MELKITE - GREEK
CATHOLIC PATRIARCHATE

 

The Unifying Incarnation
                                                    

Gregorios, by the mercy of God,
Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem:
May the divine grace and apostolic blessing fill
our brother bishops, members of the Holy Synod
and all those who make up our Melkite Greek Catholic Church, clergy and laity;
May grace and benediction come upon them.

The Unifying Incarnation

“The unifying incarnation” is an expression that sums up our holy Christian faith and explains in a very precise, concise and splendid way the mystery that we are celebrating today during these blessed days, the Feast of the Nativity in the Flesh of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary and became man.” He became flesh, like our flesh: that flesh which he created and moulded, in the beginning of creation, when he created the heavens and the earth and all that therein is and breathed into man the breath of life and said that it was good – man, speaking of whom the Psalmist said, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8: 4-8)

The Dignity of Man

God wished to single out man, of whom Pascal said that he “is a reed, but a thinking reed,” from all the other creatures he had made, making him to rule over them, and like to himself. So it is written, “God created man in his own image… male and female created he them .And God blessed them and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.’ ” (Genesis 1:27, 28)

God wanted man to be his friend, closely united with and linked to him, as his vicar on earth. In fact, there are, in the verses of Genesis, expressions of friendship, love, intimacy, affection, mercy and tenderness between God and his creature, the potter and his vessel. So we read that God was “walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” (Genesis 3:8) God gave man the great dignity of being in his image and an extraordinary quantity of grace, gifts, (charismata) in his body, soul, limbs, all his senses, his reason, sensibility and heart. Man is really a beautiful, magnificent work, prodigious in every detail. He is like a coin or a colourful picture, an icon reflecting the disposition of its maker, or like a colourful rainbow betokening the covenant between God and man, a covenant of love, beauty and splendour.

The Loss of Dignity through Sin

Man disregarded this dignity, so falling into sin as described in Genesis, through eating from the forbidden tree. Then there is another image: that of nakedness and the shame of it, which led Adam and Eve to hide from the face of God. They became estranged from one another and from God their Creator. However, they remained in great yearning for him. That existential experience is so beautifully and movingly described in the striking expressions of our liturgical prayers, where we read, in two hymns from Vespers (on Saturday evening) for Forgiveness Sunday:-

 “The Lord my Creator took me as dust from the earth and formed me into a living creature, breathing into me the breath of life and giving me a soul; he honoured me, setting me as a ruler upon the earth over all things visible, and making me companion of the angels. But Satan the deceiver, using the serpent as his instrument, enticed me by food; he parted me from the glory of God and gave me over to the earth and to the lowest depths of earth. But, Master, in compassion call me back again.

“In my wretchedness I have cast off the robe woven by God, disobeying thy divine command, O Lord, at the counsel of the enemy: and I am now clothed in fig leaves and garments of skin. I am condemned to eat the bread of toil in the sweat of my brow, and the earth has been cursed so that it bears thorns and thistles for me. But, Lord, who in the last times wast made flesh of a Virgin, call me back again and bring me into paradise.” (Lenten Triodion )

So Adam appeals to paradise, a paradise full of beauty and grandeur, shining with an extraordinary radiance, in the following striking expressions: “O precious paradise, unsurpassed in beauty, tabernacle built by God, unending gladness and delight, glory of the righteous, joy of the prophets and dwelling of the saints, with the sound of thy leaves pray to the Maker of all: may he open unto me the gates which I closed by my transgression and may he count me worthy to partake of the tree of life and of the joy which was mine when I dwelt in thee before.” (Lenten Triodion )

The Virgin, Showing God, Lover of Mankind

Christ became incarnate for sinful man, because he loved him. At the incarnation of this love, the angel announced to the Virgin of Nazareth, Mary, a message both very simple and at the same time amazing and strange, surpassing all comprehension, speaking a welcome, pleasant and desired word, full of great hope for all humanity and its aspirations. The angel says to her a phrase both simple and succinct, but with a heavenly meaning in its characters: “Hail to thee, Virgin Mary. The Lord is with thee, God is with thee and with us because of thee,” as our liturgical hymns say. When the angel had spoken, the Lord of all creatures took flesh in Mary’s bosom. When she had accepted the angel’s greeting, in her womb the Word became flesh, taking up his dwelling in her and in us. He came to his own, from whom he had never separated himself. He came to his image and likeness fallen from heaven to earth; to his handiwork, filling it with the breath of God himself. He came to his own, for whom he had always had a deep longing and eternal desire. He became flesh and dwelt among us whom he loved and created, with an act of eternal love.

The incarnation is the mystery of God’s love for mankind, his creatures, his image, icon and likeness. It is the mystery of God’s love for thee; for thee, woman; for thee, man; for me; for us all, for God is Creator and lover of mankind, lover of the world. He spoke to us in the Old Testament, by prophets and mediators sent on his behalf. When the plenitude of time had come, he wished to come down to earth himself, from his paradise into this world, to restore man - become a workman and labourer - and to live with his creature, because he loves and respects this man, who has great dignity in his eyes. This is what Isaiah said, “Thus saith the Lord that created thee… and he that formed thee... Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by name; thou art mine. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee...” (Isaiah 43:1, 4)

The Incarnation is an Act of Love

The incarnation is an act of love: the mystery of love. It is the fruit of God’s love for mankind. Why do we reject the incarnation? Why do we refuse the entry of God into our lives? Why run after foreign gods, which do not exist, but are the works of human hands and products of human passions, the imaginings and phantasmagorias of men and human futility? The incarnation is not an intellectual dogma, but your mystery; my mystery; the mystery of every person, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim or Buddhist. It is the mystery of man’s love for God and the desire of God for man. The incarnation is the reply to all man’s longings, buried deep in him. I don’t understand why we think that this mystery is difficult or incomprehensible, or why some think it flies in the face of human reason, or others that it is a heresy or worse. In fact, the incarnation is a precise, profound, natural expression which is, as a matter of course, the most adequate response to man’s dreams and eternal aspirations, since it matches the sublime level of his nature, that of a weak, but “thinking reed,” as we said. The incarnation is the natural fruit of creation and if God created through love, he became incarnate too, through love.

