You cannot perceive what is after Gaza unless you read Israel as exterminating state, saturated with Nazism. The bloods of children, women and the pregnant ones among them, have been an exercise to kill Arabs, an exercise for extermination of whoever stands against the Jewish state, as George Bush has described it. And the apparent meaning of such description implies the desire that no other people, than the Jews, live in this state. This national – religious – racist belief, to the extent of chauvinism, requires the evacuation of the Palestinians, who carry the Israelite nationality or their suppression in order that they immigrate or throw themselves in the Arabian deserts.

The Hamas rockets and their [armed] factions are pretext for the brutal attack on Gaza. This is the old abhorrence toward Hagar and Ismail, since the writing of the book of Genesis. Our struggle is not merely with this hybrid existence, but with the abhorrence it carries, which logically leads to extermination. I do not want here to enter into a clarification of the meaning of “the chosen people”. This has the meaning of free grace, which God has poured upon Abraham and God intended through it the service of consolidation, and not the superiority [of these people]. However, the renegade people contrived superiority, thus they worshiped themselves and assumed the right for extermination, thinking that it is a divine commission. And this is how Hitler has set in the area (of the trigger) of every German soldier the Biblical statement Gott mit uns, which means: God is with us.

Then, the concept has been secularized and big numbers, or most, of the citizens of Israel have distanced themselves from faith. Though, the secularized state remained Jewish, in the social sense. And those who are not Jewish, they do not in reality belong to this entity, which assumes to be the only democratic state in the East.

What do the American governance, and some of Europeans, mean when they say that they want to create two neighboring states on the land of historical Palestine? Thos have desired that Palestinians become ‘prudent’ and they also aimed for an sane Jewish state. However, could Palestine become prudent without its Jerusalem? Does the whole earth mean anything without Jerusalem?

The talk about the two states means the reconciliation between a state which is not constrained by any ideology and another, which is the slave of Zionism. There might be between the two [states] apparent peace, but this is not mutual understanding. This discrepancy reveals an Arab nation, which believes in one humanity, and another Zionist one, whose philosophy denies the belief in one humanity. What does neighborhood between a nation with no army and another, all of which are soldiers wearing the uniform whenever they want as a military community, mean? Two states, with disproportion between them, is a project for war inherent in the intentions of the two parties.

The question which poses itself theoretically is: do we want Israel to survive? Have we been reconciled with this erroneous entity, which is conceived by iniquity and born in sin? We are compelled to legitimize an adulterous birth. Nevertheless, I do not call for an eradication of Israel by weapon. I am afraid this would not be possible in the foreseen future. And most importantly I am afraid that, applying this, we fall in the sin of extermination in which the Jews have fallen in Gaza and before Gaza. I want to safeguard the Jews, but reject the state of Israel. This would be followed by many queries about the power of the Arabs, whenever they unite. And for what purpose do they unite, if they want? And also when and how should Palestinians meet in order to express their opinion about a victory on Israel? Do they think that a rocket from here or there might eliminate the Hebrew existence? Do I agree with Hamas that all of Palestine is an Islamic property?

You cannot abolish a Jewish ideology with an Islamic one. Both aphorisms are the same. I cannot accept that Arabs reject a Jewish state, because it is Jewish, while all their countries, except Lebanon, are Islamic states by their constitution, and one of them necessitates a Muslim president. You should fight Israel with a different persuasion, otherwise it will prevail.

And if we assume that we strike the Jewish arrogance by armed Islam, and as a result we found Islamic united governance in Palestine, where is my place, I, the Arab Christian, on the land of the ‘restored Palestine’? Our struggle against Israel should be then under the heading of Arabism, or Arab consensus.

The case does not close with the tiding of the Arab house in a reduced, hesitant and miserable Palestine. The question is not about erecting this entity, but about the Palestinians’ recognition, or repudiation, of the Jewish state. Whenever the founding of the two states implies diplomatic reciprocity between them, the Palestinian case is over. Israel might continue to exist on the level of fact and not on the juristic level de jure. Not only because we aspire to the union of the whole of historical Palestinian land, but also because we deny the Zionist ideology. We want Jews to be freed from this ideology, which destroys their spiritual reality and intact humanity. We do not reject the Jewish people in the world, because we want them to be saved and because they have throughout the world great intellectual and scientific capabilities. Whoever is an enemy to the Jewish person cannot serve our cause. We seek that they may be freed from ideological antagonism that rejects the other.

With the arrival of Mr. Obama to the American presidency terrible pressure might be exerted on Arabs, so that all acknowledge Israel, accept the exchange of diplomatic missions and normalize the relations with it. Palestinians may be forced to be congested in a small spot of their country with the acceptance of some non-military institutions. I worry that the time of their oppressiveness comes. If they accept this, the rest of Arabs should not recline.

I call for an Arab repudiation, for the persistence of repudiation of the Zionist entity. Military resistance will be demised with the founding of the state and with the Arabs’ consenting, either explicitly or implicitly, to the two states. Military resistance is a facet of repudiation. Repudiation is the norm of our facing Israel politically and intellectually, and this does not contradict the peaceful [existence]. However, the founding of the two states assumes the factions’ acceptance of this. How?

From now the factions should be united and the Palestinian governance should also unite. The intellectuals, academicians, and journalists should subsist in the mindset of repudiation and the spirituality of repudiation, with the hope that the bloodshed in Gaza, and other than Gaza, may stop. This means the withdrawal of the Israelite army entirely from Gaza, and reconstructing it, or initiating in its reconstruction.

This means also the elimination of [the principle of] Zionism from the minds, including the Jewish minds, and also, on the long run, the elimination of the ideology of Israelite entity. Nothing indicates that Israel will remain forever. Few analysts believe that there are elements of disintegration in it, which would abolish cohesion among its citizens. This is not our concern now. Our concern is that Arabs unify. This intellectual resistance conveys to me the new features of an educated Arabism, which accepts the diversity of Arab countries. In their strives, those countries should coil around each other, in [at atmosphere of] modernity comparable to the modernity of the West.

This implies that Arabs should reject terrorism. This is partly responsible for the Islamophobia in the West. Terrorism is a foolish choice, which convinces the westerners about the underdeveloped reality of Arabs. The peacefulness of the Arab soul and its complete renouncing of violence might convince the westerners not only to converse with us and be friendly to us, but also to consider us as partners in world politics. [The role of] Arabs is vital for the universal human coexistence, whenever they abandon violence permanently in their thought and activity.

‘Gaza after Gaza’ is the symbolic statement which indicates the need to carve the Arab peace in a way that whoever wants to shred it would be an unjust criminal. The time has come for our entry into the fully civilized life, which spirit is peace. This alone prohibits the evil ones to kill Arabs and to abolish their good life, which has been since long time safe and has been built upon cultural bestowal and human sharing which generates love.

Translated by Sylvie Avakian-Maamarbashi

Original Text: “ماذا بعد غزة؟” –An Nahar- 24.01.2009

The body carries the splendor of creation. All creation is beautiful revealing the hand of God in bringing it about. Yet the organic nature of the human body reveals God’s mind. The organic connection that exists among the different organs of our body is amazing, something that I gave no importance to in my youth but now I stand in awe before it. One wonders at how food, after it has been digested becomes a part of your hair, your eyes, your chest. How come one can become a Plato or an Einstein when he originally comes from very simple parents? One thinks of the flesh we have on our bodies; we communicate through it at the rational and other levels. It would not have been rational had it not been “reasoned” by someone. So it is in the place of being contemplated by the one who “reasoned” it. Concerning the creation, God says “it is good” in the book of Genesis, but concerning Man It says that God made him in His image and likeness. When God beholds Man, He says: “And God looked at what He made and saw that it was very good”. God was fascinated only with Man, apart from the other creatures, as the only one to dialogue with Him.

