To Herald Peace

Matthew Franklin Cooper writes:

Today, the fourteenth of October, is the feast-day of Saint Kosmas the Poet of Gaza. It is worth remembering Saint Kosmas today, when his fellow Arabs, including Christian Arabs, are under siege in the very place where he reposed, by a hostile army of nationalists following a deluded messianic vision. As I write this, the Gazans—over one million people—are in their literal eleventh hour, having been given a twenty-four hour ultimatum to evacuate Gaza in an order that the UN has deemed ‘impossible’. This is in response to a brutal attack by Hamas on several Israeli settlements bordering Gaza.

There can be no real, cogent moral defence of such a surprise attack targeting civilians. But instead of producing a rational and thoughtful response as to how we got to this juncture, the war machine is gearing up once again to grind down, not only Hamas, but Palestinians outside of Hamas who are already helpless and already without defence. This includes the Christians of Saint Porphyrios Church in Gaza, who have requested our prayers. They face a true martyrdom: sacrificial suffering on account of a crime in which they had no part.

There are few who seek understanding of this conflict. But for those who are interested, I would recommend two books in particular: the work of George Antonius, The Arab Awakening, and William Dalrymple’s travelogue From the Holy Mountain. The latter is not about the history of the Holy Land per se, but intimates many things which are relevant to the present state of affairs. The autobiography of Iraqi statesman Adnan al-Pachachi, Living to Some Purpose, may also be of some interest to readers on this question.

The land which is called ‘holy’, is crying for peace, yet peace is very far from its grasp. I find myself in deep grief for those who have lost their lives on both sides already. And I find myself deep in anger, not only at Hamas, but also (and more so) at the Israeli state and leadership who failed to prevent this attack, and who will now wreak a vengeance that will target the innocent along with the guilty.

There can be no true peace without justice; and justice can only be arrived at, when the rightful claims of the Palestinian cause are acknowledged, and when the security of the Jewish people everywhere, not just in the Holy Land, is assured. I can only add Rev’d Dr John Mason Neale’s English translation of the hymn for peace from the Christmas Canon, which was authored by the holy Palestinian of Gaza whom we commemorate today:

Father of Peace, and God of Consolation!

The Angel of the Counsel dost Thou send

To herald peace, to manifest Salvation,

Thy Light to pour, Thy knowledge to extend;

Whence, with the morning’s earliest rays,

Lover of men! Thy Name we praise.

’Midst Caesar’s subjects Thou, at his decreeing, 

Obey’dst and was enrolled: our mortal race,

To sin and Satan slave, from bondage freeing,

Our poverty in all points didst embrace:

And by that Union didst combine

The earthly with the All-Divine.

Behold! The virgin, prophecy sustaining,

Incarnate Deity conceived and bore;

Virgin in birth, and virgin still remaining, 

And man to God is reconciled once more:

Wherefore in faith her name we bless,

And Mother of our God confess.