Which leaven will be stronger?
They are diligently trying to instill the leaven of hatred in Ukraine, to make it the mental code of our people.
Two pieces of news prompted these thoughts: the first is the tragic news of the death of two sacristan boys from Russian shelling in the village of Hryshyne, and the second is the statement by MP Kniazhytskyi about the need to persecute UOC believers who went abroad and organized their Christian communities there.
In unison with this, we can add the sermon of the head of the Ukrainian Catholics of the Orthodox rite, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, in which he stated that someone is trying to coerce Ukraine to some kind of fictitious truce, which in no way is a just peace for Ukraine.
Our pseudo-patriots have invented a beautiful word to describe a war to the last Ukrainian – “a just peace”. The authorities, Greek Catholics, and various activists constantly call for this “just peace”. Deoccupation of all territories by 2022, or better yet, by 1991. None of them want to talk about how realistic this is in today’s conditions. Moreover, no one talks about how many thousands of lives need to be laid on the altar of this “just peace”.
How many more children must die, how many women and old people must lose their homes, how many fathers, sons, husbands, brothers must not return from the front? It is also not accepted to say that the Russian Federation is objectively stronger militarily, that it has more tanks, guns, shells, soldiers that can be sent to their deaths. It is not accepted to mention that Western countries were unable to provide Ukraine with as many weapons as it needs for victory, and the US refused to do so at all.
But they do not talk at all about the main reason for the unattainability of a "just world" - that there is no justice in our country itself. Some go to the front or are forcibly taken there, while others steal billions on military purchases, buy villas in Spain and drive expensive cars.
The state increases the tax burden, ruins entrepreneurs and freezes teachers' salaries, while civil servants receive salaries that are several times higher than the national average.
But the most blatant injustice is that in Ukraine at least a quarter of the population was declared traitors and collaborators working for the enemy. These are the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Despite all the statements of the hierarchy in defense of the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine, despite the tens of thousands of believers serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, despite the multi-million dollar aid to the front and refugees, this part of Ukrainian society was still accused of treason, effectively outlawed, and subjected to real persecution. With the help of false propaganda against millions of believers of the UOC, they set other millions of citizens of Ukraine on fire, incited interreligious hatred within our people, forced some people to hate others just because they go to the "wrong" Church. If such injustice exists within Ukraine, then what kind of external justice can we talk about?
Not long ago, the head of German intelligence Bruno Kahl explained in plain text what a "just peace" is - when Ukraine wages war for another five years, suffering colossal losses, and gives a well-fed Europe the opportunity to gain time and become stronger militarily. However, this is not about the role that some European political forces have prepared for Ukraine, and not even about the fact that Sviatoslav Shevchuk and many other of our political, public and religious figures are ready to play this role. This is about the leaven that they want to instill in our entire people.
If we generalize all the calls of pseudo-patriots: religious, social and those in power, then their main message will be hatred. They are trying hard to instill the leaven of hatred in Ukraine, to make it the mental code of our people.
With the start of the full-scale war, our people were overwhelmed by a wave of hatred towards the Russian Federation. It was understandable, explainable and even fair. But nevertheless, it was hatred. Then, for some reason, the government decided to declare the Ukrainian Orthodox Church an enemy and fanned the flames of hatred towards the UOC believers. Those who remain faithful to their Church have their churches taken away, their shrines closed, they are beaten and driven out of their homes. They are subjected to real persecution by their neighbors and co-workers. Their children are intimidated in schools and on the streets. Unfortunately, this is not just rhetoric. These are concrete facts that have taken place in different cities and villages of Ukraine.
And now the hatred towards Christians has already crossed the borders of the country. MP Kniazhytskyi is not satisfied with the persecution of believers within Ukraine. His hatred extends even further. He wants to get even those who have left for other countries and calls on the security forces to deal with them.
