Jesus Christ, our Saviour, looks with love at every human who is looking for eternal life

On 26 August 2012, the 12th Sunday after the Pentecost, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral assisted by a group of servant priests and deacons of the Cathedral.

After reading the Evangelical pericope of Saint Evangelist Matthew, 19:16-26, His Beatitude delivered a sermon in which he explained the significance of the text.

When he knelt down in front of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, and called Him “Good Teacher”, not wise Teacher, the rich young man of today’s Gospel wanted to show that Jesus of Nazareth taught not only wisdom, but also kindness.

This young man must have certainly heard that Jesus of Nazareth the Teacher was the Healer too, the One who healed lots of people of diseases and sins, because He was merciful and good. We learn from this way of expressing of the rich young man that a teacher must be not only intelligent or wise, but also good, generous, merciful, and helper of those humble, fallen, poor and forgotten by society”, said His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.

Further on, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church emphasised the fact that mercy is a vital condition for reaching salvation.

“Jesus Christ, our Saviour, tells the rich young man that he still needs something to be perfect. ‘If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When he heard this advice the rich young man grieved and went away. Jesus Christ, our Lord, respected his silence and sadness. He did not explain him anything, did not give up the advice He gave him, but let him free to fight against his sadness, and the Gospel tells us the reason of his sadness, namely that he was very rich and had a great fortune. So, we see that the rich young man was a virtuous and faithful man, a man who had never harmed anybody. He was devoted, knew the commandments, fulfilled them but he was very attached, in his soul, to the fortune he had. It had become an inner bondage, a hidden idol, and the Saviour, having been a physician of the souls, saw the less brilliant part of his soul and went straight to the point telling him in other words that it was not enough to be moral and virtuous or moral and faithful, but you had to be merciful too to reach the eternal life, to resemble the Merciful generous God.”

All the material temporary and limited properties cannot bring full peace and joy in our soul because it is created in the image of God, says the Patriarch of Romania.

“There is one more essential truth in the Saviour’s words, namely when He says: ‘If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ Had He not uttered this phrase ‘Then come, follow me”, the advice of the Saviour would not have been complete and would not have had finality either. He could have told a rich young man to sell everything and be poor and homeless. But what does the Saviour do, in fact? What has He asked this young man? It was to give up something, his wealth, for Somebody, for God-the-Word, the source of the eternal life. When He said: ‘Then come, follow me’, He meant “come and you will be in communion with Me, who give you the eternal life you are looking for. Come to be my disciple and I will give you the eternal life you have been looking for quite a long time’. That means that man, although he has a lot of material wealth, he is not contented because his soul is created in the image of God eternal and unlimited, and all the temporary material properties cannot bring peace and joy to his soul because it is made not only to consume material things in this world, but also to receive the eternal life of God and answer this eternal love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, our Saviour”.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel has also emphasized the fact that the meaning of the temporary life on the earth is to look for the eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

“We learn, from today’s Gospel that first of all we must look for eternal life. The rich young man asks a question that should be our essential question, of all people, no matter the age, profession, or social statutes: ‘what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

Saint John Chrysostom says: “What is the use of this earthly life if in its time we do not look after reaching eternal life?” Thus, the meaning of the temporary life on the earth is to look for the eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven and that is acquired through faith, repentance for the bad deeds, doing good deeds, much prayer, having the Holy Sacraments of the Church which are the foretaste of the eternal life and through the great desire to unite with God, the source of the eternal life”.

During the Divine Liturgy, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church ordained the young theologian Constantin Cosmin Brinzea a deacon, for the deanery of “Popa Tatu” parish with Saint Nicholas as saint patron of Bucharest.

Hundreds of faithful attended the religious service.

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