Lavra’s abbot: The persecutors of the Church will not defeat Christ
Metropolitan Pavel reminded contemporary persecutors of the Church that Herod also wanted to defeat Christ but was eaten by worms.
The abbot of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel, said that present persecutions of the Church reminded him of the time of Christ’s Nativity.
Vladyka recalled that in the 90s, the temples of the Upper Lavra were in terrible disrepair, and the Lavra itself was in ruins. The faithful restored it all, but today "people temporarily into power are driving the Mother of God, Who gave money to Greek architects to build the Assumption Church, out of the Lavra," said the Vladyka.
"The temple was rebuilt with the funds of the faithful people. We are used to saying that it is the state. But isn’t the state the people? Isn’t the Church the people? Aren’t taxpayers the people? And it is very unseemly to ascribe some power to ourselves," remarked the bishop.
The Metropolitan said that "security officers and the Interior Ministry" came to him on December 31 because he allegedly calls people for some "riots". "I have never done that and will never do that because I remember that a bad citizen of the earth will never be a citizen of Heaven," Valdyka stressed.
Metropolitan Pavel urged the faithful to read the Gospel and the Psalter and drew particular attention to Psalms 108, 90, 65: "Leave a line in remembrance for the persecutors of the Church of Christ.”
"They will not defeat Christ. Herod also wanted to defeat Christ and killed 14,000 babies but fell dead, eaten by worms. The same thing happened to the Roman Empire, to the Russian Empire and other empires, but the Church stands," says Metropolitan Pavel.
"I remain a son of my Church, a son of my country. We are being driven from the Upper Lavra. They won't give us our icons, they made up a commission. It reminds me of the Nativity of Christ. We are going through a census. The director of the museum said that we have to give everything according to the inventory. And who conducted an inventory when we brought it? The altar, iconostasis, the Holy Gates, paintings ... We are giving to the state and will give according to the inventory so that they remember that when the time comes, we will ask. So stop, the so-called believers, stop shedding people’s tears on Christmas days," said Metropolitan Pavel.
Vladyka believes that the present times are also reminiscent of the time of the Nativity of Christ in that the Mother of God did not find a home for herself in Jerusalem and had to give birth to the Saviour of the world in the caves.
"We, too, are going away. But I believe we will come back. But what will happen to those persecutors of the Church who draw the curse of God upon themselves and their children up to the seventh tribe?" stressed the Lavra’s abbot.
Metropolitan Pavel also said in his address that Muslims and Catholics allow us into the shrines, while at home we are being persecuted.
