Primate: God’s law is written in every human heart

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine. Photo: UOC press service

On January 11, 2026, on the Sunday after the Nativity, during the divine services at the Protection (Pokrov) Cathedral in the city of Boryspil, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine addressed the faithful with a sermon in which he recalled the meaning of Christ’s coming and the divine law placed by God in the heart of every person.

“God appeared in the flesh in order to justify man and raise him to Heaven,” the Primate said, emphasizing that Christ deliberately chose to be born in the poverty of the Bethlehem cave so as to enrich people spiritually and open to them the path of salvation.

Speaking of the Gospel events of the Nativity, His Beatitude recalled that the first to come and worship the Christ Child were the simple shepherds of Bethlehem, to whom angels proclaimed the birth of the Savior of the world. He also spoke of the worship of the Magi, to whom the Lord revealed His coming through a wondrous star. “Seeing this sign, they set out on their journey and were granted to worship Christ,” he noted.

In his sermon, Metropolitan Onuphry also recalled the tragedy of the slaughter of the Bethlehem infants on the orders of King Herod. “Herod, seeing that the Magi had not returned to him, flew into a rage and devised to kill the Christ Child,” the Primate said, stressing that the murdered children became the first martyrs for Christ.

The archpastor then noted that despite human cruelty and evil, God’s Providence preserved the Holy Family. Through an angel, the Lord commanded the righteous Joseph to flee with the Christ Child and the Most Holy Theotokos to Egypt, thereby showing that even in the most tragic circumstances God does not abandon man, but leads him along the path of salvation.

Concluding his address, the Primate emphasized that a Christian is called not only to remember the events of the Nativity, but also to live according to Christ’s commandments. “The Lord left us His law: first He wrote it on the hearts of people, then He recalled it through the prophet Moses, and then He Himself came to the earth and again reminded us of this law, which leads a person to Heaven, to salvation, and to eternal life,” Metropolitan Onuphry said.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that His Beatitude officiated the Divine Liturgy in Feofania on the feast day of St. Bonifatius.

Read also