July 2011

The liturgy is an appointment for you with the Lord. In social life, no one arrives late for an appointment. If you were late, the other will consider you not serious in your work if you gave him an appointment or that you are not missing him, and you will make him wait and regret the time he lost while waiting. Why do we only find three people, and mostly old women, at the beginning of the service on a Sunday or in a feast?

Doesn’t this mean that the words said by the priest or chanted by the chanter do not concern the people that are absent for unjustified reasons? They would be home drinking coffee, having breakfast, or listening to the news. They slept the previous night and woke up like any other day. Do they internally say: The liturgy happens whether we came or not, and we shall take our share from it later? These people don’t know that Christ is waiting for them in his church and that the words organized to be said in the Liturgy were put by our ancestors for us to grow in God’s love and reach the depth of Christianity. Why don’t they know that the Lord loves those who came from the beginning and wants those who were late not to be late anymore? He forgives the weakness of their energy and the lack of their enthusiasm in order for them to gain this enthusiasm and be renewed through knowledge and not miss any beneficial word.

I once entered a church during the specified time for the Vespers and noticed that the service started two or three minutes earlier. At the beginning of the service, the vespers’ psalm is read. So I said to the priest after the service: You have taken away from people that come on time several verses from the psalm that could have helped them in their salvation. Their repentance might have needed some words that they didn’t hear.

Some of us don’t have enough eagerness. If you loved Christ, you should search for his appearing, and his appearing in the Divine Liturgy is great. He has said: “The words I have spoken to you are light and they are life”. Don’t you want light? Don’t you want life? You cannot make a religion for yourself; you take the religion you inherited from your Fathers and Grandfathers. And the Christian religion that you follow has prayer as its heart and has the Liturgy as the heart of prayer.

I hope that you recognize that the Liturgy is one whole structure and that you cannot take a part and leave another. As a clarification I say: How could you arrive after the Gospel? Wouldn’t you be trying to convince yourself that what was read for the faithful is not important for you? And concerning the Epistle, who said that it, in addition to the chants that precede it, don’t benefit your spiritual growth? How could you take the Lord’s body without the Gospel? The Lord gives us all of these. All of this is for your salvation, and consequently, for the salvation of your family. Your family wants you strong in faith and beneficial for them through faith.

You love them with everything you got, with what you learned from the Church of the Lord. Do you let your wife teach your children Christianity alone without playing a role in that? Do not rely on the religious education of schools. It is equally important, as education, and even more important, for you to have Christianity in you, in your speech, and in your eyes.

Come, and let us be together every Sunday so that no one would remain a stranger between us, the people that pray. We are all together Christ’s body. Do not separate us through your absence. In Church we all become one: Come.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “موعدك في القداس” –Raiati 31- 31.07.2011

Divine grace has different faces that we call gifts. One of them is the gift of prophecy (that continues in the New Testament). It is when the New Testament prophet speaks to the Church and says what God wants from it.

The gift of serving is also found in the Church whether the gifted was a clergy or not. As for the teacher, he is the one that simplifies the dogma in a coherent way that combines all doctrines. The preacher is the person that explains the faith based on the reading from the Epistle, the Gospel, or both of them. The giver gives in a simple way and mainly to the indigent. As for the leader of the economic affairs, he shall be diligent. The merciful, is the one that forgives everyone that needs a physical or a spiritual mercy.

All of this is fulfilled in love which doesn’t have any hypocrisy, any love of appearing, and without differentiation between people. After that, Paul, the writer of the epistle to the Romans, says that we should hate what is evil because he who loves evil doesn’t love. In the same sense he says that we should cling to what is good and “love one another with brotherly affection” as the Lord has said: “Love one another, as I have loved you”, and he has loved us to death. Then, he asks us to honor each other and pay attention to be the initiators in this honoring and not wait until the other initiates and loves us. Then he says “Do not be slothful in zeal”, this is the zeal of piety and service. We shouldn’t postpone this zeal but be “fervent in spirit” and this fervency descends on us from the Holy Spirit that appeared as fire on the disciples in the upper room that they were in being afraid from the Jews. Those who are fervent in faith and love worship the Lord. “Rejoice in Hope”, this happiness comes from the Holy Spirit as the apostle says in another occasion. “Patient in tribulation”: this refers to the personal tribulation caused by non-Christians or even Christian brothers. It is also the tribulation that the church lives through persecutions. “Be consistent in prayer”, as the Book tells us, we should not stop praying day and night. Maybe, he refers here to the “prayer of the mind” or “the prayer of the heart” which could be in words or without any words. Prayer is the permanent bond with God who uses this prayer to nurture us and make us his companions.

