2012

Paul’s big concern in his epistle to the Galatians was for us to become stable in the freedom that he liberated us with so that we stop being attached to Moses’ Law because we have reached faith. In order to clarify that we have rose through Christ in faith and that we have been justified through Him, the Apostle clarifies that we are saved through obedience for Christ. He also says expressions to indicate that the Jews that rejected Christ are slaves like the city of Jerusalem, and says that Christians – whether they were originally Pagans or Jews – are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.

The main proof for the grace and freedom is the Christian experience of a new life in Christ. He urges all those who were under the Law that was read in synagogues to examine the results of adopting the Law instead of the grace as a road for salvation.

To clarify his position, the apostle interprets Ishmael and Isaac’s situations, the two sons of Abraham. Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, was a slave for Sarah, the mother of Isaac who was the son of the promise. The son of the servant was born according to the flesh. Sarah was ninety years old when she gave birth to Isaac. Here, Paul confirms that this was only possible because of faith. This is what he called “the promise”. Ishmael appeared without a promise, without any specified spiritual purpose and he had no contribution in the history of humanity, whereas Isaac’s offspring gave Christ.

Paul clarifies that Sarah and Hagar represent two covenants, one covenant is from Mount Sinai which is a mount in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem; actually, Mount Sinai, which is known up to this day with that name is found in Arabia lands and not in Egypt. Jerusalem, which didn’t reach the freedom of the Sons of God i.e. which stayed in its Jewish slavery is barren and didn’t give a spiritual birth to anyone i.e. stayed in the Jewish disbelief. However, we, who were born from the free Jerusalem, are the sons of the promise whether we descended from Isaac in flesh or didn’t because, through faith, we are the sons of Abraham. Those who didn’t believe in Christ were born according to the flesh, in the lusts of this world. These people persecute those who were born according to the spirit i.e. in the Holy Spirit through Baptism.

What does Paul conclude from the image of Sinai and that of the free Jerusalem? He means that those who stayed with Christ are the sons of the slave woman and do not inherit with the son of the free woman. Paul goes on after that to say that we are not the sons of the slave woman but of the free woman. We got liberated from the ancient Mosaic Law and became the sons of freedom. “You were called for freedom”; it is the freedom that Christ liberated us with not only from sin but also from the Law and made us the sons of love that became the New Law that we revive through. Therefore, we triumphed over the slavery of sin and of Law and our relationship became a direct one with God through the blood of Christ and His Resurrection.

Therefore, you have been liberated from sin in order to become living in the righteousness that comes to you from the faith in Jesus. This imposes on you the Law of love that is above all other laws. Through love, you would be coming from the depths of Christ and you would be sticking to love and love would be sticking to you as long as you are, through your behavior, a son of God.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الناموس القديم والإيمان” –Raiati 50- 09.12.2012

After finishing his great theological words in his Epistle to the Ephesians, Apostle Paul reaches the behavioral aspect and warns believers from worthless speech. He goes on and says that Christians are a light in the Lord and he stimulates them to “live as children of light”; he also clarifies that this is what they become if they were filled with the Holy Spirit who is the source of every goodness, righteousness and truth.

His advice results in the fact that they should experience what pleases the Lord by leaving the “deeds of darkness”. He also encourages them to expose these deeds in their Christian brothers so that the whole Church becomes beautiful. We tend to hide the deed of darkness. Therefore, Paul encourages believers to show the deeds of light.

After stressing on the light, he quotes an old chant that was used in worship by saying: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”. He concludes from the fact that Christ is the light of the world by calling Christians to live “not as unwise but as wise because the days are evil”.

This was the general advice, to hold on to the wisdom of God (“Be wise as serpents”, as the Lord said). However, in order to live as the Lord wants us to, we must understand His will. His will is to keep his commandments, to take Him as an example and to try to be like Him.

Here, he gives an example of Christian behavior which doesn’t contain everything, but could be used as a standard: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery”. It is meant that getting drunken leads to rejecting chastity and this is what Paul calls “debauchery”. The basis in the issue of alcohol is to be used by man with moderation. In many Christian cultures, it is a normal drink; however, if a person fell in drunkenness he would be violating the commandment. “Drunkards will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (1Corinthians 6: 10). The tranquility of mind, which is absent in a drunkard, is something basic for believers. Gluttony and drunkenness are the same.

As a contrast of Drunkenness, Paul introduces “being filled with the spirit” which requires chastity. If you were filled with the Holy Spirit, you will become able to “speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit”. Here, we conclude that Christian worship (rituals) at Paul’s time, contained chants and not only readings.

