Fr Touma (Bitar): Even if you don't know how... you are bound for salvation.

 Arabic original here.

Even if you don't know how...

You are bound for salvation. 

 

There are people who surprise you! They have not known, or rather, had never practiced Orthodoxy until recently, but despite that you find that they have remarkable awareness, seriousness and composure, while many others who were considered to be inside the Church you find to have shocking flippancy, disdain and indifference to the faith. Do you think it's an issue of knowledge and information? It doesn't seem to be! There are those who profoundly feel God's presence and there are those who do not feel it. This has no connection to whether you have been Orthodox for generations, but rather to whether you have an upright conscience, even if you grew up outside the Orthodox Church!

Your Lord works in ways you do not know, whether in what you value, inside the Church or outside of it. Your Lord does not treat titles like people do. Everyone, without knowing it, is from Him, in Him and to Him! His categories are not your categories. His calculations are not your calculations. In your own eyes, perhaps, it is as though you are coming from the unknown and setting off into the unknown, even if you are accustomed to shielding yourself with the name of your Lord. In reality, you might be acting according to your natural disposition, as though you have no power with God. In a world where your Lord is sidelined as though He had no connection to the details of your life, and you just grew up like that, you find yourself as though you were free to take account of Him or disregard Him, without a care. It all depends on your temperament.

But for your Lord, your situation is different.

There is an inevitability that you revolve around Him, even without knowing it. Every hair on your head is counted! Every thought, every impulse, every movement, every heartbeat, every endeavor would not have been possible without you being at the center of your Lord's plan for your salvation! How do you explain what happens to you? This does not mean that you are right in what you are doing. No, but your Lord is truth. He is the path to truth. There is nothing easier than following a path when you don't know what it is. You think it is one thing, and it turns out to be something else. You think you have reached a certain place and you strive for it diligently, then it becomes clear to you that you are in another sphere. In any case, do not forget that you are in your Lord's care.

Everything that has happened and is happening is in the service of salvation. I am not saying your own salvation alone, but the salvation of all humankind! However, this does not mean each of us individually, because so long as we do not work for each other, we gain no benefit. In other words, each is charged with his brothers, with all people. The dynamism of the salvation of each of us is activated through zeal for others' salvation. The issue does not stop at the limits of each being for himself. For you to fast, to pray and to remain in inner contact with your Lord is of course important, but you are not on fire in the Spirit unless it is through love! The warmth of a loving heart depends on compassion for your brothers! The more you genuinely embrace what belongs to others, the more you grow and the Spirit of God intensifies within you.

In this context, the return of the enemy, the stranger, the poor, the distant, the oppressor, the one immersed in his sin will be even greater for you if you embrace him with visceral zeal! "My brother is my life," in the words of St Silouan the Athonite. Love is poured out all the more upon the sinner, the stranger, the sick, the straying... and this benefits all the more the one who pours it out without keeping count.

Before you is one astray. Do not judge or condemn him! You do not know what hell he is coming from. There is the heart-- who knows what is in it apart from its Creator? Most people are sons of pain. I seek mercy and not sacrifice! Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the wicked and unjust, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven!

The man of sin is characterized by lying and deception. Man, in this context, is the great prosecutor. He invents images of himself to protect himself, to defend himself. For him, truthfulness and dishonesty are both equally permitted. He chooses what suits him. There is nothing easier for him than to be truthful in the service of dishonesty. Exaggeration is something natural for him. There is nothing to prevent him from lying when passing on truthful statements that suit him. His motto, easily, is fabrication.

As for deception, in the words of Fr Elias Morcos, may God have mercy on him, "Man is a deceptive animal." Deception is related to desire, to trickery, to ambiguity, to one's self-image. And of course, to imagination, to fantasy, to dreams. Thus, in general, fantasy comes from darkness in the soul. The world of fantasy is the world of sin par excellence. If Adam had not gone wild with his fantasy, it would not have occurred to him that he was a god and so he would not have strayed from obedience to his God! The impulse to fantasy that the snake breathed cast him into the pit of falsehood! Accepting an image of himself other than what God told him in the commandment made him into a liar.

There are, nevertheless, people who have acquired qualities not devoid of goodness and integrity even though they are not of the Church. Who has passed through whose life, and what has he left behind? This remains a mystery with many. There are things in the soul found dormant, amidst events that influence their owners' direction. On this level, along people's path they are swallowed up by noise that they can only escape though a shock. At that point, they wake up to secrets that they never imagined existed, here and there, in the corridors of their conscience. What is revealed might result not only in something surprising, but something that might radically alter their direction.

A sinner is not generally at ease with his situation and is not pleased with staying in place. If we were to describe his internal existential state in one word, we would say that he is someone mired in anxiety. Of course, he tries to normalize a certain peace within himself, but he does this especially at times of crisis, with fabrications that only lead to more anxiety and confusion, no matter how much he relies on things that calm his nerves. In the final analysis, a sinner suffers from loss, and time and again his reaction cannot overcome the limits of escapism that always ends in tragedy. In general, he is inclined to go from failure to failure. In the long run, a sinner will inevitably awaken to a great emptiness. After a frivolous life, a frivolous death looms before him on the horizon. "Every vessel overflows with what it contains."

The secret remains in pain and at its center is an existential emptiness. In the end, a person cannot bear meaninglessness. What stirs within him, after everything that he has gone through in his life, pushes him to wonder existentially: "Where to?" There is something that is not within anyone's capability and there is no power, whatever it may be, apart from the Spirit of your Lord, that can provide someone with an answer at an existential level about the meaning of a son of Adam's life. They come from east and west and sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the children of the kingdom are cast outside!

How and when can a soul change? Your Lord alone is the Knower of Hearts. What remains constant, however, is that the Most High wishes for all to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. As St Silouan the Athonite says: "Keep your mind in hell and despair not!" The important thing is to not despair.

 

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)

Abbot of the Monastery of St Silouan the Athonite-- Douma, Lebanon

February 1, 2026  

Fr Touma (Bitar): Holy Week in a Word

Arabic original here.

Holy Week in a Word

Homily given on Holy Monday, April 29, 2024

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Before the Fall, creation was for the glory of God, and for human happiness. Everything was for joy. Everything was for giving praise to God.

The fig tree that the Lord God cursed, He cursed outside the season for figs. In human terms, this is unacceptable, for people. So why does the Lord God curse the fig tree outside of its season? Perhaps we might think that there is an allegory in the fig tree, as though the Lord wanted to tell man that there is no special season for God's work. Any time is time for bearing fruit, with regard to God's work. We might say that. That that is not necessarily inappropriate or untrue. But in paradise the Lord God granted man that the trees and plants would bear fruit constantly. There was no season there, in paradise, when the earth would not give forth its fruit. The Lord God is coming from there and pointing to what is there, to what is to come. And naturally, He points to what is beyond that, because we are no longer at the level of the things of paradise. We have come to be at the level of the things of the Kingdom.

After the Fall, the Lord God wanted to save us through that which produced the Fall. Within the framework of the Fall, creation is no longer for the glory of God or, consequently, for human happiness. Following the Fall, creation in human eyes came to be for the glory of man and, consequently, no longer for the delight of humankind, since humankind has sunk into something new, when it occurred to humans that it is possible to enjoy creation according to their whims. This new new that humankind invented in its fall into sin is envy. Envy took away everything that could lead to human happiness. Perhaps man might have pleasure and enjoyment. But he does not know joy, does not know happiness. He lost these in the darkness of his sin. And what resulted from envy? All humankind suffers. The rich are not satisfied and the poor die hungry.

