Homily of His Beatitude Sviatoslav at the Enthronement of Archbishop and Metropolitan Michael Kwiatkowski in Winnipeg, Canada
Homily of His Beatitude Sviatoslav at the enthronement of Archbishop and Metropolitan Michael Kwiatkowski on the 24th Sunday after Pentecost in Winnipeg, Canada.
“You make Your angels spirits, and Your ministers a flaming fire”
Psalm 103 (104), 4
Your Excellency, the Apostolic Nuncio to Canada!
Your Graces, Archbishops and Bishops!
Our distinguished Orthodox brothers, Metropolitan Hilarion and Metropolitan-emeritus Yuriy, who are with us here today!
Most Reverend and Reverend Fathers, Reverend Monks and Nuns!
Distinguished representatives of the Government of Canada, the Honourable Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, and representatives of the City of Winnipeg!
Most Esteemed Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada!
Distinguished representatives of Ukrainian community associations and organizations across Canada!
Distinguished Ukrainian community in this blessed Canadian land!
Honoured guests and participants in today’s celebration!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
Glory to Jesus Christ!
The Gospel words that we have just heard proclaim Christ, God incarnate, who hastens to meet the human person (Luke 8:41–56). The Gospel passage can be divided, broadly speaking, into three parts: the plea of a father named Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, and Jesus’ immediate response; the healing of a woman who had suffered from haemorrhages for twelve years; and the raising of Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter, who had died while Jesus was on His way to her.
Yet these three episodes, seemingly distinct at first glance, are united and brought together by one single statement: “Do not be afraid; just believe” (Luke 8:50).
This is one story about faith encountering human hopelessness; about the power of God, which first reaches out to the one who believes; and about the Word of God proclaiming resurrection even when hope itself has died!
Saint Cyril of Alexandria draws our attention to the fact that, in this event, Jesus is asked to do what the human person is no longer capable of doing. Jairus, as the leader of a community of believers, understands very well that no human being can save his child. The woman suffering from haemorrhages has spent all her possessions on physicians, yet no one has been able to heal her. Even those who were mourning the dead child mocked the Saviour when He told them, “Do not weep!”
Yet the very heart of these events lies in the fact that the One who hastens to meet the human person is not a rescuer, a physician, or an ordinary human teacher. The Lord Himself, the Life-Giver, has come to meet us! He heals the sick woman and raises the dead girl precisely because He Himself is Life and Resurrection. That is why Saint Cyril says: “Only the supreme divine nature can give life to the dead” (Homily 44 on the Gospel of Luke).
Let us, however, take note of another very important detail. As Christ makes His way through the crowd, the Evangelist seems to contrast two different ways in which a person in need approaches Jesus. We hear that the crowd is pressing in around Him. When the Saviour stops and begins asking who has touched Him, Peter does not understand the question and says: “Master, the crowds are surrounding You and pressing in on You!” (Luke 8:45).
But the Lord is speaking about an entirely different kind of touch. He is not referring to physical contact or the pressure of the crowd, but to a spiritual touch through faith, which makes it possible for the fullness of God’s power to be poured out upon that person. He says: “Someone touched Me; for I noticed that power had gone out from Me” (Luke 8:46).
In the entire crowd, there was only one person who truly believed! She touched only the fringe of the Saviour’s garment but, in reality, her faith made it possible for the Lord Himself to touch the very depths of her affliction, the very condition that rendered her ritually unclean and excluded her from the worshipping community of the synagogue.
“Daughter, your faith has made you whole; go in peace” (Luke 8:48). These words about salvation and peace, about resurrection and life, are addressed to each one of us today. Today, and especially in this Divine Liturgy, the Lord is in our midst. Perhaps even now we press upon Him with our petitions and needs, perhaps we crowd around Him during various large-scale church celebrations and gatherings.
