The Lord will wipe away the tears of Ukrainian mothers when the last enemy is cast out from our Motherland: From the Head of the UGCC on Day 83 of the war

The Primate noted that the entire regions of Donetsk and Luhansk are on fire. “Missile terrorism,” as it is called, continues. Russian missiles hit the damaged Chernihiv region again. Lviv region suffered its largest missile attack of the war. Odesa region, particularly near the Black Sea, is also suffering from missile strikes.

“But Ukraine is standing. Ukraine is defending herself, even when she is forced to endure difficult circumstances,” said the Head of the Church.

Referring to UN data, His Beatitude Sviatoslav stated that if the war continued, nine out of ten Ukrainians would be below the poverty line.

Ukraine has already lost most of its economic potential, he said, and we have serious fuel problems. Even the amount of humanitarian aid coming from abroad has fallen sharply since the beginning of the war.

“Therefore, solidarity, mutual assistance and efforts to support those who are in the greatest difficulty, are today the guarantees of the struggling Ukrainian people’s strength and stability,” the Archbishop emphasized.

On this day, the spiritual leader reflected on another spiritual work of mercy - to comfort the sorrowful.  Sorrow, he stated, is a reflection of a person's condition, not just a feeling. Sorrow shows that a person is in pain, that she is suffering, she is in trouble. When we take an interest in a person who is sad, we pay attention to them, we stop and stand by them – we support them.

“To comfort a sad person does not mean to help them survive an emotional state or to create a false illusion, not at all. To comfort is to take an interest in them, and if possible, to take on some of their difficulties and problems, to empathize with them. We know that a sadness shared with someone becomes smaller. Together, it is always easier to get through the sorrows and difficult moments of life,” reflected His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

From the Christian perspective, however, to comfort means something bigger and deeper. “The true Comforter is the Holy Spirit. That’s what we call Him, “Comforter, Spirit of Truth.”  Real consolation is not just a temporary forgetting of trouble, but the elimination of the cause of sadness,” he added.

According to the Primate, through experiencing the presence of the Comforter’s Spirit, true Christian consolation is revealed in church unity and church communion.  It is then that we share who we are with all – we share the Spirit who rests in us, and we unite with those who mourn and weep.

“The mutual exchange of not only thoughts but also gifts we have as Christians, in the context of international communication and the international community of the Catholic Church, is invaluable to us.  We feel that we are not alone in our misery, we are not fighting alone, but that the great Church of Christ and a large family of Christian nations of the world are standing behind us,” concluded the Head of the Church.

The UGCC Department of Information