ROME — Ukrainian Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said Sunday no one would steal Christmas from the Ukrainians this year despite their concerted efforts to do so.
So many “wanted to steal this Christmas from us this year,” the archbishop declared in his December 25 video message. “The enemy who came to our land wants to steal everything from us: our life, our Motherland, and even our Church.”
“But he will not be able to steal Christmas from Ukrainians,” Shevchuk added.
The archbishop noted that even among Ukrainians there was debate over the appropriateness of “celebrating” Christmas in wartime.
“There were so many discussions today in Ukraine, whether it is even possible to celebrate during the war,” he said. “Is it possible to rejoice during such dramatic circumstances?”
“But today we want to tell ourselves and the whole world: Christmas is a holy day that was not prepared by man, but by God,” he asserted. “Despite our weakness, our grief, and our pain, Christ comes to be born among us. Heavenly joy is coming to Ukraine.”
File/Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church delivers his speech during a ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the translation of the relics of St. Josaphat to the Vatican Basilica, in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Monday, Nov. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Yet Russian military aggression was not the only anti-Christmas force at work, Shevchuk contended, since commercializing, secularist trends also threaten to gut this quintessentially Christian feast of its true meaning.
“Today, many, unfortunately, without realizing it, succumb to the temptation to celebrate Christmas without Christ,” he argued, “imitating various Western commercial, sometimes even ideological influences.”
We want to “invite everyone to the celebration of the birth of Christ the Savior among us,” the Ukrainian Archbishop continued. “We want to say that there is no Christmas without birth. The content of the celebration of this feast is the joy of the presence of the living, incarnate God among us.”
“Let us accept this Christmas joy in the image of a little child, a divine child, the newborn Christ, who shares with us this eternal love with heavenly tenderness,” he urged.
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