The Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Raï, warned against tampering with the people's funds and the banking system, stressing the danger of tarnishing Lebanon's external reputation, "so it would become a state outside the global financial system, and then there would be no benefit from any remedy." He said, in his Sunday sermon: "No matter how long the presidential vacancy lasts, elections must be held based on the voting mechanism in the Parliament," emphasizing that "the government and the Ministry of Education cannot ignore the losses incurred by public education students." He added: "We sympathize with the family of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Rifa'i and Dar Al-Ifta, and we cannot continue to live in a state of security chaos."
Below is the full sermon: "If you will, you can make me clean" (Mark 1:40)
1. The leper, who was condemned by the law of Moses to live in the wilderness away from people so that no one would touch him and transfer the infection from his body which was consumed by sores and disfigurement (see Leviticus 13:11 and 45-46), dared to break the law and approached Jesus who was surrounded by the crowds, and knelt before Him asking humbly and in faith: "If you will, you can make me clean" (Mark 1:40). Jesus touched him defying the law and said to him: "I will; be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him (Mark 1:40). The leprosy did not transfer to Jesus, but the grace of healing transferred from Him to the leper.
Through the leper's challenge to the law of Moses by coming to Jesus among the crowd, and Jesus' challenge to the law by touching him, the meaning of the Word of the Lord was unveiled at another occasion: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27), to say today: "the law is for man, not man for the law!"
2. We are pleased to celebrate this divine liturgy together, while the Church contemplates the story of the healing of the leper and its spiritual symbols and dimensions in our lives. I am delighted to welcome all of you, extending a special greeting and prayerful call to each of:
- A. The University of Al-Hnine in Lebanon and abroad. We welcome its president, Mr. Marsal Hnine, and its present members. This family association was established in the early 1990s to embrace its members in Lebanon and the diaspora, and to unify their efforts in serving love and social care towards those in need, including the sick, students, orphans, and widows. It embodies the Church's social teaching and translates it into action.
- B. The delegation of retired professors from the Lebanese University, who have reached the legal retirement age, consisting of 18 doctors who have not been integrated into the payroll contrary to the provisions of Law 278 issued by the Parliament on March 7, 2022. They have been without a monthly pension and health coverage for five years. They demand the Cabinet to restore their rights and implement the aforementioned law.
- C. Another delegation of professors from the University demanding their appointment as full-time staff based on the aforementioned law.
- D. The delegation from the associations of secondary, vocational, and basic education which includes more than 40,000 teachers and embraces more than 350,000 students. They have demanded and continue to demand from the government and Ministry of Education that they be able to live and return to their educational work for the upcoming generations, two things:
1. Securing healthcare and medical care so they can live in health and safety, away from poverty and humiliation in front of hospitals.
2. Establishing a special currency exchange platform for teachers at a specified and fixed rate, in order to combat the dollar and the exorbitant cost of living.
The government and Ministry of Education cannot overlook the grave losses inflicted on students of public education, academically and ethically, with schools closed for nearly forty days due to the teachers' strike.
3. We were greatly pained by the horrific traffic accident early yesterday which claimed the lives of three students from the Balamand University near the Halat tunnel. The victims are Mirella Azzi, Darya Makhtabi, and Muhammad Rahhal, with two others injured critically. We pray for the souls of the victims, for the comfort of their families, and for the healing of the injured. We hope that the security forces will apprehend the perpetrator and impose the harshest punishment. We were also pained by the kidnapping and assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Rifa'i, despite the vigilance of the security forces. We pray for the repose of his soul and extend our condolences to his family and Dar Al-Ifta. We cannot continue to live in this atmosphere of security chaos.
"If you will, you can make me clean" (Mark 1:40)
4. Jesus Christ, in order to heal humanity from the leprosy of sin, empathized with them, becoming a human and carrying the sins of mankind with His compassion, without committing any personal sin, paying the price for all people's sins, redeeming them by offering Himself on the cross, abandoned by everyone. It has been revealed in history that He is "the great mystery of godliness" (1 Timothy 3:16), victorious over the sin of man which is "the mystery of iniquity," destroying it, entering into the dynamics of history to purify it from its leprosy, and penetrating the depths of hidden iniquity to instill in our souls a movement of repentance and redirect it towards reconciliation with God, self, and others. He is the Redeemer of man in whom God's mercy is manifested. He is the healer of bodies and souls, continuing the healing through the Church and the service of the priests, through the word of the Gospel and the grace of the sacraments. Redemption is a liberation process par excellence for man and, through him, for human history and for peoples from their servitudes, allowing the glory of God to be reflected in the world (Reminder from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Christian Freedom and Liberation, 3 and 33).
