Met. Luke: The passing year showed fortitude of common believers and clergy

Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol. Photo: the press service of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy

The bitter betrayal committed by those who until recently have been considered the pillars of the Church has shown the whole world the steadfastness of ordinary believers and clergy who, in the face of real danger for themselves and their families, continue to carry the banner of the Orthodox faith. Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol wrote about this in his Christmas message addressed to pastors, monastics, Cossacks and all the God-loving children of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy.

“Until recently, for many of us, the world seemed something ordinary, common, something that we used to take for granted, like sunrise and sunset, like green grass or blue sky,” the hierarch said in a message posted on the eparchy’s site. “It is evident that, because of our sins and neglect, the Lord took this gift of His from us, and we, seeing all the troubles and discord, ask the question of the Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt: “Where is the peace on earth announced by angels? Where is the peace brought by the God-man to the earth? Where is the peace proclaimed in the Gospel and the sermon of the apostles, carried by them from end to end of the earth, between all nations and kingdoms? It does not exist in the world: the whole world lies in wickedness (1 John 5: 19).”

Metropolitan Luke noted that “alas, we are all involved in one way or another” in the sin of evil.

“And when we sin, we multiply evil in the world,” he explained. “Sometimes, as it seems to us, we do not sin at all, or sin a little, however here we also contribute to the spread of evil since it’s not enough not to sin, we must also strive to do good, to succeed in virtues. We should appeal to the Lord day and night for the forgiveness of our sins, for peace in the Church, for peace in our long-suffering Ukrainian land. But what do we see? It is thundering, but we are not in a hurry to cross ourselves.”

According to the bishop, the feast of the Nativity of Christ opens a bright series of days.

“Unfortunately, the passing year of 2019 not only did not become a year of peace and harmony, on the contrary, it will be inscribed in the history of the Church of Christ as a sad year in which new depths of betrayal were revealed to all of us, as the year when the lines of division deepened on the body of united, as it has seemed to us recently, world Orthodoxy,” he emphasized. “Unfortunately, those who are vested with high and pompous titles and ranks and were supposed to heal the schism only worsened it.”

However, Vladyka Luke noted, “no matter how bitter the betrayal of those whom we’ve recently regarded as pillars of the Church is, it has shown the whole world the steadfastness of you – ordinary laity and clergy who, in the face of real danger for themselves and their сlose people, continue to carry the banner of the Orthodox faith defending their temples and shrines."

“May the Lord give each and every one of you, those who now hear these words, firmness, wisdom to be true soldiers of Christ,” the archpastor addressed the believers of the Zaporizhzhia Eparchy, blessing them “to stand in the truth” and wishing everyone to feel in their life the presence of God, His Fatherly love and care in the coming 2020.

As reported earlier, while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol said that modern forms of persecution, including ridiculing the Christian way of life, are much more effective than the threat of the death penalty.

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