“By calling His disciples to the apostolate, the Lord Jesus Christ prepared the mystery of establishing His Church as the gathering of peoples in the love of the Holy Trinity,” Patriarch Daniel said on Sunday at the historic chapel of Saint George the Great Martyr in Bucharest.
His Beatitude noted that twelve men were called to the apostolate, symbolising the twelve tribes of the people of Israel.
“These disciples would become apostles, or missionaries of Christ, and would form the leading nucleus of His Church. On the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon these twelve disciples, the divine-human community called the Church of Christ became visibly established in the world. It then expanded through the multitude of people from different nations who believe in Jesus Christ and are baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Patriarch Daniel explained.
The Patriarch of Romania underlined that the mystery of the Church’s foundation as the union of the Son of God with humanity began with the conception of the Son of God as man through the Virgin Mary by the work of the Holy Spirit and continued until His Ascension into heaven.
“Then the divine-human life of the Lord Jesus Christ is extended through the work of the Holy Spirit in those who believe in Christ. This extension, sharing or communication of Christ’s divine-human life to people constitutes the Church as the mystical Body of Christ.”
Preaching the Gospel and Merciful Love
Patriarch Daniel emphasised that the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven was accompanied by acts of God’s merciful love.
“Jesus’ preaching, as a call to repentance, to transformation and to the sanctification of human life, is accompanied by the wondrous deeds of merciful love: the healing of illnesses and the casting out of evil spirits.”
“Through this, the Lord Jesus Christ confirms through His deeds what He proclaims through His words: namely, that the Kingdom He announces through His Gospel is the kingdom of healing people from sin and death; it is the kingdom of life, love and eternal happiness,” he added.
Through His actions, Christ prepared His disciples to understand the mission of His Church.
“To good words we must add good deeds, helping those who are sick and sorrowful.”
Romanian Christianity Rooted in the Soul of the People
Patriarch Daniel noted that among those who spread the Gospel message were the Romanian saints, beginning with Saint Andrew the First-Called, whose calling to the apostolate is recounted in the Gospel reading of the day.
His Beatitude emphasised that the Romanian people underwent a gradual Christianisation, beginning with ordinary people and Christian soldiers serving in the Roman legions stationed in Dacia.
“The Christianity received and cultivated by the Romanian people while they were forming as a new nation in history, from Geto-Dacians and Romans, is an Eastern Orthodox Christianity of Latin expression, with deep roots in the soul of the Romanian people.”
“The fact that all Romanians speak a language of Latin origin and that most profess the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith helps them not to separate the Cross from the Resurrection, nor suffering from hope. It also helps them to cherish the Romanian people’s two-thousand-year-old Christian tradition more than any fleeting political or philosophical ideology,” Patriarch Daniel said.
In conclusion, the Patriarch encouraged the faithful to thank God for “the gifts of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the saints of the Romanian people—gifts that these saints cultivated through faith and ascetic struggle, through prayer and good deeds.”
Photo: Lumina Newspaper
