Your Eminences,
Your Graces,
Your Excellencies,
Reverend Monsignors,
Very Reverend Fathers,
Reverend Fathers,
Religious Fathers and Sisters,
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
It is a universal characteristic of humankind that we need to tell our story; we are almost compelled to share our life experiences with others. For us as Christians, Catholic and Orthodox, members of the Australasian Middle East Christian Apostolic Churches (AMEC) our story begins and continues with prayer. Indeed, our story, our journey, is to be found in the Holy Gospel which is truly our travelling companion, our traveler’s guide and handbook.
Today, 9 October 2024, invited by AMEC, we are gathered in this Holy Capella of Beit Maroun (NSW, Australia) and we note that it is the most happy anniversary of the canonisation of St Charbel in 1977 by Pope St Paul VI.
As always, we are most appreciative of the gracious hospitality of His Grace Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, the Maronite Church and Community.
In the Holy Gospel, our Lord warns us that “there will be wars and rumours of wars, and that nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, but do not be alarmed…” (Matt 24:6-13) and he urges us, “Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)
We are blessed to live in a peaceful land, and so our prayer tonight is not primarily for ourselves but is offered most fervently for our relatives and friends, our ancestral homelands, towns, and villages that have already experienced horrors that we can barely imagine.
Soon we will celebrate the Divine Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. For so many in Eastern Europe, throughout Africa and across the Middle East, this Christmas will be once again not a joyful season of traditional merriment but rather a time of fear and uncertainty.
This afternoon, as we remember all the peoples and places caught up in the several conflicts that are seemingly out of control, we place before the Good Lord the urgent needs of Lebanon and the Lebanese people.
There comes a time when we must heed the warning of the Psalmist….
“Do not put your trust in princes [and we would add - or in presidents, or premiers, or prime ministers], in mortals, in whom there is no help…. Happy are those whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God” (Ps 146: 3-5).
When we leave this holy place, let us not forget to tell our story as Middle Eastern Christians….and let us remember that the Prophet Elijah, St Elias, found the voice of the Lord God, in the gentle breeze. The truth is always most effective when it is gentle and persuasive – the storm and the whirlwind roar but are soon forgotten.
And let us be not only hearers of the word, but doers of the Gospel precepts. When given the opportunity, we should be generous donors to those in distress and great need amid this present crisis. St James, the Apostle, is surely speaking to us when he writes that faith without good works is dead.
Today let us place all before the Merciful Lord, let us leave everything to him, and let us do so through the intercessions of our Lady of Lebanon, and all the Saints glorified in the Middle East.
Amen.
✠Robert Rabbat, DD
President of AMEC
09/10/24
AMEC members
Melkite Catholic Church | Chaldean Catholic Church |
Maronite Catholic Church | Antiochian Orthodox Church |
Syrian Orthodox Church | Ancient Church of the East |
Coptic Orthodox Church, NSW | Armenian Apostolic Church |
Armenian Catholic Church | Syriac Catholic Church |
Coptic Catholic Church |
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