We are celebrating with them the Feast of the Fitr (at the end of the
month of Ramadan), just as we have been living this month of Ramadan with them,
fasting for a day alongside them and taking part in the different popular and
media aspects of the feast, such as the meals (iftar) that mark the close of
each day’s fast, one of which was held at the Melkite Greek Catholic
Patriarchate in Damascus.
Today,
we extend to our brothers our very cordial good wishes. We would also like to
express a spiritual thought to them, to help strengthen our sincere mutual
relationship, on the national, religious, social, cultural, human and moral
levels.
We
extract this thought from our 2007 Christmas Letter, called, “The Word became
flesh.” Indeed, we believe that the Word of God, in Christianity and in Islam,
is of the greatest importance in promoting those conditions required for meeting
and living together in mutual respect, echoing the Qur’anic verse, “Come to
a common word.” (Aal ‘Imran 3:64)
In this letter, we
wrote, on the subject of dialogue between Christians and Muslims:
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There
is the Word that we have in common, it is clear: let us maintain a dialogue of
our beautiful faith, for the word that was given to me by God in my Christian
faith is truly mine, but not only for me; it is for my society, for my
fellow-men and I must bring it to them as a light of love and as a call to love,
a sign of hope for the other person, that he may grow in his religion and
beliefs and deepen them, not so that I may despise him or he may despise his own
religion.
It is of very great importance for people to love their religion and the Word of
God for mankind, and know it in ever greater depth, preserving and defending it.
But one must be open to the other person, to his convictions and faith. If not,
we fall into relativism, which is the greatest enemy of faith.
Jesus calls us to preach that faith, saying, “Go ye into all the world[1]”
and “teach all nations[2].”
And
Saint Paul
exhorts us, speaking to his disciple Timothy, saying, “Preach the word…in
season, out of season.” (II Timothy 4:2)
There is no monopoly on the Word of God. It is just as much the other person’s
as it is mine. Our Muslim world is afraid of our preaching, but does not cease
preaching Islam. That is an unreasonable position. We require our Muslim
fellow-citizens to acknowledge our freedom to bring the good news to others,
with love and respect for their faith, but we do not require anyone else to
embrace our faith. It is enough if people can find out about it and come to
esteem and love it. Conversion is the work of God. Do not attempt to convert a
friend, or loved one. God converts whom he will.
The Word of God is for me and its
revelation is to me, but not to me alone. I must allow others to share in it. We
must have, as we say in the Arabic proverb, bread and salt.
But it is not bread or salt that enables us to live together. What matters is
rather how we can share together in the Word of God in Christianity, Islam and
Judaism. How can we feed each other by the Word of God? How can the Word of God
become an essential food? As we say in the Our
Father, “Give us this day our daily (epiousion) bread.” The Our
Father is really a call to share together in the Word of God.
We thank God for the many, beautiful relationships between Christians and
Muslims that occur especially in everyday living. However, I would like us to
share together in the Word of God, since that is what unites us, draws us
together and gives us strength, reinforcing our faith. Let us not be afraid to
love the Word of God in our brothers and sisters. Let us not be afraid of verses
from the Qur’an and let them not be afraid of verses from the Gospel or from
the Torah. These are the Word of God for us all, every one according to his own
calling. I would like to tell our Muslim brethren not to fear our faith. Let us
all rather be afraid of using words of vengeance, criticism, pride and
haughtiness. The Word of God does not despise anyone. It is not proud, boastful
or puffed up. It does not engage in bad behavior or enjoy retaliation. It does
not rejoice in evil, but in good. It rejoices in love and believes all things.
(cf. I Corinthians 13:4-7)
Let
us love the Word of God, for the Word of God is for us all. Let us share these
words, proclaiming them in song and loving them. Let these words of God be for
our friendship, living together and mutual relationship. Instead of using empty,
lying flatteries, let us nourish ourselves with earth’s most beautiful words
and feed each other with these same heavenly words that God addresses to the
children of men, for God is bountiful and bestows his life-giving words on us
all. Let us not be afraid of the words of God, but rather let us fear the words
of men. Let us so act that our human words be changed into words divine.