This flesh is of the earth despite its charm. And this earthliness overpowers all what the body has to the point of preventing it from the “light” that was there in the beginning. We are of the light as much as we are of the earth, and they (earth and light) play together at times and at others they oppose each other. Based on his flesh (body) Man can see the power of God and His majesty and His tenderness. God’s mysteries will be revealed to us when we turn to Him with all our heart and strength and when we communicate with each other with all our heart and strength; as such you cannot see God unless you see His goodness in His good creatures.

This seeing does not take place among people at the intellectual level but in an organic way when we embrace each other; we become one with the other because we are linked to each other with hidden “golden threads” until the unity of all humans will be revealed when the Kingdom of Heaven shall descend upon us.

Beauty and ugliness are both from God and each is a jargon. The ugly person will not alienate himself if you learn his language, that is if you go beyond what you see and get to view him in God. Man is not in the charm of his face but the charm of his unity with others and in the freedom of the image of God in him. It is a great mystery that your being is so not in yourself and your responsibilities, but in the humane dealing you have with others. To be one with and distinct from others simultaneously puts away the bondage resulting either from being closed on oneself or from being totally dissolved in others. As such we have here a human being who is in unity with himself and with the community at the same time.

The keys of life and death are in God’s hands. All humans are mortal and taste death. The human body is prone to death in its makeup. The body cells do not live forever. And in our understanding, “anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” Romans 6: 7. In that sense, death is mercy; and in the Christian understanding, it is a meeting with the Lord. And everyone is in God’s grip hoping to be resurrected. And death is the first encounter with God in what we call paradise in the hope of beholding the Divine Light in Heaven at the end of time.

At the end of time, the bodies of humans will be called for the Resurrection through the Holy Spirit who by His grace gathers the soul to the body on the last day. In that sense one can say that the body is already resurrected after death even though the dynamism it had has ceased.

The Sanctity of the body prevents us from cremating it. We hope for the continuity between the body and the person it belongs to though such continuity appears to be unfastened. The body is anointed with Chrism after baptism. This is why the cemetery used to be close to the church building where the living feel one, in the hope of the resurrection, with those who have departed. (They all share the same anointing through the Sacrament of Chrismation.)

From this perspective, the Church is not drawn to the idea of separation between the soul and the body, but she draws all to the mercy of God. The corruption that the body goes through is a chance for its encounter with the Lord. There are those who fear death and those who do not. What is important is that one should be ready for his departure from this existence and to get to that of Peace. We promise those who depart from us with prayer and the comfort of what the Scriptures say. And in Europe many institutions have been founded to take care of those who are terminally ill and prepare them for death; I wish there were in every family of the faithful those who are close in taking care of the sick with kind and good words. The priest can carry this mission if he learns what he can say beyond the said and written prayers.

The above mentioned care implies the belief that with death we come to the end of our earthly life and that the body is honorable and that it receives the Sacrament of Unction; that implies that we believe that the human being is one before death and after it dismissing the belief that we are made of a soul that remains and of a material body that disappears. The body in our understanding is an integral part of the human being not inferior to the soul in the reality of this existence and the one to come.

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As I reflect on this divine view of the body, I carry Gaza in my heart. All those who have been killed there are with God. Why do they pluck out the infants? The death of those who fight is justifiable. But how can a people who have the Prophets that called for justice accept the death of women and the elderly who are unarmed? Why this destruction which reminds us of the end of the world? What is the benefit of killing hundreds of the people of Gaza? All these are bodies which injustice and oppression have made into sacrifices at the altar of God.

The issue is not one of reconciliation. What is required is to stop the killing of armless people. And if a truce takes place, then the language of peace would be in effect. The Palestinians should be left in Gaza, the land they love that has been theirs for ages, to build their society around the olive trees, the orange trees and their waters, thus participating with the current civilization of the world.

Stop this “bath” of blood. The people being killed were not of the German nation whose leader burned the Jews in the most brutal ways. Why should the one whose ancestors were victims in Aushwitz transform every town in the Gaza strip to another Aushwitz?

Peace be on those who stand steadfast in Gaza. Our brothers there are called to glo

ry. And may we use all the means we have to realize that glory.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “الجسد” –An Nahar- 17.01.2009

It is an essential query to ask: which Lebanon do we want? However this does not necessarily lead to subdual of wills in order that this renewed political entity might emerge, since the new or the desired Lebanon is a structure. This is to say that the question is asked on the level of structure, and not on the deep spiritual level, in which we hope that people would be grounded, so that the state might emerge from the new or the renewed creation. You say that we want the country free and independent; however, this remains on the level of speech, since the people do not act as seeking freedom and independence. If you express whatever you desire for the country that does not necessarily change your desire into work. To demand orally and through organized struggle does not bring about from the quiver of a magician a genuine homeland.

People, who in their inner essences have become deep and deified, who always transcend in order to set up a house for God on the earth, can make Lebanon. The homeland, then, is formed structurally, molded and envisaged politically in accordance to this spirit. The homeland is to be founded from outside the political framework, from outside the political talk. It foundations are to be raised on spiritual life, which descends upon it from above.

Only politically you can insist that the homeland surpasses denominations. However, the term ‘denomination’ has double meaning. It means for us the dwelling of God in the denomination, while it also means the residence of politicians in it or its being dominated by politics, and then its alteration into a rigid, fatal entity as it recoils within itself and its allies. Denomination in the sense of an rotten corpse, which depraves the national entity, strikes God in Godself. We cannot overreach ourselves and move from a denomination to a homeland, unless with the help of God, who reveals God’s entirety rather than the entirety of the denomination.

Whenever grace dwells in the heart of every Lebanese, regardless to which of the eighteen denomination he/[she] belongs, no offence would fall on him/[her] if he/[she] becomes proud of the history of that group without racial discrimination or factionalism. Nevertheless, it is hoped from us that we believe in the religion of love. This is not another or a different religion, but it is the concentration on the assurance that we live spiritually through the Other, through his/[her] freedom and recognition of our freedom. Yet, we have to opt for that which brings us together rather than for what separates us, and we have to line up together in whatever unites us, so that we do not burden our minds by history’s contraventions and we do not keep its abominations in our hearts. [Only then] the hearts might be in serenity, the vision free and the souls purified.

This means that we should forgive those who did wrong to us in the past, and we should not burden our memory by the misdeeds of the oppressors. We should not consider our partners in existence today as responsible of the consequences of works that have elapsed. The faces that encounter us today might be of great light and the kindhearted ones, whom we have considered our adversaries, might be our nourishment. Yes, we have to read the history in order to learn from it, and I do not call for forgetting it, but for not becoming its captives. And if the history-writers display immense adversaries, let us take off adversary from us so that we might feel that we are conversing in truth, seeking it and walking on its path.

I do not deny the honesty of those researchers and their strive to know everything the Other has, and I do not deny their critique or their reservations. Truth should not be twisted in order to appease the Other. And I do not ask the scholars to unite religions, since this contradicts any serious precise knowledge. Humanity is of diverse inclinations and convictions, and the things are as they seem to them. However, dialogue requires detecting the truth, pushing fantasies away, and seeking kinship. There is no rivalry in this; rather clarity and elucidation, in order that the position of our thought and of the other’s might be known.

