Reunion and communion

in the Divine Liturgy and fraternal agape at the parish in Winnipeg

Sunday October 23, 2022 His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian was present at the feast day of St. Demetrius in Winnipeg (MB) after three years of absence due to the restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

His Grace celebrated the Divine Liturgy together with Father Victor Malanca. At the end of the service, during the sermon, the hierarch emphasized the importance of communion and prayer in the Church:

"Here we meet again after a complicated period for us as churches. The life of churches is based on communion. The essence of church life is communion and praying together. The Church means participation in the mystery of God, first within the Divine Liturgy, but also through the other Holy Mysteries of the Church and through the whole life of prayer, of social, charitable and relational activity that we practice. Certainly, the Church was one of those that suffered the most. Especially since we know that in the last two and a half years or so there have been great difficulties in entering the places of worship as we have been used to for so long. This in a way forced us to find different means or solutions to maintain this communion through virtual means that do not even remotely replace the presence in person in the Church but used to maintain that connection and life of faith.

We come to the Church to pray together because each one of us has special, different gifts given by God. Through prayer we put them together and we become one body, one being before God. Everyone can share in the other's gifts and thereby enrich themselves in God through communion with their neighbor."

Referring to the Gospel reading, the hierarch continued:

"Today's Gospel tells us about an experience that the Savior's contemporaries had through the miracle performed by Jesus Christ. It is about the healing of the demon-possessed man from the land of the Gadara. Descending from the ship with which he had crossed the Sea of ​​Galilee, he meets a demoniac known in that land who no longer lived in the city or in the house but in the tombs, not being dressed and not being in the right mind.

What we see here is that the evil one, the devil, breaks communion with the community of the one he possesses. It is the devil who separates, breaks, tries to undo what is divine - communion. Our Christian God is communion – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The signs of this rupture are the dissimilarity in the visible signs of the normal believer – the clothing, the naturalness of the place where he lives, i.e. the city or the house. Likewise, the devil attacks what God has given to man more precious than other living things – the reason. That demonized man was no longer sane, he was no longer rational already from the way we see him behaving."

Referring to the dialogue of the Savior Christ with the demons, the hierarch said:

"We see from this dialogue: What do you have with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please don't torture me? that the demons knew very well who Jesus was - that is, the Son of God. Jesus was contested by the elders of the temple in Jerusalem at that time, but not by the evil spirits. From this we conclude that those who work and inspire unbelief in people are demons. They try to affect our faith and make us unbelievers but they themselves see and know God who exists.

We see here at the same time how Christ frees His creature, man, from suffering. In the presence of God there can be no habitation of the work of the evil. God is goodness, love, perfection. In God there is no place for malice. The demons that possessed that man were shaken because they understood that their time in this person was coming to an end because the Savior was asking them to come out of him."

The hierarch further spoke of the destructive malice of the devil and of man's concern for material things rather than spiritual work:

"At the request of the demons not to be sent to the depths, the Savior sends them to the herd of pigs grazing nearby. To see how harmful the work of the devil is, the Gospel tells us that after the demons entered the pigs, they ran and threw themselves into the sea, drowning. This is what the evil one does - he destroys. He is the author of evil, the destroyer of good things, of God's creation given for man's care and benefit. The devils attacked the people's possessions which they expected as a reward for their work. The evil one deprives these people of the fruits of their labor—that is, food.

The herdsmen seeing this were frightened because of the unheard occurrence and the damage done but probably also because of the responsibility they felt for the missing herds of pigs and whose caretakers they were. That is why they go to the city and report what has happened. And the people of the city came in haste and saw what had happened and were afraid. The result was that the people of the city invited the Savior to leave their land for fear of what had happened, and perhaps because they feared that more similar things more harmful would happen to them.

It is interesting that the Gospel makes no mention of the people’s joy for the deliverance of the demon-possessed. People were focused on preserving their possessions rather than on the joy of restoring beauty and health to the suffering man in body and soul. Christ cleanses man from the impurity of the presence of the evil one. Man seems to care more for his own material goods than for the spiritual good of his neighbor. It is only when a person personally gets into spiritual or physical suffering and is freed that he understands how important freedom and spiritual health are."

