General cleaning of the heart from Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko)
Christ is in our midst, my dear readers!
For the fight against coronavirus, general cleaning of the heart is needed.
During the liturgy on Sunday, March 15, we heard a story about how the Savior healed a relaxed (i.e., paralyzed) person. Today, most of humanity is in a state of spiritual paralysis. In all ages and times (not only in Christian, but also in pagan civilizations) the idea of service and achievement was dominant in society. The songs and legends praised the valiant deeds of warriors and leaders, knights and rulers, epic heroes and mothers. Courage and heroism inspired the youth, because they wanted to imitate those who were able to sacrifice themselves for something sublime. Children born in the Soviet period dreamed of being doctors, pilots, teachers, scientists ... They chose professions related to serving other people. The same thing was wanted by children all over the world.
Now everything has changed. The main meaning of human life was hedonism - the desire for pleasure. Adults and the younger generation want one thing from life - with minimal efforts to get the maximum benefit for themselves. “Other” is only a means by which one can profit. Unfortunately, even medicine, which is intended to serve people in the sense of its being, is becoming more and more a cynical way of making money, a system that makes doctors treat the patient not as a person, but as a wallet.
They began to make big money not from the production of goods, but from spectacles, interest banking rates and other “air”, which has no practical value. Wars, killings have also become a reliable way to acquire super-profit. Selfishness, sensuality, pampering, the desire to live beautifully, richly, prestigiously, to be in trend, even if you need to trample your conscience, honor, dignity, have become that “American dream” that many people strive for.
Such a tendency is doomed to come to what in Greek sounds like a “crisis” and translates into Russian as a “court”. It is in this that we must look for the causes of those global shocks that are beginning to shake human civilization today. Further, as the Holy Scripture tells us, there will be more such shocks, and they will be heavier. As a doctor, wanting to save a patient, begins to use more and more radical means in order to bring a person to life and revive, so God will shock our world by the end of time with trials designed to bring people to a state of repentance, humility and a return to eternal the values of being.
Whether these decisive measures will give a positive result depends on each human soul individually. Epidemics, natural disasters, fires, floods, illnesses, and other troubles were never considered an absolute evil in the Church. In most cases, the Holy Fathers attributed them to the tools with which God is trying to reach the human heart when all other ways and means have been exhausted. The duration and strength of the impact of these funds is not directly related to their nature, but to the internal state of our souls. Therefore, I would advise you to think not only about medical masks and other protective equipment, but first of all to do a general cleaning of your heart to combat coronavirus.
Metropolitan Luka (Kovalenko)
