Reflection By His Grace Bishop Angaelos on recent terrorist attacks in Egypt and elsewhere
Coptic Orthodox Church UK
Media and Communications Office
Coptic Orthodox Church (Europe)
Media and Communications Office
Reflection
By His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, on recent terrorist attacks in Egypt and elsewhere
You are Loved
27 May 2017
Once again, we find ourselves experiencing pain before which words seem insufficient. I have previously addressed victims of terrorist acts; I have addressed their families; I have even addressed those who may have had an opportunity, even in some small way, to advocate for or support those most vulnerable. This time however, I feel a need to address those who perpetrate these crimes.
You are loved. The violent and deadly crimes you perpetrate are abhorrent and detestable, but YOU are loved.
You are loved by God, your Creator, for He created you in His Image and according to His Likeness, and placed you on this earth for much greater things, according to His plan for all humankind. You are loved by me and millions like me, not because of what you do, but what you are capable of as that wonderful creation of God, Who has created us with a shared humanity. You are loved by me and millions like me because I, and we, believe in transformation.
Transformation is core to the Christian message for throughout history we have seen many transformed from being those who persecuted Christ Himself and Christians, to those who went on to live with grace. We believe in transformation because, on a daily basis, we are personally transformed from a life of human weakness and sinfulness to a life of power and righteousness. We believe in transformation because the whole message of the Cross and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is to take humanity from the bonds of sin and death to a liberation in goodness and everlasting life. Our world is certainly suffering from the brokenness of our humanity, but it is our responsibility, personally and collectively, to encourage and inspire ourselves, and all those whom we meet along our path, to a life of virtue and holiness, and the love and forgiveness of all.
This of course, is far from the reaction that many may have expected, but the Christian message is just that, to look at our world as through the eyes of God, Who loves all and Who desires that all be liberated through Him.
I grieve, certainly for those who have lost their lives, for those who mourn, and for those who will continue to be adversely affected by these tragic experiences; but I also grieve for a young man who sees it not only justifiable, but glorious, to take the lives of other young men and women, and deprive his and their families of enjoying them as they grow and mature.
No family should lose a son in this way, even if they are partially or wholly responsible for his flawed ideology. This loss might be to that ideology, to incarceration as a result of his actions and choices or, in the worst case, in taking his own life, along with others, regardless of the great cost to those left behind. In the same way, no family deserves to lose children and members who merely go about their day to enjoy their God-given right to exist, whether it be by attending a concert, taking a pilgrimage to a monastery, simply walking through city streets, or in any other way.
I also grieve for those who considered it a victory to board a bus filled with pilgrims and execute children, women and men purely for refusing to renounce their Faith, as we saw happen to Coptic Christians in Menia only yesterday.
What is increasingly obvious is that many of these attacks come about due to a loss of the meaning and comprehension of the sanctity of life, our own or that of others; so join me in praying for the brokenness of our world that causes parents to lose their children, children to lose their parents, and humankind to lose the humanity for which it was created.
What is important is not that this message be read but that it be communicated; not that it be accepted but that it be understood as another perspective; and not that it should be fully embraced, but that it may create at least a shadow of a doubt in the minds of those intent on inflicting harm and pain.
With respect I offer this prayer/poem from Hafiz
Lousy at Math
Once a group of thieves stole a rare diamond
Larger than a goose egg.
Its value could have easily bought
One thousand horses
And two thousand acres
Of the most fertile land in Shiraz
The thieves got drunk that night
to celebrate their great haul,
But during the course of the evening
The effects of the liquor
And their mistrust of each other grew to such
An extent
They decided to divide the stone into pieces,
Of course then the Priceless became lost.
Most everyone is lousy at math
and does that to G-d–
Dissects the Indivisible One,
By thinking, saying,
” This is my Beloved, he looks like this
And acts like that,
How could that moron over there
Really Be G-d?”
A true message of reconciliation. Thank you so much.
A true Christian. Echoes the words of Jesus, including all He said from the Cross.
I was raised in the Catholic Church but for me what His Grace Bishop Angaelos is saying is pure non-sense. For me it shows a lack of understanding of the Creator and its relationship with the Humanity. It shows also a lack of understanding of the Relationship, a man can have really with the Creator.
Among the humans, love has some meaning and how could God have the same love for the executioner and its victim? How could both be made at God’s image and if so, what would be the crime of the executioner?
I think that we are living in an ocean of lies and he is just adding water to it.
Sir you are liar…you have not been raised in Catholic Church….Jesus forgived on the Cross executioners.
