His Beatitude: Without humility, fasting and prayer will bear no fruit
UOC Primate Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC
On March 22, 2026, the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent, the day of commemoration of St. John Climacus, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine delivered a homily to the flock on the path of spiritual perfection.
The Primate reminded the faithful of the legacy of St. John, who in the seventh century described the soul’s gradual ascent to God in his famous work The Ladder. His Beatitude explained that this same path of spiritual growth is also reflected in the Beatitudes that the Savior revealed to mankind in the Sermon on the Mount.
The archpastor gave special attention to the first step of this ascent – poverty of spirit, which he called the foundation of the entire Christian life. “Poverty of spirit means that a person understands that he is nothing, and God is everything,” Metropolitan Onuphry said. According to him, everything a person possesses – body, soul, mind, and talents – is “God’s property” and a gift of the Creator, who brought us out of non-being.
His Beatitude warned that without the proper foundation, any spiritual effort may prove fruitless. “If a person is mistaken in this, he may fast and pray, but these labors will bear no fruit for him,” the Primate said. He compared fasting and prayer to “two wings” by which the believer rises step by step toward perfection, but stressed that if a person does not have humility, he will not be able to remain even on the first step.
Concluding his sermon, Metropolitan Onuphry urged the faithful always to remember their own poverty and to strive, even by small steps, to move toward God. “May the Lord help us, according to our strength, to make at least a small step forward, to become at least a little gentler, more meek, and more merciful, so that our life may be acceptable before the divine eyes,” His Beatitude concluded.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to Metropolitan Onuphry, pure faith is the only path to the salvation of the soul.
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