SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
METROPOLITANATE OF MONTENEGRO AND THE LITTORAL
SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
METROPOLITANATE OF MONTENEGRO AND THE LITTORAL

Metropolitan Joanikije: Episcopal ordination is a Holy Spirit event (VIDEO)

Sermon of the Most Reverend Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Mr. Ioannikija at the ordination of the Bishop of Dioclia, Mr. Paisija on September 22, 2024 in the temple of Saint Sava in Vračar

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Your Holiness, dear brothers archbishops, respected representatives of the government of Serbia and Montenegro, dear brothers priests and monks, sisters nuns, dear brothers and sisters,

The grace of the Holy Spirit brought us together for this Holy service and for the ordination of the Bishop of Diocletian, our brother in Christ, Paisius. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he chose his twelve disciples, was constantly preparing them to become vessels of the Holy Spirit. It was not that easy. We see that those same apostles, as simple people, mostly fishermen and artisans who followed Christ with their hearts, could not understand many of His words, but they received His Word and occasionally showing their doubts, they easily, with God's help, overcame them and so progressed. The Lord Jesus Christ sometimes spoke precisely about the fact that they should prepare their souls and hearts to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. In the beginning, he said this in riddles and pictures, as this present Gospel testifies. Later, when they could better understand what it was about, he spoke openly about it, so somewhere in the middle of his sermon, finishing his work on earth, the work of our salvation and the establishment of the Church of God, he said and invited all those who are thirsty to come to they drink from the inexhaustible source of God's grace. He said that rivers of living water will flow from those who believe in Him, and that is the grace of God that resides in the souls of those who believe. Later, just before His suffering, He said that when He goes to His Father and after His work on earth is finished, He will send them another comforter who will guide them into all truth, reveal to them the meaning of what He told them while He was with to them, to reveal to them the significance of all that he did in organizing our salvation.

There was also that terrible moment when he voluntarily went to his suffering, when those same disciples, who were convinced that they would endure all the trials with him as in the previous days and years and that they would not be separated from him, ran out of courage on Good Friday and readiness, when the apostles wavered and scattered due to human weakness and the shortcomings of human nature. Fear entered their hearts, confusion entered their souls, but that too was according to God's plan. They scattered and left Christ at that moment, all except the beloved disciple John the Baptist. Only Judas, the traitor in whom cunning and demonic malice entered, betrayed Him willingly and willingly. However, the merciful Lord gathered his disciples with his Resurrection, he ate and drank with them, celebrating with his disciples the victory over death, giving them a new life, perfecting the unity of their souls and their hearts. Before his Resurrection to heaven, he once again mentioned the Holy Spirit, when he commanded them: Sit in the city of Jerusalem and do not leave until you receive the promise of my Heavenly Father and until you are clothed in the Power from on high.

And precisely on the day of Holy Pentecost, he sent down his Holy Spirit on his holy disciples and apostles in the form of tongues of fire. There we can also look for the meaning of Christ's words that he came to cast fire on the earth. What do the words of Christ mean that he will clothe them with power from on high? He then clothed them in the power of his eternal and life-giving truth, in the power of love, God's grace, mercy, every consolation and every joy, making them his chosen vessels of the Holy Spirit. He instilled in their souls and minds divine wisdom, and in their hearts divine courage, so those same disciples - who earlier, on Good Friday, showed themselves to be weaklings and scattered - remained, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, fearless, invincible and irresistible. They preached the brave and true Gospel of God, witnessing Christ's work of salvation to all peoples, before the authorities, before kings, and before ordinary people, bringing everyone to salvation, bringing everyone into the arms of Christ.

Here, dear brothers and sisters, let's not think that this miraculous event, which happened in a historical moment, remained somewhere in the past. He is the constant reality of the Church of God, which we tasted and experienced even today at this Holy Service. And it is no coincidence that the service of Pentecost is performed at the episcopal ordination. Episcopal ordination is primarily a Holy Spirit event and what happened once, when the Lord was organizing his Church, has eternal value and eternal reality. We experienced that event through today's Holy Service and through the invocation of the Holy Spirit from the mouth of His Holiness, the archbishop and the faithful people to the new bishop, and we became complicit in that event of our salvation.

May this Holy Service be a joy to all of you, dear brothers and sisters. Today we all tasted unspeakable joy and our souls and our hearts were filled with Divine joy and Divine light and grace. Let it become the content of our lives, let it turn into good deeds in the service of our new bishop Paisius and in the lives of all of us. Amen, God grant, to many and mild summers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAWKUKFRj4

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