From the Head of the UGCC on the 117th day of the war: The fear of God is not to fear God, but to stand in awe of His beauty

“We thank the Lord and the Armed Forces of Ukraine that we can be together today, see the light of day, the beginning of a new day, because someone paid with their lives for this new day,” the head of the Church assumes.

The Primate said that, according to morning reports, the intensity of hostilities on the entire front line is growing steeply.

“The President warned, said the spiritual leader, that this week could be decisive and historic for our country, in particular for its return to the European family of nations. And this may be another reason for the escalation of hostilities. We see that the number of bombardment and shelling of our courageous Kharkiv has sharply increased. Fierce fighting continues in the Luhansk region. Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are currently hotbeds of military confrontation in Ukraine. A difficult situation is on the Donbass frontline. Heavy fighting is continuing in the Kherson and the Zaporizhia regions. Apart from that, at night the enemy fired missiles at the Odessa region, but fortunately the air defense system managed to destroy them.”

On this day, the Head of the Church completed his reflection on the gifts that the Holy Spirit brought us on the day of Pentecost, and reflected on the last, perhaps greatest gift, which as if sums up the previous gifts – the fear of the Lord.

When we talk about the fear of God, he reckons, we are not talking about a panic fear that is instilled in us by the instinct of self-defense, when a person is afraid of something unknown, a danger that threatens her life or existence.

“Rather, it is a question of fear, of that inspiring awe which is a man's natural reaction to something beautiful, great, something that transcends the horizons of his ability to act. This fear arises when a person sees a reality that fascinates her and at the sight of what she holds her breath,” the Primate assumes.

The Holy Spirit teaches a person, explains the Head of the UGCC, makes her able to feel splendor and beauty of God. And this is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of a man's path to the great, beautiful God, who exceeds our imagination and our hopes.

“In modern culture, which is often called secularized, a person loses a sense of holiness, does not feel any sacred space or time, even human life. A person tries to understand the fear of some karma rather than develop a sense of this transcendence which exceeds her,” remarked the spiritual leader and added: “Therefore we ask today: Lord, give us this sensitivity to You!”

The UGCC Department for Information