“A priest’s foremost duty is to see Christ kneeling before his people”: His Beatitude Sviatoslav on Holy Thursday
You ought to see our Savior where it hurts the most, where explosions are heard, blood is poured, and children, women, and older people are crying. There, in their tears, Christ kneels before them today. So he kneels in our hospitals and before everyone who carries war wounds in their souls and bodies. Near their bed of suffering, on his knees, as at the Last Supper, Christ stands and touches their wounds to heal them.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the UGCC, addressed the priests with these words during his sermon at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on Holy Thursday. The Head of the Church consecrated myrrh and 260 antimins and performed the rite of foot washing.
“Very profound and touching feelings fill everyone who thinks at least for a short time about everything that this Holy, Great, and Pure Thursday gives us,” the Primate said at the beginning of the sermon.
The Head of the Church emphasized the feeling of fear and awe, which permeates from the beginning to the end of the Easter sacrament of the Savior’s suffering, death, and Resurrection.
“It must have been difficult for the apostles to preach about the suffering, crucified, dying God, but how strongly the sermon sounded from them that the same God who was crucified yesterday rose from the dead!” said the Head of the Church.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav congratulated the clergy, priests, deacons, and seminarians on this special great day, on this gift of the priesthood!
“Today, Christ asks each of us: will you not shrink? Will you not be afraid? Will you follow me?” he said.
Then the Father and Head of the UGCC thanked all the priests who serve their wounded, sick people in war.
“On this Holy, Great, Maundy Thursday, let us ask ourselves: what does it mean to be a priest of Christ in time of war?” the Head of the UGCC called.
He believes every priest should look for the answer to this question where the Church of Christ has called him to serve. Because if a priest knows where Christ is during the war, then the answer to the question of what to do will come very quickly. A priest must do what Christ did.
“Today, on this Holy Thursday, with what we start our entry into the mystery of Easter, we say: Jesus, we thank You for being among us as the One who serves. We thank You for each of Your priests whom You send to the places where it hurts the most. Thank you, Jesus, that our wounds have become yours; even our death has become Yours, but we also believe that we can share in Your glorious, victorious three-day Resurrection,” added His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The UGCC Department for Information
