"I wish we all became renewed and better in this year!" the Head of the UGCC

This was said by the Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav in his homily to the faithful during the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Basil the Great in Kyiv. On this day, January 14, our Church celebrates the Feast of Circumcision of Our Lord and the Feast of St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.

In the joint prayer took part: Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh), the Secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC, as well as priests, brothers and sisters in monastics, children, and parishioners.

According to the Primate, during these holidays, we feel an astonishing, but also tireless and incessant, approaching of God towards the man. For when we celebrated Christmas, we all rejoiced that God came down from the Heaven in order to save all the people.

"When we open the Holy Scripture, we hear God's voice, which speaks to us. Then we feel that God's Word  announces our Lord. And He is God Who is coming because He didn't remain in Himself, in His eternal happiness. Moreover, He didn't want to separate or reject a man because of his sin. Our Lord is God Who constantly comes to the man, wants to be close and even wants to be in us! And the purpose of this approaching — to reach the fullness of life so that we could be in Him!" with such words His Beatitude Sviatoslav addressed the faithful at the beginning of his homily.

According to the preacher, when we look at the Baby Jesus in a manger, we see how eternal God embodied and took on Himself the fullness of human nature. In particular, Apostle Paul said that in Him also rests  all the fullness of God  — everything that is complete, perfect, what a man can only dream of. Everything dwells in this Baby, Who is today, on the eighth day, circumcised. The figure "eight" means fullness of God's and human nature in the Son of God  — our newborn Savior.

What do we need in order to attain the goal for which Christ was born to us? Another Saint — Basil the Great, whose day we observe today answers that question.

"Basil the Great was a voice calling out in the wilderness of the culture and society of that time. The roads which he straightened out for the Lord, were the roads of human hearts. He taught that the means for this is repentance, when a person opens the depth of his heart to the Almighty!" stressed the importance of the figure of St Basil the Great the Head of the Church.

During the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy the present became witnesses of ordaining new priests: Roman Slavych, Ivan Stepanyshyn, Yuriy Kosach and Vitaliy Herasymiv. The Primate wished that daily Liturgy, prayer and reading of the Holy Scripture became those three principles on which their spiritual life will be based.

"I would like to wish you all a happy new year. We must become new, better people in this year! And then, with all the means for consecration which the Church gives us, we could renew the face of our Ukraine!" addressed the faithful the Head of the Church.

It is worth mentioning that His Beatitude Sviatoslav greeted all  whose name-day was on that day, and paid a special attention to the Basilian community, which ought to be a teacher of true penance for everyone!

The UGCC Department for Information

Reference

St. Basil the Great (329-379) – Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, one of the most outstanding theologians, the Father and Teacher of the Church, was always especially venerated in Ukraine.

In the history of the Catholic Church St. Basil the Great has a special role — he is an outstanding representative of the Cappadocia's theological school, who advanced the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. A great defender of the heresies against the Trinity and an excellent apologetic, whose polemics with pagans and heretics became the golden fund of theological thought, as well as a wealth of terminological-notional searches for the contemporary Christian philosophy.