The crime is the same and the victim is the same

Christmas Message 2023 from the Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Dr. Michel Abs

In this time of extermination of children, we shall begin our Christmas message, in the time of Advent, with verses from the Gospel that were said by the Incarnate Word.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a millstone was hung around his neck and that he was drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6)

“Whenever you did any of these things to one of the least of these my brothers, you did them to me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Once again comes Christmas, the glorious birth of the Incarnated Lord, and our region is suffering under the weight of well-planned conspiracies, destruction, killing, and displacement, and our people are sinking more and more in their daily life and existential problems, and do not see an end to the dark tunnel into which the intrigues and loss of sovereignty, over the land and destiny, have led them.

What is happening in Gaza today, accompanied by what is happening in the rest of the land of Palestine, and some of the Middle East, exceeds all imagination and is beyond all analysis. It makes the rest of our problems in the region fade compared to the color of blood that flows, around the clock, in Gaza, and in front of the extents of victims that generates in the country, at every moment, the killing machine and the plots for genocide and ethnic cleansing.

It seems to one who looks at the course of history, that killing children is an ancient culture among some, and the birth of the Savior was accompanied by massacres that affected the children of Bethlehem, just as today’s genocide affects the children of Gaza who scream asking: Will we all be killed?

Crime is the same, and the murder perpetrated today against children, who have no sin except that they were born on land targeted by conspiracies, is the same that was committed two thousand and two decades ago.

At that time, humanity was still in a time of slavery and ignorance, and there were no human rights, no civil society organizations, no international institutions, no media, and no false claims of democracy. At that time, there was no concept of accountability, no concept of impunity, no international courts, and no advanced technical capabilities.

Today we are in the era of freedoms and rights, we are in the era of knowledge and ethics that touch the details of our daily lives, so where is what is happening in Gaza in all of this?

For planes to attack defenseless people, claiming that there are armed groups among them, this is the peak of hypocrisy. If homes, schools, hospitals, and temples are destroyed, and those inside are killed, this has no explanation other than extermination. If convoys of displaced people from one region to another, within their country, are bombed, this can only be interpreted as genocide. For the medical sector’s institutions to be disrupted, and for it to be deprived of the requirements it needs to carry out its duties, is absolutely not merciful killing.

What is happening today cannot be explained except that it is part of a plan drawn up decades ago, and intentions that were harbored a long time ago. Their holders waited for the opportunity to implement their goals.

This merciless killing of the children of Palestine is fully comparable to the killing of the children of Bethlehem at the birth of the Savior.

All this is happening and the regimes in the world watch, while their people rise up, demanding justice and peace for the victimized children. These tyrannical regimes dare to claim the values of democracy and human rights. Where are the wills of their people?

You hypocritical tyrants in the world, don’t the pictures of the shrouds of the children of Gaza cut-off your sleep? Don’t your consciences be torn by their calls for help from under the rubble of their homes that were crushed by the war machines that you manufacture? Didn’t you feel shocked by the pictures of fetuses who died in destroyed hospital beds? Have you forgotten what you did to the children of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, these societies that you excelled at inventing flimsy excuses to destroy? Do you have a record of the victims that your greed has produced, the victims that you have recruited from your people to kill ours?

How long will this madness continue? Aren’t these groups satiated with blood and victims?

Where the prevailing forces in our world have failed, the Lord gives us His grace to confront evil with broadness of heart and maturity of love. As the Saint, Father Joseph the Hermit says: “With our kindness, we conquer their anger… The weak person is not able to help the weak, nor is he who suffers from something able to heal a sick person like him. As for the one who is not subject to weakness, but rather is armed with the weakness of the strong, this person can provide a cure for the weak.

Glorious is your martyrdom, you children of Gaza. Glorious is your dormition in the care of the Most Merciful. Glorious is your resurrection, because we are children of the Resurrection. Know that our children and the children of the world live with you your suffering and suffer for your pain. Be confident that, whoever took your lives will be pursued by the curse of humanity until the Day of Resurrection.

Despite the sound of bombs, despite the killing, despite the terror, we say that the birth of the Lord is glorious, and it will remain glorious forever, and with His birth He glorified the birth of every child in this world, especially where he was born, in the Holy Land, the day he charted a new path for humanity, and made us all Children of life.

By: mecc