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Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulchri
Hierosolymitani
Pastoral Letter of His Beatitude
Patriarch Michel Sabbah
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
“the time of my departure has come…
I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”. (2 Tim 4:6.7)
March 1, 2008
INTRODUCTION
To my Brothers Bishops, to the Priests,
To the Men and Women Religious, to the Deacons,
and all the beloved Faithful
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
(1 Cor 1:3)
I am writing this letter to you as I am approaching the end of my patriarchal
ministry and as we approach Easter together. Lent is always an opportunity for
renewal and return to God, and Easter invites us to die in Christ in order to
live again in him. I wish you all a Lent of graces and of new life before God,
for your own good and for the good of all whom you serve. I wish you an Easter
that will make each of you “the new man”, redeemed and reconciled with God and
with human beings.
I am writing you this last pastoral letter in order to give thanks to God and to
express my gratitude towards all of you. In this letter, I would also like to
outline the main characteristics in the life of the believer in this holy land,
in the diocese and in all of society.
On March 19, 2008, I shall reach the age of 75, the age of retirement according
to the Church’s tradition. I am placing my mission into the hands of the Holy
Father, who entrusted me with it 20 years ago, with a feeling of gratitude for
the trust I was given. I thank the Lord for all the graces that he granted me
during the whole time of my ministry as patriarch and as priest. With Saint
Paul, I can say that “the time of my departure has come… I have finished the race, I have kept the
faith” (2 Tim 4:6.7), even though my race is not yet entirely finished and
the end remains in God’s time. By retiring, I am freed of the administrative
responsibilities, but I shall continue my prayer and my journey in God’s mystery
in this holy land. I shall continue to accompany the sufferings and the hopes of
the men and women of this land, of all the believers, of all religions, who
dwell in it.
I thank the Lord for every human person whom I have encountered during this
time, those from this Holy Land and those who came from many Churches throughout
the world. Because the Church of Jerusalem is the Mother Church, because she is
small and faces many difficulties, and because she is always on the Cross, the
number of messages of solidarity, as well as pilgrims from all the Churches,
were countless, and first of all from the Church of Rome and the Holy Father,
who in many circumstances expressed his love, his solidarity, and his steadfast
positions, where this land, its Churches and its two peoples are concerned. The
pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II in the year 2000 was the crowning of the
Catholic Churches’ presence among us. We hope that the next pilgrimage of H.H.
Pope Benedict XVI will renew hope in this land and will give the Churches, all
the believers of all religions, as well as the political leaders in this land, a
new vision of forgiveness, justice, reconciliation, and peace. There were also
many delegations and ecumenical pilgrimages from various countries, and at their
head the World Council of Churches. They came to be informed as regards our
news, to listen to us, and by means of their faith and love, to strengthen our
faith.
Since 1998, with the approval of the Holy See, an annual meeting during the
month of January brought together the Presidents of the world’s Bishops
Conferences or their representatives, who came to pray and to reflect in
Jerusalem, together with the whole Church of Jerusalem, on all the aspects of
our Church’s life, its pastoral, political and social life. Today, I want to
express my gratitude to all.
I
A Look at my Patriarchal Ministry
Gratitude
1. I thank all the men and women who gave themselves in the
service of the diocese, first of all the Apostolic Delegates and Nuncios who
represented the Holy Father, my Coadjutor Bishop, the Auxiliary Bishops and
General Vicars in Jerusalem, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, for the Hebrew-speaking
Community, and in Cyprus. I thank all the priests and the employees who gave me
their direct help in the various curial offices. I thank the parish priests,
each one of them for his fidelity and his devotedness towards his parish.
Together, we endeavored to work in the Lord’s vineyard which the Church
entrusted to us.
I especially thank the group of priests from the Patriarchate and the various
religious congregations who for 20 years remained faithful to the meetings of
the theological commission, in accompanying the events of public life in this
land by their prayer and their reflection, and who contributed towards defining
the Church’s position here, above all as regards the conflict between Israelis
and Palestinians, which does not cease to mark the life of the diocese in
Israel, Palestine and Jordan. With that commission, I could write my pastoral
letters. I thank them and ask God to reward them.
I greet all the faithful in all parts of the diocese. I thank them for their
prayer and their love during the time of my ministry. For all I implore the
Lord’s abundant graces. I greet the Hebrew-speaking community. I accompany it
with my prayers and I wish it growth in the faith God wants for it, so that it
might be a witness to Jesus in the Israeli society and that, with the whole
Church of the Holy Land in the political conflict that is tearing it apart, it
might be an agent of reconciliation based on forgiveness, justice, peace and
equality among all.
At the Service of the universal Church
2. I thank all the men and women who, in the Church of
Jerusalem and in its name, were able to fulfill the ministry owed to the
universal church: the Biblical Institutes, the centers for continuing formation,
as well as the seminaries which, alongside of our own patriarchal diocesan
seminary, formed priests here for the universal and the local Church.
Welcoming the pilgrims from the Churches of the world is also an important
ministry, which a large number of religious houses fulfill. This ministry needs
to be developed so that the pilgrimage might be at one and the same time a way
of sanctification for the pilgrim when he or she comes into contact with the
divine mystery that the Holy Places conserve, and also a time when the pilgrim
becomes aware of the human presence in this country, of every religion, and
above all of the presence and life of the Christian community that surrounds the
holy places with its living faith.
The Custody of the Holy Land
3. From among the religious orders and congregations present,
that of the Custody of the Holy Land has been here the longest and is the most
meritorious. By their prayer and their daily witness, the Franciscan religious
have remained in this land since the 13th century. They served the Holy Places
and welcomed the pilgrims throughout the centuries. In 1342, the Holy See
formally entrusted them with this task. From the beginning, they have served the
local population, created parishes and opened schools that exist to this day. We
can only thank them and acknowledge the good they have done for men and women of
every religion in this land in the shrines, in the parish churches, in the
schools, and in their social work. In that area too, along with the immensely
good things that exist, there is a need for renewal, for better insertion in the
diocese, and for a dialogue that remains to be carried out with the diocese in
order to be better “incarnated” in the Church of God which they serve.
