Metropolitan Ioan of Banat told worshippers gathered at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Timisoara on New Year’s Eve that time is like a life lived between two verbs: “to pass” — which denotes biological ageing and the sombre perception of years slipping away — and “to come”, a verb referring to the way a person responds to Christ’s call.
The present moment, he said, is the place where a person decides whether to remain at the level of merely observing bodily decline or to choose closeness to God. For those who come to Christ, the passing of years does not bring only old age, but spiritual renewal and growth in the Kingdom of God, the metropolitan underlined.
He returned to this idea after Thursday morning’s Divine Liturgy, when he spoke about the life of Saint Basil the Great.
Recalling that the saint lived on earth for only 49 years, Metropolitan Ioan made a personal confession: “When I turned 49, I gave thanks to God, but I also felt sorrow, asking myself: Lord, why do I live longer than Saint Basil?”
The answer, he said, was this: “Because you did not live those 49 years with the same intensity as Saint Basil did; and I have shown you mercy, giving you more years, perhaps you will repent and do his works as well.”
Each Year Lived, a Call to Do Good
The metropolitan stressed that the additional years granted are not a reward, but a time for repentance and for action, with each day being a gift meant to draw the believer’s life closer to the model of spiritual intensity embodied by Saint Basil the Great.
At the start of the new civil year, the head of the Banat Metropolis extended wishes of health and a blessed year to the faithful of the region, a year fulfilled through deeds pleasing to God.
“You do not know, my brothers and sisters, how young you are. You are the youngest people in this city. You have grown younger by another year; you have not grown older. You have grown younger by another year in the Kingdom of God,” Metropolitan Ioan concluded.
Photo: Banat Metropolis
