18 жніўня 2014 г., мінскі архікатэдральны касцёл

Your Excellency Msgr Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Metropolitan Archbishop of Minsk Mohilev, Most Illustrious Mr Vladimir Lameikо, Deputy Plenipotentiary for Religious and Nationality Affairs, who is here in the name of the Government of the Republic of Belarus, Most Reverend Archpriest Aleksandr Shimbaliov, who kindly represents today here the Belarusian Orthodox Exarchate, Distinguished Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Reverend Priests and Religious, brothers and sisters,

The church is the place where believers celebrate the most important events of their life. And today we are here for a very sad one: the massacres occurring in Iraq in the name of God.

The first reading of today’s celebration it is the story of the first murder in the history of humanity. Cain and Abel are brothers. They both want to offer the products of their work to the Lord. They are brothers and pious ones. And as Cain thinks that Abel’s offering has been accepted by the Lord with greater pleasure than his own offering, he decides to kill his brother. The first murder is connected with religion.

During the centuries religions have sometimes killed people thinking to please God. And those who were against religion killed people, thinking to prove that God does not exist. No difference in quality and quantity of sins.

Today we are still obliged to cry: do not kill in the name of God! We imagined that, after so much time, at least believers could have understood that murder is blasphemy, is the rejection of God’s love. If God loves every human being, how dare I kill the creation of God’s hands? If God created man and woman on his image and after his likeness (cfr Gen 1, 26), how can we transfix the icon of God, his very blood?

But here we are again, today, to witness that nothing has changed.

And yet we are so proud of our progress, of our human rights the greatness of which we have been perceiving all through the centuries. But we see our progress, our human rights trod upon, rejected, betrayed.

We are here to acknowledge our shame, as human beings. We all played the same game. God asks Cain: “Where is Abel your brother?”. And we ostentatiously answered, like Cain: “I do not know: am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4,9).

Murder begins not with the very act of killing, it begins with the idea that we are not responsible. It takes place far away, it is a group of crazy people. No, it is not so simple. We are responsible. To allow a slaughter is to take part in it. And international silence was very eloquent during the past days. It is part of the slaughter, it makes the slaughter possible, it even protects it. And not less part of the slaughter are the insane political decisions adopted in the past. Today’s massacre is just the consequence of them.

Do we need examples of this barbaric slaughter? I will quote the document just awarded by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Dialogue, the President of which is Cardinal Jan Louis Tauran, the same person who one year ago was in Minsk as Papal Delegate for the Celebration in Budslau:

“The massacre of people on the sole basis of their religion affiliation; the despicable practice of beheading, crucifying and hanging bodies in public place; the choice imposed on Christians and Yezidis between conversion to Islam, payment of a tax (jizya) or forced exile; (…); the abduction of girls and women belonging to the Yezidi and Christian communities as spoils of war (sabaya); the imposition of the barbaric practice of infibulation; the destruction of places of worship and Christian and Muslim burial places; the forced occupation and desecration of churches and monasteries; the removal of crucifixes and other Christian symbols as well as those of other religious communities; (…) indiscriminate violence aimed at terrorizing people to force them to surrender or flee”.

The President of the Holy See Council affirms: “No cause, and certainly no religion, can justify such barbarity. This constitutes an extremely serious offence to humanity and to God”.

After mentioning the peaceful coexistence of Christian and Muslims in some historical periods and the present dialogue among these religions, Cardinal Tauran goes on saying: “The dramatic plight of Christians, Yezidis and other religious communities and ethnic minorities in Iraq requires a clear and courageous stance on the part of religious leaders, especially Muslims, as well as those engaged in interreligious dialogue and people of good will. All must be unanimous in condemning unequivocally these crimes and denouncing the use of religion to justify them. (…). Religious leaders are also called to exercise their influence with the authorities to end these crimes, to punish those who commit them and to reestablish the rule of law throughout the world, ensuring the return home of those who have been displaced”. Together with the Pope and other Christian leaders, the Gran Mufti of Al-Azhar condemned the crimes of the so-called Caliphate. We are waiting for further voices (and not only from religious leaders), from North and South, East, Middle East and West, and from the international community.

Card Tauran  states: “These same religious leaders must not fail to stress that the support, funding and arming of terrorism is morally reprehensible”.

Yes, my dear friends, because we are dying out of the same weapons we have sold. We are dying at the hands even of Western citizens, and not a few of them, who have joined this awful horde.

We are all responsible, as we are responsible for the crimes committed in the past in the name of God or anti-God.

The answer to God’s rhetoric question to Cain is: “Yes, I am my brother’s keeper, because he is my brother. Because I, you, all are responsible of all”: namely now for the long-standing deafening silence of politics and diplomacy, or for the money that people make through speculation on the corpses and slavery of the victims, just to enrich themselves, their lobbies and their states.

Let us go back to the text of the Bible concerning the murder of Abel. Let us listen to the terrible words uttered by God: “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand” (Gen 4, 10-11).

May the Lord have mercy on the dead, protect the victims, convert the hearts of the murderers and give us the wisdom to live and act in order to avoid the terrible curse of the ground and the wrath of God.

Lord, make us understand that short-sighted, selfish, irresponsible choices pave the way to dreadful destruction.

Lord, have mercy on us all. Amen.