The Chapel of the National Cathedral celebrated its dedication day on Bright Monday, 17 April 2017. This day, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel came to the Chapel dedicated to the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord and delivered a homily.
The V. Rev. Archimandrite Paisie Teodorescu, patriarchal vicar, presided over the festive Divine Liturgy, in the concelebration of an assembly of priests and deacons.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel addressed the faithful and spoke about the appearances of the Saviour after His Resurrection. Jesus Christ showed Himself to Luke and Cleopas, while they were travelling on the road to Emmaus and expounded to them in all the Scriptures of the Old Testament the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27). This means that God the Word Who became Human from love of humans and their salvation is the author of the Holy Scripture, the patriarch said. His Beatitude pointed out the tie existing between the Scriptures as mystical form of God the Word present in the biblical words and the Holy Eucharist as His mystical and sensitive presence in the bread and wine that become His Body and Blood.
The Saviour Jesus Christ shows Himself several times before ascending to Heaven. He appears before people whenever and wherever He desires and in the way He considers appropriate. He sometimes shows Himself as a foreigner and as a pilgrim. He walks through closed doors, without breaking the doors. His risen Body has not become a ghost since He presents the disciples His side and the print of the nails on His hands and feet.
Something had changed with His Body, the patriarch added, it cannot be stopped by space, it cannot undergo tortures anymore, it cannot be retained by anyone and by nothing, not even by sight. That is why, after the disciples had recognised Him on the road to Emmaus, He disappeared. Therefore, we can observe that the existence of the crucified and risen Christ is different than that of humans on earth. He shows Himself several times on earth only to prove that His raising from the dead was real and not imaginary.
The patriarch went on to say that on the Feast of the Resurrection we celebrate with anticipation our own resurrection and the final judgement of the world.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ gives meaning to Christian way of life; it makes the history of humankind and the entire universe meaningful. Without the resurrection, Christianity would have remained an ethical or social doctrine, history would have been a nonsense, having no precise direction, and the universe would have transformed into a rotary necropolis of galaxies, in which thousands and millions of luminaries that spin without a precise direction. Everything becomes meaningful in Christ, the One Who created heaven and earth. That is why He is also called the Alpha and the Omega, His Beatitude said.
Referring to the Chapel of the National Cathedral, Patriarch Daniel called it a paschal candle that commemorates the five churches that were translated or demolished during communism. This Chapel, he said, shows us that Christ the Lord overcomes earthly wickedness. Being a symbol, the chapel represents the joy of Christ’s triumph over the powers of darkness and death.
Credit: Lumina Newspaper
The Chapel was built in 2011 close to the Romanian People’s Salvation Cathedral that is currently under construction. This chapel was dedicated to the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, the Prodromitissa Icon of the Mother of God and to Saint John Chrysostom.
