{"id":137829,"date":"2016-07-10T19:17:56","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T16:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/?p=137829"},"modified":"2016-07-14T19:19:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T16:19:17","slug":"patriarch-daniel-the-spiritualised-human-being-is-the-only-free-person-because-he-is-not-enslaved-by-the-obsession-for-material-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/patriarch-daniel-the-spiritualised-human-being-is-the-only-free-person-because-he-is-not-enslaved-by-the-obsession-for-material-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriarch Daniel: The Spiritualised Human Being Is The Only Free Person Because He Is Not Enslaved By The Obsession For Material Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, 10 July 2016, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania was present in the middle of the monastic community of Cernica Monastery and of the faithful who had come to pray in the old monastic settlement. The Divine Liturgy was celebrated by archimandrite Nectarie \u015eofelea, administrative exarch of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, together with a group of priests and deacons.<\/p>\n

The Gospel text the Church scheduled for this Sunday \u2013 Matthew 6:22-23 \u2013 presents us the true meaning of Christian life <\/em>and how one must live one\u2019s life as a free human being, from a spiritual point of view.<\/p>\n

The spiritualised man is the only human free because he\/she is not enslaved by the obsession for material things, <\/em>the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church underlined in the sermon delivered on the occasion. His Beatitude explained to all those present that Christ, our Lord, wants to release the human beings from under the tyranny of anxiety which turns our life into an exclusive and excessive concern for accumulating material things.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Gospel text of this Sunday shows us that Jesus Christ, our Lord, does not urge us to laziness, neglect, inactivity, but He wants to release the humans from under the tyranny of anxiety, of persistent thoughts, namely of those which turn our life into an exclusive and excessive concern to accumulate material assets. Jesus Christ, our Saviour, wants those who believe in Him to be free people. The spiritualised human being is the only free one because he\/she is not enslaved by the obsession for material things, but is concerned first with all that is essential and first priority in his\/her life: the relationship of love, through faith, with the eternal God, the source of the everlasting life. This is why Jesus Christ, our Saviour, urges the following in today\u2019s Gospel text: search for the Kingdom of Heaven first and all the rest (concern for food and clothes) will be added to the searching for the Kingdom of Heaven, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church said.<\/p>\n

The obsession for material things in this world alienates the human\u2019s soul from God and from its divine purpose, <\/em>the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church explained showing that the text of the day is a Gospel of freedom, of our liberation from the obsessive and excessive concern for material things.<\/p>\n

The Patriarch of Romania underlined the fact that often contemporary human being is obsessively concerned only with the material things, so that he\/she does no longer find time to feed the soul on the love for God found in prayer, in reading the Holy Scriptures, in attending religious services, and in doing good deeds.<\/p>\n

It is very often seen that the human being is so much concerned with gain, with immediate profit achieved by any means that very often he\/she has no more time to come to the church and to think constantly and deeply about the meaning of his\/her life on earth. We became used to live rather biologically than spiritually, so that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, wants to help us not to reduce our life on earth only to its biological aspect, but having been created in His image, namely free, intelligent persons, endowed with will and power of love, to pursuit first what is necessary to our soul, His Beatitude also said.<\/p>\n

At the end of the celebration, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel offered to the monastery the latest books published by the Romanian Patriarchate. He also gave the children little icons of the Mother of God the Prodromitissa.<\/p>\n

Located only 12 km in the east of Bucharest, the monastic settlement stretches on two of the islands of Cernica Lake. The monastery was first documentary attested in 1608, in a princely decree issued by Ruling Prince Radu \u015eerban.<\/p>\n

\n