By your answer, you are acting like the Jihadists in Syria. You are acting like a fanatic and are refusing any rationale argument. You are putting your head in the sand. Furthermore I am not a liar but I don’t buy non sense !
point 1) Jean de Peyrelongue I agree with SEJMON actually you are very much a liar. Yin and Yang is not a Catholic Ideology you reveal yourself. You chose to mix and match religious ideologies with your own manufactured pseudo philosophy non sense.
Point 2 ) how does a message of forgiveness be likened to ” you are acting like the Jihadists in Syria” my response to you yes the bible did show Jesus forgiving and asking for forgiveness for the people who were killing him.
Point 3 ) Charity is a function of love and affection and kindness. These are intrinsic to the nature of God. God did not die while creating us nor that he lost anything in the process either. you are not making any sense mate.
The response of His Grace Bishop Angaelos is indeed exemplifies Orthodox Christian understanding of the scripture. This is in clear contrast to your own mix and match of Yin and Yang of the creation of the universe etc… To summaries your position the god you worship is also evil and you would like his grace to declare war in response to the killings of the those pilgrims?
you are a fraudulent character and an agent of confusion and we are onto you.
“…Brothers, do not be afraid of men’s sin, love man also in his sin, for this likeness of God’s love is the height of love on earth. Love all of God’s creation, both the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love animals, love plants, love each thing. If you love each thing, you will perceive the mystery of God in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin tirelessly to perceive more and more of it every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an entire, universal love. Love the animals: God gave them the rudiments of thought and an untroubled joy. Do not trouble it, do not torment them, do not take their joy from them, do not go against God’s purpose. Man, do not exalt yourself above the animals: they are sinless, and you, you with your grandeur, fester the earth by your appearance on it, and leave your festering traces behind you — alas, almost every one of us does! Love children especially, for they, too, are sinless, like angels, and live to bring us to tenderness and the purification of our hearts and as a sort of example for us…”[Final words of Father Zossima, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoievski, Pevear translation]
I think that there is a total misunderstanding on God’s love. Previously when we were taking of God’s love we were saying God’s charity and God’s charity is not love.
God’s charity is coming from the fact that when he is in the creating mode, he is giving himself in the creation process. Somewhere he is dying in the creation process and he does not expect any return from the creation.
It has nothing to do with human’s love which requires a ” biunivoque ” Relationship working both directions.
In addition, in the creation process both the Yin and the Yang, the black and the white are occuring.
If someone expects to become at the God’s image, he will have to be able to give himself also in a creation process having in mind that ” my kingdom is not from this world”.
credo quia absurdum…
Wow! That is ONE message/prayer, which I second and make my daily focus…
Forgive them for they know not what they do… and I take the responsibility of not having loved them enough!
ALL of you!
Thanks Saker!
A film worth seeing, despite (or perhaps because of) it’s US evangelical protestant culture is “The Shack”. It depicts a fictional “near death experience” to beautifully convey the love and forgiveness of the Holy Trinity.
It is a controversial film to many Christians (particularly the oftimes judgementalist US evangelicals at which it is aimed), based on a best selling book, because it shows just how radical and infinite God’s love is. It doesn’t mean all souls, eg the Hitlers, Stalins, Rockefellers, Brezenzkis, Kissingers, Bushes and lesser psychopaths etc will accept the Love and Forgiveness and the necessary repentance. But it is always Offered.
That is how radical Jesus’ message is. The bishop is to be commended for not watering it down or retreating to dogmas of divine wrath.
The film is worth seeing.
oh, Zosima goes even further and defines Hell as an inner state in which one can neither love nor be loved. But even that has an escape possibility….
from talks and Homilies:
” People speak of the material flames of Hell, I do not explore this mystery, and I fear it, but I think that if there were material flames, truly people would be glad to have them, for, as I fancy, in material torment they might forget, at least for a moment, their far more terrible spiritual torment. And yet it is impossible to take this spiritual torment form them, for this torment is not external but is within them. And were it possible to take it from them, then, I think, their unhappiness would be even greater because of it. For though the righteous would forgive them from Paradise, seeing their torments, and call them to themselves, loving them boundlessly, there would thereby only increase their torments, for they would arouse in them an even stronger flame of thirst for reciprocal, active and grateful love which is no longer possible. ..”
And a poem of Hafiz:
The G-d Who Only Knows Four Words
Every child has known G-d.
Not the G-d of names,
Not the G-d of don’ts.
Not the G-d who ever does anything weird.
But the G-d who only knows four words
And keeps repeating them, saying :
“Come Dance With Me.”
Come,
Dance.
Thanks teranam 13 for your thoughts and quotes.