Life in Lebanon: A Chronicle

 

Raymond Rizk

The causes of the civil war in Lebanon may be economic and political, but because of the particular character of the country and its constitution they implicate the religious communities as well. The Orthodox Christians, who, unlike the Roman Catholic Maronite, have no reason, because of their limited numbers, to look for an eventual partition of the country, can only hope for cooperation and peace. The fighting and political instability make it difficult

for the Orthodox even to exist, and the pressure to emigrate is very great. Raymond Rizk, himself a member of the Orthodox Youth Movement of the Patriarchate of Antioch, describes a visit to Lebanon in the summer of 7984 in this article translated from Contacts 728 (7984), pp.320-330.

---------------  

Sunday 29 July

A parish church on the line of demarcation which divides Beirut in two sectors. Even at the height of the recent events it continued to welcome those few people who had not abandoned this area, which was so heavily tried it is one of the first Sundays when there are a few more people.

Familiar faces: those of the icons and of the parishioners. Attachment to a face! Our attachment to a country - is this not to a great extent our attachment to the faces that inhabit it? And because in the Church, in the Eucharistic encounter, faces expand to the dimension of the world, taking on the character of icons and thereby becoming still more attractive, is it not true to say that the Church is the only true fatherland?

Sunday 5 August

This time I am in a church in West Beirut, in a section where Islam is predominant. Here, also, there are familiar faces:

The Orthodox Youth Movement has left its trace everywhere. And the best place to rediscover lost friends is in their parish church. One of the reasons which made a friend -originally Protestant, but now become Orthodox - want to know more of Orthodoxy was, as she told us, the warmth and true affection which she saw in the brotherly embrace which certain of her true friends, members of the Youth Movement, gave each other whenever they met. And their way of looking straight into each other's eyes.The faces of my friends in West Beirut! Lined with anxiety... They asked for news of those 'on the other side' - for the psychological breach has never been felt as strongly as during these last six months, when Christians living in the West lived through moments when they were really led to fear for their lives. Some were killed by the extremists (on 9 April 1984, for example, an Orthodox family of six, four of them children) who seemed to wish, by attacking innocent people, to provoke a mass exodus. Churches were profaned, sacked, etc. The situation has got better since then, but an aftermath of uncertainty remains. What will it be like tomorrow? Perhaps this is why on that day, the eve of the Transfiguration, I experienced in a particularly emotional way our ancient and beautiful psalms, sung by a choir made up of . the children of my old friends. Hence perhaps the redoubled urgency increasingly felt today within the movement for renewal in the Church of Antioch: on the one hand, there is need for liturgical reform, so as to rediscover beyond the accidents and contingencies of history, the very core of liturgical action, which is essentially communal. So as to go beyond the dichotomy often experienced in the Orthodox world between understanding and beauty, so that each person becomes a real participant in what is a 'family reunion' par excellence, So as to purify and lighten a symbolism which, if poorly understood, becomes a screen. To get rid of a mistaken hieraticism which, in the course of the years, has smothered the real meaning of priesthood under a mass of superstructures. And at the same time, to do this without in any way modifying the Orthodox liturgical vision; on the contrary, to remain faithful to it, to give back to the liturgical words and gestures their original meaning, to rediscover them so that they can better express the torments and anxieties of our generation. The Spirit still lives in the Church and it is a sin against the Spirit to refuse to remove the dust which renders opaque the message of the Gospel. On the other hand there is the urgent need to transmit this very message by means of the written word. Hence the importance during these last years of the Editions An- Nour  and the vast number of subjects and concerns with which they attempt to deal. The times are bad  and short. It is a question of putting at the disposal of the greatest possible number a Christian literature in the Arabic language, so as to lead them to assume an adult Christianity, open and fearless, whatever may be our destiny in the future.

Sunday 6 August

In the middle of the Liturgy, I suddenly realize that today is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Strange coincidence! But is it a coincidence? Is it not rather a sign for us, to make us reflect on the mystery of Light: transfiguring when it belongs to God and demonic when manipulated by man!

A visit to one of our bishops

I find the episcopal 'palace' seriously damaged as the result of recent troubles. At the entrance to the chapel the icon of Anthony the Great, to whom the chapel is dedicated, seems to be a reminder that, contrary to the appearance of luxury with which a community, presuming upon the 'glories' of its past, adorns the dwellings of its bishops, these dwellings are meant to be true monasteries! Indeed the Arabic word for 'episcopal palace' is kellaya, which comes from the Greek kellion, meaning 'cell'.

