Today, the risen Christ passes through all closed quarantine doors, in order to encounter us, his disciples, from the Easter message of the Head of the UGCC
All our sins and illnesses, pandemics and fears are overcome by God's love. In due time, he will break the closed door of the quarantine, eliminate our fear, and call on us to proclaim to the world, as the apostles once did, that "Christ is risen!"
His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the UGCC, wrote this in his Easter Pastoral Letter.
The Head of the UGCC emphasized that this year, in spite of the particular circumstances in which we celebrate Pascha, no one can stop our joyous movement towards the Light, “so that with faith in the resurrection of Christ we might greet one another with the jubilant and resounding ‘Christ is Risen!’”
“In the face of a global pandemic, people suddenly saw that we were all weak and mortal. The coronavirus has become a deadly danger for the rich and the poor. The whole world has found itself as if bound together by the chains of hell. The fear of becoming ill and dying, the pain of losing loved ones and friends, the darkness of loneliness and despair in conditions of forced isolation, the ruin of new methods of communication and the collapse of world economic systems have become our common universal chains. As shackles restrict a slave, so have the strict rules of quarantine - the only possible way to fight this deadly disease - suddenly restricted all humanity: airports have ceased to operate, trains have stopped running, borders between nations, having almost receded from our consciousness, once again have been reasserted as impenetrable iron gates,” said the Head of the Church.
Further, the Head of the UGCC encourages: “In response to the darkness of separation and the fear one has of the other, as a possible carrier of the virus of death, on this night we encounter the living risen Christ, who passes through all closed quarantine doors, in order to encounter us, his disciples. All of our sins and illnesses, pandemics and fears are conquered by God’s love. The physical chains of the present time have no power before the spiritual freedom of faith and spirit, before eternal life, given to us in Christ Jesus."
Аccording to him, in celebrating Pascha, “we believe and already see that the present pandemic will surely end, and humanity will emerge the better for it, with a sense of solidarity and unity among us, with a deeper understanding of the meaning and calling of human life."
His Beatitude Sviatoslav greeted and blessed all: “the well and the sick, the strong and the weak, the young and the old, parents and children. . I especially greet and bless our doctors and medical staff—all who heroically care for the sick and those needing assistance in these extraordinary circumstances."
"May the risen Christ transform this moment of weeping and pain, universally experienced by all humankind, into the paschal joy of victory over illness and death, just as this morning he transformed the weeping of the Myrrh-bearing women into joy! May he grant us in every moment the gift of victory over sin, and a rebirth of love and hope through an increase in our lives of the divine gift of eternal life, which we all received in Baptism! I sincerely wish each of you a blessed Easter feast, a tasty sharing of our traditional blessed egg, and a Paschal joy that is full of light,” wished the spiritual leader of Ukrainians.
