The Northern Antiochian Levant, A Glimmer of Hope in the Heart of Tragedy
Dr. Michel E. Abs
Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches
It is the same region that had witnessed massacres and displacement, acts of human making about a century ago. Today, it is witnessing massacres and displacement caused by nature.
It is the same scene recuring today one hundred years later.
Cities, villages, and farms are emptied of their inhabitants, who either die or leave.
You find them homeless in their own land, looking for a shelter that will keep them away from the open air and from the cold of winter, as well as seeking a garment that would help cover their bodies exhausted by homelessness and destitution, and food that would merely keep them at mere subsistence level... In short, they are looking for the minimal requirement needed for maintaining human dignity.
Between human-made disasters, and natural disasters, great harm has beset human beings. We are facing groups living in one of the most important regions of the East in terms of thought, culture and faith. Their cities were lighthouses in the field of the human sciences and theology, still shining forth and guiding those who excel in these fields in this day and age.
Whether it is Antioch, the symbol of our Christianity, or Adana, or Tarsus, or Mersin, or Alexandretta, or Kharput, or Aintab, or Marash, all the way to Tur Abdin and its thriving cities, and all the way to the Sanjak of Hakkari, this is a region that pays two geographical taxes, one political and the other natural.
A century ago, this ethnically diverse region paid the price of the popular cultural diversity that characterizes it, in addition to the price that the superpowers wrestled over in it, and it witnessed massacres that disgrace humanity as well and are considered a disgrace in the record of human history. Today, however, the tax is paid for the diversity of the natural composition, where faults meet, just as ethnic and racial groups meet and interact and “fight” leading to the catastrophe that we are witnessing today. Both are faults, one geopolitical and the other one geological.
As for between the two catastrophes, political and natural, we cannot say that this region has rested, as it has been boiling continuously for a century.
The rugged nature of this region made it possible for groups to seek refuge in hideouts or strongholds of steadfastness and struggle, against a state, enemy, or invader. For a century, between the two catastrophes, this region has been living on the crater of a volcano. It is rare for a region in the world to have its soil watered with blood like this region. From Antioch to Mardin, one can witness a crescent of fire and light, a fire that burns those within it and a light that shines to the world.
Today, while earthquakes continue to hit the great city of God Antioch and its surroundings, we behold in the media the destruction that fell upon it. The locality in which the Christian Church was first established, the cathedral of the apostles Paul and Peter, has been completely destroyed. We will not despair at that, and we will not cry, but will rather join in proclaiming with His Beatitude John X, Her Patriarch, what he said last Sunday at the liturgy:
“Although Antioch is wounded and agonizing today , especially after the earthquake that struck our homes, traces of life, people and stone, as many a church building has been destroyed and leveled to the ground, but despite that I can say, and in the meeting of all these brothers gathered together from the east to the west of the earth, I can say that this is the splendor of Antioch. Antioch stands forever and ever, as the Lord is in its midst, it will not be shaken.
And His Beatitude added: "And we also dare to say that, if Christianity has a cradle, then there is the physical cradle where the Master was born in Jerusalem, and there is the intellectual cradle, Antioch, from which the Apostle Paul set out and preached to all nations."
We, Your Beatitude, are striving to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and heal the sick as you yourself have mentioned doing also in your sermon, and this in in accordance with the commandment of the One after Whose Name we were the first to be called in Antioch. We are guided by You, as we belong to the theology of giving, which is based on love that has no limits, abiding thus in the task of the preservation of souls and stones, of human dignity and freedom.
We pledge to You, Your Beatitude, as You mentioned in your heartfelt homily, that we will spare no effort so that "Antioch will remain the glorious Bride of Christ...despite tribulations and despite the
Cross, as from the Cross springs the Resurrection… Antioch will remain the pillar of truth and the banner of peace, salvation and joy to all that which human beings seek, the pillar of joy and peace on the face of the earth.”
This is the creed of faith and love that includes the whole of humanity. We do belong to this faith, and we will abide by it until the end of time.