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Seven Years Since the Kidnapping of the Bishops of Aleppo
Beloved Brethren and Spiritual Children
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Brothers, we address you with the Pascha greeting, sharing your prayers
in your home corners and bending with you the knees of the heart before
Christ, who was crucified for our sake, who resurrected from the dead
and made us resurrect by His divine Light, wiping away from souls the
dust of bitter times and the ashes of desolation and despair.
However, the radiance of Pascha stands incomplete due to the sorrowful
case of our two brothers, the Bishops of Aleppo, Metropolitans Paul
Yazigi and Youhanna Ibrahim, kidnapped since April 22, 2013. Today, we
address you heart to heart and we address the whole world as well, to
say that the Christians of this East, along with its other groups, are
still paying with their lives and their fate the taxes to terrorism and
violence: displacement, kidnapping, murder, and many a tribulation.
Despite all this, they remain faithful to their pledge of love for Jesus
Christ, as the Lord Who redeemed them on the Cross and implanted them
in this East two thousand years ago, to carry out the joy of his Gospel.
From the moment of the kidnapping to this day, the thousands of
attempts and tons of efforts to obtain any information on the fate of
the two bishops have remained fruitless. All this amid stacks of data,
clues, analyses and inquiries that often complicate and entangle
perspectives.
2557 days have passed since, and we have never spared
the least effort to bring this cause to a happy ending, and ultimately
to the most desired release of the two bishops, when we shall have them
among us once more. We have not spared any local, regional, or even
international doors to knock, asking governments, organizations,
political influences and powerful personalities to enlist this case on
the multiple global platforms. This, among so many other efforts. We
extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who provided help and promises,
offering their efforts and contributions on the humanitarian, media,
diplomatic, security or political levels, whether on the official or
personal levels. The role of these people shed a light of hope in the
black sorrowful night, while the negligence and silence of the
international community had overwhelmed this significant humanitarian
and crucial cause, undermining any attempt to find solutions.
Today, having set before our eyes the image of the two bishops, our
brothers who are in constant prayer for all of us, we ask all the
faithful, wherever they are, to pray for them this particular week. We
ask them to prayer for the two bishops and for every kidnapped, missing,
and displaced person, for any person who was trapped in dire situation,
but then found in the Cross of Christ hope and consolation, and was
strengthened by His glorious and victorious Resurrection.
The
human being in this East is of no lesser value than other humans. This
present pandemic that has been ravaging the globe- may God relive us
from it-, is a clear proof that, in all circumstances, above any
considerations of race, religion, or nation, we are all brothers in
humanity, all on the same boat in this East and the whole world.
If only humans could be aware of this. If only the politicians and
those who deal with world affairs could realize that human beings are
made of the same nature and share the same dignity, regardless of their
differences in country, homeland, language, civilization and religion.
Despite its bitterness, the epidemic came to say that we share a common
existence and one human brotherhood in this wide world. If only this was
crystal clear to the eyes of the heart and the perception of those who
violate their brother’s dignity, unaware that this derision will be
turned against them and that their own dignity will be demeaned in the
end. First and foremost, we all ought to stand for the true human
dignity; we must be aware that our fellow human being’s dignity, life
and existence, are part of our own heart, existence and being.
As Christians of the Levant, we are deeply rooted since the times of
old. Our roots will never wither. Out of these roots stems the great
oasis that is the Christian Antiochian presence in the East and in all
the world, an oasis flourishing and fragrant with the Christian witness
to the Most Glorified Lord Jesus Christ and with love for the neighbor
from all walks of life. History has been teaching us all the way that we
do not need protection from anyone, neither do we seek anyone’s
protection. We are an original component of this East with all its
meanders and irradiations. Considering our role, the logic of minority
versus majority falls apart and is replaced by the logic of meeting and
dialogue as well as the pioneer role lead by Christians and others. We
are not and will never be a card to be played by anyone. We are rather a
message of existence and authenticity, a bridge of communication and
encounter between the East and the West, between Christianity and other
religions.
We pray today for our two bishop brothers and for
every kidnapped person, bearing in mind that we will spare no effort to
advocate for this cause and bring it to the desired outcome, much
awaited by every Christian heart, every descendant of the Levant, and
every well-intentioned person. Saying this, we confirm that the path of
the Cross ended by a dawn of Resurrection.
Today we pray to
Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Resurrection and the Master of Life, may
He roll the tombstone by His Cross and delight our eyes with the Light
of the Resurrection. We pray for the peace of the world suffering from
the epidemic. We pray for this East in all its countries, which seeks
the dawn of Resurrection from the Golgotha of the Cross. We pray for our
children in Aleppo, to whom we particularly extend the peace of Pascha,
asking the Lord of the Resurrection to revive hope in their hearts and
ours.
With you, brothers, our souls bow in prayer, our hearts are
lit as oil lamps in the corners of our homes before the Lord Christ Who
is risen from the tomb. We pray for world peace and for the return of
all the kidnapped, while we illuminate our hearts and souls with Paschal
hope, singing:
“Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death and to those in the tomb He gave life”.
Damascus, April 22, 2020
His Holiness Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the
East and Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church
His Beatitude John X
Patriarch of Antioch and All the East of the Greek Orthodox Church
