“Each of us is a priest of love for our neighbor, the outstretched hands of the Savior Jesus Christ,” His Eminence Archishop Casian of Lower Danube said at the beginning of the Nativity Fast.
“The Holy Church sends us now, at the beginning of the fasting season, a sweet, pastoral word, just as bees go on a pastoral ministry to the flowers, so we are called to go to shepherd our flowers, which are the sick in hospitals and our elderly – at home. Let us go to them with the honey of medicines, with the honey of good words and with the necessary clothes, and this warmth will warm our souls.”
The Archbishop of the Lower Danube explained that when we embrace an elderly person, we are, in fact, embracing Christ.
“Nowhere will we find Bethlehem updated as in the simple, candid little houses of the elderly of 90, 95 or 100 years. They will not stay here much longer. Let us go and receive the blessing of a life lived with purpose and meaning.”
The Mother of God in the history of salvation
His Eminence also highlighted the role of the Mother of God in the history of salvation, an aspect captured in the hymnography of the Church.
“Bethlehem is translated into our language as the House of Bread. Why? Because in all the prayers of preparation for the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, the Mother of God is presented as the oven in which the Bread of Life was baked, which came down from above.”
“In your womb, Mother of God, who are the unplowed field, the Bread of Life was baked. The Mother of God is the virgin from whom the purity of purities was extracted – the Son of God, who is wonderfully actualized, as the Gospel shows us”.
“The Lord himself says of himself: I am the bread that came down from heaven. Whoever does not eat my flesh, this bread, has no eternal life”.
“Bethlehem is the covering of goodness, like the bread that, later, before the sacrifice on the cross, the Savior himself will raise at Pascha to heaven and will become His body. Through the Holy Spirit, He will descend into us and will sit on the foundation of the renewal of man, which is the altar. On the altar the prosphora is placed and becomes the most pure body of the Lord, and the fruit of the vine in the chalice becomes the most pure blood, which renews the human person”.
Fasting is not a diet
“Fasting is not a gastronomic stage, as we interpret it today; it is a selection of food more suited to the spiritual state of man, who wishes to ascend, not descend”.
“Some foods, you know, have their toxicity, not only biological, but also spiritual toxicity. The food suitable for fasting is primarily a spiritual food, a preparation, just as humanity prepared itself to receive Christ”, added His Eminence.
Photo: Archdiocese of Lower Danube
