His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia delivered an address on the occasion of the celebration of Orthodox Youth Day.
Dear brothers and sisters!
I cordially congratulate all of you on a twofold celebration: the feast of the Meeting of the Lord and Orthodox Youth Day.
Today the Church glorifies the bringing of the Divine Infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem and recalls His meeting with the righteous Simeon and the prophetess Anna, in whom the holy fathers traditionally see the personification of all people who from the beginning of time awaited the coming of the Savior into the world. What is the spiritual meaning of this feast? The eternal God, yet young in His humanity, meets an elder full of days who is preparing for his passage into Eternity. He meets him so that, as is sung in the kontakion of the feast, He might bless the hands of Simeon, as was fitting, going before. Before going out to His ministry among people, Christ blesses the righteous elder, granting him release from temporal life and renewing him with hope of the eternal salvation he awaited.
You have surely heard the expression that someone has “a young soul.” But can a soul grow old? Do the laws of the physical world apply to it? Yes, the soul grows old, but its wrinkles cannot be seen with the eye. It grows decrepit when it loses the eternal meanings of existence and loses its connection with God. Then a person, regardless of age, feels spiritual fatigue and an inner emptiness that no outward entertainment or impressions can fill.
Without God, everything young and youthful by earthly standards becomes old and spiritually infirm. Conversely, in God a person finds true meaning and the will to live, discovers his purpose and begins truly to know himself. The decrepit earthly is renewed only by the youthful eternity of Heaven. It is to such an imperishable, spiritual transfiguration — to a life that does not grow old — that we are all called to strive.
I would like to wish everyone — and especially our young brothers and sisters in Christ — never to lose spiritual vigor and to treasure their personal relationship with the Lord, sustaining it through meditation on the word of God, fulfillment of the Gospel commandments and, above all, participation in the saving Sacraments of the Church.
May the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Deliverer of our souls, Who grants us resurrection (troparion of the Meeting), be with you all.
+KIRILL, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
