, the petty Pharisees of the ruling ideology have feared the power of Christ and the Christian faith to open the eyes of the blind.

This is not because Christ’s kingdom is in competition with the kingdoms of this world: Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (Jn. 18:26). But when our eyes are opened, and we behold the light of the Resurrection, and we see ourselves as sons of the light and of the day, then we know that we are living for the age to come. Knowing the promise of the Resurrection, we are able to obtain to an inner freedom that no power in this world can overcome. “The kingdom of God is within you” precisely because it is unlike an earthly kingdom; one cannot say of it “Here it is” or “There it is” (Lk. 17:21).

Christ desires to open our eyes to this reality, too; he wishes that we would no longer see ourselves merely as part of this passing world. Blinded no longer by the power of sin and passions, we are called to understand our place in his eternal kingdom, and to live unbound and unburdened by the heavy-pressing chains of the lies told to us by the world, the demons, and by our own misguided and passionate thoughts.

The formerly-blind man’s confession of faith resounds with a deep power and unsurpassed peace: “Lord, I believe.” In the face of all life’s troubles and cares, let us also find strength and consolation in these words, knowing clearly who we are in Christ and to how great a salvation he has called us.

Christ is risen!“He told me all that I ever did,” declares the Samaritan woman to her fellow residents of Sychar. All th...
05/10/2026

Christ is risen!

“He told me all that I ever did,” declares the Samaritan woman to her fellow residents of Sychar. All that she ever did – shouldn’t this be a source of shame and regret? After all, she has had five husbands, and the one she has now is not her husband. However, when the Lord tells her what she has done, this does not cause her to shrink back, reproached; it causes her to go to her neighbors with joy, even excitement.

This Gospel passage is an ever-timely reminder that God loves us regardless of our many sins, our ugly past, our current struggles. We may find the memory of the Samaritan woman’s liberating happiness especially encouraging whenever we prepare ourselves for the sacrament of confession. When we approach this sacrament, we are not informing God of things he does not know; rather, we are declaring what he already knows, in the presence of his priest as witness, so that we can experience the same joy and freedom that the Samaritan woman once experienced. He knows all that I ever did – and yet he has come to me in the heat of the day and granted me to recognize him as Christ, my Savior, my Lord and my God, and thus to know his unbounded divine love for me, his creature.

Christ is risen!As we celebrate the Midfeast of Pentecost, we are reminded that the Paschal season is a movement. It is ...
05/06/2026

Christ is risen!

As we celebrate the Midfeast of Pentecost, we are reminded that the Paschal season is a movement. It is not simply a festive forty days after the Lenten fast, nor simply a lengthy celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. It is a movement from the empty tomb to the tongues of flame in the upper room, and this pause at the midpoint reminds us of that fact. Christ’s Resurrection was not the end, but a new beginning, pointing us toward life in the Spirit, the lives of the saints, the life in and of the Church.

Christ is risen!In ancient days Jacob rolled away a stone to water the flocks, and during these days of Pascha, we conte...
05/03/2026

Christ is risen!

In ancient days Jacob rolled away a stone to water the flocks, and during these days of Pascha, we contemplate how, the stone rolled away, living water flows from the tomb of Christ to water the flock of the faithful. Today, near the Sheep Gate, the paralytic waits for someone to lift him into the pool when the water is stirred, but instead the living Water stirs himself up and comes to the paralytic; Christ himself takes the initiative to rescue and heal this paralyzed man, this lame and lonely lamb.

But we notice that Christ’s healing consists precisely in loosing the man’s paralysis, so that now the former paralytic can walk on his own. Christ does not leave this man helpless, but grants him the ability he once lacked. Likewise, when we are baptized into Christ – and each time we turn again (or rather, he turns us again) to repentance and renewal of our baptism through confession of sins – we are not left helpless, either. Instead, we are imbued anew with the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can walk, as it were, on our own two legs, doing the works God desires us to do. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36).

Christ is risen!On this Third Sunday of Pascha, we continue to contemplate the world-changing reality of the empty Tomb....
04/26/2026

Christ is risen!

On this Third Sunday of Pascha, we continue to contemplate the world-changing reality of the empty Tomb. In particular, this Sunday calls us to contemplate our role in bringing news of this reality to our fellowman. Last Sunday, Thomas Sunday, took place in the intimate setting of the sealed upper room; we saw how a single disciple, a single heart, could be changed by direct encounter with the Risen Christ. This Sunday, however, we consider the Myrrh-bearers, and how an angel commanded them to proclaim the Resurrection to the apostles. After all that we have seen and heard, how are we called to share this light, joy, peace, and hope with others? An angel brought a message to the women, the women shared it with the apostles, the apostles shared it with others, and finally that message has reached us. How shall we continue to pass this message – this all-powerful, all-transformative word of Christ’s Resurrection? – on to those whom God has placed in our lives?

We need not get carried away. “Are all apostles?” asks St. Paul rhetorically, and the implied answer is “no.” The angel, the women, the apostles: each of these had a different role in announcing the Gospel. We don’t all have to be missionaries to distant lands or street-corner evangelists. But all of us may announce the power of the Resurrection by forgiving wrongs, living in the joy of Christ’s victory, striving to conduct ourselves in accordance with the Gospel, and repenting with hope when we fail. In this way at least we can bear a meek and quiet witness to others – and to ourselves – concerning the life-changing power of Christ’s Pascha.

Christ is risen!On the eighth day, our Lord appears to Thomas, passing through closed doors. When the Lord appeared on t...
04/19/2026

Christ is risen!

On the eighth day, our Lord appears to Thomas, passing through closed doors. When the Lord appeared on the first day of the week, in the evening immediately after his Rising, the other apostles had the doors shut “for fear of the Jews.” But in this case, no reason is given. Why, then, are the doors shut? The shut doors parallel Thomas’s closing of his mind and heart: “I will not believe.” Likewise, just as he passed through closed doors, the risen Lord shows that he can pe*****te Thomas’s doubt, causing him to exclaim: “My Lord and my God!”

Together with the holy apostle, let us also cry: “My Lord and my God!” The risen Lord, who can pass through closed doors and overcome the apostle’s doubt, also has the power to enter the gates of our own hearts, gates which are all-too-often closed by our own fear, our self-doubt, our willingness to settle for less, for passing passions instead of immortal friendship with God. And yet, the Lord, forgiving all things by the Cross and Resurrection, desires and is able to enter once again into our hearts and our lives, offering himself to us once more for our salvation, that we may attain unto his everlasting communion of Love, which he shares eternally with the Father and the Spirit.

Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!On this feast of feasts, I pray that each of us would experience the grace and truth...
04/12/2026

Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!

On this feast of feasts, I pray that each of us would experience the grace and truth that have come into the world through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s Resurrection is God’s victory over death, and hence over all the forces of corruption, entropy, bleakness, and emptiness. Now all is filled with light! Hopelessness, despair, resignation, nihilism: all of these are shattered forever. God is with us, and his love is stronger than death. Surely it is stronger, then, than any other passing sorrow or oppression that intrudes upon our lives. Finding our joy in the Resurrection, we found our happiness upon a radiant reality that nothing in this world can quench or dim.

Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!

Joyous feast!In the troparion for this two-day Feast of Palms, we sing: “By raising Lazarus from the dead before thy Pas...
04/05/2026

Joyous feast!

In the troparion for this two-day Feast of Palms, we sing: “By raising Lazarus from the dead before thy Passion, thou didst confirm the universal resurrection, O Christ. Like the children with the palms of victory, we therefore cry to thee, O Vanquisher of death.” Even as Christ goes to his Passion, we children of the Church already recognize, acknowledge, and celebrate the power of his Paschal victory. This is important to bear in mind during the coming week. Holy Week is not about historical commemoration, but about our own encounter with Christ’s saving work, work that was finished on the Cross and manifest in the Resurrection, but which continues to transform lives and hearts. May God grant us the grace to open our hearts to him throughout the coming days.

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