“Not to yield to hatred and transform it into courage by the power of God’s love is the secret of Ukraine’s victory”: His Beatitude Sviatoslav
There is so much hatred during the war! Today, when Ukrainians hear some positive word from the Pope about Russia, they burst out in pain — how can we talk about a great nation that has sunk to the depravity of an ideology, even preached in the Church, that speaks of the destruction of millions of Ukrainians? Where is the greatness of that nation? We are so sorely hurt by what we are experiencing in Ukraine today, but the word of love, even for enemies, is the secret of true victory. And we experience this in Ukraine every day.
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This was stated by the Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, on Sunday, October 8, during the Divine Liturgy at the General House of the Sisters Servants in Rome, which he visited at the invitation of the Superior General, Sister Sofia Lebedovych.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted that we live in times when words change their meaning. When someone speaks of peace in Ukraine, we always clarify what they mean as it must be just peace, God’s peace, which corresponds to truth and dignity.
“But perhaps the word that was most quickly dishonored, despised, stripped of its true meaning, and traded is — love. Everyone speaks about it: we must love God and our neighbor. We know that this is the main commandment in the Law. All the Holy Scriptures can be narrowed down to these two words: love God and love your neighbor. But what does this mean? What do Christians understand by the word love, especially when we say that God is Love?” said the Patriarch.
God loves man and gives him everything, though He does not demand anything back. True love is always sacrificial, even to the point of complete self-sacrifice. We sometimes ask: God, why did you give us so many enemies?
His Beatitude Sviatoslav noted how the nobleness and benevolence of the Ukrainian people moved him. He recalled with what respect Ukrainians treated the bodies of the killed Russians when dozens of railroad cars with the bodies of the dead were standing on the Russian-Ukrainian border after the liberation of the northern regions of Ukraine, and the Russian side did not want to take them.
“To love, a person has to be loved, and we, Christians, understand and can give love to others because God always generously sends it to us,” the bishop emphasized.
He said it is easy to love your homeland when everything goes well, when it is prosperous, and you can take a lot from it when it takes care of you and when it will give you everything you need. But it is difficult to love your homeland when it is robbed, destroyed, and bleeding. And thus, he once again explained the meaning of love for enemies.
“Sometimes, when we hear about the love of enemies, we think that loving an enemy means consenting to his crimes, praising him for what he is. At the Pontifical Synod, we sometimes hear the phrase ‘l’accoglienza estrema,’ that is, to accept all sinners of the whole world. It is a nice idea, but to accept, to love a sinner, to introduce him into the community of believers, first of all, means to want him to be saved, to want him to convert, so that he leaves his sin, does not perish in it, but lives and receives eternal life. The Lord speaks to his people through the prophet Ezekiel: ‘Say to them: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!’ This means loving your enemies completely,” said the Patriarch.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav congratulated the sisters who joined the newly elected General Chapter of the Congregation of Sisters Servants, and especially Sister Sofia on her new cadence.
“Sisters, you have accepted the highest government of your congregation in a time of fierce struggle. The Lord God asks you to love generously! It is so simple yet so difficult. It is so small and yet so big. You have to love a lot to love modern people who do not understand either God or the word of the Gospel of Christ. You have to love people who sometimes hate the Church, whether in Canada, Brazil, Poland, Italy, or Ukraine. To love a lot those people who are wounded by the war. Because only true love heals, this is what Christ is saying to you today: ‘Be merciful, as our heavenly Father is merciful,’” the Primate urged.
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