With the blessing of H.Em. Archbishop Ioachim, on Sunday, February 24, Bishop Ioan Casian celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. Peter and Paul Parish in Bacau. Rev. Fr. Constantin Abageru parish priest, Rev. Fr. Adrian Alexandrescu and Deacon Alexandru Grigoraş were serving too.

In the sermon at the Divine Liturgy, the hierarch of Canada said:

St. Paul has a special word that urges us to practice discernment during the Lent: ‘All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. [...] You are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.’ (1Cor 6; 12, 20)

We have in the parable of the Prodigal Son the plastic expression of these exhortations of the great Apostle. The young man asks for his part of fortune and goes to a distant country to spend it. The distress forced him to 'comes into himself'. Similarly, the demon-possessed man of Gadara was found after the healing by those who knew him ‘sitting and clothed and in his right mind’ at Jesus' feet. The suffering of the young man in one case or the other becomes a pedagogy of returning to himself and to God. The man returning to God moves spiritually and humanely back within himself. And from there he begins to think about what is necessary to fulfill according to God's word.

The words ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you' show that sin committed against one's neighbor is at the same time a sin against God because the neighbor is 'the image and the likeness of God.' The repentance manifested in the words of the Prodigal Son meets the pity of the father who gives him ‘the best robe’, the ring and the sandals, and instructs the servants to kill the ‘fattened calf’ to make merry. The repentance of the Prodigal Son becomes the way of getting back the best robe and of enjoying.

The fast is this road of repentance and return to God. At the end of it we find the Risen Christ. The first garment we acquire is the light of the Resurrection. It is the light contemplated by God as a gift to man from eternity.

The Apostle Paul says, ‘For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.’ (Gal 3, 27) We are baptized in the garment of light of the resurrection of Christ. The new garment, acquired by repentance similar to that of the Prodigal Son, is the grace of the Resurrection of Christ.

The purpose of man's life – according to the words of the Apostle, is the glorification of God in body and spirit, that is, both by external deeds and by inner attitude. The fast spent properly brings us into this orderly state of God through which man resumes his life in accordance with the image and likeness of God that is the foundation of his existence.

At the end of the religious service, the hierarch blessed those present.

The chanters Marian Diaconu and Marius Dãnescu gave the answers at strana.