On the abduction of Archbishops Boulos (Yaziji) and Youhanna (Ibrahim)
He had to help people remember good deeds. In a land beset by all manner of evil and shrouded in darkness, many of his kinsmen had died, many were exiled; death stalked them at every corner. When darkness lingers on indefinitely, your call for good deeds grows…that is, if your voice is heard. You are their kinsman, one of them, after all. But like them, you are under threat too. Perhaps you thought that your blameless and righteous service would stave off their wicked deeds. Perhaps you idealized them, likening them to their gentle ancestors. I say perhaps, but one thing is certain: your yearning for goodness to be availed a spot-on earth stemmed entirely from your faith in the living God. He had ordained you as an Archbishop as He had clearly perceived your ability to serve His glory, His word and His people.
He got up before sunrise. This is what the benevolent do: they rise and wake the daylight. He got up, left and never came back. As is commonplace in his country nowadays, he was reported abducted by unidentified men. All of a sudden, the kidnappers bore a name! Their name went around. Does this person (do these men) truly exist? So, they said. But for people (individuals or groups) to exist and bear a name, they must have a face!
The news reached us through the media; how devastating for earnest seekers of peace!
He was gone for a day, then another. Two days after his abduction, we were in church praying the Great Compline. We heard the church bell ring. It was a joyful ring. I looked around, wondering who had let the bell ring while we were still at prayer. Normally, this cannot be done without permission, without a valid reason. I called on one of our brethren, a helper in church, to find out what was going on, who had rung the bell. He came back telling us that someone in the neighborhood had heard, also through the media, that “the two Archbishops had been released”. This was news worth ringing all the church bells on earth, just as we would at the beginning and the end of church services. So, he was set free! I kept the news to myself. But the news travelled among the brethren like a prayer recited by one of them.
As for the news of their release, it turned out to be a cheap lie. Such is the nature of the wars of our time. Some or all of their tools might be known, but one can’t tell who is in fact manipulating them. Wasn’t our war in Lebanon branded “the war of others on our land”? To this date, no one knows who those others are!
Why should the virtuous on earth be kidnapped? Why should their voices be silenced and their faces hidden for days on end?
Jesus said: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John, 15:20). This painful, yet comforting, verse can only be understood on the premise that the persecuted, regardless of time and place, is Jesus himself, and Jesus alone. Who am I and who are you? Who are we all? To whom do we pose a threat? There is only one man of whom it was once said: “it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish” (John, 11:50). That man was Jesus. His killers thought that, by eliminating him, they would cast his memory into oblivion and save their nation. Jesus was, is and will forever remain the one and only persecuted on earth. And you? Only if the reflection of His face is seen in you, should you expect Him to be persecuted through you. There will then be attempts at wiping out your name (His name) and your face (His face).
If you truly love Jesus, He will reflect His face in you. Only if you love Him, will you have a name and a face. In this world, you find all sorts of people: ones with a faceless name and ones with a nameless face. There are those who hide their face and everyone else’s too; and those whose faces always light up and open up to others.
Where are they? If you asked about them in this way, names might deceive you. Haven’t you been deceived before? Yet, as a Christian, you must ask, since amidst the tumult of sins, silence is a sin. Having led a righteous life, how unbefitting of you to always fall for the tricks or let them tie your tongue. You would fail to be a true Christian if you did not uphold justice and fight for its realization. Those who kidnap your countrymen, indeed anyone, do not gain favor with God. Say it out loud; proclaim it, even if their view of God is different. Do not shy away, stand up and cry out to the world that, whoever conceals a person from their loved ones trespasses against the will of the All-Knowing God w. Who are you to kidnap a person, a fellow human being? By what law do you act? Didn’t your father and mother tell you they loved you? Don’t you know that others have parents who love them too? Why on earth would you deliberately wound love? How can you sleep when others are eaten up by anxiety? On which bed do you lie down? When you lie down, can you really fall asleep?
While watching the news of the archbishops’ kidnapping in Syria, my son asked me: “Which law is it that permits attacks on defenseless men?” I replied by changing the question: “What does it mean to attack a man who only advocates goodness?” My question triggered his thinking. He quickly grasped that this was an attack, not only against God’s rights, but against God Himself. Then he indicated his that he understood.
Archbishops Boulos (Yaziji) and Youhanna (Ibrahim) knew that their ultimate concern, as Bishops with a vocation to serve, was to fight sin wherever it appears. The weapon that God placed in their hands was love. Such is the language of the New Testament designed by Jesus Christ to save the universe in this world and hereafter. The archbishops must be busy sowing this language wherever they are. May it open for them, and for all abductees, a door to the light.
