On March 6, 2022, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church delivered a sermon.[1]
In his sermon, Kirill, who has already been heard several times defending and justifying war since the first day it started, has explained why “this spring has been overshadowed by grave events related to the deterioration of the political situation in the Donbas”.
His explanation, which is aligned with anti-West rethoric to justify war, goes like this:
“For eight years there have been attempts to destroy what exists in the Donbass. And in the Donbass there is rejection, a fundamental rejection of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim world power. Today there is such a test for the loyalty of this government, a kind of pass to that “happy” world, the world of excess consumption, the world of visible “freedom”. Do you know what this test is? The test is very simple and at the same time terrible – this is a gay parade. The demands on many to hold a gay parade are a test of loyalty to that very powerful world; and we know that if people or countries reject these demands, then they do not enter into that world, they become strangers to it.”
He adds that: “If humanity recognizes that sin is not a violation of God’s law, if humanity agrees that sin is one of the options for human behavior, then human civilization will end there. And gay parades are designed to demonstrate that sin is one of the variations of human behavior.”
So the war “has not only political significance. We are talking about something different and much more important than politics. We are talking about human salvation, about where humanity will end up, on which side of God the Savior, who comes into the world as the Judge and Creator, on the right or on the left…All of the above indicates that we have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance.”
And which side you choose “is today a test for our faithfulness to the Lord, for our ability to confess faith in our Savior.”
And he ends up by praying for soldiers, which we guess are not the “evil forces” of the Ukrainian army: “let us pray that all those who are fighting today, who are shedding blood, who are suffering, will also enter into this joy of the Resurrection in peace and tranquility.”
Is that a good day to die?
Happy crusades!
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