Of God, Loving Creator

That is why we say in the Creed, “I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and of all things, visible and invisible...” We do not say, “I believe in God who created heaven and earth, then finished creating,” in which case any relationship would be at an end between Creator and creature, but we say, “Creator of heaven and earth” meaning that he is in a continuous relationship with his creation, eternally present, active at the moment, in relation with his world and his creature, man, the king of this world, whom he has created after his image and likeness. Incarnation is a continuation of the creation and a continual relationship of the Creator with his creature. That is what Jesus affirmed when he said, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” (John 5:17) “I work,” not just, “I worked in the past, at the beginning of creation, in history,” but in mankind’s present.

God was Incarnate in Human History

He is the Creator of every living breath in this world and that is what St. Paul affirmed to the Athenians when, standing in the middle of Areopagus, he said, “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth…he giveth to all life and breath and all things; …For in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:23, 24, 28) That is the incarnation, an incarnation in the history of humanity, not only at the beginning of Christianity, but also in the year of our Lord, 2005. That is why we pray and sing at Christmas, “Today, the Virgin has given birth to him who is above all being, and the earth offers a cave to him whom no man can approach...”  and “Today, Christ is born of the Virgin in Bethlehem. Today, he who knows no beginning now begins to be, and the Word is made flesh.”

So it is that we sing also in the same kontakion of Christmas, “For unto us is born a new Child, God from before the ages.” We say “new”, rather than little, meaning that there is a new creation in Jesus Christ; we say “from before the ages” meaning that this Child, new-born in history, is God, before history, the Lord of history. In him, history begins and ends, because he is of yesterday, today and tomorrow: he is Alpha and Omega.

 This affirmation then, on the one hand of the day and on the other hand, of the new-born Child, God from before the ages, indicates and explains to us that this day is not only a material day, a day limited to history, but is a day linked to the story of the incarnation. That is what I read on an information-panel in one of the museums of Berlin, where the dates of different museum-pieces were given as, “before the time change” and “after the time change”: that is, before the Nativity and after the Nativity.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem gave a beautiful explanation of its significance by saying, “If you listen to the Gospel where it says ‘the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,’ understand by that, ‘according to the flesh,’ for he is the son of David in the fullness of time, but he is Son of God before all ages, without beginning. He accepted to become son in a bodily sense not proper to him, but he remains the Son begotten by the Father from before the ages. He has two fathers: David, according to the flesh and God, the Father, according to his divine nature. As son of David he is subject to time, palpable and with genealogical descent, but He who is of a divine nature is not subject to time and place and genealogical descent, for ‘His generation who shall declare?’ ‘God is a spirit,’ he who is Spirit has begotten spiritually, as incorporeal and that is why no-one can explain or discover the generation. The Son himself says of the Father, ‘The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son: this day I have begotten thee.’ This today is not a new thing, but is eternal. It is a timeless day, before all ages. ‘From the womb, before the morning star, have I begotten thee.’”
(Catechetical Lecture XI, 5 )

So the incarnation links humans to the life of God, links the minutes, hours, days, months and years of man to the life of God and his eternity. So the incarnation unifies human history and links it with God’s eternity, making of this human time a time of salvation, a story of salvation and redemption. Moreover, it really makes limited human time the unlimited time of God: it gives to limited human time an eternal, immortal value. It gives to the work of human hands in time, space and geography, within earthly and historical limits, an eternal value, a value of salvation and redemption for the human being, the human soul and the whole human family.

The Unifying Incarnation

The Word of God becomes incarnate so that the world may be one, that mankind be one, in harmony, unified, beautiful, illuminated, keeping the imprint of its Creator, his charismata and above all, his unity. As the Qur’an says, “One God alone, without peer,” did not wish man to be lost in the multitude, through being scattered, torn apart, in loss, estrangement, alienation from God, division, discord, hatred, war, killing, destruction, vengeance and confusion. He wanted to enable humanity to participate in his divine unity: that’s why he became human in the person of Jesus Christ, in order to “gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” (John 11:52) and to bring light to those in darkness, show the way to those who had gone astray and save those who were lost. St. Paul expressed that, speaking of the unifying incarnation, in a splendid way in his Epistle to the Ephesians, saying: Christ “is our peace, who hath made both (peoples) one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” (Ephesians 2: 14-18)

Jesus, the Word Incarnate

“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

The Word who was at the beginning, in principle, God the Word, God the Creator Word was made flesh. He created by a single word, saying, “Be,” and it came into being. He said, he spoke, he created, he became incarnate. The Creator Word is the Word incarnate.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) It is he himself who created and he himself who became incarnate. That is why St. John the Evangelist and Apostle whom Jesus loved said, “God is love.” (I John 4:8) God, the Creator God is love, the Creator Word incarnate is the Word who is the love of God for his creature, for people, for humans whom he has created and continues to create. God has so loved the world that he has sent his only Son to the world, to this cosmos that he loved and that he compared to a vine, saying, “I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, ye are the branches.” (John 15:1, 5)

In our Eastern rite, comparably with all other rites of East or West, there is a single chant that may be sung in a variety of styles and melodies and that sums up the different meanings of glorious Christmas. It is the hymn of the incarnate Word that is sung at every Divine Liturgy: “O only-begotten Son and Word of God, who being immortal, yet didst deign for our salvation to become incarnate of the Holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, and without change of essence wast made man; who wast also crucified for us, O Christ God, trampling down death by death and art one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us.”

