Fr Georges Massouh on When Armed Struggle is Necessary

Arabic original here.


Love Sometimes Requires Violence

Is it permissible, in Christian terms, to resort to violence in order to resist evil? This is the question being posed by many Christians in our country, especially given the absence of any non-violent means to put a stop to genocide, indiscriminate killing and forced expulsion.

Christians are called to imitate their Lord Christ who forgave his crucifiers saying, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." But would Christ have said the same thing if it was someone else being crucified? Surely Christ would pick up a whip in defense of the person under attack. He would bring him down from the cross, heal his wounds and relieve him from oppression and suffering.

It is true that Christ said, "Love your enemies and bless those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). However, He did not say to love the evil that they do and far be it for Him to say that! For a person to love his enemy with sincere love is to deter him from the evil he harbors. True love assumes speaking out to the wicked, oppressors and aggressors. Love requires resisting and eliminating evil, not making a truce with it or surrendering before it. The commandment to love our enemies does not negate the other commandment to love those for whom God has made us responsible: the poor, the oppressed, the tormented of the earth. "Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me" (Matthew 25:45). Ambrose of Milan (d. 397) expressed this verse the best when he said, "He who does not repel the injustice that threatens his brother when he is capable of doing this sins no less than the one committing the injustice."

In his book Violent and Non-Violent Struggle to Realize Justice (Beirut: Manshurat al-Nour, 1988), the Orthodox theologian Costi Bendaly affirms that non-violent struggle is the ideal form of resistance, since it realizes the harmony between the ends and the means  such that the ends are realized through the means themselves. Bendaly adds that it is not permissible to absolutize non-violent struggle in such a way as to categorically and in principle reject all violent struggle.

If a Christian arrives at the conviction that violent struggle is the sole means of realizing justice, Bendaly stipulates certain rules to which he must adhere in order not to deviate from his original plan and fall into the passion of senseless destruction and wanton killing. The most important of these rules is limiting violence to the goal of eliminating injustice, oppression and aggression and after their being eliminated the need for forgiveness, reconciliation and peace. Thus it is not permissible to rely on violence as a method and to follow it unconditionally, even if difficult historical circumstances sometimes require its use in order to ward off tyranny, injustice and aggression.

Costi Bendaly arrives at the conclusion that the choice between violence and non-violent forms of struggle cannot be based merely on a position of principle, but rather it must take into account the necessities of the actual situation and the historical context. When evil grows and becomes recalcitrant, it does not leave any other choice in confronting it apart from armed struggle. He gives two examples of this, namely Nazism and Zionism.

The Takfiri movements that are sowing corruption in the land and are wantonly spilling the blood of the innocent and defenseless, apart from resembling Nazism and Zionism in their racism, are no less dangerous than they are. However, confronting these Takfiri movements requires that we shun sectarianism. Any sectarian organizing to confront the Takfiri movements will play into their interests. Is there a universal national institution that transcends sects and is capable of uprooting those who spread corruption in the land other than the Army?

Met Joseph to Represent Patriarch John X at the Conference "In Defense of Christians"

This translation is unofficial. Arabic original here.


Press Release

His Beatitude John X, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East has delegated His Eminence Joseph (Zahlawi), Metropolitan of New York and All North America to represent him at the conference "In Defense of Christians", which will take place in Washington, DC on the 9th to the 11th of September, 2014.

Metropolitan Joseph will relay to those gathered at the conference the position of the Antiochian Church, which regards Christians as a fundamental component  of the Middle East whose fate is tied to the fate of all their brothers in citizenship.

Thus their defense will come fundamentally through the establishment of a just peace in the region and the strengthening of the values of true citizenship, responsible freedom and social, economic, and cultural justice in the countries to which they belong.

This position stresses that Christians reject any evacuation or exodus and that they shall remain in their nations as apostles of love and peace.

It will likewise affirm that the protections of Christians falls under the protection of Middle Eastern people, whether Christian or Muslim, who are suffering the consequences of terrorism and extremism.

All of this requires serious and honest work with all people of good will and with all segments of this Middle East, especially the Muslims, our brothers in citizenship who, in turn, are enduring the consequences of extremism, in order to eradicate Takfirism and fanatical movements and to establish tolerant thought that respects diversity and the freedom of the other, especially freedom of belief.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East is determined to do whatever is necessary to establish a logic of rootedness in the land as part of the mission with which she has been entrusted by God as a witness to her love for humankind and her preparedness to serve.

