“Christ accomplishes the restoration of the humanity in His Person. Man’s nature becomes the temple and house of the Word of God,” Bishop Ioan Casian of Canada says in his Pastoral Letter on the Nativity of our Lord.
“Each person fulfils its purpose by growing from the image of God to its likeness. This growth is done at the same time together, in communion, and relational, as much as internally and personally. The two are not opposed but complement each other because the Church assumes and includes both,” His Grace explained.
The hierarch wrote that “The Church means our community, of all of us, who build our lives based on Christ’s work done for us. Christ is the One who works in us through grace.”
To escape the slavery of sin, man “must run to Christ, must seek Him. There are four stages or essential elements that help man to get rid of passions and come closer to God: faith, prayer, (self) knowledge and confession,” mentioned the Bishop of Canada.
“The four steps help man to receive Christ again as the master of his life, as God, so that He can fulfil the restoration. For Christ is the One who restores everything in our human nature,” the hierarch emphasized.
“Faith is what keeps man on the right path and gives him the divine understanding of himself, his life, and the world.”
“Prayer is the permanent dialogue with the Creator and the familiarity that man acquires with the Author of the divine life lost by man through sin.”
“Knowing the state in which man finds himself, already as a result of the cleansing and liberating work of grace, makes man understand the distance to the finality for which God created him and the need to grow from the image of God to his likeness with Him, which means his fulfilment,” added His Grace Ioan Casian.
“And the confession is the manifestation of the understanding of the fact that the One who fulfils everything in human life in the direction of restoration and salvation is Christ. I confess Him. Through Him I fulfil myself.”
The Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada concluded his letter by wishing the faithful “O sărbătoare a Nașterii Domnului întru credință, cu pace și dărnicie!”
Photo source: Facebook / Episcopia Canadei
