Met. Saba (Esber) on Giving to the Poor

The Arabic original can be found here.

The Poor are Our Gateway to the Kingdom

Some readers might be surprised by this title, but it expresses the theology of our Church and our view of the poor. I will rely first of all on a simple testimony from the great theological saint Gregory of Nyssa, who spoke the very words of this title, “the poor are our gateway to the Kingdom.” He says, “These poor are the ones who store away the good things that we look upon. They are the gatekeepers of the Kingdom. They open the gates before the merciful and shut them in the face of the cruel ones who do not do good. They are the strongest accusers and the best defenders. They do not accuse and defend with words, but the Lord sees what is done to them. Every action cries out in a loud voice before God, the searcher of hearts.”

When we approach fasting, its complete foundation is the dimension that today we call “the social dimension” which in the Gospel is “the dimension of love”. In order to enter into the holy fast, we must be aware that we have to fulfill within it the dimension of love. From the beginning of Christianity, we have abundant testimonies starting from the second century that Christians had in the church a “common box”. When one of the faithful was in need of help, they would fast, cutting themselves off from food and subsisting for that day only on bread and water. They would bring the price of the food to the church and put it in the common box and it would then be distributed to believers in need.

So the dimension of love is the foundation. The first Christians understood this and embodied the words of the Gospel, which often speaks of love and of serving the needy, whatever their need is. Here we need to make a simple review of the concept of poverty in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. Through it, we will touch on some of the testimonies found in the Bible about the importance of giving, serving, and helping.

The Poor in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, when people did not know the full dimension of faith in Christ and their life was focused on the earth more than on the heavenly kingdom, they looked at wealth as a blessing from God and at poverty as a curse from God. However, in the Old Testament the Bible emphasizes the necessity of helping those in need and of taking care of strangers, especially widows, orphans, and the poor. This emphasis on helping the poor was even though poverty was a curse from God and a sign of God’s displeasure with a person. This was until the prophets in the Old Testament changed this view and condemned the rich who exploited the wealth of the poor and profiting from their account. They rebuked them for their hardness of their hearts since they were not concerned with helping the poor. The Prophet Isaiah said in chapter 58, “Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’”

And so with the prophets began the connection between helping the needy and perfecting worship. That is, helping the needy became a part of worship and worship by its very definition was not accepted by God if it was not connected to serving the needy. The Prophet Isaiah mentions this in another text, in the first chapter of his book, where he mentions that we must care for the poor and have justice for the orphan. “Defend the fatherless, give justice to the oppressed, plead for the widow. ‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’” The Prophet Isaiah said these words after rebuking the people for their luxurious worship, which God loathed and turned His face from. He said to them, “I turn my nose away from the smell of your incense so that I will not smell it. Your songs are abhorrent to me and your fasts are heavy for me.” That is, all the worship that the people undertook was unacceptable to God because they did not care for the orphans, the widows, the poor, and the needy. So we see a great development with the prophets of the Old Testament when they began to show the believing people that love, living love for the poor and needy, is a part of worship and that worship by its very definition, whether it is prayers or fasting, is unacceptable when it is not actively connected to love.

In the Book of Daniel, the prophet says, “Break off your sins with alms, and your iniquities with mercy to the wretched. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity.” This is the very same idea that continues with us to today and doing good is taken into account by God, who when He notices it gives the one who does it good things in return. There are many who love to give and to offer help and donations, but the reason for them doing this is not love for the needy so much as selfishness: if I give, God will bless me and give me more. The Bible is in agreement with this viewpoint and confirms it to the degree that in the New Testament the Fathers of the Church consider almsgiving and assistance to the needy to bring about forgiveness of sins.

The Book of Jesus ben Sirach says, “Just as water puts out fire, so too does almsgiving do away with sins.”

And in the Psalms, “Blessed is the one who looks after the poor. On the day of evil, the Lord will save him.”

In the Book of Tobias, “Prayer is good with fasting and almsgiving because almsgiving saves from death and purifies one from sins.”

