Repentance is not only sorrow for sins, but also conversion, His Beatitude Sviatoslav on Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Monday, 01 March 2021, 17:04
How often people become strangers to each other, strangers to their people and homeland. And worst of all - strangers to the Lord God, the source of their lives. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, spoke about this during a sermon on Sunday of the Prodigal Son.

The Primate drew the attention of the faithful that in today's Gospel of the Prodigal Son the Lord God reveals to us the meaning of repentance.

"Repentance is not a sentiment, it is a sorrow for sins. Repentance is conversion. And this very repentance as a transformation we have very well, with images, described in the Gospel of the Prodigal Son," he said.

To be converted, says the preacher, means first of all to come to your senses. It means realizing where you are. Feeling alienated in the relationship and understanding the tragedy of such alienation.

"Repentance as a conversion means a change in the direction of life," said His Beatitude Sviatoslav. "It means returning home to God, rebuilding a lost relationship. Repentance as a conversion is a change in the way of thinking, the attitude to oneself, to one's neighbor."

According to him, the topic of alienation is a very important topic of philosophical thought of the XIX-XX centuries. "Being a stranger to each other is the greatest drama of modern individualistic culture," says the Head of the Church.

At different stages of human development, philosophers talked about different kinds of alienation ... "But the most tragic thing happens when human dignity is alienated," said the spiritual leader of Ukrainians.

The Head of the Church stressed that it is very important for us Christians today to overcome alienation. "May this time of Lent be a return home," he urged, and added: “Every time I think that the received talents and benefits are only for me, when I alienate them from my brother, from my neighbor, I start to lose them."

“May this time of Lent be for each of us a time of repentance and conversion, the fruit of which will be the joy of meeting and embracing. The open embrace of our Father is an invitation to each of us. Let us not alienate ourselves from the embrace of our God," His Beatitude Sviatoslav wished.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The UGCC Department for Information


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