Your Eminence and beloved brother in Christ and concelebrant, Metropolitan of the Arabian Gulf States, Constantine,
Representatives of other Christian Churches,
Beloved children in the Lord,
Blessed is God, who has granted us the unexpected opportunity of the present meeting. We are full of joy and gratitude towards God for this opportunity. Being deeply moved, we offer thanks to His Highness, the Emir of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, for the honorable invitation offered to our humble person to visit this God-protected Emirate. We also warmly thank Your Eminence, our dearly beloved brother in Christ, the Metropolitan of the Arabian Gulf States, Constantine, for the great care and toil which you have incurred with eagerness and love for the preparation, organization, and realization of this present official visit to this country.
We bring to you the greetings of the Great Mother Church of Christ, the Church of Constantinople, as well as our own personal greetings. Our love embraces you, and we pray that the Almighty One send His grace upon you in his own hidden way which He only knows, since the lack of a Sacred Church and a permanent priest deprives you of the grace of the regular celebration of and participation in the Divine Liturgy and the other Holy Sacraments.
Desire the Lord in the way that the deer strongly desires water from springs, and the Lord will give you living water, of which when you drink you will never spiritually thirst again.
Your presence among our Muslim brothers, who have on many occasions endured painful experiences from their encounters with Christians, must incite a desire within you to put forth your best self. Your current situation provides a very good opportunity for vigilance, care, and a more systematic exercise of virtue.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the commandment that our light must shine before all people so that they will see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. This commandment applies especially all the more to Christians such as yourselves who live among people who follow another religious tradition. For it is more important that others who follow another religious tradition form a better impression about us as faithful Christians than it is for our own fellow Christians to form such impressions about us. In this way, they will glorify God, the One who transforms the faithful through His grace, and Who continuously sacrifices them until they perfect themselves on their path towards Him.
If we do not show appropriate conduct, we are in danger of hearing God’s painful words that, “His name is blasphemed among the nations because of us” (Rom. 2:24). This is a heavy reproach not only because we bear the responsibility of our bad actions, but also on account of the scandal which is created in the conscience of our fellow human beings as a result of these actions.
Our love towards ourselves, towards God, and towards our neighbor, however, must be activated so that we may not be allowed to do something harmful to ourselves or to others. We must stress that the commandment of love for our neighbor demands that we love God as ourselves. Therefore, the love we offer to ourselves is lawful and is permitted by God. But here, something paradoxical happens. While we think that we love ourselves, we often behave in a manner detrimental to ourselves, especially when we have the conviction that we are acting in a way which benefits ourselves. Frequently, we protest against someone who shows us what is good for us, telling this person that he is limiting our freedom and self-expression. If, for example, we have acquired a bad habit, such as over-eating, our love for ourselves, our health, and our life ought to impose a measure upon the amount of food that is necessary for a healthy life. Whenever we exceed that measure, we behave as enemies of ourselves, as if we hate ourselves—something which is quite unprecedented since it is probably only the human being and the devil who become self-destructive as a result of a perverted love for themselves.
In the language of the Church, this spiritual disease is known as “self-love”, which differs from a healthy love for ourselves. Self-love differs from this other healthy type of love in the sense that whereas true love encompasses the entire human being, both body and soul, and aims at the prosperity and bliss of the entire human existence, self-love turns exclusively toward the physical and psychological passions, thus loving not the entire existence of the human being and the attainment of bliss—which results in absolute joy and peace—but only the temporary and pain-causing pleasures of the soul and body. Self-love, therefore, is the trunk of the tree from which sprout the branches of hedonism, avarice, and unbridled ambition, the three great passions which bring about misery to humanity.
Through His grace, Christ calls us to free ourselves from this self-love and to live in peace, self-sufficiency, temperance, and self-knowledge, as virtuous people who appropriately and prudently use all the goods of the earth which His generosity offers to us. With His blessing and gratitude, God has enjoined to us whatever good He has in store for the enjoyment of humanity as well as for the relaxation of the human body and spirit.
All these goods “are obtained through toil,” for that is why he who truly loves himself is a lover of work, a lover of toil, a lover of learning, a lover of truth, a lover of hospitality, a lover of progress, a lover of humanity, a lover of honor, and is not a lover of hedonism, avarice, and unbridled ambition. You know from the experiences of your life that what we are saying to you is true, repeating the words of the Lord. Love for ourselves demands that we be virtuous.
We would once again like to express our joy for this meeting. We bestow our wholehearted paternal and patriarchal blessing upon you, wishing all of you health, long life, love, peace, joy, progress, and every blessing from the Lord, and we invoke upon all of you His grace and infinite mercy. Amen.