Some people – including monks – rejected, since Paul’s time, the usage of tunes in chanting. However, the Church didn’t give this objection over music any importance and confirmed the usage of music in the East and the West (until the 13^th century) without musical instruments. The Eastern Church believed that chanting with the human voice is enough to raise the soul towards God.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الحياة في النُّور” –Raiati 49- 02.12.2012

“Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law”. By “faith”, Paul means the faith in Jesus Christ. For him, this is the perfect faith. Before that, there was the Law, i.e. Moses’ Law. Under this law, we were enclosed while waiting for the faith in Jesus. Here, Paul used metaphorically the image of a “pedagogue” which refers to the servant that used to accompany a child to school. Before the faith in Christ, only this servant (the Law) used to direct us towards Christ.

Now we have become “children of God through faith in Jesus Christ”. Paul gives faith here the image of a cloth that is attached to us i.e. that we have become united with, and he says: “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. There exists nothing else, and this is why there is no difference anymore between a Jew and a Greek (i.e. a Gentile) and between the free and the slave (in Paul’s time, Roman citizens were divided to slaves and free people, and the slave didn’t have any legitimate personality). It is not important whether a man was a slave or free and whether he was a male of a female.

Each one of us (a slave or a free man, a male or a female) stays the same on the legal level. The social or racial differences are removed however, “for you are all one in Christ Jesus”.

Before embracing Christ, we were like kids that are “subject to guardians and trustees and in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world”; i.e. we were away from faith. “But when the set time had fully come (i.e. the time in which God’s plan is fulfilled, the perfect plan), God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law (the Jewish Law), to redeem those under the law”. “Those under the Law” are the Jews; even if it is not only them who were redeemed, but the Word of Salvation was sent to them at the beginning. The purpose of redemption is to gain “adoption to sonship”.

In Apostle Paul’s mind, we were the sons of rage because of sin, i.e. we didn’t recognize that we are sons of God in his plan. The Lord made us sons through Christ’s sonship to the Father and our communion with Christ. We are brothers with Christ; and as the Son is the Son of God in essence, we have also become His sons in grace. Our sonship to the Father is gained while Christ’s sonship to his Father is essential and came before all ages.

Our sonship to God is a divine favor and not a fruit of our effort. However, through grace we can behave as sons knowing that God has made us sons through His love. We do not make our sonship to God. We recognize it and then behave according to it in our obedience to the Lord. We achieve our sonship through our love and obedience to the Lord. We enter the family of the Father and become aware of our belonging to God. We become deified as the Son became a man. Man, through adoption, becomes a son and “sits – with the son – on the right hand of the Father”.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “التبرير بالإيمان” –Raiati 48- 25.11.2012

When Paul said: “Christ is our peace”, he added: “He has made two groups one” and by that he meant the Jews and the Gentiles. Jews used to hate Gentile nations as the Scripture said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matthew 5: 43). They understood that only the Jew is your neighbor while strangers are enemies.

The Apostle clarified that this opinion is no longer valid by saying that the Savior destroyed with his body, i.e. his death, the dividing wall of hostility that separated the Jews and Gentiles. Jesus showed that he created “one humanity out of the two” in Himself. This means that, through his death, he made them “one new humanity” after being disputed and made peace between them through his blood and conciliated them in one body by becoming, through their faith in Jesus, one body with God.

They became united through the Cross because they were together in Christ and not far. You became able to pray together to the Father who is the ultimate of everything. The Holy Spirit – that was sent by the Savior after his Ascension to heaven – unites you.

Then, Paul continues his thoughts by saying: “you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household”. Before your baptism, you were strangers and not members of God’s household; however, now you have become citizens with the saints and one with all believers. The Church has become for you the heavenly home that descended from above.

“You were built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”. By apostles, he refers to the Twelve Disciples and by prophets he refers to the Prophetic Books of the Old Testament that are four Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel) in addition to those who are called the “Minor Prophets” that also wrote books of the Old Testament. He also refers to prophets that didn’t write any books.

By the expression “building”, Paul means the arch that we build in the east which is made of connected stones that have nothing between them such as lime. Those stones are united together through what the apostle calls “the chief cornerstone” and what we call in common Lebanese language “the closing stone”. In such a building, every stone lies on the other and all stones meet in the closing stone.

