This is a Christmas message from Father Andriy Zelinskyy, a UGCC chaplain on the front of war in eastern Ukraine. The opening and closing paragraphs have been translated into English: MY HOLEY BETHLEHEM My Bethlehem this year is pierced with holes, in its entirety cross-stitched with holes from automatic and machine-gun bursts, fragments of mines and grenades, and of Grads. Wherever you look - everywhere there are holes: in the facades of buildings, fences, windows and rooftops, trees and cars are pierced with holes. This year my Bethlehem is a world of holes, located somewhere on the limits of human judgment and human madness, on the verge between real and imaginary dotted with uncollected sunflower seeds from last year ... Today in the sands near Donetsk, there is no hint of safety, no refuge from the cruelty. Wherever you step -- everywhere -- is perforated with a shot reality, a landscape of destruction... This holey world looks so senseless!... God came into the world, wounded by evil, to heal the holes of the human heart, to warm it with His love, to light it with hope. He came, small and weak, poor and homeless. But, He did come! And He came forever! This is the essence of each Bethlehem -- God is with us! Hope is always the call, the challenge, and every challenge needs a brave heart, for faith to become a reality. Hope needs a brave heart, to become love become one with love, capable of being victorious ... Even in a holey shot-through reality, hope may dwell. Through the holes even those of bullets, you can always see the sky. It depends in which direction you look ... Merry Christmas to you, all my people!
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 15:36:16 +0000
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