The Spirit of Peace: Pentecost and Affliction in the Middle East by Mary C. Grey

Author:Mary C. Grey [Grey, Mary C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Theology, Religion, Middle Eastern, Theology, Political Science, World, Liberation, Ecumenism & Interfaith
ISBN: 9781908381200
Google: OI0NDgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 25627363
Publisher: Sacristy Press
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

As it still does. Yet, as this book nears completion, a calmer situation is evolving, despite levels of poverty on the increase. Egypt looks to the next presidential elections, hoping for a candidate who will be capable of holding all opposing factions together and offering a realistic chance of a society in peace.

Where is the Holy Spirit?

When I asked this question at the end of Chapter 3, in the context of the affliction of Syrian Christians, I suggested that the affliction of the people was brought into the heart of the Trinitarian love between Father and Son; that our God is a suffering God who shared this affliction. But there are ever-deepening dimensions to this story: God does far more than suffering with God’s people—otherwise, from where would hope spring? If I can use the analogy of a mother’s love for her sick child: a mother feels compassionate suffering love when a child is very sick. She often wishes she could take the pain and suffer it herself instead of her child. But suffering is not all she does. She is often aware that the child is likely to recover; she has hope in the effectiveness of medication and her own loving care; she draws on her long experience of caring for her sick children and her trust in the healing process. So it is with the healing God. In the very process of compassionate sharing of affliction, God is offering healing and hope through many possibilities.

And the way this is achieved is through the action of God’s Spirit. Even if it seems that conflict and killing are prevailing, still the Spirit continues to “sharpen the eyes of those who have eyes to see and ears of those who have ears to hear”. [184] Because the Churches of the Arab world—not only those in Egypt—are in desperate need of prophets who can read the past, analyze the present, and point to the future, the activity of the Spirit is to sharpen eyes and ears so as to help people to really discern the moment we are now in. This is precisely what I saw Bishop Thomas doing in Upper Egypt.

Do we need to ask ourselves, Christian communities of the East and West, “where have we been as Christians in the decades of horrific totalitarian repression in Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Syria? Where is our witness and solidarity against Christians in the face of the backlash as some seek to wreak revenge on our heads for our support of these regimes?” Does this mean that we retreat into the ghetto? Or do we have the courage to move into the public place proclaiming the values of the Gospel? This is where the fire of the Spirit is revealed, strengthening those, however few, who do not want to abandon their homelands but are struggling to stay:

The Spirit is poured out on those who realize that no one said it would be easy. The last fifty years have seen a progressive displacement of Christians in the Arab world from positions of wealth, influence, and power brokering.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.