John X's Speech at the Groundbreaking for the Hospital in al-Hisn

This translation is unofficial. Arabic original here. The speech was given on August 29, 2014.


Brothers and loved ones,

We gather together today at this medical institution, the Patriarchal Hospital of al-Hisn, to lay the cornerstone for the new expansion of the hospital. If anything, this shows the will to live that we and the people of this generous Valley have.

The will to live held by the Middle Eastern heart guarantees that light is planted in us and spread to the entire world: "Let us say to the world that we in this Middle East and in this land are deeply-rooted because we are children of light."
The light does not know submission to the catacombs of darkness.

As we lay the cornerstone, let us say that this Valley and like it every corner of Syria pulses with the power of life. It pulses life into its surroundings, despite all the tragedies.

The Hospital of al-Hisn is a single name and a single expression for love that is incarnate in deeds.
It is a spot of light that does not claim perfection, which belongs to God alone.
It was founded by the al-Hisn league in the diaspora and is maintained by the Church. In doing so, she says to mankind that she is its primary locus of spiritual and bodily feeling.

The sciences, and at their head the medical sciences, aim to best preserve the body's power to remain alive. They must be connected on the one hand to the soul through divine truth and on the other hand to this world, since the human being-- body, soul and spirit-- is the greatest harmonious arrangement of cells with distinct functions, integrated for producing harmonious movement, thought and sensation.

This is the human being, who is in the image of the Creator in love and in His likeness in character and in preserving the material world, that treasure over which God gave him authority in order to protect it and develop the good that is planted there, so that he might discover sublime perfection, abundant beauty, the best morals, and good and helpful thought, which, in its final dimension, is the utmost degree of illumination, purity and sanctity.

Some might wonder what the Church has to do with hospitals. The Church works in the Spirit and preaches morals and values. She works for spiritual healing more than for bodily, temporal healing.

However, we say that the Church in general and the Antiochian Church in particular is always and constantly called to be a comfort for both soul and body.

The Church is the Church of the incarnate Lord who was not satisfied with commandments engraved upon stones but rather came down Himself to engrave His love for us upon each of our hearts. He dwelt in this land, not far from where we are today. He approached our sicknesses, treated our pain and sympathized with our suffering.

The Church of Antioch is a church of souls and bodies because her Lord and Creator is the merciful one who came down from on high and healed the pain of those suffering, opened the eyes of the blind and swept hearts with His love.
He did not offer this love only spiritually and he did not save it for himself, but rather he poured it forth in healings and miracles.

This hospital is an outpost of love despite all the hardships. It is the glow of godly zeal that radiates from the giving of our children in the diaspora so as to say, "This Valley and this nation will not leave the hearts of their children even if the earth shook below them." Here, from the heart of this Valley, we  send our apostolic blessing to her children in the diaspora who are always in our heart and our prayer.

Today we come together to complete the path of our predecessors and lay the cornerstone for new wings. Here I would like to express my profound gratitude to Mr Georges Makhoul, a son of this Valley where he grew up. Here his love permits me to say, he grew up in the shadow of Zuwaytina's olive trees and the oil from her olives remained in his heart as an expression of an authenticity and love that have always been manifest in the most glorious forms, in fulfillment of the Lord's words, "It is better to give than to receive."
Your right hand has been blessed, Georges, and blessed is this family, which I have gotten to know and in which I am pleased to see that authenticity of faith mixed with love for people and the nation.

We place the cornerstone here as we recall the words of our late predecessor, Ignatius IV Hazim. In our recalling his words, we send the apostolic blessing to our people in Mhardeh, which now is paying the price of the cruelty of these days, the same price paid by this Valley and all parts of Syria as the world watches, Mhardeh of valor, which, through the help of God almighty and the work of our young people, shall remain not as a challenge to anyone, but as the jasmine perfume of Syria's peace. We recall the words of that son of Mhardeh, Ignatius Hazim when he laid the foundation of Balamand University at a time when horrors were intensifying: "If the power of some people is to destroy, then our power is to build and to remain."