This is the second episcopal palace to be seriously damaged since the beginning of war in the Lebanon. Beyond the actual tragedy, is this another sign from on high to remind us all that the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head and to invite us to seek our 'glory' there where it should really be: in humility, in service, in voluntary poverty assumed and lived in love?

A meeting of youth leaders

A youth centre in a suburb of Beirut. Orthodox young people are becoming more and more sensitive to a problem which seems to have been spreading for some time in the Patriarchate of Antioch, and manifests itself· !llainly in an increase of clericalism and a growth of authoritarianism amongst some of the bishops; and also in the gap which sometimes seems to be forming between the]Il and the body of believers.

These young people also perceive with pain the obvious tension that exists between on the one hand the pragmatic rationalism, based on short-term effectiveness, which is practised by some, and on the other hand, a spirituality that is more rooted in tradition, without for that reason ceasing to be open to the necessity of renewal and a new approach towards pastoral realities and needs.

All this takes place against a background of civil war, as the whole of the Christian people asks itself fundamental questions about its own existence and is turning towards the Church as a source of meaning, a reason for not emigrating, and as a focus of hope for reunification and peace. Pressing and painful questions face those who wish, in spite of everything, to remain faithful to the call of the Spirit who more than forty-two years ago now, brought into being this impetus towards church renewal around the Orthodox Youth Movement.

What can be done to ensure that pastoral concern comes first before all other considerations? How should money and institutions - and they are abundant in certain dioceses - be used in service and in witness? Must we give up hope of a reform in depth of the institutions of the Church? How can the bishop, who is generally caught up these days in the various currents of modern life, and who (at least in our area) is always seen as - and sometimes sees himself as, or cannot prevent himself from being - the political chief, the representative of the millet, the one who organizes and encourages the temporal prosperity of the community, the one who must of necessity preside over the marriage or the funeral of anybody of any 'importance' in society - how is it possible for the bishop, caught up in this whirlpool for which his training has usually not prepared him, still to have the opportunity and the time (and, unfortunately, sometimes even the interest) to be the Father and Shepherd which Orthodox theology requires him to be? For Orthodox theology sees him as the man who 'presides in love' over a limited eucharistic community, surrounded by the college of presbyters and the believers as if they were his family? What can be done to ensure that the Church, through her spokesman, the bishop, hears the voice of those prophets whom the Spirit raises up here and there, so that she may once again become a servant, the dispenser of life and meaning to all the famished of the world? How can the bishop be led to counterbalance his acute sense of the divine origin of his authority, which is joined with a (sometimes exaggerated) prudence due to his many responsibilities, with the realization that this authority has no real substance unless it is lived out in real communion with the whole community?

Or to realize that the sense of prudence can easily become a sense of compromise and a systematic refusal to act? How are we to explain the fact that priests who have shown themselves burning with pastoral zeal, once they have become bishops, see their concern fade away, to be replaced by what is often an almost exclusive interest in the company of the great of this world, in the administration of wealth and institutions, and in social and political problems? How can one harmonize what the faithful expect of their bishop and the aspiration - sometimes legitimate - of those who would like to see him (in the absence of anyone else) as their representative in the Lebanese political and confessional system.

These are the questions which ordinary believers are asking themselves. Questions asked usually in silence. But how long must this silence last? Should we not, rather, in all filial respect, ask them openly and call upon the sons of the Church to join together so as to find a reply?

Reflexion on the episcopacy and its relationship with the unity of the people of God both theologically and pastorally in the world today, would seem to be a vital issue, and one with which the Orthodox Church should be consciously concerned.

Sunday 12 August

A monastery, built nearly a hundred years ago and then, until recently, deserted ••• Buried in beautiful, wild countryside near a village made up of a few small houses. Bekaata, in the diocese of Mount Lebanon. For four months now two monks have been living there, one of whom, Father Ephraem, was active in the Orthodox Youth Movement. He was an electrical engineer who did his theological studies in Balamand and Thessaloniki, and has spent the last two years on Mount Athas. His eyes are alive with intelligence and kindness. The inhabitants of the village come regularly, attracted by his kindness, astonished by the austerity of his ascetic life. Young people from much further away visit regularly... At the time that the monks of another monastery (Deir-el-Harf), which was founded nearly thirty years ago by other young people from the Youth Movement, were forced to abandon their monastery by the 'War of the Mountain' of 1983 and seek temporary shelter in a convent in North Lebanon, here a new monastic branch, fed by the spirituality of both Antioch and Mount Athas, has come into being on Mount Lebanon· itself. The ways of God are impenetrable. In the midst of a whirlwind of ceaseless violence, the Spirit comes - perhaps to tell us once more to concern ourselves with 'the one thing needful'. Will we listen?

