Taking up your cross means today for Christians to knock on the door of a lonely older person because buying bread for her may save her life. Such an appeal was made by the Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, today during the Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, broadcast online by Zhyve TV.
First of all, the spiritual leader of the Ukrainians thanked all those who decided to stay home today. “It may sound strange but today I thank everyone for showing Christian and civic awareness that you all stay home and care about the life and health of yourselves and your loved ones. Today, though our cathedral is empty, I feel the presence of hundreds of thousands of people from different corners of the globe who are now praying with us,” said the Primate.
The preacher asked the Holy Spirit to show us how to properly experience this difficult time for all of humanity.
“This Sunday is called Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross. Today we are raising before the eyes of every Christian our crucified and dead Savior. Also this Sunday marks the halfway of our Lenten journey…”
“Today we hear the following words in the Gospel: ‘He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.’”
“These words we hear today,” says His Beatitude Sviatoslav, “are nothing more than the rules of Christian life. Now, when we see tens of thousands of people dying of a malicious virus, we ask ourselves what we can do…”
“Taking up your cross means helping older people stay at home. As you go to buy food and medicine today, ask yourself, perhaps your neighbor or neighbor is a lonely older person and has no one but you to help her stay at home when she is in need. This may save her life,” believes the Head of the Church. “When the public transport does not go, help the doctors to get to work in the morning, help all those who today help our country keep running.”
“Love God and your neighbor with your daily actions, even in such unusual circumstances, because ‘What good is it for a person to gain the whole world, but to destroy his own soul?’” summed up the preacher.
The UGCC Department for Information