Therefore, the Lord God only wanted to give us a cross, so that we might be saved by it. He put all His power in the cross. The cross became God's force for salvation. The cross became pride. It became happiness. It became dignity. It became salvation. It became the kingdom. The cross became the new creation. Therefore, through the cross God wanted joy to come into the whole world. Your Lord has nothing left to give humankind besides the cross. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him take up his cross, every day, and follow Me." After the fall, all people either thrived in wealth or desired wealth. Everything they did, they did for the sake of wealth. After the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, all those who want to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be characterized by following His Spirit, must receive-- with the very same force that fallen man received wealth-- something entirely new and completely irrational, which completely challenges man and completely demolishes everything connected to the Fall in man: the spirit of poverty. Man cannot acquire what the Lord Jesus achieved unless he seeks from the depths the spirit of poverty. In the state in which man revels, it is impossible for him to escape this state except through death. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ's invitation to all those who believe in Him is an invitation to death, every day. He who is not prepared to die-- not only to the world, not only to material wealth, and not only to possessions-- he who is not prepared to die every day to himself is not in a position to bear a cross that is an extension of the Lord Jesus' cross, and it alone is what can grant man to have a share in the great salvation.

Salvation is not from anything from the situation in which man found himself. Salvation is in something new, represented by the incarnation of the Son of God, because the Lord God, in receiving man, in His incarnation, wished to unite Himself to him, in great love. This is an invitation for man to enter into intimacy with God, in the very same love in which the Son of God became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and thus from humankind. The psalm speaks of deep calling unto deep. God is a bottomless depth because His love is beyond imagining, and He calls unto man, his depth, his heart, his being, his spirit. He Himself, in the depths of his depths, calls unto man. What He calls with is the sole opportunity for humankind's salvation. But when man is pleased to address his Lord in the way his Lord addressed him, he not only enters into intimacy with God and not only escapes the Fall, but just as God became human, man becomes divine. The cross is the sign of salvation. The cross casts its shadow over everything related to man, so that it may be the cross that the Lord Jesus experienced. We must receive the spirit of the cross in every matter, in every action, in every thought, in every word. This is what the spirit of poverty represents. This is what man's participation in the Lord's death represents, so that he may have the opportunity to participate in His resurrection. This is what this Holy Week gives us. This alone leads us to Him. The rest is details. The important thing, in the end, is not that we eat at Easter, but that we abide, in Spirit and in truth, in God's heart.

 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)

Abbot of the Monastery of St Silouan the Athonite

Douma, Lebanon

May 5, 2024

Fr Touma (Bitar): Holiness and Sainthood: Fr Elias Morcos

 Arabic original here.

Holiness and Sainthood: Fr Elias Morcos

A saint isn't someone without sin. So he is not a "good person". The Teacher already affirmed that no one is good except for God! A saint is a repentant sinner. In repentance, there are two fundamental things:

A repentant person is someone who is aware of and knows his sin, not only those that he previously committed, but also those that he is committing now. This means that sin is not limited to a certain act, a certain idea, or even disobedience to a certain commandment. Sin is a continuous existential state. Man lives in sin so long as he does not live in love! Of course, sins can appear in deviant behavior, a stray thought, a distorted sense or things like this.

But what does it mean for sin to be a continuous existential state? The inner being is the heart. It is man's central point. It is what makes a person himself. It is you. It is yourself. Your identity is present in it. It is your spirit. It is the deepest thing in you, out of which your intention and all your purposes come, what defines your goals, to which everything returns, as though it squeezes out the sap of everything that comes to you, with or without your awareness. Thus the focus of the light within you is the existential state that you are in.

Sin, as a constant existential state, exposes that God's love is not within you. Perhaps it does not expose you in front of people, but it exposes you in front of your Lord, first and last. Despite this, if I ask, existentially, "What is my sin?," you have the only true answer: there is no love in me! I do not mean by this that I do not love, but that God's love "is not in me" so that I may love with God's love. And if I do not love with God's love, then my love-- if I claim it-- is for myself and from myself and thus is a shortcoming.

But how can I discern whether my love is from God or from myself?

So long as my love is from myself, I feel as though I have achieved my goal and come to be without sin. But if my love is from God, I experience in the deepest and most painful way what sin is. Sin appears to me as harm to the beloved! My sin, whether yesterday or now, is set up before me, at every time and in every situation. Or, in the words of the Prophet David, "My sin is always before me." It is only within this framework that the reality of the Chosen Apostle Paul's words may be understood: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first" (1 Timothy 1:15).

It is worth pointing out that the recollection of sin does not stop with forgiveness, but becomes more painful the more one grows in the love of God. Nothing is more painful than to wound the beloved! This, by your Lord's dispensation, is so that one will not forget his sin, so he will not return to it. God forgives, of course, but He does not forget and He does not want us to forget... for our own good!

The second fundamental thing with regard repentance is that repentance is more than return from sin, whatever that sin may be. Repentance is a constant path in which one seeks God's love in obedience. One does not seek only to repent, but all the more so, one seeks to be repentant. If one sins, one returns from his sin. But if one is repentant, then he constantly seeks love as his own breath.

How can obedience in the relationship with God make love grow? Obedience is the path of effacement for the sake of the beloved, so that he may appear within us. Not my will, but thy will! This is the mystery of perfect existence in perfect self-concealment. Your face, O Lord, I seek! My existence comes to be in you, not in myself. You become the object of my desire. It is you that I seek. This is the mystery of God! The mystery of love! The mystery of His being love! The mystery of the Holy Trinity! Man was created to be an icon of this mystery. Therefore, obedience is greater, in a certain sense, than love. Not love as existence that creates, but love as an unseen existence, completely hidden, in which you seek not yourself, but Him, your Lord. If this were not the case, then "Life for me is Christ" would not mean that obedience is the desire for unity in the Spirit. Not for Christ or in Christ, but Christ Himself! "I in them and You in Me... just as You, O Father, are in Me and I in You."

Obedience in sin is subservience, estrangement, dominance, oppression, something repulsive! While obedience in love is something else entirely: trust, certainty, surrender, and then peace, joy, the realization of existence and eternal life.

So a saint is a model of repentance!

Is Fr Elias (Morcos) a saint in this sense?

Canonically, this is in principle declared by the Holy Synod of Antioch. And this is the tradition as it has come down to us.

Nevertheless, in the deep sense of holiness, without the slightest doubt Fr Elias is a saint.

Four things bear witness to his repentance: his tears, his prayer, his poverty and his love. Assuredly, his tears permeated everything. He acquired them through struggle and toil, through putting his sin and shortcoming before himself at all times, through putting himself below others, forcefully, and then, through his persistence! It does not escape me that he acquired him first of all by God's grace. It is no exaggeration to say that no one crosses the threshold of the kingdom without tears. These are not the tears of emotions or what belongs to the soul and body. These are existential tears. The deep inner heart is in pain: for oneself, for others, for God Himself because we do not love Him enough! For His love, for His kindness, for His gentleness. One who does not cry for God does not know Him!

Among the sayings of St Isaac the Syrian: "He who is able to weep for himself for an hour is greater than one who teaches the entire universe. And he who discerns the depth of his infirmities is greater than one who beholds the angels."

Fr Elias wept as he breathed. He stood at prayer and tears welled up. They flowed quietly. He heard of someone's pain and wept. Like this, automatically. Spontaneously. Without effort. With ease, his heart ached.

