Primate: One should live God-taught, rather than world-dictated, way

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine. Photo: UOC

On June 23, 2019, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine pronounced a sermon at the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on what reward awaits a person for his holy, modest and righteous life. It is reported by the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The Primate recalled that the apostles addressed the Savior with such a question – “what will be the reward for holiness?” The Lord said to them that "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28).

“Therefore, the saints will judge the whole world. Maybe they will not, as we can imagine it today, pass sentences, but they will expose by their witness our sins with our life, and we won’t be able to say that I couldn’t do it because I lived during such inconvenient times, explained the Archpastor. “The Lord will tell us that the saint lived at the same time you did, but he pleased God, and what you did, why you didn’t make an effort to please God.”

His Beatitude emphasized that a reward awaits a holy man. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29), the Primate quoted the words from the Gospel and continued, “Such a great reward awaits a person for his right attitude to God, for his loving God more than anybody else, for confessing God always and everywhere; and when a person does this, then it does good not only to him but also to his mother and children.”

His Beatitude noted that all the gifts of God on earth “we use only thanks to a few righteous people”, therefore, it is important to strive for holiness and follow the path to God.

"For the sake of the righteous, the Lord sends the rain watering the land, and the sun shining for us, and the winds blowing fairly, and the earth yielding healthy fruits and grains ... Therefore, we all should try to be like holy saints and  what the world says, but at what the Lord says . Even if what the Lord said seems outdated and prospectless, we should do it anyway. Because what is not promising today, tomorrow will bring us happiness and God's blessing, whereas what is beautiful and promising today, tomorrow will turn out bitter and destructive,” concluded the Primate.

As the UOJ reported, first delegations of 11 Local Orthodox Churches are coming to Kiev to participate in the celebration of the Name Day of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. On June 23, 2019, delegations from the Cypriote, Polish and American Churches arrived to attend the celebrations in honor of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

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