Monday, December 9, 2024

Patriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim): Christ is Here

 Arabic original here.

Christ is Here

The question is, where is Christ? His answer: Christ is in many places you would not think.

Christ is not in our flashiness. Christ is not in worldly glorification.

Christ is not in what people call elevation and sublimity.

He is in the places where no one dreams He would be. He is in the face of the poor, in the face of the sick. He is in the face of the oppressed. Where people flee, there we find Christ.

We search in vain for Him in comfort. He is in toil more than He is in comfort.

We search in vain for Him as being necessarily in knowledge and among the learned. He is in the simple heart.

A learned person who does not know how to simplify his heart and to let his soul be at rest is not learned.

Christ is at doors that the world thinks are closed, but are half-open in a hidden way so that the Savior may enter, as he entered through the locked door.

Therefore, we are called to look around us with all realism.

You cannot imagine that Christ did not come through these people or those people.

You must expect Him in your neighbor. You must expect Christ in every person you pass in the morning, whether, whether or not he is worthy of you saying "good morning" to him.

Christ is a surprise for those who do not await Him, a surprise in every face, a surprise in every eye, a surprise in the little child, a surprise in the grownup man.

We are called, then, to really, inwardly learn to answer, "Where is Christ?"

Christ is not out in the air. Christ is here. In the faces of many of you, Christ is speaking, and in the hearts of many He is dwelling.

Who are those many? I do not know, but He is here.

Christ is in living hearts.

Christ is in living souls.

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