Prokuplje, Toplica District, Serbia, March 26, 2024
Photo: spc.rs
On March 24, 1999, NATO began its aerial bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which continued until June 10, 1999.
The campaign killed more than 1,500 people and destroyed or damaged hospitals, industrial plants, schools, cultural and religious monuments, private businesses, and more.
This past Sunday, March 24, His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Church prayerfully commemorated the 25th anniversary of the tragedy with a memorial service at the Toplica Hero’s Square in the city of Prokuplje in southern Serbia, reports the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Despite the terrible violence that was carried out 25 years ago, the Patriarch preached of love and forgiveness:
We gather to pray to God, who is Love and resides in love, to affirm our unwavering commitment to choose love over hate, peace over war, justice over tyranny, truth over falsehood, and the innocent over the guilty…
I am happy as a man, joyful as an Orthodox Serb, and blessed as a priest because no ultimatum has swayed my people from abandoning love, God, and neighbor. Even if the cost of such commitment is high, it simultaneously secures our survival and continuity, not only on geographical maps but also in eternity, in the Kingdom to which St. Sava guided us, and which was embraced by the noble prince and immortal knight Lazar.
All those who suffered in the NATO bomb stand with the innocent victim Abel, while the bombers stand with the fratricide Cain, the Patriarch said.
“The innocent blood shed across the land God gave us became the pledge of our hope and the seed of salvation… But with faith in Christ risen from the dead and the only Lord of love, we confess that nothing will be able to separate us from His love,” the Serbian primate continued.
“Our guides and measures are the holy martyrs,” His Holiness preached.
“Summarizing the reason for tonight’s prayerful remembrance, let us remember the past, live in the present given to us, and resolutely look ahead and move towards the future with hope as our guide, because according to Holy Scripture: Hope maketh not ashamed (Rom. 5:5).
Christians must not return persecution and slander with persecution and slander, but must bear witness to the truth, the Serbian primate encouraged. “Remembering our suffering, the prayerful remembrance of the innocent victims of the NATO bombing is not borne of malice, and with God’s help, it will not turn into vindictiveness,” Pat. Porfirije said. “Remembering our suffering, and our prayer for the innocent victims, is a testament to truth, justice, love, and peace, an effort to manifest the fullness of life in every good deed and virtue,” he added.
And the Patriarch concluded by quoting a prayer of his predecessor, Patriarch Pavle of blessed memory:
Lord Jesus Christ, our God, receive our earnest supplication and forgive us our trespasses. Remember our enemies who hate and oppress us, and do not repay them according to their deeds, but guide them with Thy great mercy, so they too may understand that evil cannot bring forth good. Deliver Thy holy Church and Thy faithful from all evil with Thine almighty hand. Help us, Lord, Thou Who for the salvation of all didst endure the cross and death, to replace hatred with love, unrest with peace, sorrow with joy, across the world and among us, that we might lead a quiet and peaceful life as Thy people, brothers and sisters with each other and among each other. Amen.
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