#AlThaer



Dr Michel CHAMMAI

Translated by Dr. Diana issa


Yesterday, Patriarch Rai’s sermon was very salient, leaving a different impact on the Lebanese people; some, very wise, saw signs of peace, good and blessings in his words, and had a very positive reaction to them, while others, frantically launched a harsh campaign against the Patriarch and the Maronite Patriarchy, making use of the culture they have been raised upon for three decades. Here lies the core of the problem that is jeopardizing the cohesion of the Lebanese society.



The Master of Bkerkeh does not hold a confessional discourse, as some secularistic figures who imposed themselves as opinion leaders of the October 17 movement, unrightfully describe him as being confessional. We do not blame those who were raised upon the culture of destruction of institutions under the pretext of seeking social justice. We saw what happened in the societies of Europe. Institutions have been destroyed, all people have been impoverished, and social justice has disappeared. And those regimes collapsed in the end.



The Patriarch has made a distinction between religion and confession. “Religion is the faith-based spiritual aspect, whereas confession is the social and organizational aspect of the followers of a specific religion”. And this is what those who inherited from Europe and the whole world failed leftist ideas, do not want to understand; some of whom have slipped into absolute atheism, and this is a choice we respect, but they cannot scorn others who still believe in God. This applies specifically to the national culture about which His Beatitude said: “This distinction is the foundation of the principle of separation between the State and the religion in Lebanon, of the Lebanese culture and of the philosophy of the National Pact and the Constitution. It is at the core of the Lebanese entity, the regime and the active positive neutrality of Lebanon.”



Here it appears that all those are now outside the scope of the Lebanese culture and are destroying a new generation of people who are following their ideas as “a fashion of our time”. Therefore, they are undermining the foundations of the Lebanese culture of Michel Chiha, Camille Chamoun, Charles Malek, the Imam Moussa Sadr and the Mufti Hassan Khaled. If those succeed in their endeavor thanks to the ignorance of some of those who like to compliment them, this will undoubtedly lead to the destruction of the Lebanese entity and transform Lebanon into a hellish fire that will sure devour them all, and burn the identity of this nation.



Those who were raised upon the culture of parity between weapons and human dignity, were irritated by the Patriarch talking about the danger of the return of confrontation in the South under such circumstances, but they did not hear His Beatitude denouncing the violations made by the Israeli enemy when he said: “We denounce all periodic Israeli violations in Southern Lebanon, and the breach of Resolution 1701.” They are used to using one piece of a sentence if this piece serves their strategic plans.



They were so angry when His Beatitude said: “We also denounce the heating up of the atmosphere in the border areas with attacks from and around residential areas of villages.” So they bombed him with all kinds of insults and accusation of treachery. And this is not alien to a society that has sold itself completely to a party, which has chosen to be an agent for Iran, not only by taking weapons from it, but also by carrying its ideological prospects. They keep on accusing some Christian parties of having bought, with their own means, weapons from the Israeli enemy when they themselves decided, along with the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Iranians, to kill the whole Christian community during the awful war. At least, those Christians did not carry any ideological Jewish project like they did with the Wilayat al Faqih. And no one can really pretend that Christianity is the daughter of Judaism. The masters of ideological agency do not have the right to call those who paid with their money for weapons, collaborators or agents, and they cannot either describe those who criticize their political line as traitors. Whereas they themselves are taking arms, missiles and dollars as donations from Iran.



Those were angry because His Beatitude talked to them with the language of the law while they consider themselves as the sole holders of Sharia fatwas and as independent from any law or regulation. The Patriarch said: “We cannot accept, by virtue of equality before the Law, that one party decides of peace and war away from the legal authorities view and national decision that should get the consent of two thirds of the Government according to Article 65, no 5 of the Constitution. It is true that Lebanon has not signed a peace agreement with Israel, but it is also true that Lebanon has not decided to be at war with Israel; it is rather officially bound by the 1949 Truce.” He is forbidden from telling the truth. But decision outside the scope of the State is permitted. Their project of getting out of the scope of the State and installing a state within the State with their allies of the Mar Mikhael agreement has undermined the State with bankruptcy, isolation and corruption. They have become themselves the isolationists and the corrupt but they have caused the bankruptcy of all of us.



We repeat with the Patriarch: “We want to finish with the military logic and the logic of war, and adopt the logic of peace and the interest of Lebanon and all the Lebanese.” This is the essence of our survival in a united, sovereign, free and independent nation. Otherwise, all those would be seeking to destroy the nation in order to build many nations out of it, in a way that suits their ideological standards. And this is what we refuse, along with Bkerkeh and the Patriarch Rai, but not because we want to build a nation for the Christians. We are the ones who refused the establishment of the Republic of the Maronites from Kfarshima to Madfun. We are the ones who restored the role of the public institutions that we have preserved so that we can build the post-Taef State; but we have been betrayed with the distorted implementation of the Constitution.



If we do not solve, as united Lebanese people, our cultural problem, we will never be able to preserve the ancestors’ heritage. Those who have deviated away from the Lebanese identity must go back to their authenticity or else, let them look for an identity that resembles them instead of trying to change the Lebanese identity. And we shall not remain silent. And whoever has ears to hear us… shall hear us!