I propose founding a forum to be called “The Forum of the Word of God,” so
that Christians and Muslims can meet together and together discuss and meditate
upon the Word of God.
Our zeal for the Word of God should be a means of sanctification for us and for
deepening our faith. We must not allow our zeal for the Word to become a weapon
to exploit others, judging, persecuting and compelling them to embrace our
faith, any more than we can allow the Word of God to become the cause of
conflicts, disputes and confrontations between our faithful and those holding
different religious convictions. Nor should it become an instrument of terrorism
and a pretext for one group to claim superiority over another. The Word of God
(not we ourselves) is the true judge between us and those who are not of our
faith.
And why be afraid of having churches and mosques? If they were symbols of
defiance, we would have cause to fear, but as signs of faith they may stimulate
instead our hopes and expectations.
Why, in
Saudi Arabia
, are they afraid of allowing churches to be built and the Gospel to be
preached? Why are they even afraid of Christians praying as a community? Surely
those who are in the light need be afraid of nothing!
Let us not be afraid. The Prophet Muhammad was not afraid of a Christian or
Jewish presence, but combated paganism. Today all of us Christians and Muslims
are called to fight against today’s new paganisms: incredulity and unbelief.
I say to my Muslim brethren: don’t be afraid of our faith, but rather be
afraid if we neglect our faith and indulge in unpleasant habits. To my
fellow-Christians I say: don’t be afraid of the words of those Muslims who
keep and preserve the Word of God.
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Following the publication of this Christmas
Letter, a Lebanese journalist published this assessment, “This letter is the
expression of the cultural revolution that awaits the Arab world. It is the
purest and most frank expression that Christians and Muslims alike could wish to
hear of the basis for Islamic-Christian relations that will help us Christians
and Muslims to continue our progress together along the way of the 1429 year old
history of the Christian and Hegiraic eras.”
That is the meaning of the Qur’anic verse, “Come to a common word.” This
verse is also the title of the letter of the 138 Ulemas, Shaykhs and Muslim
intellectuals sent to his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.
This common word is warranted to shrink the wound of emigration that saps our
Arab countries and lowers the number of job opportunities and the climate for
living together, progress, security, prosperity, dignity and honour.
Our Arab countries need this common word to meet the aspirations, wishes and
prospects of the young generations; who make up sixty per cent of the three
hundred million inhabitants of the mostly Muslim Arab world.
This common word is the warranty that will allow us to preserve our (Muslim and
Christian) Arab world from fundamentalism, terrorism, violence, hatred and
aggression.
This common word is at one and the same time the future of both Christians and
Muslims.
We would like this Feast of the Fitr to give a new impetus towards dialogue,
meeting, friendship, fellowship, mutual respect, acceptance of the other and
progress together towards new horizons in our Arab Middle East, cradle of
Christianity and Islam. This is the great challenge for us all. Are the children
of a common cradle, in this common Middle East capable of continuing their
progress together, for as long as God wills: he who is Love and who loves all
his Christian and Muslim children?
The common word, in Christianity and Islam, has an extraordinary power; it is
capable of helping us to love one another, to cooperate and to build together in
fellowship a civilization of love, an authentically humane culture. If we
Christians and Muslims love, love will spread through out the whole world.
Yet, if we live in hostility, the whole world will live in hostility too; if we
hate each other, the world will be smothered in the hell of hatred. If we reject
each other, the world will be torn apart and consumed by the fire of wars. As
Fairouz sang about
Jerusalem
, the City of love, truth, faith life and the Resurrection, “When Jerusalem
fell, love retreated and war reigned in the hearts of the whole cosmos.” The
world would then be the homeland of war, rather than being the
land
of
Love
and peace.
However, it is up to us, through our fellowship and love, to build for the whole
world a model of living together, dialogue and encounter.
Our countries were the cradle of religions. We are called, in this Arab world,
to provide society with a blueprint for the finest kind of life in the fairest
kind of setting.
These
are then our good wishes! This is our common word, spoken to our Muslim brothers
throughout the whole world.
Gregorios III
Patriarch
of
Antioch
and All the East,
Of
Alexandria
and of
Jerusalem
Translation
from the French: V. Chamberlain
