The Head of the UGCC to bereaved families of war victims: We want to share your deep pain and loss.

Addressing the relatives of the deceased on the air during the program “The Open Church” on March 17, the Hierarch noted that there are no words of comfort that can easily heal the wounds of war.  However, he assured us, the Church strives to be close to its people, and bear their suffering with them.

“We know that shared pain or suffering lessens the burden by half. The pain of losing a son, a brother, a sister, a child –is something so deep, that simply cannot be healed, humanly speaking,” said the Head of the Church, and reminded us of the ancient proverb: when one person dies, a void is created, as if the whole world had died.  And when we save at least one person, we save the entire world.

“Who could ever fill the void of the loss of the whole world, when we grieve the death of a relative or loved one?” – asks His Beatitude Sviatoslav.  In such circumstances, he says, our hope is the Lord God, the risen Christ, who reveals to us the mystery of death, which we cannot yet fathom. It is precisely Christ’s personal history – His suffering, death, and resurrection, - which reveals to us what those we have lost in this war are continuing to live out.  They are in God’s hands, they have passed from one life to another.

“As Christians, we believe in the Resurrection, and that is why we believe that Ukraine will rise again.  We believe that our relatives and loved ones who have died in this war, live in the realms of our Heavenly Father, and that is why we pray for them.  We ask God to absolve them of their sins and offences.  This prayer of the Church is faith in the Resurrection,” noted the hierarch. 

He went on to say: “When we place the bodies of our dead into the grave, we sing the ancient Christian hymn of ‘Eternal Memory’. We say ‘Eternal Memory’ for the heroes of Ukraine, who gave up their lives for their country.”

“’Eternal Memory’ is a hymn of resurrection, of God’s remembrance of the person.  God remembers every single one of our deceased in the fields of battle, or in the rubble of their homes, or in the aftermath of an exploded bomb.  We could possibly forget, but the Lord God never does, because His memory is eternal,” emphasized the Father and Head of the UGCC.

“May the eternal memory of God extend to all those who have died in this war, who have departed from us into eternity, who have given their lives for a better future for Ukraine and the world,” added His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

The UGCC Department of Information