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Over the past century, and particularly from World War II onwards, Christian social thinking (CST) has left its mark on European societies. Its characteristic institutions and arrangements, such as the social market economy (combining free enterprise and market price formation with a compensatory social security net); the Rhineland model with the institutionalized social dialogue between capital, labour and state; and a public sphere with ample room for civil society and the private initiatives of organized citizens; those institutions and arrangements are concrete implementations of CST, which should serve the purpose of approximating us to the Christian social ideal of a solidary and vital society made up by free, creative and responsible persons.

Within the framework of the Week of Prayers For Unity of Christians, on 23 January, in the Church of St. Basil the Great (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)), representatives of the main denominations of Ukraine jointly prayed for the unity of Christians. The head of UGCC, Patriarch Lubomyr prayed together with the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Ivan Jurkovic, bishops and priests of UGCC and RCC in Ukraine, Dominican Fathers and teachers of Catholic higher education institutions of Ukraine, clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Pastors of the Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith of Ukraine (Pentecostals) and the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine. Assistant Bishop of the Kyivan Archeparchy of UGCC, Bishop Yosyf (Milian) led the prayer.

In his address to the participants, Patriarch Lubomyr stressed the importance of the joint meeting and prayer: «Unfortunately, we still are not able to break bread together as we are not grown up enough for that but, perhaps, in future this can also happen. However, before it happens we must jointly or separately pray for unity. It is a difficult proposal. If we realize it, it seems to me that our communities will undergo serious changes.»

Dearly Beloved in Christ!

Today – on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers – the Gospel told us about the genealogy of Jesus Christ from Abraham to the birth of our Savior. Listening to this detailed list of generations, it may be understand that the coming of Christ to the people was prepared in advance, that his appearance on the earth was planned by our Heavenly Father. Moreover, not only the birth, but also the entire life of Jesus Christ has been foreseen by the prophets. An example of this we find again in the holy Gospel: when the three wise men from the East stayed with Herod in order to find out where the new King was born, he called the scribes, who without a doubt say that the Messiah is to come to the world in Bethlehem in Judea, «because thus was said by the prophet» (Mt 2:5).

Dearly Beloved in Christ, I bring your attention to this because as we think over the events of our daily lives, we tend to think that they occur by chance. We often think that everything could be different. Sometimes it seems that everything around is unchecked, that the Lord God forgot about the world. However, our faith is based on God's Revelation, which gives us an opposite response: everything that happens in our personal and public life, except sin, corresponds to God's plan. Proof of this we find in the life of Jesus Christ, from the promise of the Messiah to our first parents in the paradise until His glorious resurrection. Thus arises the next question: why does the Lord God allow circumstances that are unpleasant for us or even cause us great suffering? Jesus Christ in the Gospel from Luke answers this when he speaks about the further history and the development of various tragic events that have to happen in the future. His words are: «This will give you an opportunity to witness» (Luke 21:13). If there were no hunger, there would be no one to feed; if there were no thirst, there would be no one’s thirst to quench; if there were no strangers, there would be no one to receive; if there were no patients or prisoners, there would be no one to visit. If there were no Christmas, there would not be Good Friday and Easter. Thus everything that happens around us, even the most tragic, is God's plan for us which gives us the opportunity to witness for Christ and seek truth, justice, and good.