What to Say to a Woman Who Left Her Home, City, and Loved Ones in Eastern Ukraine
What can one say to a woman who abandoned her home, city, relatives, and friends in eastern Ukraine and fled to foreign lands, escaping the madness of an obsessed maniac and his horde? How to comfort her after a suppressed voice on the telephone—a fellow soldier of her husband from the front—quietly reported that he is no longer alive? How to console this grief-stricken woman desperately dialing her husband's number again and again, hoping to hear his voice after that dreadful news? What answer can one give to her endless lamentations: "I don't believe it, I don't believe it…"? How to help her now-adult children cope with hysteric attacks and despair that shatter everyone's hearts in the home and frighten neighbors with loud wailing? What words of hope can be found to comfort the sorrow that has burst into their lives and to scatter the black sky of hopelessness over their souls? How to answer this most terrible of questions: "Why did the Lord allow all this, when I prayed so hard and begged Him?"
And there are tens of thousands of such stories today, if not hundreds… War is the breath of hell, the foul stench from Lucifer's jaws and his servants… It reveals the tragic meaning of humanity's fall into sin and shatters the illusion of paradise on earth. It tears masks from all the billboards, songs about human beauty, love, and goodness, exposing the deep essence of fallen hearts. Burned homes and enterprises, destroyed families and destinies speak the truth about the possession of those who believed in their own divinity and the greatness of these two-legged creatures…
Woe to all initiators and instigators of war… Woe to all His enemies, liars, hypocrites, false prophets, murderers, spreaders of hatred, and false messiahs! May His mercy appear upon those who seek and tremble before Him! May His saving grace appear upon the broken, devastated, and shattered… May God's mercy appear in the repentance of enemies—consciously blind, self-assured, and proud.
How can one remain in an elevated, joyful, and peaceful state of spirit while walking with living people through their living pain, deepest despair, and sharing their tears? Does God need my abstract, transcendent, and emotionless floating in a "lotus position" over a lectern in such days? Or does Jesus wish to be at the epicenter of earthly pain among living people, to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice? As a full man is not a companion to a hungry man, so a "sterile" Christian from the quiet sofa life of comfort is no helper, advisor, or healer in such times. There is no book written by men, save Scripture—the Psalms, Job, and others—capable of comforting, reviving, and giving hope…
But it is precisely at the bottom of this pain that you understand, as never before, the value, power, and glory of the Gospel of Christ! The world is hopelessly and totally immersed in evil, sin, and darkness… This world has no future and no chance… Everything must be radically remade, changed, and transformed… Only the Gospel and Christ's love revive the soul with hope in such days… The Cross of Christ humbles, quiets, saves, and compels us to pray for the healing of the broken and shattered, and also for the salvation of enemies. Yet the Resurrection of Christ not only gave hope for future glory but has already begun the inevitable process of transforming this Universe into a new world through the spreading of the Kingdom in human hearts.
Christ's Resurrection condemned this world to destruction and gave radical hope for a new world… And while the visible degrades, the invisible grows and expands… One day all will change, and we will forget evil, pain, and darkness as a terrible dream… I have no doubt that the inflated and exalted glory of the modern empire of evil (like other empires) will surely be cast to the depths of shame, disgrace, and dishonor before all nations and His Face. God will surely win—and darkness cannot endure the blinding light of Christ's glory. Evil will be erased forever, and servants of evil will be cast into eternal hell for eternal torment… God Himself will place the final period and close this horrific chapter of life after the fall, only to begin a new book and new history of eternal love!
For now, I look into the eyes of this Christian widow and say to her: "Do not despair… You have a Husband! And He will never abandon you, never forsake you, and never die… He will care for you until the end of your days, and then receive you into His arms… You are not alone and never will be… His invisible love will warm your heart perceptibly and visibly. He will give you strength to endure all things and will always be near. This He has promised…"
And I see HOPE appear in her eyes… Jesus is near, and He is close to all who suffer and call upon His name… And we must be near those who desperately need Him, especially in the evil day… The true war began with the serpent's first words to Eve and has not ceased for a single moment since… The Church is always on the front lines, though sometimes it seems we are in the rear, but this is an illusion… We are all in war… And until the Angel sounds the trumpet, we must be vigilant and fight, speaking TRUTH and the GOSPEL OF HOPE to the world!
War and Forgiveness… Jesus in War… They came from Mariupol…
"For eighteen days we hid in the basement… I couldn't even run across the road to get food from my apartment because Russian Grad barrages alternated with airstrikes and bombs. They leveled everything to the ground… When I finally could slip into my house for food, a bomb fell before my eyes on a multi-story building near where my children and family were hiding in the basement… and it fell on their building… I thought that was it… We rushed to dig through the rubble and saw a miracle—they were alive… We split a piece of bread in half for adults, and gave the children one cookie a day… When there came a brief silence and we could finally drive out in a car that miraculously survived, though battered, after traveling three hundred meters, my wife's brother's heart stopped—it couldn't bear all the horrors… We simply took him out of the car, laid him on the roadside, and… drove on… At the checkpoint, Kadyrovites took everything valuable from us, including our phones… I begged them to return my phone so I could get my family to safety… They 'took pity'—and returned mine… The fact that we're here and still alive is a miracle…"
He told me all this without emotion on his face, without tears, mechanically somehow… Sitting across from him, I saw before me a soul "burned out" by war and pain… "Liberators" from the "brotherly country" left him without a home, present, and future. But he and his family were "lucky"—they survived…
I wonder how and with what I should comfort this unbelieving man, his wife, and children? What can I tell them to give words of hope and grace when he looks through me?