Nevertheless, I think that there is contiguity between us and many cognate spots in the mind, yet, there is disagreement between the interpreters because of the imprecise scrutiny of the texts, or because my hermeneutical method disagrees with yours. Here lies the difficulty of dialogue, yet it is not an impossibility.

However, my worry here, in this limited space, is not dialogue but the possible meeting of love in this or that text.  I take, as an application for love, the manner of the bee, which goes to this flower or that, and the sources of honey are known to the beekeepers. Thus, you may, without denying your sources, choose from them whatever inspires love rather than controversy. Though I do not deny for anyone the right to uphold whatever lies in his/[her] books. Nevertheless, I earnestly request him/[her], in my poverty, to search in his/[her] sources for whatever brings him/[her] nearer to me and brings me nearer to him[her].

I do not present to you a new religion, but I ask request from you a new reading, since you have decided to love me and I have decided to love you. Draw out of your tradition whatever supports this love.

Unity originates from your and my faith. It is the unity of the human being and the human being is whatever compassion has descended upon the two faiths. God, who utters through conduct, addresses Godself in me. It is possible that we together reside in God’s address. I do not limit this to the homeland; however, the people of my homeland are nearer to the ‘reasonable manners’ [al-ma῾rūf]. Thus, I shall build my homeland by the language of the deified ones and their pursuit. And deification means to be molded by the dispositions of God and to approach the energies that God supplies me with; these are given in Christianity and Islam.

Then, a community is formed which in its true texture is one.

By this, I do not deny the political pursuit, however political pursuit without the presence of the righteous, truthful and pure ones is nothing. This is so since the governors lead a good society and they do not lead a wicked one, since that which is not subject to God is not also subject to law, to governance or to institutions. This is the minimum level of societal goodness upon which a state might be founded. A state cannot be founded upon elements which have lost its human understanding and sensation. And a society would not be organized only by sociology and the military power. This might drive away the evil that falls under the law of penalties but it does not induce to the good which is based on the obedience of God by love.

I understand well those who aspire to a state of law, which rejects in its nature the state of tribes. And I am aware of the importance of the institutions, in which the good citizen might be enrolled. However, the good citizen is not merely the one who fears retribution; rather it is the one who would live in freedom and decency. Without the evil there would be no law and there would be no state. I know that there is need for suppression, but it should be without antagonizing the offenders themselves.

But if the Lebanese think that whenever they issue a law, and look out for its implementation, this would be enough for a pleasant and good life they are mistaken. We do not rise high through citizens whose goodness is that they do not go to prison. We rise high through people who have had the heaven in their hearts and they seek to convert the deserts of the hearts into gardens [or paradises].

Here is the role of the religion of love, however its parade moves. Thus we have two pursuits: a political, modern pursuit with all [the requirements of] civilization, and a divine pursuit, with noble dispositions and the solicitation of the face of God and the face of the Other. To be trained to see God in the Other and to love his/[her] face, this makes us understand that God is the light of the heavens and the earth, and that God’s Kingdom begins in us and on the earth.

Translated by Sylvie Avakian-Maamarbashi

Original Text: “الانسان الجديد” –An Nahar- 10.01.2009

One way God is viewed is that He is a Judge. Man was commissioned to care for this earth so that its resources will be means of sustenance for him and consequently an offering to God in that all creation is drawn to Him with power and glory. And what is of the earth will put on light on that day so that the Lord will acknowledge that this is His creation. The Creator, as judge, asks His creature to give an account of the nature, degree and infiniteness of the fruitfulness of his working and care of the earth he was entrusted with. That makes Man realize that he is made in the image and likeness of God.

The creation and Man are one. And the question he has to answer for on the last day is “What have you done with yourself and others and the earth I have given you dominion over to serve it so it serves you in return? Have you neglected yourself, your brother and the world causing aridity to prevail in this creation which I was pleased with when I created it?” “And God said ‘Let there be light and there was light; and God saw that the light is good.”(Genesis 1: 3, 4). And that light, in my opinion, is not only material light, but it is the grace of this Brightness on all creation, which when illumined, does bring about the other creatures one finds in Genesis. And what comes down on the creatures is good because it is brought down on them from above; after that you mix that with the earthliness you and the other creatures are of. And Man can “become fire” when he accepts that his createdness is by the Word. In the account of the creation, all what there is came to be by God’s word and after some time the Word came through the prophets whereby you become a stage only for God striving to keep God the only Landlord on that stage. But your striving is acceptable only if it is done with the “weapons of light” since God is the one who would teach you the art of that spiritual war. He teaches you everything and that is what we call Grace. So if you refuse to fight His war you would have given yourself over to the enemy.

You are the one responsible to use the divine armor the Lord has given you in fighting this war; if you hold on to it you save yourself or else you go into nothingness.

And what we call the judgment is the question the Lord has for you then: “Have you used the armor I have given you or have you left the battle leaving the enemy to overcome you? Have you been faithful to what I have delegated to you knowing that I have commissioned only with what you are able to do and I do not ask you to account for more than that? There are those who are more able than you and I have entrusted them with more; and I will ask them for a greater account but that is not your business. Only I can make judgment on that.

And I would judge you because all what is yours is from me. It is I who has entrusted you with them. Abusing them is called unfaithfulness by humans. I hope you do not rely on my compassion without giving consideration for my judgment. But as for how I am able to reconcile between judgment and compassion, this is a matter you have no notion of and will not be revealed to you until it takes place on the last day; if it does.

You cannot tell the angel who leads you for judgment: “Why do you not spare me this stand?”  One person I hold in great esteem once said: “It is fearsome to fall into the hands of the living God”. And God says: “How can you avoid judgment if I have given you light and you get back to me with darkness? How can I consider your darkness light when it is not so? Do you call this tenderness, compassion and forgiveness?  I have spoken to you of forgiveness so that you do not fall into a depression when you are faced with your own brokenness and fragility. I am able to have mercy on you as you live in this world but I do not invade you by force. You are the one who has to call me to yourself; and that is what I call repentance. But your unconcern for yourself makes you put off repentance and that is because you wrongly depend on my forgiveness. You are called to work with me. You need to be flexible in this. Because you are created, I have given you freedom and I would not be a substitute for it. When you taste my love, it will guide you into all the truth; but be careful not to think that I will drag you to it by force because in that there is a violation of your personal freedom which I have instilled in you as an instrument you would make use of in order to meet me. Someone said that I have given you talents which you can make use of. I will ask you about those. If you have not made use of them as diligently as those in the world make good use of their money, you will be denied the greater talents I have prepared for you had you been obedient.”

“I will ask you about every good and evil deed committed, because you are supposed to eradicate the evil that comes from you. Do not tell me that you had circumstances that forced you into sin. Have you forgotten that I have provided better circumstances for you, those of my grace, and that I have loved you with love greater than the one you love yourself with? But you do not know how to love yourself properly; and you have loved sin more than yourself.”  

“Do not think that I gave those I sent my commandments to make life difficult for you. It is not in my nature to inflict suffering on those I love; and I have loved you but you did not understand and I have served you and you did not sense that. Your sin is that you are not aware of me while you have been aware of the fantasies of your mind and the lust of your belly. And you exalt yourself with your beauty; and what you think is beautiful in you is all manmade.”

