On March 16, 2020, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich), Metropolitan of Boryspil and Brovary, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Chancellor, spoke about how to remain human and to be saved in a difficult situation, reports “Pravlife”.
According to the metropolitan, “today many people are in panic over the pandemic. Most people live in an increasing fear from day to day, spoiling the already heated atmosphere, spreading panic among friends”.
The hierarch spoke on how to save ourselves in this situation.
“We immerse ourselves in darkness, the abyss of despair and depression, depriving ourselves of light, the colours of spring and joy. Yes, the situation is real, the virus is real. But what can I do for a man who is not admitted to a hospital in Italy, for example? Nothing. But I can help those around me: with my work, participation, attention, prayer.
Give the warmth of your heart, strength and time to those who need it now, to those who are around you, to those who really need care and support – and all fears and panic will go away at once, I assure you. Love destroys any fear.
The best cure for fear at all times is not masks and garlic but love and compassion.
Our salvation is in immersion in ourselves, in the depth of our hearts. Only in the depth, one meets face to face with questions forbidden on the outside, with suffering and death. Only there can one meet God and open oneself to Him.
Metropolitan Anthony added, “Accepting the inevitability brings happiness, it liberates. It is not an imitation of life when one closes one’s eyes to spiritual laws and truth and ignores reality, but real life with all its troubles and calamities, joys and victories, with depth makes one happy.
God cannot insure us against misfortunes, He gives us the strength and patience to bear them, the courage to start all over again.
Believers in Christ inevitably pass through darkness, depressing states that darken the light around for a while, but with firm hope and faith to see the light again, they find joy and carry it through the darkness until the next flash of light.”
