A reflection given by Fr. Andriy Chirovsky, founder and director of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at Saint Paul University in Ottawa at the Prayer Service held at Sts. Peter and Paul Melkite Catholic Church (Ottawa) for the repose of the soul of Bishop Sleiman Hajjar. Friday, March 15, 2002. Fr. Andriy was Bishop Sleiman's professor at the Sheptytsky Institute, before he was a bishop, in the mid-1990's.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit Amen!

Your Grace, Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, Your Grace Archbishop Marcel Gervais, Reverend Fathers of the various Churches of the Catholic communion, and of the Orthodox Churches, who are here with us today, Family of our dear Bishop Sleiman and all you brothers and sisters in Christ who have come today to mourn his passing.

St. Paul reminds us "I would not have you mourn like those do, who do not have faith." (Cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13) But, he does not tell us that we are not to mourn. We are supposed to mourn, because it was never God's plan that human beings should die. He made us to live, and in the midst of paradise He set the tree of life so that we might eat from it and have life eternal.

Not just life that lasts a very very long time. But, a qualitatively different life than we can now imagine: life without a hint of death in it. That was God's plan for us. Yet in our freedom, which He gave us for reasons that it is difficult for us to understand, our first parents and we after them have again and again turned away from the source of our life.

We have ourselves chosen to look into and indeed fall into the jaws of death. There is only one who was born to die, and that it is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who became one of us in order to live as we live, but, more importantly to die. But to die not as we die. We die kicking and screaming, opposing God's will. He died in complete obedience undoing the disobedience of Adam, and undoing the disobedience of all the generations of human beings who have turned away from the one true source of life. He died in complete self-giving, that's why His death changed everything.

That is why we can mourn today the death of Bishop Sleiman, because we mourn the fate of all human beings. We mourn the fact that sin has entered into this world and has so poisoned our lives that we must suffer this moment. Yet, because our Lord Jesus Christ took on human life, human nature, and went through life, something happened. He entered into death, and rose from death victorious; because death could no hold the Giver of Life, but, was ripped asunder by his power. Because of that we do not mourn like those who have no faith. Our mourning is different.

It is real, but it is different. It is real. When I received a phone call on Sunday evening, the person who called me said: "I have terrible news. Bishop Sleiman has died!" He was weeping. It's sad to say, but not all Bishop's are wept over. Some bishops never win the hearts of their priests and their faithful, because of the fallen world in which we live; because it is so difficult to be a bishop and because people today find obedience to a bishop so difficult. But this is a bishop who was mourned from the moment of his death. Most of you remember so well that day when amidst the singing of not: "Agios ho Theos, Agios iskhiros, Agios athanatos, eleison, eleison imas," but amidst the singing of: "Blessed be the name of the Lord now and forever," Bishop Sleiman arrived into this church just so short a time ago and what joy filled this holy temple that a new shepherd had come with youth and yet with wisdom and maturity.

Having gone through many things, knowing how to serve his people, how to liberate and lift up his people amidst the terrors of the oppression of the Middle East, he was also a bishop who had dreams for his Church, for his people, both those who had come from the old country with him here and for those already born on this side of the Ocean.

He had dreams for what could be a young bishop. Everybody always wants a young bishop. I think His Grace the Apostolic Nuncio can verify that fact. But, everyone wants a young bishop with 40 years experience and wisdom as a bishop. Well it's very hard to have those two.

But, Bishop Sleiman had something from the moment of his episcopal ordination when the Holy Synod of the Church of Antioch elected him, and the Church which presides in love, under the Holy Father Pope John Paul II confirmed his election for the Church of the Melkites of Canada. This man was blessed with a gift, and his gift was his heart. You could feel his love. People who did not really know him smiled when they saw him. They would melt. Because they knew that this was a bishop who took seriously the words that are proclaimed when the omophorion is placed on the shoulder of the Bishop during vesting. "Behold the image of the Good Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep and goes and finds the one lost one." (Cf: Mt. 18:12-14) That is perhaps part of the key to the mystery of why he was taken from us so early.

Imagine being in your 40's and

- being appointed as head of the flock that stretches from ocean to ocean,
- with ten parishes in that enormous distance and many others waiting to be born,
- with people longing for a church that will be vibrant and strong, that will be able to keep its connection to the traditions of the great church of Antioch, and yet be truly a church of Canada at the same time.

