Abed Rayess

CLC Syria: In Faith and Plight

Abed Rayess

Ihave no desire or will to identify theexact name for this political conflict(revolution, civil war or just a conspir-

acy), because as soon as you make an iden-tification you may set one face to thecomplex conflict and, in a sense, that willmake me a part of it which I do notwant.Thus what I am actually concernedabout is what the Biblical name is.

When God asked Cain: Where is yourbrother? God wanted to awaken in Cain hisbrother’s image, but then Cain answered:am I my brother’s keeper? At that moment,he killed his brother again by his apathy anddeafness and became the first isolated,strange, homeless refugee human being inthe world.

Thus, both the Bible as well as the series ofevents in Syria clarify how such a terrible re-ality could become non evangelic1, and is con-tinuously producing a series of terrible newsand events, so that the glory of God does notexist in heaven because of the war on earthand the misery and sadness inside people.

From an Ignatian view, I can recognize theangel of light. So to destroy a country andmake its people kill each other you canbegin with a subtle seduction: you are in in-justice and your brother is taking all theblessings and gifts, so if you murder yourbrother, the danger will vanish. The other(the brother) is hell itself. If he disappeared,hell will disappear and heaven comeswithin reach. With such seductive and evilmessages, the catastrophe started in mybeloved country.

Those messages originally came from inter-national news channels which are employedfor the benefits of their funders. They justpoured the oil above the fire and let it blaze.They did whatever they could to get this cri-sis so far till there was no way back.

Like the angel of light disguising as lambshiding behind sympathetic speeches andbright, flashy titles and headlines such asdemocracy – freedom – nationalism and in-dependence. Under these headings the civil-ians pushed to kill each other in my country.

1 Not rooted in the Gospels

ories about travels and experiences withJesus Christ - we remember our creative ex-periences with the Jesuits, our CLC groups,including the spiritual exercises, and in theother Jesuit activities.

So with these experiences, we recognizethat we really lived the gospel and we stillwant to carry on with such living experi-ences even deeper.

So how could we continue with the cruciallack of priests? Again we have here a simi-lar point to the apostles community to whenthey were gathering and asking the guidanceof Holy Spirit in the absence of Jesus.

In the last year, I personally experienced thespiritual effectiveness of a lay communitywhich recognizes the Spirit’s guidance. Thelack of the Jesuits transformed into a gift. Itforced us to look for the consoler, and Heexisted generously

We continued with the rest of remainingpriests with the spiritual exercises and ac-tivities, asking the help from the availableones, depending mainly on our own initia-tive and creativity.

At the present time, CLC Syria is a growingcommunity, composing more and more ofnew groups. It is an attractive communitygaining new members; a rooted communitysince many members present themselves forserving and accompanying the new groups,an emissary community shining its spirit tothe others as we have had the opportunity toopen our door for the others, including Mus-lims. in many activities, in addition to many

This does not mean that Syria had no politi-cal, social problems ready to catch fire at anytime. But what I mean is that what is non-evangelic in my county is rooted in and in-teracts with the (non-evangelic) atmosphereof the world as a whole: purpose, results, be-ginnings and endings. In other words maybeit’s not in fact the crisis of Syria but the Cri-sis of a world distant from the Gospel.

If we take a tragic and pessimistic compre-hensive vision for this crisis, then we willjust find a refugee, fleeing people driven asherds like in August Caesar’s statistics. Onother hand the meditative and observableeye will be able to see a small simple groupexperiencing a different, deeper and optimalreality like the shepherds in the childhoodgospel. I confidently express that CLC Syriamembers have experienced, especially lastyear, a spirit of hope, preaching, renewal andinspiration, mainly in our general meetings.We are living a time of grace in war time.

The way of CLC was not without obstaclesbefore this war, we complained about theabsence of the sense of vitality, losing thefeeling of growth, the lack of projects. Now,in spite of the fact that we lost many greatpriests (because of death, murdering, kid-napping or travelling), and in spite of losingsome of the members of CLC because of thebad living conditions, we do not feel or-phaned but are united, more than any time,with praying,faith and hope as a group withone heart, living somehow similar to the firstapostolic church.

