When a person wants to rely only on his own strengths and capabilities as a solid foundation in life, he has the experience of someone who relies on water.
The Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav spoke about this at the Church of Christ the Lover of Mankind at the Monastery of Basilian Sisters in Ivano-Frankivsk.
Today in the Holy Gospel we hear about Jesus Christ walking on the sea in the middle of the night … This Gospel story, the Primate thinks, is a description of our Christian life. “Very often, when we listen to the words of the Holy Gospel, we ask ourselves, is it possible to live as it is written in the Gospel? Is it possible to truly be a good person in a bad world because the sea in the Gospel is an image of sin and death. Is it possible to live and not sin? Is it possible to avoid filth, hatred, malice – all that we associate with the signs of human dying? And finally, is it possible to save one’s life in this turbulent sea? ” asked the preacher.
Matthew the Evangelist, says His Beatitude Sviatoslav, wants to tell us that it is possible, but only with God’s help. “Our human strength is like unstable and sometimes turbulent water, which cannot support even itself,” he notes.
“The modern world tells us: rely on yourself, only on your strength. The hero of the modern world, as the Americans say, is a self-made man, a man who achieved his own success, received big money, fame … But it’s all is only the fruit of his fevered human imagination, because at one point it’s all broken like a bubble bursting into cruel reality,” said the Head of the Church.
One can live the Christian life, says His Beatitude Sviatoslav, only by going hand in hand with his God. “Whenever we doubt whether this is possible, Christ tells us: why did you doubt, you of little faith? And in those moments when I am ready to say, ‘Save me, Lord, because I cannot save myself, I cannot give myself eternal life,’ in those moments Christ grabs me from my swamp and it goes on with me,” summed up the spiritual leader of the Ukrainians.
It should be noted that the Head of the Church has accepted eternal vows from the four Basilian sisters.
Department of Information of the UGCC