A person who does not seek God, even being rich, will not have happiness on earth. This was stated by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine in a sermon during the Liturgy at the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on June 28, 2020, reports the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Information and Education Department.
“If a person puts mammon in the first place and God in the second, then such a person, although he may be rich, will be unhappy. Because it is not wealth that brings happiness to a person, but God,” said the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The treasures of this world and even health cannot bring happiness without God, because they are perishable, the metropolitan explained.
“Both health and wealth pass, only the Eternal God remains, Who created us in His image and likeness and wants us to be partakers of eternal life and bliss, which one can find only in God. The eternal life is nowhere else and the soul of a person – even of the one who does not recognize God – is striving for this,” said the Archpastor.
A person’s soul cannot find rest until it meets God, the Primate noted.
“If a person has not found God or is not looking for Him, he is unhappy, his soul grieves and finds no rest. People often don’t understand what the reason is: “Why can’t I calm down, why am I being drawn from one place to another, and I’m always dissatisfied? I come here and I don’t feel well here, and it seems to me that I’ll feel better there. I went there and didn’t feel well there either, and it seems to me that I’ll feel better here…” Thus, the lack of God’s grace in one’s soul makes one restless. Scripture says: “There is no rest in my bones because of my sin” (Psalm 38:3). In order to find peace, one should join the Source of Peace. This Source is God,” His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry explained.
The Primate emphasized that one’s first and highest task is therefore to seek God: one should “seek the truth of God and understand the truth of God, which shows one the right path to the Kingdom of Heaven. Later, if we have this as the first priority, we can and should work in order to have food, drink, and clothes.”
After completing this first task, everything else will not require us to exert extra effort – it will be “added unto us” (Matthew 6:33), His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry concluded.
The Primate celebrated the Divine Liturgy on the square in front of the Dormition Cathedral of the Lavra. His Beatitude was concelebrated by the Abbot of the monastery, Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, the head of the UOC affairs, Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary, Archbishop Panteleimon of Buchansky, Mark Boryansk, and clergy of the monastery.
During the service, a prayer was offered for doctors who are fighting coronavirus and the deliverance from the epidemic of coronavirus.