“When the angels bring you in my presence, I will remind you of the pleasures that you have yielded to, and that you have not yielded to the joy that comes from the virtues that I have told you can make you great. “

“I will tell you that to raise you from the long “coma” that has fallen on you so that you can see yourself as you are, something you do not like to do. I will reveal yourself to you in your deeds, your words and your thoughts because you close your eyes so that you do not see yourself as you are.

On the last day I will show you yourself as you really are. You will probably tremble at that, because one cannot see ugliness and remain alive. I am the God of knowledge (spiritual) and I do not save those who are ignorant. This is why, on the last day, you need to see yourself as I see you (thus receiving knowledge)“.

“And after you see your ugliness and could see a glimpse of light on my face, you would ask me to dispel your ugliness and I do so purifying you with the waters of my final words: ‘l love you because you are my son though you have been quite negligent thus hurting me. I will create anew in you a love for heavenly Beauty. You are now standing naked before me. I will ask my angels to put on you that mantle of Gold which makes you eligible to enter the company of the saints who have pleased me; and I would make you one with them though you did not please me with your life on earth. And when I meet you as I am crossing the heavens, I would see you only as the one dressed with the golden mantle having realized then that it is I who has thrown that on your nakedness”.

“Come now beloved of mine; though I have brought you before me for judgment, yet I pronounce no condemnation on you”.

Translated by Riad Mofarrij

Original Text: “الدينونة” – 6.12.2008

Holiness is our aim. The great things that come with and after the first ‘breeze of Grace’ are all accomplished with much effort. You are the one to desire Grace, receive it and work on its fruitfulness in your life, since you are the ground for it. And this is possible for you because God loves you and you are able to obey Him even to the shedding of blood in case He asks that from you.

When we call someone to holiness he often responds by saying: “What? Do you think I am Christ?” meaning to say that holiness is something exceptional reserved for an elect and especially those who are in monasticism. People think this way maybe because most of those whose holiness has been announced, except those who had been martyred, are monks. Yet we have in our church many saints who are married; among them are kings, soldiers and farmers since the Christian life is not in the quantity of prayers said, but in the purity of heart, and right belief and in humility, forgiveness and love. For righteousness is not the monopoly of the monks and Church ministers; it is a quality of life of domesticating the harmful desires and enkindling those that build one’s self and others. It is in having one’s heart and intention become a living Gospel; so that whenever Christ is revealed in someone through word and behavior, the Gospel message is there written but in human life.

Those who are associated with the Lord and are attached to Him from the beginning of Christianity until now, those are the Church. Those had the Holy Spirit teach them when their priest did not or were at times harmful. Most of those in the Church are like human litter, and only the few who are purified have been reared by God from Heaven. They achieved such purity by applying themselves to practices, though done by others without spirit, understanding and conviction, but by them (the pure) with a loving heart driven by divine strength.

This does not mean that we do not consider others who can be an example for us. We can imitate those in whom we see Christ. There is a tradition in acquiring righteousness which monasticism is founded on; it is that the beginner is raised by a spiritual father (guide) who helps him grow in Christ. The same applies to those who are not in monasticism, but in both situations it is based on repentance and spiritual warfare. Yet not every priest can be a spiritual guide (father). In our liturgical books, the title “spiritual father” is given to the priest, but often this was far from reality in the sense that not every priest can “give you birth” in Christ. Besides, St. Nilus who lived in the wilderness of Soura in Russia says that if you do not find a spiritual guide (father), take the Holy Scriptures as your father because there is enough guidance in it. That implies that you become by God’s grace a “devourer” of His words imbibing them so fully into your being that you become the Word itself.

Thus those who desire holiness flourish in it and wax spiritually either with him who has acquired the heritage of righteousness (i.e. the spiritual guide) or through the word of God directly.

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified” 1Thess.4: 3. These words are for all in the Church, and not only for a few who hold certain positions and responsibilities. God also says in 1Peter 1: 16: “Be holy as I am holy.” That verse does not refer to the Saints the Church has already proclaimed; there are many saints in Heaven who were nor proclaimed so by the Church and there are many saints in this world who are ordinary working people. And holiness is asked of all generations and age groups. And it is not true that the righteous ones come from among the elderly, since holiness is not bound by age and God’s intervention is possible in the hearts of people of all ages according to the degree of one’s obedience to God’s commandments since God desires all people to exert the effort of seeking Him and all people of any age can follow after Purity.

Holiness is not a “dispassion” or in being above human weaknesses and falls, but it is in rising after every fall. But what is important is that one should not yield to his passions and base desires and to believe that the rising of the soul from sin is ever possible. We know that our Holy Fathers suffered many temptations and that the glory they had and the “risings” were not indelible as if taking place in an unbreakable linear sequence; they had their falls and their comebacks or risings. What is important is that the believer knows the grammar of rising and make sure to repent with all his heart and to determine to receive the Lord in his heart after every temptation that befalls him. One is not to make peace with a sin he fell into; he is to hate it with all his heart. Moreover, he has to love intimacy with the Lord and living with Him. “How sweet is coming back to God” someone said. It is important that one finds his joy in Christ and to feel torn inside when he sins. The aim here is that one should seek to be a Paschal Person where there is no place for pleasure with evil and to hate sin in every other person so that we all can exit to the Resurrection since the Resurrection is Freedom.

And where there is freedom there God’s Spirit is; and we become one spirit with Him. Then there is no place for our serfdom to evil. It is not true that Man is primarily inclined to evil. There are those who love the good and overcome the base inclinations in them. There are those who sparkle with the divine love and make it their ongoing baptism no matter how much it costs them to stay righteous. This is so because righteousness is costly and putting it on as a mantle is a great consolation. With holiness, even though our feet touch this earth, but we are really bound to Heaven. And our head reaches its thresholds every day until the day when the Kingdom carries us off with joy that surpasses this world.

The Lord does not prevent us from enjoying appropriately the joys of this world, but He does not want them to have a hold on our hearts. He is adamant to be the sole inhabitant of the human heart. As such we use what is in the world but we do not let the world use us. We master what we have because whoever has God as his Lord is the master of all things. And the spirit of this world is understood to be that of money which Jesus warned us not to worship because God is one and He does not accept partnership with Him. We enjoy marriage, and the wife is a sister and a companion and she also is a partner in the love of the Lord. The enjoyments we have can be used to bring us closer to the Lord. God is the ultimate object of our love; and having a body we are not angels, but we have to seek to be like God and be deified through His grace.

Thus we become one with all the Saints who are in Heaven and on Earth. We have a heart to heart dialogue with them and so our joy is full in them. That is what we call the communion of saints. And the Saints are God’s kin and so we are saved from agony though we are afflicted with sickness and ordeals. And this is the cross without which no one can attain to the resurrection and itself (the cross) is the beginning of the resurrection in this world. Christ is the center of our existence whether we are in good health or in bad health, or whether we are cultured or uncultured. When the heart is illumined with the Holy Spirit, the mind will have peace from God, the peace that dispels complexes, confusion and doubt; with that one has what Paul calls ‘the mind of Christ’.

And with that mind we dismiss every contradictory idea and we understand existence the way God sees it. With that we become of Christ’s flesh and bones and the intimate companions of God. With that understanding according to our Tradition, each or the ‘holy ones’ becomes himself a Christ. The mind then is ‘christened’ and also the heart and we become beings of light, from whom earthliness has been swept away; at the end, we become mere light and God sees us through His light. And on the last day, due to the illumining of people, the material world becomes light as Maximus the Confessor says, and our light meets the light of the world and the whole universe becomes light; there God dwells.