Bishop Ioan Casian speaking about the healed demoniac pointed out the signs by which we can know the spiritual man, consequences of the work of evil in the world and its perpetuation by the free choice of man or of the evil spirits:

"Approaching Christ, the people of the city see the one who had been demon-possessed at the Savior's feet, clothed and in right mind. These three things mentioned by Holy Scripture are the signs of the faithful man, of the man who has God present in his life. The spiritual man is a quiet, peaceful, and natural man. A faithful man who comes and prays in the Church has the soul in peace. The man who speaks to such a person feels that he receives peace seeing him or from the words heard from that man. Spiritual healing brings everything back into harmony within man. If we ask God through prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit, it will be granted to us according to faith and it will transform our heart into a place or temple of peace and our mind will be clear, pure and haminous in its way of understanding which it is her divine way of being.

The church is important to Christians because they are its members. They live through the Church already in anticipation the mystery of the future life, of eternal life, especially within the Divine Liturgy. They live this mystery still incompletely understanding it here and now but which we will understand more truly when this mystery will be fully revealed at the end of this world. Here we understand this mystery more as we penetrate deeper into God's life of holiness. This is the way we know God. We know Him by trying to resemble Him, to enter His holiness, to acquire the grace that restores the naturalness of our existence.

But the Church is important not only for Christians but also for all humanity, for the good it brings, and which is intended for all creation and all people. The Church is the leaven of the salvation of all humanity.

The one who had been demonized after healing become sane. The devil destroys the inner harmony of understanding and mind with consequences for the concrete life we ​​see in the demonized. His behavior and life are incoherent and full of suffering, and he is progressively deteriorating. His way of being influences what happens around him. We understand from this that the evil in the world, that of the past as well as that of today, is not different; it is the effect of the evil that permeates the personal life of man and that is reflected in his deeds. In the same way, the violence, the wars, the injustice that were done in the past and are happening in our times, we understand that they have spiritual causes that are the passions of man, the decisions determined by selfish personal interests, by goals that are only material and human and that do not take into account man's deep spiritual and divine vocation and destiny.

The evil in our world is also the result of the work of evil spirits. They want to destroy what God created harmoniously. But surely, they will only be able to do this marginally because God takes care of the world and man through His providence. He preserves this world in its essential beauty and harmony.

Why do we still have this work of the evil one? Because we have in the world the freedom that God offers to the creature, that is, to us men and angels or evil spirits. The moment we accept God's word, His commandments, then by this very fact we oppose evil and its work. If we do not give way in our life, in the life of the society, of the family or in the circle of friends, to inappropriate things through envy, through arguments, through ruptures then we remain in the order created by God which is the simple, deep and clear sign of His presence in the world we live in."

At the end of his sermon, the hierarch emphasized the example of the saints and of St. Demetrius for believers and the importance of love as a solution to our human difficulties:

"We are happy to gather today on the occasion of the feast of St. Demetrius who is one of the great saints and the best known in the Orthodox Church, celebrated by believers of every ethnicity. We ask the saints for advice, we look to the example of their lives to become better persons, to resemble God, Christ, in our work in society.

We don't have to go very far to see the presence of evil in our world - violence, injustice, wars - which are signs of sin and alienation from God. We live in a very informed society, but this is not enough to keep harmony, peace, good relations among us, in order that society be more just. The key to make things right is given to us by Christ, who speaks to us about the essential commandment of life that summarizes the Law and the prophets - love of God and neighbor. Without love, no matter how informed we are, things cannot go right in society. For this it takes love that involves faith and effort."

At the end the community organized a fraternal agape during which Mr. Terry Holunga, the treasurer and one of the founders of the parish, gave an account of the activity and works carried out in the last year. At the end of the agape, Father Victor Malanca thanked the hierarch and all those present at the celebration.