Syria will be rebuilt through the help of benevolent people who come together in love for the nation.
Syria is faithfulness to God upon the neck of her children. She  has never known takfirism, terrorism, the kidnapping of priests, the murder of sheiks, and the imprisonment of bishops.
Syria will prevail through her children's giving, according to the logic of reconciliation and the coming together of her children.

It is time for the world to recover from its misstep and honestly look at what is happening.
It is time for governments and international forums to deal with with innocent people who have fallen according to a logic of compassion and not a logic of interests.

We say all this with trust in God and certain hope that Syria will rise like the phoenix, despite all the horrors. Syria's dawn approaches through the tenacity of her people and the steadfastness of her leaders, army and people.

I express my gratitude to His Eminence Nicholas Baalbaki for the labors he has undertaken for this edifice. In closing, I would like to thank all of you and wish success to the administrative and medical staff. I would like to thank the media, especially Syrian Arab Television and Noursat-Telelumière for transmitting this event.

Be with us, O Lord, in the service of Your human person. Strengthen this hospital by Your presence.
May Your blessed right hand work in it through the hands of its doctors and Your consolation in the smiles of its nurses.

Strengthen, O Lord, the hearts of its patients and anoint their souls and bodies with your healing power, for You are blessed unto ages of ages.

ISIS Threatens Orthdox Church in Tripoli, Lebanese Army Responds

From the Daily Star, here.See also their earlier article about anti-Christian graffiti in Tripoli here.

  

Lebanese Army swiftly responds to Tripoli threats

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army deployed heavily in the northern city of Tripoli Tuesday morning to ease fears over a threat against Christians that appeared to be posed by ISIS militants.

“We came to slaughter you, you worshipers of the cross," read graffiti on the wall of Mar Elias Church in the Mina neighborhood.

The Lebanese Army quickly responded, beefing up measures in Tripoli, in the vicinity of Abu Ali Bridge and the inner souks.

Tensions have risen in Tripoli, with several incident of intimidation against the city's Christian community. Crosses were allegedly burned over the weekend and several churches were defaced with the message "The Islamic State is coming," thought to be in retaliation for the burning of Islamist flags by several youths in Beirut's Sassine Square.

The incidents have been widely condemned by officials, with Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi promising a full investigation into any attempts to incite sectarian strife.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam warned Monday against allowing the Lebanese to be divided by sect, suggesting that the Nusra Front and ISIS, which are holding at least 23 soldiers and policemen captive, sought to sow this strife to further their plot against Lebanon.

Fr Georges Massouh: Prayer Alone is Not Enough

Arabic original here.

Prayer Alone is Not Enough

Prayer alone is not enough. Prayer is a means by which the one praying is enlightened with the divine light in order to know Gods  will and to act according to it. Prayer can be sterile, mere words and chants without spirit, if it is not followed with action here and now in the present place and time. Prayer is a reminder to the faithful that they are called to realize God's will in the universe, that they are God's partners in working peace and living the commandment to love to the fullest.

When the Holy Evangelist Luke recorded the story of the first Christians, he said, "Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:44-47).

It is not by chance that Luke talks about communion of physical goods before he talks about spiritual communion. There is no meaning to prayer, liturgy and praise if they are not the culmination of communion in the practice of love, mercy and giving. The Lord Himself says in the Sermon on the Mount, placing action before teaching, "whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:19). People do not believe those who teach from the pulpit if they do not act on their teaching and preaching.

Therefore prayer is not the abandonment of the faithful's responsibility toward those for whom they are praying, casting the responsibility on God alone as though God were in need of reminding him of people's suffering. Prayer is an invocation to God for Him to help us to bear the cross of the tormented and persecuted, whatever their religious, sectarian or ethnic affiliation. Our obligation is not fulfilled by praying. Rather, this obligation begins after prayer stops.

The Holy Apostle James says in his Catholic Epistle, "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:15-17).

As for the Holy Apostle Paul, in his numerous missionary journeys he would collect donations and sent them to the poor in Palestine.

Faith and all the acts of worship that follow from it-- prayer, fasting and everything else-- are useless if they are not tied to the works that are an essential part of faith. God has called upon the faithful to imitate Him and His qualities: "Be merciful just as your Father is merciful." "Be perfect just as your Father is Perfect"... There is no use in praying "Lord have mercy" if the one saying it is not merciful toward his fellow human beings.