That is the holiness which we know from the Divine books and the Tradition of the Pure. And God insists that we put on the Light as He does. We are grateful to Him for this gift of Light and we cannot be satisfied with anything less because no desire remains in us except for it.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “الكلمة والروح” –An Nahar- 12.3.2011

From the beginning of creation death is inevitable. You surmount any event through hope except this one, though you might be hoping for “the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting”. Whenever you place your head on a pillow, you do not know if you would wake up in the morning or no. Then, you would pray, if you were from the believers. The question that poses itself is that God “gives life and He causes death” as the Book [the Quran: Al-Tawbah 9: 116, or the Old Testament: 1Sam 2: 6] says, in the sense that God is the cause of both departure and survival. We do not find this verse repeated in the New Testament. However, the best that is said in this concern is: “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6: 23). Here, the apostle speaks of death in two senses: the physical and the spiritual deaths. The rest of the verse proves this: “but the free gift of God is eternal life”.

In several Qur’anic verses it is mentioned that the Lord gives life and He causes death. Does this mean that God is the direct cause of the death of every person, or the causality of God is a general saying, in relation to the whole humanity, due to the fact that death is a law? However, what does Sūra 39 [al-zumar], v.42 mean, “God receives the souls at the time of their death”? According to the interpretation of Imām Al-Rāzī, God receives the souls, at the time of their death, means that God takes hold of them and does not return them to the body. Thus, this great commentator does not consider a difference between taking life [i.e., God’s reception of the soul] and death. Here, the commentator has considered the relative pronoun ‘and’ as joining two synonyms, while ‘and’ might have the sense of the option of choice as saying “she has distanced herself, thus, choose for her patience and morning”, i.e. one of them. From this point of view, there is no linguistic reason that prevents [the consideration] of divine reception of the soul as the work of God, while death as a biological event concerning the human being. Nevertheless, I understand that Al-Rāzī could not move away from divine causality.

Evidently, divine address does not treat the contrast between the divine and the biological. And if we cling to the natural law, that does not prevent Christians to maintain that the human being was created to live eternally and that death is a punishment. Thus, nothing invalidates the truth that God has revealed through Paul that “the wages of sin is death”. That is why Orthodox Christians say that the natural law appeared after sin and that God watches over this order. Therefore, from a divine perspective, nothing prevents the death of the body, because of this deficiency, which has entered this chemical laboratory, which is the body.

Yes, because of purposes God has, God prolongs the life of this or that person, improving the biological functions as God wills, and I am completely confident that this improvement in the case of the elderly is a chance to repent. In this sense, God cares about the particulars, since the calling is for eternal life. Yet, to say with the common people that the age of this person or that is written down in eternity, by God, and that God sends the diseases, until the end of time comes, this is what I do not think, as it is affirmed in the Book, in which I believe.

[It is possible to explain death as] a human situation and a divine favor, in order that the human being dies with blessings, contentment, and readiness for departure. This seems to me to be a possible configuration between that which is in heaven and which is on earth.

It is incorrect what most Christians say that God has reconciled us with death, since Paul says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1Corinthians 15: 26) Christ has reconciled us with God through His death, not ours, and the final reconciliation will be accomplished at our rising from the dead, for Christ’s death is life for us. This is the paradox, that the second Adam had to die in order that His life might work in us.

As to why do we escape the physical extinction, through food, sport and medicine? That is because life on this earth is a responsibility and care about those surrounding us, since “every person is a guardian” as Imām Alī Ben Abī Ṭāleb said. The service that we do to ourselves and to others is the fulfillment of this responsibility. It is not prohibited to seek death, but it is impermissible to be disappointed from the difficulties of life. God might want you sick or disabled and broken. That is not of your concern; you need to cure yourself as if you would live eternally, whenever the means of life were available to you. As to surrender to poverty, sickness, and idleness, whenever you could overcome them, that would never be the will of God.

God has granted us life and called us to keep it and preserve it with all the earnestness and the sincerity we have, toward God and the beloved ones, whom we consider seriously.

We are called to contend against death in all possible ways, until we witness that God is alive, and that God’s will is that we live until the time of our departure to God comes. Then, we would recommend our soul to God with contentment, because of our knowledge that God is in control of the world and wants to save us from suffering. The Creator responds to contentment with compassion, since compassion is the only entrance to the Kingdom. There we would meet those whom God has liberated from the oppression of this world and has filled their hearts with divine mercy, and this is the full joy.

If this is the condition of our relationship with God, then, there is no room for wailing. This is so, since our wailing would mean inherently that we opt for the dead person to remain in life, while the truth is that we feel sorry about human love and consolation, i.e., we opt for an unveiled face, rather than a face covered from our sight by compassion.

Natural grieves continue to exist and the Lord does not reject them, and Jesus Himself cried for His friend Lazarus. What is important is that we do not cut our relations with anyone and that we continue the service and we perform the benefactions and the holy recitations until wholeness descends upon us. Wholeness is our connectedness with the one taken from us to the abode of the saints and we truly hope for his/her salvation and the final liberation from the burden of this world. The union between those, whom God has received, and us is peace [that is possible through the bond of wholeness.].

Further, we inherit the virtues of those who have departed us, in the sense that we might perceive those values today, while they were concealed from us [earlier]. Thus, we might be sanctified through the dead ones. There is the remembrance of the virtues that we perform in the worship services. And in these services of remembrance communication takes place, until God brings us together on the Last Day.

Hence, we do not live this remembrance with irritability, but with prayer and imitation of the virtues of those whom God has concealed from the sights. You do not live with those asleep in the Lord unless with the one wholeness, which God has bestowed upon them and us. In this sense, they have not been separated [from us].

Furthermore, there is the cultural aspect, which makes you the inheritor of writers, intellectuals and scientists, whose legacy provides you with whatever they have achieved through their research, poetry, literature and the different sorts of art. From this perspective, you could say that Al-Mutanabbi, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Beethoven and others have not die. Their [own] articulation is present in the Kingdom and the extension of their articulation on earth.

Once, as I was walking with a great friend, who was knowledgeable in music, and he asked me, what remains from the Ninth Symphony? I said, the timbre vanishes, but the essence remains.

These are different features of receiving [God], the Lord, in the world beneath, with the hope of meeting God in heaven. This makes [the acceptance of] death easier and enhances your contiguousness to the dear Lord. And if your soul has become a bride of God, then your soul and the Spirit would say, Come. At that time, the kingdom of death vanishes within you.

Translated by Sylvie Avakian-Maamarbashi

Original Text: “الموت” –An Nahar- 16.08.2008

I do not want to go deeper into the theological controversies, which have divided both the Muslim world and the Christian one, each in itself, concerning the subject of the word. In Christianity, which is historically precedent [to Islam], the major statement is: “In the beginning was the Word” [John 1: 1]. Which beginning was this? There is no doubt, for most commentators, that John the Evangelist as he opened his Book with this statement he pointed to the beginning of the Book of Genesis, which says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” [Gen.1: 1] If John has said that in the beginning of this creation the Word was, then, the Word would be previous to creation, and he supports this interpretation at the end of the first verse, saying: “and the Word was God.” The term [Word] indicates Christ before His descent to the world. And this has remained the used designation until Arius, in the fourth century, said that the Word is the first creature and the mediator between God and the universe. And the Church’s objection to Arius was about his claim concerning the createdness of the Word or the Son. This was – in my perception of the history of heterodoxies – the major heterodoxy which has divided the Church for the following decades, and it has not returned strongly, to my knowledge, unless with the emergence of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in similar terms or meaning.

