T H E O D O R O S  II

 

By the Grace of God, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa,

to  the plenitude of the Apostolic and Patriarchal Throne of Alexandria,

Grace and Mercy and Peace from our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ,

born in Bethlehem and who fulfilled the Divine Economy.

 

    The unique and unrepeatable event of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ reversed the history of mankind in a way that is revolutionary. This took place because, in a world predominated by the right of the mightier, the Son of God came to challenge the status quo and to be identified with the weak and the oppressed.  

  Intentionally and consciously He turned Himself towards those who had been rejected and isolated not only by the society, but often by their families too. He spoke to them, He touched them, He ate with them, and He made them partakers in the Divine grace and remission. He expressed the Divine love and acceptance to all those who had been considered outcasts by society.

  Through this attitude Jesus Christ showed that caring for the other bears outright witness to the faith that every human being is worthy of God’s love. Care does not mean only meeting the immediate needs of the other, but also offering to the other hope and encouragement over the fact that he can be freed from the restrictive shackles of his life.   

  However in our times society seems to be ruthless and rather easily stigmatizes and isolates people. Quite characteristic – and tragic at the same time – is the example of the generation of 18 million children in Africa who have lost one or both parents by the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, the lethal disease of AIDS.

  Trapped within the vicious circle of crushing poverty, hunger, illiteracy, corruption and war, these children – unfortunately in their vast majority vehicles themselves of the disease, having received the virus from their mothers during pregnancy – fill the orphanages or even worse they are abandoned on the streets, striving to survive. They are the victims on the altar of the largest destruction on the Black Continent since the era of slavery.   

  Their stigma is accompanied by the rejection on behalf of their families and friends, the loss of a happy future perspective, the experience of discrimination of any kind. These stigmatized children bitterly face the loneliness of social exclusion. They are vulnerable to the risk of malnutrition, abuse and rejection from their school, waiting just for the end without any medication, any psychological support…

  My mostly valued Brothers, 

  The crisis inflicted by the scourge of AIDS tests our humanness and shows that often our egocentric and competitive society remains in title only Christian. This happens because there is no motivation to draw closer to the pain of the other with love and understanding, or any wholeheartedness to experience human solidarity in its full breadth.  

  Verifying the dynamics of Orthodoxy, the Mission of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa approaches AIDS sufferers with Christian love, which “is patient, seeks not her own, thinks no evil”. Our Mission provides them with spiritual and material assistance, and cares for their participation in social life.  

  Visiting our missionary groups, I realize that simple contact has the power to bring peace and serenity in the turbulent seas of their soul, and subsidence of the winds of sorrow, intensified by orphan hood. I notice that the balm of Christian love takes away the fear of disease and seclusion, and maintains inextinguishable the fire power and will.

  For this reason this Christmas we are redoubling our efforts to alleviate suffering through a campaign of love; a campaign aiming to support the patients and raise the awareness among the local communities, so that the scourge of AIDS to become an opportunity our spirituality and humanity to emerge.

  Serving our fellow human beings in need, we serve Jesus Christ Himself and we bear witness of our Church’s prophetic mission, the hope; the hope human relations to be redefined as a God given gift, as an expression of the dynamic communion between our two unique elements, soul and body; the hope love to be restored as the fundamental value of our world, on which true happiness and inner development to be established; the hope that has remained indissoluble since the historic time was intersected by the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the course of humanity has changed!

 

 

 

 

† T H E O D O R O S  II

 

Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Great City
of Alexandria,
Nativity of the Lord, 2010.