Prayer, lighting candles, sermons and processions are not enough for the people of Iraq, Syria and Palestine. They are in need of true solidarity, which requires of church leaders and the faithful to invest everything they have in lessening their suffering by putting everything in the possession of the churches-- property, wealth and connections-- to their service.

This  is the least of faith.

Fr Georges Massouh: The Human Person is the Issue

 Arabic original here.



The Human Person is the Issue

Amidst the sequence of events sweeping through our Arab region, we often forget those who are directly concerned with them. In our reaction to them, we address the large issues instead of paying attention to the suffering of individuals who are experiencing the horror of these events. The problem here lies in the absence of the concept of the individual in our societies, our cultures and our way of thinking. According to our predominant culture, a person is not a distinct individual endowed with known gifts, but rather merely a statistic in a religious, sectarian or racial bloc. If he declares his liberation from belonging to any prior classification, there are those who include him, despite himself, in one of these affiliations and deal with him exclusively on this basis. He has no escape from this, as though it is an inevitable fate.

We forget that the people of Iraq are Iraqis whose anscestors have dwelled in that land for thousands of years, since before the rise of the monotheistic religions. They were the people of that country before they became Sunnis and Shiites, Chaldeans and Assyrians, Mandeans and Yezidis, before they were Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds... We forget this unique Iraqi character, compound and diverse, in which have mixed various streams of cultures that have successively formed Iraqi history in civilizational and human aspects in general. We forget this Iraqi uniqueness that is represented in the Iraqi individual and we resort to theorizing about a history that is passed, a history that does not concern most of those who are enduring daily suffering, who are forced to flee their homes, denying those who commit the incessant, unrestrained violence that kills them day and night.

Is there anyone who still believes that Iraqi Christians are concerned with talk about coexistence or about the history of Islamic religious tolerance toward Christians when they see themselves eliminated from their homes and their churches are blown up? Does it mean anything to the murderers for you to lecture them about coexistence and acceptance of those with a different religion in the Islamic tradition, from the Qur'an and hadith through the latest tolerant fatwas so that they will stop committing acts of violence against the People of the Book and other Iraqis? It goes without saying that safeguarding any individual Iraqi in compelling circumstances such as these does not lie in repeated talk of coexistence in the past why today and tomorrow he is being wantonly killed. His concern is to save himself and his children from extermination and extinction.

There is nothing of use to Muslims and Christians in Iraq in talking about glorious history, nor in talking about religious tolerance in Islam. What is beneficial for them is to go back to regarding the individual Iraqi as a citizen in himself and to confront the forces of takfiri darkness that are not concerned with the issues of Muslims, Christians, Mandeans or Yezidis, but rather with laying claim to Iraq's treasures and its oil.

The Iraqi, before belonging to a religious or ethnic bloc, is a unique individual whose memory constantly takes him back to the places of his birth, his flourishing, his play and his worship. Who can erase from the memory of the Mandean the waters of the Tigress and Euphrates where he performed his ablutions? And who can remove from the Yezidi's memory the importance of the temple of Lalesh, where he performed his worship? Who can efface from the memory of the Christian the spread of Christianity into every corner of Iraq? Who can remove from the Shiite's memory Najaf and Karbala? Who can deny the Sunni the importance of Baghdad and all of Iraqi in his heritage? There is no issue, then, other than the issue of the Iraqi person before anything else.

Carol Saba on Particularism and Citizenship

ِArabic original here.


From the Eye of the Middle Eastern Storm:
The Final Round of Confrontation between Particularism and Citizenship

It is not possible to strategically separate what is happening in Gaza, Syria and Iraq from the growth in recent decades of a discourse of religious and sectarian particularism in the Middle East, whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish. Today the repercussions of this are sweeping everyone into the ugliest sort of descent into the inferno. Politically, there is no horizon and no staying power to this implosion. The dark night must have a dawn. In light of the wrangling to bring about a new order in the Middle East, this requires of us great discrimination and total preparedness for a radical course correction.

We must not err in our strategic goals and we must agree on the tactics for attaining them. The focus on particularism today is a focus on the impasse, while what is needed amidst raging sectarianism is to focus on the methods for arriving at the only desirable solution: citizenship. The pluralistic Middle East, first and foremost in Lebanon after the fall of Palestine, has been the most democratically advanced model in the region and the number one rival to unilateralist projects, whether Arab or Zionist.