This similarity lies in that –just like whenthe apostles were remembering their mem-

Below from left toright: Pilgrimage in OldHoms where residentshave expressed theirdesire to live throughdrawings on the wallsdestroyed by war; Gathering of membersfrom CLC Homs in theJesuit Convent in Homs,where Fr. Frans Van derLugt was martyred;Morning prayer in thechapel of the Jesuitconvent in Homs,during a pilgrimage inAugust 2015

CLC in Homs

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seems to come from me is not from mynature, or my wisdom.

Dangerous occurrences have begun tomultiply and get worse in my country. Abullet struck my husband; amazingly, Isurvived three shells that landed near me,and our house has suffered damage fromexploding bombs. The problems now areno longer limited to the absence of themeans for subsistence (such as electricity,water, communications, petrol, food, orthe scarcity of an income), but our veryexistence itself is increasingly in danger.All this happened in concert with what theregion around us endures, like the murdersand kidnappings of Christians at Mosul inIraq, of Assyrians in the province of Has-saké, and the throat cutting of Copts inLibya, as well as the targeting of peoplein different regions of Syria because oftheir belonging to certain political, ethnicor community groups.

At this particular time, we began to askourselves more urgently to make thechoice between leaving or staying.

On the personal level, I was beginning toask myself questions about the goal of mylife on earth. It is only a bridge leading meto eternal life with God. As a conse-quence, it matters little whether it is longor short, easy or tiring, the important thingfor me is to accept my sufferings and offerthem to God as my participation in glori-fying His holy name.

And on the family level, my husband andI have searched together to understand ourmission as Christians and as a Christianfamily in the society that surrounds us.What ought we to do? Do we stay here, ordo we migrate to another country? God,what do you want from us? Where doesHe want us to bear witness to Him? Arewe ready to bear witness to Christ untildeath? What is our duty to our children?How to protect them and do our best forthem?

To answer these questions and distinguishGod’s will from our own is no easy task.Today, I feel with my husband that ourmission consists in striving together to stayin our society, with our own people andthose of them who are still here. We think

that our presence here as Christians inthis part of the Orient is the fruit

members participating in relief works spe-cially that with the Jesuits.

So, what is running in our minds is, howcould we blow an evangelic spirit in a worldwhich is isolated and estranged from thegospel? We have felt and appreciated thesympathy and supporting of the universalcommunity emotionally and materially. This

support yielded a real means which con-tributed in the success of our community ac-tivities.

We wish not just the continuity of support,or your sympathy, but also sharing our senseof enthusiasm. We are aware of being onecommunity with an essential responsibilitywhich is to tell the world good news!

Samar Asmar

With the onslaught of the war inSyria, my country, in theshadow of the difficult circum-

stances that we are going through-- thedestruction, death and suffering in whichwe are living-- I ponder on several ques-tions: on the meaning of my life and theaim of my existence; on the meaning ofsuffering, of sadness, of death; on themeaning of the anguish and fear that wefeel, awake or asleep.

Why is God exposing us to this difficultordeal?

It was clear that diabolical forces wereplaying with us, with our existence, ourdestiny, our present, our future, butequally with our minds, our perceptions,and the principles upon which wehave grown up in for longdecades: coexistence, peaceand charity. Why does Godallow all this? Why has thewhole world suddenly

dropped us? Consoling voices are weak-ened and blurred, not overcoming evil anddeath.

In these circumstances, in the shadow ofall this questioning and with regard to thedemands of daily life, the lack of re-sources, the absence of a prospective vi-sion of our lives, I was searching,reflecting and meditating on the presenceof God in my life. I have felt His presencetouching me and how strongly He sup-ports me. And this presence gave me joyand awakened in me a strong desire toopen myself more to Him and to allowHim more room. I offer Him what I expectto experience, I examine all my thoughtsbefore Him and I leave Him the possibility

of choosing in my place.And I feel in some sit-uations and circum-stances that what

Samar Asmar

Above: Closing evening ofa retreat in Homs, withyoung people fromAleppo, Damascus andHoms, in september 2015

CLC in Aleppo

1. The loss of someone, be it by death or byemigration.

2. The fear that goes with this loss, fear forothers, fear of loneliness, fear of theshells that no one knows when or wherewill fall.

