“May God grant that there will never be hatred among us, that violence will never reign in our souls and among us, and that we will never see each other as enemies,” noted Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia in the Church of St. Sava in Vračar.
Speaking about the essence and deeper meaning of our faith – which is to journey towards the Kingdom of Heaven through faith, spiritual struggle, prayer, repentance, love, and divine grace – the Patriarch emphasised:
“The essence of the Great Lenten fast is summed up in the call of both St John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself: repentance. Of course, repentance, when accompanied by faith and trust in the Lord, is a source of joy for us, because it is a spiritual purification, a spiritual cleansing, an inner transformation. It is the moment when we meet ourselves before God, when we have the unique opportunity to recognise not only our faults and weaknesses, but also what we should have done but did not.
Looking at ourselves in the Lord himself, as in a mirror, we recognise both our shortcomings and our failures, and by God’s grace, we gain the strength to understand deeply and truly which way we should go. This is precisely what is described in the parable of the prodigal son: the estranged son, who had distanced himself from his father, from his loved one,s and even from himself, was able to return home because he had kept within himself the image of his father as love. In the same way, through repentance, we want to change, to conform to God’s will, to become better, even though we know that we cannot achieve this on our own, with our own strength. That is why we pray to the Lord to bring us back to Him”.
“Especially during these holy days of Great Lent, when we are called to open our hearts to our Lord and to one another, we are confronted with contradictions, misunderstandings, deep divisions, and conflicts among us. Without authentic inner transformation and sincere repentance, it is difficult to overcome them. But this is not natural; it is not God’s will. God wants us to understand one another and to make room in our hearts for our neighbours, however different they may be. He wants us to communicate and to enter into dialogue, and this is what we are constantly stressing,” Patriarch Porfirije concluded:
“May God grant that this Lent be a time of peace, mutual understanding, love and the fulfillment of the divine commandment of love – a love that calls us to love not only our brothers but also our enemies. But if we stray from God’s Word, we not only risk going down the wrong path, we may even begin to believe that we must hate our neighbour, see him as an enemy, and fight against him. God forbid! For this is a distortion and a perversion of the Gospel of Christ. It is the entry into our lives of a deep inner confusion, a spiritual illness that renders us incapable of recognising God’s love and, consequently, His commandment to love.
May God grant that there may never be hatred among us, that violence may never reign in our souls and in our lives, and that we may never see one another as enemies but rather as members of the same Body of Christ, which is the Church. For it is in the Church that we can encounter God, come to know ourselves, and gain a true awareness of the world as God’s gift and of our neighbour as our own paradise.
Repentance and transformation are both a threefold and manifold gift from God and the fulfillment of the meaning and purpose of our lives. May you be blessed, and may the beginning of this Lent be a true journey to victory over the devil, sin, and death – a journey to the Risen Christ and His Kingdom. Amen”.