In another church on Mount Lebanon

In the immediate suburbs of Beirut, the ordination of a young friend, a specialist in the education of children and a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Education. Father Mitri, who now has three children, joined the Youth Movement when still quite young. Metropolitan George (Khodre) is radiant as he presides over the service. One of his greatest consolations is to see one of the disciples of the first hour (as also of the eleventh!) com miting himself more and more deeply to the service of the Church.

For several generations of Antiochian Christians

Metropolitan George remains the spiritual Father par excellence. He is also one of the few bishops whom many people continue to call Father. That says everything! A radiant presence if ever there was one! It has been given to him - along with Patriarch Ignatius IV and some others- to reunite the Church of Antioch with its past while at the same time endeavouring to reply to the challenges of our modern era. A Church which only harks back to the ancient Fathers and is content to go on sifting them without recognizing in one of its contemporary sons a living successor of the Fathers, is a Church on the way to disappearance - as indeed was the Church of Antioch not so long ago, and as are perhaps some of the other Churches in the world.

An Orthodox book fair

Also craft work and icons, organized by the Orthodox Youth Movement and exhibited in another suburb of Beirut. The work had been done by young people and by women who were forced to leave their villages during the war of the mountain and who are now being looked after, with their families, by the 'Committee for Refugees' formed by the diocese of Mount Lebanon. Among other activities, the committee tries in this way to enable them to contribute by their work to their own support.

Another priestly ordination

Again the diocese of Mount Lebanon. This time it is a doctor of theology (canon law and history of the Church); he, too, was brought up in the Orthodox Youth Movement before studying in Rumania, Rome and other places. For a while Father Samir will serve the Antiochian parish in London. During the service Metropolitan George gives a sermon. These are some extracts:

'You will be a priest in your own home, in the world, in the eyes of all; you will be humble towards everyone, not before them but, in their presence, before the Lord ... '

'In your parish, you will find those who love Christ, but also mean-spirited individuals seeking their own glory - and others in between. But remember that whether pure, mean-spirited or sinners, they are all equally your children, that the Lord has offered them salvation, and that you must deal with them on this basis whether they are conscious of it or not.'

'You will also have to deal with bishops. They, too, are made of flesh and blood and are not free of passions. But do not stop short at their passions. They will make you carry a heavy cross. Accept it calmly and obediently ••• for through obedience you will move forward on the pathways of the Kingdom, though perhaps as a bleeding sacrifice •.. You will be offered up in the very bosom of the Church, but it is through the spilling of blood that we approach the face of God. Know this and do not despair. The Church is living through bad times ••. Accept her with the warmth with which Christ looks on her and you will s har e in her glory...'

Thursday 16 August

The entire Lebanese press announces on the front page that the President of the Republic was present the day before at the celebration of the Feast of the Dormition in an Orthodox church in Beirut - and that he received communion from the hands of the Orthodox Metropolitan.

Over and above the fact that this particiation has been welcomed as a sign of the President's willingness to work tirelessly for the reunion of the Lebanese and of his favourable attitude towards the traditional role of the Orthodox community, which has always wished to be a bridge linking all Lebanese - over and above all this, his participation poses sharply the problem of ecclesiastical relations between the Christian communities and calls for a profound examination of their nature.

In a Lebanon where proselytism (particularly as concerns the Orthodox) is becoming more and more widespread and takes on more and more insidious forms, since it is nourished by the political situation; where - t he r e are movements of population and consequent c&lls for a closing of Christian ranks at any cost, many Orthodox priests have found themselves confronted by non-Orthodox seeking communion, often in good faith, but sometimes probably in an attempt to give rise to scandal within the Orthodox parish if communion is refused, or anonymously to achieve intercommunion by force and thus create a sort of pastoral fait accompli.

But these incidents, in spite of their number - and their seriousness, since little by little they tend to erode the demands of Truth and introduce a dangerous dichotomy between Truth, charity and ecclesiastical allegiance - are isolated and do not have the public importance of what happened on 15 August.