He would laugh, joke, chat and play like children then, after a few moments, if he stood to pray or if someone asked him to pray for them, he would find himself in a different existential state and would weep. Strange! His tears were always present. Like something normal in his daily habits. He would appear like everyone and at the same time it was as though, in his being, he was easily moved on another level, steadily, like someone who had no connection to what was around him.

And what should I say about his prayer? His tears revealed the identity of his prayer. He prayed like someone going out from the world into the world. Prayer was always his desired dwelling-place. He was aware that a son of Adam is called to become an instrument of prayer. His concern was not with the form of the prayer, but with standing, in the heart, before the Most High. For him, being a monk is for praying. Prayer was the groundwater of all reading, writing, working, thinking, sowing, building and relationship that he undertook. He wept to pray and prayed to weep. The value of everything that came or was brought to him was for it to be a source of prayer and a scope for prayer. Therefore, his eye was not on anything but to abide in God's eye.

If I had to talk about his poverty, I would say one thing about it: According to him, wherever there was a trace of a possession, there was no place for a monk or for God in his heart. His ragged sock stayed ragged for years. As for the broken chair and the shaky table, he did not think to repair them and was not even feel that there was anything strange about them being in the condition they were in. Nothing here was what he was seeking. "Your face, O Lord, I seek." He accepted everything with its faults and didn't pay attention. According to the image of his Teacher, he wanted to be: "You are of this world but I am not of this world." He accepted. He didn't seek anything. He was content with everything. When he was given, he took. If he was not given, he did not seek. He gave. Things were asked of him or were not asked of him. A little or a lot had the same value for him. Poverty, with him, is concealed by silence. It is not an object of study, but an ordinary part of life with God.

And his love? His heart broke over people's pain, suffering and hardship. In contrast to the monastic way of life, he sought to visit and console people. He would go from house to house. Friendship for him was a holy obligation. He did not avoid what other people considered to be an annoyance. His prayer motivated him to be with people, not to avoid people. The time, for him, was a time of suffering and people need consolation.

Fr Elias was a monk, but not necessarily like other monks in his style. He combined strictness in how he treated himself with compassion for people and animals. He was free in his conscience, easy in his affections. He was not harsh with anyone. He was very merciful. He did not burden anyone by causing him to feel sin. His purpose was to lighten people's loads.

Most of what Fr Elias taught me is that the Lord is near and that it is always possible for you to start anew. But let know one injure the beloved! The pain of sin is in its seed. Your Lord weeps for you! The important thing, O servant, is not to hurt yourself.

Fr Elias was an outstanding teacher, a school of the heart. Therefore, he appeared in my eyes as the image of Antioch, formed by the convolutions of these lands.

Do not forget us, Abouna Elias, even if we have forgotten you! Your prayer is our provision.

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)

Abbot of the Monastery of St Silouan the Athonite-- Douma, Lebanon

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Fr Touma (Bitar) on Academic Theology and True Theology

 Arabic original here.

 Theology and the Other Theology

"If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory..." (John 7:17-18)

A strange title, right? People think that theology is theology, and not something else!

This is because theology, in people's minds, means some things and it does not mean something else. In our tradition, the theologian is one who prays or one who loves or one who keeps the commandments... Such a one knows theology and is able to teach it.

As for theology, for most people it is an academic subject or set of subjects whose topic is God and divine things. It is taught like other academic subjects are taught in the humanities, sciences or other academic fields.

Theology is taught in institutes or in faculties for those who want to receive an education in it or who want to prepare for teaching or service in the Church, here, there or in some way.

In such a case, theology (or perhaps we should say, the study of theology) is covered with an academic veneer: lectures, studies, research, readings, publications, etc. If you say "theologian" your interlocutor will generally understand you to mean someone who is experienced in the study of theology and has received degrees in it, someone who has become a teacher of it or the author of theological studies.

But there are those who connect the study of theology to voluntary or mandatory prayer, pastoral activities and other such things as a way to prepare for service or specific services connected to the church or group that the students belong to.

In the ecumenical context, students seek to delve deeply into one of the fields of theology in prestigious centers of education or prominent universities without belonging to the ecclesiastical groups or sects behind those centers: biblical studies, church history, philosophy of religion, dogmatics, ecumenical theology, etc.

This and similar things is the predominant understanding of theology for most people. Within such a framework of treating theology academically and ecumenically, the students range from people who to different degrees practice lifestyles within the churches or sects to which they belong or where academic achievement is considered a prerequisite for assuming pastoral positions (the episcopacy, the priesthood, etc.)-- people who run the centers-- and people who have no relationship to prayer, pastoral activity or responsibilities in those institutions, and even no connection to faith in Christ the Lord! They have, perhaps, their convictions and their opinions, but they have no relationship, except academically, to the tradition of the community to which they are assumed to belong-- or perhaps do not belong-- inasmuch as their approach can be purely cultural.

For us in Orthodoxy, as I have known it, in its tradition, this approach to theology is dominated by a Western mindset derived from the scholastic movement that started to prevail in Catholicism and the Church in the West beginning in twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Naturally, some of this was perhaps useful, but it does not belong to the core of our tradition, nor do we belong to the rational approach it takes, which determines the framework within which theology is treated as theology. With regard to it, we are in a strange place, as though we are not on our own territory!

Theology [NB: in Arabic the word 'lahut' means both 'theology' and 'divinity'], as I have seen it in the Church, in my church, is the Holy Trinity. It is the Heavenly Father as the Son has revealed Him in the Holy Spirit, as he says, "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him" (Matthew 11:27).

Theology, then, is declared (or, shall we say, is revealed) by the Son. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9)! "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30)! "I am in the Father and the Father in Me" (cf. John 10:38)! Jesus' words in general to Peter, the disciples and everyone were, in practice: "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this" (John 13:7). This is what the Lord said to Peter when He was washing the disciples' feet. When, afterwords? This is what the Lord Jesus revealed in Chapter 4 of the Gospel of John: "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26).

So long as knowledge of theology depends on knowledge of the Son and what the Son reveals to us, then theology is not known through the mind but "in the Spirit"! I do not say "through the Spirit", but "in the Spirit". The Spirit, the Lord's Holy Spirit, is not an instrument of knowledge, but knowledge itself. We are in Him and He is in us! We and Him are one! The Apostle Paul's expression "in Christ" is the fruit of the apostle's knowledge of the Lord's Christ. If the knowledge is "in Christ",  then it is also "in the Spirit" and "in the Father". According to John, "Just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us" (John 17:21). Knowledge of God is for you to be in Him, because He is in you!

This knowledge, then, is not of something or of an idea, but a profound existential encounter! We know Him-- God. We do not know about Him or of Him. This is eternal life: "that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3)! After that, if we speak of it, what we say is a witness. If you speak of the Lord's Christ with your tongue and are not in Him, you have transformed into a parrot or a bodily organ, even if you sing various tunes! Action (praxis), according to St Joseph the Hesychast, is a condition for teaching or to speak of God or to speak of theology! Satan doesn't know God, but rather knows about Him. From this angle, he is the greatest theologian!

In authentic theology, there is no separation between the way, the truth and the life. Everything apart from it is vain. And your Lord is the one who brings you to Himself. That is, to the truth. So He Himself is the way. And since you know the way-- that is, since you know Him-- you are freed from everything that can separate you from Him-- that is, sin. At that point, you find that the truth brings you to Jesus, the life. That is, to eternal life. The Apostle Paul did not say that life comes from Jesus or through Jesus, but "life for me is Christ." Therefore, the Lord Jesus-- to Him be glory-- has given us Himself to eat. His body-- that is, in effect, Himself in the body-- is true food and thus He is true knowledge.

