His blood is on us and our children?
Crucifixion. Photo: Pro-Life
It is very strange to think that a country can be strengthened by mocking the faith of a quarter of its population. But what is even stranger in the current situation is the abundance of historical and biblical symbols that are visible to the naked eye.
August 24 will mark the anniversary of the "St. Bartholomew's Night", when Catholics in France killed over 30,000 Huguenots. In the context of the current persecution of the UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church), which was effectively 'blessed' by Patriarch Bartholomew, such a scenario no longer seems completely unbelievable.
On August 24, Ukraine will celebrate 33 years of its independence – an age at which Christ was crucified. On this anniversary, the authorities have declared the death of the Church.
All these years, the UOC has spiritually nourished and cared for Ukrainians. Since the beginning of the war, it has not only provided spiritual support but also immense financial aid to the Armed Forces, refugees, displaced persons, and simply those in need. As a result of the war, many UOC churches have been destroyed, and soldiers and even children of priests serve and perish in the army.
So why do the authorities want to kill the Church? For the same reason they killed Christ.
In the antiphons of Great Friday, there are these words from the Savior’s perspective:
“My people, what have I done to you, or how have I offended you? I opened the eyes of the blind, cleansed the lepers, and raised a man from the bed. My people, what have I done to you, and what have you repaid Me: for manna – gall, for water – vinegar, instead of love for Me, you have fastened Me to the cross.”
Doesn't the Church have similar questions to address to the current authorities?
The Jews, delivering Christ to death, cried: “His blood be on us and on our children.”
Will it be the same for us?
Read also
The decade of the All-Ukrainian Cross Procession
Today, we look at this footage with mixed emotions: the Lavra has been taken away, religious processions are actually banned, and the Church is being persecuted.
Clergy “busification,” or the routine genocide of Orthodox priests
The video of masked men grabbing a priest by his arms and legs and throwing him into a van shocked many people. It was the first time we had seen a clergyman treated this way with our own eyes.
Advocatus diaboli: when falsehood becomes a virtue
Listening to the rhetoric of Shevchuk and his UCCRO colleagues, one cannot help but think of the famous film starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves – the one in which Reeves’s character discovers that he has been working as an attorney for the devil.
Authorities “open” the Far Caves – whatever they do, nothing works for them
The authorities and the OCU are straining every nerve to make everything look properly “churchlike” – every bit as respectable as under the “Moscow priests.” Yet all they ever produce is a parody with a distinctly Bolshevik stench.
Athonite monks at Dumenko’s Lavra “service”
OCU benefactors paid for the visit of a magnificent Byzantine choir led by the Archon Protopsaltis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
When building a church is banned – is that “freedom of faith”?
In Nychehivka, the authorities unlawfully halted construction of a UOC church on private land.