The Incarnation is the Basis of our Christian Faith

The incarnation is the basis and substance of our Christian faith. So Christmas is not just a human, material feast, a feast of the body. Christmas is not presents and Father Christmas, an external, superficial celebration. The incarnation is linked to the life of human beings, whether Christian or not. The incarnation is really the point on which are focused all human hopes and human nature itself. That is what is expressed by the holy fathers, as we read in the service of Matins for the Feast of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, “Today is revealed the mystery that is from all eternity. The Son of God becomes the son of man that, sharing in what is worse, he may make me share in what is better. In times of old, Adam was once deceived: he sought to become God, but received not his desire. Now God becomes man that he may make Adam God. Let creation rejoice, let nature exult.”

And we sing for the Feast of Christmas, during Vespers, “Come, let us greatly rejoice in the Lord as we tell of this present mystery. The middle wall of partition has been destroyed; the flaming sword turns back, the cherubim withdraw from the tree of life, and I partake of the delight of paradise from which I was cast out through disobedience. For the express image of the Father, the imprint of his eternity, takes the form of a servant, and without undergoing change he comes forth from a mother who knew not wedlock. For what he was, he has remained, true God: and what he was not, he has taken upon himself, becoming man through love for mankind. Unto him let us cry aloud: God born of a virgin, have mercy upon us.”   Further on, we read, “Heaven and earth are united today, for Christ is born. Today has God come upon earth and man gone up to heaven”   (Great Compline of the Christmas Vigil)

The Incarnation Shows Forth the Goal of Life

Through the incarnation and faith in the Word of God incarnate, we discover that we are members of a big family. As St. Paul said, “Thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Galatians 4:7) So we become in the incarnate Christ God’s family, the family of the Church and of the whole of humanity. Through that we discover the meaning of our life: its origin, existence, substance, goal, nobility and dignity. We also realise and feel the importance of the responsibility which derives from this nobility of origin and original dignity and from that very high and noble position.

Through that, we discover how much we ought to bear fruit, serve others and build a world of civilization and life, as peace-makers, agents of peace who can bring about charity, good and development in society. Without these convictions, we fall into despair and vexation, losing all sense of life. Moreover, we become criminal persons: injuring and even killing our neighbours; exploiting, despising, mutilating and tarnishing that image of God which is man, (since God became man) our brother and travelling companion. All our relationships - husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, relative, neighbour, fellow-citizen, foreigner, white, black, from this region or some other - no longer have any meaning.

The incarnation is really the origin of human dignity, nobility and value and he who has not understood the incarnation has not understood the meaning of life. He who does not believe in the incarnate Son of God in this world, cannot understand or discover the meaning of life, or rather, cannot find pleasure or happiness in life, working to make others happy or serving them. That is why St. Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a living man ,” thus linking the meaning of life to that of heaven and the value of life and soul to divine worth, even the life of God himself. That is what the holy fathers expressed theologically by the well-known term theosis (divinization) and participation in the divine filiation and in the life of God, saying, “God became man so that thou, man, mightest be capable of receiving divinity .” (St. Athanasius of Alexandria) “Christ became man to unite us to God in his own person .” (St. Gregory of Nazianzus) This is the great mystery which is accomplished for us, the mystery of God incarnate for us. He came to make all one in Christ.

The Eucharist is Continual Incarnation

We designated the year 2005 the Year of the Eucharist and we participated around Pope Benedict XVI with about two hundred and fifty bishops from all over the world in the Episcopal Synod, meditating together on the subject of the holy Eucharist.

The Eucharist is the mystery of continual incarnation and the realization of the incarnation. That is why our Melkite Church has introduced into its service the Feast of Corpus Christi, which is of Western origin, being especially linked to the miracle that happened in Italy. Our church has made of that feast, the feast of the incarnation, the feast of the whole divine economy, the feast of feasts and season of seasons, a continuous Pascha, so to speak.

That is what we discover in the prayers, chants and hymns of this feast. In the troparion it says, “Christ, having loved his own, loved them until the end, and gave them his body and blood as food and drink.”  Further, we read, “It is indeed a tremendous miracle to see God taking flesh and becoming man, …but the highest of all miracles, O Christ our God, is (thine) ineffable presence under the mystic species.”

Through the Liturgy we celebrate the mystery of the incarnate Word and we consecrate and sanctify with the Spirit the bread and wine and finally participate, through the bread and wine, in the body and blood of Christ and indeed in his whole life.

At the end of the Liturgy we sing a chant that is both of Christmas and Trinitarian: it is the hymn after communion, “We have seen the true light; we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the true faith. We worship the undivided Trinity, for the same hath saved us.” Further on the priest prays in a low voice at the end of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, “Thou who art the fulfilment of the law and the prophets, O Christ our God, and hast accomplished all the dispensation of the Father: fill our hearts with joy and gladness always…” And at the end of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, “We have seen the symbols of thy resurrection; we have been filled with thine endless life.” So, we see through these prayers how we live through the Liturgy and the Eucharist, the events of the incarnation and the different stages of the economy of God over us.

The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Christian Unity

The Eucharist is the great sacrament of Christian unity: the unity of God with humans and unity of humans with each other. That is the goal of all our efforts for Christian unity: unity in the one Christ and in the Eucharist, above all, which is the symbol of union, its summit and perfection. In fact there can be no true union without a single Eucharist between all Christians. There is no true Eucharist without Christian unity. The witness of Christians will always remain limited and weak, if the one Eucharist is not realized, in which all Christians gather around the single table and one Christ; and from this one table, one Christ, one bishop there will be a single, spiritual, ecclesial, social, constitutional and institutional communion.

That is why all Christians long for a single Eucharist and on the other hand, they are divided about the one Eucharist. That is why we understand the reason and the depth of reason why we cannot participate in the single Eucharist between Christians, if complete and true unity is not realised among us all.

It is true that in certain circumstances Christians may receive communion in different Churches, but that is a matter of personal conduct and of a passing occasional, nature and as the result of a personal decision. No-one can conclude thereby that unity between Catholics and Orthodox has been brought about. For example, we blessed and God blessed us: we consecrated together, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim and I, a single, common church, common to us all (Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox): it is the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Dumar, a suburb of Damascus and despite that, we did not realize unity between us. But we took a step, a very notable and new step together and God will help us to go forwards to realise the goals of unity and the successive stages which will guide us one day to the church unity that we hope for so much. So we never lose the hope of realizing it, because it is the object of the prayer of Jesus, who wanted all his believing disciples to be one, that the world might believe.

The Prayer of Jesus for Unity

Incarnation and monotheism (or oneness) are two expressions which are mutually attractive. We see them as signs of the will of God to unify all his creatures, unifying them amongst themselves in the depths of divine revelation.

So we find this in the New Testament, in the message of Jesus, his teachings and miracles, parables of the Kingdom of God amongst men, discourse before the life-giving and saving passion and above all in the solemn, mysterious, sacrificial, sacerdotal prayer that Jesus made for the union of all believing Christians, in which he says, “Father, that they may be one as we are.” (cf. John 17:21) So we see throughout the whole life of Jesus, a leitmotiv linking all the events in it, a divine concern, that does not wish to see man lost, isolated, scattered, divided against himself in his mind and heart, aspirations and personal life, employment, family and social life. God created human beings after his image and likeness and wishes to gather them into a single fold, like the good shepherd that he is, leaving the ninety-nine sheep inside, to go in search of the one that has gone astray, and bring it back on his shoulders, returning inside the fold with it. So there will be a single community and a single shepherd, a single fold and a single pastor and he will be the vine and all humans will be the vine-shoots, united by the tendrils of love. So they will be able to yield fruit, fruit both abundant and permanent.

To that unity, a very beautiful troparion from the Feast of the Divine Ascension alludes: “O God, thou hast lifted up in and by thyself, the nature of Adam, which had fallen into the prison of Hades, and today thou hast caused it to ascend above all principalities, for having loved it, thou hast seated it beside thee and in thy mercy thou hast united it to thyself and in so doing, thou hast suffered in it and since thou hast suffered in it, thou who canst not be the object of suffering, thou hast glorified it with thee.” (Pentecostarion)

Then there is the event of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, happy despite the difficulty and great responsibility of the mission that the Lord had confided to them after his resurrection, saying to them, “Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15) and besides encouraging them, by giving them the promise of the earnest of the Holy Spirit and saying to them, “Wait for the promise of the Father, which…ye have heard of me. … But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me … unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1: 4, 8)

On the day of Pentecost, the disciples received the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire and saw that among the crowds listening to the sermon of St. Peter, faith in Jesus Christ burst forth. They returned home edified by the one faith and subsequently, the apostles left to go out into the whole world and in whatever corner of the earth people listened to the message of Pentecost, there the apostles were able to spread faith in Jesus Christ among different languages, cultures and peoples.

The event of Pentecost is, so to speak, the incarnation of the world’s unifying Spirit, as we read in the kontakion of the service for the Feast of Pentecost, “When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, he dispersed the nations: but when he distributed the tongues of fire, he called all to unity. Wherefore with one voice we glorify the All-holy Spirit.” From this hymn, we discover the unity of God as Trinity, calling mankind to unity. That is what the holy fathers expressed in a beautiful hymn from the Vigil of Pentecost, where we read, “Come, O ye people, let us worship the Godhead in three persons, the Son in the Father, with the Holy Spirit. For the Father before time has begotten the Son, who is co-eternal and equally enthroned and the Holy Spirit who was in the Father and was glorified together with the Son: one might, one essence, one Godhead.”

The Church – Place of Unity

The event of Pentecost is the feast of unity and diversity. Moreover, it is the basis of the signs of the Church, as the Church Fathers have formulated it in the Creed of the Council of Nicaea, “We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”

These signs are the realization of the goals of the incarnation, redemption and salvation of the whole world: in fact the Church is the place of unity, salvation and redemption. That is what St. Irenaeus († 202) expressed with great elegance, where we read, “The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples, this faith: in only one God, the Father almighty… and in one Christ Jesus, Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation and in the Holy Spirit…. Although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house (it) carefully preserves this faith. It also believes these points just as if it had but one soul and one and the same heart, and it proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down with perfect harmony, as if it possessed only one mouth. For although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same...The Catholic Church possesses one and the same faith throughout the whole world… ”

The Church expresses its unity among all the faithful worldwide through the service of sanctification, teaching and administration, so that their unity may be realized through the same teaching, the one celebration of the sacraments and the one administration and organization of pastoral work.

Practical Recommendations

The call of Jesus incarnate is unifying in its scope. This call is addressed to our Melkite Greek Catholic Church on all levels: internal and external unity: unity among ourselves, with our heritage, traditions, rules and laws (codification) of our Church, our rite, and the concessions, typikon and codification of our religious communities of men and women.

The Unifying Role of our Church

This unity is the work of all of us in the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate: unity on all levels; so that the fruits of the unifying incarnation may be realized in this apostolic Church, so that the wish of Pope John-Paul II may be realized, a wish that he expressed on his first visit after our patriarchal election, in February, 2001, “You are a strong and coherent Church.”

I discover more and more the importance of this unity in my patriarchal service. It is not surprising, since I have always been preoccupied by unity since my years of theological and priestly studies and my education at Saint Saviour’s and my academic studies in Rome. Following on from that, I founded in the Lebanon in 1962 the review “Unity in Faith” and I participated in the ecumenical movement in the Lebanon in the 1960’s and the early 1970’s. During our service as Patriarchal Vicar in Jerusalem, we took the initiative of bringing together the heads of Christian Churches for monthly gatherings, as well as for more informal brotherly meetings, without the worry of protocol and these gave birth to a real fraternity amongst us and to a more effective collaboration over local, social, pastoral or ecclesial activities. In Jerusalem, I also founded with Muslim and Christian friends the Al-Liqa’ Centre and Christian Club and the St. Cyril Centre Adult Theological School: so many projects, all with the aim of unifying spiritual teaching, and social and pastoral thinking. This bore fruit, in all its beauty, in our Eparchial Synod of all Catholic Churches in the Holy Land, which we called together on the eve of the Great Jubilee of the year 2000.

