Sermon
of Metropolitan Amfilohije
following the Moleban in front of St. Sava
Cathedral (Vracar)
Belgrade, February 21
"Kosovo and Metohija
must not be a word forgotten for us nor for anyone else in the world. Today we
have been told by those who want to cross us out from history and erase us by
taking Kosovo and Metohija from us that it is a unique case. That is true,
Kosovo and Metohija is a unique case, in its fate and in what the powerful
leaders of this world seek to make of it at the beginning of the 21st
century.
We stand before the
face of the living God and His justice, and before the face of our holy
ancestors, before the face of the Great-martyr Lazarus of Kosovo and the
Great-martyr Stefan of Dečani. We stand here at this decisive moment in history,
called upon to witness before God and humanity, before all the peoples of the
world, to repeat and confirm once again who we are and what we
are.
We know once again
now that we are all Kosovans, that our cradle and the cradle of our people, the
place of our birth is Kosovo and Metohija. We attest that it is in Kosovo and
Metohija that we joined the ranks of mature, historical peoples, and that it is
through Kosovo and by Kosovo that we have built ourselves into the foundations
of a respectable Europe and the entire respectable world of God and all its
peoples.
Now the mother of
the Jugović brothers* (*heroes from Kosovo Battle) is mother to all of us: “Do
not, my son, speak falsely, no matter what say your father and your uncles.” Do
not, o powerful leader of the modern world, repeat what say your father and your
uncles but speak in accordance with the justice of the true
God.
Metropolitan
Amfilohije with the clergy at the Moleban (supplicatory prayer)
We also hear the
Kosovo covenant of Kosovo oath-taker Njegoš* from Lovćen (*famous Serbian poet
from Montenegro): “O Kosovo, site of Judgment Day”. And today still we are being
judged in Kosovo as are the Albanians, the Americans, the English and the
French, who today renounced their Victor Hugo, Franchet d'Espérey and de Gaulle.
The only thing that
is lost is what we ourselves renounce. That is why we are a historical people.
Merely because we are few in number and because we cannot control the general
circumstances of historical events in the modern world should we give up on the
fact that we are great by our nature and historical calling and
summons.
The prayer was
attended by the highest state and Church dignitaries,
members of the Royal
family and hundreds of thousands of people
Kosovo and Metohija
must not be a word forgotten for us nor for anyone else in the world. Today we
have been told by those who want to cross us out from history and erase us by
taking Kosovo and Metohija from us that it is a unique case. That is true,
Kosovo and Metohija is a unique case, in its fate and in what the powerful
leaders of this world seek to make of it at the beginning of the 21st century.
What is being attempted in Kosovo and Metohija today can occur only during times
of occupation, tyranny and aggression.
How to explain that
in a period of mature humanity which has its United Nations, Security Council,
international law and conventions, swears by human rights, how to explain that
these rights and this justice is valid for every corner of the earth, every
people, every country but is not valid for Kosovo and
Metohija.
Massive and peaceful
rally at the National Assembly Square followed
the Moleban service in front of
St. Sava’s Cathedral
Yes, Kosovo and
Metohija is unique and every country of our modern age is being judged there.
Simple and coerced solutions are a sign of moral debility and weakness, not of
strength, a sign of trust in the use of force as the ultimate method for
resolving human disagreements and conflicts, not in God, God’s justice and the
human justice upon which the world rests.
Both America and
Europe know this but their rulers do not.
(photo: peaceful
protest-walk between the National
Assembly and St. Sava’s
Cathedral)
We have belonged to
this Europe from the very start of our self-knowledge, historical maturity and
we desire community with its people in dignity and
equality.
If the price that
the EU, as a community of interests, asks is that we renounce ourselves, our
historical memory, the Kosovo covenant that is by its nature a New Testament
sealed not with ink but with the blood of our people – we cannot accept. As a
people we have never accepted, neither before Prince Lazarus nor after him until
1941 nor today, such blackmail and such calls to trample on our dignity but on
the justice that upholds states and cities. To trample on the dignity of all the
countries and peoples of this world is something we cannot allow
ourselves.
Today we are here
for the same holy purpose: to defend not only our own honor and reputation, our
freedom and dignity but also the dignity of a humiliated Europe. For Europe has
never been more humiliated than it is today. The USA has never been more
humiliated that it has humiliated itself today with such injustice against an
honorable people and its dignity.
As we stand before
God, before this holy shrine, let us stand upright and as it was resolved in
1941 and as it is written in our Kosovo choice: if we are to live, let us live
in freedom and if we are to die, let us die for freedom, not just our own
freedom and the freedom of our Kosovo and Metohija but for the freedom of every
honorable person and people on the face of this earth.
May God return
reason to the powerful leaders who today by their decisions are casting shame on
their peoples, trampling justice and honesty. And may God grant us loyalty to
our Kosovo covenant, our human and national dignity, loyalty to the holy
reliquaries of the Archbishops of Peć, the Holy King Stefan of Dečani and the
holy Great-martyr Lazarus of Kosovo.
Through their
prayers, o Lord, strengthen this people in its sense of justice and everything
that is good and enlighten all persons and people that they may live in justice,
peace and God’s compassion.
The entire plateau
at the St. Sava’s Cathedral and the National Library
was filled with many
faithful who participated in the Prayer
May God bless you
and bestow upon you every form of divine and worldly advancement. Amen, God
grant that it be so!"
translation Snezana
de Berthet
Mp3 recording of
the Sermon in Serbian is available at Svetigora
web-site:
http://www.svetigora.com/node/3241