The Church of God opposes evil, therefore evil takes up arms against It. But the Church will never get out of her way. This was stated by His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufry in a video posted on the Telegram channel of Bishop Baryshevsky Victor, “Pravlife” reports.
“In the hard times of fighting against God, we have always tried to lead people to God, to remind a person that he is a temporary resident on earth. The earth is not our place of permanent residence, it is only a place where we must prepare ourselves for eternity. And the Church always reminds people of this. But those people who do not want to know this or have forgotten about it want us to forget about eternity and engage in earthly, political squabbles, the end of which is always inglorious. In politics, today “Hosanna”, tomorrow – “Crucify!”, – said the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“They want the Church to change in the same way as political trends. And the Church cannot change, because the truth of God is unchanging,” His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry emphasized.
The archpastor recalled the words of the Savior that in this world those who want to follow Him will be hated and cursed. “So this is our road, the road of the Church. The Earthly Church is called the Militant Church, that is, It resists evil, and therefore evil will take up arms against It,” added His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.
“The church will never leave its path. And I want to be in this Church, I do not want to fall away from Her and what the Church confesses: to love people, to do good to people. And what will they say about me for that – God is their judge. I lived under the Soviet system, which was much more cruel to the Church, and still we went our own way, went to God. So we try to walk the path of love and kindness ourselves, and call all people to this,” the Primate said.
The Archpastor wished the faithful children of the Church to always remember that our path is behind Christ, to the heavenly Jerusalem. And on this path, obstacles and difficulties are and will be encountered.
“But the one who walks with faith, humility, prayer, will overcome these difficulties and achieve his goal. So there is no need to be sad, to fall into despair, but to remember that when God sends a person a test, he first gives him strength in order to endure this test. The Lord gave us the trials that we have today, so the Lord loves us and has already given us strength so that we can endure and endure them,” concluded His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.