The realization of the goals of the unifying incarnation is our most important obligation both inside and outside our Church: inside our Eastern ecclesial society and on the level of the universal Church. It has been the task of our Antiochian Church and its role throughout history, as I have shown in my different speeches in Rome, during the Episcopal Synod of the month of October last, 2005. That is what I have shown to be the different phases of this role throughout the history of our Church, since the time of Patriarch Peter III of Antioch who drew to the attention of Patriarch Michael Cerularius, the damage and the unhappy consequences of breaking union with Rome in 1054. Here is an extract from his letter to Cerularius: “Day and night, I have been wondering why this division of the Church and how one can set aside the successor of the great Peter and separate him from the divine body of the Churches, so that his voice can no longer be heard in the meeting of bishops and he no longer takes his part in the cares of the Church, so that he too may receive from them fraternal and pastoral direction.” Let us not forget the first group of Melkites who struggled for the union of our church with Rome, despite all the implications of the union of 1724. We cannot forget either our predecessor, Gregory II, in the Council of Vatican I in 1870, during which he drew attention to the dangers of Rome drawing up in a unilateral way the definition of papal infallibility, because of the great importance of this dogma for the relations between the Roman and Orthodox Churches. This role reached an extraordinary climax – a very important and unique phase, very effective and appreciated¬¬- in the part played by our predecessor, Maximos IV Sayegh and the bishops of our Church in Vatican II: in several aspects of the council’s work, one sees clearly the particularly ecumenical influence of our Church on the whole, touching both the life and constitution of the wider Church.

When we consider this impressive inheritance, we cannot appear fearful or discouraged in the face of the demands of Christian unity. We don’t have the right to doubt our unifying ecumenical role on all levels, especially Eastern and Western.

In the heart of the Roman communion, we must always keep in mind the great absent, yet present one: the Orthodox Church. Not that we wish at all to take its place and substitute ourselves for it, God forbid! But it is our role to draw the attention of the Christian West to the rich theological, patristic, liturgical, spiritual and pastoral heritage of the Christian East.

What is called the Great Schism, which has received as a symbolic date the year 1054, was not a schism caused by theological differences in an Ecumenical Council. It started with a lingering sulkiness between Patriarch Michael and Cardinal Humbert. Then well-known historical, political circumstances combined to deepen the gulf between East and West. All that had nothing to do with Christian doctrine and subsequently, each group came to insist on the things that separate us and that increase the gulf between East and West and increase estrangement between them.

Today, it has to be said, unity will be realized through reconciliation, setting aside the sulkiness of former times and putting charity into action, emphasizing what unites us rather than what divides us. That is the summary of the theology of the incarnation and the meaning of Christmas. We are absolutely convinced that the union of Churches will be possible if we humble ourselves before God and allow ourselves to welcome the fruits of the unifying incarnation. Then we shall be able to resolve the most tangled theological problems on the basis of our generous, complete open-heartedness. Living together in mutual exchange and re-established communion, we shall discover each other from within and from the heart of our common mind, we shall incarnate the love of God for us and our love for one another.

My pastoral patriarchal letters in these years of my service as Patriarch have all had as goal to fortify and uphold the progress of our Church, so that it may be stronger and more coherent, may grow and be more interdependent and united. For unita manent – “things united remain” and as the proverb says, “Strength is in unity.” And it is through that that we all can understand the true vision of our ecumenical role.

Unity in Liturgical Life

The Church insists on the unity of rite, for it is the expression of the unity of the Church. That is what we read in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Canon 39, where it says, “The rites of the Eastern Church must be kept and upheld with great reverence, for they are the heritage of the universal Church of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy shines forth the tradition that comes from the apostles through the fathers and through it we affirm the divine unity of faith in its diversity.” In paragraph I of Canon 40 we read the following: “Let all those who preside over Churches sui iuris, and all local spiritual heads take great care to preserve their rite and be faithful to it and practice it with exactness and refuse all change, except such as is internal, placing before themselves the importance of solidarity and unity between Christians.” We read in the address of Pope John Paul II on the subject of faithfulness to the rites of the church, “In our century we ought to discover the value of obedience to the typikon and rubrics of the Church, for it is a way of witnessing to and mirroring the unity and universality of the Church. All that bursts upon our gaze during the liturgical celebrations. In fact, the priest who, with his parish, celebrates the Divine Liturgy with fidelity to the text and rubrics causes to shine forth silently and eloquently, his love and the love of his parish for the Church.”

Much effort has been made in our Church in the liturgical sector, since the 1950’s, especially in the time of Bishop Neophytos Edelby and in 1969 the Holy Synod decreed very important changes and also in the time of our predecessor, Maximos V and during the time when the presidency of the Patriarchal and Synodal Liturgical Commission was entrusted to us from 1996. Since then our liturgical books have taken on a very beautiful form, both in texts and melodies. And despite that, we find that there are, here and there, people who despise these efforts and hesitate to use new liturgical books and there are others who publish liturgical books without the permission of the ecclesiastical authority or Imprimatur and even invent certain texts at leisure. All this is contrary to church discipline and clearly contrary to canon law. In all liturgical matters, it is well known that the authority of the Patriarch is complete and embraces the whole Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Arab countries and the countries of emigration and throughout the whole world.

We would like to recall a paragraph from a decree of our predecessor Maximos V on the presentation of new liturgical books. This passage sums up all our aspirations with regard to the Liturgy: “We have the sure hope that this book in its new form will help to animate our noble liturgical heritage and bring about understanding of the Eastern liturgical tradition. We hope that it will be the means for us to approach God in dialogue and to imitate our predecessors of blessed memory, who found in the prayers of our Mother Church a very rich source of devotion and adoration that became for them a path to Christian life and holiness.”