Now US President D. Trump has stopped military aid to Ukraine for a week, and we have come to hate the US and him personally. Elon Musk has been providing communications between the Ukrainian Armed Forces units at the front for three years using Starlink, but as soon as he criticized the Ukrainian leadership, we began to hate him too. Now more and more voices are being heard both inside Ukraine and abroad calling for an end to the bloody war in Ukraine and for peace to be negotiated. And now the hatred is being directed at the heads of these people, because such a peace would be unfair. We want justice, we want revenge, we want the aggressor to be punished, so that he not only leaves our land, and not only compensates for the material damage, but also suffers a fair punishment. And we are ready to do everything to make it so.
People who call for such a scenario talk about justice, but in reality they are preparing our beautiful, flourishing Ukraine for the role of an eternal Afghanistan or similar countries. Where boys from the age of five or six know how to handle weapons and are brought up to hate their enemies. Where there is no normal economy, social sphere, no happiness, no future, where all the efforts of the people and the state are directed towards a war that has no end. This is exactly what the leaven of hatred leads to when it ferments.
This is all nothing new, it has all been around since time immemorial.
People have always sought to restore justice through violence, revenge, and retaliatory cruelty. And only Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, came to earth and revealed to people the only way to stop the spiral of violence that is spinning ever stronger and absorbing more and more human lives.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” (Matthew 5:43–44). This is the only way to stop wars and violence.
But it is very difficult to fulfill this commandment in practice. It is much easier to hate than to love. But to love an enemy, to forgive him when he has brought you countless suffering, taken away the most precious thing you have – is almost impossible. And only the one who has fulfilled this in practice can call for forgiveness and love for enemies. The Lord had the right to give such a commandment, since he himself prayed for his enemies on the Cross: “And when they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they divided His garments, and cast lots” (Luke 23:33-34). If it were not for this, if the Lord Himself had not endured suffering and forgiven His tormentors, His words about love for enemies would have remained just words.
To forgive someone who kills you – isn’t this the highest level of fulfilling Christ’s commandment! And to forgive those who killed your children? The Most Holy Virgin Mary, who saw the death of her Divine Son on the Cross, who experienced the prophecy: “…A sword will pierce through your own soul…” (Luke 2:35) and who forgave the murderers of Christ. She has the right to call for forgiveness. Just as the parents and relatives of the innocently murdered youths Maximus and Timothy have the right to call for forgiveness. It is difficult, it exceeds human strength. But this is precisely what makes us true Christians. “And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? for sinners lend to sinners, that they may receive the same again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the ungrateful and evil” (Luke 6:32-35).
It is easy to call for forgiveness and reconciliation for those who are sitting in warmth and well-fedness, who have not lost anything in particular, who are not particularly affected by the horrors of war. But they do not do this either. But the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does!
Hundreds of UOC churches destroyed by RF strikes, but the Church calls for forgiveness and peace! Hundreds of UOC churches seized by OCU supporters, but the Church calls for forgiveness and peace! Thousands of UOC believers died at the front, but the UOC calls for forgiveness and peace!
The list can go on and on. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which suffered more than other religious organizations in Ukraine both from the war and from persecution by the authorities, has the moral right to call for forgiveness, peace, love for enemies and for all people, and it does so.
She cannot help but do this, because Christ commanded us to do so. We cannot add or subtract anything from His words. We cannot even pass them by in silence, because the Lord said: “For whoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of Man also be ashamed when He shall come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). We must not be ashamed of the words of Christ, no matter how absurd and unacceptable they may seem from our point of view. The Church must proclaim to people everything that Christ taught: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, <…> teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20). “All things…” also means the teaching of love for enemies, of forgiveness and reconciliation.
But how is all this preaching about peace and forgiveness perceived by a society in which there is a huge energy of hatred? At the very least as weakness, and at the most as betrayal and complicity with the enemy. In these conditions, those who dare to preach the teachings of Christ should expect not understanding, but rather hostility and malice. But this is the miracle of the Christian faith, that a small leaven of love, kindness and mercy is capable of defeating a sea of evil and hatred.
And let the sermon on forgiveness and love for enemies, as well as the sermon on the Cross, be “a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks…” (1 Cor. 1:23). Let it be so, but this sermon should sound from church pulpits and come from the life of every believer. The words of Christ are not false: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Matt. 13:33). Only we ourselves, by our unbelief, can make these words fruitless.