Even if you've piled up degrees in theology, so long as you do not know God and His Christ in the Spirit and flesh-- this practical, personal, existential knowledge-- you are ignorant of Him! You might transmit, in a literal manner, what the Church says and what one or another of the holy fathers says. This might perhaps make you a transmitter. But the way in which you read what is in your hands, the way you translate and explain its contents, which stops at the limits of your own understanding, which perhaps for you is on the level of conviction and certainty, but it is no more than a set of speculations coming from your personal ignorance of the Lord's Christ and of what the Lord's Holy Spirit inspires, on account of your pride and the effects of your passions! This scope, in the state you are in, is the demonic, psychological, frivolous scope, which perhaps you consider to be valuable, scientific positions and opinions with a wide sphere of influence, while the driving factor behind them is nothing other than the passions at work in your heart! This is what makes theological discourse that is limited to what reason can see, analyzing and synthesizing, in theological topics, to be a liberal scope for contradictory opinions at the expense of living faith active in love. This spreads confusion among believers in the Church and estranges the reader from the living, spiritual, apostolic tradition, which alone embraces that which the Lord's Spirit is pleased to reveal with regard to theology.

There is, then, a cerebral, intellectual, academic theology and there is a spiritual, existential theology that has an intellectual, revelatory expression. The first comes from data and passion in the soul, while the second is from personal, existential knowledge of the Lord's Christ and of the exalted divinity.

And so we hold that theology, in terms of speech about God, is divine revelation in human expression. There can be no approach to divine things through humanity, but "in humanity", since the Lord's Holy Spirit abides in us and is active with us. Purely academic theology is foreign to the mind of Christ in the Orthodox Church! Therefore, rationalistic theology is indeed something alien to Christ's Church. We treat theology just as we treat holy things and giving witness. The true theologian is someone who reads, writes or speaks God, not about God! He bears witness. Otherwise, it's better for him to keep silent.

Talking about God is dangerous!

Archimandrite Touma (Biter)

Abbot of the Monastery of St Silouan the Athonite

Douma, Lebanon

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Fr Touma (Bitar): We were Created for the Joy of the Resurrection

 Arabic original here.

We were Created for the Joy of the Resurrection

If the devil achieved what he longs for with regard to man, he would tear him apart completely, but your Lord doesn't let him and indeed, He turns all his plots against him for man's benefit, on the condition that man take refuge in his Lord, adheres to Him, entrusts himself to Him completely with sincerity and steadfastness in his innermost thoughts. If man does not do this in this way, then no matter what the son of Adam does, by his own will, without realizing it, he falls into the devil's snares because Satan is the worst and most insidious, the most expert in lies and tricks and he is a murderer. There is no salvation from the evil one for man apart from the Lord Jesus Christ!

The devil's newest weapon against man is existential fear, to the point of panic and terror.

If you do not believe in God, Satan takes you by persuasion and enticement. He colonizes your mind and thoughts, turning your very being and your heart into a cold lump of stone, such that you lose feeling for your neighbor. The devil's concern, in such a case, is to convince you that this is all from you. This is you! There is no all-powerful god and there are no devils. Here, in this context, a person likes to justify the state he is in as being in conformity with what science says, in agreement with what is logical and in harmony with his personal convictions. The apogee of Satan's wickedness is for him to have is mind at work in you, for you to imagine things as he portrays them to you and to convince you that if you act in this way, then you will be exercising freedom, achieving self-actualization, that you will become a superman and a god! You don't need any god outside yourself! It has been given to you to be a god in yourself! This is what Satan doggedly tries to sow within your inner being.

But if you do believe in God, then Satan focuses on crippling you with fear. Your Lord does not answer your prayer quickly and his is in order to root you firmly in faith in God. All the more so, you do not encounter Him on the level that you expect, in the way you desire, at the time you have set to come to him. The Lord does this because H wants everything for your benefit and salvation. His eye is on liberating you from your passions, rooting you in denying your own will, having you acquire virtue, training you in humility and patience, as a doctor strives to heal a patient from a longstanding and deeply-rooted illness that tyrannizes him. Man is shortsighted, while your Lord does not stop at the limits of what you are used to asking for and are satisfied with. Man's concern is with what belongs to the eye and the body and your Lord's concern is with what belongs to the heart and innermost being.

In this case, Satan takes the opportunity to say to you, "Do you see? There is no god! If your Lord existed and was active, then He would answer you!" This is because the evil one speaks to your passions while you, in your fallenness and sin, so long as he is the one who causes every existential fault in you and what you behold is from the deepest well of his heart. You imagine, in the state you find yourself in, that this is "you" and that this is your nature, in the image of the distortion that takes hold of you and which you think is original to you since you came into being.

Satan's concern is to snatch away your faith through doubt, through fear, through hardship, through confusion, by interpreting God's intentions erroneously. He always strives to drag you into despairing over your God by subjecting you to every sort of temptation. He suggests to you that there is no way for you to not fall into temptation. If you don't fall now, then you'll fall soon enough! As though you were faced with something inevitable. And if you do fall, he follows up on having made you fall with another temptation, which is that you do not benefit! He works to confine you and surround you with feelings of helplessness, despair, emptiness and the habit of fleeing as a way of coping in order to be rid of the pressure of temptation, accompanied by every sort of excuse.

But you must believe, trust, be certain, submit to the fact that in the end, your Christ will be victorious in you! "All the nations have surrounded me and in the name of the Lord I conquered them!" Nothing and no one can harm you if you do not harm yourself! And you are harming yourself if you despair, if you estrange yourself from the Lord's Christ!

At first glance, things seem to you like you are before an impasse. Cares, hardships, difficulties, pain, suffering on every side. You feel suffocated. You find yourself trapped, surrounded. Do not surrender! Do not throw down your weapon! Understand, once and for all, that your Christ is with you, in you and at your side, not because you are good, but because He is good! You are precious to Him and He will not abandon you, not only because He loves you, but because He is love! He is present and active within you. He treats you as an extension of Himself. "Not a hair of your head will perish except by your heavenly Father's permission."

Then your Lord is capable of everything. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. No matter the difficulties you face, and no matter the dangers threatening you, by a movement of His finger He is able to put a stop to them in a moment. But He only gives you what benefits you, at a time that you do not know, but which He knows with absolute precision.

Now you do not find yourself capable of facing what besets you and you do not find within yourself courage, boldness or strength. So what? Do you not know that you must come to your Lord from weakness? But stay steadfast until the end! When the hour is ripe, He will not only support you, but extend to you a spirit of power and boldness. Persist in calling upon Him and clinging to Him and you will meet Him, eventually. He will stand you firm, but at the edge of despair, without letting you fall prey to despair.

You must have the experience, time and again, that you are about to fall. Don't fear! You will not fall! No harm will come to you. Living is the God before Whom I stand! Don't be concerned about understanding. You won't understand. It's enough for you to accept and to surrender yourself to Him. Your logic is of no use to you. Your preparing yourself is abhorrent to Him. "It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." This was already given to you, because we are children of hope! "And hope in God is not put to shame."

And if you are to fall into temptation, your Lord permits your falling for your benefit. Do not cast blame on God, but on yourself. Then important thing is for you to get back up, always, once more, for you to repent, even if you fall is repeated many times! "Everything works together for good for those who love God." The good is not for you to be without sin, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but for you to always rise in repentance!

You must not forget that Christ is risen! We were created for joy! Even the sorrow that we have turns to joy. Otherwise, there is no meaning to the words of the Chosen Apostle, that through the cross joy has come into the whole world!

No matter what the suffering these days, we must not let the evil one cast us into sorrows! We know that the hour is coming when we find ourselves, and our Lord has placed a limit to the serpent's mockery. There is no doubt about this!

"Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for You shall inherit all the nations!"

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)

Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Silouan-- Douma, Lebanon

May 7, 2023

Fr Touma (Bitar): The Reality of the Incarnation

 Arabic original here.

The Reality of the Incarnation

Today, humanity has arrived at its desire. The Lord God created man, in the beginning, to bring him to this hour. Today, God becomes a man, all while of course remaining God. Thus, He is God incarnate, God and man together. Why did God do this? God was capable, in all simplicity, of saving man from sin and death without becoming incarnate. But He became incarnate. Thus, the issue transcends the issue of sin and death.

God became man because He loved man with perfect love. And because He is love, He wanted to cleave to man completely. Love doesn't give something from itself. Love gives itself. God gave Himself to man completely. This is man's inheritance. What do these words mean? It means that the Lord God wanted man to become god. There is absolutely no necessity for the incarnation, inasmuch as its purpose is for the Lord God to divinize man, to make him god. Therefore, He embraced him into Himself. He took on his humanity completely! He became man in every sense of the word! He made Himself the new Adam. Humanity came from the first Adam in the body. But humanity comes from the new Adam in spirit and body! By "spirit", I mean the uncreated Spirit of God. The expression that our fathers saw fit to use is that God wanted to become man in order to permit man to come to be in Him-- that is, in the Lord Jesus Christ-- god. Thus, today is the feast of feasts and the festival of festivals, because that which was in the mind of God since the beginning is realized today. When I say "today", I don't mean "today" according to the hour and I don't mean next Sunday or last Sunday, but rather I mean the fullness of time that humanity has reached, when the Lord God was pleased to be born in the Holy Spirit of a woman, the Virgin Mary, who became by this dispensation the Mother of God.

God and man, in Jesus Christ, are one. He Himself is God and man. But even if we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ as a single being, a single person, the Lord Jesus' divinity remains distinct from his humanity, not mixed with it but also not separate from it. There is no confusion between the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and His humanity. We cannot ever imagine that the Lord Jesus resembles a drop of water mixed with another drop of water. There is a unity that took place between the divinity and humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, which surpasses anything that man can imagine. There is no unity on earth analogous to or even resembling the unity of divinity and humanity in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we are before a reality that surpasses human perception. But this is precisely what happened. God became man! After God became man, everything changed in the world. Of course, it didn't change outwardly. It changed, however, at the level of a new reality that was achieved in the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot treat this reality like we treat a chair or a table or like we treat anything in our world. This reality was given to us to treat with faith, which is a great mystery.

What is faith? Faith is, in reality, a new sort of relationship between man and God. If we wanted to summarize it in a word, then at the level of man, faith is the trust that we need in order to have a relationship with the world, with people, with everything. Man needs to have trust in others. Otherwise, he cannot interact with them. Everything in our life is something we need to have trust in; otherwise, we cannot deal with it. For example, the seat that we sit on, if we do not have trust that there is nothing on it that would hurt us, then we would not sit on it. There is an implicit trust that every person has, without which he could not deal with anything at all. When someone wants to go outside to take his car and go back home, if he has the slightest feeling that there is something wrong with his car, he won't use it until he makes sure that what he thought might harm him isn't there or is something that he can fix. Otherwise, if he acts without trust, if he doesn't fall here he'll fall there. So trust, in human terms, is necessary for there to be a relationship between man and the world he is in. We come to faith in the Lord Jesus. There is no doubt that man, on his part as man, needs to have trust, as I said, in that with which he interacts or in that which interacts with him. But there is faith in the Lord Jesus, there is faith in God. If we have human trust and find ourselves in a place that makes us able to deal with the world, then we cannot, in reality, deal with God with this kind of trust. Human trust is not enough! We need a special grace that the Lord God gives us. In other words, we need faith that the Lord God gives us in order for our faith to be made perfect, and our trust in those we deal with. So we need God's grace in order to enter into a relationship with God. If one is skeptical, then God's grace is not active in him, is not given to him. But if one is prepared and wants to believe, but cannot believe in God because he is incapable, as a human, of reaching God, then God sees the desire of his heart, sees his good preparedness, sees the uprightness of his soul, sees his being open, "Lord Jesus, come", "Let it be for me according to Your word", "Help my unbelief" and then the Lord God touches him, gives him grace, and he believes in God!

So there is faith from man and faith from God. This is very much in accordance with the new reality that was made manifest in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which I mean the reality of the incarnation. That is, divine-human coalescence. In terms of faith, our human faith coalesces with our divine faith. Then, we become capable, by God's grace and by the good will of our heart, of entering into this new reality that was achieved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the reality of the incarnation. Faith is a new language, without which we cannot approach God. If I don't know the alphabet, how can I look at a book in the language of this alphabet? So likewise I absolutely cannot read the book of God, read this divine reality made manifest in the person of Jesus Christ if I do not acquire the alphabet of divine-human faith. Faith, then, enters me into a new state of being, a new reality, a new manifestation. It enters me into a new life! Therefore, God is only pleased with faith. Not one of us has a way to approach God except by faith. Theoretical faith is empty talk. For someone to say that he believes without following the divine commandments is also empty talk, because one who believes believes in spirit and in truth. When one of us believes in spirit and in truth, then his entire life changes, he enters into a new world! If one of us travels to a country that he doesn't know, he doesn't hesitate to learn that country's language, customs, laws, and the systems prevailing there... becoming as though he were from that country. Thus, when we enter into the reality of the divine incarnation that took place in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to become new. We treat things according to what is demanded by this new discovery, this new world, this new reality, this incarnation. If I am not prepared to enter into the reality of the incarnation, to deal with the incarnation, to become myself incarnational, then I remain on the outside. But in order to become incarnational, in order to enter behind the veil, into God's heart, into the reality that the Lord God wants me to enter into-- if I want to enter in every sense of the word-- I must walk in everything that is new that is required by this new reality. The Lord Jesus said clearly, "He who loves Me will keep My word." He who does not love Him, does not keep His word and so does not belong to that new thing that has come to be in Him. The Lord Jesus calls us to follow in His footsteps. "He who wants to follow me must take up his cross every day and follow me." Therefore, when we enter into the reality of the incarnation, we always walk steadily, regularly, completely, in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ who said, "Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart." From him, then, we learn the fundamentals of the new citizenship, citizenship in the kingdom, citizenship in the incarnation. Therefore, absolutely no one can enter into the new reality unless he has completely become incarnational. What does this mean?

When one becomes incarnational, he must treat everyone and everything divinely and humanly at the same time. After the Lord Jesus Christ, we have come to treat everything in a divine and human manner. For example, it is time to eat and we come to the table. We don't go there only to eat. This is something purely human. We go to the table to treat the table in a divine-human way. For this reason, we pray. We stand next to the table, we remember God, we ask Him to bless what He gives us, and we bear in mind that we are not just concerned with filling our bellies with food: our fundamental concern is that this food that we see before us is blessed for the heavenly table that we desire and we work so that it will be granted to us to sit with Jesus there. The Lord Jesus said clearly that we must ask for heavenly bread at all times. "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." When man eats of the bread that is in this age, he hungers again. The important thing is to ask for heavenly bread at all times. We carry all this within ourselves when we stand before the table that we go to to eat of its good things and thank God for them. All this happens in one's mind, in one's heart. Otherwise, if we were satisfied with formalities in prayers, or even with merely blessing, if we only do what is necessary and then sit at the table to enjoy it, we miss the reality of dealing with the table-- and, in fact, everything-- in an incarnational manner. We treat everything divinely and humanly at once! At the table, in reality, we stand before God and we ask, first and last, for the Lord God to grace us with His Holy Spirit. Man is not sated with food. What sates man is heavenly manna. This is what the Lord God gave us and gives us: "Take, eat, this is My body that was broken for your sake. Drink of it all of you, this is My blood." In this way with regard to everything else.