The unity of the Church appears not only in the texts but also in liturgical chant and melody. We declare that our choral singing is a Melkite heritage common to the whole Church and the traditions are very similar, although there are minor, very secondary differences, and that is why we have done everything possible to publish this heritage of song and have done so under a new title which does not claim it for a particular group but acknowledges its importance as belonging to the entire Church. It is entitled “The Liturgical Music of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.”
 
We have every hope that this publication will help to unify as far as possible the singing of the services, so that the common melodies of the most well-known chants will be the same throughout our eparchies, parishes and monastic communities of men and women, in our schools and brotherhoods, in our different institutes and teaching establishments. Of course, the prayers, singing and liturgical celebrations are no doubt the most important ways of showing to best and finest effect, an image of the strength of our Church and its compactness and unity. So we put into practice, all together, the motto that we have everywhere in the liturgical books and in the typikon of our church, always proclaiming and saying publicly, “One Melkite Greek Catholic Church! Unified liturgical texts; unified liturgical books; unified popular hymns!”

Unity of Pastoral Work

The unity of the Church is also revealed in the field of pastoral work and above all in the sacramental ministry, in the service to parishes and especially in the pastoral care of young people. These themes will be the subject of our Patriarchal Assembly that canon law requires be held every five years. Canon 141 says, in fact, that the Council or Patriarchal Assembly is the instance of highest collegiality in the Church and that it is presided over by the Patriarch and the Episcopal Synod of the Patriarchal Church to discuss the most important business of the Church, helping to accord the traditional forms and methods of apostolate and ecclesial discipline, on the one hand, with new developments in time and the welfare of the Church on the other, whilst at the same time keeping under consideration the common good of the whole region in which the Church lives sui iuris. That is the import of the official text of this same Canon 141. The Patriarchal Assembly, then, must be called together at least once every five years and with the agreement of the permanent Synod, or of the Patriarchal Church, or as often as the Patriarch judges it necessary.

We very much hope and expect that the preparatory studies for the Patriarchal Assembly and the conclusions and decisions that will be promulgated after it has been held, will in future form a general, pastoral guide that will clearly embody our pastoral vision and the goals and means – new and modern - adapted to give priority to our pastoral work, so that this Patriarchal Assembly will help the unity and efficacy of pastoral work  and preserve a strong, deep faith in our eparchies, in our parishes and especially among our young people.

Unity of Church Discipline in our Eparchies

A new set of canon laws appeared in 1990 under the title, Codex of Canons of the Eastern Churches: this canon law is obligatory for all our Eastern Catholic Churches, and it is on the basis of this canon law that the canonical commission presented to the Synod a project for the constitution of bye-laws for each diocese, so that each particular eparchial constitution should be in agreement with general and particular canon law and should be indeed the rule for all eparchies in all their specificities. That was decided in the Synod of 2004. These rulings or sets of bye-laws must take into consideration the different situation of each church and be published as the constitution for each eparchy, binding upon the bishop, priests, monks, nuns and laity and be in the hands of the faithful, so that all can co-operate for the good running of the church in collegiality and unity for the welfare of individuals, social groups and for the whole community and for the progress of the pastorate.

Unfortunately, many eparchies have not yet produced these rulings and if there are any such, they often remain in the hands of the bishop only or one or two people besides and are not really in the hands of all, in such a way that they feel themselves concerned by them. Such constitutions would be the guarantee of the unity of the Church and would be a pastoral obligation according to our common law. We would like to affirm here that to transgress, neglect or fail to conform with the Church’s canon law shows ignorance or lack of concern, or reluctance to learn and take action, that leads the Church into laxity and really weakens the strength of exaltation and the progress of our renewal and diminishes the harvest of our pastoral service and the success of our pastoral work on every level, making the Church less able to meet the challenges it encounters or respond to the aspirations of new generations, or fulfil successfully its apostolate in society: moreover, it really undermines from within the unity of the Church. Our Melkite Greek Catholic Church has need of renewal and, according to its gifts, of progress based on modern techniques and methods, so that it can be in a complete relationship, in a real inner enculturation, with all its children, sons and daughters of our parishes and eparchies, indeed, of the whole world.

Unity in Commitment and Solidarity

Among the fruits of the unifying incarnation is the internal unity of the Church, because the Church is the body of Christ as St. Paul says, very clearly, showing that the unity of the Church is the unity of the faithful in Christ, the unity of man and woman, the unity of the family, unity of the members of the one body. As he says, “For as the body is one, with its many limbs, which, many as they are, together are one body, so is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free and have all been made to drink into the one Spirit.” (I Corinthians 12:12-13.) Our patriarchal motto is “Watch, and walk in love.” It behoves the whole Church, in all its members to be vigilant, so that in all of them - Patriarch, bishops, priests, monks and nuns, laity of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the whole world - may be filled with the fruits of the Nativity.

We are a Church without borders, open to all, but, to be so and to realise all these qualities, we have to have a clear identity and a strong internal unity, based on the sources and roots which are common to us all and capable of resisting all the dangers of schism, laxity, internal fundamentalism, sectarianism between communities, clergy, eparchies and ethnic groups in our Arab countries.

It is absolutely necessary to close ranks, as I said in my letter of 2003, entitled “Poverty and Development” and as I suggested in the project called “Melkite Solidarity,” in which I proposed that every member of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church pledge to give one dollar a year to show support for and solidarity with his Church, spread throughout the whole world.

I have shown also that this project of “Melkite Solidarity” must include all Greek Catholics everywhere. It is not merely concerned with material progress and the collection of large sums of money for service to the poor and to set up in the church a workshop for development, but it also has a spiritual, collegial and ecclesial dimension.
We hope to realise through it a growth in our sense of commitment and belonging to the church, in our collegial and general ecclesial solidarity with the Melkite Greek Catholic Church throughout the whole world and in the feeling that we all belong to one body and one and the same Church, forming just one community, so that every member of the Greek Catholic Church throughout the whole world will feel solidarity, linked to his Greek Catholic brother or sister throughout the world, through, among other things, the donation of just one dollar.

