During his homily on Sunday, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel stressed that ‘Christ the Lord calls all nations and all persons to salvation.’
‘Our Saviour Jesus Christ broke or abolished the mental and cultural barriers between Samarians and Jews, and healed the Jews from the complex of their superiority to the Samarians, and the Samarians from their inferiority complex to the Jews,’ Patriarch Daniel said at Pasarea Monastery.
The Patriarch said that Christ ‘showed that the man and the woman have the same value in front of God because both of them were created in God’s image.’
‘They are free, reasonable and loving persons, and Christ the Lord calls all men and women who believe in Him to live a holy life. That is why, our Church has not only holy men in its calendar, but also many holy women.’
The Patriarch of Romania offered his reflections on the talk of Jesus with the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s well noting that their dialogue is commendable and fascinating.
‘Jesus Christ is the source of grace, the Living Water as called in the gospel, who heals man from sin and sanctifies life to gain salvation,’ the Romanian Patriarch noted in his sermon.
The Patriarch reminded that during the talk with the Samaritan woman Jesus predicted that the time would come God’s place of worship will be ‘any church where those who believe in Christ worship the Father in spirit and truth, that is, in the Holy Spirit through prayer and in the truth of true faith through confession.’
After her talk with the Saviour, the Samaritan woman chose a new life. Thus, through the work of God’s grace, ‘the sinful Samaritan woman converts and draws an entire city to Christ.’
The patriarch explained that this woman ‘represents all pagan nations that become Christian and form Christ’s church together with the Christian Jews.’
Worship in the Spirit and in truth
The patriarch also explained the worship in the Spirit and in truth saying that ‘it means in a state of prayer and confession of the truth of the true faith.’
‘It is not enough to pray, but you also have to profess the true faith,’ Patriarch Daniel said May 26.
‘Those who believe in Christ worship the Father in the Holy Spirit and in the Truth-Christ, because He said regarding Himself that I am the Way and the Truth and Life.’
In the Gospel, Jesus refers to ‘a spiritual and universal faith, not one limited to a certain mountain or a temple in Jerusalem.’
‘This is Christianity: where the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is communicated to men who believe in Christ and receive the baptism in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,’ the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church added.
Pasarea Monastery is dedicated to the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, while the katholikon is dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos.
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu
