Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Today is Thursday 11 August 2022 and for 169 days the Ukrainian people have been in an unequal battle with the Russian aggressor, who tirelessly sows destruction and death on the Ukrainian land.
During the last day, yesterday and last night, Ukraine was again seriously wounded. Different types of Russian weapons. The enemy tirelessly tries to attack Ukrainian troops, in particular in the Luhansk region and the Donetsk region. Our already wounded cities of Kharkiv and Mykolayiv tremble under Russian missiles and bombs.
But the last night was the most hellish in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Again, the enemy destroyed many civilian buildings and the infrastructure of large cities with jet artillery strikes. Ukrainian blood was flowing again.
But Ukraine is standing. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine is praying.
Today I invite you to think about one more rule for the construction of successful society, a rule that Christian wisdom has taught us for thousands of years. Yesterday we reflected on the fact that the first and most important element, the cornerstone of any society is respect for the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life, from conception to natural death. Because it is from the dignity of a person that all other rights and responsibilities of a person derive. Therefore, society is for man, so that he could live and develop.
Today we will contemplate the second, very important element, which is the basis of social and state construction. This is the principle of common good. Man is a social being. By nature, he is a being created in the image and likeness of God, Who is the Trinity. A person needs all kinds of benefits, which he cannot provide for himself alone. The common good is not simply the sum of various private goods or the wealth of citizens of one or another state. The common good is something that can be achieved only together, jointly. The common good is something that enables all citizens to feel protected in one or another society or state. Every person, every citizen has certain duties towards the common good. For example, we say that the purpose of the service of all political authorities in the country is the common good of all citizens. An example of common good is the state itself. Likewise, we already know today that we can defeat our enemy only together. Only together. And we understand that the victory of Ukraine will be the common good of the entire Ukrainian people, the benefit from which all citizens will benefit today, as well as our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in the future.
Therefore, let this sense of duty, for the common good of the people of Ukraine, be the light that will help us rally in the name of the good, the common good of all people of Ukraine—regardless of wealth, origin, place of residence in one or another region. This is something that should unite us all and lead us to a joint victory, joint construction of a conciliar, free, and independent state.
Today I would especially like to address the mothers who had to leave Ukraine together with their children, who were were forced to leave Ukraine, but their husbands stayed to defend their homeland. The whole world was moved by the footage of the Ukrainian border, when a father would bring his wife and child to the border. He said goodbye to them, but he himself returned to defend Ukraine. And the mother with her child or children continued on the not easy, uncertain path of a refugee to a foreign country.
Dear mothers, today we pray for you especially. I want to say a word of support to you today. We remember you, we pray for you. Today, you, mother, for your child, for your children, are the only protection in that foreign world. A lonely door to this great and unknown, sometimes alien, world. You, mother, there, in a foreign land, are the only one who today should take care of the Christian, as well as the national and cultural, education of your child.
Therefore, we, as a community, the Church, want to help you by being close to you. Our parishes and communities in different countries of the world, in particular where you are, want to be close to you. They want to wrap you in the warmth of solidarity and Christian love for you. You, mother, are today the only mother hen who sometimes fights over the good, the good of her child.
Please, mothers, think about Ukraine. When the time comes, return home. Ukraine needs all of you. Ukraine, your homeland, longs for you, cries for you, prays for you. And we believe that the day will come when your father will return home alive from the front. And you, mother, will return to your native land with your children. Then your family will be reunited, and we will be together again, in our native, independent, and free Ukraine.
O God, bless the Ukrainian people. Bless Ukrainian mothers. Bless the Ukrainian army, our sons and daughters, who build the common good of the Ukrainian people at the cost of their own lives, bringing this desired victory prayed for from God closer every day. O God, bless Ukraine with Your, just, heavenly peace of God.
May the blessing of the Lord be upon you through His grace and love of mankind, always, now and ever, and for ages of ages. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ!