NNA – The Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Al-Rahi, presided over the Sunday Mass at Our Lady’s Church in the Patriarchal Monument in Bkerke, assisted by Bishops Hanna Alwan and Antoine Awkar, with the participation of a number of bishops, priests and nuns, in the presence of a delegation from the Lebanese Kataeb Party students and a crowd of activists and believers.
After the Holy Bible, the shepherd delivered a sermon entitled:Whom do you see as the trustworthy and wise agent? (Luke 12: 42), in which it says: “With this Sunday, the three weeks of commemoration begin: We remember successively the priests, the righteous, the righteous, and the faithful dead. The priests’ commemoration today includes meditation on the mystery of the priesthood, the priest’s personality and his message, seeking the eternal rest of the deceased priests, and praying for the sanctification of priests.” The living departing to their service, the steadfastness of priestly calls, and the request to God to send laborers for his abundant harvest (Matthew 9:38).The words of the Lord Jesus in today’s Gospel apply to every official and authority figure in the church, family, society, and state, because his responsibility is an assignment to serve the congregation, and to provide what he needs. It requires her to live with dignity and fulfill herself. What is required of the responsible official is to be “faithful and wise” (Luke 12: 42). The priest is entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Church; spouses and parents are entrusted by natural and positive law, and civil officials are entrusted by the people. We mention all of them along with the priests and priests. In order for them to realize the size of their responsibility, for which they will pay an account, reward or punishment, because the first delegate is God, and He demands every responsible person, as today’s Gospel teaches us.
He added, “We are pleased to celebrate this divine liturgy with you, and we welcome everyone, especially the delegation of Phalangist students whom I salute and encourage them to live the love and sincerity and devotion they have been brought up in for Lebanon, as they learned from the history of the Lebanese Phalangist Party. You know that Lebanon was founded on an idea.” It is fundamental that defines his identity, which is “Belonging to the state of Lebanon is through citizenship, not through religion.” This means that Lebanon separates religion from the state, but religion respects the state, and the state respects religion. This is the operative wording of Article 9 of the constitution. Unfortunately, there are those who work to give Lebanon Religious, sectarian and doctrinal colors. We must be vigilant and defend Lebanon’s identity and uniqueness in the Arab world, and its message and model that give it a pioneering role in the Arab environment. The Church reads today’s Gospel in commemoration of the high priests. First, we must clarify the meaning of the secret of the priesthood known as the secret of the sacred degree. It is one of the seven sacraments in the Church, in addition to baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, repentance, anointing of the sick, and marriage. Trait. Each of the sacraments has its own grace, granted by the Holy Spirit to heal us from our sin and sanctify us, and to qualify us to help in the salvation of others, and in the growth of the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1131 and 2003). The Sacrament of the Holy Degree includes three degrees: episcopacy, priesthood, and diaconate. The priest is an agent appointed by his Master, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Priest, to give the food of the Word, grace and love at the right time, permanently and diligently, to the children of his house, i.e. all the people whom he redeemed and acquired with his blood, so that they became his property. By deputizing, he gives him authority and a message, direction and purpose, so that he works in the person of Christ, the only priest, and the mediator of salvation between God and people. Through the priest’s ministry, Christ Himself is present in the Church, as Head of His body, Shepherd of His flock, Priest of the redemptive sacrifice, and Teacher of the truth. And by proxy, which takes place through priestly ordination, the priest becomes by divine grace, in his inner being, a priest in the image and likeness of Christ, and receives from the Holy Spirit the authority to act in the person of Christ himself who represents him and in his name. The priest-officer is required to be “faithful and wise” (Luke 12:42). His fidelity: to Christ, who entrusted him through the Church, to the congregation to whom he was entrusted, and to his priestly self, which requires him to be similar to Christ the Priest, whom he portrayed on his own example in his inner being by the action of the Holy Spirit. And his wisdom he derives from the gift of the Holy Spirit given to him. Wisdom is the first of the seven gifts of the soul. It requires him to act, act, and speak from the perspective of God. And since “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God,” wisdom is the striving to please God in everything, and the fear of insulting, betraying, and offending Him. We learn from the context of the Gospels that responsibility, every responsibility, is not a private property to dispose of as we please, but rather as the direct client wants, and as the primary client who is God wants. That is why the Bible talks about the reward with eternal salvation, and the punishment with destruction (refer to Luke 12: 43-46). The divine rule is: “Whoever is given much, much will be required of him” (Luke 12:48).
He added, “The preamble to the Lebanese constitution stipulates that the people are the source of powers, and they exercise them through institutions (J). According to this saying: All those responsible in the constitutional institutions are entrusted to the people. On the contrary, unfortunately, we see them as the enemies of the people. They impoverished, starved and sickened them: they deprived them of their rights.” His basic needs and rights to live, they denied him bread and food, they made him die with the cost of medicine and medicine, and on top of that they denied him justice by politicizing the judiciary, they made him like sheep without a shepherd, all because of their reluctance to elect a president for the republic, and this is the door to chaos and chaos in the rule of institutions. an electorate, and refrain from electing a president for the republic, severing its head from the body of the state?Isn’t it time for the nation’s deputies to meet in the Representative Council, and choose the appropriate and best president for the needs of the country and its people?While we encourage the initiative of the deputies gathered in the parliament hall to press for the election of a president, we hope That the number be completed until the quorum is completed, and the electoral process is completed.The appropriate and best president is the one who will return the Lebanese to Lebanon with stability and prosperity.We do not lose sight of the fact that regional and international challenges besiege Lebanon with its president and government, as the region is at the crossroads of events. It is very dangerous and its consequences and repercussions on Lebanon are difficult to predict.
On our part, as a patriarchal chair, we continue contacts and efforts to push for the election of a new president, in close coordination with all spiritual and political authorities, hoping for agreement with all our partners in the country. The president of the republic, even if he is a Maronite, is not only for the Maronites and Christians, but for all the Lebanese. We would like his selection to be a fruit. A national democratic decision. The next stage is the stage of lifting Lebanon from collapse and returning it to itself and its identity within the scope of the Lebanese entity. Where is the justice that is the basis of the king, and the judges in an internal war? Judges against judges, powers against powers, and hatred against hatred. Lebanon has not known in its history A judicial war that humiliated the prestige of the judiciary and the reputation of Lebanon and turned the judicial groups into brigades fighting among themselves, not caring about the rights of the oppressed and the people. When judges disagree about the law, who will agree on it? Was the dispute really over the legal articles or over the explosive materials to obstruct the course of the investigation into the port bombing crime? This pains us. We hope that the judicial investigator, Judge Tariq Bitar, will continue his work to clarify the truth, issue an indictment, and seek the help of any international reference that can help reveal the truth. Before our conscience, 245 victims and ruined me Wet half the capital and its institutions. What we regret most is seeing the lack of quorum affecting the meetings of judicial bodies, as judges and prosecutors bypass the Supreme Judicial Council and its president and refrain from attending the meetings. This is unacceptable! The judiciary has its own mechanism and hierarchy.
Al-Rahi asked: “What remains of the pearl of the judiciary, when judges rebel against their references instead of rebelling against politicians, bidding against each other, obstructing each other’s investigations, releasing accused in bulk and arresting the families of the port’s victims? And when they submit to the people of influence? And when they violate sovereign laws and violate the confidentiality of investigations before foreign countries before they know their true goals and who drives them? And when they involve themselves in schemes of hatred and revenge, and when they bully the weak and weaken before the strong and escape foreign detainees? We will not allow, no matter how long it takes and the change of rulers, that The crime of bombing the port goes unpunished, and by the way, what is the Lebanese state waiting for to rebuild the port of Beirut to restore its normal movement, especially as we hear about projects by some of them to move the historic port of Beirut to another place?
He concluded: “We can say that the state, with its institutions and apparatus, is doing its best to lose the citizens’ confidence in it and push them to open revolution. For whose benefit is this scheme? The most dangerous thing is that we see the country today dominated by the security and military agencies in the absence of any political and constitutional authority and any government oversight. Where is the government that claims Where is the authority that protects citizens and legitimacy? This is all the result of not electing a president for the country. Where the head is absent, the whole body dissipates. They do not want to believe that, unless the failure to elect the president is intentional. We pray that God inspires every authority holder to exercise it with honesty And wisdom, for he is a trustee, not a master. With this acknowledgment we glorify and praise God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, Amen.
After the mass, the shepherd received the believers participating in the divine sacrifice.
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