When one enters into the reality of the incarnation, everything becomes sacramental for him. We treat the whole universe, we treat all people, sacramentally, in the sense that we deal with what is outwardly apparent and at the same time, through what is outwardly apparent, that which is not outwardly apparent. Through human things, we deal with divine things, we scrutinize divine things, we bring down divine things, we ask God to give us Himself, His grace, His blessing, His Spirit, through everything that comes from us, through everything that we treat with our hands, our body, our soul, our mind. Our concern, first and last, is to be filled with God's presence, with His love! Therefore, the incarnation overturned the criteria. Man found himself before a new world that the Lord God opened wide to man. Come, receive light from the light that does not fade, and glorify God risen from the dead! Christ, in everything, has become a sign that is marked upon everything in our world, in our souls, in our mind. Our exclusive concern must be with being filled with Jesus: "If we live, we live for the Lord and if we die, we die for the Lord." "Life for me is Christ and to die is gain." One who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, who stumbles toward this new reality, sees only Jesus in everything. Therefore, the feast today is the feast of feasts, the season of seasons, Today, we have been entered into God's heart, we have been entered into the Lord's Spirit, we have been entered into a new life, after which it is not fitting for us to treat things as though they were dust. We treat dust as having been filled with divine light, we treat dust as dust and as light at the same time: "We have this treasure in jars of clay." Therefore, let us rejoice in the fullness of time, let us rejoice at this feast for which we are preparing ourselves, then let us extend our joy with it for days. In fact, let us extend it all the days of our life, since after Jesus entered our world as God incarnate, everything has changed. The important thing is that the change which occurred be matched by a change that happens in the heart of each one of us, that Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)

Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Silouan the Athonite

Douma, Lebanon

December 18, 2022

Fr Touma (Bitar): Seeing God and Teaching the Angels

Arabic original here.

Seeing God and Teaching the Angels

"You only discover the four rivers of Eden when thirst afflicts your heart..."

Offer a good intention and the Lord God will either give you an appropriate word, if the word suits  the circumstances you are in, or He will give you silence, if silence is more fitting. In any case, you are not alone. You are not on your own. Love has another language. You have your Lord as a partner in your life. Love, by its nature, is togetherness. "I and the Father are one." "You are not on your own." "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). Through love, for love, is God glorified. You do everything for the glory of God if your concern is to please Him. Pleased with pleasing. "Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification" (Romans 15:2). And your Lord is your closest neighbor! So do not please God like slaves please their masters, with "service of the eye," but as a friend, like Moses spoke to his Lord as a friend, or as a brother, since Jesus made us His brothers!

In relationships there is service and then there is service!

There is the service in which one is concerned with pleasing people (Ephesians 6:6). He does this out of fear, out of what he considers to be a duty, seeking reward, avoiding punishment, because he is forced, or because he is weak and knows he is weak and without any power or strength, or to give the impression to the one he serves that he is loyal or that he loves them. None of these things is from his heart or according to his heart. How do we know? On the surface, we cannot know. His deeds, in such a case, do not express what is in the depths of his heart. Nor can he act according to what is in his heart because his concern is to please people. In practice, he lies, acts hypocritically, pretends, deceives, and changes colors like a chameleon according to the ground he treads. From having roamed so much in foreign lands, he thinks that they are home and there is nothing else on the horizon and so that he is right. In any event, he is not right and does not know the truth. He accepts with his lips and rejects in his heart. He blesses with his lips and curses in his heart. He makes a show of sweetness while in his heart there is bitterness. He smirks while in his soul there is mockery and rage. He gives the appearance of loyalty while he harbors vengeance. He gives the impression of eagerness while hiding malice. "This people worships e with their lips but their heart is far from Me."

As for the other service, it is from the heart, as for Christ Himself, on every occasion. Christ alone is the knower of hearts. He cannot be lied to. How does one know if he is telling the truth or lying to Christ? There is a measure. The commandment is the measure, just like length and width have a measure. If you follow the commandment with complete faithfulness, then you are in certainty. Without equivocation. Without adulteration. Even if you stray, you are still in a state of uprightness. How? You stray out of human weakness. What does your Lord look at? At your aim, your intention, your heart! He justifies you. But in such a case, straying is an error, not a sin. Your Lord, who is master of all, permits it for nothing else than your own good, perhaps so that you will not fall into the abyss and think yourself to be perfect or a saint. Let your sin remain before you at all times!

God makes error into a cause for righteousness and not for judgement. It is to root you in humility preemptively, to prevent Satan from tempting you with hubris, vanity and pride. He wants to defend you, to protect you. You are very dear to Him. He protects you with good things and protects you with pain, if it is necessary. The important thing is that you understand, during the dark night, that He loves you! Therefore He protects you with antibodies. If you accept and agree to His purpose, you grow in humility and then in discernment between what belongs to Him and what belongs to the enemy of the good. And if you don't accept positively, then you can at least realize, if you want, that there is within you a foreign impulse, an inclination towards self-righteousness and this estranges you from your Lord if it persists within you. You feel yourself constrained, bitter, agitated, stung in your very being. When this happens to you, you are given an opportunity to know something hidden within yourself, a sort of corrupt passion. What do you do then? You blame yourself. You judge yourself. The righteous person abides in hell and does not despair. He lives among beasts and is safe. So give thanks to God when this happens to you... when you regain consciousness. Awake, O sleeper, for Christ shines upon you! Do not blame anyone else then, or even your circumstances. The most important thing is that you are free from blaming God!

Whenever a person grows in hubris, reaching the point of pride, he becomes ready to blame his Lord, even if he doesn't know it. Is this not what Job did, in a sense? The Lord told him, "You blame me to justify yourself." God did not permit Satan to test Job, starting with his possessions, then his family, then his health merely because Satan is the accuser of God's servants, but because the Lord God, by accepting Satan's accusation, wanted to liberate Job completely from any trace of self-righteousness in his soul, so that he could be a model for all God's people for all generations. What God wanted was to cause him to attain utmost humility. And Job reached this, in a sense, when God revealed Himself to him. At that moment, Job said to Him, "I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You. Therefore I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:4-5).

Job was an image of the Messiah to come. The one speaking to him was the Father. Only Jesus, as the firstborn, attained utmost humility, as God in the flesh. Job would not have attained it had he not beheld the likeness of God. This, in any case, is an image, an icon.

As for the Father, no one has seen Him. The Son, who is in the Father's bosom, reported. The disciples of the Lord Jesus, after Him, were the first to see the Father. Jesus told them, "No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him" (John 14:6-7). When Philip objected, "
Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us," the Lord Jesus' response to him, to the other disciples and to us was: "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?"

In a very profound sense, the disciples saw the Father and did not see Him at the same time. How so? Seeing Him in the body, directly in this way is not possible. So the disciples' seeing Him was a process, beginning with Jesus' words to them, then through their seeing Jesus in the upper room, after His resurrection from the dead, and then it was completed with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost.