To keep those contradictions together, to be able to serve the older people, and yet be completely dedicated to the youth and young adults and the children yet to be born: what an enormous, enormous weight that was on the shoulders of this smiling bishop! To look out along those thousands of miles and to say:
- "How will they know for sure in Vancouver that I in Montreal remember them?" - "And how when I travel to my people in Vancouver will they be sure that in Nova Scotia that I have not forgotten them."
- "And how will those people that I served when I was a parish priest at Sts. Peter and Paul in Ottawa, how will they know that I haven't changed just because I have a crown on my head and an omophorion and a panagia on my chest?"

- "How will they know all these things?"
- "How will I carry out this great mission which has been entrusted to me?"
- "How can I love all of these people so much that they will be absolutely sure of the love of God?"
- "How will they know for sure that God loves each and everyone of them?"
- "How will they know that God knows each and every name?"
- "I must know their names. I must love them. I must show them that I care for each one of them, and that is the way they will know that God loves them, and that is the way they will know that they have a future and not just a glorious past."

What a weight to bear on the shoulders of a weak human being!

To be a bishop today is one of the most difficult responsibilities that a human being can bear. For me in my weakness that helps me to understand why Bishop Sleiman chose to go a little closer to the Lord. In order to be able to pray and to be as the Lord is, with everyone of his flock.

Looking at the distances he must have wondered a thousand times "how will I be close to all these people over such great distances?" And perhaps the answer came to him from the Lord. "Look, behold, I am with every one of them all the days of their life." And perhaps that great heart which carries each and every one of you in it said, "Lord, then I want to be at your side, so that I can be with each of my people all the days of their life." He wanted to be with the Lord in prayer, I think, but the Lord took him whole to be at his side!

We might say today: "But Sayidna, no we wanted you to visit, we want you to be with us, not in that mystical way. Couldn't you have waited? Couldn't you have fulfilled a few of your dreams? Why did you rush ahead?" And that is an answer that we will get only when we stand before the throne of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ. And He will explain all things to us.

But, just as this Holy Church shook with the vibrant singing on the day that Bishop Sleiman arrived as the newly ordained Bishop for this flock, just as that excitement was palpable, just as the pain and the mourning are so palpable in this church today, so is the faith of this community. And so we bring our prayers. Those who belong to the Melkite Church, and those who stand with you, side by side with you. That's why we are here today with you tonight, so that you know that you are not alone. The other Churches of the Catholic communion, your Orthodox brothers and sisters, we stand by you today in faith that the Lord will soon send, through the wisdom of the Holy Synod, another good bishop to lead this flock, and to give you that hope and excitement and assurance for the future again. So when you say goodbye to Sayidna, you are saying "God be with you Sayidna", or rather, "Sayidna you be with God." We trust that we will not be alone.

Sayidna, your heart which encompassed all of us, takes all of us up to the Lord. Remember us, and we will remember you. But, more importantly, your memory will be everlasting in God's heart. For when we sing those words which move us so much at the end of our memorial services, "memory everlasting," we don't mean that we will never forget our beloved Sayidna Sleiman. We mean that the Lord will never forget our beloved Sayidna Sleiman. And as long as He remembers, it will be good for Sayidna, and it will be good for us.

Do we mourn today? Yes! Emphatically, yes we mourn, because we love Bishop Sleiman. Do we mourn as the pagans do, who have no faith? No! Emphatically no, because Sayidna will be guiding this eparchy. Sayidna will be interceding for this eparchy at the very throne of God forever. And you will never be alone. Your Grace Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Luigi, we ask you to bring the prayers of this community and the whole Melkite Church to His Holiness Pope John Paul II, that as soon as a name comes from the Holy Synod of a man judged to be a worthy successor of Sayidna Sleiman, that you help this orphaned community receive a new father who will love them as much as he did.

They said in the news reports that he died because of his heart. If he died because of his heart, it was because it was so big that each of us was inside it.

Take your heart Sayidna, take it from this place to the Lord with our names inscribed within. May your memory be everlasting!

AMEN.

[Transcribed by Khalil Rassi]

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