The Men and Women Religious
4. I thank all the religious, men and women. Their presence in
our diocese fulfills an important role. Some are directly involved in the
parishes, in pastoral activity, in the schools or in social work. Others, by
their vocation, are at the service of the universal Church, as was already said:
in Jerusalem’s world famous Biblical Institutes, in the centers for ongoing
formation, and in welcoming and accompanying pilgrims coming from all the
Churches. However, with the universal vocation of all of these institutions,
part of their spiritual and intellectual wealth has a local aspect and benefits
all the dioceses of the Church of Jerusalem.
The contemplative monasteries for men or women are a blessing for the dioceses
and for the country. They are high places of prayer. They must become more and
more places of formation to prayer, a prayer that deepens and strengthens the
faith of the faithful and teaches them to serve their society better and to be
more faithful to it.
The Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem
5. I thank the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of
Jerusalem, the Grand Master, the Governor General and all the Lieutenants whom I
have known during these past twenty years, for their love and support of the
Patriarchate, of its clergy and of all its works and its faithful. Pope Pius IX
wanted to renew the Order when the Jerusalem Patriarchate was re-established, so
that it might give spiritual and material support to the new diocese. In 1848,
he entrusted its re-organization to the first Patriarch, Joseph Valerga. Since
then, from generation to generation until this day, the Order has never ceased
to fulfill its mission for the Patriarchate. I thank all the members and those
responsible for the Order, and I implore God’s grace and blessing upon them.
Pastoral Life
6. The pastoral work in our diocese is marked above all by the
Holy Places and the Gospel that was revealed and written here. Our catechesis is
at one and the same time a continuation and a daily rediscovery of the gospel.
We have the grace of living around the holy places and of being permanent
pilgrims here. Helping people every day to rediscover the gospel that we have
received and to fashion our life according to the teachings of Jesus, that is
the evangelization carried out by the priests, the religious, men and women, in
this land. It is true that in our land and our parishes, everyone believes. All
the Christians know Jesus Christ. But not all know his gospel well enough or
feel the need to meditate it and to penetrate their life with it. The parish
priests and the religious, men and women, have the obligation to guide the
Christians along this way so as to transform their daily life into a living
gospel.
During this past period, the diocese’s pastoral life was marked above all by the
Synod of the Catholic Churches in the Holy Land, which began in 1993 and ended
in the year 2000 with the visit of Pope John Paul II. It was an endeavor towards
a new beginning in the Church that was animated above all by the faith, the
vision and breath of Mgr. Rafiq Khoury, who was and is still responsible for the
pastoral work and catechesis in the diocese. It was not an isolated endeavor but
happened rather in collaboration with all the Catholic Churches in the Holy
Land. It didn’t bear all the fruit it could have borne, but something new did
come about in our dioceses. A common pastoral plan was its fruit, and a Catholic
Pastoral Committee including the various rites was created, made up of 72
persons, priests, men and women religious and lay faithful who represented all
of our Latin, Melkite, Maronite, Syrian, Armenian and Chaldean dioceses in the
three countries Palestine, Israel and Jordan. They have the task of studying the
ways in which the common pastoral plan could be lived in our various dioceses.
We must also note two important facts that came to light with the synod. The
first are the committed lay people who, together with the clergy, are able to
take on responsibility in the Church; and the second is the new spirit of
communion between the Churches together with the desire to continue working
together as Church. That is why, in addition to the common Pastoral Plan and the
pastoral committee made up of people from the different rites, a presbyteral
council, from the various rites, was set up, and we have begun to have an annual
spiritual retreat that includes all the rites for all the priests in our
dioceses; every year, it takes place during the first week of July.
Simultaneously with the Synod, the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy
Land was created. It strengthened the spirit of communion and collaboration
among us.
Among the initiatives that also gave new life to the diocese, we must mention
the catechetical commissions that were organized with greater efficiency in
Jerusalem and Amman. In addition to the liturgical books that had already been
published in the diocese, the liturgical commission printed an Arab translation
of the daily missal and the breviary. As for Amman, Jordan, special mention must
be made of the Regina Pacis Center, set up by Mgr. Selim Sayegh for
people with special needs. Around this service, an important Muslim-Christian
life dialogue developed in the various cities of Jordan. It is also a center for
young people and for spiritual retreats as well as various sessions. Another
project is in the process of developing in Jordan: a Catholic university of
which the cornerstone will be laid soon, I hope. Of course there were many other
pastoral initiatives taken by the parish priests and the bishops, which God
supported and will support with his grace.
At the regional level, the CELRA (Conférence des Evêques Latins dans les Régions Arabes)
[Conference of Latin Bishops in the Arab Regions], founded already in 1965
immediately after the Second Vatican Council, continued its work. A new
collaboration began with the Council of Catholic Patriarchs in the Orient (CPCO),
which in 1991 began to hold an annual meeting, and which has already written
nine pastoral letters to the faithful on the main themes concerning Christian
life in itself and the relations of Christians with religions and States.
Ecumenical Life
7. Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples. He foresaw the
difficulty of the mission he was entrusting to them. That is why he prayed: “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may
be one, as we are one.” (Jn 17:11) A prayer that always accompanies us and
that remains a commandment given to the Churches, to the bishops and to the
faithful, “so that they may be one as we are one”. A prayer that
expresses his will. To be one as he and the Father are one, is an imperative and
theologal obligation. That is why, even if our jurisdictions prevent us from
uniting, our love for one another can merit us the grace of communicating in
truth and through it of becoming a sign and a source of unity for the peoples of
the Holy Land.
