MELKITE - GREEK
CATHOLIC PATRIARCHATE

A Letter of Peace
                                                            

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.
I greet you with this Paschal greeting,
my brother bishops, members of the Holy Synod,
priests, monks and nuns, sons and daughters
of our Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchal Church in Arab countries,
and all our children throughout the world, especially our sons and daughters in Iraq.
 

I present to you good wishes for the Great Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who for us and for our salvation, suffered, died, was buried and rose on the third day, in order to raise us who were dead in our sins and illumine us by the light of his glorious resurrection, making us participants in his divine glory.

We celebrate this feast in a sad atmosphere, full of “snow ” from the war, calamity, destruction, death, hostility and waste, especially in Iraq and Palestine, the Holy Land, the land of redemption and salvation.

We members of all Christian Churches here in Damascus have decided to abstain from all outward show of the feast and it would be good if all our churches and eparchies took the same decision, in order to express our love to our brothers who are suffering and stricken in Iraq and Palestine and to affirm our solidarity with the Arab and Islamic world of which we are an integral part. We are at its service alongside our brethren, both Muslim and Christian citizens.

We are all in the same boat; we are all in the same trench: we are a single homeland, with a single growth and future. Our rights are one and the same; our dignity is one; our victory is one. Our calamity is one; our defeat is one and scorn and lack of respect encountered by one people means spite and contempt for all our peoples. Here, in these countries where God has created us, we wish to remain, in solidarity with all their citizens in every walk of life. We assure them, through our Church’s numerous departments and institutions, of our services. We are like the grain of wheat that bears fruit, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. We appeal to all to give a helping hand to Iraqis, who are among us in different parishes, knowing that the Caritas Institution in Damascus has organised offices in Syria to help Iraqis arriving from all Arab countries.

We are suffering with our Arab world. On the one hand, we are taking stock of the disaster which has battened on Iraq and all Arab countries, since they have not succeeded in putting their case among the countries of the world for sparing Iraq the outbreak of war. These countries are powerless in the face of the calamities which are striking Palestine every day and incapable of putting the necessary pressure on world public opinion to resolve the conflict, which is the key to peace and war in the region.

On the other hand we feel great shame at a world that is incapable of resolving conflicts except by war, violence, destruction and recourse to an arsenal of war more powerful than all such arsenals and weaponry throughout history. We are full of shame that Iraq is being destroyed, while rivers of blood are flowing in Palestine and we do not buckle down to the effort necessary for ending the conflict in the Holy Land.

We consider the war in Iraq on this scale at the beginning of the third millennium as a war against Iraq and a failure of East and West, indeed of the whole of humanity. We feel that this failure comes from a loss of spiritual, moral and humane values and a growth of injustice, despotism, exploitation, fanaticism, lies, pride, will for supremacy and greed.

We need an awakening of human conscience, enlightened by God’s revelation and faith in his Holy Book. We need to create an Islamic-Christian front of faith to stand up to this moral collapse that is leading the world to calamities, wars and the disputes that we see every day through the mass media.

Here there springs to mind a collection of verses from Holy Scripture, which are like a spur to the human conscience. “Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.   Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? … Be wise therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Why…lovest thou evil more than good; and lying rather than speaking righteousness?  Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.  All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.”

The great evil today is sin: that is why the world is powerless to harness all its considerable capabilities for dialogue to avoid destructive wars. On the contrary, we hasten to kill and destroy by terrible, advanced weapons which spread fear and create violence in millions of people, watching television every day, especially children and young people.

In the face of all these calamities, we address ourselves at this Feast of the Resurrection, of life, hope and peace, to all our sons and daughters of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and to all citizens of Lebanon, Syria and Arab countries, especially Iraq and Palestine and throughout the whole world, calling them to further dialogue between religions, civilizations and cultures; to greater solidarity and mutual help, reconciliation, faith, hope and love; taking inspiration from the faith of us all, Christians and Muslims, so as to avert, amongst the young generation especially, the dangers of fanaticism, extremism, violence, terror, hatred and enmity. We call upon all to form a single Christian-Muslim front, say rather a human front, in order to build together a world of goodness, security, development, dignity, freedom and peace, a world of justice, a civilization of God’s love for all mankind.

So may we realise together for all, the wish of the Feast of Easter, Feast of Life and hope, spreading this hope to each person, “Christ is risen, granting to the world peace and great mercy.”

Gregorios III
       
Translation from the French V. Chamberlain