Today, 6 January 2013, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord. His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral assisted by a group of priests and deacons in the presence of hundreds of faithful.
His Beatitude emphasised, in the sermon delivered, after reading the Evangelical pericope, the importance of the Baptism of the Lord for the Christian Baptism: “The Baptism is celebrated in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit just because at the Lord’s Baptism in the River Jordan not only the Son was present, but also the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Lord has come to be baptised with the baptism of repentance for forgiving the sins, John’s baptism, which was a preparation for the Christian Baptism, an awareness of the need to forgive the sins. Saint Basil the Great says that John’s baptism was the beginning of the Christian Baptism, and the Christian Baptism is the completion of the baptism of repentance that Saint John the Baptist practiced. Thus, the grace was not given through the baptism of John, but only the beginning of the forgiveness of the sins as an awareness of the need to forgive the sins. The grace was given through Christ and this is why after His resurrection Christ gives the Holy Spirit to the Apostles so that they may forgive the sins; the baptism is celebrated only after the Descent of the Holy Spirit over the Saint Apostles at the Pentecost. In other words, the Baptism of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is not a simple baptism in the water, but a Baptism with water and Holy Spirit. The water shows the need of cleaning the soul and body, but this thing is done invisibly, through the work of the Holy Spirit. In the Baptism we have the mystery of the love of the Most Holy Trinity for us. We become Christians when we are baptised in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit because Christ, our Lord and Saviour, is One in the Holy Trinity.
The Patriarch of Romania has also underlined the importance of the Baptism as beginning of the Christian life: “When we are baptised we get into the eternal life of the Most Holy Trinity. Eternal life is not after life, but life lived in living permanent communion with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. To baptise means to immerse in water. So, Baptism does not mean splashing with water, but immersion because it means the death of the sin and resurrection for the holy life. The same as Christ was buried and risen so we bury the old man of the sin through the Baptism, and bring to life – through the Baptism – the new man in the likeness of Christ. This immersion in the love of the Most Holy Trinity is the beginning of the Christian life. We receive the forgiveness of the sins, through the Holy Baptism, first of all of the ancient sin, of the personal sins if the baptised one is adult, and we receive the grace of the spiritual resurrection and the preparation for the universal resurrection and the grace of adoption; namely, through Baptism we become sons and daughters of God according to the grace.
“The Christian is the one who feels himself loved by the Father, by the Son and by the Holy Spirit and who answers this love through the prayer, through the communion with the Holy Sacraments and through good deeds. Thus, man grows in love for God and for his fellow beings in the Church of Christ which is the foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven”, His Beatitude said.
After the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel celebrated the religious service for the consecration of the High Holy Water in front of the Patriarchal Residence.