The words of Jesus ben Sirach, “prayer with fasting and almsgiving does away with sins and brings blessings” reminds us of the Sermon on the Mount where Christ talked about the three pillars of the Christian faith: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

The Poor in the New Testament

In the New Testament, the idea of the prophets, which came about in the seventh century before Christ and continued to develop until the New Testament, was perfected and the viewpoint became different from the Old Testament. In the New Testament, wealth was no longer a sign of God’s blessing and poverty was no longer a sign of God’s curse. Instead, poverty came to be blessed because it helps people to not be attached to the bonds of this world. And so with the New Testament, poverty came to have a spiritual aspect: we are able to use poverty, if we find ourselves in that state, to rise above the things of this world. Poverty is not in itself blessed, but according to the New Testament, if we are poor then we are able to use are poverty in order to ascend spiritually. This viewpoint connects with some of the fathers, such as Saint John Chrysostom who considers poverty to be a very important Christian virtue. Not all are capable of it and it is not given to all. Poverty is no longer a curse from God, but the New Testament stresses that poverty must be combatted and that the poor must be aided. This is what the first Christians understood and continued to understand.

We know that Christianity is the religion that distinguishes itself in love more than any other religion and it has produced many very great people who gave up their entire life for the sake of love and for the sake of the poor. Christians are the ones who established all what we call today humanitarian institutions. All the concern for the human condition, human dignity—and humans need to live in dignity and respect—all these concepts and institutions that were founded on the basis of them came from an evangelical, Christian background.

Thus, in the New Testament, we have the parable of the Judgment that we read in the Church on the Sunday before Lent. In it, Christ goes so far as to say “I am the poor and I am the hungry. I am the thirsty and I am the sick. I am the imprisoned and I am the naked.” He completely identifies himself with the needy. For this reason, he considered every gift and assistance offered to the needy to be offered to his own person. Thus, the Christian understanding is that when one encounters someone in need, he should see it as an encounter with Christ because Christ says, “Everything that you have done for one of these little ones you have done for me.” And he says, “Everything that you have not done for one of these little ones, you have not done for me.” This means that we will be judged, not only on the basis of the work of love that we have done and for which we will receive recompense, but we will also be judged and receive punishment for the love that we could have offered but did not. Thus, with the parable of the Judgment the issue of poverty and the poor in Christianity reaches its apex, to the point that it becomes personal service to Christ.

Chrysostom says, speaking for Christ, “You have heard about me that I am robed in light, but when you clothe one naked I feel warmth and I have been covered. You believe that I sit at the right hand of my Father in heaven, but when you go to the prison and take care of the prisoners you see me sitting there.” Chrysostom also talks about giving, to encourage people to do it: “Because he is poor, feed him so that you will have fed Christ.” There is a complete identification between the poor and Christ. “If you see a wretched person, remember that even if it is evident that he is not Christ, He is the one who asks you and receives from you, in the form of the other.” This is how the poor reached a very high rank among Christians, because they are the means by which we are able to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. We will mention some of the attributes or names that the Fathers of the Church give to the poor. Chrysostom says, “How great is the place of the poor, since they are like God’s inner room. The inner room is the bedchamber, the room of God the Creator, may He be exalted, in which He is hidden. The poor extend their hands begging, but it is God who receives your alms.” In this way Christianity came to look upon the poor as having honor and as being worthy of respect, just like any wealthy person. For this reason Chrysostom also says that if our Lord deemed the poor worthy to share with Him at his table (that is, in the Lord’s table, in the holy chalice, that is the Eucharist), then by what right do you have to prevent the poor from sitting at your table, if you are rich?

When Saint John the Merciful (Patriarch of Alexandria in the seventh century) became patriarch, he wanted the people to hold a celebration for him and he told them, “Invite to the celebration my masters.” They said to him, “Master, you are Patriarch of Alexandria, you have no masters. You are master over all.” He said to them, “No. I have many masters. Invite for me my masters to the banquet of honor that you want to hold for me.” They did not understand him. They thought that he wanted them to invite the authorities of the country, important people and celebrities. The deacon came and told him that they were thinking of inviting so-and-so and such-and-such a person… He said to him, “My son, I said to you to invite for me my masters. My masters are the poor. They are the ones who will grant me entrance into the Kingdom. They are the ones whom Christ made equal to himself. We only have one Lord. Every person in whom is the Lord is a lord for us.” He always said these words until they stuck with him.

On this basis honoring the stranger, the needy, the poor, the visitor, is considered to be the basic virtue for Christians and in monasticism it is considered to be giving honor to Christ directly. For this reason monks in monasteries are very concerned with the virtue of hospitality and so they accept all people. In Orthodox monasteries especially, people visit and sleep there and if they are hungry they eat, not feeling that they are in a formal institution because what is within the monastery is an offering from God to all people. This is how this tradition has come down: In every monastery there is a large hall with all the furnishings called “the guest-house” (or in Greek archondariki) where all the guests of the monastery stay and sleep.

