A
Letter From Galilee
.
by Archbishop Georges Bacouni
Archbishop
George Bacouni has been serving in
Israel as archbishop in the Greek
Catholic Melkite Archeparchy of Akko,
Haifa, Nazareth and All of Galilee for
more than three years. He has also been
actively engaged in the life and mission
of the People of God community in
Lebanon since the early 1980s. The
following letter was first published by
CNEWA
in the December 2017 issue of One
Magazine.
I send this letter from Mount Carmel in
Haifa in Galilee, close to the holy sites
of the Prophet Elijah.
When I was 12 years old, I expressed my
desire to become a priest to my father. He
replied by shouting: “No, get out of my
face!” I thought it was the end of my
vocation.
Two years later, my father passed away and
suddenly I found myself in charge of my
family, being the eldest boy. As a poor
Christian, my dreams were limited to
studying, working and, later, getting
married.
But the Lord had other plans for me. In
1990, the last year of the civil war in
Lebanon
– where I was
born and grew up
– the Lord
called me again to priesthood. The
archbishop of Beirut accepted me as a
seminarian even though I was 28 years old,
a late vocation. I resigned from the bank
where I had been working for more than ten
years and started my theological and
philosophical studies.
I was ordained in July 1995. Ten years
later, in 2005, I was elected and ordained
bishop to serve the Melkite Greek Catholic
Archeparchy of Tyre in the south of
Lebanon. And now I have been serving in
Israel as archbishop in the Melkite
Archeparchy of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and
All of Galilee for more than three years.
What a blessing, to be in this particular
part of the world
– where Jesus
was born, grew up, proclaimed the Good
News, was crucified and rose from the
dead.
The Lord entrusted me with the flock of
his homeland and to follow in the
footsteps of the apostles.
When I was taught how to meditate on a
Gospel passage, I was asked sometimes to
imagine the places where Jesus lived:
Capernaum, Tiberias Lake, Nazareth,
Jerusalem.
Now I know all these places, and they
remind me of the historical facts. But
Jesus is not only part of the history, he
is still alive and in the midst of his
church.
When you enter Peter’s house in Capernaum,
where Jesus healed the paralytic; when you
see the place where he fed five thousand
people; when you are in a boat in the
middle of the lake where he walked on the
water; and many other holy sites, I assure
you that you feel you are sharing the
experience of the apostles and the crowds.
You feel privileged being Christian.
Visiting these sites
– let alone
living there
– is a
spiritual retreat.
Many of my predecessors used to say, “I am
the archbishop of Jesus.” I don’t dare say
that, but it’s true in a way that the
bishop in Galilee is responsible for
Jesus’ hometown.
What a blessing! But in the same time,
it’s a huge responsibility and difficult
mission for many reasons.
First, Arab Christians from all
denominations make up no more than 1.7
percent of the population in Israel.
Almost half are in my eparchy. And yet,
Catholics, Orthodox, evangelical
Protestants and many religious orders from
all over the Christian world maintain a
foothold in the Holy Land
– particularly
in Jerusalem.
To not be of the majority is a challenge
in and of itself, but to be divided makes
our mission more difficult and weakens our
testimony.
Acrhbishop
Bacouni visits St. Vincent de Paul Hospital
in Nazareth
(photo: Geries Abdo, courtesy Melkite
Catholic Archbishopric)
Second, what we as a
church experience here is common with
Christians all over the world: We have a
crisis in our families, as youth
participation declines
– in part
because Sunday in most places is not a day
off
– and gaps
widen between generations, as a unified
concept of values erodes.
I always share with the people of my
eparchy that the pilgrims who come from
abroad are not only here to visit the holy
places, but to meet the local Christians
and find in them genuine witnesses of the
faith.
The third challenge is the plight of
Christians living in the Middle East.
While we are free to practice our faith in
Israel
– and we live
in peace with other communities of faith
in our society
– the
situation of our brothers and sisters in
neighboring Syria, Iraq and Egypt has been
harmful to the church in the whole region.
I keep saying that, since I became bishop,
the blessings have increased and the cross
has become heavier. But in all things the
Holy Spirit is filling me with grace and
encouragement to keep on in my mission.
I made a plan to visit, with the parish
priests, all the families of our eparchy
in their homes over a period of five
years. So far, almost half of them have
been visited. I have seen that many remain
firm in their faith, even if they don’t
attend church. They love their church;
they are proud of their Christianity.
Every year, during Advent, their
generosity surprises me during the
fund-raisers for the suffering Christians
in Syria or Iraq.
A few months ago, representatives of the
leaders of the European Catholic Episcopal
Conferences met in Jerusalem. I told them
that the last part of my liturgical
vestments worn during my ordination was
the omophorion, a woolen shoulder garment.
It is a symbol of the lost sheep. I told
them that my call and my main task are to
look after the lost sheep and be a good
shepherd. This means that the bishop is
not a businessman, nor a politician, nor a
general manager.
All kinds of pastoral work give me great
joy, and being close to the faithful,
sharing with them their joyful or painful
times, achieve the goal of my
consecration. They want to know whom their
bishop is, and that it’s easy to reach
him.
In our tradition, we have married men who
can be ordained priests. The seminarian
has to decide before being ordained
deacon. When I decided to stay single, my
main reason was to have enough time to
dedicate myself to the mission. Instead of
having my own family, I have a wider one.
All the faithful with whom Jesus entrusted
me are my family, with all the joy and
pain that I experience. I don’t pretend
that I have succeeded, but at least this
is my vision.
Archbishop Georges meets with
Msgr. John E. Kozar of CNEWA and Mar Jacob
Barnabas Aerath
of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church at the
Vatican in 2016. (photo: John E.
Kozar/CNEWA)
I have lived, worked and
served in many countries in the Middle
East. Many Christians have left, but many
others remain. We are the salt and the
light of the region. In Galilee, Jesus
taught: “Blessed are you when they insult
you and persecute you and utter every kind
of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will
be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted
the prophets who were before you.”
(Matthew 5:11-12)
This is happening nowadays mainly in
Syria, Iraq and Egypt. It’s difficult for
a Christian to stay there, but we need to
stay. We are Arabs, this is also our land
and if God put us in this part of the
world, it is because he has a purpose: To
be witnesses, to proclaim the Good News
and to be peacemakers. It’s important to
say to humanity that we can live together
regardless of our various religions.
Part of the discipleship is persecution.
The Lord told us: “Whoever wishes to come
after me must deny himself, take up his
cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)
At the same time, and also in Galilee,
Jesus promised that surely he would always
be with us, to the very end of the ages.
He is always with us and there is no need
to be surprised; the cross and persecution
are part of our daily life.
Near our cathedral in Nazareth, we have a
chapel we call the Church of the
Synagogue. There, Jesus read from the
Prophet Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord
God is upon me, because the Lord has
anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad
tidings to the lowly, to heal the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives and release to the prisoners, to
announce a year of favor from the Lord.”
(Isaiah 61:1-2)
Let’s keep doing this in the parishes,
monasteries, schools, universities,
hospitals, orphanages, social centers,
prisons, with the refugees and all the
needy. In this way, we will prepare for
Christmas in Galilee, in the Holy Land, in
the Middle East and in all our countries.
top photo by Corinna Kern: Archbishop
Bacouni writing at his desk in Galilee
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