It is neither my intention nor within my capability to show the debates that took place in Islam concerning the createdness of the Qurʼan, or its uncreated nature as the words of God. In order to identify the eternal nature of the Qurʼan, it should have been settled that the words of God are ancient, since they come from the Eternal Existent, and consequently they are not temporal. Large group of Muslims maintained the necessity of relating the eternal words with the Qurʼanic verbal template, and thus the ‘Knowledge of the Occasions of Revelation’ [ʼasbāb al-nzūl] has emerged which is about the circumstances in the life of the Prophet, nevertheless, [it maintains that] they were in the knowledge of God and thus, it does not abolish the eternity of the divine word.

The eternity of the Qurʼan and the eternity of the Word (or the Son), for the Christians, are two similar issues which the believing mind had to encounter. Those who maintained the eternity of the Word, for the Christians, and the eternity of the Qurʼan, they faced two real questions, which is the same question for the believing mind.

However, the problem is more complicated in Islam, since it is the problem of the relation between the word and the words which revealed to the prophet and are expressed through his voice, and then these words were written or preserved, heard and recorded. The question is: what is the role of the prophet in the embodiment of these words, whether verbally or by reciting them? Was he merely a man who received the words and transmitted them, or the meanings [of the words] were revealed to him and he had to find their verbal expression? All this has raised much inquiry, and schools have varied upon them.

However, as I maintained earlier, this is not my concern in this hasty work. Today, I am not arguing with anyone, yet, I presented the dilemma in order to reach at a human objective, starting from the sayings of the ancient Christian Fathers that the Word incarnated (from the Holy Spirit and Mary) in order that the body (and they mean human existence) becomes a Word. I ignore now the consideration of the eternity of the human image in [the form of] energy, based on the words of those who say that every creature is [originally] a word, which later on took the form of a creature. Both the people of the East and the West have addressed this question. However, for the intricacy of the subject I will not wade into it.

What concerns me is that you might become a divine word, in simpler terms. I want you to imitate God’s word, to become God’s utterance, or a reflection of God in work, speech, intention, and that you might be free from every human word, which derives of human inspiration. In reality, the American translation of the Bible which maintains that the Scripture is inspired by God carries, in my opinion [in Arabic], the adoption of the Islamic word ‘inspired’, ‘inspire’ and its derivatives. However, the Greek term carries the meaning that there is in all the Scripture the whiffs of God. Hence, the problematic is not about a disagreement between Christianity and Islam, since each has a statement concerning God’s relation to the text. In Christianity, the Word of God is Christ, himself, and not a compilation of books; and the Spirit has provided the evangelists, and the prophets before them, by the Spirit’s power in order to write words about Christ, before His incarnation, or after it.

What I want here is to talk about the human relations in the light of the divine power that is within the human being. If your behavior was fully identical to that of God, and to what God has said, you become God’s word, since you reveal God to the people, hence, whoever sees you sees God. In this sense, you are the son of God, and you call God Father not because you have emerged from God’s essence, and in the essence God has no partner. Rather, God’s light has been reflected in you, and there are no two lights in existence. God provides you with God’s light. In this sense, you alone, in creation, are a divine light. Irrational creatures might inspire you about God’s existence, as our Fathers have said; however, they are not the vision [of God]. The light, in ancient physics, is in the eye. And when you behold God you perceive the light. This is the relationship between God and the human being.

Nevertheless, if your soul becomes gloomy and the light of your eyes extinguishes, you would not see God. God, in existence, is independent from you. And if you disobey God you would perceive nothing at all, as it is mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” [Matt. 5: 8] And heaven, as we call this encounter between God and the human being in Christianity, is that the light of the Lord meets the light in the person, so that at the end “God may be all in all” [1Cor. 15: 28], as Paul says. It is not that God’s Being becomes confused with yours, but God’s eternal power intersects yours and embraces it to itself. Heaven is, then, a sea of light, through which all the lovers of God move. This starts here, whenever God dwells in your heart. Hence, the “here” and the “there” do not really differ, though the Hereafter is better for you than the First [life] [cf. Sūrat al-Ḍuḥā 4]. However, in the divine depth, i.e. is in God, God is willing to receive you, and no mark of disgrace will remain upon you, and your sins will not be recalled, and God will not recall them. Heaven is not only the eradication of transgressions, but also the eradication of their memory in God and in you. The demise of sins here is the repentance. However, repentance is about toil and diligence every day and every moment, until there is no trace of sin. And whenever sin is eradicated from you your soul becomes a mirror for those who behold God, and hence, they see themselves in you. Thus, slavery, which is the drift between your light and your Lord’s, vanishes in you. I know that there is a drift between the Creator and the creature, in relation to the essence or the being. And I know that obedience is required. However, in the heavenly junction, which is your heart, the beloved does not call for other than the beloved, and God becomes contiguous to you.

You would experience this whenever you were from the lovers. I do not call you to neglect the word descending upon you from God, through interpretation or through other means. However, I call you to the state of love, in which there is no speech. And in heaven the tongues of angels invalidate the words which have been poured upon us, for a reason of teaching. Reminding is the outcome of knowledge. God does not disappear in the higher Kingdom, however the reminding of God will fade away, since you would not need human words, and the language of the angels is silence.

In the world, there are means of subsistence and means of learning. However, all this remain at the level of mediums. As for love, love is not a medium [or instrument], rather it is the baptism of luminance, after which there is nothing other than its layers. Then, you will live of the blessed face of God, and the vision will grow in your spiritual eyes and God will exceed in brightness, since God is not a rigid picture. The living one does not have a portray. In the world, the living ones are subject to time, which hardens them. God is complete luminosity. God’s light oscillates in God in order to make you alive, and you walk not following this light, since it is within you, in order that you might live forever in an indescribable lucidity.

Translated by Sylvie Avakian-Maamarbashi

Original Text: “النور وأنت” –An Nahar- 10.08.2008

In Orthodox mysticism, freedom from desires is called tranquility, at which the Spirit of the Lord is active and you are a receptive. That is to say that another founds humility within you. When John Climacus, the author of the Ladder of virtues and the great ascetic of the Sinai desert, wrote about tranquility, he said that it is the lack of caprices. He defined this in terms of perfection, which imitates God and the earthly heaven and the resurrection of the soul, before the general resurrection. No word might be said after this word, since whenever you attain such transcendence, you would not need any linguistic expression.

St. John Climacus explains, in the eighth article, that humility lies in the quietness of the soul and its acceptance of offences and favors similarly. Then, he elucidates in describing the contrary vice, which is according to him anger, and as he defines humility by tranquility, he defines anger by perplexity. At the time of insult, you keep silence. This is a first level of goodness. The second level, you get saddened for the one insulting you, and the highest level is when you can think of the hurt that insulting has caused in the insulter, and you cry for his/[her] sin warmly.

Maybe the most important of our virtues is the recognition of the Other. Humility is a Trinitarian virtue, par excellence, since you do not meet the Other as the Other, unless because of your recognition that God has made you because God has made the Other. [To say that] God has made the Other, means that God has made his/[her] character. And you, in your turn, preserve this character, since God wants it in that way. You dwell in tenderness, i.e., in that abandonment of conflict, about which you would not regret unless because of your upheaval.

Anger, and its kinds, is seemingly of dual opposition, while in reality it is of a unity of extermination. As for tenderness, it is your abandoning of your ‘I’, in order that the Other might exist, not in his[her] ‘I’, but before, God who makes him/[her] through God’s grace, on one hand, and the tenderness that grace has poured upon him/[her], on the other.

