Met Georges Khodr: The Fathers

Arabic original here.

The Fathers

Today we celebrate the fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787), which defined the veneration of icons. The icons highlight for us people who have become new in Christ. We observe that an icon displays a saint as someone not of flesh and blood. He transcends worldly, bodily existence in order to be seated at in the ranks of light in the heavens, from which he looks down upon us as a new person. Our fathers' every concern is that we become new creatures who have no relation to flesh and blood or to an environment or past time, as though we were created today.

The Apostle Paul said, "You do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15). Each of us comes from a man and a woman. This is the beginning, but we do not stop at that point. After our mothers give birth to us as slaves, we go on to the freedom of Christ. Every person strives to be a Christian. A Christian is a project. He is baptized so that he may strive over the course of his life to become a Christian. But he does not reach perfection, even in eternal life, because in heaven we become perfect together. Together we become a glorious Church for Christ. Christ casts upon us a garment of light and we become creatures of light through this garment that is cast upon us.

But what happens to us on earth after we have become the project of a person in baptism? There come people in the Church who renew us in Christ Jesus. They have been renewed. They have become free. Every link between them and this body, between them and the selfishness of this world, its domination and its slavery has been broken. They are no longer indebted to any of their lusts or people's lusts. The Holy Spirit now moves them and they are no longer moved by the prejudice of village, town, sect or party. The Holy Spirit blows in them and heaven moves them. The heavenly person is treated as ignoble, a stranger, rejected and despised because he is a reminder to the people of the earth that they are called to become heavenly as they move upon the earth.

The people of heaven, the great believers, are hated by the people of the earth. The people of the earth, who are still tied to dust, to the aims of this world, to the deceit of lust, hate heaven and have no communion with the children of light.

Because of the darkness that prevails over this world, God raised up in the Church fathers capable of generating children of God the Father. There are those who break off people's tie to flesh and blood in order to established a new tie between them and the Lord. God establishes for Himself a family in the Church, which is not the human family made up of a man, a woman and children. I do not mean by this all who are affiliated with Christ by baptism. Rather, I mean those who have become conscious anew that they are a member of Christ's body, a part of Christ.

The time has come for us to know that we were born and are born in Christ's Church and in her we become new people because we follow Jesus and we have been made brothers of the Lord and children of God.

Met Saba (Esber): Lord, Do not Rebuke Us Harshly

Arabic original here.

Lord, Do not Rebuke Us Harshly

Master,

Perhaps the most difficult thing in Your Gospel is that you leave the wheat among the tares until the final judgment. You have made us understand that Your Church on earth is not a collection of saints so much as a group of strugglers who seek holiness.

They may not attain it. They may only see it from afar. Many times, they may not ever see it.

You wanted Your Church to be a group of seekers of truth. You are the Truth and in you it is seen. We are amazed that it is persecuted and contested until the end of the age.

Our struggles and our sins which we attach to You cause us to imagine that we are defending You and Your body on earth.

The reality, however, says: we are for this one or that one of Your servants more than we are for You.

You have also taught us that holiness is only given when it is truly sought on the narrow way.

Thus we have learned that we must be hard on ourselves and not on others and that we must require truth and uprightness of ourselves before anything else.

Then You offered Your life so that truth, purity and sacrifice might have the highest place in Your creation. Your sacrifice was a real translation of Your words.

And because You effaced Your person with Your word, Your whole life was a condescension.

You only went up twice.

The first time was so that the enormous crowd could hear Your teaching, when You went up the mountain to give them the new Law.

The second time was upon the cross. On the hill of Golgotha, You let them raise You as a martyr, to embrace the world with Your hands stretched out to it.

Your being lifted up like this was the apex of condescension, because it led you to the tomb, in a cave of earth.

By this ultimate condescension of Yours, You rose again and caused life to dawn, that light of which You said in Your Gospel, that you came in order to give to us, that we may have its fullness.

But we often act in the opposite way to You.

We love to show off and puff ourselves up, for people to see us as leaders more than as servants and fathers!

We want followers, even if we lead them to perdition!

Because we are small, we make ourselves big not through You but through them in order to feel that we are doing something, that we are influential, that we have status.

If Your children, in their love for us, only know us from the outside, what excuse is this for us when we know ourselves and we know how much stupidity, meanness and filth there is within us?

Did You not teach us, Master, how we should go down in order for You to raise us up?

Do You not direct us towards knowledge of the high station that is fitting for Your people and Your servants?

Is it not enough for us to be at Your feet?

Is not all fullness in our listening to You as Mary did, and she attained the good portion that is not taken from her?

Amidst our intoxication with ourselves and our ego, we often forget You, O Master, and we replace You with our followers.