We would like to insist here, above all, on the unity between the individual members of the one family and of all its members, because many dangers threaten the unity of our families and the permanence of the sacrament of marriage. In fact St. Paul links the mystery of the unity of the Church and Christ with that of husband and wife in the unity and firmness of Christian marriage, when he writes, “This is a great mystery.” (Ephesians 5:32)

Great is our Christian faith in the incarnate and unifying Christ, to reinforce the family ties in our parishes. In fact, it is through the family that the mystery of the incarnate Christ appears and the fruits and the effects of the sacraments that the faithful receive, especially the sacrament of marriage.

Love must be the token and characteristic of our Church, so that in us may be realized what Christ said to his apostles, “It is thus that you will be known as my disciples,” and I would say, that you are Greek Catholics, if you love one another.

This unity is necessary at the social level: it means social and sociological involvement in the work place and in political life, at every level in the life of our Church. Our society needs us all and together we can build a better world, a saved and redeemed world, a world which lives out the values and virtues of the Church and the Gospel, the virtues of the incarnate and unifying Christ.

Unity through Christian Education

The realization of the goals of the unifying incarnation can not but touch on all levels of the Church’s life and, amongst others, the level of education and training. Education was in fact the principal topic during the meeting of the Catholic Patriarchs and bishops in Lebanon in November, 2005.

Christian education is the continuation of the growth of Christ: see my letter of Christmas, 2002, entitled “Jesus is Growing.” So it is the continuation of the growth of the Christian in the life in Christ, through the efficacy of the sacraments in his life. All the efforts of all the Christian pastors, bishops, priests, monks and nuns must be consolidated to preserve the heritage of faith and to make it deeper and purer in the hearts of all our faithful, especially the young, to whom we should dedicate the greatest care, for they are the Church’s future. Let us not forget the education of our priests, monks and nuns in the faculties of philosophy and theology and in training establishments, for they are the Church’s guides and leaders of the future. We have to raise and renew the levels of their education, and bring up to date the teaching and training programs and give all that a pronounced and distinctive Eastern quality. Let us not forget either the importance of languages, both ancient and modern, in creating a better theological and academic preparation.

So it is vitally necessary to develop in our churches programs of Christian education, in order to give to that training a real Melkite Greek Catholic spiritual character as well as a general catholic character, which will give it more conformity with other Christian Churches in the region.

I am convinced that we cannot have an interaction with others, if we are not ourselves faithful to our own identity and to the special role of our Church, because no-one can give what he does not possess and we shall not be able to co-operate and collaborate with others if we have nothing to give them.

Union through the Religious Communities of Men and Women

The unifying incarnation has a uniquely privileged meaning for the religious communities of men and women, which have a big role in carrying the message of Christ, of his birth and incarnation into our world, our society and Church in a very special way.

Our service is one, although the typikon, the lifestyle and the kind of apostolate of our religious communities may differ. I have a very dear wish in my heart, that I have expressed in my visits to our convents and religious communities, in many different meetings with them, to make all possible efforts to see what can be done in the direction of solidarity, mutual help, reciprocal advice and interaction, in order to realize what we can in the way of unity and religious confederality. So we may arrive at greater Christian and religious perfection and contribute to the welfare of monks and nuns: realize a better service in the Church and in society and ensure better, clearer religious education, centralise administration and improve the economic condition of the communities; exploit the grounds of the different communities and also develop the role of the monasteries, convents and institutions and broaden their service, especially in the social sphere, through benefaction and development, help for the poor, for social development and for all humanity.

Let us not forget either that the word “monk” in Greek, Syriac, French and other European languages means one who is unified, united and who aspires to unity with himself, with God and with his neighbour. In that original sense of the word, we are all called to be “monks,” in order that we may overcome all the motives for division in our own person and the causes of division in our Church and in society. The monk and indeed every Christian must be unifying and unified and an apostle of unity in society, after the example of Jesus Christ, the apostle of unity and the link of unity.

Call for Unity in the Arab World

Our Christian faith in the unifying incarnation cannot confine itself to efforts for Christian unity. Belief in one God becomes a call for unity among humankind and the unity of the incarnation calls for the unification of our common goals in society in order to face up to different challenges that are common to us all, both Muslims and Christians. Unity in God, unification from God must be a call for unity amongst men, to solidarity between them and to deepen the links of love between them.

We should unite: the unifying mission of the incarnation is more than ever necessary in the Arab world.

We Arab Christians who live in an Arab society which is largely Muslim have a special mission in that sense in a society which is from us, as we are from it, and which is for us, as we are for it.

We have to understand that we are an Arab Church and moreover the Church of the Arabs and the Church of Islam, because of our profound communion and union with this Arab, Islamic world in its culture, civilization, values, politics, sociological aspects and in all aspects of its life over the history of the last fourteen hundred years.

We all, Muslims and Christians alike, are facing a terrible conspiracy. We must not let ourselves fall into the mesh of this plot, which aims at ridding the East of its Christians and polarizing East and West, the better to strike at Muslims and remaining Christians!

Yes, we have a special vocation to face up to this great plot. We ought to love one another, to show solidarity with each other and help each other, so that Muslims help Christians and Christians help Muslims, so that Muslims defend Christians and Christians Muslims, so that Christians show the best aspects of their Christianity and Muslims the best of their Islam.

Let us say to everyone in the Arab world that the solution to our problems lies in our faith as Muslims and Christians. If we succeed in facing up to this challenge in a positive and decisive way, we shall bring about a unique victory and surely be an example to the whole world as agents of peace and salvation in our world, both Eastern and Western.

