Reflection on Eastern Christians

Reflection

By H.E. Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald

“Remain in my love” says Jesus. It is good to notice this word ‘remain’ which occurs several times in today’s Gospel. It had already come up last Sunday when Jesus compared himself to a vine: “I am the vine, you are the branches”, he said. “Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty.”

‘Remain’ indicates something which lasts, which endures. It signifies faithfulness.
“Remain in my love”: it is not enough to love Jesus for a day, for one day a week; it has to be something which continues every day and lasts the whole of our lives. But really, it is not so much a question of our loving Jesus, but of letting him love us. “Remain in my love”, he says. We are to be conscious that Jesus loves us always, and to such an extent that he has given his life for us (which is what we celebrate in this Eucharist). So this encourages us to respond to him with fidelity.

I think we can apply this idea to the Christians of the East for whom we are praying in a special way today. These Christian communities give us an example of fidelity. They go back in history to the first communities of those who embraced the faith in Jesus Christ, in the land where Jesus lived and in the surrounding countries. They have had a difficult history, for there were persecutions under the rule of different Roman emperors, and then these lands were overrun by the Muslims. Yet in the midst of Islam they have survived and are still surviving. Despite suffering discrimination, and sometimes persecution, they have given and are giving faithful witness to the Lord Jesus. So we can give thanks to God for their example.

Let me tell you a bit more about these Christians of the Middle East. They belong to Churches in their own right, Churches which have their own liturgy, their own legal systems, and their own spiritual traditions. Some of these Churches are Catholic, in other words they recognize the Pope as the head of the Universal Church. But many of these Christians belong to Churches which do not give this recognition to the Pope. We can thank God that there is more and more cooperation between the Churches, but one of the things that we should pray for today is that all Christians may be united, since our divisions are a scandal to those who are not Christians.

Let me mention in particular the Eastern Catholic Churches. There is the Maronite Church which originated in Lebanon; the Melkite or Greek Catholic Church; the Syrian Catholic Church; each of these churches is headed by a Patriarch, who takes his title from Antioch of Syria,  the city in which the followers of Jesus were first called ‘Christians’. Then there is the Coptic Catholic Church headed by the Patriarch of Alexandria; the Chaldean Church which originated in Iraq and is the largest Christian community in the country; there is finally the Armenian Catholic Church.  There is also the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, so in the land of Jesus there are Latin rite Catholics, like us, but who are Arabic-speaking.

This multiplicity of Churches is perhaps bewildering, but the variety is a source of richness. It means that the Universal Church is like a bouquet of flowers, each one with its own shape and colour, but coming together into one.

Alongside the Catholics there are those Christians who do not recognize the Pope as the head of the Universal Church. We often refer to them as the Orthodox Churches.
The most numerous of all are the Coptic Orthodox who are about 10 million.

At the beginning of March, as you will remember, Pope Francis journeyed to Iraq. On arrival, in his first speech, he said:

I greet with affection the bishops and priests, men and women religious and all the faithful of the Catholic Church. I have come as a pilgrim to encourage them in their witness of faith, hope and love in the midst of Iraqi society. I also greet the members of other Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities, the followers of Islam and the representatives of other religious traditions. May God grant that we journey together as brothers and sisters in “the firm conviction that authentic teachings of religions invite us to remain rooted in the values of peace… mutual understanding, human fraternity and harmonious coexistence” (Document on Human Fraternity, Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019).

The Pope’s message of fraternity and peace really made an impression on the people of Iraq, since they, and indeed the people of the whole region, have been suffering from violence and war, to which must be added now the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Let us open our hearts to the Christians of the East. As we pray for them, let us be inspired by their courage, their endurance and their faithful witness to the Gospel.