UOC Primate: During Lent, we must fight not each other but the devil

Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC's press service

On March 2, 2025, during the Rite of Forgiveness at the Church of St. Agapitus of the Caves, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry delivered a sermon emphasizing the importance of unity and reconciliation among people in the struggle against the true enemy – the devil. The UOC press service published a video of the sermon on YouTube.

The archpastor reminded the faithful that the forefathers Adam and Eve sinned in Paradise. “Since then, sin has entered human nature and destroyed the rational harmony of all bodily and spiritual forces with which God endowed man. A person began to be at enmity with themselves. This enmity then spread outward – people started fighting with each other and became enemies of God,” he explained.

According to the Primate, sin has the power to destroy and consume a person. “Fasting and abstinence are not a punishment; they are a gift from God, a gift of eternal life. Through fasting, a person restores the harmony of spiritual and bodily forces that sin has disrupted,” he noted.

Metropolitan Onuphry explained the correct way to fast: “We fast physically when we refrain from certain foods and discipline ourselves in our physical lives, and we fast spiritually when we restrain ourselves from evil feelings, evil thoughts, and evil desires. When we practice both physical and spiritual fasting, divine harmony is restored in a person, filling them with peace and joy.”

He also stressed the importance of repentance, which destroys sin, “washes it out of human nature,” and is the condition for receiving God’s forgiveness. “To receive the forgiveness of sins, for our repentance to be effective, we must forgive others for the wrongs they have committed against us,” he said.

His Beatitude placed particular emphasis on the fact that during Great Lent, “we are not fighting against each other, but against the prince of darkness and his spirits.” “To succeed in this struggle, we must be reconciled with one another so that we do not have another war behind our backs. Any division – whether within a person, a family, a state, or the world – weakens whatever it affects,” he emphasized.

At the conclusion of his sermon, the Primate reminded the faithful about the prayer rule for Great Lent, which he blessed them to observe: “During Great Lent, we always take on a small prayer effort. In this fast, we are blessed to read one chapter from the New Testament daily and to make seven prostrations with the Lord’s Prayer for peace in our country. For a deeper spiritual understanding, we also bless the reading of the Gospel of John, the three General Epistles of St. John the Theologian, and the Apocalypse (Revelation) of St. John the Theologian throughout the fast.”

“May the Lord help each of us to worthily observe the days of the Holy Great Fast, so that we may meet the great feast of the Bright Resurrection of Christ in joy and spiritual peace,” wished His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.

Earlier, UOJ reported that, according to the Primate of the UOC, if a person finds God, they have found everything.

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