By Met. Luke of Zaporozhye

Translated from Russian, the original may be found here.

Today, when we hear the words of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, we’re not hearing simply a text from an ancient manuscript. We are hearing a bold, and almost deafening challenge thrown in the face of the entire created world, all tribulations, and death itself: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could affliction, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written, for Your sake we are killed all the day long, and we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom. 8:35). Look around you. We often feel “cramped.” The word “affliction,” which the Apostle uses, literally means a state when there is nothing to breathe, when circumstances tighten around us like a vise. Persecution, injustice, violation of sacred objects, deprivation of human rights — it seems that evil is triumphant, and we are just “sheep doomed to slaughter.” At such moments, our human nature trembles. We seek support in ourselves, in our strengths, in political logic, or earthly justice. But Paul stops us. He doesn’t say: “We will win because we are strong.” He says something else: “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

There is an amazing word in the Slavic translation — препобеждаем (we are conquering). In the original Greek, it says ὑπερνικῶμεν (hypernikōmen) — “more than conquerors”. This speaks of a victory in excess. What does this mean for us today? This means that when we are beaten, we don’t just tolerate it. We overcome the striker by not allowing his malice to enter our hearts. When we are expelled, we do not become homeless, because we find a true homeland in God, Who can never be imprisoned in four walls. When we are deprived of earthly goods, we discover in ourselves the treasures of the spirit, which are beyond the control of any earthly authority. This is a paradoxical victory. The world expects us to retaliate with rage or cowardice. But we respond with the power of love “agapi” (Greek: ἀγάπη) — that Divine will for salvation by which Christ was nailed to the Cross for the love of all mankind. St. John Chrysostom reminds us that we win precisely because it is not our weak will that works in us, but the power of the Lord Himself. Christ does not look at our sufferings from a distant heaven. He is our “Divine Brother.” He stands next to everyone who is experiencing “affliction” at these moments. He co-suffers and co-struggles with us. As He once stood up to meet the Martyr Tryphon, so He stands up to meet everyone who remains faithful. Our love for Him must be “as strong as death.” It’s not just an emotion; it’s a loyalty rooted in His power. We are confident in God, not because we are heroes, but because He is Faithful, and He will never leave His Own.

The history of the Church teaches us that everything that is built on the blood of the innocent, and on tyranny and pride, inevitably collapses. We remember the decades of persecution of the last century. The godless regimes thought they were burying the Church in the ground, but they did not know that they were sowing a seed – the Church. And the seed, falling into the ground, dies only in order to produce a hundredfold fruit. Our standing in faith today is not a defeat. This is a triumph invisible to the world. Our patience, our prayer in the midst of darkness, are the seeds of the future dawn. The blood of the martyrs has always washed away the filth of temporal regimes, leaving only the radiance of holiness in eternity.

My dear ones! No human decrees, no violence, and no “depths” of life’s failures can touch the seal of love that God has placed on our hearts. We do not win with sword against sword, but with light against darkness. And this Light is Christ. As long as we abide in His love, we are invincible. May the joy of the Resurrection fill your souls even in the darkest hour, for the Lord said, “Take heart, I have overcome the world.”

An ending note by meself:

A true Hierarch will call the faithful to the Truth of the Gospel. In Orthodoxy, we see a manifestation of “oppression” in the form of certain shepherds preaching a false gospel of secular tolerance and acceptance. They are the same ones actively persecuting the faithful Orthodox. This is very clear in Ukraine, where Met. Luke is a hierarch. Met. Luke and many of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are preaching the Gospel. For this, they are suffering persecution. The false group that calls itself a “church,” known as the “orthodox church of Ukraine,” exploits anti-gospel tactics to advance itself. It is supported and promoted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Archdiocese of America. On one hand, we see an authentic Gospel response to the evils of this world; on the other, we see the tactics of the world being promoted as the new standard for Christian life. Like our Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful ones are being violently persecuted by the Pharisaical ones. Ultimately, those who are relying on the methods of this fallen world for prestige and preservation will perish with it, because they have bound themselves to it. The Victory of Christ is not found in protecting “prestige” but in offering the Truth in love, for the life of the world.

Dear readers, be discerning and test the words spoken today by even leaders in the Church. If they are calling us to something novel and not of Christ in His Church, then they are false and leading people astray. Of course, we have the bold proclamation of the saints to nourish us, but I hope that through providing the words of current faithful hierarchs, you will sense the savor of true shepherds. They do not call us to be “mainstream” but to hold fast to the Gospel life in our Eternal Lord Jesus.