Pastoral visit on the feast of Jesus Christ entrance to Jerusalem
at St. Andrew Parish in Mississauga
Sunday, April 9 HG Bishop Ioan Casian paid a pastoral visit to St. Andrew Parish in Mississauga.
The hierarch was greeted with the Holy Gospel by the Parish Priest Lucian Azoiței. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, in the speech, the hierarch of Canada said: "In this important celebration we are paradoxically approaching a great suffering and a great joy; a suffering related to the passions of the Savior Jesus Christ through which we will hear in the scriptural readings that we will do especially in the second part of the coming week; but it is at the same time a joy because this passion of the Savior Christ, Son of God and son of man, is done for our salvation. At least this is our human paradox. St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians invites us to this joy: Rejoice always in the Lord! It is the invitation that the Church addresses to us through the words of the Holy Scriptures. Christ the Redeemer is coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter."
The hierarch further spoke about how Christ shows His identity as the Messiah Son of God and foretells His death: "The crowd in Jerusalem was happy because they had seen the resurrections, the healings, the words with great power and the countless miracles. All this shows the One before them as the Messiah of God, even if perhaps not all of them understand Him as the Son of God as Peter, Philip or Nathaniel confess. They greet him as God's messenger with the greeting Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! It is according to tradition how they greeted a king festively with palm branches seeing him as fulfilling a work, a mission of God, within the inspired tradition of ancient Israel. Christ says of Mary's anointing with oil that it is a sign foretelling His death. It is the prior fulfillment of what is necessary for burial. He announces it beforehand.”
The resurrections performed by Christ show the difference between Him as the Son of God and the other prophets or righteous men of the Old Testament: "Lazarus was a strong proof of the identity of Christ the Savior. Who could have power over life and death but their master? There are at least two other examples in the Old Testament of resurrections – St. Elijah and Elisha. If we look at the way miracles are done in their case and in the case of the Savior, we will see that they are different. St. Elijah and Elisha spend some time in prayer and make certain gestures through which they manage to raise the dead. The two shows that they were aware that these miracles were the result of prayer to God and His intervention. They do not fulfill them by their own strength. They turn to God with hope, with faith, and God performs resurrections following faith and these prayers. In the case of Christ, the Redeemer, in the case of Lazarus and the others, we see that He directly addresses Lazarus come out! Showing that He has power to raise the dead. He thanks God for revealing Him as the Son of God to others not because He has no power to resurrect. He addresses himself as one who has power over life and death.”
The Old Testament Scriptures are a teaching manual for us humans. We learn through it to recognize Christ, His work and times but also what we ourselves are as God's creatures: "The disciples later after the Savior's resurrection will remember the prophecy of the Old Testament that speaks of the signs of the recognition of the Messiah, one being the entry into Jerusalem on the donkey's colt. So, it is important to read the Old Testament because the gestures or words of people inspired by God. They foretell the events related to the person of Christ the Savior. God took care of this spiritual education through the inspiration of the righteous people of the Old Testament so that humanity would walk in a way in which it would believe that God is with it. However, the finality of this path will not be the fortress, the walls, or the words, but the person of the Savior. He will sit in the midst of our humanity, first of all the disciples, the myrrhbearing women, those who believed, but also the Roman authorities, the temple authorities continuing to testify to the truth of His word, for the salvation of the human race, and to the truth of His mission as Son of God and son of man, as our Savior."
"Scripture is the alphabet of our faith. If we want to know who God is, what our tradition is, who we are, what our identity is, what the Church is and what man really is as a Christian, our alphabet is the Holy Scripture. We can go to many philosophy and literature books. No one disputes them, but to know who we are as Christians, we do not have a better textbook that speaks better about us and who we are as people of God as the Holy Scripture. Why this? Because we as Christians believe that this world, we ourselves, are not an accident but a fruit of the Word of God."
The society in which we live reflects to some extent the heaven that God created as a society of the first people - Adam and Eve - in which they were called to live in obedience. But because of their sin, they moved away from this order: "God created heaven as a society for us. An image of it is our society, true, far removed from the perfection of the originally created heaven, but a society in which we see so many beautiful things. It was a society that had one rule - obedience to God. The moment you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will die says God. A probably temporary obedience in which man would grow in trust in God, see that the word of God is useful and that it gives him life and power. Adam and Eve disobey this word but are forgiven by God together with all humanity since this fall of theirs is the result of a temptation of the evil one and not of an intentional will of theirs. They rather follow the desire to do things by themselves. We see the reflection of this today, in the society and the world in which we live. If we understand them today, if we look at them with the means we have, we see that it is far from what God created in the beginning as heaven. We are trying to improve things in today's society, but we are partially succeeding. This is due to malice and falsehood. The desire for power is a factor that weighs heavily in this regard.”
Next, HG Bishop Ioan Casian urged everyone to assume responsibility as Christians in the world by promoting Christian values as a healthy and solid foundation of the society in which they live: "Let us assume our responsibility in society not only spiritually but also humanly. Christ also takes a stand from a social point of view. He drives the sellers out of the temple. He takes attitude socially speaking. We must be humble, but humility does not mean lack of social attitude. There is no conflict between the affirmation of Christian personal values and a socially upright attitude. is Saints are our mirror. Christ is the truest model for us to follow. Our values are healthy, they are godly, they are relationally good."
Holy Week for Christians is a solidarity with the redemptive passions of Christ, the hierarch said in conclusion: "Our mission is a great one. The Palm Sunday is a great celebration which we spend together with Christ. We join in His passion for us and for our salvation. We better understand how He worked and accomplished our salvation.”
At the end, the Parish Priest Lucian Azoiței thanked the hierarch and those present, urging them to be generous with the Church during this period for the various needs. A fraternal agape offered by the parish ended the celebration.