Paul compares Jesus Christ to this stone because through him all the building is joined together (this is what we do in the eastern building). The building that you have become grows and becomes “a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit”. The expression “a holy temple in the Lord” is interchanged with “a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (i.e. the Holy Spirit that dwells in you)”. We have an invisible temple which is the Church that God made it a dwelling for Him. You are this dwelling through the Holy Spirit that lives in every person through Baptism and Myron.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “هيكل الله” –Raiati 47- 18.11.2012

The expert in the Law wanted to test the Master therefore he asked Him a theological question: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The Lord didn’t answer, but replied with another question: “What is written in the Law?” The man answered: “Love the Lord your God…” This is the first commandment which Luke took from Deuteronomy 6: 5, while the second commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself” was taken from Leviticus 19: 18.

Jesus said to the man that came to test Him: “Do this and you will live”. Then, he asked Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” This wasn’t an easy question for the Jews because they didn’t use to love strangers.

Jesus answered that question with a parable, i.e. a tale, and told him about a Jewish man that was descending from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell and was hit by robbers. They left him “half dead”.

Two other Jews passed on that road; one was a priest and the other a Levite. Levites were named this way since they came from the offspring of Levi the son of Jacob. Their job was to carry the tent wherever they went and set it wherever they stayed. Those two passed by the wounded man and then a Samaritan – who is from a different race and religion – came. The Samaritan took pity on the man that was thrown on the road.

The question was: Who is my neighbor? The Lord didn’t answer. He replied with another question: “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Jesus didn’t indicate the “neighbor” of the wounded man, but asked about who became his neighbor? This means that, through love, you would make any person that you serve a neighbor for you.

If you had an act of mercy towards any person, you would become his neighbor. Jesus returned the question: “Who is my neighbor?” The question became: “Who shall I make my neighbor?” This takes us back to the Lord’s words: “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

By noticing the other, serving him and loving him, you would be making him your neighbor. Do not search for a “neighbor” among your relatives or the sons of your village. No human being is created as a neighbor for you. You make him so if you went to him and offered what he needs.

Jesus’ words mean that you should become a neighbor for every person you meet on the road of your life by taking care of his needs.

Spiritual kin is created between hearts through working for the benefit of the other.

It is above all other physical kin and above every benefit. It is a complete giving without asking for anything in return. You do not expect anything from the person that you love. You love him so that he could become closer to his Lord.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “من قريبي؟” –Raiati 46- 11.11.2012

Believers know that the bishop is the head of the archdiocese which is the local Church and contains all the characteristics of a Catholic (universal) Church. It is holy and apostolic; it is not divided. This united Church under the leadership of the bishop exists in each of our parishes; the archdiocese takes decisions in all places. The bishop takes the decisions everywhere. Being a father, he decides with love and according to the benefit of the local parish; he decides after discussing with the priest and the parish council because love is the bond between us and he who loves, does not oppress.

We have taken great steps together so that parishes don’t take decisions alone. Without any doubt, the Lord’s spirit exists in all places; however, until this moment, we haven’t reached perfection which is the constant consultation between the priest and his council and the bishop so that all our works could be fulfilled with decency and organization as the apostle says.

This means that we should ask for the bishop’s blessing for every work. Starting from construction, every work such as restoration, changing the church’s building, drawing on the walls requires a clear permission from the spiritual authority. Is it acceptable for the bishop to visit a parish and see new things that he hasn’t heard of before?

The canonical existence which is theologically based is that of the archdiocese as a whole, and this archdiocese has a leader. This is the position of the Orthodox Church. We are one, and this unity is based on consultation and agreement and the divine blessing is transmitted to the believers through the person that has received the spiritual leadership. Surely, some of our brothers carry an isolationist disease and a disease of feeling that they are free in their village’s Church. They say that their fathers established it and the believers inherited what they have given to the Church. According to the Gospel, a giver must give freely and not ask for anything for himself or for his children and grandchildren. It is a grace from his Lord to give. It is a blessing for him and the only thing that he should get from us is our thankfulness. However, this doesn’t give him or his family an authority over the Church.

The local Church exists through the efforts of all people. Its members consult each other hoping for a constant work. However, the spiritual leader is who commands the work. We hear such words sometimes: “Church properties are ours. We do whatever we want in our village”. Actually, according to the civil law, those properties are for the whole sect, and the delegate, in front of the state and the law, is the head of the Church.

From the spiritual aspect, the property is only for God. The whole Church, i.e. the Church of the archdiocese, represented by the bishop, is responsible of dealing with these properties.

In addition to that, there are technical things which only specialized people know about. Therefore, the archdiocese is surrounded by experienced people for the benefit of all. If we became brothers or sons, the bishop’s opinion wouldn’t be isolated anymore.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “مقام المطران في الكنيسة” –Raiati 45- 04.11.2012

“I Have Been Crucified with Christ”. This expression refers to Christ who carries in Him all His beloved ones. Another expression has the same meaning and is also used by Paul: “In Christ…” It shows that Lord Jesus has put us in His soul; He put us in Him when He fulfilled our salvation through His death.

