Metaphors of Holy Week

The video showing the execution of a Ukrainian soldier, which instantly went viral online, appeared on Holy Wednesday of Holy Week. Apparently, there is a certain subtext in this, or even several, invisible to the eye blurred by everyday life. It was on this day, according to the stories of the evangelists, that Judas decided to betray Jesus, and the chief priests decided to hand the Saviour over to be crucified (“The chief priests and scribes were looking for a covert way to arrest Jesus and kill Him. “But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people!”…Mark 14:1-2).

Those who decided to make public the footage of the brutal execution of the prisoner hardly thought about dates and symbols. Rather, they pursued a completely different goal: to intimidate and shock an average person, to break the spirit of Ukrainian defenders. However, the opposite happened. First, the world has become convinced for the hundredth time that criminals are fighting against Ukraine, that there are no rules of war for Russia and its army, that Putin's under-empire is a parallel world incompatible with the realities of the XXI century, adequate only to Old Testament ideas and practices. And the video, in the context of important events for Christians, clearly shows the essence of the carriers of the "Orthodox bonds," the essence of those who profess a special Gundyaev "religion," only seemingly covered by a cross.

Myroslav Marynovych once wrote a wonderful book, Ukraine on the Margins of the Holy Scripture, and it was with this book that I began my acquaintance with the work of this dissident, which eventually became real. But today his work could probably be supplemented, given the recent years of Ukrainian resistance to Russia.

In addition to the savage massacre of an unarmed prisoner, we can find numerous metaphors for the Way of the Cross, the road that Ukraine has been following for eight years. And there are those along the way who, like Simon of Cyrene, helped the Savior carry his cross to Calvary. Of course, this assistance to Ukraine is absolutely necessary, and moreover, it really determines whether we will hold back the newest horde or allow it to fall like the Plagues of Egypt on the heads of all of Europe. And there, in the West, they quite clearly understand this mission of Ukraine, that it is on our front that the fate of democracy is being decided.

“In addition to the savage massacre of an unarmed prisoner, we can find numerous metaphors for the Way of the Cross, the road that Ukraine has been following for eight years. And there are those along the way who, like Simon of Cyrene, helped the Savior carry his cross to Calvary. Of course, this assistance to Ukraine is absolutely necessary, and moreover, it really determines whether we will hold back the newest horde or allow it to fall like the Plagues of Egypt on the heads of all of Europe”

Simon, according to Ana Catalina Emmerick in her revelations, accompanied Christ about two hundred metres. Then a noblewoman, Seraphia, appeared, who, despite the guards, knelt before Christ and gave Him a handkerchief to wipe His face from blood and sweat. Later, this ascetic would be called Veronica, and she would become a saint. And two thousand years later, far from Jerusalem, we will have as contemporaries hundreds of thousands of women who courageously defend Ukraine, rescue soldiers, and treat the wounded. And all over Europe, we have countless kind-hearted Veronica's who sheltered in their homes their sisters and children who were forced to flee the war.

“Two thousand years later, far from Jerusalem, we will have as contemporaries hundreds of thousands of women who courageously defend Ukraine, rescue soldiers, and treat the wounded. And all over Europe, we have countless kind-hearted Veronica's who sheltered in their homes their sisters and children who were forced to flee the war”

Among these life-affirming metaphors, however, there are others. The ones that testify to the desire to use the war for their own benefit, to the resilience of supporters of the so-called "appeasement" of the aggressor, at the expense of Ukraine. I won't talk about the dubious initiatives of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but a socialist is a socialist, even in a deeply religious Catholic country. In the end, our outrage at the "way of the cross" with the participation of young men from Ukraine and Russia in the Vatican should be tempered by the worldview of Francis, who is almost a fellow countryman of Lula. "The "leftist" Latin American pope, who undertook to revise not only the text of Pater noster, but also the Christian understanding of good and evil, the murderer and the victim.

“We are surprised and disgusted by the movements and rhetoric of some of our close neighbours, which clearly shows revanchism and a desire to use the bloodied Ukraine to grab a piece of someone else's land. "Those who crucified Him divided His clothes by casting lots... And then they sat down to keep watch over Him there" (Matthew 27:35-37)”

We are surprised and disgusted by the movements and rhetoric of some of our close neighbours, which clearly shows revanchism and a desire to use the bloodied Ukraine to grab a piece of someone else's land. "Those who crucified Him divided His clothes by casting lots... And then they sat down to keep watch over Him there" (Matthew 27:35-37). And we have examples of those who, like the Gospel's Barabbas, rejoice that the choice of the crowd of wild fanatics fell not on them but on their neighbour.

The metaphors of Holy Week are capacious, vivid, and instructive. And yet the most important of them is faith in the resurrection of the Crucified One. Without this faith, we would not exist, and a new Ukraine will emerge with faith in the victory over death. Because the main event, the Resurrection, is filled with completely different, light and optimistic tones, not to mention the fact that it categorically denies fatalism. It is not for nothing that it is called the Great Day, Easter.

Yes, each of us has repeatedly had occasions to exclaim, echoing the humiliated, tortured, and crucified God-man: "Father, why have You forsaken me?" Just as everyone, after a dark patch is over, felt a gracious breath of rebirth in their souls, they saw the wonderful world around them differently, and it no longer looked like a sandy wasteland or a mountain of suffering.

About the author. Ihor Hulyk is a journalist and editor-in-chief of the Espreso website.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.