In Jerusalem, we are 13 different and separate Churches. There were frequent,
almost monthly meetings with the Patriarchs and the Bishops of the various
Churches of Jerusalem, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, and through these
more fraternity and mutual help developed between our communities. In the year
2000, we could live a moment of unity by launching the beginning of the 3rd
millennium together on Nativity Square; this was accom-panied by an ecumenical
pastoral letter signed by the 13 heads of the Churches of Jerusalem. Among the
many documents signed by all of us, and in addition to the common messages sent
to our faithful and to the world at Easter and Christmas, the two documents on
the status of Jerusalem should also be mentioned; the first was in November 1993
and the second in September 2006.
The goal of our meetings and our common declarations was to act for the good of
all the Christians of every rite, above all in the areas of peace and justice,
in the difficult circumstances of the conflict that everyone is living. Here, I
would like to express my gratitude and my friendship to all my brother
Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches of Jerusalem for their friendship and their
collaboration during the whole time we spent together since the beginning of my
patriarchate.
At the level of the Christian Churches, in 1990 the Catholic Churches in the
region became members of the Council of Churches in the Middle East, which never
ceases to create a place of fraternity, of encounter and of collaboration among
all the heads of Churches in the Middle East and through them, among the 15
million Arab Christians in the region.
Together with the World Council of Churches, the whole Church of Jerusalem with
its 13 communities, developed a particular link and a fruitful collaboration in
the area of justice and peace in the Holy Land and in the region. It first
succeeded in setting up the Accompaniment Program, with volunteers coming from
all the Churches of the world to collaborate with the Israelis and the
Palestinians in the conflict, and to accompany the Palestinians in
places of confrontation and where their freedom was limited. Secondly, it helped
to create a permanent bureau in Jerusalem for the development of
ecumenical relations between the Christian communities.
The Holy Land’s universal Vocation
8. The Holy Land is a land with a universal vocation. God
wanted it thus, since he wanted to manifest himself here not only to one people,
but to the whole of humankind. Still today, this land certainly belongs to all
its inhabitants, but also to the whole of humankind. This is true at the
political level for the two peoples who live in it, Israelis and Palestinians,
and for all the believers, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Druzes. But this is
also true of the pastoral activity of all our patriarchal diocese, which I
served over the past years. The pastoral activity and the prayer of the parish
priest, the religious, man and woman, and the lay person do not stop at the
parish boundaries; rather, each person must always have in mind the whole
diocese, the whole country with all its inhabitants, and the whole world, which
the Lord wanted to save in our land.
II
The Christian Vocation in the Holy Land
The small Number
9. The Christians are few in number in this Holy Land
and in the Church of Jerusalem. That is not only the result of historical or
social circumstances. This reality is linked directly to the mystery of Jesus in
this land. 2000 years ago, Jesus came here and with his apostles, his disciples
and the small number of faithful who believed in him, he also remained few in
number. Today, 2000 years later, Jesus remains in the same situation of “not
being recognized” in his land; and Jerusalem, the city of redemption and the
source of peace for the world, remains a city that has not yet welcomed
redemption and that has not yet found its peace. And in this situation, the
Christians are a small number of witnesses to Jesus in his land.
To be small in this land is simply to live as Jesus lived here. That does not
mean having a diminished life on the margins or a life made up of fear and
perplexity. We know why we are small, and we know what place we should occupy in
our society and in the world. We are part of the mystery of Jesus and we remain
with him on Calvary, strong and supported by the hope and the joy of the
Resurrection, which are to be lived and shared with all. Jesus told us that the
mustard seed is small, but it grows and becomes a tree, and “the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches”
(Mt 13:31-32).
To be small, Jerusalem being the city of redemption and of peace for the world,
not for itself – this is what determines the vocation of every Christian in this
Holy Land: a vocation to be a witness, a vocation to a difficult life, today
because of the political conflict, and tomorrow because the Christian’s life
will remain a permanent battle in order to be good salt, useful leaven, a light
in society and a redemption that is fulfilled day by day in the mystery of God.
Every society counts on the number of its citizens, its soldiers, and on the
quantity of its weapons. We Christians, with or without numbers, count first of
all on the faith of each one of us. Jesus says: with faith you can move
mountains. The State says: with technology, with a quantity of weapons and of
men, it can submit the earth, open roads and level mountains, but it remains
incapable of finding peace. As for us, we keep meditating on the word of Jesus:
“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for
you.” (Mt 17:20-21) That is why, while respecting all the useful human
means, we try to strengthen and increase our faith in Him in whom we have
believed.
The small number of Christians must be compensated first of all by faith, and
secondly by the formation that makes each Christian necessary in constructing or
reconstructing his and her country; and finally by each Christian becoming aware
of his and her responsibility in society and the need for him and her to share
all the sacrifices required to construct or reconstruct. This Christian
formation is a responsibility of the whole community, not only of those who are
the leaders in the Church, for in a community of believers, each person is
concerned about each person.
In addition to the formal institutions of formation in the Church – the various
institutions for teaching, for religious education, the various apostolic
movements for formation and the many lay organizations of a social nature – some
faithful, clergy or lay people, have begun to pay particular attention to this
formation, which makes the Christian capable of assuming his and her
responsibilities in society, in spite of the small numbers. Here, the important
work done in this area by the University of Bethlehem in general, and in the
department for religious studies in particular, must be mentioned. Along with
the university, we should mention various other centers: the Sabeel center,
which analyzes and gives a Christian vision of the present political situation,
the Al-Liqa’ center for interfaith dialogue, the Laity Committee, which invites
lay people to become aware of their responsibility as Christians in public life,
the group of young people known as Wusul, which has set itself the goal of
establishing a link by electronic means among the Arab Christians scattered
throughout the world, the Sunday lay catechetical group in Jordan, and the HCEF,
Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, of which the first goal at the time
of its foundation was to gather together the emigrants and by their thought,
their activity and their means to make them present in the land of the Lord, so
that they might remain witnesses to Jesus in his land, in spite of the
distances, and that they might contribute to the construction of their
homelands.
