The East, the Peace, and the Lost Stability
Dr. Michel E. Abs
Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches
The Middle East Council of Churches called on Christians and all the people of this tormented East to join the Catholic Churches to dedicate the East to the Holy Family, in a mass to be held on Sunday, June 27, under the name "Peace Day for the East".
Peace, which is the key to stability, progress, and development for all people, has become a goal in itself due to the fact that it was immolated by modern civilization.
Peace is a transitional goal, followed by goals, necessarily to be reached, by all means and whatever sacrifices it may cost!
All means are acceptable to reach peace...except war...and often states beg for war to reach peace. An excuse more hideous than the sin itself!
Humanity has lived through endless stages of wars, some of which lasted for years, some for decades, and some for as long as centuries.
Humanity has not headed the lesson to be learned and is now immersing itself in wars at every turn of history, killing people, displacing and destroying others. Peoples and civilizations may thus be obliterated.
War is dear to modern society, the society of industry, the society of “Had it not been for the destruction, you would not have lived in production”, that is, we destroy your society then we rebuild it and bill you, national debt, incomplete sovereignty, dependency and even slavery.
Technological society lives only on war, but the wise one is in the one who profits from the lesson to be learned and waves war away from his own society turning it into senseless and divided societies. Such a one entrusts others to wage his wars by proxy and to operate his weapons and ammunitions factories, in addition to the factories of products that the war has destroyed, ranging from infrastructure equipment down to home furniture.
Wars are taking place today through intermediates, by peoples who have not yet been able to establish their own social contract thus basing their lives on the foundations of modernity and progress. Moreover, even if any society is reconciled with itself and thus spared from war, the owner of the weapons and ammunitions industry invents accusations of nuclear or chemical production for it to invade it, destroy its stability, and then apologize to its people and to a million or more victims.
We are in the East, in the heart of the East, in the Antiochian East. We have been living in wars for decades. Wars end in one place to ignite in another. It is the rotating slaughter.
Our geographical location makes us an attractive place for wars. So are our resources. However most importantly, we have lost our own sovereignty over our national land. Our countries are dismantled, strongholds of every kind are jam-packed, strongholds that will later prove to be inflammatory hotbeds that will destroy the entire body at D-day.
Because we have been subjected to frequent destabilization, catastrophes, and disasters, often fictitious, we have become convinced that only the mercy of God, the Creator, can save us. Our disasters and tragedies we are no longer able to curb or control, so we must turn to the Savior, to a meta-power that transcends human capacity, because man-made solutions have been exhausted.
In the end we can only say with the Master: “Why are you sleeping? Arise and pray that you will not fall into temptation.” (Luke 22:46).
We have entered into temptation, O Master, the temptation of division, betrayal, dependence, estrangement, and unbridled selfishness, inspire us with your Holy Spirit to pull out of it!