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March 2013

2013, An-Nahar, Articles

The Door to Heaven / 30.03.2013

My years run from one disappointment to another. Of course there are consolations, but few of them come from humans. People benefit you whether they are like you or better than you. And you can rarely change what is commonly. And you might discover things against you in what appears as friendly. Much of this world is knit with hypocrisy. “Is this how our hopes always come to an end” until the Lord takes us out of this world? And after we pass away from this world, we become a “forgotten oblivion”; and in that is mercy from the Lord.

And the goodness of people is little and appears to be mixed with their falsehood. And oftentimes one cannot distinguish between their falsehood and honesty and you live appreciating what they offer of sincerity and also expecting it; but there remains for you a small group that comforts you because they are God’s and you also seek to be His. David says: “All humans are liars” and he goes on saying: “How do I reward the Lord for all what He has given me”? How are the two phrases related? If every human is a liar, I would expect nothing from any man. But I know myself as a believer, that is a man in whom there is no falsehood, and in the core of my being and in the midst of my pain– which is not a problem for me, is honest in that no matter how people behave towards me, I steadfastly remain in the presence of the Lord due to His presence “on my tongue” (in what I say) and in my vision.

No pain is left in my heart because of the hatred that some have for me – I am not specifically speaking about myself here – but this is a general principle in my life. And I would not say that there is jealousy in that; who am I to judge and who said that I have such goodness and virtues that would solicit jealousy? People are like that. The loving ones are few and you deal with those few until the Lord takes you to Himself where no lying is heard. The great advantage of Heaven is that God is honest and He sees you as you are; and He makes those in Heaven see your honesty and so you forget about the lying of the people of earth. I would expect that those who know me would wonder concerning what the causes of sadness and pain which I mention in my article are. God lifts up sorrow from whomever He wants and gives joy to whomever He wants. He does not give you joy that is not founded in the truth. You find it good to find joy in the flesh, but the flesh is from dust and often it smells of dust until the Lord lifts you up to the Kingdom. Our situation on the earth is one of closeness to what is unclean in it, until we leave this earth at death. “Every human is a liar” because he tries to hide the uncleanness in him so he appears “white” to others. But those who are great in spiritual life get concerned with how God sees us. And those live by that view of life they speak of.

Your destiny in this world is that you live by yourself or with some good people who rejoice at your progress in spiritual life. That statement is foreign to most people. If you have fear of God, you find yourself alone. People usually have fear of one another and keep fearing God till later in life since they consider that they live from the bounties of the earth. You might have sorrow in you due to that difference since you find that people are not earnest for the Kingdom of God while you are; they are not sad over their own condition and are not sad for you since they “got their reward”.

Disappointments never end but you should not perish because of a shock and you should not expect an end to shocks. You are stranded on the cross that you were promised and often you get consolations in that. And so you go from one “resurrection” to another. Our resurrection with Christ is accomplished at our crucifixion, in the same way it took place with Him. And we embrace our cross knowing that it is the path to our resurrection. Our life in Christ comes with our tiredness of this world and with our prayer life; that is it starts with a cross which the believer sees as the basis of his resurrection.

And that is the path of all of life since there is no life in one’s course except from death; and I mean by that the evanescence of worldly glory and vain boasting. The Lord crowns you with glory from Him if He finds you deserving of the crown. And falling removes from you all glory and places you at the bottom of shame.

“There is no life except from death” means that you refuse to have the glory that comes your way in life and you seek only the glory of God. In this world there only is vain glory which comes our way from the transient pride of life. I feel that people believe only in what is of their world since they have preferred their world to that of God; that is they feel that goodness comes their way from this world since the end of their life is “delayed” – or they put it off – and so they enjoy it only in hope since, at the present, they feel it is not under their control.

The sorrow of most people is that they do not seek anything from Heaven at the start of their lives, and they consider that this world is empty of the blessings of Heaven or that this world can “open the door of Heaven only slightly”.

