Bearing witness to Our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Our Savior of the world is the highest value and a huge responsibility of every baptized person, said His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in his sermon yesterday, on the feast day of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
“Now most scientists do not reject the very fact of the historical existence of a Man named Jesus, but very many of those who recognize His historical existence do not consider Jesus the Son of God,” His Holiness Patriarch Kirill noted.
“But those who recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, Lord and Savior, who confess this faith and who belong to the Church of God, are followers and heirs of the holy apostles. And this means that the Church, which is called the Apostolic, is called to constantly testify to the world that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the world,” added the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
He reminded those present of the words of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), “If you partake of the Body and Blood of the Savior, if you call on His name in your prayers, if you strive to follow Him, then you testify that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world.”
“Bearing witness [to Christ] is the highest value and at the same time, a huge responsibility of every baptized person, and if we translate ‘bearing witness’ into categories that we understand, it means, first of all, our personal faith in the Savior, in the Lord Jesus,” Patriarch Kirill emphasized.
He concluded that this also means praying to Christ, “because without prayer there is no connection with God, there is no connection with our Savior,” and, of course, “putting our every possible effort into trying to live in accordance with what the Lord and Savior taught us”.
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