And yet, our fundamental and overriding sentiment is that of hope. We celebrated the Resurrection and the Ascension of the Lord with His body. We rejoice in the Holy Spirit who descends in a special way when life is hard to where it really hurts — to the core of human suffering and tragedy.
Seven decades ago, our brothers and sisters in Christ, members of our Church in Ukraine, were enduring death-dealing persecution: all our bishops had been killed or imprisoned, the religious and priests with their families had been deported to Siberia. For Stalin, God was dead, and Christians were to disappear in death also. In 1947, from a gulag prison camp, the head of our Church, Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, wrote an amazing letter for the Feast of Pentecost to his faithful, in fact to all of us. A handwritten copy arrived in western Ukraine from Siberia and was found in 2003, more than a half-century later, in a capsule, cemented into a wall in the Studite monastery in Univ. This epistle is the voice of a true shepherd who shares the sufferings of his flock yet yearns to offer a word of hope. Hope in the Holy Spirit.
“Our hardships force us — exhausted, oppressed, and frightened — to bend our knee and pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen the Church, to bring her out of this mournful state … and to inspire in her a new supernatural vigor,” writes Metropolitan Josyf to the Church declared liquidated and non-existent by Soviet officials. The experience of the first-generation followers of Christ was being repeated, and the blessings they received were being multiplied. As St. Peter wrote to the persecuted: “But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Pt 4:13–14).
Metropolitan Josyf’s epistle continues: “Only the Holy Spirit can show us the way out and bring us out of a storm our Church never endured before. He will teach us to discern God’s plans and ways, which short-sighted people cannot see. The Holy Spirit will teach us with his gifts of wisdom, reason, and knowledge of the fullness of truth.” How inspiring these words ring today to our communities, living through three months of danger, lockdown, and ongoing uncertainty!
The Confessor of the Faith writes not only about Divine hope but also about human progress. He dreams about prosperity, bountiful harvests, new inventions, and better communications networks. He all but foresees the Internet! This was not a message of a trapped, despondent gulag prisoner, but the prophecy of a visionary overcoming insurmountable hurdles with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Metropolitan Josyf was not writing to a large audience or big assemblies. He counsels to conceal his missive. With time, it may prove seminal. But it would not be printed in newspapers or posted on the Internet. At best it might be received in the intimate circles of clandestine monasteries or by tight-knit families in the underground domestic Church.
There was no chance that the correspondence would soon reach and bolster many. Yet in his hope he witnessed to the truth. “Martyr” means witness. Not knowing whether you will win or lose, live or die, you do and say the right thing, you share the truth—in the Holy Spirit.
The truth is that God is with us (Mt 28:20). He created the world and each and every one of us. God saved us from our sins and freed us from the shackles of death. He prepared us to be people of communion, unity, solidarity, mutual service because these are the qualities that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit share. God shares with us his very life, His Son in His Ascension brought our body and our human nature to the life of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit in His Descent brings to us the divine life of God Himself.