If there is nothing of the Kingdom in you, you cannot see it. You have nothing in that which is coming unless that has started with you and in you in this world. Have not you read what the Bible says “The Kingdom of God is in you” (Luke 17: 21). Be of Heaven at the present time, or you will not be so in the days to come. Christ has come and will come again.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “باب السماء” – An Nahar – 30.03.2013

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2013, An-Nahar, Articles

Sunday of Orthodoxy / 23.03.2013

Linguistically, the word Orthodoxy does not denote one of the sects of those that are in the Lebanon. It is a Greek word that signifies “the right faith” to those who have embraced Orthodoxy, or the soundness of what they have received from the Fathers. Those who are not sound in their faith would not be the heretics who have diverged from the “right faith”, but they would be the “others”, as we say in Greek also. But those who only use the linguistic term “orthodox” to call themselves with – while they are not – are not called in Greek by what denotes the “Kuffar” (the blasphemers) in Arabic, but we just call them “the others”. So the Christians have perhaps described them, in their ecclesiastical and historical writings, as those who have diverged from the true faith; but in our common church usage of the word, we call them “others”. Perhaps with that there is a respect for those who deny the beliefs which are thought to be sound.

When you describe your faith and the content of your faith as a creed, you mean to say that it is The Creed in the absolute; otherwise, you are considered as unserious in your position. By using that expression “The Creed”, you would be also considering that other contravening positions are ones of error.

My attention is drawn to how in Lebanon people insist, for a nationalistic reason, to secure all people in their doctrines and “their crosses and churches” as the first Muslims did in respecting the freedom of others. And that is an acknowledgement of their right of freedom, that is even the freedom of staying in error; unless we want to consider all those (religious sects), according to the Quranic expression, as all being the people of Abraham based on the understanding of the Quranic verse “You are the best nation produced for mankind.” . (Al Imran: 110). Maybe that position was established on the understanding that if one were a Jew or a Christian or a Muslim, one would not be different from the other since the children of Abraham are all one. Is this thought of equality within the plurality – using a modern expression – a statement of the Quran?

It bothers me when superficial people or those who are stupidly fanatic, object to our saying that: “This is Orthodox and that is “the others”. My Church has this propriety in not calling the “others” heretic. In the Greek, the word “heretic” does not carry in it a connotation of cursing. What is meant by it is “the others”. Of course you imply that those others do not believe in what I believe in; they are “the others”. I have to embrace them in brotherly love; though they are embraced, yet they are not brothers while the “Orhtodox” is what I am according to the saying of some Muslim Sufis: “I am those I love and those I love are I; we are two souls who live in one body”.

Why? Is the above propriety out of place? Cannot I call the others “the others”? Do I have to say we are one and there is no criterion on which our oneness can be acknowledged?

I know that I am one with every human being. And that is love. And we are in disagreement if we say or believe differently. He who undermines the importance of the differences is like saying that the difference is not a difference. And I say to him whom I disagree with that I love him as much as I love him who is one with me in Creed because love is given to him who believes like you and him who differs from you in the faith. In loving, St Paul did not distinguish between him whose belief is like yours and others.

Cannot we understand that we have matured in love so that I do not feel that I have to kill the one who is different? Is it not time yet that I embrace in one embrace, both those who are near and those who are far?  Humanity will remain a group of people who are in disagreement as to their creeds, but are able to love one another because they are the ones who remain in their greatness and in their shame.

Do we express our love to people according to their creeds? Why should I express less love to those of a different creed than mine when in fact I am able to love people the same regardless of their physical appearance, languages and political affiliations? But when Jesus of Nazareth said “love your neighbor as yourself”, He meant to say this: “Here I see you before me and that is enough for me to love you without asking you about your religious convictions; that is enough for me to embrace you since what I am embracing is your Lord who is in you.”

Paul said that dissension is inevitable (1Cor. 11: 18). And so you are together in the love that God has poured down on you in the gratuitousness of His love. Differences among people do not result necessarily because of some mal-intention in us. It is the result of the differences in our intellects and logic; and such difference among us is acceptable since we receive ourselves from the Divine mind.

The religions will not get united. They are expressions and are adorned with more expressions; and such differences in expressions among the different religions will not melt one into the other or one finds its reference in the other. Every doctrine exists in itself and is like an independent entity in people’s minds. And minds remain in disagreement or in difference though they get close to each other at times. If you are not of the same opinion as mine, it is enough for you to love God and thus I will join you there in His love. And that is more important than having all agree on one opinion. But in the Church, the opinion is one since the faith (Creed) is one.

