“Today Is the Beginning of Our Salvation!”: Head of the UGCC on the Annunciation
Today, humanity is being renewed, as Jesus Christ, the progenitor of the new humanity, is conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In her virginity, she becomes not only the Mother of the Son of God but also of all those who believe in this Sacrament. Today, the Lord bestows on the new humanity a new Eve, the Mother of all living. This was stated by the Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, during a sermon at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation.
“Today, the Church of Christ celebrates a significant holiday, one of the greatest in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the Feast of the Annunciation,” said the preacher.
To delve deeper into the greatness of the Feast of the Annunciation, His Beatitude Sviatoslav drew a parallel between two events: the Archangel Gabriel’s announcement to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would become the Mother of the Son of God, and Moses’ divine calling to liberate the Israelite people from Egyptian slavery. Both Moses and Mary responded positively to the Lord’s call.
The Primate also noted that there are only two persons in the entire universe, in heaven and on earth, who can say “Son” to God: The Heavenly Father, who reveals his paternity in the Feast of the Annunciation, and the only person, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who accepts the Son of God as her own son. Since the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, a new stage of human salvation has begun, the bishop affirmed.
“In this moment of consent, the eternal saving virgin’s ‘yes’ to the word of the archangel’s power, God becomes human. The Holy Spirit descends on Her right then. The action of another person of the Holy Trinity emerges. The Father reveals his fatherhood. The Son of God becomes the son of the Virgin, and the Holy Spirit completes this Sacrament. Today is the beginning of our salvation,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized.
The preacher noted that the Church and the faithful people are the womb in which the Lord always desires to continue the incarnation of His Son: “Today, on this holiday, each of us is invited to examine to what extent I embody God’s Word, my faith, in my daily personal actions. Only when I open myself to God’s Word will the Holy Spirit find its place and dwelling in me. And what is impossible with people will become possible with me through the active presence of the Power of God.”
Quoting St. Pope John Paul II, the Head of the Church, emphasized that there is no Christian testimony in the world so long as Christians only listen to the word of God but refuse to fulfill it.
“How essential it is that a mother who hears the good news of the commencement of a new life in her womb speaks out: ‘My child, my son, my daughter,’ and accepts this life, builds a life-giving relationship with her child,” the bishop noted and added: “Only then will the power of the grace of this good news change the lives of the mother, father, family, and the whole nation.”
“The Most Holy Virgin Mary, the voice of our people’s cry and lamentation has reached the ears of God our Father and Savior through your prayers. May our people be saved by the Word of our God the Father, His Son, who is incarnated in the body of the Ukrainian people by the power and action of the Holy Spirit,” concluded the Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
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