By Archbishop Bashar Warda
IRAQ, my country is a place of suffering.
During the past year, we have experienced a total exodus from homes and villages that have been Christian since apostolic times. About 13,000 Christian families have taken refuge in my diocese. The suffering of my people has been harsh, unjust and unending. The majority of the Christian community has made the common sense decision that the only solution to this situation is to get out, and many of us have gone to great lengths to find a safe haven. The effort of leaving drains family savings, causes interruptions in the education of our youth and breaks up families.
Many of our families are in a type of limbo. They have gone to refugee centres in Jordan and Turkey, hoping for visas to one of those countries, like Australia, who have been generous in welcoming refugees and supporting them as they transition to life in the west.
As Catholics we know the story of Christ’s passion and its glorious ending in the Resurrection. We have the Holy Eucharist and the promise of eternal life. But right now, in real life and real history, we are enduring our own passion. In today’s Gospel, we focus on the “fun part” of the redemption story. Apostles and disciples of our Lord are going about Galilee, casting out demons and curing illnesses. Their joy must have been intense, but it was also fleeting.
Because we know the full story of the Gospel, we know that those same disciples and apostles, who were performing miracles in Jesus’ name, deserted their saviour on Holy Thursday night, and Good Friday – in his time of greatest need. It is impossible for us to comprehend the suffering of our divine Lord on that Good Friday. We humans can easily relate to the horror and fear that the Apostles felt. But can we relate to the disappointment that must have entered the heart of our Lord when he was left alone?
Surely, had the apostles and disciples remained with our Lord through his passion, he would have taken some comfort in that darkness of pain, just as we know that the presence of his mother was a comforting presence. We Christians in the Middle East are experiencing our own Good Friday, our own passion. We have been promised an incredible joy, life everlasting with our Lord and Saviour.
Unfortunately, weak as we are, it is easy at times for us to lose sight of the final reward, and be overtaken by the sorrows of the day. For us, for Iraq, this has been a long Good Friday, and it is not over yet. We remain unsettled as a community. But we have hope, and this hope stems from our religious faith and our human faith as well. We are confident the future holds promise. We have done our best to do what Christians have done for centuries. Our greatest strength in this world is our heritage of education. Our Catholic University of Erbil, planned to be opened in October, is a work of hope. Our K-12 school, Mar Qardakh, is a sign of hope. Our children are our hope.
Education will give them confidence. By offering a solid educational opportunity to our Muslim brothers and sisters, to all Iraqis, we are offering human hope. Through education we will spread hope and make room for the peace of Christ. He knows how to make his way into each of our hearts. The survival of Christians in Iraq and a commitment to the responsibility of the reconstruction of this nation is not a necessity; rather, it is a call for a mission.
Now, I have a request to make. Will you, my fellow Catholics, watch with us? Stay with us just as Mary and John stayed with Christ through the end. It gives us comfort to know that the Universal Church is united to us in prayer and suffering. I am quite aware that it is both an adventure and a great historical responsibility to establish an academic centre amid the present circumstances in the Middle East. However, we are confident and have faith in Our Lord Jesus’ Good News, who called upon us to live hope against hope (Romans 4:18). Hope for us is not a teaching, it is a way of life, it is a faith commitment, it is a way in which we show our love to our Lord Jesus Christ. It is our mission and commitment towards our brothers’ and sisters’ academic futures. It is our responsibility to help them help themselves and to open the doors for a reliable future so they will be able to contribute to the well-being of the Iraqi nation.
All of us in Iraq are grateful for your prayers and the support you have given us as we work to maintain our Christian presence in a land that needs Christ. That Christians and all peoples of Iraq and the Middle East will work together to create a lasting peace in the region, we pray to the Lord. Please, stay with us. Through Christ, my community and many others will find the peace that has been absent for so long. It is not an easy way, but it is the only way. For, “In Christ we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions”. Amen.
This is an edited version of a homily Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, gave at a Mass at the International Federation of Catholic Universities 25th General Assembly in Melbourne recently. Archbishop Warda is from the Chaldean Catholic Church.
