Patriarch Sfier’s Soul Is In Heaven & His Memory Shall Remain Glowing الياس بجاني: روح البطريرك صفير في السماء وذكراه ستبقى حية ومتوهجة
Elias Bejjani/May 14/2019
Our beloved Maronite Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutrous Sfier, From the bottom of our hearts we thank you for every thing that you did for us the Maronites, for all the Lebanese people, for peace, and for our blessed Lebanon, the country of the holy cedars.
Definitely we will miss you, but your fragrant memory of modesty, caring, love, patriotism, hard work, devotion and perseverance shall remain glowing in our hearts , minds and conscience.
Your memory shall be remembered forever by your Church and its congregations all over the world, and shall be alive and vivid in Lebanon’s deeply rooted history of pride, faith, sovereignty, freedom and independence.
Meanwhile, what actually is disappointing and unfortunate for us the Maronites in particular, and for the sovereign Lebanese people in general, is that our great patriarch Sfier is departing from this earthly world while his genuine wish to see his country, Lebanon a free, liberated and independent country has not been fulfilled.
Patriarch Sfier who played a vital and pivotal role in liberating Lebanon from the criminal and oppressive Al Assad Syrian Occupation, is sadly departing while Iran and its local proxy militia, the terrorist Hezbollah, have replaced the Syrian occupation and are systematically and evilly devouring it piece by piece.
Patriarch Sfier is departing while, Lebanon, the country that he loved and served all his life is infested and swamped with all kinds of corruption, political and social chaos, poverty, and embezzlement at all levels and in all domains.
Patriarch Sfier is departing while the majority of the Maronite Lebanese politicians, Lebanese high ranking Maronite clergymen, Lebanese Christian political parties, as well as Lebanese Maronite officials have with disgrace, Iscariotism, Trojanism succumbed to the Iranian occupier and to his Hezbollah proxy, abandoned their patriotic, national, duties and obligations and shamefully became mere slaves, and cheap tools advocating for Iranian Mullahs’ Scheme of expansionism, hatred, terrorism, intolerance and dictatorship.
In our Holy Christian theology, we the Christians do not believe in death in its human and earthly concepts because Jesus Christ, through his crucifixion, death and resurrection has defeated it, and destroyed its thorn.
Mean while, what is comforting for the faithful Christians is that the departed (the dead) from this mortal world are happy where they are, and all what we are ought to do is to pray for them.
Saint Paul in his First Letter to the (Corinthians 15/51-56) writes: “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep (die), but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law
The Holy Bible tells us that, As long as we remain here on earth in these fleshly mortal bodies, we feel lonely and alienated. We long with utmost eagerness to return to our father’s mansions, in heaven. Mansions that He has built for each and every one of us and in which no man’s hand had to do any thing in their construction. Our nostalgic and home sickness for our actual dwellings in heaven makes us always in a state of waiting with hope and happiness to return there and abandon the earthy tents, the bodies in which our souls are mere temporary guests.
(02 Corinthians 05/01-10):”For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
Those righteous, like Patriarch Sfier who depart from this mortal life, their souls are in heaven, in their great father’s dwelling with the angels and righteous.
Where their souls are now, there is no pain, no sadness, no fear, no hatred, no grudges, no hostilities, no fights, no sickness, no anger, no jealousness , no anguish or problems, But peace, love, comfort and happiness all the time.
God who grants the souls life on earth, is the one who calls on it back when the time is due.
The departed (the dead) are happy where they are, so let us regularly pray for them.
Day by day, our physical mortal bodies are dying. From the moment we are conceived, our flesh is in a slow process of aging until the day we reach our final breath.
During times of affliction and trouble, we feel this “wasting away” more acutely.
Are we disheartened today? No as faithful Christians we are immune to discouragement.
It is true that we all lose heart now and then. But, like Saint Paul, we can look to the unseen for encouragement.
During hard days, let our spiritual eyes come alive, and through this farsighted lens look past what is seen.
With eyes of faith we can see what cannot be seen and get a glorious glimpse of eternity.
It remains that our great Patriarch’s soul has been transformed from death to live and he is now in heaven beside the angels and saints .
With faith and hope, let us all pray that the soul of Our beloved and great Patriarch, Mar Nasrallah Boutous Sfier is resting in heaven with the peace of Jesus Christ.
