Kiev, June 19, 2023
Photo: news.church.ua
The mark of a saint is that he has love for God and all men, regardless of how they treat him, the Ukrainian primate said on Sunday.
In his homily for the Sunday of All Saints Who Have Shone Forth in Rus’, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine especially drew attention to the millions who suffered under the atheistic regime of the 20th century.
Despite the terrible oppression and persecution, many saints shone forth who refused to renounce God, who clung to the love of God, His Beatitude said, reports the Information-Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
In particular, he spoke of the example of the Hieromartyr Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky), who was martyred in 1918 during his reign as Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia: “When he was shot here, not far from the Lavra, on the hill, he blessed his executioners. In this was manifested his perfect love; love, when a person not only loves his friends, but also loves his enemies and blesses those who hate and curse him.”
And we all have our own trials and temptations today, the Metropolitan continued:
Today, each of us and all of us together are taking an exam on love—whether or not we have love for God and for our neighbor. And I’m pleased that today those who are here, as well as many who are absent, have truly shown genuine Christian love, despite the fact that lies are sometimes told about them, they are insulted, and their churches are taken away, but people still love and pray for those who hate and offend us…
Love for God is the fulfillment of sacred Divine laws. God is Love, and all the laws that God has given us are laws of love. The man who lives according to the laws of love becomes love himself. And if we try—even if we fall or stumble—to live according to the commandments of love, then we will also attain to the measure of love that our holy ancestors had. Today the holy Church glorifies them, because they are already in Heaven, together with all the angels and all the saints, glorifying the one God in the Trinity.
Met. Onuphry noted that the Church also remembers all saints of Mt. Athos on the same Sunday, emphasizing that the saints of Rus’ are connected with Mt. Athos, because St. Anthony, the founder of the Kiev Caves Lavra, learned monasticism on Mt. Athos, which he then brought to Kiev.
And monasticism is a special labor where a man devotes his entire being to the service of God. Therefore, we must be wary of criticizing those who have taken up the labor of monasticism, Met. Onuphry preached.
“Yes, it happens that monastics fall and get up, and we fall and get up. That’s life. But the person who falls but doesn’t lie down, who gets up again, will be saved. That person is following the path of salvation,” His Beatitude said.
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