Thus Christianity gives very great honor to the poor. All worldly thinking that we are unfortunately influenced by from time to time talks about giving from above. It says, “we give somewhat what we are able” as though we are doing good for him. We give him alms. There is nothing called ‘alms’ or ‘charity’ in Christianity or in the Gospel because this means that you are giving without feeling. That is, when you give alms or charity it is because you feel an obligation without love springing up from within you. Giving in Christianity is giving in love. Otherwise, it has no value because you are giving to Christ himself. You are unable to give to Christ when you are dry-hearted. It does not mean anything for you to give without looking at the person, without caring. Unfortunately, sometimes in Christianity we have experiences that are not successful in Christian terms. There are groups that have founded organizations and charitable institutions that give with very much sincerity and honesty but they do not love the poor who benefit from their services and instead hate them because they are giving from above. Sometimes you see where someone has posted the saying “beware the evil of one for whom you have done good” on small boards in stores. Why? Because we give to them from above. Meaning: It is true that they take the material gift that they need in order to buy medicine or food or to educate their children, but the gift has no feeling of love. It humiliates them and they feel ashamed, like they have been rejected, and so they have a reaction against the one giving. This is not Christian giving. Christians cannot say “beware the evil of one for whom you have done good” because they love those for whom they do good and that love is also reciprocated.

What are the images of the poor?

The first image that Christ gave us is that of the Good Samaritan: the enemy who becomes, through an act of mercy, a neighbor. The Samaritan was an enemy of the Jews, but because he loved the Jew who was wounded and left for dead and saved him, he became his neighbor more than any Jewish priest and more than any Levite serving in the Temple. That is, he became his neighbor more than any authority of the religion to which he belonged, more than his own people, the people of his own religion. Thus, it is the enemy who becomes the closest neighbor to us.

The second image is very beautiful. It is given to us by Saint John Chrysostom, who says that the poor are the porters who carry us. He says that all of us, when we move to a new house, want to move our possessions and we are in need of porters to move our possessions for us. When we move to our heavenly abode, we have those who move all the valuables that belong to us and that we need in our heavenly abode above, without us paying them and without complaint. They are the poor. He says literally: “How can we not awaken from our sleep and realize that we reside in a strange country and that we will soon return to our homeland. Until now, we were not paying attention to carrying our wealth and transporting our possessions there. Those who undertake moving to their country from a foreign land have to pay for the voyage and for transport and they take great trouble to send their belongings safely. But here we encounter those who transport our belongings without trouble, without complaint, without pay and without provision, and they send them safely to our homes through the dangers of the road. And despite this, we reject them? They are the poor.”

Another very widespread image among Christians is that “the poor are intercessors.” They intercede for those who help them. And so when we do a work of mercy, we gain for ourselves an intercessor. We often notice that the poor pray for those who give to them “God give you success”, “God give you health”, “God save your children”… These prayers are very important because they come from a wounded and sincere heart. When we give, we ourselves profit. This is why the Bible says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Giving contains joy and those who become accustomed to this joy are never sated by it. They take pleasure in giving, not in receiving. Our culture today is the opposite, being based on possessing and receiving. Thus, “one who loves the poor,” says Chrysostom, “is like one who has an intercessor in the judge’s house. One who opens his door to the destitute holds in his hand the key to God’s door. One who loans money to those who ask him is paid back by the Lord of All.”

The poor are also a living example for us and in this way they preach to us. We often talk in sermons about the transient nature of this world and how it will not remain for anyone and that at any time we are subject to falling ill or become disabled or fall into problems or an accident could happen to us. Why do we preach this? We preach this because we want to free the faithful from their material circumstances in which they live, which draw them only to worldly cares. It is the duty of the Church to preach to people and to open their eyes to another side of life. Life is not only worldly cares. Before us is the Kingdom of Heaven, where we desire to live, eternal life. We must be aware of the transience of this world so that we do not become very attached to it. Some of the Fathers of the Church also say: It is true that preachers speak these words, but the poor truly show you. They show you in reality. For this reason they are the true preachers before you and living examples who show you what the Bible tells you, that you should not be attached to the world and “let us cast aside all earthly cares and receive the King of All.”

