On the first Easter day, the special Vesper service also called “the second Resurrection” was celebrated at noon, in all the churches of the Romanian Patriarchate. At the Patriarchal Cathedral the religious service was celebrated by His Grace Ieronim Sinaitul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch, together with His Grace Qais Sadiq, Bishop of Erzurum, and His Grace Timotei Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests and deacons.
The evangelical pericope of Saint Evangelist John, 20: 19-25 was read during this celebration.“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”. The Holy Gospel was read in 12 languages at the Patriarchal Cathedral.
To end with the celebration, His Grace Ieronim Sinaitul conveyed the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel to all the faithful present and explained that the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is a feast of victory. “Saint John Chrysostom, whom the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrates this year together with the most important fathers and shepherds of souls is the one who asks: “Where, o death, is your victory? Where, o death, is your sting?” Death was killed, the hell looted, because Christ, our Lord, coming down with his body into the grave defeated sin and coming down into the hell with His human soul emptied the hell. This is why this feast is a feast of victory, which is a victory not only of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, but also ours, of all of us, because it was for us that He left the bosom of His father and came down into our world taking the image of a slave, in order to raise us again to the beauty and brilliance of the first image”, His Grace showed.
Then, His Grace Bishop Ieronim Sinaitul underlined that through the second creation of the world and of man, which Christ, our Lord, did through His saving work the image of God is restored in us. “Humankind marks a new step, and man receives a new step today, because it is raised to the right side of the Father. This is why we must take spiritual life to our heart and keep in honour, concern, and thought the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord, which enlightens and guides us, because we shall also be vanquishers through His gift”, His Grace Ieronim Sinaitul emphasised. To end with, His Grace urged all the faithful to load their souls with the good values, virtues, and deeds.
