H.B. Patriarch Michel Sabbah 30th Anniversary
of the Founding of Bethlehem University
2 October 2003
We come together to celebrate 30 years in the life of this University – thirty years of efforts exerted by the administration, teachers, and students, towards the goals of education and building society. As the invitation indicates, we come together on this occasion for the distribution of certificates and medals of appreciation. The first medal goes with appreciation to the Apostolic Sea, in memory of the visit of Pope Paul VI to the Holy Land in 1964. At that time the Holy Father wanted to establish this University as a gift to the town of Bethlehem to provide the youth with an opportunity for their higher education without them leaving their country.
The second medal goes to the Christian Brothers and the religious order they represent. Under its name they came here and not only accepted, but rather preferred, to be with us under the current difficult conditions and to share with us our pains and aspirations. The University was founded to enable young Palestinians to remain in their land and to work for its development and prosperity, and to give them an education and knowledge to deal with the occupation and their violated freedom. The process has always been difficult, but rich with experience and crises in which men are born and assume their responsibilities as citizens loyal to the land and to their fellow citizens, and as believers, faithful to God and to all God’s creation. The spirit in the hearts of the Brothers, with its self-denial and integrity, constituted one of the factors in the success of this process.
On this occasion I would like to talk about religion in general and about Palestinian life in particular, and how religion can enrich us and can thus become a strong factor in building our personality and character. In demanding our freedom and dignity, Palestinians, whether Christians or Muslims, believe in God. The Muslim looks to this land as God’s endowment, where the individual lives and respects its sanctity and protects it for God and for himself as a gift from God. The Christian perceives it as his own, and for him the Holy Land unquestionably precedes any other sacred site or place of visitation around the world, because it is the roots where Jesus Christ was born, lived, taught, died and rose from the dead in glory. To Jews it is also holy land and the land of their faith and roots. Because of that sanctity, in addition to all the political reasons internationally and locally, there is conflict on this land.
The believer classifies his conflict as either for the sake of God or for the sake of man and his own violated rights in the name of God. Many religious wars took place in the name of religion and in the name of God during the long history that Islam and Christianity have shared. The land of Islam was perceived by Muslims as the House of Peace. Everywhere else was perceived as the House of War on which war is declared legally, in the name of God and in order to spread Islam there. Christian countries were no different. They perceived any other country whether Muslim or non-Christian as a place where the teaching of Jesus Christ must be spread. This is how the Muslim conquest spread west and north to Christian countries. This is how many European wars took place until the end of the Middle Ages. When America was discovered, for example, and in order to inform people there about God and his mercy, wars with all their disasters sometimes preceded the spread of that knowledge. This is an odd mixture between religion and war which we reject today. IN adition to the foreign wars, there were also wars between the Christian countries themselves, as well as between the Muslim countries themselves. This is a mystery among the mysteries of history, and a mystery of God in his care for the lives and needs of humanity: How do people call for war to fight in God’s name, while He is compassionate and loving toward humanity?
On the basis of this mystery we have not ceased to carry our faith and heritage with all its complexity, with the purity of our spiritual faith on one hand, and our tribal and individual tendencies on the other. Thus, it appears that God is protected through violence and the killing of His own children. In fact, such is an attack against the image of God and His spirit in them, and his love for them. The question is: Did God designate the faithful in any religion to announce their religion and their knowledge of God through killing the children of God? In fact this is an area in the history of nations where self-analysis and self-evaluation are needed, so the nations might see what led them to religious wars: Is it really for the glory of God or for the glory of man and his many personal interests?
This is the reality we are still living today. We believe in God, and we reject whomever has a different faith other than that of ours, whether it be Christian rejecting a Muslim because he is different, or a Muslim rejecting a Christian because he is different. Religious rejection is added to tribal rejection, which we are witnessing today as a dysfunction taking place in Palestinian society, here in Bethlehem and in other cities as well. Of course there is also a positive stage of brotherhood which we have achieved today through many efforts and many experiences, and through the shared suffering and the blood that has been spilled. However, positive thinking is limited to a small segment of society. It touches only the surface in the individual’s spirit, and it does not reach a deep level in that spirit either as an individual or as a group. Through its faith and total integrity to its roots, whether Muslim or Christian, society must shape for itself a new vision of the God in whom it believes. In other words, society needed a new vision of the God to whom it submits its life, along with a new vision of all the children of God who are different from us.
God, in reality, is love and peace. Therefore, who ever lives in love and peace obtains all his rights, because love and peace do not mean giving up any rights, but rather constitute an assurance of every right. However we are living in a reality where it is difficult to understand such verbal affirmations. Our reality is one of occupation, killing, and destruction of homes and agricultural produce and human dignity. Our reality is one of checkpoints where soldiers enjoy humiliating the Palestinian human being. It is in the logic of people, and it not in the logic of God to respond to violence with violence and to violation with violation. People’s inability to take revenge has filled their hearts with hatred, along with anticipation of the right moment to take that revenge. This might be normal for many, but this is not the full dimension of matters, nor the full capacities that can be reached by the human being who believes in God. The person believing in God is capable of more than hatred and revenge. He can ask for all his rights and he is capable of rejecting the occupation and all the injustice and humiliation. In his struggle he can be a believer if he so wishes. He has a spiritual power that enables him to be victorious and to put an end to all that and to compel the enemy, regardless of his despotism, to submit to peace and to the power of the spirit demonstrated by the believer.
