Belgrade’s Bishop Stanislav Hocevar sent in his Easter speech words of support and encouragement to COVID-19 patients and their doctors, emphasizing that the virus has crossed borders and this way warned people that they have to express solidarity with each other and abandon rivalry.

“We learned from the love of Jesus Christ that we are so close to each other that we are serving each other,” the bishop said, expressing support for those fighting for their lives in hospital beds as well as for those caring for them.  

Because of the pandemic, the mass was held in an empty chapel instead of a full Church of Christ the King.

The bishop thanked the state TV channel RTS for broadcasting the ceremony.

  “If the pandemic of this virus is keeping us under external control, tied and restrained, our spirit is free,” he said, urging believers to expel fear, doubt and hopelessness from their hearts.

Mankind is in a constant arms race, presenting modern weapons at military parades while leaders keep declaring they are not afraid and will stop every enemy, he said.  

“Who would have thought that this invisible but comprehensive virus will, like a big global broom, wipe away all those glamorous parades, accompanied by music,” the bishop said, noting that those voices that kept repeating how the enemy will be easily defeated suddenly went silent.  

He noted that “the pandemic made everybody much more modest and humble.”  

“The virus crossed all borders and everybody feels connected to each other and every positive contact with other nations is enriching people,” he said.  

The bishop said that this misfortune is telling people “not to create social differences, classes and blocks but that they should live in cooperation, solidarity and synergy instead of rivalry.”  

The pandemic, Hocevar said, showed people that they have to listen to each other as they are “all one family but we broke up and dispersed into hundreds of fractions.”  

Jesus is using COVID-19 to remind people that they “have to listen to each other, hear the other’s cries better and study their history,” the bishop said.     He congratulated Christian Orthodox Easter that will be celebrated in seven days.