Giving in Christianity

The Christian viewpoint is connected to considering the poor to be preferable to the rich because by helping them the rich receive a blessing by which their sins are forgiven, they become more sensitive, they are saved and so enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Who is the one who benefits? The one who pays a little bit of money or the one who receives God’s grace and His blessing? Thus giving, in the Christian understanding, is giving from below not from above. There is no preference in it. When I give, I should be completely convinced that the person to whom I am giving is actually serving me rather than me serving him. The predominant view in society is exactly the opposite. For this reason one of the effects of giving and service to the poor is that it saves us from judgment. The Bible says, “Break off your sins with alms, and your iniquities with mercy to the wretched. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity.” It also says, “One who gives to the poor is not in need, to one who covers his eyes from many curses” (Proverbs).

Alms, or giving, also causes us to resemble God because God gave Himself and not only the good things of His creation to mankind. He gave Himself to mankind and He died for their sake on the cross. Thus when we give from what we ourselves need, from what we lack and not from our surpluses, we resemble God. This is why Chrysostom says, “One who has mercy on the poor makes a loan to God” and the Lord will repay us on the last day. And so every act of giving is a debt for God that He will return to you on the last day. This is why he does not say, “One who has mercy on the poor, the Lord will have mercy on him or the Lord will bless him” but rather says that he makes a loan to the Lord because He will return the loan at the appropriate time.

Blessed Augustine says, “How can you ask of your Lord, you who do not respond to your equal?” The poor is your equal. He is a person just like you. He asks from you and you do not respond to him while at the same time you stand there and ask God to bless you and give to you, but you are not like God. Thus, in Christian spirituality the Gospel says, “Do not turn away anyone who asks from you.” That is, do not say “no” to him. Today, many people see this to be difficult and so we say, “He does not deserve it. He is a liar. We know him.”

Giving also grants us spiritual and material blessings because in exchange for this small blessing that we have given, God gives us great blessings. Here we recall the parable of the widow who put her two mites in the poor-box. Christ said to his disciples that she put “more than anyone”. The disciples were naturally surprised by these words because they saw how people gave gold coins and large sums and they said to him, “How can you say this, teacher? She only put two mites in.” He said to them , “She was in need of her two mites to feed her children, but despite this she denied herself and her children and gave them away. For this reason her offering is accepted by God more than those given by others in their surplus. She gave out of her need.”

The subject of giving is very important on a human level. Each one of us needs to pay heed to how we must deny ourselves some things so that we may give to others, even if we have plenty. Do we have much? Then we give much! However, we must train ourselves to deny ourselves something in order to give it to others, because this benefits us. It frees us from within, from every attachment that we have.

Saint Justin (2^nd century) mentions in his apology for the Christians, “We Christians, who as humans have loved the ways of acquiring wealth and property over everything else, now offer what we own to the common box and we share it with every person in need. And so there was an official box in the Church from the second century which is what we call in some parishes today the “box of love” or the “poor box.” In another apology, he says, “We have turned our attention to the outcast and the ignored. Our active love has become the bond that distinguishes us before the enemy… Look at what the pagans say about us. They say: How they love each other and how they are ready to sacrifice their life for each other!” This is why wealth is considered by Christians, and especially great Fathers of the Church, to be a grace insofar as it permits the one possessing it to give, to do works of mercy, and to help greatly. The understanding of wealth is changed, from being a blessing from God that we deserve, to being a grace that God gives us so that through it we can receive many blessings. How do we receive the blessings? It is when we give, and not when we store up. This is why the Christian tradition looks at wealth as trusteeship and not as a personal possession. Christ said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” His disciples asked him, “Then who is able to be saved?” He responded by saying, “For humans, it is impossible, but for God everything is possible.” The Fathers of the Church explain this by saying that wealth is a way, a means, a possibility, for us to receive God’s mercy, when we distribute it and give it to the needy because in the measure that we give we receive a blessing. If we are rich and we have great ability, then we receive blessings to the degree that we give of this wealth. This is why wealth is considered to be trusteeship that God has entrusted us with to distribute to His needy children. It is not our own property. This is the deep theological viewpoint.

Saint Cyprian says: Possessions are a trusteeship and the rich are their trustees. They must imitate God’s munificence and generosity in sharing material things with their neighbors so that all may have food and so that the earth may be a common possession for all.”

Chrysostom says, “Those whom I attack are not the rich, they are those who use their wealth poorly. Wealth is one thing and desiring others’ wealth is something else. It is possible for you to have wealth and to use it for acts of love and it is possible for you to have wealth that you store up.”