Our responsibility here as Lebanese Christians is no less important than the daggers pointed at the Lebanese model. During the 70th anniversary of Lebanese independence, I lamented in the pages of an-Nahar the lack of any critical examination of the Christian experience of seizing power in Lebanon and of the path that led to its loss. Despite the spreading flames, we are still without a national vision that presents progressive solutions to the impasse and crisis of Arab political governance. Christians in Lebanon erred by not reinforcing the society of citizenship when they held power and were capable of establishing genuine partnership with Muslims. Instead of developing partnership in life and reinforcing it in law and in practice through the partnership of citizenship, rivalry between the Eddeh and Khoury families and the Christian leaders and their political parties established extremely confrontational approaches between them that are still in effect today. Christian and sectarian particularism grew at the expense of citizenship.

Deadly internal and external alliances arose against them, deepening these particularist approaches. Internally, first there was the Chehabist experience. General Chehab's project, a project of building  the regime within a state of citizenship and of parallel development, was cast aside. Then came the escalation toward the inferno. For all its seriousness, the Lebanese explosion of 1975 did not topple the Model.

The need for a society of coexistence has remained stronger than societies of discrimination. The Taif Accords established the finality of Lebanon and affirmed equal sharing of power in practice, combining consensual democracy that protects the sects and majority rule, which permits electorally the composition of mixed majorities that transcend the sects. The toppling of Taif in practice was the toppling of the possibility of the civil state. After the fall of political Maronism came the rise and fall of political Sunnism, then political Shiism on the scale of its predecessors. Then came the Arab eruption, caused by the increasing decadence of the Arab regimes and their deadly unilateralisms, and this was called the "Arab Spring".

However, its righteous demands were soon tossed aside on account of deadly local, regional, and international policies that desired to install an alternative Arab political system based on religious particularism. Exclusivist particularism erupted and removed some from power. Destructive strife threatens to bring down everyone, including our moderate Muslim partners if they do not speak out boldly today. As for Israel, the same suicidal approach is in effect. The weakening of the Left after the assassination of Rabin and the rise of the Extreme Right has led to the growth of a discourse of religious particularism and the emergence of the idea of the "Jewishness" of the state, a far cry from historical Zionism, which was quasi-secularist.

Today Israel is falling for the temptation of political "Masadism". After the destruction of the Temple, extremist Jews and their families retreated to the historic fortress of Masada. In the year 73 the Romans entered after a three-year seige and they found that everyone-- men, women, elderly, children-- had killed themselves beause they preferred dying in particularism to living in coexistence with others. Gaza today is the name for a pair of crises two similar extremes with no horizons. Each of them looks to their persistent, unilateral particularity as the criterion for dominance over the other. Today there is no horizon for the resistance and enormous sacrifices of the heroic Palestinian people except through translating victory politically through consolidating Palestinian national reconciliation and a state of coexistence, citizenship, and fair and righteous peace. On the other hand, there is no horizon for political Masadism other than suicide.

There is a great difference between security and safety [الامن والامان ]. The latter cannot be imposed by blind weapons of war. Regionally, however, there is no horizon in sight to the hell of deadly particularities. Perhaps at the center of the agenda for the negotiations between America and the West and Iran (and the accompanying tug-of-war with the BRICS countries, especially Russia) is urging  a way to escape the great impasse through a new Arab order that produces stability and does not eliminate competition. There should be no change to the political geography of countries, so as not to open the gates of hell for us all. Another constant is that there is no permanence to any order without recognition of pluralism and diversity and without democratic approaches that create harmony between particularisms rather than eliminating some of them. The idea of the nation-state still abides, despite globalization. It is still suitable for the Middle East as an institutional framework for coexistence and the development of citizenship, since it is the legal dress for a non-assimiliationist incorporation of personal identities in a common life in which the particularisms of one group do not threaten the particularisms of others. Citizenship canonizes distinctiveness while expelling the specter of discrimination because it is the passage from the "I" to the "we", without eliminating the "I", exactly as in the theology of unity and diversity. At that point, we might escape the deadly cleavages of the Middle East and live together in partnership, dignity, freedom, prosperity, stability, and confidence in a promising future for all. Let's dream, since dreaming and wakefulness are neighbors and the Arab world is in such  need of wakefulness today!