I said that religious wars existed in every religion, history, and civilization. The believer then carried God’s banner and killed his fellow brother. This is, today, for every believer who is mature in his belief in any religion, an event that must be reviewed, accounted for, and evaluated, so that the past does not remain the standard for humanity’s present, nor for its future. Transformation from this historic reality is difficult, because it necessitates a transformation from a reality deeply rooted in the life of humanity. Peoples that believe must renew their lives entirely on this issue. This cannot be done in the European way or the way of the French Revolution, separating religion from the state and exiling God from society and isolating Him inside individual spirits. The believer must purify his religion from all that is non-religious, that is, from all that is not from God, from all weakness and divisiveness in man’s spirit. This is what transforms the gift of God and faith in Him to animosity towards a brother. We need a comprehensive revolution inside the spirit of the individual, and in all social structures that encompass faith and guide and nourish us. This is very difficult and borders on the impossible. Yes, in Christian history we have the experience of hermits and monks. In Muslim history there are the Sufis, as believers who tried to deny themselves and to purify their faith from the evil that was then present and that was born inside them. But today we cannot all pursue that path of self-denial and abstinence. But we can believe in God as the source of love and peace through our faith in God. We can avoid the path of killing or hatred that spoil the purity of religion, and that is born inside the spirit of man as an extension of our tribal and individual tendencies. There are some leaders and officials who are especially called to avoid that path. Yes, leaders and officials particularly during this critical period. They must not be pretentious leaders, but strong servants, helping instead through their integrity and good offices that give them added strength.
Now there are Christians and Muslims in Palestine. How are they living? Some will enjoy saying: Relations between us have always been exemplary, our relations today are firmly rooted in national unity, and that the situation is good, thank God. But the situation is not good. Yes, those remarks are compliments, but really they are more than flattery for there is affection, friendship, and appreciation of one another on a limited scale among Palestinians. This is true on the level of the personnel of the Palestinian Authority with President Arafat and the people around him, and on the level of some intellectuals, religious clerics, and responsible political officials. However, there is still a significant area where a sufficient balance must be introduced so as to avoid injustices among us, so as not to inflict injustice on each other and then we will become weak and unable to deflect the external injustice weighing heavy on our chests. We need fundamental renewal. Palestinian re-birth does not require only ending the occupation. We need to get rid of many negative aspects inside our consciences. This is doable and does not require negotiations, other than that each one of us should take account of himself. Consultation must take place between officials in Palestinian society and between Christian and Muslim religious clerics and those responsible for the educational, cultural, and religious aspects of this society. They all need to lay the foundations for the birth of a new Palestine. The new curricula must demonstrate to every citizen that the other is his brother, however different he may be, and to say to each other that we have the right to be different and to be respectful and to accept each other. This is a new type of education for the Christian and the Muslim alike. At that point, the Muslim and the Christian will feel secure. The Muslim and the Christian will feel part of a new beginning, of a Muslim-Christian civilization that will fill the Muslim and the Christian with renewed prosperity and stability. Then, the Christian and the Muslim will be in possession of a new energy that will render them victorious in terms of putting an end to the occupation and its injustices, and to regain freedom and dignity.
Much is being said about the proposed Palestinian constitution. There is talk about the religion of the state, will Islam be the state religion and will it constitute the main source of legislation? We are in a futile argument, if we debate on the basis of the outcome being a benefit or loss to the Christian or to the Muslim, or whether one will secure for himself a benefit at the expense of the other. We are in a situation similar to two parties are pulling a rope. Each one pulls the rope towards himself so that the other will lose. We must all be on one side where we benefit jointly. There should not be any gains for one side at the expense of the other. Our common gain is the birth of a new Palestine with a new face, where Muslim and the Christian alike can feel secure. Palestine is land sacred to us and we administer it as custodians on behalf of humanity. If we can rise to this vision, we can put in the Palestinian constitution sentences that are appropriate, satisfactory, and expressive of an entire civilization. Otherwise we will remain antagonistic towards each other and we pull the rope in a futile manner.
Palestine is sacred to the three monotheistic religions and to all their followers around the world. Palestine is a human heritage. We must administer it as children of the earth with a spirit capable of encompassing and welcoming the whole world. It is not true that the individual’s faith must strangle this broad and comprehensive vision. Religion is bigger and more encompassing, compared to our hearts that are sometimes heavy with concerns about anything that is different from us, and thus we are unable to see God’s face. Palestine is the land and endowment of God. Palestine needs a new constitution that reflects the large scope of God’s love and the brotherhood between God’s children in this land which God has made sacred, and where He brought us together in His deepest mystery.
This is one aspect of the mission of Bethlehem University: To educate hearts and minds as big those of God, to educate Muslims faithful to their religion and Christians faithful to their religion as well. This is the type of faithfulness that is complimentary to love, in its perception of the other, not in self-service as a type of tribalism and self-enslavement. Faithfulness is a type of love that gives to faith and to the faithful a face that radiates tranquility and joy, and that will help re-building a unified society, rich with every cultural endeavor of each of its sons and daughters.
After it has served for thirty years, I hope that Bethlehem University will continue in its service year after year, and will instill this broad humanitarian vision in each of its students. I hope that through its service to every individual in this country, Bethlehem University will be an active laborer in the creation of a new Palestine and the development and prosperity of the town of Bethlehem, and a worker for justice and peace with the spiritual energy it provides to all its students.
+ Michel Sabbah, Patriarch
Bethlehem, October 2nd 2003