December 1, 2024.
Dear Friends,
We will gather together remotely for our Badaliya and Peace Islands Institute faith sharing on Sunday, December 1, 2024 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm. Please join us on Zoom, or in spirit, as we encourage Inter-faith relations and pray together for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East, especially in Israel and Palestine and Lebanon; for an end to the violence in the West Bank, a ceasefire of the war in Gaza and Lebanon an end to war as a solution to the many conflicts in our world, especially in the Ukraine, Haiti and the Sudan. Our prayers are on-going for all the victims of human-created violence as well as the increase of natural disasters due to climate change, all over the world and for the many humanitarian groups risking their own lives to offer much-needed aid.
Today we are dedicating our gathering to Saint Charles de Foucauld who was killed by a militia during World War I on December 1, 1916. Given that so much of our focus today is on the war in Gaza and the West Bank, Foucauld's devotion to Jesus, who he called "the poor man of Nazareth" is an apt reminder of the roots of our Christian story that began in that iconic holy biblical town. Massignon called Brother Charles "an older brother" and was responsible for insuring that the Desert Priest's legacy would live on past his death, intuiting that he would surely one day be acknowledged as a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church. And so it happened. And it is to that ancient village of Nazareth located in the Galilee that we turn our attention during this Advent Season that begins today in our Christian tradition. The meaning of the word, Advent, is "coming", a time of expectation and waiting. For the Jewish people of Jesus' time, and of our own time as well, hope was, and is for a Messiah to come into the world, an Advent, or coming of an anointed king in the line of the iconic King David who would free Israel from foreign domination, rebuild the ancient Temple in Jerusalem and usher in a time of universal world peace. This would be the fulfillment of the promises found in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.
The experience of the life of Jesus of Nazareth during the Roman Empire's occupation of Israel convinced his Jewish followers that they had found the long-awaited Messiah, the "anointed one", or Christ, the One who was to come. But this Rabbi, itinerant teacher and healer, human example of Divine Love surpassed their hope for a King to free the Israelites from Roman rule and instead offered them a "Peace the world cannot give"; a coming of all nations to the mountain of Jerusalem as the center of Divine Peace with Justice; a kingdom not of this world. Only after his death and resurrection did they come to fully recognize Him and what the unconditional Love, compassion and mercy of God looks like when we experience it. During Advent we anticipate this on-going coming of Divine Love into our world in a perpetual cycle of new birth and new life; the birth of the Christ in a little child, and in every child born into our world. We call it Christmas, "Christ's Mass."
In Islam, Jesus, Issa in transliterated Arabic, was a prophet sent to the Israelites. Second in importance only to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, Jesus will come again at the end of time along with a messianic figure known as the Mahdi to defeat all false messiahs or what Christians call the anti-Christ. Like Islam, Christians believe that Christ will come again at the end of time and our Advent, our waiting, is for both a new birth of Love into our world now and for that Love to conquer all fear and hatred and violence with a Second Coming.
All three Abrahamic faith traditions recognize our task as believers to bring about those idyllic realities in our world now in the time we have here on earth; to be a Light to the Nations as the Hebrew scriptures declare and activists for Peace. At this moment, fear of the future in the United States and around the world due to the results of our recent election, the on-going slaughter of so many innocent lives in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon along with the very real threat to our planet by climate change can leave us less than hopeful. The need for diplomatic solutions to put an end to the violence, endless bombing and destruction is expressed in the words of those who are living in the midst of the suffering. Listening to their words and joining their prayers for Peace with Justice to our own seems an appropriate way to begin this Advent Season. Our faith in the Divine Creator and Lover of Humanity is grounded in our hope in the coming birth of new Life and Divine healing and Love into our suffering world.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said in an interview with Colm Flynn on TV channel EWTN:
“My impression is that no one wants a wider conflict, but no one is able to stop it...Now you need something new, creative, I don’t know what, but all the previous agreements, ideas, the prospective two-state solution, everything is not realistic now.”
Many prayers have been posted such as this one voiced to Our Lady, Queen of Palestine by Monsignor Barlassina, Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1927:
We implore You to cast a merciful gaze upon Palestine,
which belongs to You more than any other region.
[...]
Remember that here You were appointed our tender Mother
and dispenser of grace;
therefore, watch with special protection over Your earthly homeland.
And a quote from the Pro Terra Sancta website, 25 October, 2024
Reading these words today evokes strong emotions, in light of the rubble, the pain, the ceaseless fire of missiles. The sweetness captured by the eyes and arms of the Queen of Palestine in Deir Rafat and in Rome contrasts painfully with the images that reach our eyes today from the Holy Land. Yet, perhaps, the current tragedy needs this sweetness more than ever — a gaze that encompasses the entire situation in its complex history, without resorting to simplistic explanations. Our gaze must be like that of the statue above the sanctuary: broad, sharp, and benevolent, attentive to finding those small sparks of hope glimmering amidst the smoke of bombs, giving organizations like ours a starting point to imagine new projects of reconstruction, protection, and integration.
We must remember that Muslims greet others by saying: As-salaam alaykum, Peace be with you, and the response is: Wa-alaykum as-salaam, And peace be with you as well.
In the Qur'an we find that one of the names of God is Peace. (Qur'an 59:23) and that the word Peace appears as many as 44 times such as the following: "And Allah invites to the Home of Peace and guides whom He wills to a straight path." (Quran 10:25)
Perhaps we can end our prayers for Peace with excerpts from this one to Our Lady of Lebanon sent to us by Jacques Keryell, friend of Louis Massignon and in memory of his Lebanese wife, Labiba, may she rest in the loving arms of God.
O, Our Lady of Lebanon, Mother of all Lebanese, We turn toward you with heavy hearts While our country goes through moments of profound suffering. You are the Queen of the eternal Cedar The protector of our blessed land, And the Mother of this people who have always invoked you with confidence. Again today we come begging to you Because our country is on the edge of the abyss, menaced by war, destruction and desolation. Mother of peace, See our suffering, hear the cry of your people........ To all those responsible for this war, give wisdom and the courage necessary To work for justice, reconciliation and Peace And to reject all violence and hatred. Our Lady of Lebanon, You who have watched over us through the centuries. We entrust you with our families, our children, our communities, Protect them from the danger that surrounds them, And keep alive in them the hope for a better future.
Blessed Advent,
Dorothy
See www.dcbuck.com for all past letters to the Badaliya and Peace Islands