The death of the one who takes up the sword

Parubiy at the Euromaidan. Photo: BBC

On August 30 in Lviv, former speaker Andriy Parubiy was killed. Though he was a Uniate, he played a very significant role in the events surrounding Ukrainian Orthodoxy over the past ten years. And it is difficult to call this role positive.

In 2016, on behalf of the Rada, he wrote an appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew requesting the granting of autocephaly to the “Orthodox Church in Ukraine.” In 2018, he wrote a second appeal to Bartholomew.

On December 15, 2018, together with Poroshenko, Andriy Parubiy took part in the so-called “unification council” of the UOC-KP and UAOC, which resulted in the creation of the OCU.

On December 20, Parubiy pushed through the vote on the law forcing the UOC to be renamed as the “ROC in Ukraine.”

In fact, Parubiy’s efforts became the foundation on which the current authorities expanded persecution of the UOC to its present scale.

And the politician never concealed that his actions were directed at the destruction of the UOC – and likely not only the UOC.

Euromaidan, Odesa, the breaking of “bad” Ukrainian society and the violent imposition of a “good” one. The cultivation of hatred and violence against all Ukrainians whom Parubiy and his ideological allies considered conditional “Moskals.” OUN-UPA 2.0.

And then everything suddenly changed. Only yesterday you were brandishing your saber, and today – you stand before the face of God.

And all that furious struggle for your political ideals, the battles with “Moscow priests” and the rest – in an instant became worthless and of no account.

We by no means gloat, and we wish Andriy Parubiy “a good answer at the dread judgment seat of Christ.” Yet every death is a moment for each of us to look back and ask: am I walking in the right direction? And if tomorrow – the end of all things?

Are all the present political victories, the violence and the hatred toward “enemies” from Parubiy, Farion, and their like-minded allies worth the terrible risk to which a God-opposer exposes himself after death?

“Put your sword back into its place,” Christ said to Peter. “For all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.”

But Peter drew his sword to defend God. And for what are the Parubiys brandishing their swords?

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