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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Easter Bells

10 April, 1999 - 00:00

By Klara Gudzyk, The Day

From time immemorial the holiday of the Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter,
has been called the holiest of all holy days, a great joy, the guarantee
that the winter of our discontent is behind us. On this day everyone feels
that now the sun, good, fine people, and happy relationships must all reign
in the light. A symbol of awakening to the new light will always be the
Easter bells, which on this day ring out throughout the whole land as if
to say, "Get up! Arise from your winter slumber. Come out into the sun.
Everything will be fine. Let hearts be glad. Rejoice in your labors. Christ
has risen!" The bells resound, the skies are sown with the golden cupolas
of churches, young girls sing traditional Ukrainian spring songs, and on
green hillocks children hunt Easter eggs.

Whence has come so much evil into our lives? Whither is our indivisible
and so brilliantly hued world spinning? Are we really living in the time
of Armageddon or is the Last Judgment truly at hand? When one views the
scenes from Yugoslavia: hundreds of thousands of people thrown out of their
homes, ruined cities, villages, bridges, stolen humanitarian assistance,
and "human shields" to defend military objects, one begins to doubt the
existence of any kind of logic or sense in human life. And who of those
in power are prepared to sacrifice in these times even a portion of their
private interests for the sake of "their people." And what are the Ukrainian
and Russian mercenaries in Yugoslavia now doing? Pardon me very much, but
did they go there with all their wits about them? Ancient wise men put
it tastefully: "Whom the gods will punish, they take from them wisdom."
Perhaps there are still too few bells in our land...

 

Respected readers and editors of The Day:
We sincerely greet you on the greatest of Christian holy days, Easter.
We hope that the light of the Resurrection of Our Lord will overcome all
the evils of our present and that the Risen Christ will grant tolerance,
health, love, and Christian understandihg both to our state and to every
single person. By celebrating Easter we call forth God's blessing on one
and all!

Pavel, Bishop of Vyshehorod and Abbot of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Monastery
of the Caves


 

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