Christians in Society
10. A Christian must accept himself as Christian. What does
that mean? It means to accept the whole gospel of Jesus Christ, the Eternal,
Incarnate Word of God, and to live one’s daily life, whether it be easy or
difficult, in the light of this mystery, which the society to which we are sent
considers to be impossible.
To be a Christian means simply to know one’s faith, one’s holy books, one’s
tradition and the Church’s teaching; it is to know in whom and in what one
believes. It is to know and to live Christian morality; it is to pray, it is to
live the life of the sacraments, above all the Eucharist, and to take care that
those prayers and that sacramental life be not only formal acts and nothing but
appearances, that they not even be moments of prayer that isolate the Christian
from society, but rather to know that those prayers and the life of the
sacraments are a source of energy that is always renewed, that “sends” the
Christian into society to serve it together with those who are there, whatever
their religion might be.
With all that, to be a Christian means to bring a vision of faith to all events.
It is to see God’s providence and God’s solicitude for all and to remember the
Word of Jesus: “Not a hair of your head will perish without the permission of your Father who is
in heaven.” (cf. Lk 21:18) In the light of this vision that unites God and
human beings, the Christian defines his or her positions both as service and
love and as a claim for rights. A vision that will give the Christian the wisdom
and courage to act in the face of difficulties and of the various forms of
oppression coming from human beings. The Christian will not become discouraged,
but will persevere in resisting every form of oppression and violence, and in
every activity in whatever area to which God has called him or her.
To be a Christian is to live the commandment of love in the midst of one’s own
community, but also with all human beings. To love is first of all to see the
face of God in every human person, no matter what his or her religion or
nationality might be, no matter how good or bad the feelings that person bears
towards me or towards others. For he or she is the creation of the one and only
God. That person is the child of God. He or she carries within him- or herself
the glory of God. His and her dignity comes from the dignity of God. That is why
love transforms every action with human beings into an action with God, the
Creator of all.
That is also why Jesus said: love everyone and do not exclude anyone, not even
the enemy. For he did not tell us: love friendship and the friend. On the
contrary, where this is concerned he said: “If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?”
(Mt 5:46) He also did not say: love the evil in the enemy or the oppression that
he is imposing on you. Rather, he said: love God in every human person, for that
person is God’s creature. It is God whom we love in the friend or the enemy.
When we love, we are imitating God in his love for all his creatures. That love
strengthens our fidelity to our love of the friend and gives us the strength to
face the evil in the enemy and even the strength to end it. Such a love is
stronger than violence or any other material means to which the victim has
recourse, so that it can drive back the hostility and end the oppression that is
exerted over him or her.
As a result of this, love also means to forgive. To forgive is to purify one’s
heart of bitterness, of hatred and of the fire of revenge; it does not
necessarily mean to abandon one’s rights, especially when these concern the
rights of the community, such as freedom, land and sovereignty. These are
matters over which the individual does not have the right to decide, for first
of all, these rights are a gift of God which we must preserve, and secondly, we
have these are rights of all community, and the believer does not betray his or
her community when the latter demands its legitimate rights. On the contrary,
the believer acts together with the community in order to support it in the
defense of its rights or in the necessary effort to regain these.
Finally, love is sharing and communion. In our faith communities up until now,
we have been acquainted with charity in the form of alms or even of generous
donations. This form is good, but we must go beyond it so that charity becomes
sharing and communion. That means that each person in a community of believers
is concerned with each person as with his or her own family. That is why the
community endeavors to procure for each of its members a life that frees him or
her from every need, a life that is dignified at the spiritual and the material
level, following the example of the Christians of the first Church in Jerusalem
as it is described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:42-46; 4:32-34).
In order to remain, to grow and to act here in this Holy Land, as in all the
countries of the Middle East, the Christians must accept themselves as such,
that is to say, as believing Christians and not solely as a community that is
different from the others or as a separate social group because it is a
religious group that is different from the others. And naturally, the
Christian’s vocation does not consist in entering into battle with society or in
becoming resigned in the face of the injustices or the various forms of
oppression. On the other hand, the Christian is not allowed to place him- or
herself at the margin of society saying: “The country no longer belongs to me,
others look after it and bear responsibility for it.” An authentic Christian
knows that he or she is part of society and that he or she has to face the
challenges and to bear responsibility for it together with all the members of
society.
The Christian who takes part in public life is also not allowed to put his or
her faith aside, to become empty of the spiritual energies that God has given
him and her as a Christian, claiming to fulfill his or her obligations in the
public, economic and social domain more freely. That became apparent during
certain periods in the history of the Arab world, during which the Arab
Christians made a very important contribution and during which some abandoned
their Christian values or even their faith. Still today, that partial or total
abandonment has not ceased to be visible among some, with the pretext of
avoiding fanaticism and of not arousing religious sensitivities unnecessarily.
It is certainly not asked of Christians that they transform their faith into
fanatical and provocative attitudes. But the Christian is called to enrich
society with the gifts and sources of spiritual energy that he or she has
received. Society itself demands this of the Christian; otherwise, why does the
Christian remain different, if his and her different faith brings nothing new to
society?
A Land of the status quo
11. We are in a country of the status quo, which is
to say: “Everything remains today and will remain tomorrow as it was in the
past.” That law was adopted before the Crimean War in an Ottoman firman
of 1852. It was then ratified in two international congresses in 1855 and 1878
in order to govern the situations of conflict in certain Christian holy places.
The status quo determined that each would own and use everything that
they had owned and used on the day the international convention was signed. A
useful instrument, but it has also at times remained a source of quarrels. The
worst is that this law, which was applicable to places, was extended to the
minds and persons and with time, it stamped them with a certain fixedness that
makes every renewal difficult. Hence the tensions in relations between persons
or communities because of a mental fixedness that was created in some as a
consequence of the Status Quo law.