5. Leprosy is not limited to skin disease; rather, it extends to the spiritual level through sin, and to every aspect of social, moral, and political levels.
- A) Socially, many people are marginalized like lepers and are rejected in their own families, between spouses, and between children and their parents. There are those marginalized and rejected in their neighborhoods and communities, having no respect or role in public life for familial or political reasons. There are poor, sick, disabled, and elderly individuals abandoned and neglected.
- B) Morally, moral leprosy affects the dignity of the human person through deviant habits and actions, through the hardening of conscience and heart, through theft, bribery, cheating in trade, hiking prices for the sake of profit, and embezzling state funds by various means, as well as forgery in tax payments and financial statements (shining the truth, 100).
- C) Politically, we witness leprosy that distorts the dignity of political authority, deviating from its justification for existence, which is service to the common good leading to the welfare of every person and all humanity. This leprosy erodes the spirit of responsibility and conscience, leading citizens to dire consequences: economic hardship and social misery, and the dehumanization and oppression of their dignity by depriving them of their rights.
6. The political leprosy in Lebanon is becoming increasingly dangerous to the Lebanese identity and entity, and the main reason is the assault on the head of state by the Parliament's refusal to elect a President of the Republic for the sake of individual and factional interests, and to preserve entangling projects in Lebanon while increasingly involving it in regional and international games. The new president does not come as an expression of the will of the Lebanese people, but as an expression of scattered projects in the Middle East, whose reality no one knows and where it will settle, despite all negotiations about it for the past thirty years. This is the great danger to the fate of the Lebanese nation and the State of Lebanon. We hope that the ongoing negotiations among friends of Lebanon will yield a solution that considers Lebanon's interests independently of the compromises of the Middle East.
We also question why Lebanese parties seek unconstitutional and non-Lebanese mechanisms as long as we have a constitutional mechanism that would spare us fruitless discussions? For however long the presidential vacancy lasts — months or years — the electoral process for the presidency of the Republic must occur through the voting mechanism in Parliament. So why the wait?
7. The problem is that each party refuses any concession to facilitate the election of the president because they think they will emerge victorious through "extra-constitutional" methods and conferences. When everyone thinks they are victorious, it means they are all defeated, and the loser is Lebanon and its people. There are illusory victories that taste more like defeats than actual defeats. If this logic continues, void of responsibility and the voice of conscience and a call to national duty, we fear that the presidential vacancy will linger, as most data indicates. The international community marvels at the Lebanese situation. It sees a strong, educated people that has established the first democratic system a hundred years ago, elected the first president of the republic in the East, and is today rebuilding itself without a state. The political community is not for this living people and this democratic system, but rather these people and this system are not for this political community.
8. Another face of political leprosy is evident in the way subjects of banks and depositors are handled amid personal and political conflicts that threaten counter-productive results that could devastate the banking system and destroy Lebanon's external monetary reputation, making Lebanon a state outside the global financial system, and then there would be no benefit from any remedy. Populism and hatred are the most dangerous weapons in our current financial situation. Therefore, we warn against tampering both with the people's money and the Lebanese banking system, especially the Central Bank of Lebanon, which is the link between Lebanon and the international financial system. Such an important matter cannot be addressed in these conditions where the judicial thread cannot be distinguished from the political and personal threads.
9. Social leprosy is also apparent in the social, living, and medical crisis; most of the goods claimed to be missing and that are being imported are available in Lebanon and held by many importers who do not distribute them to the markets except after lifting the subsidy and raising the dollar price. Thus, we await swift action from state agencies because there are people literally dying due to the withholding of these materials from them, especially medical supplies. Is conscience lost among all concerned sectors in Lebanon?
10. How much we and everyone need to realize the leprosy that afflicts us, and we go with the faith of that leper to Jesus, saying with humility: "If you will, you can make me clean" (Mark 1:40). To God be all glory, thanks, and praise now and forever. Amen.
