Speech of the Patriarch for the 11^th of September at the ICCI

11^th September 2002

We are here to remember and to pray, to remember the victims, their relatives and friends, and all the American people, attacked and wounded in their humanity and dignity on the 11^th of September 2001. We express our profound solidarity, with sincere prayers, to the American nation. As we remember the human sufferings we pray; we put ourselves in the presence of God and in the light of the divine presence we wonder how human beings, created at the image of God, are capable of such evil acts of terrorism. As we pray before God, we are confronted with the mystery of evil in the life of humankind, while we hear Our Lord Jesus Christ saying that: Our father in Heaven” causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike” (Mt 5:45).

The horrific events of last year caused a powerful shock throughout the whole world. Our freedom and our future have been threatened since then. Such a threat is unacceptable and must be resisted. Terrorism is to be fought and uprooted, so that a new world order can be instituted. Ways of fighting and uprooting terrorism are many and varied and it is never easy to decide which ways are more appropriate and more effective. However, if we want our reaction to have a lasting effect, we should also have the courage to recognize the causes that may push others to such acts. This is especially true when, possibly, the evil committed by others happens to be rooted in our own shortcomings or shortsightedness. The leaders and the powerful ones of this world bear their part of responsibility, when they are unable to provide the same level and way of life to all the peoples of the earth.

We all condemn terrorism, but at times we run the risk of going on killing in our attempt to stop killing, and by some of our actions we may sow seeds for new violence and killing. On the anniversary day of the senseless killing in the USA, while we witness and deplore so many killings around the world and in our country, each of us is called to search our own conscience and to ask ourselves this question: how much am I a part of the violence and the terrorism of which I am a victim and which today threatens all human societies? In particular, religious leaders - Jews, Christians and Moslems - and political leaders, are invited to ask themselves the same question. Some seeds of terrorism can be found in every one of us: in every one of us, they should be eradicated. Each of us, in our own way and place, remains responsible for good and evil in our world.

It is high time we create a new world, in which “There will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain” (Rev 21:4); it is high time we act correctly in order to reach a day in which we can say, again with the Book of Revelation: “ The world of the past has gone” (Rev 21:4; cf Isaiah 65:17-19), the world of terrorism has gone. “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered” (Isaiah 65:17).

Again we remember and we pray. We ask God to fill our hearts with His wisdom and His light, and with the needed courage to bear the light that can renew the face of the world.

+Michel Sabbah, Patriarch

Jerusalem, 11 September 2002