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The Holy Lent Encyclical of His Holiness
The Holy Lent Encyclical of this year has been issued at our Patriarchate in Damascus, Syria,
on the 20th of February.
Read the Patriarchal Encyclical wit PDF
Charity
«Prayer is good with
fasting and charity and almsgiving is better than storing gold … for
charity and almsgiving delivers from death and it will purge away
every sin. Those who practice it will have fullness of life»
(Tobias 12: 8-9)
We
extend our apostolic benediction, benevolent prayers and greetings to
our brethren, His Beatitude Mor Baselius Thomas I, Catholicos of
India, and their Eminences the Metropolitans; our spiritual children
the reverend vicars, priests, monks, nuns, deacons and deaconesses,
and our blessed Syrian Orthodox people all over the world. May the
divine providence embrace them through the intercession of the Virgin
Mary, Mother of God, and St. Peter, chief of the apostles, and the
rest of the Martyrs and Saints, Amen.
What a sublime
wisdom uttered by the Archangel Rafael when addressing the righteous
Tobias and his son Tobias! It summarizes the three pillars on which
religion stands, namely fasting, prayer and charity. These are the
duties of the believer who practices them to be saved from sin and in
order to receive forgiveness of intrusions and eternal life. Thus, he
will be like the wise man alluded to by the Lord Jesus saying:
“everyone therefore who hears these words of mine and puts them into
practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock; the rain
came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that
house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the
rock.” (Matthew 7: 24-25).
The wisdom of this man and his rationality were obvious when he put
the commandments of the Lord into practice. He was not satisfied with
being a passive believer listening to the word; rather, he mixed his
faith with good deeds. In this respect, the apostle St. James writes:
“you believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that
and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without
deed is useless?” (James 2: 19-20). Also, the apostle St. Peter
affirms: “but just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you
do, … for you know that it was not with perishable things such as
silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life
handed down to you from your forefathers, but with a precious blood, a
lamb without blemish or defect, the blood of Christ” (I Peter 1: 15,
18-19). With this precious blood, we have received gratuitously the
grace of justification, sanctification and adoption amidst the holy
Church founded by the Lord Jesus as a ladder bridging earth to the
heavens. He granted her divine authority and made her guardian of the
channels of divine graces that she grants her children by the practice
of the seven holy sacraments.
Indeed, the holy Church is a mother to all and a teacher. She
beseeches the guidance of the Holy Spirit who dwells in her. She
directs us to practice the three religious duties: fasting, prayer and
charity. As one of the Syriac doctors of the Church has expressed in
prayer in the Ephremian meter which is recited in the evening prayer
of the Great Lent:
ܨܘܡ
ܨܘܡܐ ܕܐܪܒܥܝܢ ܝܘܡܝ̈ܢ : ܘܗܒ ܠܚܡܟ ܠܐܝܢܐ ܕܟܦܝܢ : ܘܨܠܐ ܒܝܘܡܐ ܫܒܥ ܙܒܢܝ̈ܢ :
ܐܝܟ ܕܝܠܦܬ ܡܢ ܒܪ ܐܝܫܝ
.
.
which translates
as follows: “Fast [O Believer] the forty days of the Great Lent and
give your bread to the hungry; pray seven times daily as you have
learned from the son of Jesse [i.e. David]”. “Prayer is good with
fasting and charity and almsgiving is better than storing gold … for
charity and almsgiving delivers from death and it will purge away
every sin. Those who practice it will have fullness of life” (Tobias
12: 8-9)
Dearly beloved,
The central
component of our words here is charity. Charity with our neighbor is
commended by natural law and recommended by divine law as well; people
are all children of Adam and Eve, brothers sharing the goods of this
earth. They have to love each others. After receiving the sufficient
needs from their wealth, the rich shall fill the needs of the poor
with their abundant goods; this is what natural law dictates. Our Lord
Jesus Christ commends in His divine law that we shall love our
neighbor as our selves (cf. Matthew 22: 29); our neighbor is every man
who needs our help. The Lord sets a valuable rule about charity and
deeds of mercy saying: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:
13). In His sermon on the mountain, He says: “blessed are the merciful
for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5: 7). According to His divine
teachings, inheriting the kingdom of heaven depends on actions of
mercy. We shall all stand one day in front of His heavenly court and
be answerable to the law of charity. The righteous will be called to
inherit His kingdom forever; they will not be judged worthy of this
kingdom because they spread the gospel, or endured the persecutions,
or became martyrs for their faith, or made miracles in His name, or
despised this world and worshipped Him day and night; rather, He will
say to them: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your
inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the
world; for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was
thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you
invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you
looked after me, I was in prison and you came to me… I tell you the
truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of
mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25: 34-36, 40). “He who is kind to the
poor, lends to the Lord and He will reward him for what he has done”
(Proverbs 19: 17). What we give as charity for the poor and needy, is
considered as a loan for the Lord Jesus that we lend Him through the
least of His brethren, the poor and needy on earth, so that we receive
it back in heaven with a multiplied interest. For this reason, He told
us: “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust
do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew
6: 20).