We are occupied with the demon that dwells in us and we follow his whispers, so we no longer see You or hear You. In this way he leads us to false glory, to our doing what we believe to be the truth, when it is really only our own transgressions.

We no longer distinguish, O Master, between our whims and our zeal for Your house.

My Lord, do not let the turmoil drive us to acting against Your Gospel.

Have pity on us and our hardness of heart. Pour out Your abundant mercy upon us.

You have given us a terrible responsibility because You were pleased for Your Holy Spirit to be in vessels of clay, we who are quick to shatter.

How do we keep our vessels uncracked, when it is very easy to slip and imagine that we are Your followers who have been charged with reforming Your Church, when the world is very seductive?

My Lord, how many times have we been tempted to act against Your Gospel in order to best serve Your Church?

And how many times have we violated Your Gospel when we sanctified a means to an end?

And how many times have we betrayed You when we used You as an instrument for our own interests and desires?

Teach us, my Lord, that we are not better than You because no servant is better than his master.

Help us to accept Your example, the example of the servant who is oppressed and does not oppress.

Strengthen our steps so that You may be our first love.

Make us listen to You move than we talk about You, so that we may distinguish well between Your will and our passions.

Master, over history you have often taught us that You permit outward and inward persecution when we evade the truth and stray from the straight path.

Do not rebuke us harshly, my Lord, because we almost cannot bear it.

Preserve for us a remnant that bears witness to You, to the fullness of the life that You desire, and to the joy that Your angels have proclaimed since You honored our earth with Your visitation.

My Christ, the people of Your Church have grown weary on account of us. Forgive us and lead us to the straight path.

We desire You, my Lord. Do not let us distract ourselves from You with the things that pertain to You.

Met Georges Khodr: I Say to You, Arise

Arabic original here.

I Say to You, Arise

Today's Gospel reading is about a miracle that the Lord performed, which shows us once again that the chief reasons for Jesus' working miracles is that He loves people. He took pity on the widow of Nain and raised her son.

Miracles are not, at root, for the Lord to prove something. He did not do them to give us proof of His divinity, since He says, "Believe in Me because of the words I speak to you. Otherwise, believe because of the works." This is the weakest sort of faith, for us to follow Him on account of miracles, while the strongest faith is for us to follow Him because of His words, because of the divine gift of words that no human pronounces, and because of the life that He spent among us, loving to the point of death. Therefore, in the Gospel of John the miracles are called "signs" because He uses them to indicate teaching. He uses them to demonstrate the aims of the Gospel and not to demonstrate might.

Christ did not reveal God's might as the Jews did. He revealed God's power in His own way. God's power was the cross. That is, He revealed a weakness that was, after the resurrection, determined to be in fact a strength. God comes down to humankind and lives with them. This is His power. He can cast aside His glory in order to be hidden among people. People desire power and it is one of their three temptations. Man is confronted with three temptations: the temptation of money, the temptation of power or glory.

Christ stepped down from all this, He refrained from all of this in order to die for something weak, so that His power might shine and so He might triumph in glory.

In this context, Jesus rose the youth from the dead and sent him to his mother. Here we must notice what Jesus said to this youth: "I say to you, arise." He could have just said "arise", but He said, "I say to you, arise."

From behind the event, if each of us looks at his weakness and his spiritual death, at his fallenness, his decline and his abandonment, at the same time he looks at the splendor of Christ, because each of us is dead and Christ says to each of us by name, "I say to you, arise."

What every single one of us must believe that Christ could have come to humankind even if there were only one human. The important thing is not that we say that Christ is the Savior of the world-- and it is true that He is the Savior of all people-- rather, the important thing is that every single one of us says, "Christ is my own savior." Each one of us can say this if he wants to reveal his weakness before Christ and confess it.

People talk about others and say that they steal and kill and lie and cheat. I have never heard someone complain about himself and say publicly, "I lie. I cheat. I take illicit profit. I have murdered." True Christianity is for me to confess before all people that I am a sinner, an adulterer, a liar, a murderer. This is what the early Christians did when confession was public. They confessed their sins and not others' sins.

When someone confesses that he is a sinner, Christ says to him, "I say to you, arise." And at that moment he arises from his sin to become a new person.

Conference in DC This Week: Byzantium, the Arabs, and the Rise of Islam

For more information, a program and abstracts of the presentations, go here.

Colloquium in Memory of Irfan Shahîd (1926–2016) 

 

“Byzantium, the Arabs, and the Rise of Islam” gathers leading scholars to explore areas that interested the late Irfan Shahîd. Within the broad framework of the relations between Byzantium and its Arab neighbors, speakers investigate a wide array of sources, from epigraphic and archaeological materials to the canon of Arabic poetry. Topics include the religion of the pre-Islamic nomads of Arabia, the Christian presence in the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant, and the possible pre-Islamic Arabic translation of the Bible.

