“Freedom and dignity is given to us not by a president but by law. These values are given to us by God…” UGCC Head in Kyiv

“Many thinkers have labeled this as the “Revolution of Dignity”.  But freedom and dignity are not given to us by a certain president or some law.  These values are given to us by God.  Only when we get close to God, then we feel our own greatness and the greatness of our native land,” stated the Church Head.  He underlined that in the current culture, which is mostly one of consumerism, a person is valued exactly by what one has: “If one has wealth, money and authority, one has dignity.  Yet, when one loses all that, then the person becomes nothing – becomes nameless.” Such thinking by the current society is wrong, UGCC Prelate believes.  Because, according to his words, the dignity of a person does not depend on what the person has and what place the person holds in society.

“God created man in his image and likeness and gave man the highest dignity among all created beings.  A person looses feeling one’s dignity when the person distances oneself from God.  One begins to search for one’s dignity when one has reached the abyss of sin.  In order to feel oneself as a dignified person and the source of one’s personal “I”, the person has to return to God,” explained His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

The preacher said that this Sunday brings us closer to the beginning of Great Lent and it is exactly on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son that the Church calls all of its children to return to the Heavenly Father, because it is through repentance that one can find “one’s heavenly kinship and dignity in God’s and one’s own eyes,” noted UGCC Head. In the prayers at the Patriarchal Cathedral, the UGCC Prelate was joined by Bishop Joseph (Milian), Assistant Bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy, clergy of the Archeparchy, and numerous faithful.

UGCC Department of Information