The Church in Her councils sought to have one creed expressing the faith because using the same words ensures having the same content (of the doctrine). Confessing one Creed shows the unity in the faith among those who say it. That is why we are adamant on expressing the faith using the same words thus ensuring the soundness of the faith and doctrine.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “أحد الأرثوذكسية” – An Nahar – 23.03.2013

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Man and Woman in God / 16.03.2013

Why do you fast? Because you are in dire need of God. And in the Christian understanding, because you are hungry for Him as your food, as His Son has said: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger.” (John 6: 34). Is the Quran verse “He has brought down to us a table from heaven that is a feast for our beginning and our end.” (Al Mai’ida:114) The orientalist Massignon saw that the above two quotes are synonymous. This ongoing feasting has been changed by the ascetics to ongoing fasting in which there is abstinence from food since they consider that their food is the remembrance of God. They did not know the distinction, present in Western theology, between the natural and the supernatural. You would be surprised when you read them to find out that they did not accept what is common and they did not consider the extent of their abstinence and the fortitude in it as supernatural or miraculous.

I am always amazed, when I read them, at the fact that they did not focus on human nature and the power it has though they have spoken against exaggeration. But, nowadays, when we consider what they have accomplished, we find it unbelievable. According to the laws of Natural Science they were supposed to die; but they did not die. In our standards they have breached all the principles of Science to the point that drives us to ask: why did they do all what they did? Was that asceticism necessary?

Knowing that all the pagan religions of the East arose from the worship of sex (Aphrodite, Ishtar and Ashtarout), we can understand why our Fathers kept themselves away from that worship and practice and we can understand why the Fathers were so keen on chastity and on being alert as to the ways of the body and the flesh. For instance it was such alertness that made them say that if you do not control greediness for food, it would be hard for you to attain to other virtues. And Freud said that in his psychoanalysis which has nothing to do with religion. Our Fathers have said that all passions work together, one leading to the other before the modern thinkers said that. They knew through their spiritual experience what modern science has discovered. With that experience they spoke of the correlation that is found among the pleasures and they said that when one fights extravagance and indulgence in food, he would be fighting all other enticements of the flesh since all pleasures are interconnected.

I feel offended by the ignorance of those who accuse Christianity of being “against the body” while Christianity only speaks against the wantonness of the flesh and uncontrolled desires. Was not the body first portrayed in Christian art? Was not the trumpet for the medical care of the body blown high in the civilized Christian countries? But the enticement of the body and the flesh has been the common industry of other cultures also other than Christianity. Does not the book “Kitab al Aghani”, collected by Abu Al Faraj Al Isfahani and composed by non-Christian authors , go deep into the “bodily” and the “fleshly”? Is not the least that one can say of the saying that the East is spiritual and the West is erotic that it is untrue and inaccurate?

At that we cannot but say that we did not import that worship of sex from the West. One would find it strange that erotic poetry (Al Ghazal) dominates the literary poetic expression of the Arabs since the Sixth Century A.D., while, during the first Millennium, one finds no trace of it in the literary expression of the Christian peoples. Going back to pagan worship in Phoenicia and Mesopotamia, and to love-making practices in the our East like the marriage among siblings in ancient Egypt, we notice that our people in the East were not as chaste as other peoples were. In literary expression, the ones who innovated erotic poetry were the Hebrews, and after that came the erotic poetry of the Arabs. “And the poets are followed by the debauched” (Al Shua’ara’a 224). Singing the praises of the body started here in the East at a time when Europe was still pure. While there was no censure over the erotic writings of the East a millennium ago, the Catholic Church used to fight against the culture of the theater.

Some of the “fables” invented by the contemporary critics are that the Church has always been against the body. The truth is that the Church is against fornication and adultery and not against the wholesome love that exists between the male and the female. I have never seen a greater “praise” of marriage than that which we see in the marriage celebration in the Christian Church. The matrimonial prayers in our Church is “poetry”. You might want to consider marriage as a contract, but this is the minimal type of a bond between a man and a woman. And you hear read in Church in the wedding that marriage is an icon of what we call the “sacramental bond” (that is the one that exists in the mystery of God) and that mystery is reflected in the coming together of the bride and the bridegroom.

