In the Baptism at the Jordan River Jesus is the sanctifier and man, and the world are the ones that are sanctified - said HG Bishop Ioan Casian on Sunday before the Baptism of the Lord

His Grace Bishop John Casian spoke in the Sunday before the Baptism of the Lord about the role of St. John the Baptist in the preparation of the coming of the Savior of Christ:

“The today Gospel emphasizes the role and the difference between the action of St. John the Baptist and the Savior Jesus Christ. St. John is the one who opens the way for understanding and receiving the Son of God. In order to receive the grace of God for the chosen people, and the humanity in general, needed spiritual preparation. The baptism to which St. John called his contemporaries was one of repentance. It was the baptism that created that disposition of self-emptiness of all the evil deeds in order to receive the grace of the restoration and redemption. The prophet John was born and raised with the ascetic vocation assumed to be the one that will attract the attention of contemporaries about messianic times. Whereupon the times of the Old Covenant end because the New is fulfilled. John the Baptist remains permanently in his messianic vigilance and invites everyone to do the same. Even if apparently what St. John and the Savior Christ does seem similar - that is, baptism - the difference is great. Jesus descends into the waters of the Jordan needing no purification because it was sinless but to show an example of the way in which man has to go, and also to cleanse and sanctify the waters, while people descend precisely from the need for cleansing and justification. The baptism of the Savior is with the renewing Holy Spirit. In the Baptism of the Jordan Jesus is the sanctifier and the man and the world are the ones that are sanctified.

St. John sees his mission fulfilled through the fulfillment of the promises received by virtue of which he lived.

St. Paul in the Epistle to Timothy read today shows us some of the virtues needed for this journey similar to that of St. John to meet Christ - to remain vigilant and awake to the spiritual work, to suffer the evil and injustice and work in the direction of the vocation to which someone is called, doing it fully, because this is the work of the evangelist, that is, the one announcing salvation in Christ. ”

In the evening of the same day, the hierarch participated in the service of the Great Compline with Litya.

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