The scene in Bkerke, Lebanon, is uplifting, inspiring and angelic. Yet, it is in stark contrast to another part of the nation where the picture is gloomy, demoralising and miserable. Here, one can see a glimpse of heaven. Over there, one can just see the hellish consequences of war. This can only happen in Lebanon.
Thousands of people have flocked to the Maronite Patriarchal headquarters in Bkerke for the beatification of the 17th century Maronite Patriarch, Estephan Douaihy. Among them, numerous Lebanese Australians. They had travelled specifically for the occasion, despite official Australian travel warnings because of the volatile conflict in the south.
Douaihy’s beatification under the current circumstances has an ontological, political and spiritual significance. According to the Maronite Bishop of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, the event “reaffirms our faith in God and the importance of our Maronite identity.”
In the Maronite traditions, the title of the patriarch is always accompanied by a slightly amended verse from Scripture, “the glory of Lebanon shall be given to him” (Is 35:2). The verse is inscribed above the entrance of the patriarchate premises. It is written in Syriac and Latin, reflecting the adherence of the Maronites to their Antiochian Syriac roots, and their faithfulness to their long history of affiliation with Rome.
Lebanon is mentioned over seventy times in Scripture. Its symbol, the cedar tree, is referred to as the Cedar of the Lord. Yet its glory is seldom glorious, when measured by worldly standards. It is rather the glory of purification, humility, ascetism and martyrdom.
Blessed Douaihy had to live more than half his 34 years as patriarch away from his place, in caves and valleys, because of persecution. He wrote to the King of France, Louis XIV, urging him to provide protection for the Christians who were being tortured and slaughtered by the Ottomans and their henchmen.
Bishop Tarabay notes that despite these daunting challenges, Douaihy was able to preserve the history of the Maronite Church and reform the Maronite liturgy, and “his dedication ensured the preservation of our faith and spirituality.”
In the collective memory of the Maronites, faith, spirituality and martyrdom are inextricably linked and feature as intrinsic elements of their identity. In 1367, the oppressive Mamluks burnt the Maronite Patriarch Jibra’il of Hajula at the stake.
The patriarch had given himself up in exchange for the lives of 40 villagers held at ransom by the tyrant rulers. In 517, 350 Maronite monks were massacred by an anti-Chalcedonian coalition for upholding their Catholic faith. Their feast was celebrated two days before Douaihy’s beatification.
Remarkably, another story of Maronite martyrdom has resurfaced recently. The Holy See has announced the canonisation of three Maronite martyrs, after almost a century since their beatification. The Blessed Massabki brothers—Abdel Moati, Francis and Raphael—were killed in Damascus in 1860 in an attack on a Franciscan church.
They will be canonised on 20 October in the Vatican, along with eight Franciscans who died with them. Bishop Tarabay describes the forthcoming canonisation of the Massabki Brothers as “yet another tremendous blessing for our church.”
The correspondence between Patriarch Douaihy and King Louis XIV reflects the political role of the Maronite patriarchs. Centuries later, the Second Vatican Council issued a decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches, recognising such a role and describing the patriarchal office as “a traditional form of government.”
Every Maronite Patriarch has assumed this role. The incumbent Patriarch, Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rai, has been outspoken against the war in the south that Hezbollah started with Israel to support Hamas in Gaza.
He is calling for the positive neutrality of Lebanon and the immediate election of a new president. The presidency is reserved for the sole Christian head of state in the region, the cradle of Christianity, and has been vacant for nearly two years.
A century ago, Venerable Patriarch Elias Howayek (1843-1931) was the driving force behind declaring Lebanon as a country with its current borders. Howayek founded the Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family, an Order that has been serving the Australian community for 50 years, running schools and nursing homes.
Education and care for the elderly are also being served in Australia by yet another Maronite monastic community, the Lebanese Maronite Order, which was established under the patronage of the newly-Blessed Douaihy in 1695. Many saints have emerged from this order, among them the most renowned St Charbel. It is the same order to which Bishop Tarabay belongs.
Yet, the most significant work of Blessed Douaihy revolves around the theology of the Trinity.
Douaihy draws on the firm Trinitarian theological foundations of the Western and Eastern Fathers of the church to build his own school of Trinitarian theology. He connects with each category of the Fathers through their own unique approaches to construct his own narrative.
With the Latin Fathers, he discusses the Trinity through the prism of faith and reason; with the Syriacs, faith and awe; with the Cappadocians, faith and economy; and with the Byzantine and Orthodox Fathers, faith and Scripture. This leads him to present his own account on the Trinity, based on faith and liturgy.
Liturgy is the vessel through which faith, as well as reason, awe, economy and Scripture, become parts of the human spiritual experience. The simplicity of the liturgy makes it a vessel that any human can take to connect with the Trinity in the Mass.
While the Fathers strove to defend the church’s teaching on the Trinity against heresies, Douaihy was more concerned about the spiritual state of the flock and their lack of connection with the Trinity.
Douaihy stresses that no one can comprehend the inner life of the Trinity, because it is a mystery “sealed with seven seals.” However, he notes that every faithful can still understand God’s love in their own life through the liturgy.
He identifies seven channels through which one can connect with the Trinity in the Mass. These include the design of the church, objects, movements and actions, signs, uttering and singing, priesthood and communion.
The Trinitarian presence in the Mass is an expression of God’s love for the human. This love is the glory that every human should be given. That is because “the mystery of the Mass is the mystery of love, and love is the bond of perfection,” as Douaihy says.
Deacon Ghassan Nakhoul is a Deacon in the Maronite Eparchy of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, and the author of “Patriarch Douaihy and the Trinitarian Paradigm in the Maronite Mass.”