Saint Ambrose says, “Alms from a miser are merely the restitution of stolen goods.” This means that when I give a needy person a loaf of bread, I am only restoring to him the loaf that I stole from him.

However, on a personal level each one of us must think: How many things do I have that I don’t need? And how many times do I go back and accumulate more! In this way I can see many things that I have stolen from those who have nothing!

The saying from Saint Ambrose is very harsh. However, in reality it is good for people to live as they pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” We pray this every day. But do we put it into practice?

After this survey of the Old and New Testaments, we hope that we can apply some of these sayings, each one of us as we are able.

Fr. Georges Massouh on Diversity of Opinions in the Church

The Arabic original can be found in the here.


Market Policemen

We Orthodox are in great need of a distinction in our religious discourse between what is essential and what is accidental. For some of us, confusing these two things leads to confusion and to value judgments that take others out of the range of sound teaching, sometimes to the point of accusing them of heresy or of undesirable innovation. Within churchly circles, this confusion has reached a point that raises anxiety and alarm since it has ballooned and occupied areas that had remained remote from it until today.

Our Orthodox theology is based on a respect for diversity in non-dogmatic matters. The source of this is faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three hypostases. The theological belief affirming that faith in the Most Holy Trinity is faith in unity in diversity and diversity in unity remains in our hearts and minds. The gifts of the faithful must be according to the image of the Most Holy Trinity: one of them does not cancel out the special characteristic of another or its individuality. Love and its pinnacle, the life-giving Cross, remains the bond that ties us together for the sake of building up the group and its salvation.

On the basis of this theological principle, the Church has known the distinction between set dogmas, apart from which one exits the Church, and theological opinions, which if the faithful differ about them no one can judge those who disagree about such an opinion as having left the Church. This is because theology is concerned with upright belief and faith, which is established in the dogmatic teachings that the Church agreed upon in the ecumenical councils. As for what the Church has not dogmatically determined, there is no problem with a multiplicity of opinion about such matters. In this diversity lies the power of the Church and the freedom that was granted to her by Christ, her Lord and Redeemer. In this diversity also lies a distinguishing characteristic of Christianity compared to other religions.

If, for example, we take the question of universal salvation, we find a diversity of opinions among the fathers both ancient and modern. All agree that the essential matter in this question is that Christ alone is the savior and no one else and that salvation can only be achieved through Him exclusively. As for how salvation is achieved through Him and which people receive it, one cannot determine this with certainty. This matter is for Him alone and it is not for us to have anything to do with it except to hope. Those who argue for universal salvation have their sound biblical and theological proofs and those who claim that salvation is only for those who deserve it also have their own proofs that are no less sound. On this matter we could cite a number of fathers in favor of both sides.

In our present time, there are many matters that are less important than the question of salvation, but despite this we see an intensification of discussion about them. If we take as another example the “outpouring of light” at the Holy Sepulture on Holy Saturday, its importance varies among both the faithful and theologians. Some of them consider it to be proof of the true faith and find fault with those who do not believe in it and some pay no attention whatsoever to the phenomenon, considering it to be a popular belief with no connection to the teachings of the Orthodox Church.

Distinguishing between what is essential and what is accidental is necessary for the preservation of the unity of the visible Church and in order to prevent chaos that would shake the faith of the simple, who naturally are not stupid. What is essential is that Christ rose from the dead and granted life to those in the tombs. As for the question of the “outpouring of light”, it should not exceed the bounds of something that is accidental and incidental. If it did not occur, it would not add or take away a mustard seed’s weight of faith in the Resurrection. There is an anxiety that results here from giving the accidental priority over the essential, relegating the essential to the level of something secondary or marginal.

A lack of distinguishing between what is essential and what is accidental has led to the appearance of a class of “market policemen” who pursue those who hold differing opinions in order to judge them according to how they interpret to be correct with them and incorrect with others. “Market policing” or “compliance” as it is called in some Islamic countries, is not a behavior that our Church has known in the past but rather something new that is making inroads today. There are those who judge people for opinions that they have written or spoken or for their doing away with certain phenomena that have no connection to Orthodox tradition, such as in questions of dress and beards, or in the question of menstruating women participating in the sacraments or their placing a scarf over their head when they receive communion…

Respect for diversity is what makes the Orthodox Church unique. All individualism or unilateralism in teaching goes against the essence of this Church. Diversity begins with the absolute distinction between what is essential and what is accidental. “Market policing” is a new and alien innovation for our Orthodox tradition and it contradicts the basic Orthodox dogma, the dogma of the Most Holy Trinity. It is an innovation that contradicts the words of the divine Apostle, “You know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” In closing, we believe that the appearance of this class of “policemen” is an expression of a profound crisis that takes them captive and puts them in a state of constant fear of the world that Christ called us to face without fear, even if it persecutes and oppresses us.

