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Sermon excerpts on the Ukraine-Russia conflict by His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of Kyiv-Halych, father and head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
March 12, 2022: Day 17
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Today is March 12, 2022, and Ukraine is already experiencing the seventeenth day of this horrific war. War is always a defeat for humanity. War is always a time when human dignity is degraded. In the fight for peace, one can attain everything; when starting a war, one can lose everything.
Today in Ukraine we are witnessing a tremendous disregard for human dignity. When we lose our humanity, we become dehumanized. Those who start wars become less human. Those who kill others first and foremost destroy the humanity within themselves, and destroy their own human dignity. What can we, as Christians, propose in exchange for such denigration of the human person during this war in Ukraine?
First of all, we must undertake acts of mercy and do everything possible to show respect for the dignity of the human person. Let us pray for the Ukrainian army that is defending and confirming this dignity. Let us pray for the civilian population of Ukraine, for our refugees, for those who have stayed behind in besieged cities and villages without water, food, or warmth. We remember them and want to help them. Ukraine is fighting for humanitarian corridors, for making it possible to rescue the human person, out of respect for that person’s dignity—regardless of language, ethnicity, or church affiliation. Today in Ukraine a war is being waged for the dignity of the human person.
During this war, we have been faced with yet another great challenge, which involves disrespect of the dignity of the human person. As we know, burial of the dead is one of the corporal works of mercy toward the body of one’s neighbour. That is why we find it disturbing that the Russian aggressors who have invaded Ukrainian lands do not respect the bodies of their own dead. They do not wish to honour those who have died in Ukraine. Our volunteers, good people, wish to return the bodies of the Russian dead, but no one is in any rush to receive them in order to bury them with dignity.
In Ukraine we are seeing mountains of corpses, rivers of blood, and seas of tears. With pain in our hearts, we see thousands of people being buried in besieged cities, without prayer, without Christian respect, and without Christian burial, in enormous, unmarked mass graves. According to official statistics, in Mariupol alone almost one and a half thousand peaceful inhabitants died in the last few days and were buried in common mass graves. Christians are to show respect to those killed, be they military or civilians. Our people have met the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers on bended knee when they are returned to their towns, villages, and families.
That is why I call upon all our priests and faithful in Ukraine and throughout the world to pray the memorial services for the dead this Saturday, as a sign of respect for those who have been killed on the lands of Ukraine as a result of this barbaric and horrific war. Today, let us pray for those over whom church bells did not ring, and who were laid in mass graves without anyone to mourn them. Let us pray for those over whom Christian prayers for the deceased were not said. Let us express our compassion for the bodies of the dead and in so doing preserve the person and human dignity in Ukraine. May their memory be everlasting!
May the blessing of the Lord be upon you through his grace and love for mankind, always, now, and forever, and for ages of ages.
Amen.
October 13, 2022: Day 232
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Here, for us Christians, a new side opens up, a new dimension of the power of prayer. Prayer helps us find meaning in the midst of our pain. Whoever calls out to God in the midst of pain begins to better understand and realize his pain and begins to rule over it. Prayer combines many elements of resilience that we have already mentioned. [One is] gratitude, the opportunity to see your own situation a little from another perspective, from the side, to recognize our own limitations. Prayer reminds us of the meaning of human life and our purpose, our vocation, and our dignity as children of God. May the Lord God, who is present with us and with us in the midst of our pain and suffering, be our strength and the source of our stability. May our prayer become strength in the midst of pain and suffering. [It is] the power that will bring victory over fears, over pain, over evil, and final victory over our enemy who comes today to kill us.
December 21, 2022: Day 301
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Again today, I want us all to think together, to pray for, and to support our Ukrainian youth. But today, let’s listen to what the Ukrainian youth dream of, what they aspire to. Actually, what they are competing for today. And listening to our girls and boys, the first thing that catches their eyes, what lies in their hearts, is their desire to live in freedom from violence. Amid the war, which is simply the apogee of violence, humiliation of human life, and denial of the right to human life, our youth yearns for peace. Real peace, not a reconciliation of some ideas, but a real peace, which is freedom from violence, as one young girl aptly explained to me.
We Christians know what peace is above all, an inalienable attribute of God. But peace is also a task for us humans. We are now, preparing for Christmas, truly expecting the birth of the one whom the prophet Isaiah called the Prince of Peace. Because the angel announces him, saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will among men” (Luke 2:14). Anyone who tries to achieve peace without God forgets that we no longer live in paradise, but we are sinners. There is no real peace, the peace that young people long for, without God. The absence of peace on earth is a sign that the unity between God and humanity is broken. The history of mankind is characterized by violence, divisions, and bloodshed as great wounds of human separation from divine peace, the separation of man from God, who is the source of peace.
But people yearn for the peace they lost because of sin. Today we must honestly say to ourselves: in seeking peace, humanity is silently seeking God. That is why the apostle Paul says that Christ is our peace. Striving to live in freedom from violence, our youth yearn for God’s closeness. Our youth, seeking peace, are waiting for the coming of the Prince of Peace. Let’s all work together in Ukraine, in the settlements; let’s help our youth realize their dreams in the context of the universal church, the global community. Let’s build peace together as a life in freedom from violence, violence in any of its manifestations: mental, psychological, physical, financial. Violence of one person against another in different stages of a person’s life, violence in our homes, on the street, in our schools, at work. Let us pray for the peace that is always stronger than any war—the peace that will come to us from the restored unity of man with God in the person of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
O God, bless Ukraine! O God, bless our defenders of peace, who are our warriors. For every just Christian warrior is one who defends peace, who ultimately lays down his life at the front. O God, bless our Motherland with your just, heavenly peace! May the blessing of the Lord be upon you through his grace and love for mankind, always, now and ever, and for ages of ages. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ!
January 7, 2023: Day 318
Christ is born!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
The Nativity of Christ, this great Christian holiday, is the celebration of the coming into the world of the birth in human nature of our God, the Creator and Saviour. This holiday, which we Christians celebrate, gives a very important answer to eternal human aspirations. The desire for good, peace, and harmony. Good as the fullness of life. Christmas in the Christian tradition is imbued with an inalienable spirit of newness. Liturgical texts time and time again convey to the faithful the joyful news that Christ came to renew everything. We carol that “a new joy has arisen that never was before.” Sometimes we say that since the beginning of the war we have all become different. Ukraine and the world have changed forever. But in fact the central event of the history of the entire created world is the Nativity of Christ. From this moment the whole of history is divided into two parts: before the Nativity of Christ and after the Nativity of Christ. And real novelty, real renewal comes from the birth of God in human flesh.
If we delve deeper into the atmosphere of the feast, expressed in its prayers and hymnography, then there are three very important aspects of the renewal of God, the renewal of man and the whole world, and the renewal of history. If God becomes man, his divine person, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, becomes what he was not, as our liturgical texts say. That is, while remaining God, he accepts the fullness of human nature. Why? Christ is born in order to revive us humans. He humbles himself to raise us up. That’s why he becomes a baby to renew us. Thus, in Christ are met, on the one hand, the divine initiative to save and renew his creation and, on the other hand, the tireless desire of man to create and discover newness. When we experience something new, we have the feeling that we are living, we are developing. The renewal of man and the whole world is only in embryonic form, as an embryo that wants to develop in our hearts and through our hands.
It is important to realize that for Christians the concept of newness is not a concept but a reality. A person renewed in Christ has the proper strength, energy, and ability to fill history with a new spirit, in the spirit of goodness, love, and justice. That renewal can sometimes be compared with some kind of enlightenment in a person. We see that if we do not have access to a source of light, we live in darkness. If we have this ever-present eternal generator of energy, then we are not afraid of the dark. We can shine even in the darkest night. And so Christians who celebrate Christmas have this unique opportunity, that secret to restore their glow, because they are rejoining the source of life. And in this way they are renewed and reborn in the birth of the Saviour.
I heartily greet all of you on this great feast! I wish you to deeply experience this spirit of renewal, which flows to us from this poor manger. The spirit of strength and optimism that this little child of God, who rests in the manger on the hay, gives us today. A small child, whom the Most Pure Virgin Mary holds close to her heart. To all of you, dear ones in Christ, may the newborn Christ grant all goodness, heavenly light, strength, and courage to survive all troubles. May he bless our long-suffering Ukrainian land with his just, heavenly peace! Happy holidays to all of us and a blessed, happy, and victorious new year! May the blessing of the Lord be upon you through his grace and love for mankind, always, now and ever, and for ages of ages. Amen. Christ is born! Glorify him!