What can one say to people whose homes were completely robbed by occupiers, destroyed to the ground, left with mine traps in the yard, with nowhere to return? How to comfort girls and women brutally raped by "valiant soldiers"? How to preach reconciliation with God and forgiveness of enemies to a people whose streets and homes are filled with thousands of corpses of civilians, women, elderly, and children? How to convince Christians to forgive, love, and bless enemies who daily "iron" their cities, loot, rape, kill our people, brothers and sisters, shoot volunteers, lie shamelessly and cynically justify their lawlessness, not ceasing in their evil and madness?
I can say only one thing: we desperately need an enormous measure of grace and the working of Christ's Spirit in our hearts and in those we serve… We need a gracious revelation of the depth and glory of the Gospel for the healing of our own souls, and then for proclaiming it to the world. Give us, Lord, words of comfort, care, love, hope, and the power of the Spirit to heal and rebuild the destroyed…
I think and pray about young men who crossed our country's borders, whose mothers likely taught them to love people, respect their elders, and help the weak… At what point did they cross the Rubicon and lose their humanity, firing mercilessly at those they came to "liberate"? At what point does a Russian pilot-officer cross the line of his honor, dropping bombs on Kharkiv, Mariupol, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kyiv?
The truth of war is that it does not make people what they are, but merely exposes what they already are. War reveals the true essence of people and this world. The plaster has fallen away and revealed the true face of fallen humanity in all its ugliness…
The masks are off… I think and pray about Z-Christians, whose minds are poisoned by propaganda and whose souls believe in mythical ideals. Do they understand even a drop of the full horror of their condition, their actions, and their "spiritual help"?
When a rapist rapes a victim and inflicts knife and mortal wounds, any advice from his blood or ideological relative: "cry more quietly, learn to endure sorrows, accept God's Providence, you must forgive, you are a Christian, this is for you for eight years of resisting 'our love' and our harem, love your enemies, and you have no proof," etc.—these represent a measure of complete inhumanity, madness, and moral decay. A crisis of conscience is inevitable for them, after which "God's" will be separated from "z-earthly"… And this is inevitable…
I think and pray about Ukrainian warriors… They fight not simply against Russian occupiers, but struggle for their homes, families, relatives, friends, cities, and also for the right to live in a country free from dictatorship and propaganda. And I pray for their protection, safety, and the salvation of their souls… I pray for the victory of the Kingdom of Heaven and Ukraine in this struggle against the forces of darkness and evil… I think about God—Sovereign, Wise, Good, Eternal, and full of Love… He alone knows our tomorrow and prepares our hearts for it today. He allows the madness of rulers to manifest their desires while achieving His own good and eternal purposes of salvation and transformation of our souls.
Jesus on the cross endured all the horror of Heaven clashing with earth, in which He conquered all the malice and cruelty of this world. And this means that living in us, He makes us capable of defeating evil, anger, and pain again and again… It is He who preserves in us Christ-likeness amid all the horrors of earth…
I think about forgiveness in war. And Lord, how difficult this is! No, it is even impossible without Your grace… Impossible without grace, meeting "tons of pain, tears, and sorrow" that tear at the soul, to forgive again and again for Christ's sake, not allowing the soul the right to harden… Impossible without grace to overcome the passion for earthly justice and humbly surrender enemies into the hands of the Judge and True Avenger. Forgiveness is the liberation of one's heart and soul from pain, anger, malice, and revenge… It is a step of unearthly love toward enemies and murderers. On one hand, forgiveness is an act of complete annihilation of guilt, a refusal of one's "right and desire" to punish the guilty. On the other hand, it is the surrender of him into God's sure hands, He who will decide questions of His and my justice. It is an act of worship—the surrender of one's real enemy and his evil into God's hands, the Judge and Avenger. As redeemed from our own guilt and forgiven, we cannot help but forgive today…
We forgive, bless, and love enemies because of Christ, surrendering them into God's hands. The difficulty is that today forgiveness is not a one-time decision, but a supernatural labor of each day. Forgiveness pleasing to God depends only on us, but reconciliation depends on the true repentance of enemies. This is what we pray for… I think of the Kingdom come and coming… Precisely because it has already come and is in us, we are capable of conquering here on earth, absolutely everything. Precisely because it is coming, we can rejoice and hope even amid the horrors of death and war. The Gospel is the only effective and Joyful News in our days.
I thank God for having WHAT to say to my own soul, to the man from Mariupol, and to all those who have lost loved ones, close ones, homes, cities, their lives…
Jesus is here today, in this war, beside every wounded, living, and killed… He is here to heal, revive, and lead people into His Kingdom…
Jesus is here and in us to reveal Himself to the world… We are His fragrance, to some a fragrance of life, to others of death. This world must smell God's fragrance…