In our Holy Land, we sometimes have the impression that we are living with one
part buried underground in the past and with only a part that emerges above the
ground and lives in the present. This paralyzes the vision and activity of the
Church and the community of believers and creates tensions. The roots are the
past. And the roots, which remain underground, must give new flowers and fruits.
A deed and a renewal are necessary at the level of mentalities, of dialogue and
of relations between the various dioceses and Churches with their multiple
institutions. All must believe and let themselves be guided by the vision of St.
John in the Book of Revelation: “See, I am making all things new.” (Rev
21:5)
Denominational Communities
12. In the Holy Land, the small Christian community is divided
not only by the theological differences, but also between denominational
communities. Originally, these were born around a particular liturgical
tradition as the expression of their own way of receiving, meditating and
celebrating the gospel message in a particular historical and cultural context.
Fundamentally, this diversity of liturgical and spiritual traditions is a wealth
for the Church, since they complete one another and thus allow for a richer
expression of the inexhaustible mystery of God revealed in Christ. But as a
result of complex historical circumstances, these liturgical communities were
gradually transformed into denominational and at times even ethnic communities.
The leaders of these communities were held to be responsible for the loyalty of
their faithful towards the political authorities, and the Christians referred to
the national context by way of their communities and not as individual citizens.
From communities of faith or of liturgy, they became communities of service and
of interests, and they played an important role not only in the religious
identity but also the social and national identity of their members. Instead of
opening people up to one another and supporting one another, these communities
often closed in upon themselves in order to safeguard their own interests. In
some places and for some people, lay people or members of the clergy, the
community thus became an element of separation and a barrier between believers.
Sometimes even competition or rivalry became installed. Each community wants to
appear larger and stronger than the other, wants to have a more beautiful
church, a larger school, etc. And the other Christian who is faithful in another
community no longer has all of his or her place as a brother or sister and as a
Christian in our prayer, our attention, or our activity; he or she becomes a
stranger to us.
On the other hand, since we are few in number and we have to face many huge
challenges, in today’s reality, solidarity and collaboration are required from
all of us. The lay Christians often feel this need more and they urge their
religious leaders towards greater unity. It is together that we are great or
small. No one can become great without the other or at the other’s expense. In
our relations with one another as different Churches or denominational
communities, we should follow this principle: “On the one hand, fidelity to
ourselves, to our own rite, to the Church in which God has given us the grace of
baptism, and on the other, love for all the brothers and sisters who belong to a
different rite and are outside of our denominational community, but who belong
to the large family of God.” The attitude of the Christian from every community
and every denomination, is to love with a love as great as that of God. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no
longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal
3:27-28)
The Synod of the Catholic Churches in the Holy Land helped us to create a new
spirit of solidarity and of collaboration among our Churches, but this effort
must be continued. We must educate our Christians in such a way as to make them
understand their vocation towards everyone, whether they be from their own
community or from a different one. They must discover that the Church is first,
that the denominational community comes after. They must understand that the
Church of God keeps its doors open to welcome the prayer of all Christians and
in order to send them all out once again to all of society, to every believer in
the whole Church and to every human person in every religion.
The sects or the new Christian movements are part of our Christian life and of
our political reality. From the Christian point of view, these groups sow
confusion in the faith of our faithful, they exploit their material and
spiritual poverty, and they increase our divisions yet more. From the political
point of view, whether in Israel or in the Arab countries, they have a political
vision that supports with supposedly biblical and religious arguments not only
the political fact of the State of Israel, but also the injustice committed
towards the Palestinian people. This is another reminder to the Christians that
they become more aware of the wealth and the demands of their faith, and to the
pastors that they respond better to the religious thirst of their faithful, in
particular by them being more present among their faithful and with the help of
better biblical formation.
Christians in the Conflict
13. In our society, there is armed conflict due to the
Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the Israeli demand for
security and recognition. Like all the inhabitants of this land, Palestinians
and Israelis, the Christians, both Palestinian and Israeli, are involved in this
conflict. They cannot remain spectators for any reason whatsoever while the
others pay the price for the freedom that must be regained and accept the
sacrifices required by that. To remain a spectator means to place oneself on the
margin, becoming strangers to the men and women of one’s people, which is not
the vocation of Christians. Like all the Palestinians, we are victims of the
occupation. Like all the Palestinians, we have to pay the price in order to
again find our political and economic freedom as well as in some ways, our
religious freedom where access to the Holy Places and to Jerusalem itself is
concerned. To find freedom again, to pay the price and to resist, all that is
certainly an obligation, but we also believe in the commandment to love, and
thus in a resistance that enters into the logic of Christian love. A non-violent
resistance, but one that is capable of leading the two peoples to enjoy in equal
ways their freedom, their sovereignty, and their security.
In our land, the conflict seems interminable and not allowing for any solution.
In this conflict, in addition to what we said above, the Christian vision is the
following: here, it is our land and it belongs to two peoples. But it is first
of all the land of God. The history that human beings make here with blood and
hatred or with dialogue and collaboration is made knowingly or unknowingly under
the watchful eyes of God, the master of history, who gave this land a particular
sanctity. Here, everyone has to do with the mystery of God. Our holy places tell
us that. Our Holy Places indeed are one of the major reasons for the conflict;
here, believers of the three religions refer to God. We pray in our Holy Places.
But at the same time, they remain places of conflict, of death and of hatred…
And that is contrary to the nature and the vocation of the whole Holy Land. In a
land belonging to God, only the ways of God will lead to a resolution of the
conflict. Human violence, whether it be done by the one who is stronger or by
the one who is weaker, is not the normal or effective way to reach peace. Peace
in the land of God will be a gift of God. By their sincere adherence to faith in
God and the coherence of their behavior with their faith in a Creator God who
loves all his creatures, the believers from the two peoples and the three
religions must prepare God’s hour in this land, in which God will re-establish
peace.
