صور من القداس الالهي الذي أقيم في اوسلو على راحة شهداء كنيسة سيدة النجاة الأبرار يوم الاحد07.11.2010

اقام القداس ابونا بيير من الكنيسةالكاثوليكية اللاتينية في النرويج وابونا بيير اتلا من الرهبان الدومنكان

والشمامسة نزار بولص وانور صليوة سبي وعبد اسمرو . حضر القداس عدد كبير من ابناء الجالية ومن

النرويجيين. كما وحضرت مشكورة سعادة السفيرة العراقية الاستاذة سندس عمر علي.

القداس كان مؤثرا جدا وخاصة الوعظة التي قدمها ابونا بيير والتي سيتم نشرها باللغة الانكليزية وبالعربية

لاحقا.

وبعد القداس قدم الشاي والقهوة وبعض المعجنات في قاعة الكنيسة.

Homily i St. Joseph Church,  Sunday 7 November,  2010

 

We turn to God today in our sorrow, our pain and despair, and we stretch our hands out to God and pray,  « Lord, have mercy ».  Lord, have mercy on the dead ; have mercy, Lord, on those who grieve, on those who suffer from visible as well as invisible wounds ; have mercy, Lord, on those who committed this atrocity, for they have extinguished that light in their souls that God intended to be a reflection of his glory in every man and woman.

 

From the depth of our despair we cry to God today.  But God is not a silent God.  This Sunday’s Gospel text is directly relevant to the world we live in, for it nourishes the hope that gives meaning to our lives as Christians, no matter how brutal and painful the world may be.  For in his encounter with the Sadducees, Jesus was not primarily concerned with answering their hair-splitting questions.  His concern is to turn the attention of his listeners, and thus also our attention, to the other world.  And that world, the world to come, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, is radically different from the world in which we live here and now.

 

In the Kingdom of God the first shall be the last and the great shall be small ; in it there is no social status, in fact whoever does not become like a little child cannot enter the Kingdom of God.  In it there is no taking of wives or husbands – not because marriage is not a good thing, for it is a gift from God, but because neither social institutions, nor status or power, can exist in the Kingdom of God.

 

The door through which we pass into the Kingdom of God, Jesus says, is the Resurrection – and we must bear in mind that the belief in the resurrection of the dead was widespread among the Jews at that time, although the Sadducees denied it.  The first reading today, from the Second Book of Maccabees, shows how strong this belief in the resurrection of the dead was among the Jews already before the time of Christ, for it was this belief that gave the seven brothers strength to suffer martyrdom rather than to renounce their faith.

 

The resurrection which is proclaimed by Jesus was, however, something new : it is neither an event which will take place in the future when our world ceases to exist, nor is it is something that exists parallel with, but separated from, the world we live in.  The Resurrection is already present in our world, in our lives, for the Kingdom of God has already come in the person of Jesus Christ.  It is true that the Resurrection of Christ happened at a particular time and place – it happened at Getsemane in Jerusalem almost two thousand years ago, and a poor Jewish woman was the first person to meet the arisen Christ.  But the Resurrection is not simply a historical occurrence: it is both a cosmic event, a mystery in God, ouside of time, and simultaneously a mystery that is repeated in time, here and now, whenever the Word of God is proclaimed and the holy Body and Blood of Christ are received in faith.

 

The Resurrection is a mystery, but Jesus gives some intimations foreshadowing what this mystery implies.  Those who participate in it, do not die.  « They can no longer die », Jesus says, for « they are the same as the angels », they are beyond the reach and dominion of death.

 

The martyrs who were killed for the sake of their faith in the Church of Our Lady of Salvation, are with God.  Yet we cannot but feel sorrow and affliction.  However, we firmly believe that these martyrs, just as the seven brothers and their mother of the Book of Maccabees, have eternal joy in heaven, in the unfathomable light of God’s infinite love.  In our prayers we bring them to the presence of God, and we may be assured that they, too, pray for us, and that, being in heaven, they do so in a manner far more perfect than we can conceive of.

 

For this is the grat mystery of the Church : it is a community of those who live in this world, a community of sinful, imperfect women and men, who all, without exception, are destined to die ; but at the same time it  is an infinitely larger communion of all men and women of good will, a communioin of all people of all times who have sought God and loved God ; and this invisible, heavenly Church, that participates in the love of the Divine Trinity, is also present in this world, it surrounds us and prays for us.

 

Today is a time for grief.  The atrocity is a concrete and terrible act.  It calls for justice.  However, the day will also come when there will be a time for forgiveness.  Forgiveness is not easy.  But it is only through forgiveness that grief can be overcome and the interior, painful wounds can be healed.

 

The massacre in the Church of Our Lady of Salvation calls not only for solidarity and humanitarian aid, but above all for effective political action, above all in Irak, but also in those countries, including Norway, that are responsible for the desperate situation that Irak is in.  I doubt whether any one present here in the Church of St. Joseph tonight is able to provide a solution to the terrible situation in which the people of Irak has to endure.  A solution belongs to the future, but nevertheless we who are Christians, joining our voices to that of the author of Psalm 130, are able to say, with hope and confidence in God,

 

« Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord ;  Lord, hear my voice !

Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication :

If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand ?

But with you is forgiveness, that you med be revered.

I trust in the Lord : my soul trusts in his word.

My soul waits for the Lord, more than sentinels wait for the dawn.

For with the Lord is kindness and with hi mis pleneteous redemption. »

 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.