Christians from ancient times wanted to learn to love. The great disaster of the modern world and culture is that sometimes we know how to fly to the Moon, but we do not know how to love. The Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav said this during his homily at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ.
“Where can you take the strength to do what Christ calls us in His teachings? At times, the answer to these words was very ironic – utopian. It’s a good idea, but it’s impossible for a person to do it. But if we listen today to the Word that God is speaking to us today, we will hear that it is not so much about the human capacity to love. In those words of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ proclaims to us the good news of God’s love for us. Because it is God Who loves His enemies. His love for man is unconditional. He Himself is love,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The Head of the UGCC stressed that the Lord loves both the good and the evil. He is the One Who loves without expecting reciprocity. He loves the ungrateful, loves sinners. He loves His enemies.
“He sees our merit only when we reflect Him in our lives. When we follow Him. When we act like Him,” emphasized the preacher.
Therefore, today’s Gospel, he noted, ends with the words: Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful.
The Primate says that when we love those who are pleasing to us, we tend to love ourselves. When we do good, subconsciously expecting to receive something back, then we love ourselves, our own good, and not that person.
“True love is pure. It is selfless,” reminds the Head of the UGCC.
“Everything that a person does consciously and voluntarily must be learned first. If love is the pinnacle of a person’s ability to act consciously and voluntarily, we will say that we must learn to love,” says His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The Primate believes that our families, our church communities, have as their primary task to be the school of love. For it cannot be said that I believe in God unless I love my brother, says St John the Evangelist.
Department of Information of the UGCC