Feast of the Lord's Entry into Egypt

Jun 5

Irini Passi – Peace be with you.

I would like to share with you a short meditation today, share some books on today’s feast and tell you a little more about my new podcast.

After the priest calls the faithful to prayer, he utters those words of peace and the congregation responds, “and with your spirit.” We hear these prayers often and they are repeated so many times throughout our liturgical services. However, do we actually stop to think how important they are in our lives? The critical importance of having that inner peace of Christ in our daily living. The world is currently in turmoil due to Covid-19, the USA is gripped in a chaotic social unrest over the death of George Floyd. The economic pressures of the past few months, the unprecedented unemployment figures and much, much more has caused mayhem and stress among many people.

That is why the words, peace be with you are so important today. This true peace we can only find in Christ Jesus. The Lord Christ comforts us saying, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) St Paul the apostle also assures the people of Phillipi, that, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)Let us my dear sisters and brothers come into this peace of Christ, where we will find our comfort during these trying times.

Today we celebrate in the Coptic tradition June 1st, Christ’s entry into Egypt. This is one of the seven minor Feasts of the Lord, Christ. We learn many lessons and receive many blessings from the Lord Jesus and the Holy family coming to Egypt.

King Herod wanted to kill every child – 2 years and under, and he was afraid that the birth of the Christ Child was going to rob him of his earthly kingdom. However,Christ teaches saying, “My kingdom is not of this world…” He is from above and He wants to lift our sight to what is above. St John in his first epistle exhorts us saying, “Donot love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of theFather is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) In the following verse he continues saying, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” God indeed created the world for us, but here St John is speaking of evil that is in the world and the abuse of what God created andmisuse it for our selfish desires.

The teachings of Christ and His apostles always wanted to guide us to what is above, to lift our sight to heaven and to what awaits us in the eternal life to come.

Another teaching of the Lord is to flee from the face of evil as He did from Herod. Many may see this as a sign of weakness, but in fact it is a sign of resilience and incredible strength. The cross in fact was strength and not weakness. St Paul reminds us, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) The Lord Jesus had the power to destroy Herod in an instant, or those who were crucifying Him. However, He submitted in meekness in order to complete the work of salvation.

The Holy Family accepted quietly to flee to Egypt, they accepted the pain of the long journey, the difficult track, there were no paved roads back then like we have today, the transport conditions, riding on the back of a donkey, perhaps lack of fresh water or food and much, much more. They accept peacefully all this tribulation. How about us? Of course, currently the world is facing uncertain times, so many deaths and people getting sick, economic crisis and so many other factors affecting us. We can complain and point fingers at governments or the WHO or whomever else we like and just take a very negative attitude. Or we could as much as we can and is possible, to see what positives we can achieve. Such as closer ties with our family, reaching out with a word of support to those in greater need. How we could use the technology available to us for new work opportunities for example. The Holy Family put their time in exile in Egypt to great use by visiting so many places and blessing them, such places have become great Christian shrines today and a great blessing for Egypt.

At the entrance of the Holy Family’s entrance to Egypt, tradition tells us that idols fall, and it was the beginning of the end of paganism there. Isaiah the prophet’s prophecy was fulfilled, “There will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt.” (Isaiah 19:19)

In fact, the Holy Family travelled extensively throughout Egypt over three and a half years. Travelling through Tel Basta, Zeitun and Matariya, Scetis or Wadi Natrun, Zaqaziq, south to Mallawi and to Assiut, where later the famous Monastery of the Virgin Mary, al-Muharraq was established.

In the mid first century, St Mark the apostle came to Egypt and preached Christianity there. Here lies a rich 2000-year history that I am sure we will cover many interesting facts about in future episodes.

Now let me show you some wonderful resources on the Holy Family’s Entry to Egypt and some great books on the Coptic Christians. I will place the notes and links to where you may find these books if you would like to delve deeper into the subject.

Now, let me turn to some points about the podcast. I wish to thank so many people that have assisted me in so many ways so far. I would like to thank His Eminence Metropolitan Serapion, the metropolitan of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii who has been very supportive of this work. His Eminence is in the process of establishing a new department called “Church and Society” and this podcast fits under that new role. For this support I am very grayeful to His Eminence. The two auxiliary bishops in Los Angeles, His Grace Bishop Abraham and His Grace Bishop Kyrillos have also been wonderful in their support, prayers and suggestions and without them this work would not be possible. At St Paul’s Abbey, there are several fathers who have been great in their support and prayers and particularly Fr Timothy Paul who has assisted me to organize the studio.

George Bishara from Paraclete Graphics in Washington DC is a great artistic talent and worked on designing the logo for the podcast. I think the colors and the design work extremely well, he is a great talent and easy to find if you need artwork created. Here is the link to his website: Paraclete Graphics. Fady Habib from St Mark Church in Los Angeles has been with me constantly on a daily basis from the beginning, working with me early in the morning and late at night and taking away from his family time and work in order to assist me acquire the necessary equipment and setting it all up and making sure it is all working properly to the highest standard. Thank you Fady for your incredible dedication and may God bless your ministry.

There are two people I have gotten to know very well over the past month and they are Abraam Mikhail and Andrew Naguib, two amazing videographers. Abraam has studied the art of professional filmmaking for two and a half years and has produced a documentary called “Desert Foreigners” that is available on Amazon Prime. They have both been working with me to produce an intro and outro in audio and video for the new podcast. Talented young men that have such a great potential. Matthew Androus, is working on the new website, coffeewithbishopsuriel.org, and it’s looking great, so thanks so much Matthew.

I also wish to thank Ralph Toss, an old friend from New York, a great servant of the Lord. He has assisted me with many ideas, inspiration and planning, his advice has been instrumental throughout the process. His sister Vivian Toss has lent her great voice to do the voice-overs for the podcast and I am sure you will enjoy this added feature. Thank you, Vivian.

My thanks also go to people across the ocean, they are Bassem Morgan, who has worked with me for about 10 years in Melbourne in IT and graphic design. In his spare time, he has designed the various shots that will be used in the podcasts and they look great. Thanks to Bishoy Bassilious from Sydney for some of his suggestions and insights. Sam Hanna, another old friend from New York from the 1990’s has also given great ideas as we worked through all of this, Dr Adel Zayed in Melbourne, has also played a similar role, a great servant of the Lord and a dear friend.

Two people I got to know very well in 2017 and 2018 were Dr Mardi Steere and David Gifford who studied an MBA with me and have given me immense insights and advice and reviewed some of our documents. My thanks also to John Assad from St Mark’s in Los Angeles, who assisted also in setting up the studio and many more needed chores.