Patriarch of Antoine and the rest of the Maronite Kingdom, Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, presided over the divine sacrifice in the Church of Saint Anthony the Great, in the presence of a number of bishops, priests and nuns, the Endowment Committee and its members, and a large crowd of believers.
Patriarch Al-Rahi had arrived from the Patriarchal summer residence in Diman. He began his visit by praying before the Holy Eucharist in the Church of Our Lady of Providence and lighting a candle, before moving to the Church of Saint Anthony the Great to preside over the Divine Liturgy, with the assistance of Bishops Aoun, Awkar, and Rahma, Father Khadra, and a group of priests.
In his sermon after the Holy Gospel, the shepherd stopped at Pilate’s question to Jesus, “What is the truth?”, indicating that this question is still posed to every human being, and stressing that Christ made believers witnesses to the truth in order to live it and declare it, since life without it loses its meaning. He added that Pilate asked and did not wait for an answer, calling on people not to run away from this question, stressing that “the truth is not about fear, the truth is about freedom.”
The Patriarch identified three basic dimensions of truth: the truth of God in his unity and trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), the truth of man, who is considered loved by God and created in his image regardless of his religion or color, which makes his life sacred and his dignity inviolable, and the truth of history, which is not just a succession of events but a stage for God’s design, calling on believers not to be content with the role of spectators, but to read “the signs of the times.”
Al-Rahi stressed that God has provided man with the will, mind, heart and conscience – the voice of God in the depths – to discern the truth and bear responsibility, considering that the truth is a daily process that requires a continuous reading of life’s events in the light of faith, and he invoked examples of Lebanon’s saints and blessed ones, such as Saint Anthony the Great, Saint Charbel, and Rafqa, and the Patriarchs Elias Boutros Al-Howayek and Estephan Al-Duwaihi, in whose lives the truth was embodied.
Al-Rahi concluded the divine sacrifice by offering it on behalf of the Our Lady of Providence Foundation, its families, its youth, and all those who follow its path, especially George Kiwan and Jamila Bassil, raising prayers for the Foundation to continue its mission, stressing that knowing the truth and living it liberates man and makes him an active partner and maker of his responsibility before God and society.
