From His Beatitude Sviatoslav in Rome: “They don’t understand why we fight, but they will understand us when we win”
Let us not be afraid and not get discouraged when someone today does not understand us, does not understand why Ukrainians don’t give up, but fight. One triumphant European politician of the 20th century said: “You must be the first to win, and then everyone will understand you.” His Beatitude Sviatoslav said on Sunday, November 6, during the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in Rome, which began his working visit to the Apostolic capital.
Pondering the Gospel of the day, which is about the rich man and Lazarus, His Beatitude Sviatoslav touched on the topic of the existence of God.
The question arises, where is God?! This question constantly torments and burns every Ukrainian who today is looking for meaning in the most insane reality, which is war.
“This is the question,” said the Head of the Church, “one little girl asked her mother in Mariupol: mother, where is God when a bomb is falling on us?” Mother, where is God? The question that everyone asks themselves when they see those who suffered from this war, those from whom the enemy took everything, those whose house went to ashes before their eyes, and their entire previous life with it. Where is God when you look at the mass burials of young women and children with their hands tied? You ask God, where are you?”
And today, the Archbishop continued, God answers us in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus: I am where no one expected to see Me. I am with those who want to kill and deny the right to exist today.
“That is why we can say today: God is in the body of the Ukrainian people, who, like that Lazarus, reach out to the world, sometimes asking for that tiny bit of humanitarian aid or other things. The people to whom God gave the right to exist and live. And no one can take that right away from us. God is wounded whenever shelling falls on Kyiv citizens’ heads and residents of Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Kherson. His wounds can be seen in the wounds of our soldiers,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
And when we, the Head of the Church emphasized, want to ask ourselves today what is our strength, the strength of stability, the invincibility of Ukraine, which surprises the whole world God helps his Lazarus. Moreover, the Lord opens before us, Ukrainians, the prospects of our life and existence as God’s people far beyond the limits of only death.
“That is why we are not afraid of death because Christ defeated it!” the Patriarch emphasized.
“Let us not worry,” urged the Primate, “when someone does not understand the sense of our pain, suffering, since those who suffer are never understood. Let us not get tired! But every time you find yourself in difficult circumstances in life, ask yourself, where is God in those circumstances? And you will see that God is much closer than you think. Even when you carry wounds on your body — the scars of Ukraine, the wounds of our people, with the Apostle Paul, we can say: ‘From now on, let no onegiveme trouble, for I carrythe scars of the Lord Jesus in my body.’”
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