Then, the apostle asks us to contribute to the needs of the saints, and by saints he means all the faithful. We give them brotherly kindness and console them in their grief. This contribution is also our hospitality towards strangers as Jesus said: “I was a stranger and you invited me in”. None of us should feel like a stranger. “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them”. This is what Lord Jesus said, and Paul’s words here are an echo of the Lords’ words.

“Bless and do no curse” is one of Jesus’ words. Our blessing towards those who loved or hated us is to ask for God’s blessing to descend on all people. God’s blessing is when he gives us life, grace and “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”. This is perfection according to the words of the Savior: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. Perfection is the quest for perfection, and this way, God’s image in us shall revive us.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “المواهب” –Raiati n^o30- 24.07.2011

In the Sermon on the Mount, from which this section was taken, the Lord says to his disciples and to us also: “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5: 14). This is a reflection to what he said about himself in John “I am the light of the world” (8: 12). Jesus invites us to show this light through good deeds which would result in people glorifying God when seeing these deeds. After that, he wanted to deny a charge that Jews accused him with so he said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets”. Prophets talked about him; therefore, it is very normal for him to say that he didn’t come to abolish them. However, how did he not abolish the Law of Moses which is related to obligations such us giving animal sacrifices to the Temple? Actually, he did liberate us from all materialistic obligations and kept the spiritual recommendations and guidance.

The moral commandments are kept in the Ten Commandments. However, the commandment of the Sabbath, which has a ritual nature and not a moral one, was cancelled: Christians don’t rest from their works on Saturday. The prohibition of theft and lying stayed, but Christ entered to the depth of the commandments. He didn’t only keep the fidelity of marriage as written in the Lord’s statement: “you shall not commit adultery”, but added on that: “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5: 28). Jesus takes out adultery from the heart. He enters the kingdom of the heart so that sin disappears. He also excised anger and swearing. Jesus entered the depth of man to purify it.

Moses’ Law is not maintained in its forms and organizations. Only its soul and direction towards God stay. There are no more sacrifices to the Temple because Christ became the only sacrifice. If he redeemed us, why would we need animal sacrifices anymore? Circumcision used to indicate God’s covenant with Abraham, but the new covenant with God was through Jesus’ blood, therefore why would we need circumcision anymore? We have now a new image of the covenant and it is Baptism.

Therefore, there is a relation with the Old Testament, but we go beyond its images and materialism because these were used to prepare, through their outer form, for the New Testament. However, we keep reading the Old Testament so that the bond between the new thing and its old image would be maintained, although the old image doesn’t stay in the practice of the Church.

Another example is the cancellation of the Levite priesthood: After Jesus has become the only priest, there is no more need for the priesthood that came from Aaron, and Christian priesthood doesn’t complete the Jewish one but continues Christ’s priesthood.

Finally, this section ends with Jesus saying: “whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven”. One word could condemn us, because one of us could be excellent in giving the Christian teaching or theology but has no spiritual benefit. He who has the gift of teaching must try to acquire the gift of spiritual practice in Church so that he wouldn’t be having a kind of schizophrenia and for God not to be blasphemed because of this person.

This is an invitation to combine teaching with practicing.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “نور العالم” –Raiati n^o29- 17.07.2011

The priest is lonely in his parish and is subjected to all temptations of loneliness since we do not have an advisory council in which priests meet and discuss the affairs of pastoral care. The Metropolitan in this archdiocese meets with the priests once a month and some of them sometimes don’t attend. The priest is left to his readings that give him the theological knowledge and pastoral research; actually he has a lot of time left once the evening comes and the divine services end. This means that he is aware that counseling comes out from him and that if his spiritual life shines then people would be nourished from it because, today, people want to live in God.  They ask this kind of life from their priest. My hope is that our priest won’t think that his responsibility ends after finishing the divine services. His main responsibility is first in his holiness and second in nourishing the faithful through the Word of God.

We ask for this through meditating in the Holy Book every day and from other books that were published in the past years (which are around 400 books). The Lord wants the holiness of every one of us and this holiness comes from the continuous spiritual fight especially from the priest’s prayer that should be always on his lips and in his heart outside the official prayers. If the priest didn’t pray individually, he would be then reciting the prayers in the holy service without feelings. The believer would feel this; the faithful can differentiate between a person that recites a lesson he has read and a person that lives these words in his heart.

They would know from his preaching if this man was flaming, and if they loved him, they shall become closer to the glorified Lord. However, if the priest neglected his duties and subjected his behavior to defect he would be, with no doubt, taking some believers away from the Lord. Stumbles often come from clergymen, and once we recognize this fact we shall work harder on our life.

