MELKITE - GREEK
CATHOLIC PATRIARCHATE

Emmanuel – God with us
                                                  

Gregorios, by the grace of God,
Patriarch of Antioch and of All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem:
May divine grace and apostolic blessing rest on and embrace
my brothers, their eminences the bishops, members of the Holy Synod
and all the faithful of our Melkite Greek Catholic Church, clergy and laity.
 

Emmanuel, God with us, is the name by which God revealed himself to the Prophet Isaiah, saying, “A virgin shall conceive and give birth to a child and shall call his name Emmanuel – God with us.” (Isaiah 7:14) And when the angel appeared to Joseph in the dream, he said to him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary, your wife. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son: you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21.) John, the disciple of Jesus and his beloved Apostle, who leaned on his breast and uniquely experienced him as Master and Lord, calls him by a name which surpasses all others and which unites in him all names, “God is Love.” (I John 4:8)

The Three Names

So are gathered three names for him who said of himself, “I am he who is.” The name that is found in the halo surrounding the icon of Jesus Christ is, written in Greek letters ‘o ών’, he who is, the Creator, the Pantocrator, who is in an intimate relationship with his creation, with the universe, with nature, with all creation because he loves them. He has never hated anything that he created, for he created everything with a superabundance of love for men and for all his creatures. And it is that which the three names express, with such an intimate relationship and so all these names are realized, as they are also in the person of Jesus Christ.

So we read in the creed, the profession of our faith, that we pray every day and which forms the essential basis of our faith and spirituality and which is, so to speak, the code of our ethical and moral behaviour. So appears the first verse of the creed which concerns creation: “I believe in one God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things…” We read in the second paragraph, “I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, only-begotten Son of God, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man.”

This unique God is in direct relationship with the creation which he made: the Lord Jesus Christ came to incarnate this relationship through the divine birth, redemption and salvation. The relationship of God with men and the pledge of his love for them are expressed by the three names. Moreover, the incarnation became a relationship with the other: the name of God incarnate became God with us, Emmanuel. The second name became the title of the incarnate Word of God, Jesus, Saviour because he is the incarnate God who came to earth to live among those he had created. He took flesh like theirs, matter, blood and bones like theirs to save them from evil, sin and crime. The third name, God is Love, came to express in a clear, concise and very beautiful way the meaning of the two previous names, Emmanuel and Jesus. For God, Pantocrator, there was “He who is.” Emmanuel, the Saviour and Redeemer, is God who is love and the God who loves mankind, as we repeat in our liturgical prayers.

The Economy of Salvation

From these three names, Emmanuel, Jesus and Love are derived all the attributes and names that can be given and by which one can describe the works of God in what we call in Eastern theology the economy of salvation. This economy of salvation is to be found by opening the Gospel: in fact all its chapters, stories, sayings, miracles, teachings, indeed all that the apostles told – the four evangelists told each in his own way, to carry the beautiful gospel message to the first Christians who listened to it - yes, every page of this holy Gospel and every verse of it is but the expression of these three names: God with; God saves; God loves. He is not then in his ivory tower, in his hermitage alone in his solitude. No, he is in continuous relation with his creation: as Jesus said himself, “My Father works and I work.” (John 5:17) This is what St. Paul the Apostle said to the Athenians, when he saw the abundance, the profusion, the multitude of gods in their city, explaining to them that the “God who is the Creator of heaven and earth” and who “gives to all life and breath and all things, and has made of one blood all nations of men living on the face of the earth… is not far from each one of us, for it is in him that we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:24-28) And this is what St. John the Apostle said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) That is the object of the Feast of Christmas that we celebrate in the fourth year of the third millennium, thanking God for our splendid Christian faith. This faith is not an intellectual theory; it is not a changeable vision, nor an arithmetical category, dry and complicated: no, this faith can be summed up in the love of God for man. He is the Creator God who came to meet his creature, his world, mankind. He came to be in their hearts, consciousness, families and homes. He put up his tent beside their houses. He became flesh and “that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled.”   (I John1:1)  It is he, the new-born babe, who is God before the ages.

Father Christmas – a Travesty of the Meaning of the Feast

So, why are we going to make of our beautiful, magnificent faith a mere trifle and put in place of Jesus a fellow named Father Christmas? Jesus wanted to be God with us; he wanted to be a child, close to us, beloved by us, a friend and Saviour in our schools and meeting rooms and instead of that, instead of Christmas being the advent of Jesus, a little Child, a new Child, God before the ages, it becomes the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus – if only it were Saint Nicholas, who is the friend and protector of children, of the rights of those struck by misfortune and subject to injustice!

