Homily of His Excellency Selim Sfeir Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“I and the Father are one.”
On the Sundays preceding the season of the birth of Christ, the Maronite faithful consider firstly the divine origins of the Church (the Sunday of the Consecration of the Church) and then secondly, the extraordinary unity of the human and the divine in the Church (the Sunday of the Renewal of the Church).
In Christ, the human and the divine dwelt in a perfect unity. This great mystery has been challenged by various heresies throughout the centuries, but the Church has stood firm in her confession that Christ was both perfect God and perfect man. In a mysterious way, this unity is reflected in the life of the Church that He founded. The Church lives and acts in the world, but its goal and strength are not here on earth but in heaven. The Church seeks only the salvation of mankind, but she is also concerned with temporal affairs.
Christ took an enormous risk in fashioning the Church upon the mystery of his Person. Just as his contemporaries picked up stones to kill him because He insisted on His divinity (John 10:31), so too His Church experiences in her own pilgrimage, the same persecution, the same rejection.
The prevailing wind of secularism seeks an impossible task in separating this world from God. The Church, which means each one of the baptized, with our own personal gifts, talents, and virtues, must work hardto uphold the truth in Christ and refuse to relegate religion to the realm of the private and the irrelevant.
Prayer
Grant, Lord Jesus, that we who are made from a handful of clay, may be good foundation stones, living stones in your holy Church.
† Mgr Selim Sfeir
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus