A Child of Unity Is Born Unto Us

By
Dr. Lincoln Malik

Saturday, May 17, 2008, I lived a dream that I had long thought about, strived for and prayed for, but truth be said, I did not believe I would ever have the fortune of seeing or experiencing it.  On that blessed day, two holy men, their graces Mar Sarhad Jammo and Mar Bawai Soro called upon those assembled at St. Thomas Chaldean and Assyrian Catholic Church in Turlock California to celebrate the ecclesial unity between their Chaldean and Assyrian flocks within the Catholic Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle for Chaldeans and Assyrians.  This unity was foremost a gift to our people from the Grace of God, and due to two decades of diligent efforts of these two holy men.  They toiled all those years because they believed that it was what our Lord Jesus asked of us when He prayed to God and asked “That they all be one” [John 17:21], and they also believed that unity is what we as a nation need in these difficult and tragic times.

Like most of us, I learned in the lap of my mother to want unity for our people, to pray for it and to always strive for it. Yet, despite my full conviction that unity of our people is absolutely critical for our survival as a nation, I did not expect to see unity realized in my lifetime.  More than that, I was firmly convinced that unity would not come through our churches, as I believed that the churches were a significant cause of our disunity.  I was convinced that our political and social organizations would be the vehicles for this most holy of our national aspirations.  Yet through the Grace of God and the efforts of these two wise and holy men, I now know what unity of my people feels like, tastes like and smells like, and it is truly wonderful and heavenly.  For the first time in 180 years, thousands of our people decided to reverse the hated tendency to foment split upon split, and instead began a process of reconciliation and unity.  For the first time in 180 years these two holy men showed us that the road to unity must be built on true Christian love, patience, and the humility to compromise as brother with brother.

I wish to tell those who were not in Turlock to share this wonderful occasion, there was a feeling of fulfillment, joy and comradeship among those in attendance, with a sober sense of anticipation of what the future might hold.  There were no negative feelings of moving away from something and the associated pain of separation, but rather positive feelings of the joy of reunification of our family.  Our family, whose sons and daughters have for too long been estranged from each other, and have been separated by ugly walls erected with our own hands and to our own determent.  On that day I truly felt that my forefathers and my people’s martyrs were smiling on us and sharing our joy and anticipation for a better future for our children and grandchildren.

To those who say “you became a Catholic,” I say yes we did, and why not.  How is it wrong to be in communion with the largest Christian Church in the world?  How is it a problem that we are one with the Catholic Chaldean Church, which is the largest Christian Church of our people, and a direct descendent of the venerable Church of the East established by our forefathers?  However, we all know what is really meant by this question.  There is the clear intimation that those of us who participated in this unity abandoned our true beliefs and submitted ourselves to the Catholic Church. In fact nothing could be farther from the truth.  Those who believe this do not seem to recognize the difference between reconciliation and submission.  We of all people know from our history that submission usually comes at the edge of a sword, or of forced necessity.  There was no sword here, and the truth be said, it would have been much easier for both Mar Sarhad and Mar Bawai to have stayed separated and in sole control of their flocks.  The road to reconciliation and unity is not easy, and it will not get easier with time.  It has been a difficult path, and building this unity will continue to be a difficult endeavor.  Both these two holy men know this, but they are committed to see it through because they know it is the Christian and nationalist thing to do.

Many of our people seem to forget, or may not know, that the reconciliation that led to this unity is founded on the bedrock of the “Common Christological Declaration Between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East” signed November 11, 1994 by Pope John Paul II and Mar Dinkha IV.  This declaration came after many long years of discussions and discourse between the two ancient churches till agreement and reconciliation was achieved.  Mar Bawai Soro has been recognized by all involved to have been the “architect” of this declaration.  The importance of this declaration is where it states that

“…whatever our Christological divergences have been, we experience ourselves united today in the confession of the same faith...” 

After centuries of rejection of each other’s true faith, the two churches recognized that they in fact shared the same true orthodox faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Some may have forgotten the bitter battles over whether the Virgin Mary should be called “the mother of Christ” or “the mother of God.”  Yet the Christological Declaration states that both the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East

“…recognize the legitimacy and rightness of these expressions of the same faith and we both respect the preference of each Church in her liturgical Life and piety.” 

Gone are the denunciations that “the mother of Christ” denies the divinity of Christ, or that “the mother of God” denies the humanity of Christ.  Discussions are now ongoing to resolve other centuries’-old disagreements relating to the faith of Mar Nestorius and Mar Theodore of Mopsuestia, both recognized as venerable Fathers of the Church of the East.  Here we must add that Mar Bawai is alone among our prelates to have taken the task of explaining and defending the orthodoxy and true meaning of the faith of these two venerable Church Fathers (see recently published Mar Bawai’s PhD dissertation, ‘The Church of the East, Apostolic and Orthodox’, 2007).  The Catholic Church has also accepted the orthodoxy and apostolicity of the Assyrian Church of the East.  When you couple this with the action of the Church of the East to remove the anathemata (khurma) against other Christians, we find that the poison darts (nejseh sammaneh) have been removed from relations between the two venerable churches.  The only issue left unresolved at that time, as mentioned in the Christological declaration, was “attainment of full communion between the Churches,” which was to be completed at a latter date. 

The unfortunate developments in the Assyrian Church of the East regarding Mar Bawai had a silver lining.  They removed the obstacles to continuing the reconciliation with the Catholic Church, and allowed us to move to establish full communion of the two Churches and recognize the primacy of the Bishop of Rome (i.e., the Pope).  Henceforth, there were no other issues of theology and faith to separate the two Churches.  The primacy of the Bishop of Rome is not new to the Church of the East.  In fact this has been the position of the Church of the East from its very beginning and through most of its history.  Just recently, Mar Bawai has extensively lectured about the prominent role of the Bishop of Rome in the liturgy and theology of the Church of the East and as a consequence has helped many to understand this truth. Also, in the past few months there has been further reconciliation of ecclesial and liturgical issues between Mar Bawai and Mar Sarhad that will reflect in the future in more uniformity of the two sides in an attempt to bring back many of the traditions of the Church of the East that the two side have moved away from to one degree or another.  The question to ask now is what are the issues of faith that justify the separation between these two Churches?  Why should these Churches, which are descendants of the same ancient Church of the East of our forefathers, stay separated?  The clear answer for us who have reunited is that in fact there are no issues of faith left that justify our separation.

There is of course a nationalist dimension to this unity as well.  We all know that one of the unique characteristics of our nation is the existential union between our nationalism and our Christian faith.  No one will deny that any developments, good or bad, that befall our churches cast their shadow on our national life, and the opposite is also true.  Hence, this unity is not only an issue of theology and Christology, but also of nationalism.  On that wonderful Saturday, both holy men stood at the alter (Qanche) and declared in front of God and the believers:

1.      that we are one nation (Kha Umta),

2.      that the Catholic Apostolic Church of the East is our shared patrimony,

3.      that our unity is to preserve and perpetuate the Church of our forefathers with its true Christian faith and holy traditions, in communion with the Catholic Church,

4.      that we shall always be faithful to the well being and progress of our one nation.

I expect that those who for whatever reason do not want this unity to persevere will now drag out their litany of “do you remember when Mar Sarhad said this, or when Mar Bawai said that.”  To those I say that I am not interested and not convinced.  I chose to hold to what they solemnly declared from the altar of God, and am absolutely certain that they meant every word they said.  More than that, they inculcated these truths into their followers, and together we shall cherish these declarations and march forward.

Finally, I am not naïve to believe that there will not be obstacles along the way.  This was not the celebration of the full unity of our people.  It was a small beginning with very rich symbolism and lessons for all true believers and nationalists.  It established that love, charity, spirit of reconciliation and humility are all requisites for unity of our churches, organizations and political parties.  More importantly, it established that unity is indeed possible.  This is very important for a nation that has seen nothing but splits and splits and more splits.  Unto us was born a child of unity, and as every child, it shall need the loving care and nurturing of all of us to see it grow and prosper.  That is our promise to our church and nation.  We are happy and proud of this achievement.  We hope it will grow and be emulated by others.  We will rejoice if others wish to join our united new diocese and we hope that they will.  However, we will be just as joyful if other sectors of our people begin to unite just as we have.  We will celebrate just as hard if some of our social and charitable organizations announce their unity.  We will celebrate if some of our political organizations decide to unite, or some of our churches who have no issues of faith separating them decide to unite.  As one who has experienced true unity on that blessed Saturday, let me tell you that it is as near heaven on earth as any nationalist can experience.  We pray to God that this is just the start of His Grace for this oppressed and persecuted nation of ours.  We pray that God will help us to unite our people and move to occupy our rightful place in the community of Christians and the community of nations.