Does the scandal of disunity justify acts which themselves scandalize many 'simple' believers? Is it possible to achieve a greater rapprochement among the Churches, or among Lebanese Christians at a socio-political level, by failing to respect the requirement for Truth which forms part of the consensus of the Orthodox Churches when faced by the painful but real problem posed by intercommunion? Can the sacred mysteries themselves suffer the application of the principle of 'economy'? Has not the time come for all Antiochian bishops to look seriously at this problem and to begin to find a solution?

These are some of the questions which many of the faithful are now asking themselves, though anxious to encourage all initiatives which aim at the reconciliation of Lebanese Christians, they know that any attempt of this kind can only succeed if it avoids all forms of 'syncretism' and the sentimental ecumenism which is nowadays all too fashionable. All initiatives must be made in a spirit of profound respect for the Truth, that twin sister of charity, whose discovery is the only way in which to achieve communion at the same chalice.

Friday 17 August

Tripoli, the capital of North Lebanon and the country's second largest town, is now controlled by militia belonging to Islamic fundamentalist organizations: Andree Nahas was assassinated at home there in full daylight. She was the older sister of George Nahas, President of Syndesmos, and herself a member of the Orthodox Youth Movement. She was also the head of a big school in the town and a person of great culture, both intellectually and human. Her doctoral thesis on Malreaux is soon to be published by a well known French publishing house.

In the small chapel where a handful of nuns and a few young people keep up continuous prayer, many of the faces around the body remind me of my friends in West Beirut ••• the same anxious look! An old woman expresses a feeling which must recur even to the most optimistic Christians in Tripoli:in the midst of her weeping, she cries out piercingly, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken us?'

The reply came a little later when, at the church, the funeral service started with the singing of part of the pascal canon. Yes! 'Today is the day of the Resurrection • • •.Let us forgive those who hate us •.•'

The solemn singing of the choir of the Theological Institute of Saint John of Damascus at Balamad brings to this packed and silent church a dense reality, the only true reality ••• Will it not always be the mission of Eastern Christianity to bear witness to the Resurrection ••• and tr;iat in the face of everyone and everything. Above all perhaps among those Christians who think they can find security and even justification for their existence in some as yet unknown new crusade? ••• 'Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs he has given life.' A song of consolation par excellence. I would never have thought that it would be given to me to experience the pascal hymn in such circumstances ••. May God be praised!

Sunday 19 August

I jot down a few extracts from an article on the displaced Lebanese by Metropolitan George (Khodre), which appeared in one of our most important daily papers: 'Those who are afraid can emigrate, but man always emigrates towards new problems... It has been given to us to bear witness there where God has wanted us to be. It is a question of carrying the cross - together with those among whom we have been called to live. We can, by patience, make of our country something great. Lebanon is small by all human standards and has been called 'Great Lebanon' without reason. Those of its children who have had access to 'civilization' have taught it evil. Its greatness can only come from love, a love which is given freely and creates new confidence in others. If afterwards someone should fall, you cover his sins with silence and give him another chance in hope. We cannot fake love and charity. True humanity is more important than political manoeuvring and surpasses it in permanence. However, it is also more difficult to realize. This country does not yet exist, for it has not yet received itself from the hands of God by adopting a politics of love; and in this alone lies truth •••'

That same day, at Baskinta, Metropolitan George ordained a deacon. Here are a few words from his sermon: 'As servant the deacon is subject to the transcendent power of the Word of God, as also of the divine will and of the divine love. He does not listen to the passions of the soul ••• but obeys every word that comes from the mouth of God. That is why, when you act, it is God who acts in you••. Give yourself over to study of the Word and to prayer, so that you may become chaste, for chastity consists in ridding ourselves of the passions which govern us so as to allow God to be our Master. Chastity means to hand over the reins to God, so that we can say what he wants us to transmit and give expression to the grace with which he has filled our hearts. May you know that you have need of God, for this is true chastity ••. And if you do this, your prayer will be changed into an inner power capable of transfiguring the universe!'

In the airplane taking me back towards Paris I look over the notes written during these past few days ••• My short stay has brought me nearer to a realization of the precarious nature of the Lebanese situation and of the anxiety which lives in peoples' hearts.. . But it has also-and perhaps above all - made me feel more sharply, on the one hand, the wound which is coming to light at the heart of the Church of Antioch, as well as the grace which the Spirit continues to pour forth there, turning our poor hearts of stone into 'burning bushes', and calling us incessantly to humble commitment, and to hope ••. 'Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'