That is why we appeal to all our Melkite Greek Catholic children throughout the whole world, to our brother bishops and our monks and nuns to do all in their power to keep the arrival of Father Christmas away from our churches and all the places where we celebrate the Feast of Christmas.

Alternative Nativity Scenes
The alternative which we offer to our brothers is the icon of Christmas, which must take its place of honour in its just proportions in all our homes and families, schools and church halls. In it we find an extraordinarily detailed depiction of the event of the divine birth. The alternative is the Christmas tree, the hymns of the angels bearing the verses that relate to Christmas, “Glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to men of good will.” The alternative is the verses from the prophets, which all speak of Emmanuel, Jesus the Saviour, of his love and the love of God, the love of that Child, Jesus Christ. These verses could very well decorate the Christmas tree. The alternative is the Christmas liturgical chants available on different recordings, which ought really to fill the atmosphere of our homes by their prayers and melodies, with a very agreeable theological meaning. So old and young will be able to learn them, listen to them and sing them spontaneously, often, with joy, enthusiasm and thanksgiving, gratefulness and piety. Another alternative are Christmas films, which help our children understand the meaning of Christmas. Another alternative besides, above all is the Christmas cave, with all that it contains of Christmas decoration, the persons represented in it, the different roles that these people took in relation to Jesus Christ, the holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Joseph, the angels, the wise men, the pastors or shepherds.

So, each one should feel the Feast of Christmas in an extraordinary way, for God has come as Saviour and new-born Child and really is with us and amongst us, filling our houses with joy, happiness and thanksgiving and shining into our hearts faith, hope and charity, calling us by his love to love mankind and to value above all children, whom Jesus loved. It is vital that the Feast of Christmas be transformed into an international festival for the world’s children and that it be a wake-up call to our conscience to protect, love and educate children, to respect and preserve their rights and not to exploit them or abuse them, so that they become innocent victims of war, violence, terror, famine or trafficking. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, for of such (and for such as are like them), is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Luke 18:16)

Christmas Atmosphere

These alternatives of faith help to create a real atmosphere of spirituality for the Feast of Christmas, a festival of love and reconciliation, peace, joy and universal brotherhood. We ought to create this atmosphere so as to replace by things pertaining to Christmas the photographs of violence and terror, of terrorism and hatred, aversion, jealousy and aggression,  weapons, destruction and blood, images which every day fill our hearts, minds and eyes and which are reported daily by means of the media.

Let us do everything in our power to create a true atmosphere of Christmas and let our house be transformed into Jesus’ house, where is Emmanuel, God with us, Saviour, redeemer God, lover of mankind, the apostle of peace and charity, who calls every one to brotherhood, solidarity, mutual help and dialogue.

Emmanuel, the Basis of Christian Theology

From all that it clearly appears that the divine incarnation, the birth of Jesus Christ is really the foundation of Christian theology, Christian experience, Christian thought and Christian ethics and morals. Moreover, the name of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, is really the basis of what we say in Oriental theology: “God became man, so that man might become God.” God became man, like us, in everything save sin, a new Child, in order that mankind might become a new creature in a New Testament, in a new ethic.

 Besides, the name of Jesus Christ, incarnate, Emmanuel, is at the basis of the relationship of God with men and of his relationship with the cosmos, nature. These relationships are developing today in an extraordinary way and bringing with them each day a new way of living, possibilities of communication and relationships among mankind, in a cosmopolitan  atmosphere of globalization, which invades all aspects of our life, at home, school, in culture, in international relations both political and economic.

Christmas and Globalization

We can consider without exaggeration that the name of Emmanuel God is really at the basis of true globalization, for God wanted to establish a relationship with all mankind, without any distinction between race or colour, sex or country, with them all. He wants to be in a relationship of love and friendship, affection and solidarity with them all and among them all. For that reason He taught us and all humanity a prayer, the “Our Father,” which is a call to all mankind, to consider themselves as one, big united family, with all as brothers, who have only one Father, God, Emmanuel God, who is God with them, with us all. That is true globalization, with equality and not the globalization which means supremacy of big over small, or strong over weak.

