Your Endowment, O Lord
Speech of the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Professor Dr. Michel Abs, at the recital "Your Sight On Our Homeland", which was held on Friday 11 October 2024, at the Church of Christ the King - Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon.
Professor Dr. Michel Abs,
Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches,
O Lord, Your endowment is under iron and fire.
Your beautiful land, where You planted Your cedars—its greenness did not please those who practice desolation, so they strive to turn it into the firewood of hatred.
Your beautiful holy mountain, which You covered with olibanum and made the focus of the world's gaze—the destroyers of beauty could not rest; they waged war against the whiteness of its snow and showered it with dark hatred.
The haven of freedoms to which every oppressed and persecuted person resorts—they have turned it into a vast prison.
The mine of the word, the school, the university, and the hospital of the East—the barbarians persist in smashing and destroying it.
Yes, O King,
The hands of hatred have infiltrated, in a moment of heedlessness, into this precious eternal treasure and seized it.
Your endowment, O Lord, has been enduring for decades the prolonged suffering of the Way of the Cross,
Until it has begun to affect its people at the core of their being,
At the very essence of their existence.
From all sides, they come to Your endowment to be blessed by it, and when they reach their destination, they turn to ungratefulness,
Except for very few who understood the meaning of loyalty and continued to defend it against everything.
Your endowment, O Lord, shines light upon an Antiochian Levant no less tormented than itself.
So bestow upon it some of the blessings You have bestowed.
Give it what You have given us,
O Creator of creation.
Those near before those afar have ravaged Your endowment, its people, and their achievements, because their civilization is a disgrace to lovers of primitiveness.
Your land, O Lord, is a land where every inch holds a martyr,
And every inch holds a saint,
And our saints are martyrs.
For thousands of years, Your land has produced martyrs,
And for thousands of years, it has given saints—a blessing to the world.
The blood that was shed upon it and watered it covers the globe, and its people are still steadfast, responding to aggression with their bare chests.
Their eyes resist the spear,
Their destiny has remained the same since the beginning of time.
Envy pursues them at every turn of their glorious history.
Your endowment, O Lord, is violated—its land, sea, and sky.
Everyone wants a share of this holy place.
Those entrusted with Your endowment still practice Your values and teachings.
They respond to hatred with love,
To arrogance with humility,
To estrangement with affection,
To rejection with acceptance,
To violence with peace,
To oppression with the word.
We, the children of the earth entrusted with Your endowment, have come today to supplicate to You,
A civilized supplication befitting the culture You planted in us,
Which shone upon the world in thought, art, and philosophy,
Forming the foundation of the world's civilization.
We have come today to approach You with words and melodies produced by the children of our land,
May the sound of hymns be stronger than the sound of war,
Perhaps singing stirs in people some feelings of kindness and affection,
May words and melodies knock on the doors of the consciences of those who have belittled human life,
That life which only You give with Your love and majesty.
They do not realize that they have no right to take it,
So they violate humans, soul and stones, values and culture,
And they displace Your creation and throw it into the furnace of humiliation and misery.
We have come to You tonight, institutions and individuals, carrying the faith and hope You have planted in us, to tell the world that we will continue to guard the endowment, pledge to it, care for it, and nurture it, matching Your great vineyard that covers the globe.
We have come to You tonight to say that we are certain You still care for our homeland with Your loving gaze, which will save it from the clutches of the evil that ravages it.
We know that falsehood has its moment, but we know that You have overcome the world.
We have come to You tonight to affirm that we care for Your little ones, the weary and heavy-laden,
And to tell You also that fear has not found its way into our souls, because You told us, "Take courage; it is I."
Yes, You are He, O Lord, O Necessary Existent, O Ultimate of ultimates, O Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting, whose reign has no end.
We tell You that we believe that Your incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection are doing their work, despite the evil that is rampant in the world.
We say to You that You will remain a light to guide humanity—You, the Creator of Light.
You are the beacon for people who went astray, who denied themselves, their being, and their dignity when they denied You.
We are certain that when the lost return from their error, they will once again see the splendor of Your beautiful face and Your hands welcoming with love and forgiveness.
Greed, war, moral and ethical deviation, and other contemporary impurities into which humanity has entered today — all are a result of denying You.
And Your endowment and its good, loving, generous people are among those who have most fallen prey to the savagery within civilization.
But the people of Your endowment—Lebanon and the Antiochian East—will remain bearers of a testimony that challenges those who wish to return with humanity to the life of caves.
We are here, present with testimony and role, inspired by You in every moment we live and every step we take, affirming that our roots are too deep to be uprooted.
Your endowment, O Lord, remains as it is, no matter how the storms strike it, because we, its people, are children of hope and resurrection.