The Cross of the Lord, where we, as a nation are crucified today, is the key to our glorification and victory, — His Beatitude Sviatoslav on Sunday before the Exaltation
The whole world is wondering today: where do Ukrainians have the strength to resist? We answer Ukrainians, love! They are strong because they love their land, Motherland, and people! We are firm in our love, which we draw from the ever-flowing source of Divine love, which is given to us through the honest and life-giving Cross. That is why it is so vital in the conditions of war to understand that the cross can be both the greatest humiliation and pain and the moment of exaltation and glorification.
The Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, said during his sermon on Sunday before the Exaltation in the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ.
The preacher noted that today we find the answer to two questions: what does the Lord’s Cross mean for Christians of all times and nations, and what did God say to the world and people at the time of His Son’s crucifixion on the cross?
According to him, this Sunday, we hear a fragment of Jesus Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus, in which Christ names three central truths about himself, revealing the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.
First, in the entire mission of Jesus Christ, we see two movements: descent and ascent. The Lord’s Cross is the apex of the descent, the beginning of salvation, and the return of man with the Son of God to heavenly glory.
The second truth, the bishop continued, is the heart of the Christian gospel because it tells us that all this happens because God loved the world. These words are, as they were, a summary of the Gospel of Christ.
And the third thought is incredibly profound: God does not give his Son to condemn us, show us how sinful we are, or expose our unworthiness of God’s love, no! “God does not want to condemn us. On the contrary, he wants to save us,” the Head of the UGCC emphasized.
These three truths, which today’s Gospel reveals in the sacrament of the Lord’s Cross, are, according to the Patriarch, incredibly life-giving for us today in the conditions of war. “The Cross of the Lord, on which we, as a nation, are crucified today, is the key to our glory and victory!” he emphasized.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav recalled that on the last Sunday of September our Church celebrates the Catechist’s Day and congratulated all the catechists of the UGCC on this holiday.
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