Tenderness is not merely the recognition of the Other, rather, it is the willingness of the configuration of the Other, since harshness would exterminate him/[her]. Whenever tenderness becomes evangelical humility it refutes violence in the soul. However, it does not imply a promise concerning the inevitable salvation of the Other, since the humble ones are being killed. They are viable to death in a way or another, because they are the messiahs of God. At any rate they are to fall into utter oblivion, since holiness does not write history, it rather writes the Kingdom. The evil ones write the times, until, at the end, God dwells in the Kingdom of humility.

In our daily lives there is nothing like tenderness which unites the generations. You might be complaining about your son, who is crying. Let him cry, and be happy for his growth. Once, a mother complained to me about her baby’s breaking the plates. I said to her, this is how your son grows. Tell your husband to set apart a share of his budget to buy whatever your son breaks. Further, nothing like tenderness unites the couples, who frequently yell [at each other]. Whenever you feel oppressed because of yelling, it would be difficult to return to union, or else, it would be a frail union.

The quick-tempered person would be out of mind, since he creates a world, other than the beautiful world which is the atmosphere of our normal living. This state of being out of mind lies in your living in a world of your creation. And whenever you acquire tranquility, you must pray for that which arouses in you pure prayer, as John Climacus [of the Ladder] maintains. In this way you habituate yourself to have patience, purification of the soul and forgiveness. Thus, pray for those who infuriate you, in order that they might be brought to reason. On this Isaiah said, “this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit” [Is. 66: 2]

Whenever you go to meet a person, who is meek, you know beforehand that he/[she] will not prey upon you, that you are accepted from the very beginning, and that your chance of convincing the person is good, or strong, since the Other will listen to you. If all people were meek, then the whole humanity would be one person, since nothing breaks the human unity other than anger. The call for unity implies unity in purity and trust, since love trusts. The countries write treaties, because they do not trust each other. And because of sin, the debtor writes an official document to the creditor, to be acquired by the court, i.e., by the fear of power. That is because the society needs compulsory arrangements, whenever tenderness is lost. This meditation brings us to another meditation, prescribed for us through Christ’s saying, “learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart”. (Matt. 11: 29) Why is this correlation [between gentleness (or meekness, as in KJ version) and humility]? It seems to me that what brings the two words together is that both tenderness and humility imply the death of the self. Paul’s saying supports this: “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, [he deceives himself.]” (Gal. 6: 3) Humility is that you descend to the underside of existence, or even you consider yourself as non-existing, and that whatever good you have done, it is God who has done it in you and through you. God passes through you in order that you might reach the Other, and you do not reach the Other unless you rub out the ‘I’ within you. On this Paul said, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are”. (1Cor.1: 27-28) The meaning of the last statement, as I understand it, is that God chose whoever has thought of him/[her]self as non-existing, in order that whoever thinks of him/[her]self as existing might be abolished.

You do not exist unless when you rub out yourself before God and before Others. Thus, we read in the Gospel of Luke, “[God] has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree”. (Luke 1: 53) [In this verse] the “mighty” are those who think of themselves that they are so. Those [mighty ones], God removes them from God’s presence, and sees only those who do not think of themselves as great, and hence, they exist before God. In this vein, one of Moldavia’s princes had written, in the fourteenth century, to the crown prince (who was going to rule the emirate): “Do not covet to become a bishop, an abbot or a prince. Do not covet, since all this is the glory of the world.” For the glory of God is within you, i.e. the virtues. The glory of God is the only glory. You do not perceive it, but your Lord reveals it. During our journey to the Kingdom, God abolishes whatever was vain glory. This is so, since darkness (i.e. the vain glory) and light (i.e. the glory of God) do not meet in the contemporary person.

Yes, you should be aware of the grace that has descended upon you, as St. Symeon the New Theologian commands us. However, you should refer this grace to God and know that it passes through you, without you being its originator. You are only a path, in order that you might deliver it to others. The Saint does not acknowledge him/[her]self as a saint, and his/[her] ignorance of that raises him/[her] to the rank of sainthood. This happens to whomever thinks of him/[her]self as a servant, who is entrusted with the grace, while he/[she] is not its owner, since God alone is the owner of existence, and grace is the radiation of God alone.

Tenderness first and then humility, both converge in order that they make together an upright person. This is possible for the poor and the rich, the satisfied and the hungry, for the regular citizen and the one who represents him/[her] in the government. At no human condition tenderness is impossible and with it humility. Sublimity is given only to those upon whom meekness and humility have descended, since they are alone the people of God.

Translated by Sylvie Avakian-Maamarbashi

Original Text: “الوداعة والتواضع” –An Nahar- 26.07.2008

Aging is not the end; it so only apparently. It might be a new beginning or a fresh start. It would be so if we hold that the body is only one constituent of the human being and not all. And so Man has to realize that the vision of Truth and Light is possible at any stage of one’s life. Old age is not supposed to be the stage where one waits for death to come. Being ready for death is a matter we need to look after in every stage of our life.

Each age has its splendor. Youth for instance, is the age of dynamism, ambition and great hopes; yet hope is not confined to youth. And if old age is the time of maturity, it is also the age of forgiveness and magnanimity and the milding of lusts; in old age, what is good hails into our life, like the yielding to Grace and to the capacity to love. And love is God’s name itself, as St. John says, and as such it is a “touching” of Heaven and an invocation to receive its blessings.

When old age sets, there comes with it a great benefit of the long term experiences of life, of which is the purification from all of what hinders Grace to dwell in us. Though one runs the risk of sorrows and life’s heavy difficulties that can burden us heavily, yet the body can rise, or better, be raised by God – according to His will – who renews it with hope as He does to youth.

The different stages of life are not separate from each other; the elderly often “leap ahead”, as youth do,  and have the expectation of many years of life filled with the same goodness of life. In that sense, the goodness of one stage of life does not cease with it but extends into another.  As such Man, like an expanse in time, lives in hope and does not get necessarily discontinued with sickness; while sickness, for him, can be a time of purification, quietness and a new start towards God. And God, in His will, grants us years in this life or He can call us to Himself, for the Heavenly Mansions are full of joy; as it says in Romans 6: 7 “…For he who has died is freed from sin”.

At times, God breaks us in our flesh to chastise us with the ‘breaking’ and to make us transparent by Grace, in such a way that others behold in us that Grace (transparency) rather than the brokenness of the body. And in Heaven such transparency is called “light”; such light is in proximity with the divine light and almost mingles with it; as such the divine light is then of both: God who is its source and those He shines on with His light thus having almost no distinction between the Lord and those who love Him.

Due to that, the elderly like us to love them so that their liveliness increases and so that the youth would seek after the wisdom of the elderly and hold on to it as such the different “ages” are mingled together in creative love making us a united humanity founded on different age-leaps, all having the same nature that of love.

And in case the end of life comes, the elderly who loves the Lord prepares himself to meet Him having faith that a better life awaits him as he moves on to glory. But this is not the end. This is only another race in which the last victory is won.  The elderly does not experience a severance from` the reward awaiting him, for he knows that his heart will be infused with the love of God in such a way that these “bones will be raised on the last day”. The believer is a traveler but not for far because Heaven is not far. Heaven has dwelt in his heart. Heaven has held him in comfort; and at a profound level he moves from himself to that self of his in which a greater presence (God) will dwell renewing it.