In Cristianity, we do not have a mere contract. Everything in it is a Divine Mystery; that is a covenant between God and Man. And God is the one who initiates the covenant and establishes it. In Christianity, we do not have one aspect of our life that is merely civil or human and another which is only Divine; in Christianity all is divine and human at the same time. All that we have construed as theology is according to the image of the incarnated Lord; and when we say that Man comes from God, we mean to say that he is in the image of what the Christ would be like, that is an incarnated God.

We are not in the image of Christ as the incarnate God, nor are we in His mere human image since that is our image. We are in the image of the incarnated God in that we are apt to receive the Divine eternal grace. In the likeness of Christ, we come from God and we go back to Him but He has taken one body and we are in another. And as He went back to His Father in His resurrected body, we likewise go back to Him first at death and second at the last resurrection. And our death is the beginning of “tasting” the resurrection.

The woman and the man are one, but they are so in the Lord. I do not deny the oneness they have as both being human, but that is not revealed at its depth and breadth unless it is in God. There is no separation in our Church between what is on the natural plane and what is on the supernatural plane. The Lord ties this nature with that which transcends it and elevates it so that it would become the language of God and His tool.

Psychologists speak of the complementarity between the two sexes. Yet if that is not in God the relation between them can turn into one of feuding to the point of complete breakdown. They also speak of a tension between the two sexes. What is important to know here is that the attraction between the sexes is threatened by an enmity between them which often appears in married life.

The natural attraction is not enough in bonding people; there is the desire in one to dominate the other between the two sexes. Natural attraction is the other face of the coin of natural enmity which can develop into murder. The man is not a guarantee for the woman nor is she that for him. That relationship is flavored at the least with good education and at the most with spirituality. The human being is not a machine; he would be one if the Spirit does not move him. The human being is first a natural entity that is a body; but he is called to receive God in him.

Man is the fruit of God through a calling or else nothing in him is. With that he is raised above this earth. And his earthliness is brightened with the Divine splendor when he accepts God’s rearing of him.

Humanity is a term used for man and woman together. And Genesis has identified humanity as both, male and female. The intention of the writer of that book is that humanity is complete with both male and female being together. But the danger in this is that the accomplishment of humanity is in their mere togetherness. Their togetherness should be that of love. And love does not proceed from their nature. Love comes from the heart and not on its own. It is planted there by Divine Love. As such the heart becomes whole because of the Lord who dwells in it.

That was to affirm that man and woman in their togetherness which is according only to nature is lacking. God makes the male human through his love for the female and vice versa. God remains ‘creating’ after the creation has been over with; that is He is always renewing it. We are perennially in the bosom of the Father; otherwise we would die of lack of “warmth”.

Warmth is only in God. Before we truly get to God, all is but a mirage. Nothing in this world can be realized unless we see ourselves as being in the bosom of God.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “الرجل والمرأة في الله” – An Nahar – 16.03.2013

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At The Doors of Lent / 09.03.2013

What do we seek as we knock at the doors of Lent? We abstain from food so that the Lord would feed us His rich mercy; that is, we pray Him for mercy to nourish us. As we walk the course to Pascha, we struggle to believe that we are able to be nourished with the Heavenly Food and to believe that the Lord instills in us hunger for Him. We must desire the Heavenly Food so that God grants us to desire Him. We will not be satiated unless we yearn for the Lord as our nourishment. Is our voluntary abstinence from the food of this world a way to desire “the Bread that comes down from Heaven” which is the Divine food par excellence? The Lord nourishes us with every word that He utters; His word is Himself.

Other than that there is much food that we eat that does not give us salvation “because food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, and the Lord will destroy both”. I think that it is important to believe, as we fast, that all what enters the mouth will be destroyed with our flesh.

There is variety in the ways of fasting among the Christians. They have differences as to the quantity of food eaten and its knids but they all agree that it is essential for the human being that, in his life, he exercises control over his desires so he does not find his identity in them. Christianity, when you obey it, saves you from the harmful desire and puts you in the moderation that builds you up. Fasting in our Church is not a kind of “diet”, but it is the human being as master of the impulses of the flesh and as a journeyer to the Bread of Heaven, that is, to the Word of God from which he receives life and to the Lord in whom the good deeds he does are done.