It is noteworthy that after this expression, the Apostle says “I have been Crucified therefore I live”. He shows by these words that we have gotten our new lives from Christ’s death; our salvation began on the cross, i.e. we gained the new life.

After saying “I live”, he redressed and said “yet not I, but Christ lives in me”. He based this on the unity that exists between each one of us and Christ. If the Lord filled me with all his graces, He would be the one living in me and His life would be poured on me through the Holy Spirit. He, who loves Christ greatly, would take the love that Christ had towards us. Love always is initiated from Christ, and we respond to it by obeying his commandments.

After that, the apostle says: “The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God”. He wants life in Christ, and the expression “in the body” means “my entire entity”. He doesn’t mean our biological life but the life poured on us from the Divine Spirit. There exists a stronger life that descends on us from above. This life is given by faith because faith is a new life that begins in Baptism and grows through faith and is nurtured by our prayers and the Divine Sacraments. “I live by faith in the Son of God” because as He dwells in me, He gives me faith in Him.

If I believed in the Son of God I would know that he loved me and gave Himself for me. Faith in its reality and depth is to recognize that God loved me. This is the only time in which Paul clarifies that Jesus loved “him” and not “us”. Each believer is given a special love from Jesus. It is very important to know that you are the Lord’s beloved one and to understand this special relationship between you and the Savior. What is Christ’s life in you? Paul clarifies it by saying: “He gave Himself for me”, and this means that He died and then resurrected for my salvation.

Faith in the Son of God gives us eternal life that begins from here as an existential relationship with Christ. Eternal life doesn’t only mean the life that we gain after death; it starts in Baptism and is strengthened through faith. It is called “eternal” because it doesn’t end with death because grace descends on the living and on the dead that are alive in Christ.

Our life in Christ starts through faith and we nurture it through the Divine Word and receiving the Lord’s body and our continuous trust in God. This is the life in Christ who revives every person through it. There is no greater wish for a person than for Christ to live in Him and Him to live in Christ.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “مع المسيح صُلبتُ” –Raiati 44- 28.10.2012

The word “Gospel” that Paul uses refers to the content of his preaching. It surely doesn’t mean the “Four Gospels” because those weren’t written yet. His Gospel is not “from human origin”, i.e. it wasn’t written by a human and it wasn’t taught to Paul by a human. He actually didn’t meet any apostle of the Twelve or any of their followers before starting his teaching.

He clarifies that by saying: “I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it”. This is confirmed in the Book of Acts that speaks about his conversion. “Meanwhile, Saul (i.e. Paul) was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9: 1). Before the Lord’s appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus, He was “extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers”. This Judaic zeal made him go to Damascus and “bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem”.

On the road to Damascus to fulfill his mission, God called him by his grace to “reveal his Son in him so that he might preach him among the Gentiles”. Logically, he was supposed to go to Jerusalem to contact the apostles. However, the important thing for him was his awareness that God “set him apart from his mother’s womb” as he did with ancient prophets, i.e. he made him dedicated for Him, and when Paul knew that, he went into Arabia. The expression “Arabia” that he uses means our part of the Arabic world that is near Damascus; perhaps it means Horan or Petra in Jordan today.

It seems that he didn’t stay for a long time in any location because he was expecting to confront civil authorities that wanted to suppress Christians.

In Arabia (Horan), the ruler was the King of “Al-Anbat” Aretha IV. When Paul feared suppression from Aretha, he went back to Damascus. He says: “after three years, I went back to Damascus”. Was he counting the years starting from the Lord’s appearance to him? Or from his return to Damascus? We cannot answer precisely.

After all these movements, he felt that he must go up to Jerusalem where Peter was living. It is clear that Peter then didn’t leave Palestine yet to preach; he stayed with him for fifteen days.

Why did Paul want to meet Peter and James the Lord’s brother? He wanted to meet Peter because he was the leader of the Twelve and James because he was from the Lord’s family. James is mentioned in Mark 6: 3 and he was important in the Church of Jerusalem and the tradition says that he was the first bishop of Jerusalem. This could mean that James stayed in this position until he was stoned by the Chief Priest (of the Jews).

It is remarkable in this passage that Paul bases his duties and responsibilities on his direct contact with Lord Jesus; i.e. he didn’t get his apostlehood from his teaching authority because the apostolic community didn’t assign him but he was chosen by Lord Jesus.

