Light of Christ.🇺🇦🇮🇪🕯

We cannot bear the weight of Hope without union with Christ’. (Sr. Josephine Garrett)

Our Ukrainian visitors singing in Church, breathtakingly beautiful. One week later than us, they celebrated Easter Sunday. I took a video and Victoria (who resides in Kerry for many years) sent it to her Mom in Ukraine who is depressed and full of anxiety in these terrible times. It brought her comfort and joy. Victoria forwarded it to many displaced friends too now living in Italy. 

The song translated is called: ‘Red Kilanna’. A hugely popular song, it compares Ukraine to a beautiful tree that is blossoming, the way it used to before this evil war was imposed unjustly on Ukraine. Now Ukraine is ravaged and in ruins. The blossoming tree is very sad. My little video made some devastated folk smile for a while. 

As I returned home a lady from Ukraine walking ahead stopped and waited for me smiling broadly. In her broken English she told me that I had been humming ‘Red Kilanna’ loudly as I walked along, I had no idea. We both laughed heartily. Sublime moment of grace. Evil will never have the last word.

I genuinely thought he was joking, the guy who told me today: ‘We should look after our own first’. Shocked and saddened, I said nothing, Afterwards I wished I had the presence of mind in that pivotal moment to reply graciously; ‘Our visitors did not give up on life. They did not decide to stop working and living, intentionally. Everything has been taken from them, they are divested of all choices. Up to us now to share and care with all our hearts’.

Maybe my silence said it all though, perhaps it spoke for itself. St. Francis of Assisi oftentimes counselled: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary’. If one selfless act of kindness will penetrate the deep darkness then many kind acts will produce a gaping hole, ushering in great shafts of light in this our day and time. 

Keeping that in mind I go forward unafraid.

Jesus tells us : ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life’. (John8:12). 

There is no competition in my mind between helping our own country folk in need and helping our visitors from Ukraine. The most important thing is reaching out to someone, anyone, regardless of nationality. We are all God’s children. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Simple as that.🥳🙏🏻