All must live together as brothers and sisters, children of the same land, and
even more, children and creatures of God. But for that, all must consider one
another to be equal, with the same rights and obligations. No one is superior to
the other, no one is inferior and submitted to the other. Until now, that is not
the vision; nevertheless, the strong ones in this land and also those who are
resisting, who believe in force, must come to it. In addition, in order to
resist, to obtain justice and to make peace, the victim must not let himself or
herself be transformed into an oppressor or a terrorist.
Emigration
14. Today, the Christians are emigrating from the Holy Land
and from all the countries of the Middle East. They are not alone in emigrating.
The Muslims and the Jews are also emigrating, and the reason is the same for
everyone: the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, which causes
political, economic and social instability in all the countries of the region.
In some countries, in Lebanon and Iraq, it has caused tragedies that have gone
beyond the sufferings and trials in the Holy Land. People emigrate in order to
find tranquility and to ensure their future and that of their children. We for
our part invite our faithful to accept their vocation of being Christians here
in the Holy Land and not somewhere else in the world. Without giving them
illusory ideas, we tell them that we do not promise them an easy life, but
rather a difficult life, today as well as tomorrow. Some, though a limited
number, have begun to become aware of this. They accept their vocation and
accept to remain and to sacrifice the benefits they could find by emigrating. In
any case, no matter how many emigrate and no matter how small our numbers are,
some among us will always remain here to witness to Jesus in his land throughout
all developments of history.
But we also have to draw attention to the following fact : the Christians here
and in the Middle East are the first victims of world political plans that
ignore or give the impression of ignoring the Christians because there are only
a few of them and their small number has not yet been compensated by a source of
material or spiritual energy that forces the great of this world to take them
into account. When the Christians are mentioned in the world press, it is to say
that they are squashed between two large majorities, the Jews and the Muslims,
and that they are subject to Muslim persecution. And in saying this, the media
express a feeling of pity and compassion towards us, and they forget the true
oppression of which we are victims because of the policies implemented in this
region. But for us, stopping the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – something
possible and not something impossible, as people would like to make one believe
– is what would allow us to live in peace and to remain in the country. That is
also true of Lebanon and Iraq.
Christians and Muslims
15. Just as every Christian all over the world normally belongs
to his or her people and country, the Christians in the Arab countries and in
Palestine and Israel also belong to their country and their people. Where the
Arab Christians in Israel are concerned, we have already defined the elements
making up their identity: they are Arabs, they are Christians, and they are in
the State of Israel. In view of these three elements, they have decided
themselves what positions to take in their daily life.
Like every other citizen, the Christians are citizens in the same way. They have
the same rights and the same obligations. The Constitutions of the countries in
the Middle East recognize this. Relations with the civil and religious
authorities are good. At the level of the people there is also a good secular
coexistence, good neighborly relations and good collaboration in various areas:
studies, culture, business, politics, etc… Two areas are closed: dogma and
family; and when these are touched upon, the situation becomes explosive. The
structures for mediation then come into action so as to return to calm.
Interfaith dialogue does not deal with dogma. Its subject is social themes with
the aim of fostering better coexistence and better collaboration. Naturally,
there are incidents between individuals, and sometimes they take on a community
dimension that opposes Muslims and Christians. In such cases, the governments
are watchful and take the necessary measures, as do the traditional structures
of mediation, in order to re-establish reconciliation. But it should also be
said that relations between Muslims and Christians have not yet reached their
perfect equilibrium. This is a matter of a long and slow path that must be
perfected every day.
With the appearance of extremist religious move-ments, a need is being felt for
common action among Muslims and Christians so as to be able to face together the
religious extremist changes in character that can threaten all of society.
The religious political movements in Islam see the solution for all problems in
the strict implementation of Islam as a religion and as a system of political
and social life in all of society, both as regards Muslims and non-Muslims. In
the face of this tendency, the Christian position is the following: first of
all, to unite with the Muslims themselves, as was said above, in order to face
together an extremism that threatens both Muslims and Christians. Secondly, if
one day these religious movements succeed in imposing themselves onto society, a
margin of dialogue would remain also with them. And if the dialogue proves to be
useless, there remains only one thing for the Christian to do: not to give him-
or herself up to fear, but to demand his and her rights as a citizen and to
proclaim his and her Christian faith as a believer. At the same time, the
Christian must prepare him- and herself to witness to his and her faith, either
by the reality of submitting to a daily life that is difficult or even by
sacrificing his or her life. An era of martyrdom that would again begin for the
Christians, like during the first centuries of the Church under the Roman
Empire, would purify life in all of society. It would strengthen the believers
in their faith and would again give a new face to all of society.
But we must also ask ourselves why these extremist religious movements are
beginning and growing. First of all, among some people the need to live an
authentic religious life can be noted. Secondly, these tendencies contain a
series of reactions to various situations: a reaction to human situations of
inequality, of poverty and of injustice within Arab and Muslim societies; a
reaction to an invasion by “the West” into Arab and Muslim societies at the
level of values and of morality through the means of social communication; a
reaction to the interference by “the West” at the political level; and finally,
a reaction to the imbalance in relations among peoples. All this in addition to
the open conflicts in Israel, Palestine and Iraq.
With all their complexity and their threat to the Muslim as well as the
non-Muslim and to the world, these religious tendencies will end up by imposing
themselves, if the policies within the Arab countries do not succeed in creating
more just and secure societies, and if Islam does not succeed in renewing itself
from within so as to respond to the religious need of the believers and to
prevent the extremists from transforming religion into fanaticism and a source
of violence, and if world politics do not end the various ways in which peoples
are colonized.