He bases his entire teaching on this selection, and asks for commitment to this teaching.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “إنجيل بولس” –Raiati 43- 21.10.2012

“A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition you should reject him”. The word heresy in Greek means “to leave the faith and to get a different doctrine”. For example: rejecting the Divinity of Christ or the Holy Trinity or the Resurrection of the Lord from the dead. These were the heresies in the past. In the history of heresies, Arianism (coming from its establisher Arius) is one of the greatest heresies and it states that Christ is only human and not God.

The First Ecumenical Council – Knows as the Nicene Council from the city of Nicaea – rejected this heresy when the meeting was held and a big part of the Faith Creed was composed (I believe in one God…). Seven Ecumenical Councils were held, and among them is the Seventh Council that we are remembering today. These Councils determined our Orthodox faith and poured it in the form of doctrines.

The dogma is the set of doctrines that were clarified in the Seven Councils or were put into words that were explained by our Holy Fathers (St. Athanasius the Great, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great). These dogmas, as they were expressed, in addition to the fathers’ explanations of these dogmas are our faith. Every one of us must preserve this faith. If a person preserved this faith, we would call him an “Orthodox” person, i.e. a person with a straight doctrine; a person whose belief isn’t deviated and who glorifies God righteously in the Divine Service.

We don’t worship the piece of wood or mosaic, but we go through the mind and the heart towards Lord Jesus or the Mother of God or the Saint that is painted. We feel that these saints are present with us in the Church through their spirit and paintings. This is how the Church of earth and the Church of heaven are united. When an icon exists in a house, the person painted on the icon will be present in the house through the Holy Spirit. He overlooks us through the icon and is poured in our hearts if these hearts were obedient to Him.

Through icons, our glorified Lord, the Theotokos and saints live in our houses. Through icons, these houses become residences for the Lord and his beloved ones. The icon protects us if we believed in the person drawn on it. The house that is full of icons is a Church. Walls that carry icons are walls of a Church. The Church is spread into our houses through the saints that live with us.

The icon is a sign that heaven and earth have become united. If you filled your house with icons, you would be showing your Orthodox faith.

The Lord wants this testimony from you. We have the testimony of the word and also the testimony of signs that manifest this word such as icons.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “الشهادة والأيقونة” –Raiati 42- 14.10.2012

Paul invites us not to be stingy in giving and to sow what is good; he calls this process “sowing generously” because in fact it is, through us, a divine giving. He clarifies that the heart is the giver because the divine call that pushes us towards others is what pushes us to give. Those others are our joy and we become complete through them. Therefore he says: “God loves a cheerful giver”.

If we just consider the act of giving our money, we should feel happy because of the console that the receiver gets. We are thankful for those who accept our giving and feel happy towards their joy. When we reach them, we would be getting closer to God and becoming people that are for God.

When we give, graces shall descend on us from God. These graces make you “in all things at all times, having all that you need”. If the grace was poured from above, we would stop being in need of anything because nothing is greater than God’s grace that puts in us joy and revival. If we accepted this grace that comes from above we “will abound in every good work”. Through these words, the apostle confirms that every work cannot be “good” unless it was inspired by God; this would make us aware of our benefits and obedient for God’s will that we know through inspiration.

After these words, apostle Paul wanted to clarify an aspect of this “good work” so he quotes an expression from the Psalms: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever”. Jesus has a special love towards the poor because they have considered that the Lord is their wealth and because those who believe among them taste God instead of food. He who gives the poor would be liberated from considering money as the center of his life. The others would be his axis or center. You taste God in the poor; you see Him in them. How could you meet God in this world if you didn’t meet Him through people? Those who are in need for Him are His visage, and you would be heading towards His visage once you loved them. After that, the apostle goes back to the beginning of this passage and clarifies that “he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed”. He assures that He will “increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness”. The seeds that you sow are His seeds. Everything comes from His graces. If you obeyed Him you would be acknowledging that this is all from His grace. Your will to do what is good cannot be activated unless He gave you His gratification. He descends to you through His love and you would become His sons and would carry His giving and would be given from His giving.

With the divine gifts that descent on you, you would “be enriched in every way”. You will have no more spiritual poverty. If the Lord was in you with all His power, then you have no more space for anyone else or any other need. This pushes you to be generous and not stingy in any aspect of giving. This pure generosity “will result in thanksgiving to God”. If you recognized that everything you do is a gift, you must admit that. Your soul will be full of thanksgiving to God and you would receive a grace from His generous hands.

Translated by Mark Najjar

Original Text: “العطاء” –Raiati 41- 07.10.2012