On the 6th Sunday, after Pentecost, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the chapel of “Saint Gregory the Enlightener”, of the Patriarchal Residence, informs 'Ziarul Lumina'.

The Patriarch of Romania showed that the Gospel of the 6th Sunday after Pentecost has three special teachings on the healing of the people, namely on disease as a result of the sin and on the forgiveness of sins, which bring about the healing of the body, and emphasised the fact that Jesus Christ, our Lord, healed the paralysed man from Capernaum also because He saw the strong desire of those who brought the sick man to Him to be healed. Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is sensitive to human suffering. He has come into the world to heal any disease and any helplessness of the people. “Christ, our Lord, the Healer or Doctor of our souls and bodies, gave to His Church the power to forgive the sins and heal the diseases, through the Saint Apostles.

Our sins are forgiven through the Sacrament of Confession, through the grace that Christ, our Lord, gives to the servants of the Church. The Saint Apostles have also been given the power to heal the bodily diseases, and to the Church of Christ too, through them, a power especially shown in the Sacrament of the Extreme Unction”, said the Primate of our Church.

Christ, our Lord, is the perfect father confessor

The Gospel also shows us that Jesus Christ, our Lord, is also a father confessor, not only a doctor. “Christ, our Lord, is the perfect father confessor. He forgives the sins, but He does not mention them because He does not want to humiliate the sinner. He knows their sins, but He does not give away the secret mistakes of those who come to Him repenting, suffering and hoping to be healed. The Church ordered to keep the secret of confession not to humiliate the sinner who repents and asks for forgiveness”, also said Patriarch Daniel.

Further on, His Beatitude underlined the fact that very useful has also been the faith of those who brought the sick man to Christ, because their faith was united with the merciful love for other people, for another human being, not for themselves. This is why, their faith is prevailing because it is a faith full of humbleness and of merciful love for another human being”.

The hands of Christ’s love

His Beatitude showed that not only our own prayer is needed, but some other people must also pray for us when we suffer. “While learning from these people who brought the sick man to Christ, our Lord, the Church also prays for the sick and brings them to Christ. All charitable institutions or Christian philanthropic ones were set up out of strong faith and merciful love. Whenever we do good to our fellow beings, we become the hands of Christ’s love and feel the truth that the Church is the mysterious body of Christ through which He works in the world. The people who bring the paralysed man to Jesus Christ symbolically represent all the servants of the Church, all the charitable priests in the hospitals and the medical staff, as well as all those who take care of the sick ones”, showed the Patriarch of Romania.