The morning session takes place at Georgetown University in the CCAS Boardroom (ICC 241), and the afternoon session and reception are held at Dumbarton Oaks in the Oak Room, 1700 Wisconsin Avenue.

Participants

• Ahmad Al-Jallad (Leiden University)
• Nadia Maria El Cheikh (American University of Beirut)
• Sidney Griffith (The Catholic University of America)
• Robert Hoyland (New York University)
• Walter Kaegi (University of Chicago)
• Maria Mavroudi (University of California, Berkeley)
• Jack Tannous (Princeton University)
• Alan G. Walmsley (Macquarie University/Dumbarton Oaks)

Organizer: Emma Gannagé, Georgetown University

For information, contact the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University (202-687-2735 or arabic@georgetown.edu) or Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection (202-749-8269 or events@doaks.org).

Co-organized by the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Cosponsored by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Medieval Studies Program at Georgetown University.

Met Ephrem (Kyriakos): The Olive Tree

Arabic original here.

The Olive Tree

The olive tree has been known in our country from ancient times. It is a symbol of peace and mercy. The word 'mercy', eleos, and the word 'olive', elaia, are similar and we repeat in the Church kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy.

The Olive tree is mentioned in the Old Testament, at end of the Flood, when "the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth" (Genesis 8:11). Olive oil and the olive tree are mentioned 140 times in the Bible.

It is mentioned in the Holy Gospel and also in the Qur'an, where a verse says, "God is the light of the heavens and the earth. His light is like a niche in which is a lantern, the lantern in a glass, the glass like a shimmering star,  kindled from a blessed tree, an olive. Its oil almost aglow, though untouched by fire. Light upon light! God guides to His light whomever He wills..."*

Here let us recall that in the Mystery of Baptism, we anoint our children with oil upon which the priest has prayed, saying, "The servant of God (name) has been anointed with the oil of gladness in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen... for the healing of soul and body (on the chest and back), for hearing the faith (on the ears), (on the hands and feet) to work and walk in Your ways O Lord." Then the child is plunged into the water and rises three times, as a symbol of death and the resurrection. This reminds us that soldiers' bodies were anointed with oil before going off to battle and death so that they might be saved from the enemy's arrows.

The olive tree can live for over a thousand years and is evergreen. Olive oil is extracted from it, which is good for eating, in addition to being used in the production of soap. Olive wood is used to make household utensils, as well as being used for heating, as is what is left over from the fruit after pressing.

We will also mention here other benefits of olive oil and the olive tree for other occasions and purposes, including welcoming the Lord Christ on Palm Sunday, during the famous procession, with palm and olive branches decorated with flowers.

Additionally, people who fast during days of fasting, when they refrain from animal products, rely on olive oil for meals based on plants that the earth produces in springtime. Last but not least, we will mention that olive oil is used as the oil of chrism, "the oil of holy anointing", which grants the gifts of the Holy Spirit, indicating the divine virtues and eternal life. Let us not forget that it is used as a medicine in prescriptions: remember the Good Samaritan who used oil and wine to dress the wounds of the man who fell into the hands of thieves (Luke 10:34).

I say all of this, beloved, in order to remind you to preserve this tree, the olive tree blessed by God, which constitutes a precious, valuable inheritance for us in al-Koura. We who live on this land must never neglect the olive trees. Let us always have this concern form them, based on faith and not only on financial benefit, so that we may care for our livelihood and participate with our hands in our livelihood from the olive tree. The Lord always rewards us with this work in order to assure our sustenance and, especially, our salvation and the well-being of our country.

+Ephrem
Metropolitan of Tripoli, al-Koura and their Dependencies

*Here (and always on this blog), I use Tarif Khalidi's translation of the Qur'an. You should too. It's far and away the best in English.

Fr Georges Massouh on Suffering

Arabic original here.

The Treatment for Suffering is Love

Man's inevitable fate is, sooner or later, bodily death. Young and old stand equal before death. Death does not distinguish between children and the elderly. Is there a solution for this inevitable fate that is death? No, even if medical science and new drugs could prolong human life and reduce suffering, they will not reach the point of ending the inevitability of bodily death.

If bodily death is inevitable, then what about suffering? Why does man suffer? Is suffering part of human nature or is it something alien to it? There are many questions that both believers and unbelievers have about the suffering that all humans experience without exception.

To start with, it must be said that suffering does not only result from illness, but rather it results from many factors, so the source of suffering is not single but multiple. There is suffering that afflicts those who are physically healthy but who suffer from emotional, psychological, financial or intellectual (not achieving desired intellectual ambitions), or spiritual disappointments... Man does not live without suffering: this is the golden rule.

