Pastoral Letter of Metropolitan
Silouan of Byblos, Botrys and dependencies on the 6th Anniversary of the
Kidnapping of His Eminence Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo April 22, 2013-2019
“God finished on the seventh day His work,
which He had done:
and He rested on the seventh day of all His work, which He had made”
(Genesis 2:2)
(Genesis 2:2)
 |
| Metropolitan Silouan (Musi). |
Arriving
at the threshold of the seventh year of this invisible “ecclesiastical
mission,” we notice that infertility and drying up are encircling us; the infertility
of hope and the drying up of inspiration. Consequently, you believe that time
is uprooting hope from you, while you have no inspiration regarding how to
defend the work of God within us and in us. In that case, how can you possibly
defend your hope and your faith, and what may you say regarding this matter? An
answer comes to you: “Keep silence!” But how could you manage, with silence, to
defend your hope and your faith in this “ecclesiastical mission?”
In
seeking a satisfactory answer to this question, you rejoice that the Bible
reveals to you the work of God the Creator, when, at the end of the six-day
work of creation, It tells us, with majesty and modesty, that “on the seventh
day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from
all His work which He had made” (Genesis 2:2). This fact makes you dive into
the work of God the Creator, as we are on the threshold of the seventh year of
that great day, while contemplating, with reverence and perspicacity, the
mystery of the work of God Himself in us, since He says, “My Father is always
at His work to this very day, and I too am working” (John 5:17) -- and how this
work has manifested itself in a paradoxical way, both in expression and in the
absence of expression; both in revelation and in the absence of revelation. It
is, in fact, the secret of “silence” that appeared on the seventh day, when God
the Creator rested from all His works, a silence that the author could not
express -- and how could he? Indeed, the expression, “God saw that it was good”
(Genesis 1:4; 10; 12; 18; 21; 25) accompanies us from the first days of
creation, as well as the expression, “that [it] was very good” (Genesis 1:31)
at the end of these days. However, the sacred “silence” of God is present on
the seventh day as a blessed seal appended on His words of the previous days.
This
biblical reality introduces you to the dynamic of the Bible where the “silence”
of God confronts the man who meanders in the paths of life, so as to provide
him with hope, abundant hope. In this regard, man´s difficulty resides in his
lack of forbearance towards such a silence, especially if this silence is
prolonged in our eyes, and if we are not sufficiently imbued with the Holy
Spirit. God be praised that His silence is not sterile. Likewise, he who is
filled with the Spirit, his silence is not sterile either. It is clear that the
source of this silence is the same one of which the Sacred Scripture spoke to
us at the beginning of creation, when It revealed to us the presence of the
“Master of Silence,” if it is permissible to speak like that. This is the Holy
Spirit. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth
was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the
Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2). And we realized
that He is also the “Master of Eloquence” because He is the one who inspires
and gives the speech, as the Lord, in circumstances similar to those we are
talking about, explained to us: “Whenever you are arrested and brought to
trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given
you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11).
 |
| Metropolitan Paul Yazigi. |
Is
it possible that you are angry and disgusted with silence, the silence of the
sterile man, a silence that we are accustomed to describe as the “silence of
the grave,” when we refer to this great day? Or is it possible that you rejoice
in the silence of God, a silence that turns out to be most eloquent, a silence
that is the “language of the age to come,” according to Saint Ephraim the
Syriac, a language that comes to you from the age to come, from the One who is
Himself “the Master of Silence,” who was hovering over all creation since the
dawn of its creation, and which feeds its existence and gives him the ability
to speak, to listen and to understand His work in this creation so far?
In
fact, on the threshold of this “seventh day,” or rather of the seventh year,
you must behold yourself in reverence before the work of God the Creator during
these past six years, and watch the manifestation of His work in His repose of
all works, which took place in a remarkable silence that cannot be decoded by
any word we may say. It is rather a silence that speaks in the hearts of those
who accept the “Master of Eloquence and Silence” within them, in an act of
prayer, faith or service; in a situation of life or death; in a state of
suffering or liberation; in a desperate wait or a quick response; in an absence
cruelly felt but that is counterbalanced by a stronger and more eloquent
presence than the absence itself.
The
difficulty of the seventh day is the “silence” that surrounds it and the length
of the duration that accompanies it. In this case, we cannot do better than
rely on the one who became the “master of eloquence and silence” to guide us in
our passage through the silence of man and this silence of God concerning this
“ecclesiastical mission,” invisible to men's eyes, but alive in the spirit of
God and His providence for us.
I
thank the Lord for allowing me to write these lines, which I wrote “from here,”
“from very near” (for some people), while in the past I have written them from
“there,” “from far” (for some others), while praying to the Lord to confirm us
all together in the work of the Spirit who unites us in times of adversity and
trials, so that He may be glorified in us, and that, consequently, the one who
became the “master of eloquence and silence” is present among us.
5/1/2019
Reference: