During these days of the Passion, our Church walks step by step with the Savior. The High Priests have their meetings, taking counsel how to kill Him. They discuss what slander they must bring against Christ, in order to be able to wipe Him off the face of the earth. Why? What evil has He done them? He healed them, helped them, resurrected from the dead, fed them… But their hatred of Him was so intense that they gnashed their teeth at the mere mention of the Savior. Even enemy religious groups, who couldn’t stand each other, made friends in order to crucify Christ together. Judas leads a seizure group, armed to the teeth, to the Garden of Gethsemane. What did they need weapons for? Did they really think that He Who “a bruised reed does not break” would try to resist them?
How strongly this resembles what they are now doing with our Mother-Church. The powerful of this world gather, judge and discuss heatedly how to destroy us, what further ridiculous accusations they can come up with in order to crucify us. One slanderous accusation is more ridiculous than the next, but that’s not important. The main thing is that they arouse hatred against us amongst the crowds. The high priests at their Sanhedrin thought up one accusation against Christ, but even as they were on the road to Pilate they changed it to another one. Isn’t the same thing happening with respect to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? Just look at how representatives of certain other confessions are behaving toward us. They were implacable enemies with each other, but they found something that unites them: hatred of our Church.
What madness!
What evil has our Church done to these people? Who have they offended? What harm have they done to the state? Perhaps only that they teach not to follow modern trends, but to follow the Gospel; that they call on people to defend their Motherland, help refugees and the needy. But to the frenzied crowds that gather at our churches are simply not interested in all this. Hatred lives in their souls, hatred that is heated also by certain sorry excuses for religious leaders, and directed against us who are trying to live with Christ—and that means that it is directed against Christ Himself, Whom they again and again demand to be crucified. History repeats itself. But we not only know how the Savior was crucified, but also how He rose from the dead. That is why we are sure that victory will be with God, Whose Name is love!