“People who live there are of the utmost importance to us” — Head of the UGCC on why Ukraine’s victory means the liberation of all occupied territories
Many people worldwide wonder why Ukrainians believe that Ukraine’s victory will come with the liberation of our entire native land. They don’t understand because they don’t see that we do not care that much about the resources that have already been destroyed or exhausted there but about the people who live there. People! The sons and daughters of Ukraine, who day and night beg the Lord for salvation, emphasized the Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, during a sermon on Sunday of the Prodigal Son, on February 12, at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv.
In his sermon, the Primate explained the parable of the prodigal son or merciful Father, which is the apex of the Gospel message about the loving Father. This parable reveals the tragedy of the relationship between God and man and reveals a crisis of values.
“A crisis of values means that the son loved his father’s property more than his father himself. How often it happens that we, living in this world, value things more than people. It should be the other way around. We should love people and use things. Yet, unfortunately, we often love things and use people,” the preacher said.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav recalled that today the Church of Christ also celebrates the feast of the Three Saints: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. John Chrysostom. These three saints were voices of the Holy Trinity, one in nature but in three persons. They taught us that the embrace of God the Father could be seen in the most elevated perceptible way in the open arms of the crucified Christ the Savior,” said the hierarch.
The Head of the UGCC emphasized that the war in Ukraine did not begin when guns started firing and Russians launched missiles and bombs, but rather when the Russian aggressor began to dehumanize Ukraine, saying that there are no such people, there is a territory, there are no such people there is a resource.
“The outbreak of war started with a crisis of values when those who believe that they determine the destiny of nations, rather love things and use people to achieve their low, lustful, criminal goals,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized.
Ukrainians, who believe that Ukraine’s victory will come with the liberation of all the temporarily occupied territories, he explained that they are not so much bothered about resources as about the people who live there. “Can a father’s heart be still when his sons and daughters are held captive in a foreign land?” the Primate added.
“Today, this Sunday, let us pray that each of us may rest in the arms of our heavenly Father. When we hear the word ‘God,’ we imagine a Father with his arms open, a Father who cares for his child, for the most precious thing he has. When we have sinned and fallen, let us feel that Someone is waiting for us and loves us even when we have wasted all He has given us. Let the words of the Father be the saying of Ukraine’s victory today: ‘My son who was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found,’ wished the Head of the UGCC.
The UGCC Department for Information