Met. Georges Khodr on the Dormition

The Arabic original can be found here.




The Feast of the Dormition


In Christian terminology, it is the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, and "dormition" is the eastern term for death. In the language of worship, the dead are called those asleep, in order to indicate Christ's victory over death. Their death is because they are embraced by God before the Resurrection on the last day. The origins of the feast are eastern. It was established in the sixth century in Jerusalem where her church stood in Gethsemane. The Emperor Maurice made the feast general throughout the empire. Pope Sergius I, who died at the beginning of the seventh century adopted the feast, and Pope Pius XII announced that the transport of the Virgin to heaven in body and soul is a dogma.

The Orthodox Church has not defined the transport of Mary into heaven as a dogma. Orthodox theologians are divided between those who believe in the assumption of her body and those who do not, since where there is not a synodally-defined dogma, the matter is left to freedom of interpretation. However, the services for the feast are clear in stating that she was transported ("You were transported to life, being the Mother of Life", that is of Christ). Also in the prayer for the feast we say "You arose after your death to be with your Son eternally" and even more clearly "God... preserved your body in the tomb and your glory is with Him in your divine transport."

The question that poses itself to eastern Christians is 'are the texts of the feast binding as dogma?' The general, basic answer is that worship services reveal a dogmatic position in general, but this does not mean that we are able to extrapolate a binding dogmatic position from the worship services, and so we remain with critical freedom as long as a clear definition is not issued at an ecumenical council made up of all the Orthodox churches.

Taking stock of both the Orthodox and the Catholic positions, we can say that Mary anticipated the Resurrection, that she will not be subject to trial or judgment, and that she abides in glory, that is the state in which we will be after the final resurrection. This is what Saint John of Damascus realized in the eighth century when he addressed her in one of the two sermons he wrote about the Dormition. He said, "I will not call your holy departure death, but rather a dormition or a journey but the best way to call it is an abiding. In leaving the realm of the body, you entered a more excellent realm."

I said that she abides in the divine glory and that she is not like us, subject to divine judgment on the last day. This is why we greatly magnify her. She is our ambassador to heaven.

She is full of grace, as the angel Gabriel told her at the moment of the Annunciation. That is, that she was free from all sin, submitting to God alone and prepared to accept every word from Him. This is what the angel meant when he said, "The Lord is with you, blessed among women." These words were the beginning of her path to glory. The beginning of the path is that from her and from the Holy Spirit the Word of God, who existed in the beginning, became incarnate. The angel's greeting makes it clear to Mary: "The Holy Spirit will rest upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." There is no doubt that the angel Gabriel's use of the word "overshadow" points to the cloud that accompanied the People of God of old and which later became the temple in Jerusalem. The idea, then, is that Mary is the new temple of God or the first church for Christ and there is no church unless she dwells within it. In the first church, which gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem, where the disciples gathered "continuing with one accord in prayers and Mary the mother of Jesus was with them" (Acts 1:14). So when the Holy Spirit rested upon them, it also rested upon Mary, just as it had rested upon her at the Annunciation in order for the Word to be made flesh. This Spirit accompanied her until the end of her life on earth. This is the life in glory before her being transported to the heavenly abodes.

There is no further talk about Mary after this in the Gospel, since it goes on to talk about the Holy Spirit's formation of the Church. The Virgin is an inherent part of the Church since she said, "From this moment all generations shall call me blessed" (Luke 1:48). Thus the words of the Gospel show that the humanity that relies on the Gospel as its scripture turns to the Virgin, through whom the Mighty One worked wonders (Luke 1:49). Those who know of the place of Mary in glory address her, seeking her intercession.

The author of the Book of Revelation looked at her as an image of the Church. He said, "There appeared a great sign in heaven: a woman robed in the sun and the moon is under her feet and upon her head is a crown of twelve stars" (Revelation 1:12). Byzantine art has a pattern by which she is drawn with the Child. She relies on Him for all her splendor. She has no power on her own. She is given what we receive from the Lord. If you love the Lord and go for all His splendors, then He is great in His saints and among them she is the first. Knowledge of Mary is a part of knowledge of Christ.