Christians and Jews in the Holy Land
16. In spite of the current conflict, in spite of the
daily death and hatred, there is also a more human reality of dialogue and of
contacts between persons at various political and religious levels. Many
initiatives happen at the local and international level with meetings of young
people, Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Jewish Israelis within the school
context. Many associations of dialogue between Jews and Christians also exist in
the country. At the Patriarchate, there is a diocesan commission for Judaism,
which opened doors for dialogue and contacts. The aim of the commission is to
listen and to understand Judaism and the Jews through the witness of Jews from
various sectors of Israeli society. The emphasis is also placed on coexistence
and on the attitudes to have when faced with the country’s basic reality, the
conflict, the occupation and the insecurity. The theological realities in
connection with the conflict are also studied so as to begin local dialogue
between people of the place, Palestinian Christians and Jewish Israelis, in
order to reflect and share as believers on the realities lived on the same land,
Palestine or Israel. In the universal Catholic Church’s dialogue with Judaism at
the Council for Christian Unity, some Palestinian members of the local Church
have also been called upon to take part.
Demands of Dialogue
17. The local interfaith dialogue that began with frequent
contacts between Muslims, Jews and Christians, ended with the creation during
these years of the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land, in which
the three religions are represented at the highest level. A dialogue that drew
the attention of political leaders and that created a new reality in the Holy
Land: religious leaders from the three religions met for the first time in
history and reflected together on the peace that must be brought about. In this
dialogue, the dimension of the believer and of his or her relationship with God
is highlighted, and we want to reflect together as believers who are present
before the same God. The common values are also highlighted: those that are
simply human, diversity and the ability for reconciliation, and the religious
values, going beyond oneself in mutual acceptance and respect because we are all
equally God’s creatures, in the practice of justice and building peace.
However, there is still a religious immaturity in our societies of a religious
nature where the acceptance and respect of the other are concerned. Until now,
not all the Christians, not all the Muslims, and not all the Jews have learned
to live together and to make life together acceptable and tranquil There are
always elements of extremism or ignorance that carry with them the negative
things of the past and that do not cease to be a source of distrust, of
suspicion and of fear, and thus of aggressiveness against their fellow citizens
who have a different religion.
There is already a dialogue between the leaders or the members of the elite. It
is useful and consists in a long road that still has to be gone. But what we
need at the same time is new education for the young generations. If we want to
bring society to peace and to remove partial or total tensions from it, the
educational system must change and that in all the places of education: the
home, the school, the places of worship and the media. An explicit and clear
call should make itself heard, a call to acknowledge the other and to
collaborate with him and her. The new generations in all the religions must hear
it said: the other who belongs to a different religion is not the enemy or the
stranger. He or she is a brother, a sister, whom we must love and with whom we
must collaborate and build society. Even the extremism that is nourished on the
one hand, by past ignorance and on the other, by present injustices or fears,
can find part of the awaited remedy in such a new system of education.
Towards the Future
To my Priests
18. I thank all of you, dear priests, for your love and your
prayers. God will reward your zeal, which is great. May God accompany us with
his grace in our seminary, which has faithfully continued its journey and its
mission from its founding in 1848 until today. With God’s help, we shall
continue to have regular vocations, first of all from Jordan, in second place
from Palestine, and finally from Israel. I thank the teams of priests who
accepted the sacrifice of accompanying the seminarians and of living in the
seminary with them.
To my priests I say, always keep the zeal that you have had until now. Today, it
is possible to say of each one of you: “You know your sheep and your sheep know
you.” (cf. Jn 10) That is a big grace for you and for the whole diocese.
However, conditions in society, among the parishioners and priests, are changing
greatly, and a distance is beginning to exist between the parish priests and the
parishioners. In order to remain at the same level of knowledge and of service,
which is still lived until today, always have in mind the essence of the
priest’s mission: to know Jesus Christ and to make him known. The priest of the
Patriarchate is called to be the pastor of a parish. The first task of the
pastor of a parish is to be a catechist in the school, in the homily, in the
visits to the families, in the various pastoral activities, and in every other
circumstance.
In every parish, whether it be large or small, keep your freedom and your
availability to know Jesus Christ and to make him known. Do not hesitate to
accept or even to choose the most difficult place. Then God’s grace will be more
abundant. Maintain your freedom as regards places and persons. Let nothing, no
person, nor money, nor friendships, nor building projects, nor even a pastoral
project become a tie that puts an obstacle to your freedom and prevents you from
going where you are sent. For the work that has been entrusted to you is not
yours. It is God’s work: “My Father is still working, and I also am working”,
Jesus said (Jn 5:17), and we are part of that work of God in our diocese. Work
and say with the Gospel: “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”
(Lk 17:10) You are God’s instrument there where you are sent, and when you are
asked to interrupt a work that is not finished, leave it where it is. God will
know how to finish the work that was begun by him in you. In contrast, when you
insist on remaining by your own will, you risk no longer being sent and no
longer doing God’s work, but simply your own activity. The great danger for the
consecrated people who are sent into the Lord’s vineyard is to transform God’s
work into personal work. That is when the difficulties, the rivalries or the
disobedience begin, and that is when God’s grace ceases.
The buildings of stone, the pastoral centers, the schools, the churches, the
parish halls – we need all that. But that too must not become an obstacle and
make us lose sight of the goal for which we are building. The condition for
building is not only the necessary money, but the ability to continue to have
moments of silence before God, moments of intercession for the faithful, and the
necessary time for catechesis. You as well, pray and intercede for the people,
like Moses at Mount Nebo that rises up in the midst of our parishes.
We have built a lot out of stones. However, the faithful, who distinguish well
between the parish priest who prays and the one who does not pray, sometimes
deceive the parish priest, making him believe that the buildings of stone are
the criterion for his success.
The parish priest is there for the people and not the opposite. The people are
not there to serve us. We are sent to serve them. Jesus said: “I am among you as one who serves.”
