UOC hierarch: There isn't only war and covid in the world but also goodness

Metropolitan Mitrofan of Gorlovka and Slaviansk. Photo: gorlovka-eparhia.com.ua

There is not only war and covid, sickness and death in the world, but also the grace of God that the Lord sends every day. This was stated by Metropolitan Mitrofan of Gorlovka and Slaviansk, urging everyone to notice and do good, according to the press service of the Gorlovka Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

According to the hierarch, much depends not on what is around, but on what is inside, and the Savior once said this in very simple and clear words: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness” (Matthew 6: 22-23).

"Recently, I was driving around Gorlovka," the bishop gave an example from his own life. “One can damage their jaw and lose their teeth on those bumpy roads. November, low sky, fog, queues of people who stand in the bank to get paid. I could see all this, and it had to cause some depression, melancholy, misunderstanding. Moreover, there was all-night shooting on the eve. I stopped at the crossing and looked around to spot an old man in his early seventies, who was leading his elderly wife by her hand. He was holding her with both hands, carefully accompanying her along the pedestrian crossing, and it was clear he was doing it with love. Looking at it, your heart is getting warm just because you see it."

Then, the bishop continued, he saw a skinny teenager carrying a large bandaged dog, and “it is very difficult for him, but he carries it in his arms like a child, and you also understand that this is the love that God shows every minute, and it warms your heart."

Metropolitan Mitrofan explained: you can bother about pits on the roads or you can see love in this world. You can get discouraged or you can thank God and thus fill your heart with joy.

"Every day we have a choice of what we will pay attention to, what we will focus on: what is bad around us – a lot of bad things, and you can look at it hard and think there is nothing good around to notice, and to live indefinitely in this despondency and murmur, or we can spot some good  things around us, which we need to want to see,” he stressed.

What we pay attention to and make the main thing depends on us, the hierarch added. But if we look only at the bad and do not notice the good, our life will be miserable. “However, if we see evil, because you will not get anywhere from it, but at the same time discern love, see goodness and thank God that we can take them in, our life will also be filled with goodness and love."

The Bishop of Gorlovka urged not to forget that everyone has the opportunity to do something good, and everything that is done with love and kindness makes us happier and the world better.

“If we notice goodness and love around us and do good ourselves, it grows alongside joy in the heart. But if we see neither good nor love, we notice only evil around and do evil ourselves, then evil grows too, unfortunately.

<...> There is not only war and covid pandemic in the world, not only sickness and death, but also the mercy of God, which the Lord sends us every day. Noticing it and thanking God, we also keep the commandment of the Lord: ‘Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus' (1 Thess. 5: 16-18). Let it be so in the life of each of us,” Metropolitan Mitrofan of Gorlovka and Slaviansk summed up.

Earlier, the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church spoke about how to show one's love for God.

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