3. Discouragement and desolation: our goaland our dream is to live life to the full,but we are often discouraged by seeingthe misfortunes of others : siege, hunger,sickness, lack of means of transport. Weare worried about them, and for the fu-ture of children facing the most cruel si-tuations. We feel powerless. We contentourselves with praying for them, espe-cially when we hear the bombs headingtheir way.

4. Faith in living together, Muslims andChristians, not being carried away bywhat leads to division, for we are all Sy-rians, and God has chosen this way oflife for us.

5. Transport and its difficulties in view ofthe transfer of several companies to Da-mascus, believing it to be more securethan Homs and Aleppo and other re-gions.

6. Influence of weakened spirits on physi-cal health during the war.

7. No clear horizon ahead for our country,our only hope lies in God, who alone isall powerful.

8. Absence of our dear priests, FatherFrans, assasinated, Father Paolo, kidnap-ped, and also Fr Michael, now deceased,who gave much of his time to CLC.

9. The lack of spiritual guides, who notonly taught us to meditate on the Gospel,but also to live it in all its details.

Role of the World CommunityThe compassion of the World CLC has dee-ply touched us. We thank all the membersfor their sharing and their prayers. Their fi-nancial support helped us to:

P Experience the spiritual dimension bymaking the Spiritual Exercises at Touf-faha (a peaceful region);

P Have the opportunity to take on a mis-sion that allowed us to feel the impor-tance of our presence for others in themidst of the difficult situations that weare experiencing.

We feel that we were like Bartimaeus theblind man, sitting at the edge of the road…and after his shouting and the call fromJesus, everyone around him told him : takecourage, get up, the Lord is calling you…

With the blind Bartimaeus, let us pray:Lord, let us walk with You along the road.

Original in FrenchTranslated by Patricia Kane

of the constancy and martyrdom of the firstChristians, our ancestors, who enduredmuch, were exposed to persecution and

The situation in DamascusIn Damascus, as in all the towns, some havedecided to leave to find safety. This is notpossible for everyone, because the cost oftravel is high. Others have had to sell theirhouse and their goods to escape death, theyhave said their goodbyes to their friends andcousins, without knowing if they will seeone another again one day. Still, others havestayed, not because they do not have themeans to leave, but from a personal deci-sion, a wish to remain, to share and to live.

DifficultiesOn the economic and social levels :

The question that each person asks is : do Istay or do I go ?Several reasons urge us to consider leaving:to escape the bombs and explosions thathappen at any time; to get away from thehigh cost of living; the hatred as a result ofthe war; the lack of the simple essentialneeds of daily life, like water, elecricity,fuel, etc.Young people have no future here.Families eperience dangers and insecurity.The region is heading for total destruction.

On the spiritual level :

Since the beginning of the crisis, the ques-tion keeps being repeated : where is God?

The answers are different, according to theexperience of each person, and the journeybefore and after the crisis:

fought against evil in order to witness toChrist in the land where He was born.

Original in FrenchTranslated by Patricia Kane

P God the avenger and the combatant,P God who works miracles,P God who does not intervene,P God who walks with His people, whoworks through us, who is with us.

With the pursuit of the war, some peoplehave developed spiritually because of thedifficult situations; others have lost some oftheir faith because of the difficulties theymeet, such as the loss of dear friends or afamily member. In this case, our communitytries to understand the circumstances andthat uncoverng the suffering in the heart ofeach person helps develop a better spirituallife. It also allows us to find the presenceof God in the life of each one of us, to seehow He deals with each of us. If we trulywant to live with Him, He will not abandonus, but He will act in His way, not ours. So,our role often consists in listening withcompassion to the expressions of suffering.

The challengesThe real challenge is to ask myselfconstantly: what is the meaning of my pre-sence here? What can I do? Those whohave chosen to stay are taking on their res-ponsibility in society for themselves, and fortheir families. The meaning of life for themhas expanded: they are leading a deeper spi-ritual life. They are seeking to survive, inspite of the exterior hardships and the lackof security. They face several challenges:

Nada Sarkis

Nada Sarkis

Below: Meditation duringa retreat at Touffaha, nearTartus, with CLC membersfrom Aleppo, Damascusand Homs

CLC in Damascus