On the first Sunday of the Lent, called the Orthodoxy Sunday, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest, together with His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch, His Grace Ieronim Sinaitul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch, and His Grace Timotei Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests and deacons. Today, the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great was celebrated in all the Orthodox churches.
After reading the Evangelical pericope, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a sermon in which he emphasised the meaning of the Bible text.
The holy icons are part of the confession of the right faith
“Today, the Orthodox Church celebrates her own feast, namely the Orthodoxy Sunday. The first Sunday of the Lent is dedicated to the right faith or of the Orthodoxy. This feast dates as far back as the year 843 when the hierarchy decided in Constantinople that the first Sunday of the Lent should be dedicated to the confession of the right faith and remembrance of the fact that the Orthodox Church fought for the veneration of the holy icons against those who denigrated and destroyed them. They were called iconoclasts or destroyers of icons. The holy icons are not only adornment in the church, namely an aesthetic means of bedecking the church. The holy icons are part of the confession of the right faith, so that nobody can be Orthodox unless he/she venerates the holy icons. They are not enclosed to the Orthodox faith as an annex, but they express the Orthodox faith in a complete form, not only as a confession of the faith as means of remembering or as visual memory, but as a way of praying, as veneration of the holy image painted in the icon. The way in which the Church chose today the lectures from the Apostle and Gospel for us shows the deep significance of the right faith. The Apostle chosen from chapter 11 of the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews shows us, in fact, that faith is the gift to see the unseen One. Faith is the anticipation of the kingdom of heaven, a foretaste. This is why Saint Paul the Apostle says that it is a proof of the unseen things and a foretaste of the promised things, or the confirmation of the hoped things, namely an anticipated sight of God in the kingdom of God and a confirmation of the gifts unseen that God gives us for our salvation. The Gospel we are listening to today confirms what the lecture of the Apostle of this Sunday says. When Jesus Christ, the Saviour meets Philip and Nathanial, He shows them that He knows the souls of the humans whom He had never met before. The Gospel we are listening to today confirms what the lecture of the Apostle of this Sunday says. Thus, the Gospel shows us that there are several was of knowing, not only through senses, but also in spirit, knowing the human’s soul, as the Gospel says about Nathanial: “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” Knowing the place where he was staying under the fig tree not seen by Jesus Christ, our Lord, with His physical eyes, emphasises the fact that the Saviour has another sort of sight than ours, namely knowledge in spirit. And He gives this spiritual knowledge to those who believe in Him. When Nathanial tells Jesus is the Son of God, although Philip had told that He had found Jesus, the son of Joseph of Nazareth, the passage is done from the knowledge through senses to the spiritual knowledge or heavenly knowledge. The Saviour tells him, as a reward: “You will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”, His Beatitude said.
Confession of the divinity of Christ opens the entrance into the kingdom of heaven for us
“What do we learn from this Gospel? First of all, that it is only the confession of the divinity of Christ that can open the heaven for us, namely the entrance into the kingdom of heaven. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”, says Saint Paul the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans (10:9). Confession of the divinity of Christ is the right faith. When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Son of the Living God, the Saviour said: “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18), namely on the rock of the true confession saying that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven”, namely the power of repentance and of the forgiveness of sins. This is how the right faith opens the heaven, and in today’s Gospel He tells Nathanial, and not only him, but all those who confess Christ as the eternal Son of God, Who was made man: “You will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”. Both in the case of Nathanial and in that of Peter, the right faith opened the heavens. Nathanial saw a man limited in space, but confessed the unlimited God. He saw a human temporary body, but he confessed God before all ages, the eternal one, the Son of the Heavenly God. He saw a body in human flesh, but he confessed the unseen One. This is the Orthodoxy, or the right faith. We do not confess what we see with our physical eyes, but what is beyond the sight of the physical eyes. We confess what we see with the spiritual eyes of the faith established by the Church of the Saints Apostles. This is why faith means seeing beyond the sight of the eyes, beyond the physical sight. The Saviour said: “You will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”. The angels represent the heavenly servants of God who relate the heaven to earth, the Church of heaven to the Church on the earth; they take our prayers to heaven and bring the blessing of God to those who pray to Him. Christ is the King of the kingdom of heaven and the angels are His servants, but they, the angels, serve together with us, the humans, when we pray on the earth. They surround the King unseen by the physical eyes, but seen as true God with the eyes of faith. This is why, when we confess that Jesus Christ is not an ordinary man, but the Son of the eternal unseen God, Who was made seen man, out of love for humans and for their salvation, we start making for the eternal kingdom of heaven, eternal and unlimited, of the Most Holy Trinity, which is “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit“ (Romans 14:17)”, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church underlined.
History meets eternity in the icon, in the light of the kingdom of heaven
“Therefore, Orthodoxy is the confession of the love of God Who becomes Man in order to deify us. The Holy Fathers show us that the Son of God the Son, of the unseen eternal God, was made man in order to save us. He was incarnated into a human body in order to give us a heavenly body, He came down on the earth to raise us to heaven, He shared our life mixed with death, to give us His life with no death. And this is the truth that we see in the icon. In the icon we paint not only the body of Christ seen with the physical eyes, but also the glory suggested by the halo around, as well as the bright background painted with gold. We paint both the body seen with the physical eyes, and the glory or the uncreated light which cannot be seen with the physical eyes, but only with the eyes of faith. Thus, the icon is, in fact, the complete confession of Orthodoxy. It shows us Christ, the Mother of God, the angels, prophets, the saint apostles, martyrs and the pious ones as living eternally in the kingdom of the everlasting light of the kingdom of heaven”, the Patriarch of Romania explained.
The icon – permanent call or invitation to prayer
“The Orthodox icon is painted Gospel, visible word-symbol, which urges us to communion with God and with His saints, because we pray in front of the icons. We do not look at the icons of the church as at museum items. The icons are a call or invitation to prayer; they are a sign of the presence of the saints’ prayer for us and together with us, while the icon of the Saviour is the confirmation of His promise: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20). Sunday, when we enter the church, the Risen Christ meets us through the icon of His Resurrection, as He met the myrrh bearing women on the day of His resurrection and told them: “Rejoice ... Do not be afraid” (Matthew 28:9-10). He mysteriously tells every one of us: “Rejoice ... do not be afraid”, on the Sundays and on the feast days when we come to the church and kiss the icon of the Saviour. The icon is displayed in the church and in our houses to make us confess the right faith, the Orthodox faith, which leads us to salvation or to eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, the Orthodox faith which calls us to holiness and to the communion with all the saints of God. This Orthodoxy Sunday is during the Lent, in our ascension to the Resurrection, to show us that the right faith also means the right living, namely the denying the sin through fast and prayer, through confession, on one hand, and wishing holiness, on the other hand. This is why we repent more and communicate more often during this period, we deny our sins and unite with the One Holy Christ. Orthodoxy is not a simple theory or intellectual conviction that God exists somewhere, but Orthodoxy is our living relationship with Christ, in the Church of Christ. This is why Saint Peter the Apostle tells us: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1: 8-9). This thing shows why the Sunday of the right faith is the Sunday of joy too. The icons show us the joy of the prayer, of the presence of the Saviour, of the Holy Trinity, of the Mother of God, of the saints, of all the faithful who pray. The beauty of Orthodoxy is light and joy in the Holy Spirit, and the saints call us to holiness. When we see the crowd of the saints painted in icons we better understand what Orthodoxy is. It is neither individualism, which isolates the persons, nor collectivism, which levels the persons, because every saint has a distinct name and image, just as every person of the Holy Trinity has a distinct name and image. This communion of persons makes the Church be, as a French theologian, Olivier Clément, very nicely said: “Le Christianisme est la religion des visages”. Christianity is the religion of the personal images, of the faces of the persons, of the persons in communion, not only the religion of the holy books. This is why Saint Paul the Apostle says: “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Nobody can see God unless he wants to be deified. The first step to reaching holiness is the confession of the right faith and denial of the sins through repentance, confession and the communication with the Holy Sacraments. Thus, we deify our life and enjoy the salvation and communion of the saints in the kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity”, His Beatitude also showed.
To end with his speech, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church underlined the importance of the Religion class for the spiritual growth of the children.
During the Divine Liturgy, the Pastoral letter of the Holy Synod at the Orthodoxy Sunday, addressed to the clergy and faithful, was also read.
To end with the Divine Liturgy, the Patriarch of Romania was congratulated on the occasion of the anniversary of 25 years since his ordination as hierarch, an event that took place on the Orthodoxy Sunday. On this occasion, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel thanked all the hierarchs, collaborators and faithful who pray every day for his good health and salvation.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel was ordained bishop on the Orthodoxy Sunday, on 4 March 1990, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Timisoara by the worthy remembering His Eminence Nestor, Metropolitan of Oltenia, His Eminence Nicolae, Metropolitan of Banat, and by the present Archbishop of Arad, His Eminence Timotei.
After the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the Patriarchal Cathedral the book by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel entitled “Sacrificial love – Light of the Resurrection. Work of the Church in society in 2014” come out at Basilica publishing house was presented. The book was presented by Archimandrite Paisie Teodorescu, patriarchal vicar.
Today too, the collect for the Central Missionary Fund was organised in the churches of the Romanian Patriarchate. The faithful were urged, through the pastoral letter of the Holy Synod on the Orthodoxy Sunday read in all the places of worship, to help their fellow beings according to their possibilities.
Hundreds of faithful attended the religious service.
The veneration of the Holy Icons, of the Holy Cross and of the Holy Relics was re-established by the Ecumenical Council VII of Nicene, in 787. The Council of Constantinople of 843 decided that on the first Sunday of the Lent the victory of Orthodoxy over all heresies or deviations from the right faith should be celebrated.
