Head of the UGCC on Bright Monday: Let us meet the resurrected Christ in a vibrant community of believers!
To celebrate the feast of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ means to have the opportunity to experience a meeting with the Risen One, as His disciples did two thousand years ago in Jerusalem. I therefore congratulate you on this holiday. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the UGCC, addressed the faithful with these words during his sermon on May 6, on Holy Monday.
On the patronal feast day of the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, His Beatitude Sviatoslav greeted the parishioners of the cathedral and thanked all those who create a community of Christ’s disciples in this place. “If you are looking for someone you can truly rely on, someone who is always your friend, someone from whom you can expect real help, Christ is here for you, in particular in the community of believers of our Resurrection Cathedral,” the Patriarch emphasized.
During the sermon, the Primate elaborated on the meaning and depth of the Paschal mystery and explained that Easter is not just a celebration of customs and traditions. It is a sacrament that reveals to us the depth of God’s love.
He noted that Pascha can be described in three key words: encounter, relationship, and life.
The encounter with the resurrected Christ is the core of the holiday. “Easter is a moment of meeting many different realities: the old and the new, the mortal and the immortal, what passes away and what remains,” explained the Head of the UGCC and added: “And most importantly, it is a moment of meeting between God and man.”
Pascha leads to new relationships: with God and between people. His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted that these relationships are based on love, forgiveness, and mutual assistance. “Pascha is a relationship between those who seek God and those who have found Him. Pascha is the sacrament of meeting and the sacrament of the consequences of this meeting, because a meeting always leads to relationships,” explained the Head of the Church.
According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Easter is a celebration of life that conquers death: “This is a celebration of life – life over which even death has no more power. This is the life that flows from the resurrected victorious Christ the Savior, who overcame death by death. And he gave life even to those who were in the graves.” The Apostle Paul said that Christ is our Pascha because He is everything to everyone; He is life.
In addition, the Father and Head of the UGCC emphasized that while the war in Ukraine has destroyed many relationships between people, the Resurrection of Christ gives us hope for restoration and healing.
“We feel His presence with us; He is the one inviting us today to build this relationship with Him, to meet Him. Today, He travels with us even on the military roads of Ukraine to revive us, preventing death from swallowing us up in our circumstances,” the archbishop emphasized.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav proposed to reflect on the special relationship of the Paschal Mystery in the relationship between mother and son, as May is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who became the source of human life for our God and experienced the tragedy of a mother whose son was killed.
At the end of the Liturgy on the occasion of the feast day, the Father and Head of the UGCC introduced the new administrator of the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv. The new administrator is Fr. Andriy Bodnaruk, head of the press bureau of the Kyiv Archeparchy of the UGCC, who until now was the administrator of the parish of Borys and Hlib of the UGCC in Pozniaky in Kyiv. Hieromonk Nikanor Loik had served as the administrator of the main shrine of the UGCC for 13 years.
The UGCC Department for Information
