From the Head of the UGCC: It is not enough to collect good deeds — we must follow Christ every day
We, Christians, sometimes have to review our spiritual life. We cannot collect good works, hoping that because of them, we will receive some privilege in the eyes of the Lord. Maybe in the eyes of people — yes, but in the eyes of God — no. We must follow Christ every day. The Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, said in his sermon to the faithful in the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv on the 12th Sunday after the Pentecost.
Speaking about eternal life, the preacher drew attention to the fact that it cannot be obtained in the same way as we have anything, as we have any knowledge or any good that belongs to this created world.
“To have eternal life — the Head of the Church convinces — means to live the life of God himself. It is not enough to rely only on our own, even on the good deeds we need to do. To be perfect, that is, to live the divine life given to us, we must believe in God.”
“A kind of revolution in relations with the world, with oneself is necessary, which takes place after a fundamental change in a person’s relationship with God. A person must believe that after leaving everything he has until now, he will receive everything he has and who God is! Faith in Christ, in which we follow Him, opens the door to eternal life. And then everything changes: our good deeds, fulfillment of the Law, and God’s commandments are only a manifestation, a testimony of that eternity, which a believing person already carries inside. A person becomes a partaker not only of eternal life but a partaker of God’s action in the next world. And that is why the life of a Christian becomes a testimony, a testimony about the eternal life that the Lord wants to give us as a gift, a gift of his love and mercy,” the Primate assumes.
To believe in God, His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized, means to trust Him completely, to be sure that the treasure that we will have as a treasure in heaven, which Christ tells us about today, is more realistic than what I have in my hands today.
According to him, Blessed Sviatoslav saw the fulfillment of those Gospel words in a small parish in the Cherkasy region, where congregation were collecting funds to start the construction of the temple. With the beginning of the war, the volunteers came to the priest of the church and asked for building blocks the congregation had bought for the construction. They needed them to block the aerodrome. Firstly, the priest was dithering, but after the volunteer said that no one would need the church if there were no Ukraine, the priest gave it all.
Interestingly, this parish, the Head of the UGCC added, humanly speaking, took place in a new way. The yard is empty, there is nothing except a small chapel, but there is a vibrant community of people ready to give everything they have to prove their faith — faith in God and faith in Ukraine.
