On December 31, 2019, His Grace Ioan Casian, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada, was present at St. George's Diocesan Cathedral in Saint-Hubert at the service of the Great Vespers and on the night of the passing of years (2019-2020), at the service of our Lord Jesus Christ's Akathist.
In the address to those present, the hierarch of Canada said:
"The feast of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ emphasizes, first of all, the special humility of the Son of God making Himself subject to the tradition of the Old Testament circumcision as a visible sign of man's connection with God remaining from Abraham, but of which he did not need because He Himself was of a divine nature and without sin. It is at the same time the proof of the great respect He gives to the word or words given to men by Himself during the time and the consistency and congruency with them. It is important to understand from here the role and the link between the visible signs in the religious life and the confession of faith in a secularized world, built by God in itself with two dimensions - spiritual and material.”
On the morning of January 1st, 2020, the hierarch performed the Holy and Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great followed by the service of Tedeum with Father Daniel Sandu. The responses at strana were given by Protopsaltis Valentin Botu, Stefanos Athenagoras and two of the young participants recently in the winter camp Alexandru Cocoradă and Ciprian Neagu.
HG Bishop Ioan Casian in the sermon emphasized the three events celebrated on January 1st: The circumcision according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Basil the Great, Archbishop Caesarea of Cappadocia and the beginning of a new year.
"There are two events related to the liturgical aspect that we celebrate today - said the bishop addressing the faithful: the Circumcision according to the flesh of Jesus Christ and the feast of St. Basil the Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. St. Paul draws our attention in his Epistle to Colossians: ’See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Col. 2: 8-9).' At the beginning of the year the Apostle of the Gentiles urges us to renew our vigilance in regard of our understanding of all things and of our lives. There is an unhealthy human tradition based on an immanent thinking that ignores the immaterial depth and spiritual perspective of human life, the world and things. This deficient and incomplete thinking, which invokes positivist objectivity, closes the man in the immanent labyrinth of his own thoughts which, however noble and great they may be, cannot illuminate him and lead him to the authentic and full ontological meaning of his being, nor offer him the possibility of a holistic understanding of the world and of his own person as they actually have it if viewed from the soteriological perspective in Christ. The consequences of such thinking are not too far from us. The twentieth century is exemplified by the prototypical sadness arising from the finding of the inconsistent distance between the seemingly beneficial human plane and its real - dramatic results. God has the full understanding of all as the Founder of this world, and Christ as His Son, through Whom all have been made, for in Him ‘all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.’ In Him man finds the full answer to his questions according to his faith. In God, man surpasses the danger of a certain iconoclastic understanding, to which he is inclined, gradually discovering the organic - wholistic and harmonious wisdom of the path springing from God's holiness."
“In the Gospel of Luke read today - continued the hierarch - we have another example of this special and deeper, holistic understanding of all things. The Child Jesus at the age of twelve remains to spend several days in the House of His heavenly Father, to listen and respond in a way that the most learned of the Temple marveled at. We are not given the details of these talks, but we are told about the astonishment of those who were listening to the young Jesus. Surely those around Him could see His teaching which was not based solely on human tradition but had its foundation and meaning in the work of God's grace."
"We honor today the great Cappadocian Hierarch St. Basil the Great, about whom one of the stichira of the Vespers said that he tried on himself the good deeds of all the saints - the gentleness of Moses, Elijah's zeal, Peter's confession and John's theology. The church puts us in the first day of the civil year before the personality of St. Basil as a concrete example for our practical life. In this way we are shown the need to assume responsibly the examples and virtues of the Old Testament right men and the saints of the New Testament in order to accomplish the body of Christ - the Church that we are.”
"A third event is in addition to the two above - the celebration of the beginning of a new year 2020. We are called to place this year 2020 under the sign of God, of Jesus Christ, to circumcising it with spiritual cutting, that is to say, its consecration by faith and deeds to the Creator so that we may have the good fruits promised by Him.
This year has two central themes: the Homage Year dedicated to the pastoral care of parents and children and the Commemorative Year of Romanian philanthropists. The first theme will focus on the importance of Christian education in society and the second will try to show the connection between spiritual life and social activity."
At the end, thanks and good wishes were made to all those involved in the spiritual and social activities of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada - priests and deacons serving in parishes and monasteries, lay leaders in various organizations, benefactors, etc. from all over the Diocese.
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