Perhaps this feast is an occasion for me to say that what is called the intercession or the entreaties or the meditations of the saints are words that do not cancel the single mediation of Christ. Salvation was achieved a single time in the person of the Savior. No one can add anything to that, since there is no power outside this salvation.

We Orthodox do not accept the view of Mary as a partner is salvation. No human can save humans. However, we believe that those in heaven pray, just like the people on earth, because Christ's Resurrection is active from this moment and by it Christ has trampled down the death of those who have tasted it. Those who have been transported to glory stand in prayer and are not mere bones and ashes. They are alive with their Lord, that is they speak to Him and we speak to them. We accompany them and they accompany us in the vale of tears in which we live. The Church in heaven and the Church on earth is one. Heaven is chanting after divine kindness in the saints. Is it right for you to say that those in heaven are silent and that Mary is absent from the glory of her Son and of her brothers and sisters in righteousness?! She is a word, after the Word dwelt within her and after He gave those invited to the wedding at Cana wine to enjoy.

What does it mean when some say "Can God not respond to us directly?" If you entrust grace with Mary, supplicate her, and receive an outpouring from her, is the Savior not working within you directly? In the Kingdom of Love above, what is direct and what is indirect? Are we not, with those great ones who preceded us in arriving at God's mercy, the single body of Christ, living together in the Holy Spirit?

Met. Ephrem's Sermon for August 8, 2011

This sermon was given in Dedeh, Koura, on the First Sunday after Transfiguration, August 8, 2011. The Arabic original can be read here.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Beloved, today you heard the Gospel talk about the multiplication of loaves and fishes! Jesus worked this miraculous event while the crowd was gathered around him. The miracle occurred in the desert in order to remind us of how God in the past, in the Old Testament, fed the crowds in the desert.

The Gospel says that He had mercy on the people because they were hungry and said to His disciples, “Feed them.” And they said, “We only have five loaves and two fishes.” So the Lord Jesus went and blessed the bread and the fish and fed five thousand people! What does this miracle, which is in all the gospels, mean for us? You remember that during feasts that we come and bless five loaves and you know that when people wants to commemorate their living and dead they bring five loaves to the altar for the priest to bless during the Divine Liturgy. Today we are gathered in the church to partake of the body and blood of the Lord. The believers gather together in the church in order for the Lord Jesus to bless them and also so that they can pray together for the living and the dead. Today, for example, we make a commemoration for the repose of the soul of a woman and the parish gathers in order to pray together. There is nothing better than for a parish to gather together and there is nothing better than prayer for our loved ones and our departed so that our hearts may be comforted. Our Lord alone comforts the heart. For this reason, it is amazing that there are Christians who do not go to church on Sunday in order to take part with their brothers because all of us are one and the Lord Jesus is the one who brings us together.

The miracle of the five loaves occurred because all the people were gathered around the Lord Jesus and the Lord not only satisfied them materially but also gave them heavenly bread. For this reason, the Gospel says, “He blessed it and broke it and gave it to the crowds.” This same thing occurs in the Divine Liturgy when we go forward to partake in the hope that we will remain gathered in the church so that our Lord will bless us and when we pray in the church, as we are today, for the repose of the soul of this virtuous woman who left a good memory in her family and we ask the Lord to give her rest and to strengthen our hearts, amen.

Met. Georges Khodr on Ramadan

The Arabic original can be found here.


Ramadan Has Arrived

Ramadan is a month for all of us, whether we refrain from food or refrain from sin. It is not right for a Muslim to be practicing his asceticism and for us to not support him with prayer. He believes that his fast was decreed for him. You should ask blessings, health, and purity for him so that he can reach the highest point of his struggle and benefit all people through his nighttime prayer.

It saddens me that some of us welcome the iftars to which our friends invite us without our hearts going to the fast itself, that is to turning away from this world and its pleasures insofar as we are happy for Muslims to draw near to God and His generosity.

We accept Muslims because God accepts them in the purity of their worship.

The month of faith and preservation / There is triumph in it for those who wish to accept

These are the qualities that a profound believer seeks and they transcend the outward price, which is restraint from what is ugly and at that point only God remains. You become like Mary, who said “I have vowed a fast unto the Merciful One, and may not speak this day to any mortal” (Surat Maryam 26). If you have achieved purification, you have achieved your ascent to God who gives you what to say to people or who gives you silence to save you from your emptiness.