Mankind in the School of Jesus Emmanuel

So Christmas becomes a call to all mankind to learn in the school of Jesus Emmanuel, God with mankind, so that all mankind becomes one with God, so that people acquire solidarity with one another in this life, loving each other, being concerned, united, helping each other, meeting each other for good, justice, truth, peace, virtue, good morals, noble purpose, mutual respect, mutual reverence, valuing, understanding, together building a better world. He himself came and took as the goal of his life “that they should have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10)

In our liturgical prayers, the name of Emmanuel is repeated in the liturgical greeting, “Peace be with you all. God be with you.” “And with thy spirit, with thee.” And the priest invites all, “Let us love one another, in order that with one mind we may confess...”And in exchanging the kiss of peace, “God is amongst us” and the reply, “He is and always will be.”

Can we forget the popular greeting, “Allah maakum. God with you,” which is, practically, “Emmanuel is with you, God is with you all.” And this is our consolation. It is what unites us. In Arabic, God is with thee, man, woman, with us, with me, with him, with her, with them all. It is absolutely true that our whole life is a meeting, but it cannot be experienced as such without an inner, well-tempered disposition, which harmonizes, so to speak, all the details and aspects of our daily life.

The Meeting Centre

We founded in 2003 a centre which we called The Encounter Centre. It has a branch in Syria, another in the Lebanon and there will soon be a third one in Egypt. The symbol of this centre is two hands greeting each other, despite tall, thick ramparts raised to prevent them. This encounter unites and acquires all its strength, firmness and effectiveness thanks to divine revelation, the basis of our holy faith, which breaks down and even removes any possible barriers between people, allowing each to discover the other, his dignity, role and mission and helping instead to build relationships based entirely on profound, humane faith convictions, spiritual convictions. This unity is symbolized by a church and a mosque to be found in the logo of this Encounter Centre.

We held a congress in June, 2003, for the opening of the first Encounter Centre and entitled it “Church of the Arabs.” This title is really at the deepest level the subject of this year’s Christmas letter on Emmanuel God, God with us. Emmanuel is one of the names of God and at the beginning of this letter were explained the meanings of two other names of God: God Saviour and God Love. These three names mean that God loves mankind and saves them by the person of Jesus Christ. So the incarnation or Christmas is really an act of love, an act of compassion, pity, providence, protection and true affection such as we discover in the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. His teachings, miracles, parables, indeed, the whole Gospel, are signs of God’s love for man. This is what the Second Vatican Council expressed in its decree on “The Church in the World Today” which begins, “Mankind’s sufferings are those of the Church’s children.” This is what St. Paul says, “If one member suffers, all the other members suffer with him and if one member rejoices, all the other members rejoice with him.” (I Corinthians 20:6)

Church of the Arabs

The expression “Church of the Arabs” means in a unique manner, the Church of Jesus Christ, living in an Arab milieu and in a deep and intimate relationship with this Arab world, with its sufferings and hopes, its joys and pains, its problems and crises. The Church is Emmanuel, Church with and for this Arab society and in this Arab society, without forgetting its Arab roots and Arab nature, due to history and geography. The most important thing is not to affirm that the Church is Arab, but rather that the Church has a mission in the Arab world and society. In fact, this Arab world in which the Church lives, in which it is planted as in its own soil, sealed into the depths of its history and geography, is in its vast majority the world of Islam The Church constitutes fifteen million out of two hundred and seventy million people. This Church of the Arabs, this Church of the Arab world and society is a Church of Islam, of Muslim society, a Church that lives with the Arab and Islamic world It is the Church that lives in this Arab, Islamic world, which is in interaction with it, suffers and rejoices with it, builds with it, hopes and grows with it, loves and serves with it: it is truly the Emmanuel Church, a Church with and for this world.

That is why the Eastern Church, or Church of the Arabs, Church of Islam, is really thereby in the school of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel God, Love God, Redeemer God, Saviour God. It is he who defined the goal of his incarnation, of Christmas, of his birth, by saying, “The Son of God came, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life for the redemption of many,” (Mark 10:45) and “I am come that they might have life and have it in abundance,” (John 10:10) and it is as St. Paul said, “For even Christ pleased not himself,” (Romans 15:3) and again, “Nobody lives for himself.” (Romans 14: 7) Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” and “Let your light so shine amongst men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

These holy verses are a true and clear call for each Christian to go outside himself, his isolation, his tribe, as Abraham was told,” Go out from your tribe, from your people and from your father’s house.” (Gen. 12:1) So the Christian must go out from all that can form an obstacle between himself and another, in order to meet the other and be himself Emmanuel, a man “with and for.”

Church with Mankind

The Christian must go beyond himself and his church, his own person and become really catholic, in the general meaning, “of all and for all.” The expression “Church of the Arabs and of Islam” is a cultural or incultural expression for the one Church of our creed, “I believe in one, holy catholic Church” that is, that unites in itself all cultures, civilizations, languages and ethnicities.

This expression is not an empty, unimportant or optional phrase; nor is it an exaggeration. It is an expression that is part of our creed, our faith and our Christian religion. If I were in India, I would have said Church of the Hindus and Church of Hinduism and Buddhism and that’s why I can say that my Church is the Church of Mankind, the Church of every human being and a Church for Mankind and for every human being, a Church of and for every time and place, a Church that is truly catholic and universal. In its universality it does not lose its own qualities and even in its particularities, it does not forget its catholicity and universality.

A Church with Islam

We Arab Christians are in a very deep relationship with the Muslim Arabs in our Arab countries: we are of their flesh and blood, their ethnicity, tribe, society, civilization, culture and traditions. We are a Church which daily, for the last fourteen hundred years has been living side by side with Islam, profoundly influenced by Islam and in turn influencing Islam. This Church has borne throughout history very serious social and national responsibilities and even of war with Muslim fellow-citizens. In fact, Islam is present to our whole society and to our families, to our cares, congresses, studies, sermons, speeches, to our way of thinking and social projects.

You, as a Christian, cannot pass by on the other side of your Muslim brother, as though he were a stranger, as though you were not concerned by him. You are in a substantial and essential dialogue of conscience with him and your destiny is linked to his every day.

When we say Church of Islam, we mean by that that it is a society of Christian faithful, who excel in their relations with Muslims, and we know how much in all our services in the Arab world, we have never made distinctions between Christians and Muslims. The Church of Islam means the Church which, in its history, past and present, in its civilization and culture, is profoundly and intimately linked with Islam and Muslims. We know too what a profusion of studies has been made by local Christians and Christians from abroad on Islam and is to be found in all the great libraries of Europe. So, the expression “Church of Islam” speaks of a deep relationship of the Church with Islam, an essential connection of conscience, future, culture, even dogma as well as a spiritual and pastoral relationship. The expression “Church of Islam” means a very well-defined responsibility towards Islam and Muslims.

Not Proselytism, but Solidarity and Conviction

The expression Church of Islam does not imply a community of Muslims who have adopted Christianity, or a group of Christians who wish to convert Muslims to Christianity.

This expression “Church of Islam” lies in the depths of my thought, personality and consciousness and comes from a very deep analysis far from any proselytism, or wishing to win over Muslims. This expression is, in my conscience, synonymous with love, (charity), respect, mutual help, fellowship, understanding, dialogue, affection, ardour for others, as it is said in the Qur’an, working together in our Arab homelands to build a better world, the civilization of love.

It is very important that these convictions become those of all our sons and daughters in our Patriarchal Church, even, I should say, of all Christians. It is very important that that these convictions be for us like a charter and basis of our spirituality and theological teaching in our institutes and seminaries, in the training of clergy and male and female religious, in our school catechism and teaching in our colleges, institutes and cultural, health, professional, religious and social institutions.

These convictions are an important factor in the constitution of our faith, in the discovery of the meaning of our vocation and the substance of our mission in general as Greek Catholic Christians in our Arab world of the Middle East. For me it is a vital condition, “to be or not to be,” and in my thought as Patriarch, it is the essential condition of working to reduce as far as possible Christian emigration that is really decimating our Churches.

The importance of this Christian role is more than ever clear and evident in the events which marked the beginning of this third millennium, especially 11 September, 2001, in the United States of America and 11 March, 2004, in Spain and 11 September, 2004 in Russia and the war in Iraq of 2003 and all the events and catastrophes that have followed.

Emmanuel Church, the Church with and for, means that each one of its members takes his place and stands firmly, shoulder to shoulder, with his brothers and fellow-citizens in the Arab world and in the countries of emigration, in order to work with them for basic, existential values, that must spread out across the Arab world, especially everything concerning human rights, basic human liberties, freedom of religion and conscience, dignity of man, openness, enculturation, Arabic dialogue, East-West dialogue, pluralism of political thought and pluralism of political systems in Arab countries.

Poverty and Development and Melkite Solidarity

Our message for this year is “Emmanuel” and it connects with our Christmas letter of 2003, entitled “Poverty and Development.” Through last year’s letter, we wanted to address all our children of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, calling them to solidarity, mutual compassion and mutual help. We consider, then, that in this Church, we have a common mission, responsibility and engagement as well as a common reality and a common future. We are Emmanuel Church, a Church “with,” and I am not alone in this Church: in fact, I am in society, in the community, in the parish. So it is that I wrote in paragraph sixteen of last year’s letter “Poverty and Development:”
This plan, which will be implemented by us all, should be common to all Greek Catholics, to each and everyone. It is not simply concerned with material progress and collecting plenty of money for the service of the poor and setting up a workshop for development. There is besides a social and spiritual dimension to our Church and we believe in and aim at realising thereby progressive involvement in and attachment to the Church, in Melkite Greek Catholic solidarity and in the feeling that we are one body, one Church, a united community, so that each individual Greek Catholic throughout the world should feel linked to his Greek Catholic brother throughout the world.
I wrote, further:
We are convinced that the realisation of the aims and proposals of this letter are guaranteed, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to rally and raise our Church and develop it, creating a strong bond between all its faithful. No-one should feel a stranger in our Melkite Greek Catholic Church. No-one should feel helpless, without support, without a reference point in his Church. And no-one should feel that he is at all dispensed from helping his brother.
 As a result of this letter, I started the initiative of founding a Melkite Greek Catholic Solidarity Fund. Our Synod of 2 July 2004 accepted this project and we are drawing up the articles necessary to bring it about.

The Church of Expansion and Broad Horizons

We have to go out of our Melkite Greek Catholic Church to become Emmanuel Church, the Church in human society, here in our Arab countries and in the countries of emigration and in the whole world: that is why I insist on our true desire to be and to remain a Church without borders, a Church of broad horizons, of vision, openness and progress, a Church “with and for.”

It is extremely important to understand in its true sense, the name of Jesus Emmanuel and what it is to be the serving Church and Church of the Arabs and Islam. If the Arab Eastern Christian, be he Syrian, Egyptian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Sudanese or Palestinian, does not understand the meaning of the name of Jesus and of his own name, since he was baptized in the name of Jesus and is called Christian in relation to Jesus Christ and is the heir and grandchild of those who were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26) – he will lose the meaning of his mission and role, for he does not exist for himself; that person, though Christian in name, will lose the profound meaning of his Christianity and baptism, of his chrismation (‘άγιον μύρον) and the sacraments that he has received and the meaning of his belonging to the Church. He will be carried away as though by a storm, tossed hither and thither, and a sure candidate for emigration. Those countries which are Christian to their roots, the birthplace and cradle of Christianity, will be stripped of their Church’s children because of emigration and become museums containing only ruins and relics, like the dead towns of Northern Syria. Then people will say, “It is here that Jesus Christ lived and here too that Christians once lived, but today they are here no longer. They are scattered; emigrated. Here are the things they left behind.” And their Arab society has lost, because of that, an integral part of this Arab world. The Arab world has lost an integral part of itself, its brethren, relatives and companions along the road of Arab history, Arab history-makers and builders of Arab and Islamic civilization, literature and culture, philosophy and science.

Why Patriarchal Letters?

We have striven to write Christmas messages and other messages. They are pastoral letters, springing from my conviction and my patriarchal service that I must do in the best way. These letters help to determine exactly the direction and method of application of the canonical institutions and of conformity with them. They give teaching, encouragement and guidance on the understanding of Christian dogma, with a view to assisting piety and devotion, discouraging certain exaggerations and deviations and helping Christians to discover new directions and develop their spiritual life. So these letters have a universal character and are addressed to every church in which the Patriarch is the father and head. That is why it is a duty to read these letters and present and publish them in parish churches, eparchies and monasteries and even in private dwellings. This is indicated in Canon 32 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

So we hope from our brother bishops and our sons the priests, monks and nuns and all the faithful in general, especially those engaged in pastoral service, apostolate and other in the Church a joyful reception of these letters, because they come from a loving heart, from a pastor who wishes to remain ever vigilant, as his name suggests, over the whole community and who has received the mission to watch over it. In that respect, I would like it to be noticed that again, it is obligatory upon the bishops to communicate the results of their synod, its decisions and recommendations, to all the faithful of their parishes and of their eparchies, to their religious, priests, monks and nuns and laypeople, so that these recommendations can be put into action.

The Eucharist: God with Us

The Holy Father, John Paul II, wanted this year to be the Year of the Eucharist, from October, 2004 to October, 2005. His Holiness published a very beautiful letter  that begins, “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist” (17 April, 2003). An international congress on the Eucharist was held in Mexico in October, 2004. The Eucharist will also be the subject of the Episcopal Synod in Rome in October, 2005. Its title will be “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.”

The title of that papal letter, declaring this year the Year of the Eucharist, is the call from the disciples of Emmaus to Jesus, “Stay with us.” (Luke 24:29) Jesus assures us that his name is Emmanuel and before his ascension he says to his apostles, “I am with you and nobody is against you.” (John16:3) And we also say in our turn, “Jesus, Lord, stay with us. Be Emmanuel, always with us.”

Christmas is indeed the remembrance of Emmanuel with us. The Eucharist is really God with us. Jesus is always with the Church in the sacrament of the Eucharist, in the liturgical celebration, from sunrise to sunset and over the whole world, from East to West. The presence of Jesus in the Church is assured, because Jesus is always Emmanuel, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus is Emmanuel in history, God with us, in the history of each one of us and in the history of the whole human race. That is what Paul VI affirmed in the Vatican II decree, entitled, “Joy and Hope” on the Church in the world today, by saying that Christ is the goal of human history. He is the point around which cluster all the hopes of history and civilization and is the heart of the human race. He is the joy of every human heart and the realization of its aspirations.

The apostles also all experienced the name of Emmanuel, because he lived with them when they were travelling through Palestine and doing miracles.  His life itself was a realization of his name, because he lived with and amongst mankind. Remember the unique experience which the two disciples had as they walked sadly along to Emmaus: Christ addressed them and explained to them what pertained to him in the scriptures and they lived an intense experience after Jesus accepted their invitation, saying, “Stay with us. The evening is approaching and night is falling.” (Luke 24:29) He entered their little house (so it was transformed into a great church, whose ruins, dating from the first century still exist up to the present day) and in that little house Jesus celebrated the Eucharist, breaking bread, but then immediately disappearing from before their eyes. They recognized him by the breaking of bread, but he disappeared from their sight in order to give greater room for faith in their daily lives. He disappeared, but remained with them, with humanity, the Church, the faithful in the Eucharist.

In this letter it is beautiful to contemplate the theological relationship between the mystery of Christmas and the mystery of the Eucharist. This is what we read in a beautiful chant of Corpus Christi, peculiar to our Melkite Greek Catholic Church, which introduced into the series of its feasts, this feast of Corpus Domini, through its Patriarch of Antioch, Maximos II Hakim (1737). We find this very beautiful hymn, at the beginning of the rite of the Benediction of the Holy Sacrament; “It is indeed a tremendous miracle to see God incarnate and become man, and more wonderful still to see him hanging on the cross, but the sum of all wonders, O Christ our God, is thine ineffable presence in the mystic species. Thou hast truly instituted in this mystery a remembrance of all thy wonders.”

Conclusion

At the end of this letter, I address, with all best wishes for Christmas my beloved brother bishops, members of our Holy Synod, and my children, the priests and male and female religious, the faithful of our parishes and eparchies in the Arab world and in the whole world. I wish to remind them of the letter which I and the other Eastern Catholic Patriarchs sent, entitled, “Pastoral Letter to the Clergy,” which appeared in August, 2004: it is spiritual nourishment for the sacerdotal journey with Jesus and with our parishes in wider society. We hope that it may be a source of spiritual animation and priestly renewal.

In closing this letter, we also address our suffering brethren throughout the Arab world, especially in Palestine, Iraq and Sudan. In these three countries, people are suffering, despised, their dignity thwarted. They are hungry and thirsty, their homes destroyed, they are slain, children orphaned and mothers widowed. We send a fatherly word especially to our parish in Iraq and to the priests there looking after the faithful: we appreciate their resistance, despite their suffering. Despite the fact that their church was devastated, they celebrated the Eucharist the very next day and a baptism, on the 17 October 2004, the evening of the very day of the explosion which destroyed and burned down their church.

We pray for them, for peace and safety in beloved Iraq and we ask Jesus, the Child of the cave, the Father of Peace, to be Emmanuel with sufferers throughout the world and especially in our whole region. A day of prayer and fasting to express our solidarity with them and with the world’s sufferings, we propose to our brother bishops, each one in his eparchy: to consecrate a day to prayer and fasting for peace in our world and in our East. We propose the 22 December this year, before Christmas. With the angels we sing the hymn of peace and hope, “Glory to God in highest heaven.”

Given at our Patriarchal Chancellery in Damascus, Christmas 2004
Gregorios III

Translated from the French by V. Chamberlain