His Beatitude: Pure faith is the only path to soul salvation
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC
On March 1, 2026, the first Sunday of Great Lent – the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy – His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, during the Divine Liturgy, addressed the faithful with a sermon on the importance of preserving the purity of the Orthodox faith.
“Just as, for healing, people take the medicines that cure rather than those that taste sweet, so for salvation one must hold fast to pure faith, and not adapt it to one’s passions,” the Primate emphasized. He also stressed: “Where there is human reasoning, there is no God.” In the Archpastor’s words, faith cannot be an object of arbitrary alteration: “If you want to be saved – hold to pure faith and adapt yourself to it, rather than reshape faith to fit yourself.”
Explaining the meaning of the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, His Beatitude recalled that throughout the centuries the Church has withstood heresies and schisms. “Heresy is delusion, a spiritual error,” he said, noting that the Ecumenical Councils were convened to affirm the true teaching about God. “When we venerate an icon, we transfer our veneration to the prototype,” the Primate remarked, speaking of the victory over iconoclasm and the restoration of the veneration of holy images in the ninth century.
Metropolitan Onuphry also recalled that the Church is a “ship of salvation,” founded by Christ “with His precious Blood.” “In the Church the Lord remains with us until the end of the age… In the Church He grants us to partake of His Most Pure Body and to drink His Most Pure Blood,” he said, emphasizing that it is precisely through life in the Church that a person is united to eternal life.
In conclusion, the Primate called on the faithful not only to be named Orthodox, but to live according to the faith. “We love all people,” he noted, “but love does not mean agreement with error.” “Our task is to preserve the purity of the holy Orthodox faith and to pass it on to the next generations,” His Beatitude concluded, wishing his flock to be Christians “not only in name but in life.”
Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Primate of the UOC read the Penitential Canon in Feofania.
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