His Eminence Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Mr. Joanikije, was a guest last night on the RTHN program "U cetiri oka".
Responding to a question from journalist Vesna Šoškić about the role of Christian fasting, His Eminence Metropolitan Joanikije said that fasting is entered into for the purpose of cleansing the soul and body.
“Through the Christian, blessed, bright fast, the image of God is illuminated through the face of every person created by God, in the image and likeness of God, and that spiritual fullness, spiritual beauty, is achieved, which God foresaw when He sent us into this world and which God actually endowed us with and gave us as a goal towards which we should strive. So, this is the significance of fasting, and not only this external, but even this external is significant, but only in the context of this spiritual – which is the true, true content of fasting,” said Metropolitan Joanikije.
Speaking about the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, the Metropolitan said that Christ’s work of salvation of the human race culminates in the resurrection, and added that the resurrection is preceded by Christ’s suffering, crucifixion and death on the cross.

He explained that we enter the mystery of Christ’s saving work by faith.
"Faith is something that enlightens both our minds and our hearts and all our other faculties. Therefore, only by faith can we touch that ineffable, profound mystery of our salvation, which the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. Therefore, Christ appears by His resurrection as the conqueror of death. He frees us from the fear of death and we become participants or accomplices in His victory over death and His eternal glory and His eternal life, but thanks to Him who brings us into communion with Him. He appears, as the Holy Apostle Paul says, as the firstborn from the dead. He who is the firstborn means that many others follow him. He is only the first among us, so He willed it."
The joy of Christ’s universal victory over death, the Metropolitan emphasized, is most fully experienced in the Holy Divine Liturgy, where, according to his words, we also touch upon the mystery of the future age.
“Of course, we still remain people subject to death, subject to sin, but we have this joy – we have felt that death has been weakened, that death has already been defeated. We know what we have to go through, but we know Who has gone through it before us and Who is waiting for us there. And then a person is enlightened, enlightened – he has touched upon both the mystery of death, but also the mystery of resurrection.”
The Metropolitan said, we experience the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection over and over again.
“Not as a memory of something that was long ago, but we feel, we experience the presence of Christ among us; the crucified and risen, who is with us as he was with the Holy Apostles, only in a different, new way, through liturgical, spiritual, mystical, sacramental communion with Christ who is the head of the Church, and we are His body. All of us, the entire community, appears as one organism, whose head is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our resurrection and our eternal life – eternal Pascha, eternal Resurrection.”
Commenting on the crisis of the modern family, and the widely prevalent postponement of family formation today, the Metropolitan drew attention to the pronounced individualism and arrogance to which today’s man often succumbs, and concluded that these are often the causes of the problem.
On the other hand, he also pointed out the blessings that God bestows on those who decide to serve God through a sacrificial family life, and who care for their family with great care, dedication, and love.
He said that in terms of helping the family, as the basic unit of society, the Church can help a lot, but that the greatest responsibility lies with the state and state institutions. He added that it is important to preserve values ​​that have been established for centuries, but also to develop the ability to use innovations in civilization in a sober way.
"Values ​​that have proven unwavering and indestructible throughout our history, those values ​​should be nurtured. Okay, we should be open to new challenges – to the novelties that this civilization provides, but, of course, we should also nurture what never becomes obsolete, which is eternal value. This newness should be used in a sober and reasonable way. It can be composed extremely well, and for that you need to have the abilities, and the abilities are given by faith." The increase in various forms of violence is connected with the alienation of modern man, believes the Metropolitan.
"We have become alienated from each other. We have also become alienated within the family itself. We live in the same family, under the same roof, but often some misunderstandings, some divisions arise. The most terrible alienation is when you are together with someone, but you no longer have anything in common. We see that happening often and then various fractures arise. Very often something irrational is involved, and in every person that something irrational lurks, but all of that can somehow be refined if we have repentance, if we have understanding. Misunderstandings and arguments occur, God forbid, sometimes something more serious comes, but that needs to be reconciled, to be overcome. Very often, when those doors of repentance are opened for them, people are transformed, and in this way some misunderstanding is overcome and