 The words of the Lord Jesus are not like the words of humans. When people talk, they transmit meanings and perhaps feelings. But when Jesus speaks, he transmits to people an earnest of what is to come for them. With your Lord, the present and the future are both present for Him alike. When your Lord transmits His word to you, he deposits, through prophecy, what is to come for you. Every divine word is prophetic by nature. Your own conviction, then, does not get a say. You are confronted with an act of faith deeper than intellectual conviction. You are confronted with an inner vision, with a revelation. You treasure the prophecy in your heart, like the Mother of God who kept everything in her heart, and you prepare yourself for it, by being present before Him. Only when the prophecy is fulfilled do you recall it. Before that, you remain between dread and hope.

Everyday concerns seize you and one thinks the words of prophecy never happened. But they exist and are hidden. They sleep in a wakeful heart like Jesus on the boat as the sea raged. Suddenly, the humble, broken heart recalls, at precisely the right moment, what it had been told, when the prophecy is fulfilled. That whole time between the word and its fulfillment, it is as though you are unaware of it. It does not grow within you into perceptible things. The most important thing is that it is not unaware of you. It holds on to you while you do not hold on to it, because when God's word diffuses within you, His Spirit diffuses within you! This is the rule of God's word, in any case. And the spirit of the word within you remains burning with a subtle fire that does not burn, like the burning bush, while you don't know or perhaps you are covered in a deep sleep, like the disciples were covered as their Master poured out sweat like blood. The Spirit remains hidden in you until the hour comes and that which is within you is fulfilled. Then, you awaken because spirit is only pierced by spirit. "Comparing spiritual things with spiritual things" (1 Corinthians 2:13).

In this way you see Him in the spirit-- in the body or outside the body, only God knows! Even if it is a fullness, here it is only an anticipation of a greater fullness there. "we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:20-3). Brother sees brother. He grants us to become His brother! "I said you are gods." In this way we forever proceed from fullness to fullness to fullness. Your time in the perfect presence of your Lord, eternally, here and now, is in your progress in knowledge of Him, eternally, from knowledge to knowledge to knowledge. 

You do not take in all of God. Nevertheless, He gives you Himself completely. "Take, eat, this is My body... !" You live forever in a paradox that you do not comprehend, not now and not in the future. Your story is the story of a creature who bears within his vessel something that is greater and beyond his createdness. Man remains man, even if he is spiritualized. Man sees God as He is, but as a man, and God remains in a luminous darkness. Thus man progresses from wonder to wonder, from surprise to surprise, like a child who sees everything, every day, anew. Great art Thou O Lord, and wondrous are Thy works and no speech sufficiently praises Thy wonders!!! Beyond praise and beyond transcendence forever!!!

Along this progression, the angels teach humankind on earth how to give praise. Then humankind gives praise with the angels. Then humankind, when they are spiritualized and behold God as He is, teach the angels how to give praise! The angels now look upon the face of the Heavenly Father. But they look upon it from the outside, even if it is spiritually. Man, however, when he is perfected, is granted to see Him from within, in Jesus, in the God-man. Jesus, the Son of God, did not become an angel, but rather a human! Therefore, there will come a time when man teaches the angels how to give praise beyond the Cherubic Hymn. In this way, man came to grow through the angels into the new man, then after that the angels grow in the new man until they are renewed in the knowledge of God, forever.

Thus man comes from saying to saying.  From "What is man that You are mindful of him... For You have made him a little lower than the angels" (Psalm 8:4-5) to "The Father raised Himand seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion..." (Ephesians 1:20-21)!

This is how man was and what he is becoming.., in Christ: a teacher to the angels!

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)
Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Silouan the Athonite
Sunday, June 7, 2020 

Fr Touma (Bitar): Apathy and the Schism that is Taking Place

Arabic original here.

Apathy and the Schism that is Taking Place

"... that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you."
(Galatians 2:5)


Today the Orthodox world is in a state of division and perhaps of peril. There are cascading collapses. Until now, the fire is lit. Starting a fire is one thing and putting it out is another.

What is happening, if it is not treated, will establish a rift that will require a long time to be healed and if the right circumstances do not arise, it may not be possible for it to be healed. The current crisis, as its is being dealt with, does not leave room for a clear ecclesiastical solution on the horizon. Even if all the information about it is not sufficiently visible to our eyes, the political dimension, whose effects most people are noticing, appears to be more painful and fiercer than other dimensions of the problem. This is in addition to the explosion of the struggle, deep down, over ecclesiastical authority between the two competing poles and the historical, national and personal sensitivities in a climate of no slight "spiritual sickness". Its fate, inevitably, is to spread hazy vision and dull feeling that will impede the work of the Spirit of the Lord to no small degree, apathy in zeal for the truth, and a not insignificant loss of love. This causes what the Chosen Apostle feared with regard to the Corinthians, "contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults" (2 Corinthians 12:20).

Between a one-sided position based on careless logic that can only permitted by the convictions of its own partisans, devoid of anything of the tradition of the Church, as the tradition is recognized, which has no regard for others-- in a Church whose foundation is consultation!-- and the hasty, stubborn reaction to it, it is impossible, or nearly impossible, so far as we know, for there to be a margin within which others may to act to bring the two opposing sides closer to each other.

On the other hand, you find the rest of the churches themselves completely embarrassed by what has been happening, especially since until now both sides only accept the positions they are obstinately sticking to, in the manner of the saying, "he who is not with me is against me." In such an atmosphere, the political factors that constitute the real substance of the confrontation are reflected in the ecclesiastical domain, as are nationalist sensitivities, special interests, and fears of reprisal. This is reflected as confusion in the rest of the churches, leading most to take a position of "self-distancing" in a context of fragmented positions and wasteful talk in public, evoking a half-hearted, bashful request for a general council, which those who call for feel is out of reach, in order to deal with the crisis, and it does not seem that the two sides that are primarily concerned do not seem to be listening, until further notice.

In the meantime, many contradictions that until now were hidden are exploding into view in the Orthodox world in the background of the emerging problem, such that they easily become fuel for the raging crisis. Because of this, not only does unity between the autocephalous churches appear to be threatened, but also unity within a single local church and even a single diocese, and perhaps also within a single parish in some places!

Yesterday a Russian woman called us in tears: for many years she has been receiving the sacraments at a monastery in France. Today, she is no longer able to partake of the common cup with the monastery's nuns because of the schism!


Words for the Conscience in Christ

Who is right and who is not right? As a Church, this is not something that concerns us except within the framework of unity in love. "Let all that you do be done with love" (1 Corinthians 16:14). Neither unilateralism nor breaking communion is out of love! So what concerns us-- and this is the right of each one of us in Orthodoxy-- is for the two sides to remain in the truth. Truth in the form of falsehood is falsehood, no matter who commits it.

"Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another" (Romans 14:19) and we give greater honor to the small members (1 Corinthians 12:23)! There is no great and despised, powerful and weak. "You are all brothers!" Bullying and indifference toward others are of the spirit of the world. This condemns empty words and worldly honorifics because the foundation of primacy among us is not only service-- anyone, in his place, can claim service-- but rather Christ the Servant! "I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27). The issue, from beginning to end, is an issue of imitating Christ the Servant who emptied Himself and took on the image of a slave, since He loved His own until the end, until He sacrificed Himself for them. This is something that permits no bargaining. "Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters." Let us look at the two terms that the Lord uses here: "against Me" means "against Christ" and "scatters" means, in an Orthodox context, that he is a "hireling" who does not care about the sheep (cf. John 10:13).

