Archbishop Abdel Sater: “We call on leaders, officials, public servants and everyone, to live the Christmas revolution by abandoning their immediate and narrow personal or sectarian interests and replacing them with national interest”.
Father Jalakh to H.E. President Aoun: “The Lebanese are upright and hope is ingrained in their collective personality. We hope that you will be able to open a hole in the wall of the crisis which will eradicate the anxiety of accumulated disappointments”.
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, participated in the opening of the Christmas Novena on December 15, 2021, at the Church of Our Lady of the Seeds, at Antonine University, Hadat – Baabda. The prayer was presided by the Maronite Archbishop of Beirut, Mgr. Boulos Abdel Sater, who was assisted by the Superior General of the Antonine Maronite Order (OAM), Abbot Maroun Abou Jaoude, and the UA Rector, Fr. Michel Jalakh. It was also served by the UA Choir led by Dr. Toufic Maatouk, OAM. And upon his arrival, President Aoun was received by Archbishop Abdel Sater, Abbot Abou Jaoude, the Antonine Professed Members, and Fr. Jalakh.
The ceremony was attended by MPs: Ibrahim Kanaan, Alain Aoun, Hekmat Deeb, former Minister, H.E. Dr. Demianos Kattar, Austrian Ambassador to Lebanon, H.E. Dr. Rene Amry, Director General of the Presidency of the Republic, Dr. Antoine Choucair, First Investigative Judge in Mount Lebanon, Nicolas Mansour, Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, Director General of State Security, Major General Tony Saliba, Gendarmerie Commander, Brigadier General Marwan Sleilati, Army Intelligence Director, Brigadier General Antoine Kahwaji, Director of the Information Branch in General Security, Brigadier General Youssef Medawar, Commander of the Military Academy, Brigadier General George Sakr, Mayor of Hadath, George Aoun, Mayor of Baabda-Louaize, Antoine Helou, a crowd of officers from various security and military agencies, monks, priests, and members of the UA community, namely deans, directors, faculty members, staff and students.
After the Gospel, Archbishop Abdel Sater delivered the following sermon:
“Christ is born, Hallelujah” are words we constantly reiterate for several days after Christmas. Because of what we are accustomed to repeating, we miss their deep truth and the nature of the secret they express. This acclamation is, in fact, a declaration before every one of our faith as Christians in Jesus, God, man, and ultimate Savior, not only to humanity but to all of creation.
It is also a declaration that, through Jesus, man becomes an immortal God and creation is renewed and transformed into a source of life and not a cause of death. In Christmas, God the Son accepted to become a human being, as he was driven by his love for the Father and for man. Therefore, he incarnated, lived among us humans, became one of us and experienced joy, sadness, pain and anxiety, as well as doubts about the love of God the Father for us. Through Jesus, God the Father is no longer a stranger to man and his life, nor a veiled person who is left behind the clouds watching, chastising and destroying. In Christmas, God is with us, bearing our pain, our infirmities, and our sin, and granting us the divine life. What a great joy for all of humanity!
At Christmas, God the Father uttered the word of his love, Jesus, to every person, whether righteous or wicked, healthy or ill, saint or sinner. In Christmas, we knew that God does not want the death of the sinners, nor their punishment in hell, but rather he wants them to live. That is why he came to our land, entered the homes of sinners, ate with them and went to them wherever they were found to bring them back to his heart, for they are his sons and daughters. What a great joy for each and every one of us sinners! At Christmas, the image of God is purified in each one of us. And after Christmas, we all became obligated to embody God’s love in the lives of those around us through giving, love and forgiveness, and by accepting others and respecting the freedom of their conscience, culture and religion, far away from authoritarianism, fanaticism and imposing our own will. What a great joy to meet others!
Christmas is God’s revolution against the distorted image that man has drawn about Him to justify his fanaticism, selfishness, pride and greed. Birth is God’s revolution against every class and racial classification of man. Christmas is God’s revolution against indifference to others, against the exploitation of the most vulnerable people in this world, and against false promises and empty words.
This evening, we call on political leaders, officials and public servants to live the Christmas revolution by abandoning their immediate and narrow personal or sectarian interests and replacing them with the national interest. We call to stop smuggling their money abroad, to return what was smuggled to put it at the service of their citizens, and to stop implementing projects abroad for the good of the country.
We call on them to hold accountable those who loot and waste public money, even if they are loyal close associates, and to take retaliation against those who bribe or fail to perform their duties even if their actions reduce their popularity.
We call upon the clergy of all sects to join the Christmas revolution by striving to return man to God and to preserve the dignity and rights of every citizen, regardless of his/her sect. We call on them to detach themselves from material possessions and live out the virtue of chastity when dealing with others, in order to give up their dominion, refrain from imposing their choices on their sons and daughters, and generating with their speeches sectarian strife, fear of the other, and the hatred that the Lebanese want to overcome.
We call upon merchants and bankers to undertake this revolution, so as to stop worshipping the god of money and offering human sacrifice before him, and to remember that their ancestors who caused the death of many of the people of Mount Lebanon during the First World War were stigmatized and their families disgraced and cursed by humans.
We call on the judges to live the Christmas revolution by standing up to those who are trying to obliterate the reality of a brutal and criminal explosion that killed and injured many residents of the capital and destroyed a large number of its homes, for the sole purpose of protecting those who neglected, colluded, plotted and executed. O judges, achieve the truth and defend the oppressed, unaffected by the threat of an official, the intimidation of a minister or deputy, or any internal or external pressure.
Brothers and sisters, the revolution of Christmas will not be extinguished, and the salvation of Lebanon is surely coming!”
Finally, Father Jalakh gave the following speech:
“From a night the angels sang glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, and humans are waiting for peace to reign on earth. So you see us whenever the birth of the Lord is celebrated, we seek nothing but peace above all, peace of hearts and peace of all nations. Is not the one who was born among us the same who was called by his name? "Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace”?
So here we meet, despite tough circumstances and cloudy prospects, perhaps even motivated by them, to pray that the Lord may bring peace to our hearts, our families, our workplaces, our country and the world. But peace is not a gift we wish for that resembles the children’s wish for the day of the feast. It is an achievement that requires each of us to do his part to make it possible. Hence, my prayer is more intended to allow the Lord to use us for his peace.
At this moment, I can almost hear each of you whispering in your heart: Where does the peace of the heart come from while we are still promising ourselves to see the light at the end of the tunnel of crisis, and unfortunately have been disappointed? How can we bring joy to the feast when we have almost lost our faith in everything? However, weren’t for these reasons that hope was one of the three essential virtues of Christianity? And hope is not just optimism. Optimism makes you analyze the past and anticipate the future. Hope makes you see the star in the dark night. While optimism is feeling and waiting, hope is a filial trust that “God is with us”. Optimism is what you visualize, hope is what you do. You can be optimistic and you can lose optimism, but you cannot lose hope, for the latter is put in us by the Holy Spirit as a deposit.
Your Excellency, the steadfastness of the Lebanese despite the depth of the tragedy, and their clinging to hope while they were mired in the worst crisis they had ever known, are evidence of the firmness of hope in their collective personality. The Lebanese are resurrectionists. We hope that you will be able to open a hole in the wall of the crisis, which will eradicate the anxiety of accumulated disappointments.
I greet you, Your Excellency, Mr. President, and I greet the attendees one by one, with the hope that the birth of the child in the homes of all Lebanese will result in blessing, peace and tranquility.”
The Christmas Novena was followed by a dinner hosted by the University on this occasion and attended by the President who received the icon of Our Lady of Silence that was handed to him by the Rector.