Muslims and Christians in their Arab world are then faced with this challenge. Again, Muslims living in Europe and America are in general faced with this challenge. This subject has often been brought up during my participation in the Catholic Episcopal Synod in Rome, during October, 2005 as well as in newspapers, reviews and in a big speech I gave in the town of Piacenza in Northern Italy and in talks I gave in the English Parliament and in the University of London in November, 2005. This theme was evoked in my talks in Europe and America. We all hear daily about and follow the debates that are occurring all over Europe about the enculturation of Muslims and their integration into European society, whilst still retaining their faith and their traditions.

Faced with these truths and challenges, we realize more than ever the importance of our union and our solidarity in the Arab world. Besides, I would say that among the priorities of our Church is working for unity and service of the Arab world. We are from this world and for it and its development, for its service, to defend its role and for interaction and solidarity with it and all related causes. We are obliged, as a Church, as individuals and a community, each one in his position, in his eparchy, in his parish, each according to his professional, social and political commitment to listen to all its thoughts, to its whole vision.

The fruits of the unifying incarnation also touch all the nations of the whole world and it is as Jesus said, or rather as is said about Jesus, that he will “die for the nation,” but not only for the (Jewish) nation, but also to unify all the scattered children of this world. That is why it is the duty of Christians to be the initiators, the heralds of unity for the entire world.

We wish, through this Christmas message, to address an urgent appeal to all the kings and heads of state of the Arab world to realize as much as possible unity amongst themselves, so that all together we can meet the challenge discussed above and which really threatens the unity of peoples of the whole region. Indeed, we have many unified and unifying factors amongst us: our Arab nature, Islam, language, culture, civilization, history, and especially the fact that our lands are holy for Christians and Muslims and even for Jews.

Noblesse oblige. If our lands are called “the cradle of religions” and if we are all proud of being monotheists and worshipping one God alone, then we shall succeed in realizing unity between our peoples, and respond to the appeal of new generations and their aspirations to faith in God, by living together side by side, in common service and solidarity, in human dignity, in co-citizenship, in freedom of worship and conscience in a society which is more and more divided, in justice, equality, safety and just peace, which is the key to peace for the whole world and the warranty for starting new progress towards finding a way to development and prosperity in the region.

The Arab countries ask America and Europe and all countries of the world to help them conclude and resolve the Palestinian Arab and Israeli conflict, which envelops and destroys the region, subjecting it to terror and violence and which has been at the root of all our problems, wars and crises for the last fifty years and more. I, as Patriarch of a Church which feels itself in profound solidarity with the Arab world, think that we should overcome our regional differences and realize an Arab unity which would be the warranty for really finding a just, general and lasting solution to this conflict and also assuring a brilliant future for the Arab world, meeting the aspirations of our young generation.

I am absolutely convinced that our faith, Christian and Muslim, is our greatest weapon both today and tomorrow to realize the different aspects of our holy mission and for preserving the values of our common, holy faith. I refuse absolutely to allow our countries to be considered the home of fundamentalism, violence, terrorism, aggressiveness theory, extremism and religious war. These expressions and situations are absolutely contrary to our values, faith, tradition and civilization. And in all that, unity is the foundation which can help us to repel these accusations hurled at the Arab world.

We are all unifying monotheists. Through our common faith, we must be strong enough to reject these charges and besides, be creative in finding solutions for Arab Muslim-Arab Christian, Arab Palestinian-Israeli conflicts and also for the bloody situation in Iraq and for all the other social and sociological, economic, religious and spiritual crises which threaten our societies and families, young people and cultural institutions and which touch all aspects of life in the homelands of our Arab world.

We also wish to allude to the care that the Eastern Church takes in all its communities for the causes of peace, justice and reconciliation throughout the region. The Eastern Catholic Patriarchs have produced very interesting documents in the service of justice and peace. This theme of Justice and Peace was the subject of their annual reunion at Amman, Jordan in November-December 2005, in which they discussed this particular problem in its different aspects in different Arab countries, especially in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine.

So our churches are realizing magnificently their spiritual service, of being places where one can address the problems of Arab countries from the point of view of religion and spirituality, of dialogue and culture and through that we become world spokesmen for the defence of the values of faith of us all, Christians and Muslims in the Arab world.

Conclusion

This Christmas letter is a meditation on the mystery of the unifying, divine incarnation. Besides the theological and spiritual meditation, I wanted to give some practical orientation to each reader of the letter, with love, with trust, with a feeling of respect and thanksgiving for all my beloved brother bishops, members of the Holy Synod and with a deep feeling for my patriarchal ministry, in order that in our Melkite Greek Catholic Church should be realized the fruits of the incarnation, redemption and salvation, and through our Church and from our little society towards the greater society, near and far, in Arab countries and the countries of emigration.

I address, through this letter, with cordial wishes for a Merry Christmas, all the sons and daughters of our parishes, clergy and people, so that for them all, the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ may be a feast of goodness and blessing, a festival of progress in faith and love in the hearts of all, so that in all of us should be realized the wishes of the angels’ song, from the region of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem and that its echoes should reach all our Church’s faithful throughout the whole world, in Arab countries and in the countries of emigration.

Our prayer is that the meaning of this angelic song should be realized in our countries and Arab homelands, especially in Palestine and in Iraq, and in the Lebanon and Syria for a better understanding in both these countries, so close and so brotherly, to help them overcome the crises and challenges which confront them locally, generally and in the whole world, always remembering that in the region of the Lebanon and Syria, we have the largest number of our faithful.

We gather all these meditations, proposals and words of guidance put forward in this letter to create a spiritual bouquet, fragrant with our love and offer it to the new Son, the Child of the cave, the Orient from on High, the new-born Child, God from all ages, asking him, at the intercession of our Mother, the Virgin Mary, to nourish our souls by his divine word and by the mystery of his love in the holy Eucharist.

And in his name and from the cave of Bethlehem, we invoke upon you all the blessings of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, and we wish you all a holy Festival of Christmas, a New Year which will bring to us all the tidings of the realization of the values of justice, peace, solidarity, brotherhood and love in the hearts of our faithful, in our parishes and families. Happy Feast!

With my love and apostolic blessing,
Gregorios III