Antiochians despite the destructions!
Dr. Michel E. Abs
Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches
At the rubble of Antioch, the stone, its Patriarch, John X, stood addressing Antioch the soul, on the Day of the Resurrection.
Christians we were named there, Christians we are still, and Christians we will remain until the end of time.
His tour in the north of the Antiochian Levant, overwhelmed with disasters, for more than a century, healed wounds, raised confidence, strengthened faith, and reinforced affiliation.
His Beatitude came to the bleeding and devastated North Antiochian Levant, at the head of an ecclesiastical delegation, to say to our people there, we are with you, through good times and bad, and our roots are still deeply deep-rooted in faith, land and history, and we shall not quit our places.
The tour is loaded with meanings, and its culmination was the prayer on the Day of the Resurrection on the stones rubble of the church, so that He would tell everyone that our earthly places may turn into rubble, but our spiritual heavenly places are well-established since we were called Christians in that land, and since our Apostles sailed from its ports carrying out the commandment of the Incarnate Lord, that " Go and preach to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Trinity was there that day, and we saw it in the Patriarch's stand, His determination, and His overcoming of difficulties and dangers, as did the accompanying delegation.
The Holy Trinity was there on that day, as we also saw it in the presence of the people, their assembly, their participation in prayer, their expression of their joy at the arrival of His Beatitude, their gathering around Him, and their affirmation of their faith in the future, despite the misfortunes that have haunted them since the time of the ancestors.
On top of the rubble, the cross was placed, and the icons were fixed in defiance of the determination of life to the track of destruction.
Over the rubble, the Patriarch who is defying destruction prayed with his accompanying delegation and the believers.
All of this bears a symbol that the will to live always prevails over the forces of evil and annihilation.
Christ is risen!
Three times His Beatitude repeated it over the ruins, at the sound of the bells,
Truly risen!
Three times, the believers, also standing over the ruins and at the sound of the bells, answered Him.
Let us worship His holy three-day resurrection! His Beatitude told them, stressing that we are the children of the Resurrection, and that in the name of the Lord we will rise.
During the Resurrection Mass, as during the rest of the tour, His Beatitude stressed that we do not weep over what was destroyed, nor do we become discouraged or defeated, because our eternal example is the Master who triumphed over evil and annihilation, and who Himself did not, and will not leave us, and provides us with strength in adversities.
Through that historic mass and speech, on this historic day, in this historical context, His Beatitude expressed how much Antioch, in its meanings and through its existence, transcends places and times, aspiring to its eternal existence as a symbol, testimony, and role in the Christian world, as well as in the world.
It is the Apostolic Church whose spiritual, intellectual and cultural radiance spread throughout the world.
It is a distinguishing mark over time and in all ages, because its role has not, and will not, be repeated in the path of faith in the message of the Incarnate Lord whose kingdom has no end.
It is the parish of Peter the Apostle, who founded it and was its first bishop.
It is the advanced in the Oikumene.
From Antioch, on that day, from the midst of destruction, His Beatitude sent peace to the whole world, and talked to history, telling the globe that Antioch is, and will remain with its people, history and memory, even if its stones fall. His message was a message of love, inspired by the Master after whom we were named in Antioch.
The believers were listening, and contentment and happiness were evident in their eyes focusing on Him, and determination was clear on their faces, and they expressed to His Beatitude how much his visit reinforced their determination and strengthened their hope for a better future.
The historical tour that His Beatitude made on the head of the Antiochian delegation included many stations, each station carrying symbols, meanings and teachings, but the most expressive among them was the mass and sermon of the Resurrection over the destruction in Antioch.
The visits to Mersin, As-Suwaidiyya, Iskenderun, and other cities of the area and the north of the Antiochian Levant, also conveyed the love of a pastor who inspects his parish at the height of their affliction, supporting them and providing them with confidence and hope.
The popular gathering around His Beatitude and the accompanying delegation, and the prayers, the receptions, the meetings and the celebrations that abounded in this tour, showed how much the parish is still steadfast in its faith and loyal to its Redeeming Master and loving for its pastor, the Patriarch, who has them continuously in His thoughts and feelings.
A lot will be written about this tour, which enters the faith and social history through its wide door, as it constituted a station that the believers yearn for throughout the Antiochian space.
We can rightfully call this tour a tour of hope "because our alphabet is Antiochian".
So let the world learn it!