PATRIARCH PORFIRIJE: BY REMEMBERING OUR SUFFERING, WE REMEMBER WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE COME FROM

MRKONJIĆ GRAD, AUGUST 4 /SRNA/ - His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije stated in Mrkonjić Grad tonight that we prayerfully remember those who suffered and were exiled in the largest persecution in Europe in the 20th century, because prayer is the most worthy form of remembrance; it carries the truth, liberates from evil, and preserves our identity.

"Our prayerful remembrance is also the preservation of our identity. By remembering our suffering and homelands, we remember who we are, where we come from, and that we belong to Christ and the Saint Sava's Serbian people," said Patriarch Porfirije.

Addressing the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance of the Murdered and Exiled Serbs in Operation "Oluja", Patriarch Porfirije said that tonight we should not seek new words compared to those we have spoken before, because the truth remains the same, and the pain does not cease with the passage of time.

"Our obligation to remember our relatives and victims before God remains permanent and unchangeable," emphasized the Serbian Patriarch.

He highlighted that all those present in Mrkonjić Grad, a town which itself bears the deep wounds of suffering, were gathered by love for our martyrs, our relatives, neighbors, and compatriots, who innocently lost their lives during the terrible persecution from their centuries-old hearths in the areas of Dalmatia, Lika, Kordun, and Banija in August 1995.

Patriarch Porfirije stated that we remember with special pain the victims on the Petrovačka cesta, where innocent people, the elderly, women, and children, suffered in the refugee column on their path to salvation.

"In their suffering, but also in the perseverance of all who bore the cross of exile, the words of the great and holy Apostle Paul were fulfilled, who says: 'We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed,'" he said.

The Serbian Patriarch emphasized that even when they were left without their homes and homelands, our exiled brothers and sisters carried within themselves the faith that the Lord had not abandoned them and the hope that evil does not have the final word.

"Remembrance should guide us toward one another, to lead us into a true and deeper understanding of Christ's words—let us love one another, let us love our enemies. Let us invoke the commandment of love into our hearts," emphasized the Serbian Patriarch.

His Holiness said that he feels a duty from the throne of Saint Sava to call upon all his spiritual descendants to never allow hatred to overwhelm us instead of love, to not let it become normal for a neighbor to turn into a stranger, but to always remain one and always on the path of Christ and the path of Saint Sava.

"Therefore, I pray to the Lord time and time again and call upon all of us to be, as much as we can, above narrow, selfish, and ideologically motivated, particular interests, and to rise above division and discord in the spirit of Christian and Orthodox conciliarity," emphasized Patriarch Porfirije.

The Serbian Patriarch noted that the history of the Jewish people teaches us that a nation, no matter how terrible and unbearable its circumstances, does not perish when it is left without land and people; rather, the deepest fall of a nation begins when that nation forgets who it is, to whom it belongs, and what its goal is.

"From such oblivion discords are born, brother distances himself from brother, and harmony and unity disappear-without which it is difficult to preserve anything, let alone build. That is why our prayerful remembrance is at the same time the preservation of identity, the preservation of our covenant, and the preservation of the awareness of who we are and what we are. By remembering our victims and homelands, we remember who we are, to whom we belong, and where we belong. And we belong to Christ, to His Church, and to each other-the Saint Sava's Orthodox Serbian people," concluded Patriarch Porfirije.