For those especially dedicated to worship, Ramadan becomes withholding the senses from sins and a fast of the heart from everything but God. As for the purely outward image of fasting, it is nothing and serves no purpose. The special characteristic of spiritual sacrifice in this struggle is described by one who said, pleadingly, “My God, the beggars have stopped at your door and the poor have fled to your refuge. The ship of the wretched has stopped at the shore of your generosity, receiving passage to the field of your mercy and grace. My God, if in this noble month you only are generous to those who are sincere with you in their fasting, then who is there for the dedicated sinner who drowns in the sea his sins and transgressions?” “My God, if you only accept the diligent, who is there for the negligent? My God, those who fast have profited, and as for us your sinful servants, have mercy on us and bestow your grace upon us. Forgive us all, by your mercy, most merciful one.” This is the Muslim’s window on all-encompassing love.

What is the purpose of the fast? Asceticism, abstinence, and austerity are exercises by which God makes possible for man what the Christians call grace, which is the divine power in the human heart or, as al-Ghazali says, what God causes to leap up within one’s breast. Secondly, the fast is a focus on the Lord himself and thus internal conditions make Ramadan a gateway to heaven. This means that its true purpose is for the one fasting to take on one of God’s attributes, which is steadfastness insofar as the divine steadfastness is reflected in a human being.

The Imam Ghazali said, “Fasting has three levels: the fasting of ordinary people, the fasting of the select, and the fasting of the select of the select.” Ordinary people’s fasting is following known obligations and it is summarized by refraining from desire for food and sexual restraint. The fasting of the select is refraining from all sins such as averting one’s gaze from what is blameworthy, controlling the tongue, refraining from listening to unpraiseworthy things “because that which it is forbidden to say is also forbidden to listen to.” A beautiful saying of al-Ghazali’s is “one should not eat permissible food in excess, to the point of filling one’s belly, when breaking the fast because there is no vessel more detestable to God than a belly full of permissible food.” His advice is that one fasting should eat what he would eat every night if he were not fasting.

As for the select of the select, their fast is “the heart’s fasting from cares… and worldly thoughts and abstaining from everything other than God.”

If Muslims were to write new Ramadan literature, they would have to think in this Middle East that the Christians who love them, even if they do not fast with them bodily they are still close to them, since if each group of us is elevated spiritually, the other is elevated together with them, or at least this is what one imagines. At the deepest level, one does not look at dogma, but rather at human beings. The goal is human beings coming together to the point of love and not just the rapprochement of two sets of dogmas. What was called Muslim-Christian dialogue targeted dogmas. For that reason, it had little success and some scholars rejected it because of the difficulty of undertaking it and began to talk about the ethical aspect in dialogue. The truth is that there is another aspect, which is the coming together of people who seek God in love and who want the other to be elevated along with them. In their intense focus on God during the fast, is there anything to prevent Muslims from carrying Christians along with them and not becoming prisoners of politics?

Political communication may be extremely difficult because it is focused on competition, denying the other his right, and a lack of vision for national unity. This is expressed by saying “I am more important than you and greater than you.” Politics is always focused on the ego, and the ego always denies the other’s ego. All that is based on humans is human, which is to say that within it are people’s desires. But if we lay aside politics and its struggles within a religion or within multiple religions, and we focus the heart and mind on God in a continuous Ramadan or in Lenten fasting, we will feel that we are human beings capable of unity and coming together and that we are in principle a single society.

The outward, organizing form of this society is that it is a civil society. The search for this is ongoing, without a limit to the expression. In sum, it is for us to be a religious society that, in so being, does not have a political aspect. Or, if it must be so organized, it must submit to civil laws without sectarian reference.

What is important is for us to be free of all vainglory and that we should not strive for what pertains to this world. When will we turn in this Ramadan direction?

If, during Ramadan, you are among the select or the select of the select, to the point of reaching God, look at His servants in the way that He does, that is that they are His children, according to the Christian terminology. No matter what your language, God is the one who shelters you and He calls all those under his shelter unto Himself. I do not only mean on the last day. We are drawn to Him at all times through His mercy and loving-kindness.

Through bodily abstinence, through spiritual abstinence, or through both of them, we shall enter Ramadan together in perfect brotherhood.