What is important is that one learns from his fasting that food passes away as the body does. “The Kingdom of God is neither food nor drink”. The totality of our life is important for one to learn that “The Kingdom of God is righteousness and holiness”. What do we learn from abstaining from food? What is important during fasting is what you learn for your salvation. All things in Christianity are an upward progress to God; other than that there is nothing. We need to transcend the “diet mentality” to “dieting from sin” thus protecting ourselves from wrongdoing so we can see God’s face; and if we do not seek and get to that “face” we would have misled ourselves into unrighteousness.

I am surprised at those Christians who question the importance of fasting knowing that they have not experienced it or have been through it. They obey the medical practice when they are told by a doctor to abstain from eating much meat for the betterment of their health, but they do neglect the abstinence which is of benefit for them both health-wise and spirit-wise. And they make a distinction between Jesus’ clear call to fasting and the great order of fasting set by the Church.

To avoid fasting in the pretext that the Lord Jesus did not regulate Lent but only called for fasting as a principle, is a belittling of the existence of the Church which exists because of Christ in that it undertakes the matters of salvation on earth.

The claim that fasting is not binding because the Lord Jesus did not define a method or timing for it is not accepted because the Savior usually gives us the principle and so we build on it; He did not organize the Church with all Her administrative details but left that to the disciples and those who come after them. That is He left that to the period of time that follows His death, His resurrection, Pentecost and the establishment of the Church. The Church is alive and She manages the times with Her wisdom in what brings benefit to the believers; She is not a “law” that is strict and rigid. Jesus gave us His living word and He did not lay systems for us. And what is referred to as an ecclesiastical law is not like the conditional law which is liable to constant change; in the Church, there is that which undergoes change and that which does not. What in the Church is truly Divine is enduring. What is merely of a historical nature can be modified.

There is no life without a form. The question is how to change the form without losing the life contained in it. The intricacy in Ecclesiastical forms makes them have both, the Divine and the temporal, at the same time. And so, do not strike the Divinity of the institution when you bypass something of its temporal history. History and time also carry God in them. What is eternal is linked to what is temporal and so do not modify the temporal in such a way that what is eternal is subdued. From that scope, you cannot modify the ways of fasting in such a way that you temper with the eternal that they contain. That is the wisdom of the Church: that you can reconcile between what is steadfast and what is mutable without having one overcoming the other. So if the Church sees that fasting is one of those immutable elements which, if removed, would cause the passing away of the institution, then you cannot change it unendingly.

Making changes in institutions is a very sensitive matter. Orthodox scholars have studied the matter of change in the system of fasting and decided not to continue in that. In Geneva, I participated in the meetings for the preparation of the Synod which was commissioned to study the modification of some systems in the Orthodox Church. We refused, then, to modify anything in the procedures of fasting. The general sense that prevailed among the conferees, of Bishops and laypeople, was that fasting in its Orthodox form was something that all of them felt good about.

Nothing prevents the situation to change in the present time. And the Church has the right to modify its general systems. And we have done that during the civil war in Lebanon, but the believers kept the fasting procedures as they are in our Church.

Any approach to the matter of fasting and its procedures will not be “healthy” if not accompanied with a spiritual awakening or renewal based on the Divine Book or on Holy Tradition. Discussing the matter of modifying the fasting system should be based on a profound understanding of fasting; so it does not become a discussion of changing the current eating system with a new one, but the discussion and the change should be accompanied with a sweeping spiritual renewal.

Fasting Lent is a yearning for Pascha and for the Light that is profusely poured on us. Approaching that great Light requires abstinence from sin and an onrush to the Divine Brightness which when we put on, we would have overcome the world. Fasting is an endeavor that signifies for us our unconditional plunging in that Brightness which removes all darkness from the folds of the soul and calls it to become a vast enterprise of light.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “أبواب الصوم” – An Nahar – 09.03.2013

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Inner Unity / 02.03.2013

The Arabic word “Istowhadaإستوحد ” (to be alone), linguistically and idiomatically, means to seek unity with God. It is He who grants you your unity with Him. So if you isolate yourself from Him, do not think that you can arrive at such union. Apart from the Lord, you are scattered or dispersed or you are in an inner multiplicity, that is, “inner dispersion”. And you get to that condition because you are afraid to cleave to Him; that cleaving is what makes you united with Him through love.

Love presupposes a duality or better a twosome-ness; yourself and that of another. Twosome-ness, which is a transcending of numerical-ness, is your way to union. The singleness of love makes the two as one in that realm which is invisible and indescribable. Love is the only logic or argument with which you transcend countability (the world of numbers) so that the saying “We are two souls in one body” becomes true. Functionally, the two souls become one soul….. but they yearn for unity. What is important is not the plurality of the two entities after they have united in love; what is important is that functionally you and others can see that you (the two of you) have become one mind in the dynamism of spiritual oneness.

As such we are faced with the question: What is the oneness of God? I thought much about that till I came to the conclusion that the oneness of God is in Himself. And He pours Himself over on us due to His love for Himself and for the creation. It is unacceptable to attribute to Him that His love is creative if love is only a quality He has. His own being has to be love in order for Him to create. The meaning that is challenging is this: the Lord is not qualified with love; He is love. Since for the Creator, love is his Being and for the creature it is the emanation of that Being. That is to say that love is internal and it comes from the soul and the soul is formed through it. Love is not an aggregation of people that come together to seek the same interest. Those would fight together in that association that seems to be the bond that binds them together. Coming together in space and time has nothing to do with love. Love is the binding of hearts belonging to people who might be far from each other. And the greatness of that often leads to unity and to oneness to the point of union. And that is poured by God on the hearts that seek closeness together; and hearts that become so close together have God as their unity.

I started my article with the title “Inner Unity”. People, aggregated together in space and time, are not necessarily united. Unity comes forth from hearts which seek closeness and the greater the closeness the greater the unity obtained. This is a grace that God grants to whom He wants and nothing can overcome it.

When the favor of the Lord is poured down on people, He inflames them with love and they become one despite the multiplicity of their bodies. Unity is not a coalition no matter what its nature is or what its subject matter is; division has always dwelt in the unity of a party, coalition or revolution. When people in their multiplicity yearn for unity, they become of one spirit and plurality and its power disappear. People are not one due to their aggregating together because every association of that sort is temporary since there is no depth in it; and nothing can remain except love. And love is not obtained from the aggregation of people and their coming together, but from the Spirit from Above that descends on them and makes them one.

Organization, any organization, does not make unity of being or unity of communion; it is coercive in its nature because it is imposed. And in recent history, there has not been an organization that did not break down. Any group of people that does not unite having in mind to become the Church or church-like, will have dissension creep in to it.

Political or military groupings function by receiving orders. This is false obedience that is propelled by fear.

This world is not stirred up except by violence, that is by hatred. And the peoples keep on warring whether they are victorious or are overcome since killing was there from the beginning of humanity and it remains the main ruler of this world. Sin is at work everywhere till someone who calls the few to repentance appears. And the societies are constantly torn apart. That’s why King David said: “Save me from blood guiltiness O God of my salvation.” When does Man become aware that he does not have life unless he sits at the table of the Lord? The spiritual few who are chosen are the saved ones and the grace which is received saves those who love it.

And if those attain to serenity by asking for mercy and repentance, the new world that is wrought only by Grace obtains; and it is enlivened by Divine Kindness which is poured on us from the Spirit.

Grace calls us insistently to itself; and when it embraces us we will have a new spirit in each of us and we will head towards a new world that consists of the righteous. But those who are evil destroy themselves and also the world.

God builds the new world with His love for His creation. He does not want to remain by Himself. God reaches out with Himself to those He created to make of them a new world. And if we do not go by that world, we remain “old” and then we rot. And if we beatify ourselves (with God) much, each one of us becomes God’s person, that is, His beloved; yet that presupposes that we renew ourselves on the inside. Man is the inner person. And from there you obtain your splendor, and the “inner life” people become the people of God and build the new world. Appearances have no importance with those people; they seek after the depth of their inner being where God dwells.

The endeavor is that we all get formed by our inner being if God dwells in it. That is what He means when He tells us that we are God’s people the stones of which all are made by God, the one who builds hearts.

The spiritual structure in this world is not made of the materials of this world. And outside the “inner world” there is nothing. Yet your inner world is only that which has been wrought by God. And you build it with those who love God. Those participate with God in building you up. So you are built by God’s hands which are His grace. And God did not end creating on the sixth day. That was merely a signal for the continuity of creation. And that does not refer to what has been created of people and other creatures. That refers to the Lord creating your heart. And hearts, through love for each other, become the “new world”.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “الوحدة الداخلية” – An Nahar – 02.03.2013

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