The priest shouldn’t be scared concerning his income. In comparison with the past, parishes have become more sensitive to his needs. However, we didn’t reach yet a stage in which all priests are in full comfort. This comfort shall make the clergy go away from the love of money and his integrity shall strengthen people’s attachment to him.

It was common for us and for the west for the believer to give the priest an amount of money in different occasions (Baptism, Marriage, and Funeral). This money was named among people “Epitrachelion” because the priest wears the Epitrachelion over his chest while doing these prayers. Then, some of the parish councils thought to cancel this and make it a personal contribution for the church. Even I don’t have a choice between these two options. The important point in the midst of this is for the clergy not become a money lover, for the parish council not to put a defined price for every sacrament and service and for the basis of this process to be the freedom of the faithful. The believer decides the amount and could also decide not to pay. We are not sacrament sellers; a priest might be thrown into greed and put an amount of money as a condition. This is called Simonism and is forbidden in the book of Acts and the Church Canon.

In order not to fall into what Apostle Paul calls “idolatry”, these laic officials decided that the believer pays directly to the church or gives a yearly contribution which the church distributes over the priests.

Whatever was the adopted system, it is important for the clergy to stay in chastity concerning this issue and not nag if he was given a small amount or even if he wasn’t given anything. When he does so, he “will be given more, and will have abundance”. In order to uphold the respect of the priest and our love for him, chastity is important as it saves him and his spiritual children.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الكاهن وحياته” –Raiati n^o28- 10.07.2011

This sermon (Matt 5, 6 and 7) is the ethical law of the Bible. In this section he says “The eye is the lamp of the body”. He means that if you were “transparent” and had a loving look towards people (and he calls it a healthy look), a look that is free from any complexities or hatred or pride, then your whole entity would be good. After that, he moves on to talk about worshiping money as he says that “you can’t worship God and money”.

Money would become your slave if you used it for good. Do not make yourself a slave for money. Do not seek only money. Make use of it by giving it to the poor, make it their property, and let them take part of it. You are not the owner of this money, you are just a trustee, therefore give to those that need it. Then, he explains in more details and says: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear”. The key word here is “worry”. He did not tell you not to eat or not to wear; he only meant that you should not make these your only concerns. Material shouldn’t become the center of your hearts and the content of your lives. He did clarify this after some lines when he said: “And why do you worry about clothes?” And he continues: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?” and clarifies “For the pagans run after all these things”, i.e. those who are not from the people of God. When Paul says “the love of money is the root of all evil” he means that the love of eating, drinking, clothes, houses, cars and all what man owns is the root of all evil. There is no love towards everything that’s materialistic because these things tie and enslave you. God created you free, and by getting liberated from all material you would become able to love him. According to this image we can say that if you were close to your wife, children, relatives and friends to the extent of slavery, you cannot be worshiping God. You have a freedom that allows you to worship only God, obey his orders, love what he loves and hate the thoughts and acts that he hates. He didn’t give you a freedom to do whatever you want. He only gave you the freedom of his worshiping and embracing it as if you are in the heavens from now. You are a heavenly person; you became heavenly through Jesus Christ. You eat from what he sustains you, not more. Food is not for pleasure but for your nutrition and growth. The same is applied on drinking. You should wear what is known to protect you from heat and cold without excessive beautifying. The beauty of clothes and houses is not forbidden, but in the midst of all of this stay moderate in order not to get drunk from this beauty and become far from God’s beauty. Do not brag about anything. Be proud only of the gifts that God put in your mind and heart; don’t give credit for yourself concerning any of these gifts. God gave you your gifts in order to invest them for his glory. You know the phrase of the angels in the nativity of the Savior: “Glory to God in the highest”. It is pride to give attribute to your qualities. You don’t own any of your qualities; you have inherited them from your Lord through Christ’s passion over you and the power of the Holy Spirit.

If people benefited from your gifts, don’t accept their praise but direct them into the fact that this is a gift from God. Everything is from God and to him. All of us, united though love, are for him. Thank the Lord constantly for his gifts, and let people also thank God if they inherited something from him. We are one group in the Church and our wealth is God. He who wears beautiful clothes is the same as that who wears rags. He who eats a little and fasts is better than the gluttonous. When someone is happy for earning money, his happiness should be because he is a mean to distribute this money. You are the human being of love as God is love. Always look towards the good and the bad through the eyes of love, forgiveness and compassion. Through this you shall become the human being of the New Testament.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “مِن العظة على الجبل” –Raiati n^o27- 03.07.2011