His Beatitude Sviatoslav: “The Feast of the Nativity of Christ is a celebration of a very profound, tender closeness of God to people” (video)

His Beatitude Sviatoslav greeted all with this profound and joyful feast – the Nativity of Christ.

“Today we are celebrating a day,” said the preacher, “when total contradictions seem to unite – God becomes a human, the Creator stands next to His creations (дивитися/слухати). We celebrate the incarnation, the entrance into human history of the one whom we call One in the Holy Trinity – the Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the one about whom the Church fathers spoke, saying that he was eternally born from the Heavenly Father, filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore is called the Son of God.”

In the second half of the last century, tells the faithful the Church Primate, in thinking through the great evils which humankind suffered during World War I and II, searching for reasons why there was not enough peace to be found on this earth, many thinkers and historians stated that among humankind there was born the notion of the “unnecessary person.”  The “unnecessary person” was presented in classics of Russian literature, among them Turgenev in the mid-19^th century.  And various inhuman totalitarian regimes of the 20^thcentury made not only one person “unnecessary” but whole people, whole nations, whole social groups.  We can well remember the phrase: a person exists – a problem exists; no person exists – no problem exists.

“However, today we can say that in his incarnation in this divine act when God becomes man, He becomes exactly that man whom someone called unnecessary.  For Him, the Ruler of Heaven and Earth, who gave his people the Promised Land, there was no room even in stable. He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.  He became exiled from his own home after one minute of being born,” underlined His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

But in His nativity He demonstrated, argues the Church Head, that that person whom somebody named as “unnecessary” is the center of human history, is the master of heaven and earth, and it is this person who created, creates and will continue to create history because the Lord  remains the same – yesterday, today and tomorrow.

“We, Ukrainians who are building an independent Ukraine in the new millennium very often in our hearts feel that someone is telling us that we are ‘unnecessary’ people.  Today the young generation feels excluded from that society into which it yearns to integrate.  Each one of us at any moment can become  an  ‘unnecessary’ person in our own native land, but in today’s feast – on the Day of the Nativity of the Lord, our Creator tells us that for him there are no ‘unnecessary people’ – that he did not create anyone as unnecessary.  He tells us that He is together with us, He became incarnated in order to divide the eternal moment of human history, so that we can feel being loved by God,” stated UGCC Head in his sermon.

Therefore we rejoice so much today because our Creator is with us.  God is with us.  This is not some empty dream or fairytale, but a solid truth that is the source of our hope, our joy.

“On this day of the joyful feast of the Nativity of Christ, let us rejoice together because of the presence of God among us.  Let us feel how much God loves us.  Just as a small child hugs and kisses her or his mother or father, in the same way today our Creator is embracing us and kisses each one of us with the lips of the newborn Christ.  Let this feast become one more moment when we feel close to God.  This year is declared a Year of Faith in our Church...  Only through the eyes of faith can one see in this newborn infant boy the eternal God; only through the eyes of faith can one discover human dignity; only in faith can one protect one’s own freedom and only through faith can one find one’s place in history and create our free, God-filled society,” wished His Beatitude Sviatoslav all the faithful and all Ukrainians.

The Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Great in Kyiv, led by his Beatitude Svaitoslav, was concelebrated by Bishop Joseph (Milan), Auxiliary Bishop of Kyiv Archeparchy, Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh), Secretary of UGCC Synod of Bishops and numerous clergy.  The Divine Liturgy was transmitted by First National TV.

Photo Album

UGCC Department of Information