There is no discontinuity; if you had been the dwelling of God then God will be your dwelling there. That is if you had been one with your Lord in this world you will remain one with him in His world and one with the community of the saved. And you will dwell there in the good that is beyond description. And if you had been close to the Perfect and had yearned for Him and was filled with Him and taught others to yearn for Him too, then you become whole there and would be perfected.

Life is that yearning for God; and often that yearning grows stronger as we get close to leave this world. And such yearning is life and bliss. And if that fills us then God will answer us and have compassion on us and carries us to Himself before death; we also know that our loved ones who went to Him before us will ask for mercy for us because those who have departed remain one with those who stay on this earth since unity is not a matter of space and time but is in the togetherness of the hearts of those in whom God dwells.

Old age is a grace for those who are in the Spirit of God and those who keep their hearts and minds pure, away from resentments and grudges. Perhaps God’s will is to keep the elderly away from lusts thus they grow not only in age but also in the real rest and peace. And then comes an end which is only a beginning of the perfect quietude which awaits us in Paradise. And if we dwell in it we become renewed by God wiping away all tears from our eyes.

According to many experts in the world, it is preferable for the elderly to remain in their own homes than to be moved to an “old people’s home”. There they are isolated from the affection they need to receive from their family. I know that this demands much care for their health and that in a home where both, husband and wife go to work, no one might remain at home; in this case the “old people’s home” might be the better solution for health care. But there is no doubt that being in the “old people’s home” brings sorrow and a feeling of loneliness. In fact, if it is financially affordable, it is better that one of the spouses would stay at home so the elderly can live in peace and joy. But if moving to an “old people’s home is inevitable, then the elderly should be visited regularly by his family.  Thus it is advisable that he be in a nearby place to make visits easy and regular so that the family can relieve him from the sense of loneliness as much as possible.

So one finds in some countries institutions that help the elderly who have bad health conditions to go on with their lives by being comforted through religious or other means.  Such institutes are necessary everywhere.

It is important that humanity embrace the elderly joyfully. He has not left this life yet and he is eligible to right living not only in physical health, but also in what concerns psychological and spiritual well-being.

The number of the elderly will increase in the years to come and the responsibility is going to be immense. Yet this should be the concern of the whole community. And there might be the need to come out with new means so the elderly do not feel that they are a nuisance to those who are young or that they are a burden on the community.

The elderly are the beloved of God; and this is our basis of dealing with them.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “الشيخوخة” –An Nahar- 07.06.2008

No question is more painful than that about suffering; its causes, its purpose, its nature and its place in Man’s existence. The person suffering can understand his own pain or he might not due to circumstances. Others might watch or explain and all they can give is compassion and affection. But the other cannot be in the shoes of him who suffers physically or morally because he cannot carry the pain of others.

There are some I know who carried several blows for decades; some blows were carried daily and others intermittently. There are some who live with suffering which the medics call an inability, like the bone maladies; and the doctors, in order to pacify him, tell the person that he would carry this pain to the grave. Concerning that Isaiah says: “At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see”. This is accompanied with sorrow; and sorrow can bring one to inner pain and almost to despair. Added to those are worry, anxiety and tension. Such inner chagrins beside the physical ones reveal to us that they are exceptions to Man’s basic criterion of living, that of wholeness and good health. This is so if you consider God’s purpose in the Creation and Man’s condition before sin. But what we have now is that every rational creature is stricken in soul or body or both at one stage of his life or throughout all of his life. One does not live the first wholeness of the creation but the defect that took place realizing that wholeness is only granted on the last day.

As you live on this earth you hope for the good and when you are wounded the loving folk around you help you morally and the doctors help you physically. Before that you are partially or fully defected in body, heart and soul and you do not move on towards good health and wholeness. Such wholeness is foreign to nature. But in Orthodox theology we know that the aim of our spiritual efforts is to reach Hesychia or quietness and peace associated with the freedom from lusts and thus one is freed morally from the impact of pain brought about by the defected body. And those who have reached such freedom are called the Hesychasts. So if you are free from the pressure of pain though you are crucified for it, you get to the first condition of the creation as if you are in Paradise before the fall of Adam or better still, you are in the coming Kingdom from now, or you are a beholder of Jesus Christ. There are those who have been granted salvation in this world; this does not mean that they do not experience temptation after such a transfiguration but when they go back to the transfiguration, they become of the Kingdom anew.

After death, we find Peace since it is not possible to fall after that; and the mercy of God receives us in its folds. But the man of Peace remains on this earth, and also those who have no peace, until the love of God is poured on them profusely. Yes there is that grace of patience and we need to practice it as we discipline our soul so that we do not hurt others by complaining. You cannot tell your trouble except to those who are close to you because they can feel with you even though only the Lord is our healer.

One’s end is not fated in the sense that you do not decide on it. Yes, we all fear death and many know that it is close but in general, no one can determine the time. In that sense death is a mystery that no one can breach. Someone I know had cancer and was told by the doctors that he had only three or four days to live. Fifteen years have gone by and the man is still alive. Did the doctors make a mistake? Did a miracle happen? Would God free man from the laws of nature? What is the law of nature? In my Church we believe that it is the order that God has set after the fall; and according to that law He runs our fallen nature except that He can free one from that law with His love thus carrying him to the condition of man before the fall, that in Paradise. This humanity is a field planted with wheat and tares and God will separate them on the last day. That same admixture is in the human heart also, but it is done away with through true repentance.

The question that often comes on the mouth of the afflicted is “why am I stricken? What have I done to God?” Thus people live their pain as a punishment. But it is not a punishment. And since God does not know hatred, anger and enmity, He does not throw you in the furnace of pain. God does not know revenge.

There is nothing wrong in saying with the Old Testament that God chastises with pain. But then this understanding is something between the afflicted and God and it is not right for you to read the suffering of others as chastisement. That is hatred and revenge on your part. Thus says Ezekiel: “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: “‘the parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? ………….. The one who sins is the one who will die.”Ezek 18: 2, 4.

Does that mean that death has got to human nature because of sin? Here Paul says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. So the Bible says that every man is a sinner called to repentance. We do not know man except in the condition after the fall. We cannot believe that God has created man for death. Some would argue that death is a matter of potassium and mineral compounds and some diseases here and there; but both, the sick and those who are not sick die in similar ways: first their brain dies then the heart dies and so death remains a mystery for all. Actually Paul says that the wages of sin is death in the context of a discussion on holiness. He says in Romans 6: 20-23”When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So Paul’s concern was not to link what is biologically natural in us with sin, but to urge people to freedom from sin in the new life in Christ.

The Christians do not have a philosophy of evil. We only know it as a lack of the good. We do not explain it or expound on it. All what we say is that there is evil and it is bound for death. That is why Jesus went down to the realm of death and remained there three days and trampled down death by his death. And when the Divine Life in Christ entered the realm of death, He placed in that realm of death Life Eternal. Our position therefore is not philosophical but one of spiritual warfare in the sense that when you are Christ’s friend through repentance, He pours down on you His divine power and would raise you from the dead and would forgive your sin. We only affirm that (Rev. 21: 2) “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

The problem of suffering in the Orthodox Church is resolved by that understanding mentioned above; as Christ trampled down death so your death now is trampled down in Ultimate Compassion in the Resurrection. This is why, in the afflictions of soul and body we have in this world, we should have our eyes on the One who has utterly overcome death and is able to overcome it in us; then we become a glorified body as he is; then we are in Christ.

Translated by Riad Moufarrij

Original Text: “الوجع” –An Nahar- 12.04.2008