According to the Christian faith, death and suffering are alien to human nature. God, the source of every good thing, created man eternal. That is, not dying and not suffering... but man, in his rebellion against God-- that is, in his rejecting the source of life and departing from Him-- sentenced himself to death, suffering and torment. The coming of Christ, His submitting to death on the cross and His resurrection restored the relationship between God and man. But suffering and death remained the two-edged sword at the throat of all mankind.

Metropolitan Georges Khodr states that God is not the cause of everything that happens to us on the face of this earth. Khodr says in his conversation with Samir Farhat, "There are factors in nature and in the essence of humanity. If God liberated us from the responsibility of suffering, then it would be possible for us to be liberated from the dark image of this god, the god who delights in tormenting humankind. The natural inclination, particularly in the East, is that the good and the bad in life comes from God. In the New Testament, after Jesus bears mankind's suffering, God is no longer the cause of human suffering. We are transported from a purely philosophical, theoretical position to a position of participating in Christ (This World is not Enough, Ta'awuniyyat al-Nur al-Orthodoxiyya lil-Nashr wal-Tawzi', p. 207).

Christ came to redeem man and to release him from sin so that he may live with Him forever. Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice on the cross after having shared in the suffering and torments of humankind. Nevertheless, He gave this humankind great hope, He who is the resurrection and the life with God forever. Therefore we can say that suffering is an inevitable aspect of life on earth. The solution to it for believers is nothing other than to accept it as a bitter reality that is only mitigated by the belief that it is a path to purification from sin and attachment to Christ, who redeems this suffering through His suffering and raises us from the dead to eternal life, "where there is no pain, no sorrow and no sighing."

It remains that we treat suffering as a place where the most sublime love between man and his fellow man becomes manifest. Love alone is what can mitigate suffering. For a suffering person-- whether he is sick, hungry, widowed, orphaned or a refugee-- to see that there is someone concerned with his pain, who will perhaps cause him to feel others' pain, is the beginning of holiness. Love can do anything. Love can move mountains. Love is the great marvel.

Met Georges Khodr: Mercy

Arabic original here.

Mercy

Mercy is when a person embraces others, when he places them within his heart. But how do we treat people in actual reality? First we have an image of them that might come from their behavior and might come from our imagination. It is not true that we have precise knowledge of every person. We imagine that this person is such a way because we were told that he is from such-and-such a town and the people of that town are miserly or generous. We can't hold a man to his town's reputation. Then we say that his grandfather treated us in such-and-such a way and so he must be like his grandfather. The Bible has taught us that a person does not bear his father's sin and that everyone is his own person.

In addition to this, in our environment, we think that a person behaves in a certain way because he belongs to a certain religious community. This is not true. A given religious community is not all the same. Of course, someone might find a difference between himself and other people and be unable to bear such differences, wanting people to all say the same thing as him, whatever that might be.

Mercy is our taking everyone as he is and seeing his behavior as it is, not because he is from this village or this religious community. There are good people in every place and every society who may belong to any number of different countries or creeds. It is not true that they are wicked or fanatical merely because they belong to one of them. So mercy today means first and foremost that we see the person as he is and interact with him as he is, without regard to what groups he belongs to.

The person before us may be weak, and so we interact with him on this basis. The person before us may be a cheat, a liar or a thief, and so we interact with him on the basis of the Christian mindset that is in the Gospel. We do not keep silent about evils, but rather we resist them with gentle persuasion, with mercy, with affection, with goodness. We resist evils with good behavior, as the Apostle Peter says in his first epistle, " not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing..." (1 Peter 3:9) 

We do good to another person with good behavior and so, without judging him, we condemn with kindness. The person before us whom we cultivate with this spiritual beauty that is within us is vexed because the liar, the cheat and the thief are troubled if they are faced with a good person. His existence stands as a rebuke to them. And so begins hostility toward every upright person: "all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12).

The Lord Jesus' answer to all of this is "be merciful." This is the secret. Why must we be merciful with those who are hostile to us? Because we have been delegated with shepherding them. Every person is someone's shepherd. Following the example of the compassionate Samaritan woman, each one of us takes care of the other, saves him.

God made us each other's shepherds or, to put it in other words, each one is the other's physician. Why must I have mercy on my enemy? The answer: because you know his fault. His enmity has brought him near to you. You know his shortcomings and you treat them. Each one of us must purify his heart from all enmity and see the other because he is one of God's children.

We do not have enemies. The people around us are all God's children and God's children have in them good and bad. Christianity is a realistic religion. It is a religion of treating people with love and mercy.