Today, just as that woman suffering from haemorrhages once did, we too can touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment through the liturgical symbols and sacred actions of our divine services. But Jesus is searching among us for a person of genuine faith: someone who will invite Him into their life, someone who, like Jairus, will reveal before Him the full depth of their pain, and who, like that believing woman, will reach out to Him in faith.
Only the person who believes and opens before Jesus not merely the doors of their home or their hidden desires, but their very heart of faith, inviting Him to touch the depths of their entire being — soul, spirit, and body — through the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit, can truly encounter Him. Faith is not simply some religious conviction of ours. It is our complete openness and trust in the touch of the One who has authority over life and death.
Human hopelessness mocks us and says: “It is all over.” But Christ says to you and to me: “Child, arise!” (Luke 8, 54)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel and all the bodiless heavenly powers. He, the commander of the heavenly hosts, is the heavenly patron of the city of Kyiv! Angels and archangels, our heavenly patrons and protectors, whom Sacred Scripture calls God’s messengers are not merely bearers of “information”. They are not some kind of “messengers” in the sense of today’s social media communication networks. They are bearers of divine power, witnesses to God’s intervention in the history of humanity and in the life of each individual person. It is precisely this witness that reveals their true identity.
When, on February 24, 2022, Russian forces advanced towards Kyiv within a matter of hours, many people told me that they had experienced the presence of Saint Michael above us, accompanied by the entire heavenly army, which had come to the aid of Ukraine’s defenders! The very fact that we are here among you today, that I am alive and standing here among you, is a testimony to the power of God, brought to us by the heavenly hosts precisely at the moment when human efforts seemed destined for defeat.
Today, on this very day and on this great feast, the Lord is sending His Michael to the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada, and particularly to the Archeparchy of Winnipeg! An ancient Christian tradition calls the bishop the angel of his Church. He stands in prayer before the face of God, together with all the choirs of angels, interceding for his people.
Through the power and action of the Holy Spirit, he is the chief herald of God’s Word and the minister of the Holy Mysteries of Christ’s Church, through which the power of Life and Resurrection is bestowed upon people in our own time. He is the chief evangelizer and catechist, a teacher of Christian piety and prayer, and a witness to faith, hope, and love.
Yet the ministry of the Metropolitan of our Church in Canada has its own particular characteristics. The Metropolitan is a servant of communion! He is a servant and builder of Christ’s unity: the unity of the human person with God, the unity among our eparchies and parishes throughout Canada, and the unity of our Church in this blessed country with our Mother Church in Ukraine. This communion is lived out in unity with Peter in our time, His Holiness Pope Leo.
Dear Metropolitan Michael!
When our Synod was discerning God’s will and asking whom He wished to appoint as the Angel of our Metropolitan See in Canada, as a servant of universal communion and a teacher of faith in God for our people, He pointed to you!
He pointed to His beloved Michael, whose heart the Holy Spirit has been warming and shaping over so many years: through the highest levels of theological studies in Rome, through your ministry at the Ukrainien Catholic University in Lviv, and through all the paths of spiritual experiences across the vast land of Canada. And so, today, our entire Church rejoices with you and sings: Axios! You are worthy!
I would also like to express special words of gratitude for many years of dedicated service to His Excellence Metropolitan Lawrence Huculak. Dear Metropolitan Lawrence, your name has been inscribed in golden letters in the history of our Church. Please accept from all of us our profound respect and gratitude. May the Lord bless you with good health and renew your strength, granting you many more years of service to our Church and our people!
Today we pray to the Lord: “You make Your angels spirits, and Your ministers a flaming fire” (Psalm 103 (104):4)! Bless our Church in Canada. Take Metropolitan Michael under Your protection and endow him with the heavenly power of the grace of the Holy Spirit! Lord, bring the war in Ukraine to an end! Send Your Archangel Michael, together with all the heavenly hosts, to defend Your faithful people, our armed forces, and our Church! All you holy martyrs, pray to God for us! Most Holy Mother of God, save us!
† SVIATOSLAV
