Head of the UGCC on Christmas: We Found the Newborn Jesus among Children and Elders in a Bomb Shelter
Today we celebrated the morning services of the Nativity of Christ in the crypts of our Patriarchal Cathedral, in a bomb shelter. The Lord called us to go down to the place where people had been taking refuge since yesterday. It is there that the newborn Jesus wanted us to find Him — in the bomb shelter, where He was born among children, the elderly, and women. It was there that we sang for the first time today: “We glorify You, Life-Giving Christ, who for our sake was born in flesh today of the Immaculate and Pure Virgin Mary!”
His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the UGCC, said this on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024, in a sermon during the Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv.
In the face of a massive rocket attack on Ukraine, we began the Christmas Matins in the cathedral’s bomb shelter. After the air raid alert was canceled, the service continued in the church, where the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was celebrated. Bishop Andriy Khimyak, Auxiliary Bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy, Bishop Stepan Sus, Curial Bishop of the Kyiv-Halych Major Archbishop, and the clergy of the cathedral concelebrated with the Head of the Church.
In his Christmas sermon, the Primate noted that this year Ukraine celebrates Christmas “amidst blood and tears” and “amidst the fire from the morning’s massive rocket attack.” Nevertheless, he emphasized that “today the Son of God was born in the body, in suffering, in the hope of the long-suffering and victorious Ukrainian people.”
The preacher emphasized that the essence of the Christmas holiday is that “it is not man who comes to God, but God Himself who came to man.” And all the services on Christmas Eve invited us to take a moment, pause and look at the face of the newborn Savior. “God wanted mankind to know Him through a manifestation of love for each of us. The invisible God becomes visible and known in his acts of love for his people. Today it is happening among us,” the bishop added.
Commenting on the passage of the Christmas Gospel of Matthew 2:1–12, His Beatitude Sviatoslav invited the faithful to take a step into the depths of discovering the mystery of God’s closeness to humanity in the Nativity of Christ. He explained the meaning of the worship of the Magi in today’s passage: “To worship God means to return to the source of our own life, our own being, which nourishes us.”
“Heaven and earth today are leading each of us to Bethlehem so that we can see the place and peson in whom our hope was born today. To see where we derive life, strength and everything that makes us human. Today, to worship Jesus means to derive. For He is the King of the world, to whom the wise men bring gold. In His hands lies all the heavenly and earthly wealth that a person can need,” said the Father and Head of the UGCC.
“Blessed is the one who knows how to worship the newborn Savior today and accept all He brings us today,” he said.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized that today “we rejoice because we have hope.” “We already have with us and in us the One we hope for, but we are still awaiting for this hope to be fully realized. Christ is the hope of Ukraine! That is why today we welcome Him among us, rejoice in Him, because He is our strength, resilience and victory of Ukraine. Our salvation is in Him.”
“To celebrate Christmas today means to learn from our own experience that the light that Christ gives us is mightier than the darkness. Even when this darkness thickens around us, it only makes Christ’s light even brighter. Today the warmth of God’s love envelops every person, every family, because the Lord wants us to hear and feel that He is with us. For today we sing: ‘God is with us!’,” the bishop explained.
First of all, the Primate greeted on Christmas Day “those who are now experiencing the wounds of the morning attack in burning Kharkiv, cities and villages in the South, East and West of Ukraine.”
Then the Head of the UGCC congratulated the defenders of Ukraine, emphasizing: “Just as Christ wanted us to find Him today in a bomb shelter, in the crypt of the Patriarchal Cathedral, so today He wants to be found born and present there, between our defenders in the trenches and dugouts. Where the enemy seeks to sow death, life comes from heaven.”
“May our greetings reach the hospitals, all the wards where our defenders are healing from their wounds; to the internally displaced persons; to those who have lost their relatives, homes, apartments, property; to those whose lives and world have been destroyed by the enemy. May Merry Christmas greetings reach all communities in diaspora: to distant Singapore and Tokyo, to Siberia and Kazakhstan, to the occupied territories and Crimea, to our faithful in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, North America, Western Europe and to the ends of the earth—wherever the Ukrainian heart beats,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav continued.
“Lord, please come to us today! Bestow upon us your joy and bless our land with your heavenly, just peace! I wish all of you a merry Christmas, a blessed Jubilee Year of Hope, which Pope Francis solemnly opened yesterday in the Eternal City with the opening of the Holy Doors,” said the Head of the UGCC.
“May this New Year, which we are entering, bring us victory, peace, the end of the war and everything that the Ukrainian heart prays to the newborn Savior for today. Let us share our joy and fill each other with optimism. May the Nativity of Christ be a moment of renewal, rebirth and strength of our Motherland,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav wished.
In the end, His Beatitude Sviatoslav asked everyone to sing the carol “New Joy Has Come” together so that “heaven opens wide and hell shudders.”
The UGCC Department for Information
