Yesterday I read many posts and comments about the assault on Metropolitan Mar Mari Emmanuel. One of the posts that spread on some pages of Orthodox / by Orthodox people says: ” no compassion for the heretics”
I will shed light on this phrase from several angles:
First: for one who understands only the language of dogmas: this phrase is a behavioral embodiment of the heresy of the single nature (the heresy of Eutyches), where the divine nature swallows up the human nature and dissolves it, and thus everything human is abolished in favor of divinity. That is, in simpler terms, we have lost our humanity in exchange for theorizing about theology; and all the spirituality and the teachings of the fathers will be of no avail if we lose our human feelings — rather they will turn us into spiritual beasts and destroy our souls before destroying others (as it says in the book “The Mountain of Silence,” p. 384).
The second angle: these are moral lapses and contradict all the values of Jesus and His Gospel. For example, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, we have become like the Jewish priest who left the wounded man on the ground because he was not like him — not of his community nor of his creed. And this explains why there is no clear and strong compassion, neither for the wronged Syrian nor for the Palestinian in Gaza.
The third angle: this talk shows completely that we are facing a new version of the extremist behavior of ISIS, but with a Christian background — especially when one of them says, “do not make him a hero; he is a heretic.” That is, his belonging to us is what makes him a hero no matter what values and virtues he does; he must belong to us for us to feel compassion for him and make him a hero then — he is not a hero because he is not one of “us.” And moreover, this previous talk (“no compassion”) justifies killing, and it is moral killing, as Metropolitan Khodr says: “The other must die — and specifically the other who does not say what you say. And because of the difficulty of physical killing, moral annihilation is possible: this complete crime for which there is no evidence.”
When will we wake up, come to our senses, and speak as Jesus the Teacher spoke, and walk, breathe, utter, and pronounce as He did, and as Jesus loved people and served them and embraced them with their errors, their virtues, and their piety? When will the Orthodox wake up to accept people’s faces as He (our Jesus) accepts them, and as He wants us to be?
How ugly is the religious thought that is content with itself, which turns dogmas into a weapon with which to kill people.
Let us reflect on what we have done to Christianity — and is this the Christianity of Jesus, the washer of feet and the One crucified for all humanity?