Patriarch's Christmas pastoral underscores unity through love (12/26/82)

Patriarch's Christmas pastoral underscores unity through love

ROME - In their Christmas pastoral letter released here, Patriarch Josyf Slipyj and the hierarchs of the "Pomisna" (particular) Ukrainian Catholic Church stressed the need for unity through love.

The patriarch begins his letter by saying that Ukrainian greet the newborn infant with adoration by singing koliady which remind us that in becoming man the Christ Child turned unhappiness into happiness.

The patriarch writes: "The source of Christian happiness and joy is the love of God and one another - love which Christ brought down to earth. As without fire there is no warmth, so without love a person does not have real happiness, mirth contentment. Jesus himself says that with His birth as a human, he brought to Earth the divine first of love, and He only wished that it would be kindled."

St. John the Evangelist is also quoted in the pastoral letter. He, as a beloved student of Jesus Christ, the apostle of Christian love, talked about the need for love of God and one's fellow man.

The patriarch goes on to say that "in today's world of progress, technology, prosperity, luxury and lost love, self-love has been created. With the loss of love, today's man has lost happiness, mirth, satisfaction - the fruits of love."

In these times of need, modern-day apostales of Christian love have emerged, he writes, and these include Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II.

In the following two sections of the letter, Patriarch Josyf speaks of love as the foundation for achieving unity.

"Besides individual happiness, mirth and a healthy satisfaction from life, love gives us the wish for general unity and brotherhood which the Ukrainian community desperately needs. We constantly plead: 'God grant us unity.' But let us remember that the only road to unity leads through love. Without love there is no unity in family life, or community, national, or even church life. Without deep Christian love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, all church life limits itself to exterior religious practices, the keeping of written rituals, cults. In church centers where there is only exterior religious life and no love of God and fellow men, there is no God, because God is love - acording to the words of St. John," the letter stresses.

This Christmas, as we get approach the celebration of the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine, the patriarch stresses that we should renounce self-love and strive for the fruit of the spirit which is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness faith meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22).

The patriarch also recalls the year 1933, the year that marked 1,900 years since Christ died for our sins. He recalld youth rallies in Lviv that year; "Ukrainian Youth for Christ," was their motto, he notes. Now it is time once again for youth to be the hope of the future, he says.

"Our older generation looks into its past, relives it, gets caught up in it and often even locks itself in the past." Now 50 years later the young generation sees an open road in front of itself, and wants to be the creator of something new, something big, wants to be the creator of a happy life for itself and for future generations, he writes. The patriarch goes on to say that youth should search for God in its own Church.

There is also strength in numbers, Patriarch Josyf says in a section devoted to group prayer. As he points out from the Gospel of Matthew (18:20): "For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." In the Church, Jesus Christ Himself unites us with His love, and unity in Christ will help us overcome all our difficulties because He will be our strength, says the letter.

The last section of the letter is devoted to the patriarch's pastoral greeting to the Synod which will take place in early 1983. He asks for guidance in the Synod through prayer.

Patirarch Josyf ends his letter by saying: "On the occasion of Christmas and the New Year, 1983, we extend to all of you priests, monks, all faithful of the 'Pomisna' Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine and the diaspora, and in exile and in prisons, our heartfelt greetings and we ask the Child born in Bethlehem and his Virgin Mother to grant us all love, unity, peace and joy of Christmas. 'Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity'" (Ephesians 6:23-4).

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