(Lk 22:27) Whence the necessity to welcome all the faithful at every level and
from every class. All of them, no matter what their position in society, their
possessions or their knowledge, no matter whether they are present or absent in
the life of the parish, no matter what their spiritual or material needs might
be, all of them, even if some are heavy or a disturbance, all of them are the
object of our mission and of our love. And the poor among them – of all kinds of
poverty, whether material or spiritual – has priority. We are sent to all of
them in order to help them to see God.
There might be situations in which we can meet persons with whom every activity
seems useless. Any change in mentality or in the person seems to be impossible.
For God nothing is impossible. Nor for the believer. We must begin, and God’s
grace will complete the work, and the goodness of the people themselves, which
was given them by God, can surprise us at times and go beyond our human
expectations. Today we sow, and tomorrow another will harvest. If we do not sow
today, there will never be a harvest. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
(1 Cor 3:6)
For a short time, an awakening of regionalist feelings could be felt among the
priests. I hope that spirit has truly disappeared now never to reappear. For
nothing must divide the priests who work in the same vineyard of the Lord and
who offer the same Eucharist every morning. I hope that some kinds of human
behavior will not succeed in corrupting the mission entrusted by God, so that
the Church might remain alive through its priests and might grow through their
faith, their prayer and their catechesis. “Brothers, all of you be in agreement and let there be no divisions among you,
but be united in the same mind and the same thinking.” (1 Cor 1:10)
Accept your vocation seriously, renew daily the acceptance you expressed one day
in the past. Renew daily your acceptance of the difficult choice that consists
in giving your life every day and that, through boredom or trials, can become a
daily death. The goal of the moments of silence before the Lord is precisely to
renew and to support that acceptance of the difficult choice. Whence the
importance of giving sufficient time in your life to the divine presence, so as
to gather anew the courage and so as to be able to read God’s will in all the
events of your personal or public life. For God’s Providence is vigilant, and
everything that God allows to happen in our life is a word that he is speaking
to us. Finally, we must be conscious of the fact that the life or death of
several people, men or women, depends on our acceptance or refusal of our
vocation or of the way we live it. Jesus said: “I came that they may have life.”
(Jn 10:10) And the priests are sent to be givers of life.
The Future
19. The future of the priests depends on the fear and reverence
they keep towards the sacred things with which they deal every day. The future
of the Christians depends on what their parish priests give them.
We, the Patriarchate, have worked now for almost one and a half centuries.
Through the Lord’s grace, the fruit is certainly plentiful. But an effort must
still be made in order to give more abundant life. Families must be formed to
live following the example of the first Church of Jerusalem (Acts 2:43-47),
united through prayer, the teaching of the Apostles, the Eucharist, and the
sharing of goods. Means must also be found to live the commandment of love in
all its aspects, in private and in public life: love that is forgiveness, love
that is acceptance of the other who is different, from every religion and every
nationality; and as for the sharing of goods, as was already said, we must be
able to go beyond the stage of alms and to attain to ways of sharing that are
based both on the demands of faith and on the necessary economic foundations.
The faithful must be “sent” to society without them lacking in their faith, as
has at times been done until today, but rather, we “send” the faithful with
strength and enlightened by faith. We at times educated people with a spiritual
formation that kept the faithful exclusively within the church or in the parish
context. We did not try to send him or her into society. The prayer in church
(the Eucharist, the Mass, the rosary, the way of the cross, the processions and
every other devotion) must become a sending out from the place of worship, a
sending towards all of society, where people are seeking God, so as to become
leaven, salt and light there.
In our society, there is a conflict and there are two peoples and three
religions, and all our countries are suffering from political instability. Every
believer and every man and woman of good will, and their parish priests and the
men and women religious must first of all act constantly so as to end this, and
they must make this an object of their prayer and their teaching.
The dialogue between religions brings people closer together. But care must be
taken so that this is not transformed into an accommodating attitude or even
into abdication or fear of stating one’s identity or of facing reality, whether
it be easy or difficult. The believer’s true fidelity consists in loving all of
his or her society, the two peoples and the believers from all the religions as
well as the unbelievers if they make themselves known. Our catechesis has to
give a clear and explicit opening in this sense. The other is not the enemy. He
or she is not the stranger. He or she is God’s creature, the son and daughter of
God. Before God, no one is an enemy, no one is a stranger. When we speak to
Muslims and Jews, it is normal that we ask them to have the same vision. But
even if we do not encounter the desired reciprocity, we remain believers in
Jesus Christ, and we behave as such: we see in each person a son and a daughter
of God, the object of God’s love and of our love.
CONCLUSION
I am coming to the end of my mission as Patriarch of Jerusalem for the Latins
and shall soon pass it on to my successor, Mgr. Fouad Twal. I ask God to grant
him every grace and blessing so that he might continue to carry the mission of
this venerable Patriarchate. Once again I thank the Lord and all whom he has
placed on my path in order to serve them or to receive a grace through them. I
shall continue to live in Jerusalem. As has been the case until now, the demands
of my daily life will still be in the context of the Latin Patriarchate of
Jerusalem. Personally, I came to the Patriarchate without any money; I end my
mandate without any money. I do not have any bank accounts. I owe no one
anything. Nor does anyone owe me anything. The Patriarchate as institution
always had a deficit in its accounts. But God blessed the deficit, the poverty,
and he will continue to accompany the Patriarchate in its material needs that
are necessary to carry out its spiritual mission. For all this, I thank the
Lord, and I ask everyone to accompany me with their prayers. I entrust myself to
the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And for everyone I ask the blessing
of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one and only God. Amen.
+ Michel Sabbah, Patriarch
Jerusalem, March 1, 2008
Gran
Magistero dell'O.E.S.S.G.(c)
00120 - Città del Vaticano
Tel. 39 - 06 - 6877347
Fax 39 - 06 - 6877632
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