I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live (Deut. 30:19)

Friday, 05 April 2019, 22:11

"Freedom is not the ability to choose between good and evil. Indeed, we can only become free when we choose the good," this truth, according to the spiritual vision of Eastern theology, expressed His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Head of the UGCC, in his interview for the Italian weekly II Foglio.

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In the days between the two rounds of voting during the election of the President of Ukraine, it is very important for us to distinguish the truth from the fake, virtual from real, false from true. The Head of the UGCC suggests recalling the Old Testament event, when the chosen people completes their journey to the desert and must cross the Jordan. "God-chosen people have renewed their alliance with the Lord, and God says to Israel: "I put two choices before you - good and evil, life and death, choose life," cites the biblical words His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

"Freedom is a consequence of the choice of good and it is a journey to the fullness of life. If a person chooses a life that manifests itself in the truth of God's Word, then he becomes free. But by choosing evil, a person chooses death and becomes a slave to evil. Thus the choice is lost. I hope that all of us in our life will choose what is good and true, because only then we can become truly free," stressed the Head of the UGCC.

In the interview, His Beatitude Sviatoslav also explained the difference between truth and verity. "It is very important for a modern person to understand what the verity is! In the Ukrainian language, we have two words to refer to this concept: "truth" and "verity". The word "Verity" (capital letter) means higher truth, objective, integral. This Verity is Christ, His Person. The one who reveals the Verity becomes free. (In English it is the Truth with a capital letter or simply the truth - transl.)

He noted that there is another word - "truth", which can mean subjective truth - the truth created by each person according to his own way of thinking, worldview, knowledge of reality and relations with the world. "According to this 'truth,' what is true for one person is not so for the other. In order to get out of this individualism and realize what is true and what is wrong, people must open up to Another Person, should live by their meeting with Him. So we can experience the Truth, because the Truth is the Person we met and experience the relationship with," said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

Department of Information of the UGCC