That which is happening at the present time, what spirit does it come from? What wisdom lies behind measures and behaviors of the sort that have been practiced? There are just two kinds of wisdom for us, in Christ, and no more: the wisdom that is from above, from God's Spirit, and the wisdom that is from below, which the Apostle James describes as "earthly, sensual, demonic" (James 3:15). How do we know the sort of wisdom that is governing what is happening? From the distinctive features of each sort of wisdom.

When the wisdom is based on bitter envy, it is, according to the Arabic language, in a "filthy and hateful" soul. Bitterness is a metaphor. This leads to partisanship. And according to the Epistle of James, "where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there" (James 3:16).

The wisdom that is from above has other distinctive features. Take a look at James 3:17.

First of all, it is pure.

Second, it is peaceable.

Third, it is gentle.

Fourth, it is willing to yield.

Fifth, it is full of mercy and good fruits.

Sixth, it is without suspicion and without hypocrisy.

What spiritual fruits are born by either of the competing positions? Purity? I don't think so! Peacefulness, when we are in a state of declared war? Gentleness, when each one pounces on the other to strangle him in the name of truth? Willingness to yield? What does willingness to yield mean in the present context? This is how brothers behave when they are willing to yield: each one is prepared to condescend to the other and tell him, "Your brotherhood to me, for Christ's sake, is more important than anything else!" Is this the situation at the present time? What about the wisdom filled with mercy and good fruits? Until now, we see nothing but cruelty. No trace of mercy is evident on the horizon, let alone the fullness of mercy! And good fruits? What good fruits? I only know the fruits mentioned by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians: "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). Because they are all connected to each other, we do not see, or can barely see, anything other than an east wind that is blowing through them, desiccating them. Last but not least, what about the quality of lack of suspicion and hypocrisy? Hypocrisy? Only God is the Knower of Hearts. Diffidence does not permit us to say anything about it. As for suspicion, what is happening in parts of the Orthodox world today is loaded with suspiciousness. It's all suspicious!

Perhaps the complexity of the matter permits, exceptionally, the imposition of extreme measures of the sort that have been taken? Such talk is filled with ambiguity and completely unacceptable. If, in the Church of Christ, we are confront a difficult and longstanding organizational issue between two local churches, then it is not reasonable from an ecclesiastical perspective for each to be intent on cancelling the other and to take positions that make the issue more complicated, such that the solution and the reaction to it are incomparably more complicated than the issue that was at the root of the current repercussions! The entire Orthodox world must now suffer the consequences of an issue about which its say is not heard, accepted or even permitted by two sides that are primarily concerned. The policy of "breaking the vessel" is an unacceptable, worldly policy. Even the wisdom of this world rejects it because it means implosion and suicide. So how, when we are a church, do we accept such a solution? How, when we have hope in God, who is capable of all things? When, in human terms, we are confronted with an impassible wall, then there is no other solution than to return to the One who entered in to the disciples while the doors were locked! Any other solution is of the spirit of failure.

Ecclesiastically and traditionally, if two churches disagree over an organizational matter, they take recourse to the other churches to help them find a solution to their problem. If, for one reason or another, no matter what they reason, they do not take the initiative, the other churches come together, with or without the two churches concerned, to examine the problem in the Spirit of the Lord. Simply because love of Christ and His Church requires it! It is not fitting for someone to take the initiative to make an invitation because he wants to please one of the two sides, so long as it is in his interest, because this is abhorrent politics, without love or the zeal of Elijah. Likewise, it is not fitting for someone else to refrain from attending out of eagerness to please or go along with one of the sides or out of fear of it. This is dependence on humans and an abandonment of the bishop's role and responsibility toward the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church!"For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10).

The policy of "self-distancing", which is stained by political games and going along with one group or the other, influencing public discourse and  the suspicious silence, is of the worldly and not divine wisdom. It undermines the witness to Christ the Lord, since it is a far cry from the position of Paul and the Apostles, who were brought before the assembly of the Jews and threatened so that they would not teach in Jesus' name. How did they respond? "We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered... And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him" (Acts 5:29-30, 32).

There is a weighty responsibility in these words! One who bears witness to the Lord's Christ is a partner of the Holy Spirit in bearing witness! If he is not a successor of the Apostles, faithful to the Faithful Witness (cf. Revelation 1:5), obedient to God, then He does not bear witness with him! What did Jesus say to Peter when he displayed ignorant zeal toward Him, when Jesus spoke about how His departure from the world was drawing near? Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men" Matthew 16:23).

Is Christ's truth within us not supposed to be above every consideration? We are not charged with preserving our church buildings, their assets, or privileges, or acquisitions, our honors or even our life! We are charged with preserving the truth: "May the truth of the Gospel continue with you" (Galatians 2:5). Because the Truth is the Lord's Christ! There is no greater proof of zeal for the truth than the attitude of Saint Abda the Persian, who destroyed a temple of idols. The shah told him to rebuild it or he would destroy thirty churches. He did not agree to this because his motto, which is the motto of all who are zealous for the truth of the Gospel, was: it is better for us that all the world's churches of stone be destroyed, all worldly privileges be lost, than for Christ's truth to be squandered on the altar of a single soul in this world.

It is not fitting for children of the New Adam, after He repelled the devil at his third temptation, according to Matthew-- "All the kingdoms of the world and their glory I give to You if You bow down and worship me"-- I say again, it is not fitting for His children to collaborate with Satan in even the tiniest thing! The devil comes, says the Lord Jesus, and has nothing to do with Me. This is how all who, in their conscience, are called by the name of the Lord's Christ should behave as shepherds, so that they are not numbered in the lineage of Judas Iscariot! This is the Church's capital and she has no other capital.

When Saint Polycarp of Smyrna and Nicetas of Rome disagreed about the dating of Pascha, as Saint Irenaeus of Lyon recounted, they did not split over the disagreement, but rather Nicetas had Polycarp preside over the Eucharist before him, so that the difference over the fast would not be a cause for division, but rather a reason for strengthening faith. When Victor of Rome broke communion with Asia Minor for the very same reason, Saint Irenaeus confronted him to bring him back from his error.

Behind every problem in Christ's Church is the devil and also a shortcoming in love for God. But the devil is only expelled through prayer and fasting and shortcoming in love is only treated through sincere repentance. We are in need of collective repentance so that we do not die in our insensitivity. We need prayer, fasting, tears, sackcloth and ashes! We have reached the point of insensitivity and, as it appears, we are condemned either to die in it or to follow the way of Nineveh so that God may pardon us!

Do we not have in God's saints and God's works a model and lesson so that we may reform ourselves and follow guidance? So why is there this dullness in our souls, as though they have come to love death?

We stand before the danger of a great going astray!

It is as though we did not read Isaiah, who cries out, "Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment" (Isaiah 1:5-6).

Or it as though we paid no attention when Jesus cried out to His disciples, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?" (Matthew 17:17).

Or perhaps we missed Saint Paul as he cried out to the Galatians, "I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain" (Galatians 4:11).

Honorable shepherds,

If what we are saying is not the gospel of truth, if we so dare, then tell us what is. Correct us! Improve us! Forgive us! Teach us! And if it is the gospel of truth, then why is what read so far removed from what we see?

In the end, "God has not given us a spirit of failure, but of power and of love and of  advice" (2 Timothy 1:7). The statement is clear, no matter what degree of futility has been reached: "We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth" (2 Corinthians 14:8). If those who have been raised up to speak the truth fall silent, "then the stone shall cry out" (Luke 9:40)! "Be instructed O Jerusalem, lest My soul desiccate you..." (Jeremiah 6:8)!

Archimandrite Touma (Bitar)
Abbot of the Monastery of St Silouan the Athonite
Sunday, March 15, 2020