The rich people
of all times, those who have hardened hearts and stiff necks, those
who rely on unstable wealth (I Timothy 6: 17) – and are not merciful
to their brethren whom they see bit by the dagger of times – will get
the retribution of the rich man who did not have mercy on Lazarus the
poor, according to the parable that the Lord Jesus told about Lazarus
the poor who got into the heavenly bliss with Abraham while the rich
was tortured in eternal fire screaming to his father Abraham saying:
‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of
his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in agony in this
fire’. Abraham replied: ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you
received your good things, while Lazarus receive bad things, but now
he is comforted here and you are in agony’ (cf. Luke 16: 19-31).
This rich fool
and his kinsmen will hear the voice of the Lord on the day of judgment
saying to them: “depart from me, you who are cursed, into eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels for I was hungry and you gave me
nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink I was a
stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did
not clothe me and I was sick and in prison and you did not look after
me … I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the
least of these, you did not do for me, then they will go away to
eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:
41-46).
He who has
hardened his heart to the appeal of his brother and neighbor, will not
find mercy in the fearful day of Judgment “because judgment without
mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy
triumphs over judgment! What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims
to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a
brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, if one of you
says to him ‘God, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed’; but does
nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way,
faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James
2: 13-17) “give alms from your possessions and do not turn your face
away from any poor person and the face of God shall not be turned away
from you” (Tobias 4: 7).
The Holy Bible with both Old and New Testaments is filled with famous
verses to incite us to do charity and shows us the way to do it and
the benefits we harvest from it. We confine our Biblical references to
what we have cited above, dearly beloved, while we direct our minds to
meditate the life of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth. Indeed, He is the
rich one who voluntarily became poor and was born as a poor child. In
order to save humanity, He was crucified also a poor person while He
is the source of all richness. It is written about Him that “He went
around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the
devil, because God was with Him” (Acts 10: 38). When going around the
different places, He collected charity and donations to cover the
material needs of His disciples, and He distributed to the poor as
well (cf. John 13: 29).
The Lord fought against the vice called hypocrisy. He attacks the
hypocrisy of many believers shown in improperly practiced fasting,
prayer or charity. The Lord wants to uproot this vice from the hearts
of his followers because it will otherwise corrupt these hearts and
not allow the seeds of the gospel to grow. On charity, He says: “be
careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by
them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored
by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what
your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, then
your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you publicly”
(Matthew 6: 1-4). The Lord also teaches the necessity of sacrifice in
charity; He wants us to invite the meek and needy to the feasts we
have (cf. Luke 6: 24). The apostle St. Paul commands us to give with
joy and abundantly: “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly …
each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not
reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver … as
it is written: ‘He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his
righteousness endures forever’.” (II Corinthians 9: 6, 7 and 9). He
also said: “in everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of
hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus
himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’.” (Acts 20:
35).
Dearly beloved,
Our holy
Forefathers taught us that charity is not exclusively distributing
material things to the needy, the sick, the burial of the dead and the
like to assist in the requirements of the flesh; it comprises also the
spiritual matters like forgiveness of sins, prayer for friends and
foes alike, guiding sinners to virtue and bringing them closer to God
almighty through true repentance, comforting those who are in grief
and other deeds that lead man to salvation, and to the glory of the
holy name of the Lord.
We ought,
therefore, to cleanse our hearts from the impurities of sin through
true repentance while we enter this great lent. We ought to confess to
the Lord’s priest and receive communion so that Christ dwells in us.
We should dedicate the days of the great lent as directed by the holy
Church, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and in obedience to His
divine commandments. We shall refrain from committing sins and what
causes it, while we remain in prayer, pouring our purified selves
before God so that our prayers are lifted like incense of good smell
before the divine court. We should mix our prayers and fasting with
charity and almsgiving in assistance of the poor and needy so that we
store up treasures in the heavens and be counted worthy with those who
are called by the Lord to His kingdom for believing in Him and serving
their lesser brothers with charity and deeds of mercy.
May the Lord
bless you and accept your fasting, prayers and charity. May you be
rewarded abundantly. May He pour on you and your families many gifts
and graces so that we joyful celebrate His glorious resurrection in
purity and holiness. May He have mercy on the souls of your faithful
departed.
God bless you
all with His grace, Amen.
ܘܐܒܘܢ ܕܒܫܡܝ̈ܐ ܘܫܪܟܐ
Issued
at our Patriarchate in Damascus, Syria
on the 20th of
February, in the year two thousand and thirteen
which is the
33rd year of our Patriarchate
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